Chapter 1442 — Uncle Qing's Mindset

Once Feng Tianlong had gone, Wei Zhao took Uncle Qing to have his strength enhanced. He had originally meant to enhance Feng Tianlong's as well, but thought better of it for the time being; after all, there would be no harm in doing it when Feng Tianlong came back, while doing it now would serve little purpose. Feng Tianlong had his identity with the Mystery Investigation Bureau and was in no need of exceptional power.

Uncle Qing and Wei Zhao were an old partnership; with a breakthrough already behind them, this second time ought to have been a well-worn road — only Uncle Qing had not bargained for how much it would hurt. But hearing Wei Zhao say that even Wu Chengtian had clenched his teeth and endured it without so much as a cry, Uncle Qing too clamped his jaws and hung on for all he was worth!

Enhancing Uncle Qing meant carrying him only from the peak of the late Yellow stage to the early Profound stage, so the time it took was far shorter than upgrading Wu Chengtian. Wei Zhao finished the task in short order; what came after was up to Uncle Qing himself.

That afternoon Uncle Qing changed his clothes and walked out of the bedroom — his previous ones had been blown to shreds, naturally. Yet now he was clear-headed and exhilarated, his whole body charged with an indescribable vitality, brimming with the elation of a man in his prime.

"The Profound stage! I never thought the day would come when I would stand at the Profound stage again!" These were the first words Uncle Qing spoke on coming out and finding Wei Zhao there, and he said them with feeling: "In those days my sect was wiped out, my wife and daughter were lost to me, and I dragged out a wretched existence — all so that one day I might have my revenge! But... as the years wore on, the hatred wore away with them. Only today has the wish caught fire in me again... Xiao Yi, you don't hold it against me, do you?"

After all, Uncle Qing had told Wei Zhao before that he had laid his hatred aside and would devote himself entirely to the Gu family — which was precisely why Wei Zhao helped him so readily. Wei Zhao's original intention in helping him was to make him the Gu family's protector, not to send him out after revenge.

"It is hatred that gives you drive." Wei Zhao smiled slightly. "Your hatred is nothing less than the annihilation of your clan. If you had truly let it go, I would say nothing of it — but I would look down on you for it. I believe the day will come when you avenge them with your own hands!"

"Thank you, Xiao Yi!" Uncle Qing was rather moved; he had not expected Wei Zhao to support him instead.

"No need to thank me. Though it is an irreverent thing to say, and only a joke, Uncle Qing: until you possess strength you are absolutely certain of, you will do well to stay peacefully in the Gu family and protect Yaoyao and Xiaoshu — unless one day you surpass me, and then I will let you go and take your revenge." Wei Zhao did not say this out of any lack of respect for Uncle Qing, but to help him find his proper place.

To rise to the early Profound stage so suddenly was bound to inflate Uncle Qing's confidence and leave him rather too pleased with himself, and that is not a wholesome state of mind. Even Wu Chengtian had been all for marching straight off to settle accounts with Uncle Zhu — let alone a man carrying a feud as total as the destruction of one's entire clan.

So Wei Zhao had to pour a bucket of cold water over his head, that he might know he was not the strongest — he could not even beat Wei Zhao himself, so how was he to take revenge?

"Xiao Yi, I understand." Uncle Qing nodded gravely. "Thank you for the warning. Today, my state of mind was indeed a little out of balance."

Uncle Qing naturally understood why Wei Zhao had suddenly spoken as he did — encouragement first, admonition after — and he was deeply grateful for it.

"Good. With you and Wu Chengtian, two fine hands, watching over Yaoyao and the girls, I can finally leave with an easy mind!" Wei Zhao had finished everything he needed to do here; the only one still weighing on him was Ying Ziyu.

At the thought of Ying Ziyu, Wei Zhao could not help but think of Feng Xiaoxiao... The last time he went to see Ying Ziyu he had taken Feng Xiaoxiao along; this time he would be going alone. He had said he would go and test Ying Ziyu's studies a week later, but Xiaoxiao's business had cost him some time.

This was Pangolin's younger sister, and before leaving Wei Zhao had to go and see her — at the very least to make certain whether she had changed for the better. If that proved impossible, he would have her transferred to the junior high school attached to No. 1 High School and let Zou Ruoming keep an eye on her for him. A wild girl needed a street punk to keep her in line.

This time Wei Zhao drove himself to Fushan Middle School.

Looking at the empty passenger seat, Wei Zhao sighed quietly to himself. Every time he set out in this Land Rover he could not help remembering the days with Feng Xiaoxiao — from his first aversion to his later affection. It could not be called seared into bone and heart, yet it was something he kept in his thoughts at every moment.

The love, though brief, had been blazing and tumultuous — to call it a love that defied life and death would be no exaggeration at all.

The car stopped at the gates of Fushan Middle School. Sitting at the school entrance were several youths with hair dyed every colour of the rainbow — the local-ruffian type, plainly.

"I say, Brother Hei, where'd this pretty boy come from? Reckon he's come to our school to pick up girls? Shall we squeeze a bit of cash out of him?" One of the ruffians stared at Wei Zhao's Land Rover and began to drool.

Robbery and extortion were everyday business for these people; seeing a "fat sheep" delivered to their door, they were naturally greedy.

"Spend your ass!" Brother Hei kicked the ruffian square in the face, knocking out several of his front teeth and leaving him whistling through the gaps whenever he tried to speak. Then he hurriedly scrambled to the school gates, flung both iron doors wide, and bellowed: "Lord Lin, you've come — please, come in!"

Brother Hei knew that his position at the head of Fushan Middle School had not come easily — he had slipped into it more by luck than anything else — so he was all the more careful in his daily conduct, eyes open in every direction and ears straining on all sides, terrified of doing something wrong and being removed by Zou Ruoguang.

So on his very first day in office, Brother Hei had committed Wei Zhao's face to memory and filed him under the category of men who must never be crossed. A man whom even Zou Ruoguang feared as a tiger — would he dare be careless?

And so Brother Hei recognized Wei Zhao at a single glance.

"You're that one they call Xiao Hei, aren't you?" Wei Zhao glanced at Brother Hei and recognized him.

"That's me, that's me — Lord Lin, you still remember me!" At Wei Zhao's words Brother Hei's face broke into delighted surprise. "Lord Lin, you've come to see Miss Ziyu, haven't you? Rest assured — after you left, I did exactly as you instructed and pressed Miss Ziyu to go to the classroom and study every single day, and all the best students in the school have been arranged into that class to study beside her..."

"You've done well." Wei Zhao nodded, thinking that Brother Hei was a reasonably sensible fellow — though the man was rather formidable, managing as he did to gather all the top students together like that.

"It's only what this old servant ought to do..." Brother Hei said, grinning from ear to ear.

But Wei Zhao had no time to spare for him. He got out of the car and set off toward the teaching building; he wanted to see whether Ying Ziyu had truly begun studying or was merely going through the motions — Brother Hei's word, after all, could not be trusted.

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