Chapter 2657 — The Centipede Goes Up in Flames

It was the dead of winter. The fountain was a warm-water one, true, but the weather was far too cold, and the water in the basin had already begun to crust with ice. The moment Zhong Yongliang plunged in, he was frozen so badly his teeth chattered—yet at last the flames on his body were put out.

He scrambled out of the basin at once and sneezed. "What the hell? How did I catch fire for no reason at all?"

"Brother Liang, that Drunken Centipede is still in your sleeve—you don't think something's happened to it?" What Gao Xiaofu had on his mind was the Drunken Centipede, and he had no idea how it was faring now.

"Right—my centipede!" Zhong Yongliang gave a start. Only now did it come back to him that the sleeve which had caught fire was the very sleeve where the Drunken Centipede was kept. Who knew what state the creature was in? He hastily chanted a beast-speech spell, meaning to call the Drunken Centipede out—but even after the spell was finished, the centipede did not emerge. At that, Zhong Yongliang was frightened out of his wits.

In a panic he turned the sleeve inside out, and at last he found the Drunken Centipede within—but was this still the Drunken Centipede at all?

The Drunken Centipede had dried into a husk of a centipede. Even though Zhong Yongliang was soaked through, the centipede was still red all over and smoking. Zhong Yongliang was scalded badly and, on sheer reflex, flung the Drunken Centipede to the ground...

"Why is the Drunken Centipede smoking? Could it have been the one on fire just now?" Gao Xiaofu stared at the centipede on the ground, utterly baffled.

"This... what's going on here?" Zhong Yongliang stared at the Drunken Centipede on the ground, dumbstruck. This was his trump card for challenging Wei Zhao! And now the Drunken Centipede had mysteriously caught fire, had dried up into a husk, and was plainly dead. But what was he to do about the match this afternoon? And how had the centipede died in the first place?

The two of them were standing there puzzling it over when Gu Mengyao and Wei Zhao came running quickly toward them. There was nothing for it—Zhong Yongliang hastily rolled the dried centipede up in his sleeve, his face wearing an expression more wretched than words could tell...

"Xiaoshu, how are you?" Gu Mengyao ran over, seized Shen Yushu's hand where she lay on the ground, and called her name. She and Xiaoshu were the closest of friends—for all their squabbling day to day, when real trouble struck, she was the one who cared most.

"Yaoyao, don't panic. Let me have a look first!" Seeing that Shen Yushu on the ground was still breathing, Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she had breath in her, things would be all right!

"Mm..." Gu Mengyao knew she could not be of any help, so she hurriedly stepped aside and made room for Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao laid his fingers on Shen Yushu's pulse and carefully examined the state of her body. Gu Mengyao, meanwhile, glared viciously at Zhong Yongliang. "Zhong Yongliang, was this your doing?"

"What do you mean, my doing..." Zhong Yongliang wore a mournful face, the very picture of a man who deserved to die. Gu Mengyao studied him for a long while; she could not tell why he looked so grief-stricken, but his expression did not seem like that of a man who had just laid hands on Xiaoshu. How could Gu Mengyao know that Zhong Yongliang's Drunken Centipede had dried into a husk...

"Xiaoshu seems to be fine—she's simply fainted. All her internal functions are normal, her breathing is steady, and she shows no sign of poisoning. It's rather like the way one passes out from drinking too much, except there's no alcohol in her system. That's strange—could she simply be exhausted?" Wei Zhao said, somewhat puzzled, after carefully examining Shen Yushu's condition.

"Oh? Is that so?" Gu Mengyao found it strange as well, but hearing Wei Zhao say that Shen Yushu was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief. "So long as she's all right. If she's fine, then let's carry her back to the dormitory to rest. It looks like she really may just be worn out..."

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded, gathered Shen Yushu into his arms, and glanced at Zhong Yongliang, whose face was inexplicably sorrowful. "Zhong Yongliang, I'll come find you for our match this afternoon—but first I'm taking Xiaoshu back."

"Fine..." Zhong Yongliang wanted to weep but had no tears. He was wondering what he ought to do—should he cut and run? The Drunken Centipede was dead; if he stepped into the ring, he would only be waiting to be beaten. He had not sunk to the point of craving abuse!

But running away would be disgraceful enough in itself. He had boasted only this morning, and had even sworn that whoever failed to show up was a son of a bitch—surely that son of a bitch was not Zhong Yongliang himself? Zhong Yongliang was utterly helpless, yet there was nothing at all he could do...

"Brother Liang, what are we going to do?" Gao Xiaofu was equally at his wit's end, with no idea what to do for the best.

"What can we do? Run for it. Go back to the Tomorrow-Upon-Tomorrow Sect and hide out for a while. How could that centipede just catch fire? Truly bizarre..." Zhong Yongliang had no other choice but to flee. Otherwise he would only lose the match anyway—better not to show up at all.

"Uh... we're running just like that?" Gao Xiaofu was taken aback, but on reflection, what else could they do but run? So he nodded and said, "Then shall we go back to the dormitory and pack up?"

"Yes, pack up. We leave at once!" Zhong Yongliang had made up his mind.

Zhong Yongliang had no choice but to run; there was no help for it. His Drunken Centipede was dead, he had no trump card left with which to stand against Wei Zhao, and so he could only hurry back to the dormitory with Gao Xiaofu, bundle up their luggage in big bags and small, and quickly leave the dormitory building.

However, when the students they passed saw them, none of them supposed that the two were running away; they assumed the pair were making preparations for the afternoon's contest. Thus it was that Zhong Yongliang slipped through the crack unobserved.

The two of them stole quietly to the parking lot, got into the car, drove out of the school gate, and were gone in a cloud of dust...

Wei Zhao carried Shen Yushu back to Gu Mengyao's dormitory. Since Shen Yushu truly had fainted, the auntie at the door did not stop him, and simply let Wei Zhao go on up.

"Wei Zhao, is Xiaoshu really all right?" Gu Mengyao looked at Shen Yushu, laid on the bed and still deeply unconscious, and asked with some misgiving.

"She's really fine. As far as I can tell, every function in her body is normal—she has simply fainted. Barring the unexpected, she'll wake up in about an hour," Wei Zhao said.

"That's good." Gu Mengyao breathed a sigh of relief. "Have you eaten? I haven't."

"No. Shall I go out and buy something?" Wei Zhao, too, had been summoned by Gu Mengyao before he had eaten.

"No need. There's instant noodles in the dorm—I'll go make us two bowls and we'll make do. I'm a little worried about Xiaoshu." Gu Mengyao had no appetite either, and she rose to go prepare the noodles.

"All right." Wei Zhao nodded.

The instant noodles were soon finished. Since Xiaoshu had fainted, Wei Zhao and Gu Mengyao simply sat there with nothing to do, and the atmosphere could not help but turn a little awkward.

True, the two of them were now living together, but at home there had always been Shen Yushu, that little ray of sunshine, to lighten the mood.

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