"He damaged it!" Tong Lan pointed her index finger at s.h.i.+ Gan. "It has nothing to do with me."

s.h.i.+ Gan's face was dejected and depressed. After all, he had just crashed through a wall.

After hearing Ren Baqian's words, he maintained an innocent look.

If one didn't know this fellow was a bad egg, one would have been deceived by his expression.

Ren Baqian flashed a gruesome grin.

"Before him, you already fell down once and damaged it. There were witnesses and evidence of damage." Ren Baqian gestured with his hands.

"It would have been damaged by him even if I did not fall," Tong Lan refuted.

"A person was walking on the road with 150 taels of silver in his pocket. You robbed him of 50 taels of silver first, then s.h.i.+ Gan robbed him of another 100 taels of silver. You cannot say that if you didn't rob him, s.h.i.+ Gan would have robbed him of 150 taels of silver and that you were innocent. This is not logical and is against Dayao's law." Ren Baqian rapped the pointer on the desk twice.

"You have to pay for damaging other people's property, just like it is only right to repay a debt. This principle is applicable everywhere."

After hearing Ren Baqian's words, Tong Lan ground her teeth and knew there was no way to evade this issue.

s.h.i.+ Gan continued to look innocent.

"Teacher, I have no money," s.h.i.+ Gan opened his mouth and implied he had no money but had one life to give.

"I have no money either!" Tong Lan glared.

"It is alright. As your teacher, it is in poor taste to talk about money. As you can see I have taught for a long time and have not asked for any school fees. I do not expect any monetary compensation this time. There are two options for you two to choose." Ren Baqian stretched out two fingers.

"The first option is to repair the motorcycle within seven days."

"The second is to clean the toilet every day for one whole month."

As soon as Ren Baqian spoke, Tong retorted with rage, "Impossible!"

How could such a delicate and lovely girl like Tong Lan clean the toilet? How was this possible? If so, how could she get married in the future if she was known as the toilet lady?

Tong Lan clenched her fists.

s.h.i.+ Gan's innocent look also disappeared and was replaced with wide staring eyes. If looks could kill, Ren Baqian would have been slashed to death.

His father was s.h.i.+ Qing, yet Ren Baqian actually asked him to clean the toilet?

"Educating and cultivating people isn't only about studying and gaining knowledge, but also about how to behave properly. Even though it causes me heartache, I still have to do it," Ren Baqian said sympathetically.

The other 49 students looked at him with bright piercing eyes. Who was he trying to kid?

You are displaying your mirth. Do you think we can't see it?

"If the both of you don't want to clean the toilet, then repair the motorcycle within seven days. Once the time is up and if it's still not fixed, then both of you will have no other choice but to clean the toilet.

There is no need to think of other ideas; even bringing in your fathers would not help." Ren Baqian put his pointer on the desk, placed his hands behind his back, and hummed a tune as he left the cla.s.sroom.

The rest of the students looked at him with bright piercing eyes.

Weren't you showing grief earlier?

What's the meaning of being so relaxed all of a sudden?

As soon as Ren Baqian left the cla.s.sroom, the cla.s.s exploded in anger.

Tong Lan smashed the desk with just one punch of her small fists. Then, she stamped on it one leg at a time.

"d.a.m.ned Yagui, d.a.m.ned Yagui, I will definitely not let you off."

Suddenly, Ren Baqian stretched his head into the cla.s.s again. "Remember to mend the desk tomorrow morning. All of you know the consequences.

He even winked at Tong Lan, which almost infuriated Tong Lan to death.

As soon as he disappeared, the cla.s.sroom that was quiet for a few seconds became chaotic in no time.

More than 10 female students supported Tong Lan.

After all, Tong Lan looked as delicate and pretty as jade, so many female students felt sorry for her.

In addition, there were some students who were laughing loudly. They were Xu Peng and Du Laoliu, who escaped the morning session along with two other teenagers.

They were laughing very happily and then thrown against the wall by Tong Lan.

s.h.i.+ Gan walked from his desk to where Ren Baqian had been standing before. He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, then clasped his hands.

"Dear elder brothers and elder sisters, this is an important matter and I ask for your help. After this, whether we are successful or not, your little brother here will buy dinner at House Shanhuai to thank all the brothers and sisters. We will not return without getting drunk."

Ever since he entered the Black Bamboo Academy, s.h.i.+ Gan hadn't socialized much with the others. In addition, he was always daydreaming. Many people didn't like him either.

But the way he spoke today, calling everyone elder brother and sister, made it hard for them to stay out of his affairs, and they laughingly said, "We'll wait for you to treat us to dinner and wine."

Ren Baqian knew what happened from the cla.s.sroom next door and had a whole new level of respect for s.h.i.+ Gan.

"Like begets like" was a saying that really made sense.

In fact, the two persons who didn't blend in well with this group of students were Tong Lan and s.h.i.+ Gan.

Both Tong Lan and s.h.i.+ Gan were still young, but were powerful and more talented than their peers. They were entirely different from the others and were naturally arrogant.

However, their performances differed from each other. Tong Lan based her performance more on surface appearance even though she threw people against the wall at her whim and fancy. The main point was being pretty and lovely, however.

No matter whether it was on Earth or in this world, one's looks could be one's ticket to success.

She was pet.i.te and regarded by many people, especially women, as their little sister.

Tong Lan never laid a hand on the other female students.

As a result, she was quite well liked by many of them.

Yet, s.h.i.+ Gan was a totally different case. Either he was wandering around daily or he would be daydreaming. Although he was not as showy as Tong Lan, others could feel the arrogance in him.

Others would help Tong Lan when she encountered problems, but n.o.body cared about s.h.i.+ Gan.

s.h.i.+ Gan was aware of the fact that it was difficult for the two of them to repair the complicated thing in seven days, and his words immediately garnered him support and goodwill. After all, these were teenage aboriginals and were not that complex or complicated.

It was not known whether he was already thinking of improving the relations.h.i.+p or only did so when this problem arose today.

If it was the former, it was a good thing to want to be closer to others, but if it was the latter, then Ren Baqian wouldn't be too pleased.

Whatever the reason, it showed that s.h.i.+ Gan was more mature and smarter than his peers.

Knowing that his father was the Great Elder s.h.i.+ Qing was a relief to many.

There were bound to be outliers regardless of ethnicity.

Even if the entire population consisted of mentally sick cats, there would still be some who had the characteristics of a dog.

For the next few days, a crowd would gather around the motorbike every morning and afternoon to study it.

From time to time, people could be heard saying, "This part should be straight, so straighten it."

"Oh? You broke it!"

"This thing is too brittle! One touch and it breaks!"

"Quickly, find a blacksmith to make a new part."

"Are you guys here to help or to create trouble?"

"Why did you take this out?"

"How do I put this back?"

Conversations like this kept going on ceaselessly.

The snorts of Tong Lan could be heard from time to time. Whenever she did something wrong, she raised her head and looked at the sky while snorting in arrogance.

s.h.i.+ Gan encouraged everyone by saying, "My brothers and sisters are the best. Every small step forward is a great victory for us."

Every time Ren Baqian heard this type of encouraging words, he would wonder where s.h.i.+ Gan had learned it from. He never heard such words from Elder s.h.i.+ Qing before. It would be a waste of talent if this fellow was not appointed to lead a group of young pioneers.

A few days later, Ren Baqian a.s.sessed their progress. He was certain of their ability to dismantle things but quite pessimistic of their ability to repair.

s.h.i.+ Gan and Tong Lan would not be able to escape their duty of cleaning the toilet.

This didn't surprise him at all. If they could repair it, they would be students of Blue Sky Academy and not Black Bamboo Academy.

......

In a courtyard in Lan City, a group of men was gathered around whispering to each other.

"All six men from Lin Zhongli's team were killed yesterday," someone in the center said. Everyone's face turned ashen upon hearing this.

"More than 40 people divided into seven groups sneaked in. Now, we are only left with a few and still can't even get close to him," he grudgingly said. Over 40 carefully selected Earth Wheel experts from the army, yet they didn't even have a chance to get close to Ren Baqian.

"In the past two months, it was so strict in the city that there was no opportunity to strike. We have already lost more than half of our people, and our group may not be able to accomplish the mission," another guy dejectedly said.

"Anyway, this isn't our territory. Once they suspect something, they will kill without any investigation. At least a few hundred people were killed recently."

"My suggestion is to take a risk and strike. Whether successful or not, at least we have tried our best and not let our emperor down," a somewhat feminine looking man gritted his teeth and said.

"That person is guarded by 30 Earth Wheel experts. There is no chance of launching a risky strike."

"It is better than the status quo. Who knows, we may not even have a chance to launch a risky strike tomorrow or the day after," the effeminate man said.

"There is no need to wait for tomorrow or the day after. You all can seek death now," a rough voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard. Then, there was a loud blast, and the courtyard wall shattered into countless stones that rained down on some people.

Two of them barely managed to dodge a few pieces of stones and were smashed by the remaining flying shards into unrecognizable fragments of flesh and blood.

The remaining few people rose into the sky and quietly fled in three directions

Blade reflections streaked from the ground and across the sky. Those few people were prepared and drew their weapons one after another as they escaped.

After the sounds of swords clas.h.i.+ng together were heard, the sky seemed to rain down blood.

A short, stout, and buff man walked into the courtyard and sneered, "You cannot even make it past today, so how do you even think of tomorrow or the day after. The most important thing for a family is to be in good order and happily united. All of you came to Dayao together and I will send all of you down to h.e.l.l together."

A few other burly men came into the courtyard wearily. These words were quite impressive the first time they heard them, but it was unbearable for them to hear them every day.

During these few months, it had been repeated more than 10 times and announced every time one of their targets got killed.

"Sir Tie, there aren't any survivors!" someone quickly checked and reported.

"Bring the dead bodies back to use as fertilizer for planting crops. I have taken some good stuff from the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and heard it was contributed by Princ.i.p.al Ren. There is a type known as sweet potato and another type called pumpkin. I presume that they require human blood to grow well." Tie Yan made a gesture, turned around, and walked away.

It couldn't be that they were duping him.

Even if what they said was the truth, it didn't mean that n.o.body else could sneak in.

Continue to check and continue to kill.