Sanjiang certainly wouldn't mind having too many children like this; the more children like this, the better. His current group of children were generally like this before. After spending a long time with him, they gradually learned what they were supposed to learn through observation and exposure.
"Uh, me!" Zhang Lei's Northeastern accent came through as soon as he spoke. Zhang Lei didn't have a strong talent for languages, and he hadn't learned much Shanghainese in the past few months.
“Hey, Sanjiang, his accent sounds a lot like that. That guy has the same accent, and their clothes are similar too.”
Zhang Lei's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he recognized him too? However, Zhang Lei had hardly bought any clothes in Shanghai; they were all brought from Northeast China. The styles were all similar, and especially in Shanghai, they all looked the same—outdated! So even though Zhang Lei had changed his clothes, in their eyes it was almost as if he hadn't changed at all.
"Oh? Is it him?" Gao Sanjiang seemed intrigued.
"No, yesterday's guy was an adult, and he looked really handsome, nothing like this chubby little boy!"
Thankfully, Zhang Lei breathed a sigh of relief. This was on a main street. If a fight broke out, it would either result in a bloodbath like yesterday, with Zhang Lei's expression unchanged, or he would be left to take a beating because of the sheer number of opponents. Neither outcome was what Zhang Lei wanted. Moreover, he hadn't slept well last night, and his internal energy was lower than usual. It probably wouldn't be enough to fight so many people, not to mention whether his heart and lungs could handle such a strenuous activity.
"That means they might have come from the countryside!" For Shanghainese, anything outside of Shanghai is considered the countryside, except for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas. Later, perhaps Guangdong was also included, and even Beijing was no exception.
"Oh, where did this young man come from? Can you tell me? And where did you buy this unique outfit?" Gao Sanjiang reached out and grabbed Zhang Lei.
"Let me go! I'm going to be late for school! Let me go!" Zhang Lei twisted his arms like a normal, frightened child. In fact, as long as he didn't use his internal energy, he was just an ordinary child.
"Going to school is nothing. You look like you haven't had breakfast yet. Come on, big brother will treat you to breakfast. We can talk while we eat!" With that, he pulled Zhang Lei to a snack stall around the corner. "Boss, give me two pounds of pan-fried buns!"
He didn't suspect Zhang Lei at all. After all, that person had never worn a mask from beginning to end. His two henchmen saw it clearly. They even went to the police station last night to piece together the evidence. He figured the arrest warrant should be out by now.
Honestly, Gao Sanjiang asking Zhang Lei these questions at this point was just a formality. His underlings had suffered such serious injuries while working, and while he wasn't planning on paying for their medical expenses, if he didn't even bother with revenge, the others would inevitably complain. If morale plummeted, the team would be difficult to manage.
Gao Sanjiang isn't stupid. If he knew Zhang Lei was the culprit, he'd be running for his life. The examples of those two are there for all to see; who would believe it wasn't done by a master? Gao Sanjiang is just an ordinary person. Fighting ordinary people is one thing, but asking him to go against such a terrifying master is just asking for trouble. According to the formula, Gao Sanjiang = himself = master?
Since he wasn't being suspected, Zhang Lei decided to just tell him whatever he wanted. There was no need to lie in a place like this and risk arousing suspicion. Besides, he could even get a free breakfast. Just like he said, there was no need to be polite with him.
They didn't get anything useful from Zhang Lei, but it was all just a formality anyway. However, just before leaving, one sentence from the blond guy almost gave Zhang Lei a cold sweat.
"Zhang Lei, you know what, if you look closely, although your face shape is different from his, your mouth and nose are quite similar! If you lost weight, you would definitely be a handsome guy. How about it, lose some weight!"
Zhang Lei vaguely brushed it off, checked the time, and realized he would be late if he didn't go to school soon, so he quickly said goodbye and headed to school.
Fortunately, Zhang Lei has completely turned his life around in the eyes of his homeroom teacher. He has become a good student in the teacher's eyes, and his math scores have become the undisputed champion of Class 4. This is basically the current math score of Class 4.
If the questions were easy, then the top group consisted of four or five people with similar scores. Zhang Lei hadn't noticed before, but now he realized that one of them was Kong Liang.
If the questions are difficult, then Zhang Lei will be in the top group, while Kong Liang and the others will be in the second group, slightly ahead of Zhang Lei. Unless there are special circumstances, these are the two possible scenarios.
Teachers all like good students, and Zhang Lei easily got away with it by making up a reason. If his impression of the teacher hadn't changed, even with a fake sick note, it probably wouldn't have been so easy. Of course, there are many others who can't even get fake sick notes these days, but that's none of Zhang Lei's business.
Zhang Lei is no longer as compassionate as he used to be. When he was a child, he saw a little girl crying at the train station and actually gave her his inflatable deer to play with. Now, Zhang Lei can hardly believe that he was so selfless back then.
Around noon, the students gathered around Kong Liang to listen to her recount what she had seen the day before.
"It scared me to death, Zhou Yi! Don't even think about me going to your house again. How come you have all sorts of things there? It scared the living daylights out of me! You wouldn't believe it, that person was lying on the ground with the bones in his hand sticking out, wriggling in the blood!"
"Those guys who were completely terrified were stunned. They didn't even know if the guy on the ground was dead or not. I made the brilliant decision on the spot to turn around and run away immediately... Let me tell you, that guy was really handsome. I've never seen anyone so handsome. What are you guys in our class looking at? You can't call yourselves boys, you're not even in the same league!"
Seeing the little stars that seemed to be flying out of Kong Liang's eyes, a group of students excitedly cheered, "Kong Liang is in heat!"
Wang Ze nudged Zhang Lei, "Isn't your home right in Hongzhen Old Street? What, have you heard about this?" Whether he did it on purpose or not, his voice was much louder than usual, not like a conversation between two people.
"Yeah, I know. The person didn't die, but their hands were ruined. But it wasn't just one; the murderer beat up another one later. That one was in worse shape; both of their hands were ruined!" Zhang Lei glanced at Kong Liang and felt that this girl seemed more attractive than Chen Zilai next to her.
Kong Liang nudged Chen Zilai, "Look, Zhang Lei is secretly watching you again!"
"Hmph, he's just arrived from the countryside, why bother with him? Let him see!" Chen Zilai said, raising her head.
Zhang Lei wasn't a professional spy, and his spying skills weren't particularly sophisticated. They had already noticed his eagle eyes, but they hadn't exposed him yet because they were all classmates and wanted to save him face.
"How did you know? Has it spread all over your area?" Wang Ze continued to ask loudly, interrupting Zhang Lei's spying.
"Oh, no, it's the leader of those two younger brothers who invited me to breakfast this morning and asked me about the situation." Zhang Lei didn't pay much attention to Wang Ze's tone; his mind was on Kong Liang.
Even that petty thug who had only met him once felt that he looked familiar. Zhang Lei wondered if Kong Liang, who had been his classmate for so long, would notice. He didn't want people to associate these two identities together.
Moreover, Zhang Lei had another matter on his mind. He had already witnessed the effects of using self-examination in combat, but he hadn't yet used it to test his physical fitness, as they had mentioned. He was still a little flustered when he went back yesterday and forgot about it. He was determined to try it out today.
Zhang Lei was completely oblivious to his tone. Influenced by Gao Sanjiang, he referred to the two thugs as "little brothers" and mentioned that the gang leader had invited him to breakfast. It would be a miracle if he wasn't misunderstood.
"Zhang Lei, I never knew you were this kind of person! You're in cahoots with them!" Kong Liang shouted, pointing at Zhang Lei's nose. "Do you even have a sense of right and wrong? I never want to say another word to you again!"
Zhang Lei then realized that the same meaning could be completely different depending on the wording. If he had directly called the two boys "hooligans," referred to their leader as a "hooligan boss," and changed "asking casually" to "interrogating," the effect would have been entirely different. He had said it casually to save face, something he was used to doing in Northeast China, but this was Shanghai, and the values of students from the two places were somewhat different.
Zhang Lei glared at Wang Ze. This guy was making such a loud noise; he was clearly trying to frame him. Although the two of them weren't very close, they weren't at the point of turning against each other and framing each other, were they?
Unbeknownst to Zhang Lei, the physics teacher had just spoken with Wang Ze, explaining that if Wang Ze continued to lag behind in physics, he wouldn't be suitable to remain the physics class representative. Clearly, Zhang Lei was the most suitable replacement. As Zhang Lei's deskmate, Wang Ze was acutely aware of Zhang Lei's ambition; Zhang Lei's hostility towards the other class representatives was something even his deskmate couldn't hide.
Kong Liang's words made Zhang Lei feel uneasy, but Wang Ze's behavior made him feel even worse. However, there was no clear evidence, and he didn't seem to say anything, except that his voice was a little louder. But this wasn't a court, and conclusive evidence wasn't needed. In his heart, Zhang Lei had already judged Wang Ze guilty.
Zhang Lei could only sigh that he really had no luck with deskmates. From childhood to adulthood, he had never gotten along well with any of his deskmates. At least this one hadn't turned into a physical fight.
However, fighting is really not allowed in Shanghai schools. Last time, there was a boy in my class, Li Wei, who was harassing Wang Wei in the classroom when the teacher was moving books. But it happened in the corridor. Because a junior high school student stepped on his heel, he punched the junior high school student in the nose. He received a serious warning and was even announced to the whole school during eye exercises.
Moreover, Li Wei has some connections; he's on the school's football team. Zhiguang Middle School's football team is quite famous in Shanghai, frequently winning awards in city-level competitions. Just a few days ago, the same radio station was introducing their achievements one by one.
Zhang Lei would never be considered a wild child in Northeast China, but when he arrived in Shanghai, compared to the local kids, he was probably a bit wild. Compared to the sheep-like tempers of most of them, Zhang Lei could be considered to have a fiery temper.
Zhang Lei kept reminding himself not to fight at school, as it wouldn't make sense to get a disciplinary action for it.
...
That evening, Zhang Lei felt his internal energy swell within just ten minutes. This should have been the time for him to repair and strengthen himself. Although the rate of weakening had slowed down considerably, even with daily strengthening, he was still a little short of turning a profit, especially in terms of his internal organs.
However, the unexpected incident made Zhang Lei more cautious. Just like this morning, even if he were to fight, Zhang Lei didn't have much internal energy left; it was only the internal energy he had automatically absorbed during his few hours of sleep last night. Moreover, he had many nightmares last night, which seemed to have reduced the amount of internal energy he had absorbed. If a fight really broke out, considering his self-assessment, it might not be enough.