If Tianxiao didn't have any special abilities, she'd just be an average, lazy girl. To her, Zhang Lei's attack looked like that of a master, a master, a master! Seeing that the police seemed to want her help, Tianxiao could only scare them; she didn't want to confront such a master. So, she slightly embellished the scene, making it seem like two thugs had messed with someone they shouldn't have, and then the master's attack was a little too heavy-handed—something that wouldn't be dangerous under normal circumstances, and so on.
"Could you arrange something for me next month? I want to attend Zhiguang Middle School, right after their midterm exams!" Tianxiao wasn't going to bother two clients. Since the branch office director had asked him for such a big favor last time he came, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to ask for a small favor this time.
"My dear lady, this is the Public Security Bureau, not the Education Bureau. How am I supposed to make arrangements here?" The branch chief felt wronged. Last time she came, she hadn't said anything or helped at all. How could she have the audacity to ask him to make arrangements? It would be one thing if it were within his jurisdiction, but it was from a place completely unrelated to him.
"I don't care, I already know you in Shanghai. I know you two are officials together, there must be some connection between you, it's more convenient than me going there!"
Tian Xiao wasn't stupid. She had a certificate from the Guoyi Branch Bureau. Even state coercive agencies only recognized this kind of certificate at the head level. In places like the Education Bureau, the leaders might not have even heard of the Guoyi Branch Bureau, and they had no connection with it at all. She had nothing, just a certificate. She was lucky if they didn't kick her out as if she were a fake.
Liu Yun sent a message from the capital: the investigation into the Zuo family has made great progress and is expected to reach Zhang Lei soon. However, the Guoyi Branch Bureau is having difficulty reaching a consensus on whether to recruit Zhang Lei and what to do with Zuo Ying from the Zuo family within the bureau.
Zuo Ying's superpowers aren't as strong as Zhang Lei's, but her foundation is better, and she's already completed basic training, so she can be deployed almost anytime. She also represents a sizable family. However, it's precisely this family that worries the bureau's leaders, making it difficult to guarantee which side she'll choose if the family's and the bureau's interests conflict.
Zhang Lei's ability has a very promising future. It's already rare for a country to have two people with self-monitoring abilities, so the emergence of a third is certainly something to be cherished. However, according to Liu Yun's report, even if Zhang Lei receives the right guidance, his abilities won't be sufficient to perform even the simplest tasks in the short term.
Therefore, Liu Yun's request, which was also the order from above, was to allow nearby team members to temporarily protect Zhang Lei, in order to create some difficulties for the Zuo family's investigation.
Tianxiao wasn't qualified to carry out official missions; her strength wasn't enough, and she hadn't graduated from her training. However, she was the closest person to Zhang Lei in the vicinity, and she didn't have any missions on her hands. More importantly, she was overjoyed to hear that she could legitimately deal with the Zuo family, where that little slut lived.
In fact, Tianxiao had always longed for school life. When she was little, she and her friends were forced to stay at home to study, and all the necessary academic classes were taught by tutors. Tianxiao had always envied other children her age who went to school with their backpacks, but she was exempt from exams. Her tutors used to scare them with school exams, and indeed, the neighbor's children were often beaten and cried after exams. So Tianxiao decided to go to school after the midterm exams to experience the life of a normal student.
Tianxiao also felt a sense of anticipation.
Zhang Lei was unaware of all this; he was genuinely preparing for his midterm exams.
Before the midterm, there are several quizzes in each subject, but these quizzes usually last for one class period, or at most the time before and after class, and the seats are not spaced out. So these quizzes can only be used as a reference. If you want to establish your position in the teacher's mind, you must do well in the first midterm exam.
Moreover, many high-achieving students may not perform as well in the first diagnostic test. Take Zhang Lei, for example. He didn't read a single page of his book during the holiday, even if it meant arguing with his mother. After a big exam, it's time to relax, and students have the right to do so. No one is allowed to study, not even the King of Heaven.
However, there are always obedient students who haven't studied for three months, and those who have studied during those three months. Naturally, there may be a difference in their grades. Their true level still depends on the first formal exam, and the teacher's official assessment of them is based on this exam.
Kong Liang is the biology class representative. She now harbors a strong prejudice against Zhang Lei. Even when collecting homework, she has a dark expression and doesn't say a word to Zhang Lei.
Zhang Lei didn't think it was a big deal. He had already told her that they didn't have much to say to each other, and he only started paying attention to her after that incident. Before that, who would have noticed this slightly chubby girl?
There might have been some attraction, but for Zhang Lei, even a true crush could be kept hidden in his heart, let alone this little bit of attraction.
Whenever Kong Liang sees Zhang Lei, she likes to raise her head and turn it away, as if she doesn't want to see him. This is actually a good thing for Zhang Lei, because he is worried that she might notice him and find out something similar, which would be troublesome.
It's important to know that while muscle tension can slightly alter the shape of facial features during a change in face shape, the impact is negligible. Zhang Lei hadn't anticipated such a thing happening, nor did he expect it to change his facial features.
From Kong Liang's almost infatuated description the next day, we can tell that she actually had a very deep impression of that handsome guy. If she had really paid attention to Zhang Lei, even if she didn't suspect that the two people were the same person, she would have suspected the relationship between them.
This is what Zhang Lei was worried about. After all, the two were classmates and saw each other every day. No one could be sure when she would suddenly have a burst of inspiration.
Because of this worry, Zhang Lei paid more attention to Kong Liang than his classmates did. This was quite unusual for someone like Zhang Lei, who still didn't recognize his classmates after a month of school.
"Kong Liang, give me your home phone number. I can ask you if I don't understand anything while I'm reviewing!" The speaker was Qiu Yi, who was diagonally behind Kong Liang. There were three people on the soccer team in Class 4, and he was the only one who was still studying. The other two seemed to be planning to give up. If they were like that, they probably wouldn't get an extra 50 points or even 100 points on the college entrance exam.
"Oh, then don't call after 8 p.m., my mom will have something to say!" Kong Liang interjected. "Do you have a pen? I'll write it down for you."
"No need, you said it, I'll write it in my phone!" Qiu Yi proudly waved the mobile phone in his hand.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Lei immediately perked up his ears—it was Kong Liang on the phone! He'd read in martial arts novels that one should channel internal energy into their ears at this point to achieve exceptional hearing. Zhang Lei decided to try and imitate her.
...
The 29th episode of "The Great Thief" features a master thief who stole from a nation.
Episode 2: Metropolis, Chapter 25: Tailback
The moment Zhang Lei's internal energy reached his ears, he almost cursed aloud. What a load of rubbish! Not only did it have no effect whatsoever, but it also felt like a grand gong and drum performance was taking place inside his ears. Zhang Lei finally understood what tinnitus was. [Silver Fox Bookstore ]
Even withdrawing his internal energy was useless; Zhang Lei's ears were still ringing. At this moment, Kong Liang seemed to be finishing her sentence and was probably about to give him her phone number.
Some people say that love originates from a vague understanding and dies from a complete understanding. The more Zhang Lei learned about Kong Liang, the more he felt that this girl met his standards for a spouse, and even that his ideal spouse was made for her.
Of course, a person's standards will change countless times in their lifetime, and Zhang Lei is no exception. Just like when you're in kindergarten, very few children would say they want to find an adult aunt as their girlfriend, but Mr. Xiao Xin is an exception.
Kong Liang wore a fitted half-body vest today, which made her already slightly thick waist look even tighter. Zhang Lei secretly hung on her from a distance.
Just now, Zhang Lei didn't even bother to conserve his internal energy. In his haste, he activated the self-examination function. It turned out that the effect of internal energy amplifying hearing was not nonexistent, but it required excellent control. Before activating the self-examination function, Zhang Lei's actual control was less than one percent, so of course he didn't have those subtle effects.
After self-examination, Zhang Lei finally heard the phone number Kong Liang whispered. He must have missed it the first time she said it, but fortunately Qiu Yi and Kong Liang checked it again, which gave Zhang Lei another chance.
Although Zhang Lei and Qiu Yi have a good relationship, it's impossible for him to directly ask Qiu Yi for Kong Liang's number. That would be tantamount to admitting that he has ill intentions towards Kong Liang. If he could do that, he wouldn't be Zhang Lei. Zhang Lei's thinking is still somewhat constrained by the habits of Northeast China, which can be seen from the way he speaks. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been misunderstood by Kong Xiaoniu.
Kong Liang's height was neither too tall nor too short, and Zhang Lei felt that they were a good match. He already had her phone number, and now he needed to track down her home address.
Zhang Lei himself didn't know the point of doing this. Even if he knew the phone number or the address, what difference would it make? But sometimes people just have to do things that seem meaningless, and they feel uncomfortable if they don't. Maybe it's good to know even a little bit more about the person he likes. This might not make much sense, but most people can probably understand it.
The feeling I have now is quite similar to when I thought about Zuo Qiuping before. I guess it's the feeling of liking someone. Whether Zhang Lei loves her or not is still hard to say.
Kong Liang was a little chubby, but she had a pretty face and looked very delicate. To be precise, she had a touch of classical beauty. She always wore a small ponytail tied behind her head, which would swing back and forth. Especially when she saw Zhang Lei, she would deliberately turn her head, and the ponytail would look like it was about to fly up. Zhang Lei was itching to grab it.
However, pulling a girl's braid is explicitly listed as a crime of hooliganism, and it's something that would require police intervention. Zhang Lei vaguely remembered seeing this in some public security regulations when he was bored. He figured that to actually pull a girl's braid, he'd probably need to establish a close, intimate relationship first. This was probably because the back of a woman's head is also an erogenous zone, something Zhang Lei had read in a March 8th magazine. It was then that Zhang Lei realized reading a variety of books had its benefits; at least he could figure things out for himself in many situations.
Whether it's right or wrong, as long as you think you understand it, that's enough. If you don't have anything else on your mind, you'll sleep well.
However, Zhang Lei still failed to track down Kong's great enemy's address because Kong Liangban shamelessly boarded a bus halfway through the journey.
To avoid being discovered, Zhang Lei kept a considerable distance from Kong Liang. He couldn't stare at her directly; he could only keep his distance, pretending to be passing by. He absolutely couldn't appear suspicious, as that would only arouse suspicion. There were so many people on the street, not all of them were spies; who would notice Zhang Lei following her?
However, this means that Zhang Lei will definitely not have time to get on the car when Kong Liang gets on, and even if he does get on, the chances of him being discovered in a car are much higher.
But losing track of them like this really upset Zhang Lei; he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well at night if he went back like this.
It was Saturday noon, and after a day and a half of rest, the midterm exams were about to begin. "I absolutely can't let this affect my exam performance, so I must find out her home address before the exam!" Zhang Lei made up an excuse for himself.
At that time, the two-day weekend system had not yet been implemented; it was still a one-day weekend on odd-numbered weeks and a two-day weekend on even-numbered weeks. I heard that in two months at most, the whole country would implement the two-day weekend system. However, students did not have classes on Saturday afternoons on odd-numbered weeks.