ATPnovel #717 - He's got his eyes on you.
#717 - He's got his eyes on you.
Xiao Lian's answer was somewhat unexpected to both of them.
"Master Bai, Master Bai is targeting you."
"I know he wants to pull us into the Heroes' Society," Lu Jing said, "Oh, is it to deal with Chen Tong?"
"No, Master Bai wants the paper figure trick you have."
She looked very nervous and subconsciously glanced left and right before continuing, "Master Bai is not as simple as he seems on the surface. Similar things have happened before.
"He has a generous personality and likes to make friends, especially friends in our line of work. As long as you have real talent, Master Bai will definitely try to befriend you.
"He has a way of making people around him feel that he is very sincere, willing to believe him, and tell him their secrets. Some people say that all his skills come from this."
"This… if one is willing to teach and the other is willing to learn, there's nothing wrong with that, right?" Lu Jing said.
Xiao Lian nodded, "If it were just like that, of course there would be nothing wrong, but the problem is… some people didn't teach Master Bai their skills, and as a result, some of them later either fell seriously ill and were bedridden, or mysteriously disappeared, or encountered some other terrible accident.
"And after a while, their unique 'special skills' were also learned by Master Bai."
"Are you saying that the Bai fellow will use force to compel others to teach him their signature tricks?" Xia Huai asked.
Xiao Lian first nodded, then shook her head, "There are indeed such rumors, but I don't have any evidence in my hands."
"Have others in the Heroes' Society heard these rumors too?" Lu Jing asked again.
"Yes."
"Then they still let Master Bai be the leader?"
"Because Master Bai is very measured. He only targets those who have no power or background, so he won't cause any trouble. And he never targets people in the Heroes' Society."
Xiao Lian explained, "My room is next to his room. One night, I heard the sound of the door opening in the next room. I was curious, so I peeked out through the crack in the door. As a result… I saw Master Bai tiptoe to your door, put his ear to it, and listen to the sounds inside.
"I thought about those previous rumors and was worried that he would attack you, so I came here today specifically to warn you."
"But we didn't know each other before, and we don't have much of a relationship. Why are you willing to help us, instead of your leader?" Lu Jing looked into Xiao Lian's eyes and asked.
The latter stared at her red embroidered shoes and said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "Because… because I think your tricks are very good, and you're not bad people. Especially Sister Xia, who is very beautiful. I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Miss Xiao Lian, you are a good person," Xia Huai said.
Xiao Lian blushed when she heard this and was about to say something more, but unexpectedly, there was another knock on the door.
Xiao Lian's pretty face changed color instantly. She looked flustered and glanced around, as if trying to find a place to hide, but the room was too small, and she couldn't find a place to shield herself.
Seeing that the people inside the room didn't open the door, the knocking on the door became louder.
Then a voice sounded, "I know you're inside, humph! It's useless to hide and not come out."
After saying that, the person waited for a while.
Seeing that Lu Jing and Xia Huai still didn't seem to have any intention of coming out, he continued, "I know you can hear me, so I'll be blunt. Let's have another competition, tonight!"
When Chen Tong said the last half of his sentence, the door in front of him suddenly opened.
Lu Jing walked out from behind the door, then quickly closed the door again.
Chen Tong only glanced at the scene inside the room and didn't notice anything unusual. His attention was quickly drawn to Lu Jing in front of him.
"Didn't we already have a competition? Why do we need to have another one?" Lu Jing asked.
"Because last time we competed with your best skills, this time we should compete with my best skills. That's only fair," Chen Tong said with a straight face.
His temper was still very bad, but there was no longer any contempt for Lu Jing between his eyebrows.
"No contest," Lu Jing said.
"Why?" Chen Tong didn't seem to expect Lu Jing to refuse and subconsciously asked.
"Because it's meaningless."
"How can it be meaningless?"
"Last time I took action just to prove that what you said about us being liars was wrong. Now that it's been proven, of course I have no reason to take action again."
"But between you and me…"
"Whatever," Lu Jing spat out two words, "It doesn't matter how you rank it, putting me in front of you or behind you, I have no opinion."
"This… this kind of thing isn't up to me. We have to compete," Chen Tong frowned.
He didn't expect Lu Jing to play by different rules and not intend to accept his challenge at all.
"Not in my room. Come to the bow of the boat. We'll use the river water under our feet as the theme and each perform a trick. At that time, I'll also invite the people on the boat to witness it together."
Chen Tong didn't hide anything and told Lu Jing the theme of tonight's performance.
"Okay," Lu Jing agreed readily.
He was already on the boat and had already demonstrated his "real skills". Therefore, unlike Chen Tong, who was determined to win and wanted to regain his face, Lu Jing didn't care about winning or losing in this second competition at all.
In fact, he had already planned to give up on this competition and just go through the motions at the bow of the boat.
In comparison, the other matter was something he couldn't ignore.
But Lu Jing wasn't too worried. With his and Xia Huai's skills, if someone really dared to set their sights on them, Lu Jing wouldn't mind giving them a good lesson.
Chen Tong left contentedly after getting the result he wanted.
After a while, seeing that there was no one in the corridor, Xiao Lian also quietly slipped back to her room.
Time quickly came to night.
Lu Jing and Xia Huai arrived at the bow of the boat as agreed, and it was already full of people.
Chen Tong was still holding his large wooden box, sitting cross-legged on the ground, closing his eyes and resting. This time, he looked confident.
Seeing that Lu Jing and Xia Huai had also arrived.
The crowd began to clamor, "It can start, it can start."
Chen Tong opened his eyes, his eyes like electricity, and stared straight at Lu Jing, "Tonight, I will not lose again no matter what."