Chapter 66: The Extremely Unlucky Thief
The young woman whose bag was being cut woke up when the thief shouted. She never expected that the person who gave a lesson to the thief was the little brat from the bookstore! Just a little while ago, she was scolding him as a punk, but now Yang Ming was helping her. She felt embarrassed! She lowered her head and hoped that Yang Ming didn't see her face.
"Sister, please check if you lost anything." Chen Mengyan noticed that Xiao Qing was awake and immediately asked her.
"No… I didn't lose anything!" Xiao Qing had just checked her bag. It was just a small cut, but the cell phone and wallet weren't taken!
"Look after your own stuff! Next time, you may not be so lucky to have us here helping you, Big Mama!" said Yang Ming indifferently but he emphasized the words, "big mama".
When Xiao Qing heard "big mama", she knew that Yang Ming had recognized her. She didn't hide anymore and looked at Yang Ming with a smile, "Thank you for helping me!"
Initially, Yang Ming wanted to pick on her but since she thanked him already, he felt sorry for being mean. So he shook his head and said, "It's ok, as long as you don't think I'm trying to approach you intentionally!"
Xiao Qing blushed after she heard Yang Ming.
"Yang Ming, you both knew each other?" Chen Mengyan was confused when she heard Yang Ming's sarcastic words.
Xiao Qing was older than Yang Ming, therefore, she was a lot more adept with her social skills. After Chen Mengyan asked, she answered, "Hehe, just now we had some misunderstanding in the bookstore. It's nothing. You're his girlfriend, right? Not bad, you look really pretty!"
"We aren't... that sort of relationship!" Chen Mengyan blushed and shook her head. When she said this, she glanced at Yang Ming and was relieved to see that he didn't express anything unpleasant. "Sister, you're very pretty as well!"
"Me? I'm not that young. I have become a big mama already!" Xiao Qing said it purposely in response to what Yang Ming called her.
"Oh yeah, Yang Ming, how could you address her as 'big mama'! That was so impolite!" Chen Mengyan questioned him immediately.
"That... hehe, I was just casually saying that." Yang Ming was embarrassed.
When the bus reached the next station, two police officers boarded. The driver probably reported it to the police after the thief was taken down but things were better this way. Yang Ming was worried about how he was going to deal with this guy.
Since Yang Ming, Chen Mengyan and Xiao Qing were witnesses, they were invited to the police station for their statements in the police report.
After they got into the police car, Chen Mengyan looked at Yang Ming's hand worriedly. She said to one of the police officers, "Can you send him to the hospital first?"
Yang Ming responded without waiting for police officer's answer, "There is no need for that. The cut isn't deep and the bleeding has already stopped!"
"Let me see!" The policeman held Yang Ming's hand and inspected it carefully. "The wound is quite deep. You should get treated in the hospital and get a tetanus shot!"
Yang Ming didn't have a choice after the policeman said that. He couldn't really mention to the police that he once had a more serious wound and he still recovered fine.
As for the thief, even though Yang Ming punched him, he didn't have any obvious wounds on him. Therefore, the thief was handcuffed inside the car.
The hospital was part of the police department's unit - Song Jiang Armed Police Platinum Hospital so they didn't have to queue and take a number. With the help of the two police officers, his wound was treated quickly. The doctor said there was no need for a tetanus shot because the wound was very shallow.
They gave simple statements after they reached the police station, then they were free to go. The case was simple, the perpetrator was captured and the evidence was there. Although the thief didn't steal anything, he was brought to the detention center anyway.
Originally, the thief could get out of detention center after fifteen days. However, he felt dissatisfied, he had committed crimes many times without anyone troubling him. Why did he meet someone who was so insensible this time?
The thief got angry when he thought about it. Luckily, he heard Chen Mengyan call Yang Ming's name on the bus. Therefore, he remembered Yang Ming as his nemesis and waited for an opportunity to get revenge.
The situation could have ended now, but he met another thief who came in for the same reason in the detention center. Both of them were thieves, so the thief had some empathy for him! He was emotional, so he talked about the reason why he came in, including his plan for vengeance on Yang Ming.
Coincidentally, the guy he talked to was Li Da. He was the one who told Bao Sanli about Yang Ming before. Li Da perked his ears when he heard about Yang Ming. He promptly asked the thief about Yang Ming's description. The thief thought Li Da was Yang Ming's victim so he was happy and he described Yang Ming's appearance to him. Li Da was surprised that the description matched the Yang Ming he knew.
Li Da was amused. You're digging your own grave if you're trying to fight with Yang Ming! He immediately reported this to Bao Sanli! Thus, the thief was beaten up even before he knew what was going on.
At first, the thief thought this was the treatment for a newbie. He kept on praising "Brother Bao" and "Brother Da" after being pummeled. However, it didn't work and he was clobbered again at night.
After getting battered for three consecutive days, the thief couldn't take it anymore. He knelt down and asked what actually happened. Bao Sanli rolled his eyes, "F***, you're such a clown. You can't even defeat me, yet you want to trouble Brother Yang! I should kill you so Brother Yang doesn't have to do it himself!"
"Brother Yang? Which Brother Yang?" The thief didn't understand which "Brother Yang" he had offended.
"He was the one who sent you in here!" Bao Sanli sneered.
"Aiya, Brother, I was wrong!" The thief regretted it. He never thought that Yang Ming was such a ruthless person that he even had his minions in the detention center! "If I knew Brother Yang was such a merciless person, I wouldn't have troubled him even if I borrowed some guts!"
However, the thief still couldn't escape from it. Bao Sanli punished him every day in order to stop this thinking completely. Therefore, ever since he went into his cell, the extremely unfortunate thief was getting beat up or just lying in bed.
This specific bed in the cell had some moaning sound coming from it day and night. People would feel disgusted whenever they passed by the cell. Could this be the legendary gay fiction story?
Chapter 67: Shocking Exam Results
Yang Ming and Chen Mengyan came out of the police station. By this point, they were pretty familiar with Xiao Qing.
"Both of you, thank you so much!" Xiao Qing said it sincerely this time. "There was a passport that I had just obtained in my bag. It would have been really troublesome if it had been stolen!"
"Passport?" Yang Ming remembered seeing her pick up a few books on the Korean language in the bookstore before and he asked, "Are you going to Korea?"
"Yeah, in a few days, I will be attending the International Korean Chinese University Student Networking Event. Hehe, so I thought about sharpening up my Korean language." Xiao Qing smiled.
"University student networking event? Elder sister, are you a university student? Oh, you must be a PhD student!" Chen Mengyan asked curiously. However, considering Xiao Qing's age, she should be a PhD student!
"Me? PhD student? Hehe, do I look that young? I am the teacher who's leading the team!" Xiao Qing gave Yang Ming a glare, obviously still annoyed at being called a "big mama".
Yang Ming decided to pretend that he didn't hear it and didn't bother her about it. Instead, Chen Mengyan chatted a little longer with her and then they parted ways.
Xiao Qing dared not take the bus anymore, therefore, she hailed a taxi and departed. However, Yang Ming and Chen Mengyan went back to the bus stop and waited for the next bus.
At night, Yang Ming took out the books he bought during the day. The books about sign language were temporarily placed on the bookshelf. He took out one of the books about lip-reading and started reading it.
Since the learning materials were at a beginner's level, all the content inside was about the shape of the mouth. It didn't take long for Yang Ming to read through all of them. Those that he couldn't understand at the start, he could understand it easily just by looking at the mirror and shaping his mouth.
Actually, the toughest part about lip-reading was eyesight. If his eyes were not able to capture the image quick enough, regardless of how prevalent the knowledge of lip shape he possessed, it wouldn't be practical at all! However, for Yang Ming, it was nice that he had really good eyesight. Regardless of how far away the speaker was, as long as he wanted to look at the mouth, he could see it clearly.
The learning materials weren't thick and there wasn't anything too deep inside. It was just basically a few mouth shapes about different pronunciations! Even though the Chinese language is broad and profound, the pronunciation is formed with twenty-six phonetic alphabets which combined into about four hundred pronunciations!
Therefore, as long as that was memorized, all that was left was just the practical experience.
Memorization wasn't a challenge for Yang Ming. He naturally had a good memory, moreover, now it was something that he was interested in. How could he not learn it quickly?
In about an hour, Yang Ming had finished reading the first chapter. He found out that the learning materials also had practice questions, so he went to get the DVD immediately.
However, once he took it in his hand and looked at it in detail, he was disheartened. Damn! It's a computer CD! On the top of the CD, there was fine print: For Windows XP/Vista!
Yang Ming's living condition at home wasn't that good so he never bought a computer. It looks like he encountered a bottleneck! Actually, Yang Ming had wanted to buy a computer for a while. It was just that previously he had poor exam results. His parents were afraid that if he bought a computer and got indulged in playing games then he wouldn't study much! This time, since he had pretty good exam results, his parents most likely would agree to it.
As he thought about this, he came to the living room. Both of his parents were watching television. When they saw Yang Ming come, Father Yang said immediately, "Big Ming, how's everything? You must be quite tired from studying. Come out and relax!"
Yang Ming felt some remorse. Even though he was learning something just now, he wasn't studying for his examination.
"Dad, I want a computer." Yang Ming hesitated a while and said, "This way I could go online to understand the latest tips about our exam, and I could also download some other state's model questions!"
Once he said this, he suddenly felt like some of his dignity was gone. The real reason he wanted to buy a computer was to learn about lip-reading in addition to picking up girls online.
However, Father Yang thought that whatever that he said was true! In this period of time, all of his improvements were seen in Father Yang's eyes. Therefore, once Yang Ming voiced out his request, Father Yang nodded his head without hesitation. "Sure, I agree! Since I have also gotten my lottery reward, I will take you to buy one this weekend!"
Looking at how supportive Father Yang was to him, Yang Ming didn't really know what to say! If Father Yang knew that he bought the computer for another purpose, Yang Ming wasn't sure whether his father would hurt him or not. However, Yang Ming didn't have any other choice. He needed to learn lip-reading as soon as he could. Last time, Wang Zhitao was able to take advantage of him because he did not know how to read lips.
Yang Ming no longer wanted to make the same mistake. Therefore, he could only make up a lie which went against his conscience. However, Yang Ming also swore that he would enter Song Jiang City Industry University and make his parents proud.
After the exam results were announced, everyone who knew Yang Ming was astonished. Even Yang Ming himself was surprised! Did he cheat a bit too much? It seemed like he should have kept a lower profile.
With a total score of 703, he was ranked number nine in the whole school! Chen Mengyan only got a total score of 692! Zhao Ying looked at Yang Ming's result and didn't really know what to say! Although during this time period she had seen Yang Ming's effort, didn't this form of achievement seem a bit out of proportion?
There were so many others who worked harder than Yang Ming, but none of them had the progress as prominent as his.
"Yang Ming, come to my office for a bit!" Class Teacher Li said to Yang Ming.
Therefore, Yang Ming left the classroom surrounded by some false praise. There were some students who were jealous; some were in awe, but of course, many of them doubted it! Yang Ming's original results were seen by everyone before. This time, though, he had suddenly turned into a top student. How could the others not be doubtful?
"Yang Ming, did your universe explode? From a C grade to a B grade?" Zhang Bing showed an unbelievable expression. "How did you copy it? Teach me next time!"
"Go to hell! Don't you see that I have the highest exam result in the whole class? Who did I copy it from?" Even though Yang Ming copied from others, he couldn't just share how he did it!
Of course, there was still someone who was genuinely happy and wanted to congratulate him. This person was Chen Mengyan.
Chen Mengyan's mood was a bit more complicated. At the moment she saw his result, the first thought that came into her mind was Yang Ming's "number one pursuer". Only the second thought was happiness for Yang Ming.
Since when had she started to notice these kinds of things? Chen Mengyan sighed and shook her head.