23. An Invitation to Be "Sister-in-Law Wei"

Out through the school gate, Wen Mingjuan saw from a distance three sedans parked bumper to bumper, with several men standing beside them. Most of them wore sunglasses and looked more than a little menacing, frightening Wen Mingjuan so badly she didn't dare take another step, standing frozen and at a complete loss for what to do.

"Brother Wei! Sister-in-law Wei is here." The fierce-looking men spotted Wen Mingjuan and immediately opened the back door of the middle sedan, so Gao Weizhao could get out.

"Got it." Gao Weizhao answered and stepped out at once. The moment he got out and saw Wen Mingjuan frozen in place with fright, he couldn't help but find it a little funny.

"What's wrong?" Gao Weizhao walked up to Wen Mingjuan and said, "Don't be scared. They're all my brothers, not any of Tulong's people."

"You... you're really okay?" No matter how she tried, Wen Mingjuan couldn't have imagined Gao Weizhao would act like her own personal tear gas — the moment she saw him, her tears became impossible to control, streaming down in a flood.

"You... you're really okay?" Without thinking twice, Wen Mingjuan rushed forward, overcome with emotion, and threw her arms around him.

This was the second time she'd embraced Gao Weizhao.

But this time was completely different from that time at the Green Water Hall, because this time Gao Weizhao didn't hesitate or freeze up at all — he simply pulled her into his arms without a second thought.

"I'm fine. I came back specially to see you." Gao Weizhao stroked Wen Mingjuan's long hair and said, "Has your illness gotten any better?"

"I've been better for ages already." No sooner had she said this than, overwhelmed with emotion, Wen Mingjuan broke into a coughing fit.

"Still coughing! You're lying." Gao Weizhao laughed and patted Wen Mingjuan's back.

"Remember to take your medicine." he reminded her.

If she remembered correctly, this was the first time Wen Mingjuan had ever seen Gao Weizhao smile.

In the several months she'd known him, she had never once seen him laugh.

When he smiled, he looked better than either Xu Zhimo or Zhu Ziqing.

Wen Mingjuan secretly thought this to herself.

"Why on earth are you wearing a suit?" Suddenly, Wen Mingjuan noticed her face and hand pressed against the texture of suit fabric; looking more closely, she was startled to realize that Gao Weizhao — who normally always wore a T-shirt and jeans — had actually put on a full suit.

"The boss called for me, it's a formal occasion, so I dressed like this. I have to rush straight back to Taipei." Gao Weizhao leaned in and murmured softly into Wen Mingjuan's ear, "It's because the boss wants them to keep a close eye on me. Well! You could call it protection too, I suppose — he's worried I might get myself into more trouble on my own."

"You should be watched closely." Wen Mingjuan nodded and said, "Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"

"No, I didn't." Gao Weizhao patted Wen Mingjuan's head, saying tenderly, "You never told me, so how would I know? Now that you've told me, I know."

On one hand, he felt genuinely comforted to hear Wen Mingjuan say this.

Perhaps this meant Wen Mingjuan had feelings for him too, in her heart?

He thought.

Just then, Gao Weizhao suddenly pulled something out of his pocket and pressed it into Wen Mingjuan's palm.

"I came here specially to give you the answer you wanted." he said.

Wen Mingjuan blinked, then looked down at what was in her hand.

It turned out to be her lost ID card.

Why? Why did Gao Weizhao have it?

Wen Mingjuan stared wide-eyed at Gao Weizhao, her eyes full of confusion.

"That night, I'd just gotten back from Taipei, and the moment I stepped out of the train station, I saw the two of you up to something on the side of the road. Afterward I noticed something fall out of your bag, so I picked it up and ran after you to give it back — but instead of getting thanked for my good deed, I got a face full of pepper spray for my trouble." He gave a little laugh and added, "In all my years, no one's ever had the guts to spray me with anti-perverts spray. You were the first."

A colossal misunderstanding, brought about by a strange twist of fate — Wen Mingjuan had mistaken Gao Weizhao for that flasher, and in her panic she'd only known to spray first and run for it afterward. No matter how hard she tried, she never could have guessed the truth of what had really happened.

Heavens!

How could such a thing have happened?

Once she learned the truth, Wen Mingjuan flushed with embarrassment, bowing her head, not daring to look up for a long while.

Wasn't this just mortifying enough already?

"I... I'm sorry." she murmured an apology.

"I was pretty angry at first, and after I found out you were Tao Muwei's homeroom teacher, I decided I'd have a little fun sparring with you properly. So I didn't return your ID card, just to make you run around after it a bit — call it my little payback for the grudge."

"It was only after I found out about the flasher that I finally understood why you'd attacked me, and most of my anger disappeared. But by then you'd probably already applied for a replacement ID, so I wasn't in a hurry to return it anymore."

Gao Weizhao gently pulled Wen Mingjuan back into his arms.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't being fair either — I shouldn't have made such a big deal out of it with you." he said quietly. "Even though you've already applied for a replacement, things should still go back to their rightful owner, so here, I'm giving it back to you now."

Without realizing exactly when it had happened, Wen Mingjuan had already grown accustomed to Gao Weizhao's embrace. Held in his arms, there was an indescribable warmth; even in temperatures barely above ten degrees, with the cold wind biting enough to make her shiver, her heart felt warm all the same, like a mild winter's day.

Perhaps it was during the time she'd spent evading Tulong's pursuit, and later when she'd fallen ill with pneumonia and a raging fever, that this subtle feeling between them had naturally taken root and grown?

"Gao Weizhao." Having enjoyed the feeling of being held in Gao Weizhao's arms for a good while longer, Wen Mingjuan suddenly remembered those bold characters from the newspaper — "young successor."

"What's a 'young successor'?" she asked, her mind full of suspicion.

"Young successor?" Gao Weizhao looked utterly bewildered. "What are you talking about?"

"Yesterday's paper reported on your gang fight, saying your brothers spared no sacrifice to rescue a 'young successor.' I wasn't sure it was you at first, but now I know it was — I just don't know what a 'young successor' is." Wen Mingjuan answered him.

"Are you... the young head of the gang?" she asked, a little timidly.

"Young head of the gang?" Hearing her ask this, Gao Weizhao couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Your imagination is running a little wild there — you've been reading too many martial-arts novels."

"Nobody calls me that. Everyone calls me Brother Wei, you know that too, don't you? Don't take the newspaper's made-up phrasing too seriously." Gao Weizhao explained further. "Boss Shi is my sworn adoptive father — I formally kowtowed to him as such. His health hasn't been very good these past few years, so it's mostly fallen to me to handle the gang's affairs, and it's true he's asked me several times to take over as the gang leader."

They'd only been talking for a little while when a young man with a somewhat scholarly air walked over and respectfully bowed deeply to Gao Weizhao.

"Brother Wei! You need to hurry and get going, or you might not make it in time for your meeting with the boss."

"Got it." Gao Weizhao answered him coldly.

This young man's name was Sun Mengwei; he also studied mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University. Because of this shared connection as fellow alumni, senior and junior, he was the closest to Gao Weizhao in the whole gang aside from the boss himself, and had the most to talk about with him. That said, even so, the two of them rarely had any wide-ranging conversations — after all, Gao Weizhao was a reserved, aloof sort of person.

Having dismissed Sun Mengwei, Gao Weizhao took his leave of Wen Mingjuan with some reluctance; he had an appointment with the boss, and he had no choice but to go.

He casually produced a note he'd already written out beforehand and handed it to Wen Mingjuan.

"This is my phone number." he said.

"Think it over. I think... 'Sister-in-law Wei' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Gao Weizhao stammered a little. "You don't need to answer me right away — once you've thought it through clearly... call and tell me."

This was the real point of it all.

Whatever about coming specially to bring Little Blueberry back, or to return her ID card — those were all secondary, weren't they?

This was surely the main reason Gao Weizhao, clearly with urgent matters on his hands, had made this special trip anyway.

Wen Mingjuan silently thought to herself.

Even after Gao Weizhao's car had driven far off into the distance, the surge of emotion in Wen Mingjuan's heart still refused to settle for a long, long time.