"Yao Yao, please let me use fireworks to express my love for you... huh?" Zhong Yongliang lifted his head as he finished speaking, meaning to point at the fireworks in the sky as he made his confession to Gu Mengyao—only to discover that the fireworks had already very nearly burned themselves out. When Feng Xiaoxiao had come earlier to demand his clothes, that had been exactly when the display was going off; but everyone's attention had been drawn to Feng Xiaoxiao, and no one had noticed the five great characters "Yao Yao, I Love You" up in the sky. Zhong Yongliang had wasted his efforts for nothing!

The fireworks were gone! Already finished! Zhong Yongliang could not get out a single one of the words that were to follow. Without the fireworks to accompany him, what was there left to say?

"Go and see whether there are any fireworks left," Zhong Yongliang ordered Gao Xiaofu, his face ashen.

Gao Xiaofu hurried over to the Eskimo tree to check those fireworks, but they all seemed to have burned out already; there were none left to set off.

Gao Xiaofu refused to give up. He took out his lighter again and tried to ignite the spent fireworks, but the sky had darkened and he could not see clearly at all. By accident he mistook a tree branch for a fuse—whoosh—and set the Eskimo tree alight.

At first Zhong Yongliang did not know what was going on; he thought Gao Xiaofu had set off another firework. But then he realized something was wrong—why was this firework not shooting up into the sky, but burning there on the tree?

"Brother Liang, this is bad—I've set the tree on fire!" Gao Xiaofu swatted at it a few times without putting the flames out, grew anxious, and shouted, "Brother Liang, come help, quick!"

"Hahaha"—Gao Xiaofu's antics drew a burst of jeering laughter. Zhong Yongliang's confession fireworks had turned into a farce.

"Put out the fire! Quick, find someone to fetch water!" Zhong Yongliang ran over with a dark face, glanced at his Eskimo tree, and wanted to cry but had no tears.

"Oh, Sister Yao Yao, I see the fire tree, but I don't see the silver flowers!" Shen Yushu cried out in delight.

"Xiaoshu, with a fool like this, we'd best keep our distance—he's liable to start a fire!" Gu Mengyao was speechless at Zhong Yongliang's whole series of actions, and was especially puzzled by Feng Xiaoxiao's behavior. What exactly had that scene Feng Xiaoxiao put on just now been about?

"Wait, Sister Yao Yao, I want to give them a reminder!" Shen Yushu said, then kindly shouted to Zhong Yongliang, "Smash the IV bottle and use the water inside to put out the fire!" "Oh, oh, right, right!" Zhong Yongliang nodded hurriedly and ordered Gao Xiaofu to do it.

Shen Yushu giggled and left the scene with Gu Mengyao.

"Xiaoshu, you're getting worse and worse. How much liquid is there in an IV bottle? How could it possibly put out a fire? You're just setting them up," Gu Mengyao said.

"Well, who told him to believe it? Sister Yao Yao wouldn't be fooled, which just goes to show Zhong Yongliang is a huge idiot!" Shen Yushu said, full of righteous confidence.

"Wei Zhao, you bastard, I'm going to stuff you down a toilet and flush you away!" Feng Xiaoxiao did not even dare to sit properly on the toilet seat; her backside stung fiercely, blasted by the firecrackers into patches of red and white. She had already applied Divine Doctor Kang's Golden Wound Medicine, but though that medicine was wonderfully effective on external injuries, it was not particularly effective for this kind of "burn."

"That Divine Doctor Kang is obviously a great fraud—it doesn't work at all, and he sells it so dear. What a swindle. Next time this old lady lays eyes on him, I'll blow his whole family to bits!" Feng Xiaoxiao thought bitterly...

Zhong Yongliang also wore a face full of misery. The grand, imposing confession spectacle he had gone to such trouble to plan yesterday had ended in a farce, which left him with a feeling of having anger he could not vent. The one who had wrecked the farce was Feng Xiaoxiao, and even if he had complaints, he did not dare voice them.

"What exactly happened yesterday? Weren't the firecrackers supposed to be hung on Wei Zhao's backside? How did it turn into Feng Xiaoxiao?" Zhong Yongliang had been given a warning and a demerit by Wang Zhifeng. He was no longer the nephew of a shareholder, but an ordinary self-funded student.

"Who knows? I only saw Feng Xiaoxiao sneaking over to Wei Zhao's side. I couldn't see clearly what happened after that either," Gao Xiaofu said, shaking his head.

"Damn it, such a good opportunity wasted. What a pity!" Zhong Yongliang was thoroughly displeased. He clenched his fist, then let it fall limply. "Graduation's almost here, and I don't know whether there'll be another chance..." "Brother Liang, I think that even though yesterday's business ended in a mess, your feelings were still expressed. Gu Mengyao ought to know how you feel by now, so the process doesn't matter—what matters is the result!" Gao Xiaofu analyzed. "Why don't you go ask Shen Yushu and see whether Gu Mengyao's heart has been moved?"

"That'll do, I suppose. That's the only way," Zhong Yongliang said with a nod.

"Little Liangzi, you wanted to see me?" Shen Yushu went to the meeting readily enough, because Zhong Yongliang had no designs on her—he only wanted to ask about Gu Mengyao.

"Heh heh, yeah. Xiaoshu, I'm really sorry about yesterday—I made a mess of it. What did Mengyao say afterward?" Zhong Yongliang asked cautiously.

"Sister Yao Yao? She didn't say much, but she seemed rather disappointed, like she thought it was all a bit pointless," Shen Yushu said, blinking, hesitating a moment.

"Ah, I know it must have disappointed her yesterday. But did she say anything about how it could be remedied?" Zhong Yongliang asked.

"Well, I didn't ask about that. Oh, right—I've been craving the fried mushrooms from the night market street!" Shen Yushu stretched. "I'll go buy fried mushrooms at noon first, and ask around for you later. Though I might just forget." "No, no, I'll go buy them. Fried mushrooms, is that all? I'll go!" Zhong Yongliang said hurriedly when he heard her. "Xiaoshu, just help me ask what remedies there might be."

"All right then." Shen Yushu nodded and went back to the classroom.

Over the years Zhong Yongliang had lost count of how many times Shen Yushu had used him as free labor, but there was nothing he could do about it—who else was as close to Gu Mengyao as Shen Yushu? Unless he kept Shen Yushu sweet and happy, there was simply no way to get any information about Gu Mengyao.