Demonic King of the Metropolis - Chapter 82 - Hostage Threat Part 1

had already stood up and seemed to be planning to go out for a bit.

“Hey, aren’t you coming with us?” Miss Xiao Ran also stood up, intending to join Chen Shuran, and deliberately spoke loudly when she saw Tang Jie not moving.

“What do I need to go for? If you all are going to the restroom, do I have to accompany you?” Tang Jie grinned and joked, secretly planning to follow Chen Shuran, but he wanted to tease Miss Xiao Ran after hearing her comment.

“You… you deadbeat Tang Jie! I never expected you to have a peeping habit. Just wait until one day I use the school broadcast to announce this, and you’ll be famous throughout the school,” Xiao Ran replied indignantly.

Tang Jie laughed even brighter, “Sure! And let’s add that I like to see beauties, but I just don’t like looking at you, Miss Xiao Ran.”

Xiao Ran was about to retort angrily when Chen Shuran pulled her outside. Seeing Chen Shuran heading out, Tang Jie lazily stood up and followed.

At the door, Tang Jie felt a gaze from behind him lingering on his back. Frowning slightly, he wondered why there were always oddballs around in this school.

Chen Shuran led Xiao Ran to the shade of the trees on the school playground. Throughout the walk, Chen Shuran remained silent, standing under the tree with a look that suggested she had something on her mind. Xiao Ran glanced at Tang Jie, still sporting an angry expression. Tang Jie ignored her, noticing that Chen Shuran’s face didn’t have her usual cheerful demeanor, which puzzled him. He mused whether this had to do with his earlier rejection of her.

“Hey, Shuran-Jie, look.” Suddenly, Xiao Ran seemed to spot something and pointed toward the teaching building. Following her finger, Tang Jie saw someone standing by their classroom window, looking in their direction, and that person didn’t leave even after they noticed.

“I wasn’t wrong, was I? She really has her eyes on Tang Jie,” Xiao Ran smirked upon recognizing that the figure in the window was Li Feifei.

Upon hearing this, Tang Jie frowned and looked again; indeed, it was the new girl, Li Feifei. She noticed them looking at her but turned away after a while.

“Hey, Tang Jie, do you think you have something going on with her? Is that why she transferred here for you?” Xiao Ran latched onto the gossip eagerly. Tang Jie thought for a moment, smiled at her, and replied, “I didn’t know I was so popular. But even if a beauty likes me, I have to check with your Shuran-Jie first. I’m with her all day, so where would I find the time to date?”

After saying this, Tang Jie looked at Chen Shuran and saw that her expression indeed brightened a little. He was purposefully teasing her to lighten the mood; otherwise, it truly felt uncomfortable to see her with a cold face every day.

“Humph, I don’t believe you. You just have a way with words. I can tell that Shuran-Jie has been unhappy these past few days. Did you upset her?” Xiao Ran continued to chatter, not letting it go. Tang Jie felt like he saw someone approaching them from the direction of the teaching building.

Just as he was about to take a closer look, the person arrived in front of him and Chen Shuran-it was Li Feifei.

Tang Jie looked at Li Feifei standing in front of him. She was at least 1.7 meters tall, about the same height as Chen Shuran. Now he finally had the chance to carefully observe her appearance. Her face was perfectly proportioned, with exquisite features, and she had an extraordinary elegance that radiated an even colder aura than Chen Shuran. However, the cold proud look in her eyes made it a bit hard to make direct eye contact.

Li Feifei stood in front of Tang Jie, meeting his gaze without flinching. Instead, she scrutinized him directly, completely ignoring both Chen Shuran and Xiao Ran beside her.

Chen Shuran’s expression soured a bit. Tang Jie caught a glimpse of her reaction out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t quite grasp what Li Feifei was up to, but her dismissive attitude was clearly bothering Chen Shuran, so he decided to leave.

“Let’s go, class is about to start,” Tang Jie turned back to say to Chen Shuran, and as he turned to head into the teaching building, Li Feifei unexpectedly blocked his way.

“Tang Jie, I like you.” The confession stunned Chen Shuran, Xiao Ran, and even Tang Jie himself, who was about to head back.

This girl… this confession… too direct, right? Tang Jie was momentarily stunned. He looked at Li Feifei, who had a determined and proud expression, then glanced at Chen Shuran, whose face was even darker now. But her eyes remained locked on Tang Jie, seemingly waiting for his response.

“I’m sorry, my mom said not to date while I’m in school, that my studies come first.” Tang Jie fabricated this excuse. Under the circumstances, he didn’t fancy returning home to face Chen Shuran’s wrath that evening.

But honestly speaking, Li Feifei did possess a certain charm and was quite unique. If it weren’t for her cold demeanor, he might have considered accepting her.

“No problem, I can wait for you.” To Tang Jie’s surprise, Li Feifei didn’t mind his rejection at all. She said this casually, throwing a semi-provocative glance at Chen Shuran before flashing a smile at Tang Jie and turning to leave.

Tang Jie watched as Li Feifei walked away, then glanced at Chen Shuran beside him, who was visibly upset and angry. He suddenly had a bad feeling, foreseeing that his life was about to get complicated from this day onward.

Why has his romantic luck been so good lately? He should have gone to consult that fortune teller to get some predictions.

Tang Jie held back the urge to groan, casting a helpless glance at Chen Shuran. She shot him a cold look before pulling Xiao Ran along silently toward the teaching building.

“Hey, did you see that? Isn’t that the new beauty? Why is she hanging out with that guy?”

“Yeah! Why do all the beauties seem to want to get close to him?”

“What do you know? I just heard her say that she likes that guy…”

“What! No way! You must have heard wrong!”

Nearby, students from other classes were whispering and gossiping. Tang Jie listened to their murmurs, sighed with a look of resignation, and made his way to the classroom as the bell rang.

Just as he was about to step onto the stairs, he caught sight of a few figures hiding behind the trees in the distance. Curiosity piqued, he couldn’t help but glance in that direction, only to see someone quickly darting behind a tree-who was it?

Tang Jie squinted for a better look. There were a few people gathered outside, but as he looked, they turned their backs to block the view of the person hiding behind the tree. Chen Shuran and Xiao Ran had vanished from sight. He pondered for a moment, filled with curiosity, and hurried off to the classroom.

For the entire morning, Li Feifei, sitting in the back, kept glancing at him, while Chen Shuran remained upset. Tang Jie was too preoccupied to notice, his vigilance forcing him to forget about the person he had seen dodging behind the tree earlier.

He couldn’t shake off the feeling that his few days of peace were coming to an end.

He replayed the image of that figure in his mind; the people outside seemed to be students from No. 2 High School, but the one who hid-he felt a sense of familiarity. As the lunch break approached, Tang Jie finally started piecing things together. The person who had hidden from him seemed to be someone he had encountered that night at the stadium.

Could it be that yellow-haired guy? Wasn’t he the one Tang Jie had beaten up?

Or… As he thought this over, memories of those boys who had grabbed his legs pleading to become disciples flashed through his mind. He felt there was something odd about the reappearance of that yellow-haired guy-his buzz cut, the black SUV at the school gate, and the girl he had seen in the car…

There seemed to be some inexplicable connection between these elements, as if they were all linked to someone or something, but he couldn’t make sense of it all at that moment.

At noon, when school was out, Tang Jie had just followed Chen Shuran out the school gate when he spotted Li Feifei standing at the entrance of the teaching building. There was the familiar SUV parked outside. Chen Shuran shot Tang Jie a glance and pulled Xiao Ran away, while Tang Jie ignored Li Feifei and hurried to catch up with them.

Li Feifei watched him for a while before finally getting into her car and leaving.

Throughout the afternoon, Tang Jie felt Li Feifei’s gaze on him. He couldn’t stop thinking about what she had said that morning: she liked him? Why would she like him? Was he truly that charming?

When he got home, he found Chen Shuran had locked herself in her room. Tang Jie didn’t pay it any mind; after all, he didn’t have anything to do with Li Feifei. He figured as long as Chen Shuran was safe, nothing else mattered to him.

Tang Jie walked to the refrigerator, planning to find something for dinner, only to be met with empty shelves. Just as he contemplated heading out to grab a bite, his phone rang.

“Master!” Qin Haozhong’s voice came through the line, causing Tang Jie to pause momentarily. He took a while to register who it was.

“What’s up? What do you need?” Tang Jie sensed something off in Qin Haozhong’s tone.

“Can you… come over for a bit?” Qin Haozhong’s voice sounded a bit weak, as if something was bothering him. Considering Chen Shuran hadn’t come out of her room yet and it was still early, Tang Jie thought for a moment.

“Alright, where are you?” After getting the address from Qin Haozhong, he hung up and went to Chen Shuran’s room. She was still sitting on the bed, and it was clear she was upset.

“I need to step out for a bit. Should I take you back to Uncle Chen’s place?” For safety’s sake, Tang Jie didn’t want to leave Chen Shuran alone in the apartment, but he quickly thought better of it.

If he took Chen Shuran to Chen Jiankai’s place, wouldn’t that be neglecting his responsibility? Yet, he had already promised Qin Haozhong… it was a real dilemma.

Upon hearing Tang Jie say he was going out, Chen Shuran immediately looked doubtful. “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about it; it’s not a big deal and I’m not going on a date,” Tang Jie replied playfully.

“Then take me with you, or I won’t let you go,” Chen Shuran suddenly pouted, sounding a bit petulant. Tang Jie frowned, feeling a sense of helplessness. Taking Chen Shuran to meet Qin Haozhong definitely didn’t seem appropriate, but… “Fine, but you have to wait in the car for me.”

After a bit of thinking, Tang Jie settled on that solution. Chen Shuran’s face brightened up when Tang Jie agreed to take her along, and she eagerly nodded in response.