C27 I’m Sorry, Begging Won’t Do Any Good

“Ran? Is that you?”

When Zhang Tao saw that it was his close friend who had come to their rescue, his face revealed a hint of surprise. Shortly after that, his face changed drastically, and he shouted in a loud voice, “Ran, leave right now! There’s no way you can beat these two goons by yourself!”

Meng Ran saw the familiar face of his friend and felt an incomparable warmth surge up in his heart. He shot a reassuring look toward Zhang Tao and said in a gentle voice, “Don’t worry about any of this. They can try, but they won’t be able to hurt me.”

“Little Bastard, today is the day you die!” When he looked, Yellow Hair clearly saw that the person who just walked in was a mere student. The fire in his heart ignited. He was furious!

Meng Ran could see that this guy still had the strength to speak up, and a cruel smile lingered on his lips. He increased the strength of his grasp by half, but it had already crushed the bones of the gangster’s hands!

“Ah!” Yellow Hair screamed painfully. It hurt so much that tears poured down his cheeks. He shouted to the crew-cut youth, “What are you doing just standing there for? Hurry up and beat that guy up!”

The youth with the crew cut sported a vicious expression on his face. He directly tossed out a fierce punch toward Meng Ran’s face.

Meng Ran smiled faintly at the young man who just tried to punch him. He gently used his left hand to grab the seemingly ferocious fist with total ease. The bones of the young man’s fist were crushed under the strain of Meng Ran’s grip, and he fell like a stack of books heavily to the ground.

At this time, the screams of the crew-cut youth were even louder and even more blood-curdling than that of the yellow-haired man. He lay on the ground and pitifully begged for mercy.

Zhang Tao and his father had no time to react and watched this scene unfold before them with their mouths agape.

Meng Ran saw Zhang Tao’s shocked expression and asked, while smiling at the same time, “How was I? Was I fierce enough?”

Zhang Tao and his father nodded their heads repeatedly until their motions resembled that of chickens pecking at rice.

Meng Ran smiled lightheartedly down at the two youths and said, “You’re the ones who bullied my friend, right? Why don’t you go down on your hands and knees and apologize to my friend?!”

Before the words even left his mouth, Meng Ran was already kicking the two young men in the knees. Their kneecaps hit the ground with a dull “thud,” and they were now kneeling in front of Zhang Tao.

“We were so very wrong. Please forgive us for everything.”

The two men pleaded for Meng Ran to have a heart and forgive them.

Meng Ran had a cold smile on his face as he said, “Don’t look at me. You’re here to beg my brother for mercy.”

After they heard this, the two of them quickly kowtowed in Zhang Tao’s directions. Their heads smacked on the tiles, and pretty soon, they were bleeding from the numerous kowtows they've made.

Zhang Tao started to feel pity for these two men and looked at Meng Ran as if he was begging his friend to let them go. However, Meng Ran was serious as he said, “Zhang, you shouldn’t be compassionate for no reason. If I wasn’t capable of snuffing this matter at its root, the ones begging for mercy wouldn’t be these two, but you and Uncle Zhang. There’s a saying: Treating your enemies with kindness is cruelty to your own people.”

Seeing Zhang Tao nod his head in agreement, Meng Ran burst out laughing. He knew his friend would come around. Also, Meng Ran was in no hurry. Anyone who wanted to bully Zhang Tao would have to go through him!

Right then, Zhang Tao saw Meng Ran staring at the two men, who were still kowtowing to him with an unreadable look on his face. He said with a sneer, “I’m sorry, but just begging him won’t work.”

Under the frightened gazes of the two punks, Meng Ran crushed the bones of their hands and legs. Then he directly threw them outside the door, where they lay like two dead dogs.

These two people were now cripples, and Meng Ran wasn’t worried that they would run away and get help.

The painful groans of the two punks could be heard outside the door, while inside the door were the shocked expressions of both Zhang father and son.

Zhang Tao looked at Meng Ran with some concern on his face and said, “Did you hit them too hard just now?”

Meng Ran poked his brother in the head affectionately. He then poured two cups of tea for the two of them and said, with a smile on his face:

“Don’t worry about it. It’s good enough that I didn’t call the cops on them. There are more than a dozen hooligans in total, right? When they get here, I’ll beat them all up for you. Once that happens, call my dad, and he’ll have them arrested. Just think of it as eradicating evil for the common folk. My dad will even give you a certificate, honoring you for your heroic deed.”

Looking at Meng Ran’s relaxed expression, Zhang Tao felt complicated about this whole situation. For some reason, he felt that there was something different about Meng Ran this time around.

Meng Ran handed Father Zhang a teacup and looked at the thick bandages that were wrapped around his waist. He said in a soft voice, “You have only two broken ribs. Uncle Zhang, I’m going to make some medicine for you in a few days. You’ll be fine once you take it.”

Zhang Cheng thought that there was no such thing as magical medicine in this world, so he thought that Meng Ran was just trying to comfort him and just nodded his head and said a few words of thanks, even though inwardly he doubted it would do much to help his situation.

When Meng Ran refilled Zhang Tao’s tea cup and accidentally brushed against Zhang Tao’s wheelchair, his heart filled with endless sadness at the memory it triggered.

It was a few days before his junior high school graduation. Meng Ran was in the same class as Zhang Tao. That day, the class bully bumped into Zhang Tao and made Zhang Tao apologize to him. He even threatened that if Zhang Tao didn’t apologize to him, he would find someone to assassinate Zhang Tao.

Zhang Tao was always like an older brother to him, so Meng Ran couldn’t just stand there and do nothing as Zhang Tao was being bullied. He directly dragged that bully to the bathrooms and gave him a good beating. He even managed to break that student’s nose. The two of them thought this matter was settled, but as they were walking home, they were blocked by a group of thugs.

At that time, the class bully and a dozen other young hooligans surrounded Meng Ran and Zhang Tao. They even clamored over each other to break Meng Ran’s legs.

That was when Meng Ran started to fight even more viciously, tossing his fists left and right.

But at this time, how could Meng Ran, who was only one person, be a match for a dozen people? He was knocked to the ground in a few moves. Meng Ran didn’t expect these people to really make the attempt to break his legs. But before they could do so, Zhang Tao pounced on Meng Ran without thinking things through and blocked Meng Ran from their attack.

Soon after, the police arrived and took the hooligans away. But it was already too late.

Meng Ran begged his parents to save Zhang Tao. Though Soong Shuling had a few hundred thousand in her bank account and spent almost all her savings, it wasn’t enough to save Zhang Tao's legs.