Chapter Seven Power

  Several boys in the cave couldn't persuade Jingjing and Wu Fang, so they had to come out together to search. When they found Cao Sen and others, the scene before their eyes made everyone's heart skip a beat.

  Not far from the mountain flood, Cao Sen, Guo Jing, Teng Fei, Ding Haitao and Zhu Jianjun were scattered on the hillside, their bodies charred all over. Even with the washing of heavy rain, they still emitted bursts of green smoke. Moreover, their hair was standing upright in a strange way, and their hands and feet kept twitching, unconscious.

  And the two girls, one was also in a coma, Lan'er was staring blankly at the heavy rain in the sky with her eyes dull and lifeless, muttering to herself, looking like an idiot.

  "They were struck by lightning!" a boy shouted out.

  "Lan'er...Lan'er...what's wrong with you?" Jingjing hugged the dazed Lan'er, crying out and shaking her body.

  Lan'er was completely unaware, staring blankly at the sky.

  Wu Fang and others did not know what to do, nor did they know how to rescue the unconscious person, surrounding Lan'er wanting to ask what had just happened.

  Cao Sen was the first to wake up, looking around in a daze, then at himself. Damn, he's lucky to be alive. He fell into a mountain flood, was struck by lightning, and hit by thunder, yet he didn't have a single hair out of place. From now on, I'm not Cao Sen, my new name is Xiao Qiang.

  Guo Jing and his brothers woke up to see Cao Sen sitting on the side, laughing. They were all surprised and delighted, and let out a loud whoop as they rushed over to hug each other tightly.

  Haha, we brothers are all alive!

  "What the f**k, you cockroach, can't even die like this?" Ding Haitao's two hands forcefully pinched Cao Sen's cheeks, pulling him until his eyes rolled back.

  "Nothing more to say, hurry back to the city." Tengfei shouted.

  "What's going on in the city?" Guo Jing asked with interest.

  "Buy lottery tickets!" Teng Fei's eyes sparkled.

  The four brothers hugged each other and burst out laughing again, leaving Wu Fang and the others looking at them in confusion. Had they gone crazy from excitement after narrowly escaping death?

  Zhu Jianjun also came to, sat up with a flip of his body, and stared blankly at the four people who were laughing loudly.

  "Come on, brothers! We don't need to pray for blessings anymore. With our lives, who the hell can take them away? Our own lives are ours to control!" Cao Sen's emotions were running high.

  "Oh heavens, I'll screw your damn ancestor!" Ding Haitao yelled out loud.

  A dazzling light burst forth among the four brothers, and after the rumbling sound disappeared, the Cao Sen four thoroughly transformed into African brothers.

  "My god, nothing's wrong." Guo Jing was astonished to find that they had adapted to the lightning strike, except for some numbness and paralysis in their bodies, there were no adverse effects.

  The four brothers looked at each other, tacitly raised their heads to the sky, took a deep breath and let out the most masculine cry of male animals: "Let's do it together, you two grandpas!"

  Rumble, rumble! The sky and earth shook for a moment as thunder boomed and lightning flashed. Bolt after bolt of lightning struck the four brothers' heads with unerring accuracy, their young bodies almost becoming transparent under the intense light emitted by the lightning.

  Wu Fang and others stared in horror, their hair standing on end. What they saw was four skulls in a dazzling white light, each bone of the skulls trembling with electricity, yet still wide-mouthed and cursing like madmen, lunatics, four complete lunatics!

  The thunder finally stopped, and the four brothers all sat on the ground, Zhang's mouth was open, panting heavily, wisps of smoke escaped from his open mouth, and there was no place on his body that didn't emit smoke.

  Haha, never mind. Cao Sen revealed his only white teeth on his body, "Let's go, we'll head back to the city to buy lottery tickets!"

  The four brothers stood up as if nothing had happened and ignored Wu Fang and the others, walking down the mountain on their own.

  "Oh no, don't go, what are we going to do if you leave?" Wu Fang anxiously stamped her foot.

  "Go to hell!"

  Cao Sen's words almost made the two girls fall into the mountain torrent, and then they started crying again. They really didn't know what to do next.

  That night, in a bar, four men sat around a table drinking. Anyone who walked past their table kept as much distance as possible because the four looked really scary. Bald, with dark faces and skin that was charcoal black all over, they wore black tank tops and black pants. In the dimly lit bar, they looked like four ghosts. The most frightening thing was when they laughed, their whole body blended into the darkness, only a pair of white shiny teeth opened and closed, the scene was as eerie as it could be.

  As soon as the bar door opened, three beautiful girls with slender figures walked in. One of them looked like she had just recovered from a serious illness, her timid expression and fragile shoulders making men want to step forward and take care of her.

  To everyone's surprise in the bar, these three beauties walked straight towards those four thugs.

  "How did you get here?" Cao Sen looked at the three girls in surprise.

  "I brought Lan'er here to thank you for saving our lives." Jingjing said with her head lowered.

  "My name is Ren Lan'er, thank you for saving me this afternoon, I..." Lan'er couldn't continue speaking and sobbed lightly. Her boyfriend's betrayal and the ordeal of life and death made this weak girl burst into tears whenever she mentioned what happened that afternoon.

  "Alright, thanks for your concern, I've heard enough. Just go and do what you need to do, don't cause any more trouble here."

  Teng Fei thought to himself, "Alas, this Sen brother is really... usually being a bit tough on girls is fine, but what's with the attitude now?"

  Wu Fang stopped, raised an eyebrow, and glared with her big beautiful eyes, "What's wrong with you, Cao Sen? You think you're cool and manly like this, right? In fact, you're just childish!"

  Cao Sen raised an eyebrow, a sign that he was about to lose his temper. Guo Jing hastily pressed down on Cao Sen's hand and said to Wu Fang, "Sit down, don't stand there talking. Please sit." His tone and words were very polite, but the table he pointed to was a different one.

  Ding Haitao let out a loud laugh and shook his head, looking at the ceiling with an unwelcoming attitude.

  Wu Fang and Jingjing were shocked, Laner cried even more sadly.

  Teng Fei couldn't take it anymore, and with one punch, "Be more polite, they're girls. Moreover, they've had such a big shock today, so be gentle." He stood up to move chairs for the girls, get them drinks, and settled the three girls in.

  Wu Fang originally wanted to walk away in a huff, but Lan Er and Jing Jing sat down, so she had no choice but to sit down too, her eyes wide with anger as she glared at Cao Sen.

  Cao Sen saw Wu Fang's gaze and said indifferently: "Don't glare at me."

  "I didn't glare at you, my eyes are just big like this!"

  Cao Sen was speechless, Tong Fei and Guo Jing burst out laughing and spit out their beer, even Lan Er couldn't help but laugh, sneaking a peek at Cao Sen's single eyelid.

  Cao Sen smiled and waved his hand, "Alright, I won't argue with a girl. Lan Er, don't mind what happened this morning, besides, saving you wasn't just my own doing, these brothers of mine all contributed."

  "This still sounds like human language."

  Lan'er stood up again and bowed to each of his four brothers, repeatedly expressing his gratitude.

  Teng Fei let Lan Er sit back in the chair, "We brothers don't stand on ceremony, you don't have to be polite with us either. Hey, how did you end up under that rock, weren't you with Zhu Jianjun?"

  Lan'er burst into tears again at this question.

  Jing Jing replaced Lan Er and explained what had happened.

  In the morning, Lan'er discovered that her boyfriend Zhu Jianjun was having an affair with another girl. She went to confront him but got beaten up instead. A heavy rainstorm suddenly arrived, and the three of them didn't dare stay in the valley anymore. They looked for a place to hide everywhere until Zhu Jianjun found a mountain cave. Lan'er didn't want to stand together with Zhu Jianjun, so she hid under a pine tree on a rock. Zhu Jianjun came over to call her into the cave, but she refused to go. The two of them started arguing and somehow slid down to the bottom of the rocks. Lan'er cried out for Zhu Jianjun to save her, but didn't hear his response. Just when she was about to give up, Cao Sen saved her.

  "Then, that kid didn't even try to save her?" Guo Jing asked in surprise.

  Lan'er nodded, hesitated for a moment and whispered: "Maybe... maybe he didn't hear my cry for help."

  Cao Sen and his brother exchanged a glance, their expressions somewhat solemn.

  They were already suspicious of what happened in the morning, why did Zhu Jianjun pull Cao Sen at that time? If it wasn't for that moment, Cao Sen wouldn't have fallen into the flood. If it was intentional, there was no sufficient reason, and the two people had no grudges or grievances against each other, why would Zhu Jianjun want to harm Cao Sen? Moreover, killing someone, especially one's own benefactor, requires more than ordinary courage.

  If Zhu Jianjun can ignore the life and death of his own girlfriend, then he can also deliberately let Cao Sen fall into the floodwaters. If this assumption is true, then Zhu Jianjun must have his reasons. Cao Sen remembered what Teacher Hu had told him before - competing for the excellent graduate quota, or rather, competing for the quota to stay in school. Teacher Hu had said that he and Zhu Jianjun had similar conditions, and only one person would be chosen from among them for the quota to stay in school. Could this be the reason?

  Cao Sen felt a bit ridiculous, just because of this reason Zhu Jianjun would kill himself, isn't that too imaginative? It should be that he accidentally pulled himself once, when people are in a life-or-death moment, they will unconsciously have strange movements, this explanation is the most reasonable.

  "Why aren't you guys talking? If we're not welcome, we'll leave and won't bother anyone. This afternoon, we called your dorm's phone, and the person who answered said you guys were at a bar, so we went to find you one by one... how many bars did we run to? And you... you still... " Wu Fang felt wronged, what did we do to deserve this? Not giving us a good face, using words to choke us, and now not even acknowledging us. Are we really that annoying?"

  "Hmm." Cao Sen didn't hear what Wu Fang was saying and subconsciously responded with a murmur.

  Wu Fang's face turned bright red as she stood up and wanted to leave.

  Cao Sen knew it was a misunderstanding. His personality was strong but not overbearing, so he smiled and said: "Don't go, aren't you afraid of running into ghosts on the way back?"

  "Then apologize." Wu Fang was still huffing with anger.

  "Fine, I apologize." Still in a tone of indifference.

  "And you can't be indifferent to us." Wu Fang hated Cao Sen's careless attitude towards her the most.

  "Heh heh, what do you want Sen Ge to do for you?" Ding Haitao asked with ulterior motives.

  "You're as chatty as a black monkey." Wu Fang retorted.

  Jingjing pulled Wu Fang, and Wu Fang took the opportunity to sit down.

  "We four black monkeys love to bully the little monkey." Ding Haitao was not willing to suffer losses.

  "Alright, don't bully us. Tell us how you rescued Lan Er and then how did you fall into the flood and escape." Jing Jing intervened to mediate.

  "Didn't Zhu Jianjun tell you?" Teng Fei asked in surprise.

  "He said he would be scared silly and wouldn't remember anything."

  The four boys exchanged a look again, and Teng Fei recounted the events of that morning. When he got to the part about how Cao Sen escaped with his life, Teng Fei let Cao Sen tell it himself.

  At that time, Cao Sen was pressed to the bottom of the water by the blast, and no matter what method he used, he couldn't climb to the shore. At that time, the mudslide had fully erupted, and the strong current mixed with the mudslide firmly pressed Cao Sen to the bottom of the water. Perhaps ordinary people would despair, but Cao Sen would never give up. The strong desire to survive made Cao Sen burst out with great strength in an instant. In a flash, Cao Sen seemed to see scenes that he had not seen before. He discovered many transparent silk threads with obvious flow directions. The silk threads existed in the mountain flood, rolling stones, and violent wind and rain. The silk threads existing in the mountain flood were the most dense and thickest. He wanted to grab those silk threads but grabbed nothing.

  The oxygen between his chest and abdomen had been completely exhausted, the approaching death made Cao Sen burst out completely, and the scene of those threads pulling himself out of the mountain flood flashed through his mind. Then a miracle happened, those threads seemed to have come to life, wrapping around Cao Sen and throwing him onto the shore.

  These were the real scenes that happened at that time, but Cao Sen couldn't tell the girls about it. It sounded like a made-up mythological story and no one would believe him. So he just explained to the girls that after the thunder rang out, he was blown ashore by the air wave like everyone else.

  Even if Cao Sen concealed his true experience, the process was still thrilling and astonishing. Several girls listened with their hands on their chests, while Jingjing looked at the four boys in front of her with admiring eyes: "You guys are so great, really awesome, more exciting than a Hollywood blockbuster, unfortunately we didn't get to experience it personally."

  "Thank you, you guys, for risking your lives to save me. I really don't know how to thank you." Lan'er's eyes were shining with tears, she said "you guys", but her beautiful eyes only looked at Cao Sen, and her gaze contained many things.

  A girl has just gone through the heartlessness of a scoundrel, and at the moment of life and death, a man suddenly comes from heaven to save her life. How can she not be moved? How can she not be touched?

  Cao Sen was a seasoned person and knew that Lan Er had feelings for him just by looking at her gaze.

  He coughed and changed the subject, "How's your work going?"

  Jing Jing looked at her good friend Lan Er's disappointed eyes, and softly sighed. This Cao Sen was too hard to get close to, why did he have to be so distant from girls?

  Wu Fang mentioned work and got a headache, sighing: "Alas, I may not be able to stay in Nanquan City, I'll have to go back to my hometown."

  "Your grandfather isn't very capable, how can Nanquan City not be able to keep him?" Ding Haitao asked.

  "It's precisely because that old man is formidable that I couldn't stay, Mom wants me to return to her side." Wu Fang downed a mouthful of drink in frustration, "I really don't want to leave Nanquan City."

  "Huh? Can't bear to part with which handsome guy?" Ding Haitao said with a mischievous grin.

  "Haha, it's because I couldn't bear to part with your good teeth, and you didn't even look in the mirror, when you smile, it looks like a ghost is making trouble!" Wu Fang teased her four brothers. "And also, speaking of ghosts, my heart still hurts from being scared, so tonight you guys have to send us back to our dorm!"