Chapter 8: Self-Made Scandal
Chapter 8: Self-Made Scandal
The truth arrived faster than speculation.
After evening self-study ended, just before leaving the classroom, Wang Haifei walked by Su Chunfeng, who was bowing his head in serious study. She secretly dropped a small paper ball and then fled, her face red, as if running away.
Su Chunfeng opened the note. It said, “Don’t ever say things like that again, or I’ll never speak to you again!”
Su Chunfeng smiled.
Right then, Tian Pingping strode over and said in a mocking, insinuating tone, “Well, isn’t this cozy. Passing notes all day during class, and still passing notes after class. You two are practically one person. Why don’t you just move in together… The homeroom teacher just talked today about not allowing puppy love, and you dare to pass notes so brazenly. Looks like I need to report to the teacher and drag you two up to the front to make a public apology!”
Although passing notes was a small, common thing all classmates knew about and did, involving the serious topic of “puppy love”—whether true or false, saying it out loud in public—would always make Su Chunfeng burn with shame and make the other students laugh at him. And if it reached the homeroom teacher’s ears…
Hmph, Su Chunfeng would be in for it!
Right now, Tian Pingping wanted to find an excuse to thoroughly humiliate Su Chunfeng to vent her pent-up hatred.
Su Chunfeng felt a bit bewildered and found this seemingly baseless ridicule both annoying and ridiculous. However, he couldn’t be bothered to argue with a little girl, so he ignored Tian Pingping. Let her say whatever she wanted.
At that moment, the few remaining classmates in the class wore expressions of gossipy curiosity, whispering among themselves:
“Hey, Wang Haifei and Su Chunfeng might really be dating. They often pass notes, usually exchange glances, and this morning she even helped Su Chunfeng confront Yao Xinbo.”
“They’re old desk mates. Since starting first year of junior high until now, even though the class has changed seating several times, they’ve never been separated!”
“That’s fate…”
“I wonder if they’ve secretly kissed in private?”
“Who knows…”
Hearing the classmates’ buzzing discussions, Su Chunfeng immediately felt angry and agitated—he could choose not to stoop to the level of these older kids, but if this gossip kept spreading, given Wang Haifei’s personality, she would definitely be so angry and ashamed she’d cry secretly in private. And she would certainly minimize her interactions with him from then on.
Damn it!
Feelings need to be nurtured bit by bit. Less communication, more inner resentment—what kind of nurturing is that?
Tian Pingping was just a little girl, yet she was already starting to do such despicable things, ruining people’s reputations. It was too hateful!
She needed to be taught a lesson!
Just as Su Chunfeng was fuming inside, thinking about how to stop this rumor from spreading, Tian Pingping, wearing a look of smug arrogance, said, “Caught red-handed, speechless, aren’t you? Tomorrow I’ll report to the homeroom teacher. I suggest rearranging the seating. At the very least, you three need to be separated!”
Separated?
Su Chunfeng was instantly furious!
A coincidence and stroke of luck in his previous life had let him and Wang Haifei be desk mates for a full three years!
Now, if Tian Pingping really went and complained to the homeroom teacher, it would definitely make Li Jichun consider it and separate him from Wang Haifei!
This was unbearable!
Not letting him and Wang Haifei be desk mates was even more unbearable—the thought of his beloved girl, his first love, possibly being squeezed together as desk mates with another boy… No real man could stand that! Su Chunfeng sprang to his feet. “Tian Pingping, are you not done yet? I already told you, and the teacher often teaches us, we’re still young, we should focus on our studies… You, you…”
He seemed so angry he couldn’t speak.
The classmates remaining in the classroom all looked startled. What was going on? This seemed like a lot of information…
Tian Pingping was also puzzled. “What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Aren’t you the one who wants to be my desk mate? Aren’t you the one forcing me to agree, to make me like you? But, but…” Su Chunfeng’s eyes reddened with anger, putting on a look of a cowardly, honest boy being bullied—submissive yet unwilling to endure the humiliation, struggling to resist.
Whoa!
Although there weren’t many students left in the class, it immediately erupted.
What explosive news!
“You’re talking crap! When did I ever…” Tian Pingping couldn’t help but curse.
“Anyway, I don’t like you! Even if you, as the deputy class monitor and English class representative, can convince the teacher to let us be desk mates, I will never, ever like you!” Su Chunfeng angrily slammed his book down, stood up, used his thin shoulders to bump past the speechless Tian Pingping, and strode out.
Tian Pingping stood stunned for a long moment. Then, amid the whispers and the gazes of many classmates—some surprised, some gossipy, some gloating—she angrily howled, “Su Chunfeng, you jerk!”
The class instantly fell silent.
Everyone watched the furious, distraught Tian Pingping with extreme tension and excitement, imagining what fresh drama would happen next… Suddenly, Li Jiankun, the student with the best grades in the class, usually the most honest and quiet, rarely speaking—nicknamed “The Mute Gourd”—uttered a soft sentence: “This… this must be love turning to hate, right? Sigh.”
“Li Jiankun, what nonsense are you saying?” Tian Pingping glared at him like a madwoman.
Li Jiankun hunched his shoulders, quickly grabbed his books, stuffed them into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, hung his head, and timidly, cautiously hurried out of the classroom.
“Wah…”
Tian Pingping covered her mouth, sobbing, and ran out.
After the class was quiet for a while, except for a few of the most diligent and studious students, everyone else rushed out of the classroom at top speed—such explosive news, if they didn’t hurry to spread it and tell their roommates, friends, and classmates, keeping it bottled up would make them sick!
The next day, this news quickly spread throughout both classes of their grade.
The credibility was quite high.
Although Su Chunfeng was naturally timid, not tall, strong, or burly—rather short and skinny—and his grades weren’t great, he was born with a handsome, pretty-boy face, had a gentle personality, was helpful, and wrote beautifully… He really did have a bit of a way with the girls.
With such a juicy piece of gossip full of rivalry, suspense, love, and hatred, which classmate would still pay attention to the issue of Su Chunfeng and Wang Haifei’s puppy love that Tian Pingping had mentioned?
“Su Chunfeng, you explain this clearly!”
In the classroom, Tian Pingping, gnashing her teeth and pointing an arrogant finger at Su Chunfeng, angrily demanded.
Su Chunfeng lowered his head and remained silent.
“Speak!” Tian Pingping angrily slammed the table in fury.
This made Zhang Lifei unhappy. She stood up, fuming. “Why are you hitting my desk? If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it. All you do is bully Su Chunfeng. Hmph!”
“What’s it to you?”
“You hit my desk; you tell me what it is to me?” Zhang Lifei met her head-on, not afraid at all.
“I…” Tian Pingping stamped her foot hard, glaring angrily at Su Chunfeng. “You, you, say something!”
Su Chunfeng looked innocent. “What else do you want me to say?”
“What did you mean by those words last night?”
Su Chunfeng fell silent again.
Tian Pingping was so angry. Stamping her foot in rage and shame, she simply sneered, “Why don’t you take a look at yourself? Would I ever fancy you? Would I ever want to be your desk mate?”
The class was very quiet. Everyone was watching.
Su Chunfeng stood up timidly, just like his usual cowardly self. He lowered his head, timidly glanced around at the classmates, and whispered, “Alright, I lied last night… Tian Pingping never wrote me a love letter, never passed me a note, never liked me, never asked me to go to the playground at night saying she wanted to be my desk mate, never forced me to agree.” Having said that, Su Chunfeng cautiously looked at Tian Pingping. “Satisfied?”
“Hmph, you finally have some sense.” Tian Pingping breathed a sigh of relief, turned, and stomped back to her seat.
However, she never expected that Su Chunfeng’s explanation and clarification not only didn’t clear her name but instead made the classmates discuss it even more eagerly and become even more convinced they understood the truth of the matter.
Oh, so that’s how it was…
So complicated!
Now, even if Tian Pingping had a hundred mouths, she couldn’t explain it clearly. Furious, she ran back to the dormitory, crying.
For a whole day, Tian Pingping asked for leave and didn’t attend class. When the teacher asked for the reason, she was too embarrassed to tell the truth. As for going to the homeroom teacher to tattle, Tian Pingping certainly wasn’t foolish enough to do something that would add fuel to the fire and make things worse—she wished she could kill Su Chunfeng.
Regarding this, Su Chunfeng, being kind-hearted by nature, also felt a little bit guilty.
Was it, perhaps, a bit too much?
After school on Friday afternoon, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Su Chunfeng and Li Zhichao rode their bicycles out of Dongwangzhuang Village heading due west, detoured via Xu Family Shop, then turned north back to Hetang Village.
Compared to passing through Gubao Village, it was over a kilometer longer.
In Su Chunfeng’s view, it was no big deal.
But Li Zhichao was troubled. He felt taking a detour was really losing face. Later, Yao Xinbo would definitely brag loudly in class, saying the two of them were afraid of getting beaten up and didn’t dare pass through Gubao Village, and then boast about how awesome he was, commanding hundreds of brothers ready to act, etc…
When that time came, the two of them wouldn’t be able to hold their heads up in Class 14.
Seeing this, Su Chunfeng smiled and said after returning to the village, “Zhichao, when we return to school on Sunday afternoon, let’s not go together. You still take the Gubao Village route. Yao Xinbo has no real grudge against you.”
“Then what about you?”
“I’ll go via Xu Family Shop.” Su Chunfeng didn’t feel it was any great loss of face at all. “Anyway, the whole class knows I’m a timid person scared of trouble. Let them say whatever they want.”
Li Zhichao hesitated and didn’t say anything.
Then, around five o’clock on Sunday afternoon, Li Zhichao rode his bicycle to Su Chunfeng’s house early. Stroking his newly moussed, shiny, parted long hair, he said with great camaraderie, “We’ll go together. At Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, there’s just the two of us boys from our village. I can’t be unsupportive!”
Su Chunfeng teased, “Aren’t you afraid people will laugh at you?”
“Let them say whatever they want.” Li Zhichao waved his hand dismissively, but then immediately looked puzzled. “Chunfeng, you’ve changed, kid. Dare to joke with me now?”
Su Chunfeng laughed heartily, patting Li Zhichao’s shoulder. “Can’t I?”
“Damn…” Li Zhichao shook off Su Chunfeng’s hand, pursed his lips, and said, “I wish you’d grow a backbone. Don’t be such a coward in the future. Hey, I say, when we get to school, if that jerk Yao Xinbo dares to gossip, let’s team up and teach him a lesson. How about it?”
Su Chunfeng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “If we team up, aren’t you afraid the guys from Gubao Village will team up too? At Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, there are quite a few students from Gubao Village.”
“Knew you didn’t have the guts!” Li Zhichao muttered, also feeling somewhat wary inside.
Su Chunfeng understood Li Zhichao’s character perfectly—this guy was the type who was fierce but knew when to back down to avoid immediate trouble. However, if someone challenged him, if others dared set off a firecracker, he’d dare light a detonator. No matter what, as long as he had partners, he’d dare lead the charge into the fire!