Chapter 14: The Gentle Mule’s Kick Can Kill a Man

Predictably, Su Chunfeng was harshly scolded once more by his homeroom teacher, Li Jichun, and was told to go home and have his parents come to the school.

However, Su Chunfeng, looking very sincere and aggrieved, almost on the verge of tears, laid out the facts and reasoned with Li Jichun. He explained that ever since starting junior high, he had been bullied by many students in the class, suffering serious mental and physical harm. Recently, Yao Xinbo often brought people to block him in the village on weekends when school let out and when he was returning to school on Sundays. This forced him to resolve to drop out of school and also to carry out one crazy act of revenge…

After hearing Su Chunfeng’s account, Li Jichun immediately felt both pity and nervousness. He comforted Su Chunfeng, telling him to study in peace and not to get into fights with classmates anymore, and so on.

As for calling his parents… that was waived.

Li Jichun genuinely was nervous—he was well aware as the homeroom teacher that this student, who had always had a weak and gentle nature, was often bullied by classmates. For such a student to dare to commit such an extreme and crazy act, he must have been pushed to the limit. His claim about wanting to drop out was likely true as well. Similarly, if this student actually went home and refused to come back to school, his parents would inevitably come to the school to question the situation even without being notified…

By then, he, as the homeroom teacher, would bear significant responsibility.

For Li Jichun, who had high hopes for a promotion this year, such a situation absolutely could not be allowed to happen.

The next day.

Yao Xinbo’s parents came to the school.

It was inevitable for kids to get into arguments and fights with classmates at school, and in these times, rural parents didn’t make too big a deal of it. But when your own child is beaten black and blue at school and is still too scared to go back, what parent wouldn’t feel heartbroken for their child?

They brought their child directly to the principal’s office.

Yao Xinbo’s father was alright, not very tall and a decent man. But Yao Xinbo’s mother was a fierce and shrewish one. When a rural woman goes on a rampage, she is quite formidable; few men can withstand it. Fu Changzheng, the fifty-something school principal, couldn’t really handle the parents’ noisy questioning and arguing. So, he quickly called Class 14’s homeroom teacher, Li Jichun, to the office to explain the situation.

Li Jichun was eloquent and immediately began laying out facts and reasoning…

But no matter how eloquent or justified a person is, when faced with an unreasonable, raging village woman, it’s like a scholar meeting a soldier—reason falls on deaf ears.

Frustrated and helpless, Li Jichun simply called both Su Chunfeng and Tian Pingping over for a direct confrontation!

In the principal’s office, it felt somewhat like a three-judge trial.

Facing the principal, teachers, and parents, even teens in the most rebellious phase of their youth have a natural-born sense of awe and wouldn’t dare to lie. How much more true was this for Tian Pingping, who was both the English class representative and the Deputy Class Monitor? So, very quickly, with Li Jichun’s intentional or unintentional guiding questions, Tian Pingping told everything in detail—Su Chunfeng’s usual character and personality, and all the things Yao Xinbo had done.

She and Yao Xinbo were relatives, so her account naturally carried the highest credibility for Yao Xinbo’s parents.

Yao Xinbo felt deeply ashamed, hanging his head and only admitting his mistakes honestly when questioned…

At this point, the truth of the matter was clear—Su Chunfeng was wrong to hit someone, but Yao Xinbo’s words and actions over such a long time were truly the main cause of this incident. However, Yao Xinbo’s mother kept cursing and swearing nonstop, sometimes pointing at Su Chunfeng’s nose, threatening and yelling at him…

And Su Chunfeng never once spoke up.

He was just like before—weak, like a helpless little child who didn’t dare make a sound or offer the slightest resistance in front of a furious adult. He knew that head-on confrontation when Yao Xinbo’s parents were at their angriest would only push things to an extreme.

So, with an extremely mature mindset, he remained absolutely calm.

Just as the saying goes: the first attack is the strongest, the second weaker, and the third exhausted!

Su Chunfeng was just waiting for the right moment to strike.

Once the matter was inquired into and clarified, after Principal Fu Changzheng and Homeroom Teacher Li Jichun spent some time comforting Yao Xinbo’s parents and scolding both Yao Xinbo and Su Chunfeng, this farce came to an end. And as parents, even if they were being unreasonable, they couldn’t keep it up forever.

The group walked out of the principal’s office.

Standing on the steps outside the office door, Yao Xinbo’s mother, before leaving, still glared with a fierce, shrewish look and viciously said to Su Chunfeng, “You little brat, watch yourself from now on! Think you’re tough? If there’s a next time, I’ll break your dog legs!”

At that moment, near the basketball court outside the office, small groups of students had gathered.

The noise and arguing from the principal’s office had already attracted them. They just couldn’t get too close to eavesdrop or watch since it was the principal’s office, so they watched the spectacle from a distance, full of curiosity.

Yao Xinbo seemed to feel he finally had backing by his side, and with so many classmates watching, it wouldn’t be right not to show some authority to salvage a bit of his reputation. So, he puffed out his chest, glared with his bruised black eyes, lifted his swollen lip, squinted his eyes at Su Chunfeng, who had remained silent the whole time, and said, “I won’t stoop to your level this time. Watch yourself in the future.”

“Alright, alright, let’s go,” Yao Xinbo’s father said, pulling his wife along.

Both Fu Changzheng and Li Jichun frowned, their faces showing displeasure—they were thoroughly sick of this shrewish, unreasonable woman. With a mother like that, no wonder Yao Xinbo was a troublemaker.

Su Chunfeng looked indifferently at the family of three and said calmly, “Three options: either this shrew apologizes to me, or Yao Xinbo doesn’t attend Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, or… you have the guts to kill me! Otherwise, based on this shrew’s performance today, Yao Xinbo is definitely going to get beaten again, and it’ll be worse. Not just once or twice. Any time I remember and feel unhappy, I’ll beat him up!”

“What did you say?” Yao Xinbo’s mother shrieked.

“Su Chunfeng, stop this nonsense!” Li Jichun scolded.

Yao Xinbo shuddered with fear and hurriedly hid behind his father. His father, however, frowned deeply and watched Su Chunfeng warily.

Su Chunfeng turned his head away, tilting his face slightly toward the clear blue sky, and remained silent.

The shrewish woman, about to erupt with anger, suddenly felt a chill in her heart at that moment and forcibly swallowed the words that had reached her throat. There’s a rural saying: “The dog that bites doesn’t bark,” and another: “The gentle mule’s kick can kill a man.” This half-grown kid in front of her, seen by teachers and classmates as extremely gentle but driven crazy by her own son, seemed to be that kind of person—you curse at him, scold him, try to scare him, and he stays silent, seeming genuinely frightened. Then suddenly, he comes out with one decisive, fierce statement, and falls silent again.

Such a person is timid and avoids conflict, not good at arguing with others.

But he often acts with his actions!

Just like when the conflict between him and Yao Xinbo happened—there wasn’t a lot of useless talk. Even when they fought, he didn’t shout or curse loudly to bolster his own courage. But the result was obvious; his fierceness made Yao Xinbo’s parents feel a lingering fear just seeing their child’s injuries.

“Principal, Teacher Li, look, look at this, this student…” Yao Xinbo’s mother was now helpless, scared, anxious, and looked to them for help with a panicked expression.

“Su Chunfeng, come to my office!” Li Jichun snapped with a stern face.

Su Chunfeng walked to the homeroom teacher’s office without a word.

He understood perfectly in his heart that Yao Xinbo’s mother’s bluster had run out by now, and she was clearly starting to panic inside—even if she were the brainless type to blow up again, Su Chunfeng wouldn’t mind. All he wanted was to vent his anger, make them tremble with fear, make them restless at home, plant a thorn in their hearts, give them a big knot of worry in their minds. That thorn and that knot would leave them unsettled for a long time to come…

The highest level of cursing someone out isn’t about how freely and satisfyingly you curse, or how harshly you drench them in abuse, because the harsher you curse, the angrier you are inside, and that means you’ve already lost.

When it comes down to it, the purpose of cursing someone out is actually very simple: to make the other person uncomfortable!

As for Yao Xinbo, Su Chunfeng didn’t give him a second thought—this brat was already scared from the beating, completely subdued. Back in class, he’d come seeking favor with him on his own.

He hadn’t been in Li Jichun’s office for long when Li Jichun, Yao Xinbo’s father, and Yao Xinbo himself came in.

Li Jichun, as the homeroom teacher, naturally delivered another stern lecture.

Yao Xinbo’s father, however, showed the bearing of a mature, grown man. He didn’t pick a fight or act tough with a kid like Su Chunfeng. First, he harshly scolded his own son. Then, very seriously, like a kind father, he said to Su Chunfeng, “Xinbo was wrong for what he did before. Xinbo’s mother isn’t very good with words. On behalf of both her and my son, I apologize to you here. Regardless, you did hit him yesterday… Kids, you’re classmates. It’s hard to avoid some roughhousing in life. Maybe in a few days you’ll be good friends again. So, as parents, we don’t want to get involved in your school lives. We won’t take sides. We just hope you can live happily together, helping and learning from each other.” Having said that, he turned seriously to his son. “Xinbo, apologize to your classmate!”

Yao Xinbo hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

Given how things stood, Su Chunfeng, of course, wouldn’t keep acting tough endlessly. He nodded and said, “It’s alright…”

As someone with a mature mind, Su Chunfeng now quite admired Yao Xinbo’s father. If one blindly spoiled their child, or even helped their child pick fights and seek revenge on classmates, that was absolutely a foolish parent.

“Good boy!” Yao Xinbo’s father smiled and stood up. He said to Li Jichun, “Teacher Li, Xinbo is an ignorant child, and his mother is rather impulsive. Sorry for the trouble. Actually, we only came because we didn’t want the kids to keep acting tough and learn bad habits from it.”

“That’s right, that’s right. It’s partly our responsibility too. We’re sorry; we’ll definitely pay more attention in the future,” Li Jichun said repeatedly.

“Well, goodbye then.”

“Goodbye!”

Yao Xinbo’s father turned and patted Su Chunfeng on the shoulder. “Kid, from now on, when going to and from school, you don’t need to take the long way around. Go through Gubao Village. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.”

“Okay.” Su Chunfeng looked up and gave a simple, straightforward reply with a smile. After all, having a mature mind, at this moment he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of guilt for this childish act he felt he absolutely had to do.

Yao Xinbo’s father was briefly taken aback. From Su Chunfeng’s eyes, he saw a maturity and steadiness that completely didn’t belong to a kid his age.

“Goodbye.”