Chapter 27: Wanting Peace but Finding Strife
Chapter 27: Wanting Peace but Finding Strife
Su Chunfeng paused for a moment in thought, then stood up and walked out.
The boarding classmates remaining in the classroom watched him go, their expressions full of sympathy and worry—they knew this usually meant… Wang Liqiu was about to beat someone up. Li Zhichao, sitting in the back, especially rushed out to stop Su Chunfeng. He frowned and whispered, “Chunfeng, don’t go! That guy definitely means trouble.”
“Everything’s fine,” Su Chunfeng smiled. He knew very well that avoiding it wouldn’t help; it would only make him look afraid.
Li Zhichao gritted his teeth. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“For what? A fight?” Su Chunfeng smiled.
“I can’t just watch you get hurt!” Li Zhichao thrust out his chin, looking fierce and loyal. “Heck, we can duke it out if we have to. I’m not scared!”
Su Chunfeng patted him on the shoulder. “Go back. Nothing’s going to happen. Relax.”
“But…”
“If I do get hurt, later the two of us will put up one heck of a fight together, right before we go back to study at our hometown middle school!” Su Chunfeng gave him a friendly punch. “Deal?”
“Deal!” Li Zhichao’s face took on a fierce look.
“Now head back to the classroom.”
“I’ll stand by the circular gate and watch from there… If anything happens, I’ll rush in and teach those sons of dogs a lesson!” Li Zhichao said through clenched teeth.
Unable to talk him out of it, Su Chunfeng nodded. “Alright, but don’t act rashly.”
“Got it.”
As they spoke, one after the other, they walked towards the circular gate leading to the playground.
Reaching the gate, Su Chunfeng had Li Zhichao stop. He himself strode fearlessly towards the restroom east of the playground. Li Zhichao glanced around the gate entrance, picked up a brick, and clutched it tight. He steeled himself mentally: ‘Don’t get scared if a fight breaks out!’
The moonlight painted the playground in dim, quiet light.
Xu Zhijun and three other boys, cigarettes dangling, leaned sloppily as they laughed and joked.
About seven or eight meters away, Wang Liqiu crouched by the wall, smoking. His cold, snake-like gaze fixed on Su Chunfeng walking calmly towards him. His tone was bullying. “Right here. Get over!”
“Coming,” Su Chunfeng responded flatly, striding over.
After countless violent clashes and fights over the last while, lads like Wang Liqiu and Xu Zhijun had realized they couldn’t truly win, beating each other senseless wouldn’t settle anything. None of them individually had the power to truly cow the two gangs in Class 15. Even the gangs among the first-years and second-years couldn’t be intimidated just by fists and threats—because their leaders were students from Dongwangzhuang Village and Tunbingying Village locally. Either their families had power locally, or their older brothers were local drop-out hoodlums.
So, Xu Zhijun and Wang Liqiu quickly made up and formed an alliance to make their own gang stronger.
Of course, Xu Zhijun, being from Xigong Village, only managed to stand equally with Wang Liqiu because his village had more kids at Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, meaning more friends. Plus, he was tall, strong, and good in fights. But honestly, deep down, he feared Wang Liqiu.
After all, Wang Liqiu was a local.
So, at the moment, among all the student factions in school, Wang Liqiu was the strongest, quietly starting to boss others around.
Standing in front of Wang Liqiu, Su Chunfeng asked calmly, “What’s up?”
“Don’t talk to Zhang Lifei anymore…” Wang Liqiu stood up, cigarette in mouth, sneering a threat. “Or else every time I see you do it, I’ll mess you up.”
Su Chunfeng didn’t like threats. But he disliked the idea of getting into a fierce conflict with Wang Liqiu over such nonsense even more. Because just one clash would be enough to make him famous throughout the school—if it blew up, he wouldn’t let himself be bullied. To deal with Wang Liqiu, he’d need to settle it completely in one go, not drag it out like the endless fights between other students. But if he took down Wang Liqiu, he’d instantly become the prime target for every student gang in the school.
The very thought of that made his head ache.
After a slight pause for thought, Su Chunfeng replied evenly, “Not talking is hard. Zhang Lifei talks to me first; I can’t ignore her. But I’ll be straight with you: I’m with Wang Haifei. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for Zhang Lifei…”
He kept his voice low. If Xu Zhijun and the others heard this gentle refusal, Wang Liqiu might push harder to save face, making a fight unavoidable.
“I said, DON’T talk to Zhang Lifei!” Wang Liqiu stated fiercely.
“Hard ask,” Su Chunfeng smiled, anger starting to simmer inside him.
Wang Liqiu gritted his teeth. He almost started hitting Su Chunfeng right then. But he stopped, thinking beating up this usually quiet guy might make Xu Zhijun nearby laugh at him for picking on the meek. Besides, the memory of Su Chunfeng’s fierce fury when he beat Yao Xinbo, and his guts standing up to the teacher… it gave Wang Liqiu some pause. He hissed a menacing warning: “I want to go out with Zhang Lifei. You watch yourself from now on.”
Su Chunfeng nodded.
“And remember to put in a good word for me with Zhang Lifei.”
Su Chunfeng smiled.
“Get out of here,” Wang Liqiu waved a hand dismissively, like shooing flies.
Su Chunfeng turned and left.
Back at the circular gate to campus, Li Zhichao, who’d kept watch on the playground, quickly approached him. “What did he want?”
“He wants to hook up with Zhang Lifei. Told me to talk to her less,” Su Chunfeng answered.
“Crap!” Li Zhichao muttered, then asked, “So what’re you gonna do?”
“What can I do?” Su Chunfeng’s answer was vague.
“When you live somewhere, you have to bow to the roof’s height!” Li Zhichao sighed heavily, sounding deeply frustrated.
…
After the autumn harvest holiday, the weather grew colder.
Many kids in Class 14 felt a chill inside too—lately, six boys who’d dared talk to Zhang Lifei had gotten beaten up. The boys were jumpy, the girls were upset but kept quiet, too scared to say anything.
Strangely though, Su Chunfeng, who sat next to Zhang Lifei, was left alone.
At first, rumor had it he’d already gotten beaten.
But that rumor faded quickly. It didn’t make sense. Would someone who’d been beaten calmly keep chatting with Zhang Lifei?
This put Zhang Lifei in an awkward spot. Faced with a bully like Wang Liqiu, she was scared and helpless. Every time Wang Liqiu sent her a message to talk by the playground or outside the gate, she went unhappily, scared to refuse. She always dragged Wang Haifei along to meet him and muddle through a few words.
Lucky kids were still basically decent. Junior high kids back then, no matter how bold, weren’t like those spoiled brats later, so they didn’t do anything too bad.
Thursday afternoon.
After the second class, while Zhang Lifei was away, Wang Haifei hurried nervously to Su Chunfeng. “People in class are saying Wang Liqiu is scared of you. That’s why you talking to Lifei is fine… You need to be careful.”
Su Chunfeng was stunned, angry enough to almost swear. Who’d make such trouble-stirring nonsense? Keeping calm, he just nodded. “Hmm.”
Deep down, worry gnawed at him.
He’d heard from Li Zhichao that days ago, Wang Liqiu, Xu Zhijun, Zhang Hai, and others were talking. Besides themselves, Su Chunfeng was the only boy worth noting. They even joked about who’d dare tangle with Su Chunfeng…
That was bad news.
Because jokes like that, whether meant playfully or seriously, would bug Wang Liqiu. He’d warned Su Chunfeng before, yet Su Chunfeng still talked normally to Zhang Lifei now.
The school’s ‘underworld’ had calmed down; the gang leaders seemed happy with the status quo. Instead of challenging each other, they started proving their toughness a different way—by picking on other students.
Bullying others gave them huge satisfaction and a thrill of victory.
With things like this, after hearing such a rumor, Wang Liqiu would absolutely have to show his strength.
How to stop it?
Third was Wang Qimin’s politics class.
After class, Su Chunfeng was mulling over whether to ask Li Zhichao to pass a private message to Wang Liqiu, wanting peace talks. Just as he reached the door, teacher Wang Qimin suddenly turned his head and called: “Su Chunfeng, come to my office…”
“Huh?” Su Chunfeng was surprised.
The whole class looked amazed too.
Teacher Wang Qimin was famous for not paying attention to students. Why call Su Chunfeng to his office today?
After his shock faded, Su Chunfeng stood calmly and walked out—he’d always known this day might come and he’d need to face it.
But as he stepped into Wang Qimin’s office, he froze in surprise.
The office was empty except for Wang Qimin and an old man in ordinary clothes. The old man was puffing away on a dark gray tobacco pipe over a foot long. He squinted through the smoke. Spotting Su Chunfeng, he grinned, showing off hideous yellow teeth, looking simple and happy.
This wasn’t what Su Chunfeng expected. He’d imagined Wang Qimin smoothly talking him around, then choosing a quiet moment to use mysterious Esoteric Arts to lure him into studying Esoteric Arts. But here stood that seemingly old man; really only around forty though. Why?
Su Chunfeng recognized this creepy-looking guy—Unyielding Evil Gong Hu.
Gong Hu, from Xishan County, Pingyang City, Yuzhou Province.
Though his ability wasn’t sky-high, he was born special. Evil couldn’t touch him, his body strong, immune to most Esoteric Techniques. A true oddity. Years later, when the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts flourished again, he became a big name.
But his blessing came at a steep price.
He had lousy, truly dreadful luck from birth.
Put simply, he was a walking, talking jinx!
Matching dates from his memories, Su Chunfeng realized Gong Hu should still be dirt poor back in his hometown around Xishan County, barely scraping by as a charlatan.