Chapter 104: So Tall

Ding ling ling…

The class bell rang.

Soon, Homeroom Teacher Cao Lan walked into the classroom with a kind and smiling face. She stood on the podium, gave the students some encouraging and motivating words about the summer vacation starting soon, telling them to study diligently during the break and not slack off, and then began announcing the results of this Final Exam.

When the results were announced, the entire class erupted in commotion.

Because Su Chunfeng, who had only placed forty-second in the class and fifty-fourth in the entire grade during the last Midterm Exam, had actually achieved thirteenth place in the class, and also thirteenth in the entire grade.

It was unbelievable!

Huang Yiyu’s score was ninth. She turned her head, looking at Su Chunfeng with surprise, and whispered, “Su Chunfeng, congratulations! You’re really great!”

Su Chunfeng showed a humble, slightly embarrassed smile and shook his head.

Homeroom Teacher Cao Lan happily called his name from the podium, saying, “Student Su Chunfeng, your hard work recently has been seen by both the teachers and your classmates. As the saying goes, hard work pays off… Your grades have improved very quickly this time. Keep up the effort, and don’t become arrogant.”

“Yes, thank you, teacher.” Su Chunfeng stood up and gave a slight bow.

Cheng Fan, who ranked fourth in this exam, showed not a trace of pride or joy at this moment. Instead, he felt increasingly ashamed and wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into—even though he had scored fourth place, which could be considered excellent, his earlier declaration in front of the whole class that Su Chunfeng would definitely be eliminated from Class One after this Final Exam had been publicly and harshly slapped by Su Chunfeng’s dramatically improved and excellent results.

Who said that students who dated couldn’t study well?

Who said that students who dated couldn’t get good grades?

When they thought back to Su Chunfeng’s passionate, insightful, humble, and responsible words, that was truly how a man should act!

Actually, even Homeroom Teacher Cao Lan felt a bit helpless and amused—just a few days ago, she thought Su Chunfeng and Wang Haifei completely disregarded the teacher’s criticism and advice and were beyond hope. Who would have thought Su Chunfeng’s Final Exam results would be so excellent, and moreover… that girl Wang Haifei’s score ranked fifty-seventh in the entire grade! That meant, even after the Arts and Sciences streaming in the second half of the year, both Wang Haifei and Su Chunfeng would be placed in Class One and Class Two, which represented the classes for the most outstanding students.

After school, as Su Chunfeng was packing up his books, Huang Yiyu suddenly turned around and handed over her notebook, saying, “Su Chunfeng, what’s your home telephone number?”

“Huh?” Su Chunfeng was stunned for a moment.

Huang Yiyu giggled, “You don’t even want to say that?”

“Of course not.” Su Chunfeng smiled and wrote the phone number on Huang Yiyu’s notebook, saying, “Have a pleasant holiday.”

“Thank you, you too.” Huang Yiyu gave a sweet smile.

“Goodbye.” Su Chunfeng slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out.

“Goodbye.” Huang Yiyu’s pretty face was full of smiles as she sat at her desk, tilting her head, looking rather interestedly at Su Chunfeng’s thin, retreating figure.

Seeing this scene, Cheng Fan felt increasingly resentful and angry. However, his earlier words and actions had been truly inappropriate and had humiliated him completely. Now, he was too embarrassed and had no justification to criticize Su Chunfeng for anything. After a brief thought, he simply picked up his schoolbag, strode to catch up with Su Chunfeng, and walked side by side with him out of the classroom, deliberately puffing out his chest and raising his head.

Even though Su Chunfeng’s height was now close to 1.7 meters, which wasn’t considered short for his age, standing next to Cheng Fan, who was over 1.8 meters tall, made him appear even shorter and thinner.

So, silently humiliating Su Chunfeng like this gave Cheng Fan immense satisfaction. He even intentionally looked back at the whole class, especially at Huang Yiyu.

Many students couldn’t help but laugh at this obviously purposeful behavior.

A few students, however, showed looks of disgust.

Huang Yiyu slightly frowned, her expression full of disdain as she glanced at Cheng Fan, then lowered her head to pack her books, no longer looking at this person who usually seemed dignified and outstanding in every aspect but today had shown himself to be particularly narrow-minded and petty—what a disgusting thing.

Su Chunfeng could certainly guess the purpose of Cheng Fan’s behavior.

However, he couldn’t be bothered to argue with this person.

As they neared the door, Su Chunfeng deliberately slowed down a step, intending to let Cheng Fan go out first so they wouldn’t have to squeeze through the classroom door together. But Cheng Fan intentionally stopped walking, stood there, turned his head to look down at Su Chunfeng, and said with a smile, “Su Chunfeng, I didn’t expect you to do so well this time. I’m impressed!”

“You did well too.” Su Chunfeng smiled, nodded, and turned sideways, intending to walk past Cheng Fan.

Cheng Fan moved aside just a little.

This meant that if Su Chunfeng wanted to get past, he would have to squeeze by in front of Cheng Fan—further emphasizing Cheng Fan’s height advantage.

Su Chunfeng didn’t mind much either; he’d just squeeze past.

But as soon as he squeezed past and reached the doorway, before he could step out, a tall, burly, and robust male student happened to walk by outside. Seeing Su Chunfeng, he immediately showed a respectful smile and said, “Feng-ge, school’s out early today, don’t go back yet. Let’s have lunch together; my treat.”

This boy happened to be Su Chunfeng’s roommate, Han Qiang.

“Qiangzi.” Su Chunfeng smiled, raised his hand, and patted the shoulder of Han Qiang, who, even standing on the doorstep step below, was still half a head taller than him. “Thanks for the offer. I have some things to do and need to get home early…”

“Alright then, you go handle your stuff. I’ll have time during summer vacation to go and play at your place, okay?”

“No problem.” Su Chunfeng smiled, glanced back at Cheng Fan, who was standing behind looking rather awkward for the moment, then said to Han Qiang with a smile, “Oh right, Qiangzi, our class’s Cheng Fan likes to compare heights with people…” Su Chunfeng pointed a thumb back at Cheng Fan and continued, “My height really isn’t up to it. Since you’re here, you can match up with him. Well, I’ll be off now. See you later.”

After speaking, Su Chunfeng cheerfully walked past Han Qiang.

“Alright, take care, Feng-ge.” Han Qiang said respectfully, then felt a bit puzzled about the meaning of Su Chunfeng’s earlier words as he looked at Cheng Fan. Seeing Cheng Fan’s gloomy face and frowning, displeased expression, Han Qiang roughly guessed that this guy had most likely picked a fight with Su Chunfeng. Thinking this, he stepped up onto the doorstep, stiffened his neck, bumped Cheng Fan with his shoulder, widened his fierce-looking eyes, and sneered, “Hey, what’s up, pal? Something bothering you?”

Han Qiang might have been afraid of Su Chunfeng and Li Zhichao, but there were really only a few students in the whole school who could scare him, let alone in the first year of high school.

The whole class instantly fell silent.

All the students watched this scene with some tension.

If the tall and well-built Cheng Fan resembled a fine horse, then Han Qiang was like a standing polar bear. He was 1.85 meters tall, with an especially robust and sturdy body, a full size thicker than Cheng Fan, and his appearance was fierce and intimidating—nothing like the fair and handsome Cheng Fan could compare to.

“No, nothing.” Cheng Fan lowered his head and mumbled softly.

“Fck!” Han Qiang cursed and swaggered, tilting his body to glance at the whole class, glaring at Cheng Fan with a very thuggish air: “Think you’re so cool?”

At this moment, Cheng Fan truly felt regret and hatred in his heart—why did he have to show off his height for no good reason? Now he’d completely lost face; Su Chunfeng didn’t even take this tall guy seriously. See, with just a casual remark, a tough guy like Han Qiang now looked fierce and ready to get rough with him.

Cheng Fan wasn’t some brawling student; how could he dare to challenge Han Qiang head-on?

So he hung his head, didn’t even dare to breathe loudly, squeezed past Han Qiang sideways, and quickly scurried away with his backpack, looking utterly dejected.

The class was silent for a moment, then erupted into loud laughter.

Anyone could see that Cheng Fan had really brought this humiliation upon himself!

…

Su Chunfeng unhurriedly returned to the dormitory, packed his things, carried his backpack downstairs while also holding a luggage bag.

He didn’t care at all about this little conflict with Cheng Fan. What he said to Han Qiang earlier wasn’t meant to have Han Qiang beat Cheng Fan up. It was just a bit of a mischievous idea from his heart, to warn someone like Cheng Fan not to randomly pick fights and provoke for no reason in the future—it was too annoying.

Just as he stepped out of the dormitory building, he heard a roaring engine sound.

Turning to look, he saw Li Zhichao arrogantly riding a motorcycle with Han Qiang on the back, speeding over from the distance. The bike screeched to a stop. Li Zhichao nodded his head and said, “Chunfeng, what happened? I just heard from Han Qiang that some tall guy in your class was itching for trouble, giving you a hard time?”

“No, it was just a joke.” Su Chunfeng laughed.

“Have lunch together then.” Li Zhichao said.

“No, I need to hurry back. The shop is busy.” Su Chunfeng politely declined with a smile. “You guys go have fun. I need to head back now.”

“Want me to give you a ride?” Li Zhichao said. He knew Su Chunfeng was now staying at the sales office in Pingyang City, so he didn’t have a bicycle and usually took the bus.

“No, no need.” Su Chunfeng waved his hand to decline.

Li Zhichao was about to say more when he saw Wang Haifei struggling to walk over not far away, carrying a bag and a backpack. So Li Zhichao and Han Qiang both started snickering mischievously, repeatedly saying, “Hey, we get it. Well, you two go ahead, you’re busy. We won’t disturb you anymore, haha.”

Vroom vroom…

The motorcycle roared and sped away.

Su Chunfeng shook his head, finding it both funny and exasperating. He walked towards Wang Haifei, took the luggage bag from her hand, and the two walked side by side towards the school gate.

“Haifei, want to go out and play together sometime during summer vacation?”

“Where to?”

“The park in the city, or maybe Xishan County’s Xiniang Lake…”

“I, I won’t go…” Wang Haifei said hesitantly.

Su Chunfeng understood in his heart that Wang Haifei had difficulty getting money from her family and was financially tight. So he smiled and said, “We’ll have to call Lifei too. That girl called me the other day and got mad at me again. So, I’ll call Lifei and agree on a time, then have her go and invite you. As for money, you don’t need to bring a single cent.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Alright, alright, it’s settled then.” Su Chunfeng smiled, cutting off Wang Haifei’s explanation to prevent her from feeling too awkward.