Chapter 12: Getting Physical

Yao Xinbo felt embarrassed for being exposed on the spot. He did not dare to lash out at Wang Liqiu, but still wanted to save some face. So he raised his chin and said loudly, “If I wasn’t feeling unwell that day, and maybe a bit cursed, who would be scared of that coward? Seriously, since last month, every weekend before the vacation, and every Sunday afternoon before the boarding students return to school, I’ve been waiting for him in the village with a group of people. If you don’t believe me, ask the kids from my village…”

“Oho? Did you catch him?” Wang Liqiu asked with great interest.

“No.” Yao Xinbo hung his head dejectedly.

“Then what are you bragging about!” Wang Liqiu said with disdain.

The other students all laughed.

A vicious gleam flashed in Yao Xinbo’s eyes. He gritted his teeth and glared at Su Chunfeng, who was sitting by the window in the third row, saying resentfully, “I fucking want to kill him, but that coward doesn’t dare to come near our village, he takes the long way around…” At this point, he grinned fiercely and looked at Li Zhichao, who was standing with them. Curling his lip, he said, “You should know about this, right, Li Zhichao?”

Everyone turned their eyes to Li Zhichao.

Li Zhichao was very embarrassed but did not want to lose face. He said, “That’s all you’re capable of, blocking someone in your own village. What kind of hero is that?”

Pfft…

Everyone showed looks of contempt and disdain. For kids of this age, leading a group to block someone in the village was not something shameful at all. Instead, it made them feel cool, like they were commanding an army. If you weren’t popular, could you gather a bunch of brothers?

Their conversation naturally reached Su Chunfeng’s ears.

However, being mentally mature, he couldn’t be bothered to get angry or tough with these kids. As the saying goes, it’s better to avoid trouble than to invite it. Why create unnecessary worries for himself?

Just then, the Chinese class representative, Wang Rui, walked over to his desk. “Su Chunfeng.”

“Hmm?” Su Chunfeng looked up. He looked at the beautiful girl in front of him. She was only fourteen years old but already nearly 1.7 meters tall, with a figure that was becoming curvaceous and attractive. She was considered the school beauty among all the girls in the school, and her grades were excellent too. He smiled and asked, “What’s up?”

Wang Rui smiled and handed him a pink-covered notebook and a few pages of white paper filled with writing, placing them in front of Su Chunfeng. She said, “Can you copy some song lyrics for me?”

“Okay.” Su Chunfeng agreed. “I’ll have them copied for you before evening self-study.”

“Thank you!” Wang Rui’s smile was like a flower. She turned and walked away, swaying her slender waist.

In this era, almost every middle school student had a lyric book, just like almost everyone would have a mobile phone more than ten years later. Especially the girls, they would copy down almost all the popular songs in their lyric books, whether they could sing them or not. It was as if you couldn’t talk about popular songs with friends unless your lyric book was filled. Not only that, they would use colored pens to draw beautiful patterns above and below each song on every page, write the song names in large letters, and even change colors for every line or every few words to make it look colorful and bright.

The beautiful handwriting in the lyric books also filled them with a sense of accomplishment.

Thus, Su Chunfeng, who wrote very well, ranking in the top five in penmanship among all the students in the school, and who was fair-skinned, handsome, gentle, and mild-mannered, naturally often had girls coming to him for his handwriting.

Unfortunately, there was no fee.

Just like in his previous life, Su Chunfeng never refused. It was just a small effort.

Watching Wang Rui leave, Zhang Lifei pouted and muttered softly with a bit of jealousy, “She doesn’t even know how to walk properly, swaying back and forth like a little goblin, pfft…” After saying that, she pulled out her own lyric book from under her desk and tossed it in front of Su Chunfeng. “Su Chunfeng, copy those songs for me too.”

Wang Haifei pursed her lips and smiled.

Su Chunfeng felt both amused and exasperated. Girls in middle school were already secretly competing with each other. He shook his head, casually glanced through the papers with the lyrics, then picked up Zhang Lifei’s lyric book and handed it back. “These songs, you already have them in your lyric book.”

Zhang Lifei was taken aback. She angrily put away her lyric book, glared at Su Chunfeng, and pouted, muttering softly, “What a guy, your eyes were glued to Wang Rui just now…”

“Well, she has a better figure than you,” Su Chunfeng teased with a laugh. In his heart, he just saw Zhang Lifei as an innocent little girl.

“Get lost, you pervert!” Zhang Lifei waved her little fist.

Su Chunfeng didn’t take it seriously. But he soon noticed that Wang Haifei seemed a bit unhappy. She pursed her lips, lowered her head, and was writing English words on her notebook with her ballpoint pen, pressing hard. Su Chunfeng immediately understood that his teasing remark to Zhang Lifei had unintentionally made Wang Haifei jealous. His heart fluttered. He quickly wrote a small note, secretly slipped it under the desk, nudged Wang Haifei with his elbow, and signaled with his eyes for her to look at the note.

Wang Haifei looked a bit sulky and reluctant, but she still turned her body to block Zhang Lifei’s view, secretly opened the small note with both hands, and read it:

“In my heart, you will always be the most beautiful.”

Wang Haifei’s face turned red. She quickly stuffed the note into Su Chunfeng’s schoolbag. Her heart was pounding like a little deer.

After a while, she pulled over Su Chunfeng’s English textbook and wrote two words in the corner of the opened page: “Annoying!”

Su Chunfeng felt warm and ticklish inside. Since last time when he wrote a note confessing his feelings and received a shy warning from Wang Haifei, these days, besides occasionally chatting normally to build their relationship and walking Wang Haifei home once in the evening, he hadn’t said any more direct emotional words.

First, he was focusing on his studies now.

Second, he was well aware that in this era, at this age, girls in rural middle schools were still quite naive and sensitive about love. They had a little bit of longing and curiosity, but also some thought that puppy love was morally corrupt, which led to resistance.

Furthermore, Su Chunfeng didn’t want to hinder Wang Haifei’s studies because of this.

However, feelings are something that often make people unable to control the urge to express themselves, especially when facing a long-admired first love… Su Chunfeng tilted his head to the left, leaned close to Wang Haifei’s ear, who was blushing and looking down, and whispered, “It’s true!”

“Go away…” Wang Haifei elbowed Su Chunfeng. She felt her ear tingling and warm from the breath of Su Chunfeng’s whisper.

Their somewhat intimate and ambiguous behavior was seen by many students behind them, especially the boys who were discussing who was tougher and who was a coward. They all showed strange expressions. At first, when Su Chunfeng pretended not to hear, everyone thought Su Chunfeng was a coward. But now, it seemed like Su Chunfeng simply didn’t care about Yao Xinbo and couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.

“You’re just like a jumping monkey!” Wang Liqiu said cheerfully.

A bunch of people flattered Wang Liqiu by agreeing with him, all while gleefully making Yao Xinbo the target of their ridicule and jokes.

Yao Xinbo was so angry he ground his teeth. More than a month had passed since the incident. The inexplicable fear he felt that day had mostly faded from his mind. Moreover, Su Chunfeng’s avoidance of passing through Gubao Village made Yao Xinbo lose any trace of fear.

Now, under the watchful eyes of everyone, to save face, Yao Xinbo immediately strode over menacingly and said fiercely, “Su Chunfeng, if you have the guts, try passing through our village!”

Su Chunfeng lifted his eyelids and glanced at Yao Xinbo. Then he smiled, turned his head, and whispered softly to Zhang Lifei and Wang Haifei, “You two, move aside for a moment…” Yao Xinbo’s words “if you have the guts” seemed like very common crude language for kids of this age in the countryside. But to Su Chunfeng’s ears, the nature of it instantly became extremely serious—unacceptable!

“What are you going to do?” Zhang Lifei asked in surprise.

Wang Haifei tugged at Su Chunfeng’s clothes under the desk and whispered, “Don’t stoop to his level…”

At this moment, the whole class turned their attention to this side. Faced with an obviously impending conflict, the youthful teenagers felt excitement and agitation under the stimulation of hormones. Moreover, they were expecting something. Su Chunfeng, who was clearly physically weaker in a one-on-one fight, had once inexplicably made Yao Xinbo kneel and cry in public to apologize to him… What would happen this time?

Yao Xinbo suddenly felt a bit nervous. He bit his lip tightly, his eyes darting around, afraid that Su Chunfeng in front of him would suddenly transform into a painting-demon ghost and devour him.

But under the watchful eyes of everyone, he had to act tough.

“Move!” Su Chunfeng suddenly yelled like he was crazy.

“Ah…”

Wang Haifei and Zhang Lifei were so scared they screamed and quickly jumped up to move aside.

Almost as soon as they moved away, Su Chunfeng stepped on the long bench, using the force to suddenly lift himself up. To everyone’s astonishment, he quickly leaped onto the desk, leaned down mid-air, grabbed Yao Xinbo’s hair, pulled it forward, and at the same time, brought his knee up hard into Yao Xinbo’s face.

Thump!

Su Chunfeng had already jumped down from the desk, landing steadily on the narrow path between the desks. Using the force and speed from the jump, he grabbed Yao Xinbo’s hair with both hands, yanked him forward fiercely, and slammed him hard onto the ground.

Thud!

Yao Xinbo fell headfirst, face planted.

Su Chunfeng lifted his foot and kicked Yao Xinbo’s head twice hard, thump, thump…

Everything happened in a flash. The classmates in the class didn’t even clearly see what happened before Yao Xinbo was already lying on the ground. Only after Su Chunfeng kicked him twice did Yao Xinbo seem to react and let out a sharp cry of pain: “Ouch, damn you, you dared to sneak attack!”

While howling in pain, Yao Xinbo struggled to get up.

Su Chunfeng grabbed his hair and quickly dragged him out, as if dragging a dead dog.

Dizzy and unsteady from the lightning-fast consecutive blows, Yao Xinbo couldn’t stand steadily at all. Stumbling and struggling, he was dragged by Su Chunfeng from the third row all the way to the classroom door. Then he felt a sharp pain in his head and a powerful force pulling him, making him involuntarily rush out of the classroom.

Outside the classroom door was a step about a foot high.

Thump-thump…

Ow!

This time, Yao Xinbo fell so hard his face was bruised and swollen. He didn’t know if he had broken a bone somewhere. He immediately rolled on the ground in the schoolyard paved with red bricks outside the classroom door, howling in agony.

Su Chunfeng rushed out.

Many students in the classroom quickly ran out too. Su Chunfeng had gone crazy. If they didn’t stop him quickly, wouldn’t he end up beating Yao Xinbo to death?