Chapter 32: Lies Upon Lies

The dormitory was quiet.

Everyone was looking at Su Chunfeng in disbelief.

What was going on?

Wang Liqiu had clearly come with Dong Chuliang, laughing, joking, and with arms over shoulders, to bully their classmates. Moreover, Wang Liqiu obviously wanted to use Dong Chuliang’s status to show he had some tough backing. No one expected Dong Chuliang to suddenly turn around and, helping Su Chunfeng, beat up Wang Liqiu… Meanwhile, the person in question, Su Chunfeng, looked like a bystander, calm and composed.

No one had ever heard that Su Chunfeng and Dong Chuliang were close before? And it seemed Dong Chuliang was even trying to deliberately suck up to Su Chunfeng!

After this, who in the whole school would dare to provoke Su Chunfeng?

Su Chunfeng did not care about his classmates’ astonished gazes. He seemed rather disgusted by the earlier fight, as he shook his head, turned around, squatted down, and continued eating his meal, saying as he did so, “Zhichao, let’s eat, it’s almost cold.”

“Yeah, coming!” Li Zhichao jumped down from the brick bed and cheerfully squatted beside Su Chunfeng to start eating.

He did not ask anything further.

It wasn’t that Li Zhichao wasn’t curious or that he knew what was going on. But… in front of so many classmates, today he had acted heroically on Su Chunfeng’s behalf, and he deliberately wanted to look like he knew everything, as if he was also on good terms with Dong Chuliang and therefore really awesome, which would give him even more face, right?

As for the questions, he could ask privately later.

At this moment, however, Su Chunfeng sighed softly in his heart.

Just as the saying goes, the tree may prefer calm but the wind will not stop. He originally did not want to draw such attention and did not mind treating Wang Liqiu, Xu Zhijun, and the others to a meal; those were minor matters. But he knew clearly that for kids like Wang Liqiu who were used to being bullies, once you retreated a step and let their bullying succeed, they would then become addicted and would come again and again to force you to buy them meals, cigarettes, and so on. Moreover, this matter also involved the future question of whether he could continue to maintain a normal deskmate relationship with Zhang Lifei.

Actually, whether he was deskmates with Zhang Lifei or talked to her was unimportant in Su Chunfeng’s view. The problem was, no matter how much he wanted to keep a low profile, to be a well-behaved student and not cause trouble, as a young man with a mature mind, he really could not stand taking that kind of humiliating, submissive treatment.

So, today’s sudden but inevitably-bound-to-happen conflict, even if Dong Chuliang had not been present, Su Chunfeng would have taken Wang Liqiu aside and brought up Zhao Shangang’s name to intimidate him.

And with Dong Chuliang present, there was no need to bring out that minor tough guy, Zhao Shangang.

As for why Dong Chuliang suddenly acted so fiercely to help…

The reason was simple. It was because Dong Chuliang knew that Su Chunfeng and Zhao Shangang were on good terms. Except for the first time Zhao Shangang came to school to find Su Chunfeng himself, the other two times he very cautiously told Dong Chuliang to find someone at school to pass a message to Su Chunfeng, arranging a place to meet, and he asked Dong Chuliang to keep it secret. From this perspective, Zhao Shangang was indeed someone who considered things very thoroughly.

And Dong Chuliang had personally seen how respectfully Zhao Shangang acted when meeting Su Chunfeng.

So, when Su Chunfeng looked at him with a cold gaze and spoke with a threatening reminder, of course Dong Chuliang had to stop Wang Liqiu. Who could have guessed he would fail to stop him? Then, fearing he might be implicated and also wanting to help Su Chunfeng to suck up to Zhao Shangang, Dong Chuliang immediately flew into a rage and took action.

But Su Chunfeng understood in his heart that Dong Chuliang, who had once been the untouchable School Bully King at Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School and whose leftover prestige still remained…

In the eyes of a fierce person like Zhao Shangang, he was just a small, dispensable lackey.

After the meal, the classmates in the dormitory crowded around to ask Su Chunfeng and Li Zhichao what their relationship with Dong Chuliang was and why Dong Chuliang helped them.

Su Chunfeng smiled and gave an evasive answer to this. A few days ago, while visiting a distant relative, he happened to run into Dong Chuliang and found out that they could actually be considered distant relatives. As for today’s matter, it was a bit far-fetched to say Dong Chuliang helped him beat up Wang Liqiu. It was probably that Dong Chuliang felt Wang Liqiu didn’t give him face and even dared to get angry at him, so Dong Chuliang flew into a rage and beat up Wang Liqiu.

This reason was plausible.

After all, everyone saw that Dong Chuliang initially tried to stop Wang Liqiu.

The classmates all nodded as if they understood, their gazes full of envy as they looked at Su Chunfeng and Li Zhichao. Although Li Zhichao was not related to Dong Chuliang and they were not good friends, Li Zhichao’s performance today of taking a risk for his friend was enough to make Su Chunfeng extremely grateful. So in the future, if Li Zhichao had some trouble, how could Su Chunfeng not help? And if Su Chunfeng helped, maybe Dong Chuliang would also step in…

Li Zhichao knew, however, that the truth was definitely not as Su Chunfeng said.

So privately he asked with a grin, “Chunfeng, what really happened? Tell me…”

“Zhichao, you’re really loyal!” Su Chunfeng showed a grateful expression to Li Zhichao, gave him a thumbs up in praise, and then smilingly answered the doubt in Li Zhichao’s heart: “Because I know Zhao Shangang. Once when I was chatting with Zhao Shangang, it just so happened Dong Chuliang saw us.”

“Ah?” Li Zhichao was stunned and asked in surprise, “How do you know Zhao Shangang?”

“Do you remember the rumor about that time Zhao Shangang was beaten bloody and almost died at a construction site in the city?” Su Chunfeng lied without blushing at all. “As it happened, my dad was working at that construction site that time. Later, my dad saw he was pitiful and took him to the hospital.”

Li Zhichao believed it!

No wonder Su Chunfeng spoke to Dong Chuliang with a threatening tone, saying “So you’re with Wang Liqiu, right?”

Hearing this, Dong Chuliang’s heart must have been trembling with fear—if Zhao Shangang found out that Dong Chuliang dared to bring people to bully the son of his lifesaver, wouldn’t he skin Dong Chuliang alive? Then fear, coupled with wanting to suck up to Zhao Shangang through Su Chunfeng, meant Dong Chuliang probably had already considered beating up Wang Liqiu. But because they were on okay terms and came together, he didn’t want to do it and only tried to stop him verbally.

But Wang Liqiu himself didn’t know when to stop, and forced Dong Chuliang to lose his temper.

Once he understood the key points, Li Zhichao rubbed his hands vigorously, excited and somewhat regretful. “Damn, why didn’t you say so earlier? If I knew you knew Zhao Shangang and had this kind of connection, who the hell in the whole school would dare bully you? I could have also gotten some of that prestige and swaggered around the school!”

“What’s the point of that?” Su Chunfeng shook his head with a bitter smile. “We came here to study, not to show off how tough we are.”

Li Zhichao was stunned for a moment, then reluctantly said, “Fine, you win! I really admire you!”

“Speaking of which, Zhichao…” Su Chunfeng said rather annoyedly, “You must not spread the word about me knowing Zhao Shangang, okay? Otherwise, how many people in school later would come to us for help? Too troublesome. We’re students; we should focus on our studies.”

“Okay! Okay!” Li Zhichao believed he understood Su Chunfeng’s personality quite well and immediately nodded in agreement, then with a somewhat regretful and ingratiating tone said, “Chunfeng, of course studying hard is necessary, but… in the future, can we find an opportunity to introduce me to Zhao Shangang, and also Dong Chuliang?”

Su Chunfeng smiled. “We’ll see when there’s a chance.”

“Great, definitely do!” Li Zhichao was so excited his face turned red.

It had been quite some days since a relatively sensational fight occurred on the campus of Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School.

So the incident where Wang Liqiu, the strongest among the various factions in school, was beaten bloody by the former School Bully King Dong Chuliang quickly spread throughout the campus.

Li Zhichao had already been doing very well for himself in school. Although he never had fierce conflicts with any of the school’s various factions, he could be called a prominent figure. Su Chunfeng, on the other hand, was always low-key and well-behaved. He had almost no contact with those violent student factions, never participated in any group fight, and aside from having a little reputation in Class 14, he had almost no fame at all.

This time, students from all three grades turned their attention to him and Li Zhichao.

So they were keeping a low profile, huh?

So our school actually had someone like this!

However, the rumor spread widely and quickly mainly because Wang Liqiu was too famous, Dong Chuliang’s leftover prestige was even greater, and the result of this fight was brutally bloody. That was why Su Chunfeng aroused some envy and jealousy among the classmates. In fact, he did not gain much admiration because he didn’t even lift a hand during the fight; it was Dong Chuliang who helped him. So to some extent, he even got the reputation of “not being loyal enough”—Dong Chuliang fought fiercely with Wang Liqiu for him, yet he shrank back and didn’t dare to act.

In contrast, Li Zhichao’s fearless heroism in stepping up for his brother earned him admiration and praise from the school’s teenagers, who treated him like a hero.

Su Chunfeng did not care about this; in fact, he felt somewhat fortunate about his calm and smart decision at the time.

Not drawing too much attention meant he wouldn’t be put on the hot seat.

As for Wang Liqiu, the so-called formidable reputation he had painstakingly built over more than two years through countless fights was destroyed overnight, and he became a laughingstock among the leaders of the main student factions in the school.

Even the students in Class 14 seemed less afraid of Wang Liqiu now.

When Wang Liqiu returned to school for class, it was already the morning of the third day. He wore a thick cotton hat that covered his bandaged, partially-shaved head, but his black and blue, swollen face was impossible to hide. He crept into the classroom and sat quietly in the corner of the last row without saying a word.

His deskmate Zhao Mingfeng also had a black and blue, swollen face and looked listless.

Xu Zhijun and Zhao Hai, who daily made a big noisy show of how arrogant and domineering they were in the classroom, also became much quieter.

“Su Chunfeng, you’re really something,” Zhang Lifei said somewhat happily in a low voice, glancing gleefully at Wang Liqiu sitting in the corner of the last row. Then she gritted her teeth and said with deep hatred, “Serves him right. Unfortunately, why didn’t you guys just beat him to death?”

Su Chunfeng thought this girl was quite vicious, while shaking his head with a bitter smile. “I didn’t lift a hand.”

“But it still happened because of you…” Zhang Lifei said, pressing her lips together in a smile.

“Because of me?” Su Chunfeng smiled. “Why don’t you say it’s because of you? Haven’t you thought about how many boys in our class got beaten up just for talking to you?”

“Annoying!” Zhang Lifei’s face turned red, and she suddenly mustered the courage to ask, “Then, were you getting back at him for me?”

Su Chunfeng was stunned. What kind of question was that?

Wang Haifei, sitting between the two of them, looked speechlessly at Zhang Lifei, a hint of discontent and helplessness flickering in her eyes. But it disappeared almost instantly, and she lowered her head without saying anything.

After a while, a small note was passed under Su Chunfeng’s desk: “Lifei likes you, did you know that?”

Su Chunfeng was taken aback. What performance was this now? He quickly wrote back: “I didn’t know that, but I know I like you. Always, forever…”

Wang Haifei’s pretty face flushed bright red with shyness, and she gently nudged Su Chunfeng with her elbow.

Su Chunfeng grinned mischievously and leaned sideways to press against Wang Haifei.

“Annoying!” Wang Haifei whispered.

Su Chunfeng was so happy his eyes almost disappeared into slits.

Zhang Lifei, who constantly kept an eye on her two deskmates, noticed their intimate, loving little actions. Her heart flooded with sour jealousy, and she let out an inexplicable humph. Pouting angrily, she turned her head away and refused to look at them.