Chapter 22: I Have What I Want
The back tire was flat. Zhou Wanfeng arched her back and pushed down on the pedals with all her might. The rear axle creaked. The streetlights were dim, and the ornamental trees on both sides were lush, casting dark shadows.
Zhou Wanfeng scanned the area as she rode. Ahead, she saw a bicycle lying in the shadows by the side of the road, but she didn’t see Jiang Yi. She rode up to it and jumped off her bike. She saw him. Under a tree in the distance, three or four people were pinning someone down.
“Hurry up, check his backpack.”
“Damn it, did we get it wrong? There’s so little in this wallet. Didn’t they say his family lives in South Lake Mansion and is super rich?”
“Hurry up, check his pockets.”
Jiang Yi’s mouth was covered, and he was pinned to the ground. As he struggled, he was kicked hard in the stomach and let out a muffled groan.
“Jiang Yi!” Zhou Wanfeng shouted, running over.
“F*ck your mother! This isn’t even enough to buy a pack of cigarettes.”
“Stop complaining. That girl is coming. Let’s go, let’s go.”
Four people, two bicycles. By the time Zhou Wanfeng ran over, they were all gone.
Jiang Yi stood up, clutching his stomach, and grimaced as he picked up the textbooks that had been thrown on the ground.
Zhou Wanfeng looked in the direction they had run, a flame igniting in her eyes. She asked coldly, “They took your wallet? I’ll get it back for you.”
Jiang Yi waved his hand and picked up the scattered books from the ground. He said with a bitter smile, “It’s fine. There wasn’t much money in the wallet. They wasted their time.”
“That’s still your money. Did you get a good look at their faces? We’ll go to the teacher tomorrow and find them in their class to get it back,” Zhou Wanfeng said. She didn’t think it was a matter of how much money it was.
Jiang Yi dusted off his clothes, his voice heavy. “Let it go. I don’t want to cause any trouble. And it wasn’t much money.”
Zhou Wanfeng frowned, her gaze dark as she looked at Jiang Yi.
Jiang Yi smiled bitterly, afraid that Zhou Wanfeng wouldn’t believe him. He explained, “There really wasn’t much money. It’s true that I live in South Lake Mansion. But I’m not a legitimate child. I was… born outside. I can’t cause any trouble, especially not have the school contact my family.”
Jiang Yi’s voice held an indescribable sadness and humility.
Zhou Wanfeng’s brow furrowed even more. She took a couple of breaths and suddenly asked, “Not a legitimate child, so no pocket money? That’s why you were just eating dry bread in the classroom? And only half a meal at that?”
“I have pocket money. I’m just saving it to buy books. My aunt… is actually very good to me. I just don’t want to cause any trouble for the family,” Jiang Yi said with a smile, shaking his head. He found that no matter how he explained it, it didn’t sound right.
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t know what to say for a moment. She just said, “Your dad is no good either.”
With that, she turned to push her bike. Jiang Yi followed behind, as if a floodgate had been opened. Now that he had revealed his secret, he felt there was nothing he couldn’t say. “I recognized you on the first day of school. You run nearby every day. I can see you from my room.”
The back tire of the bike was bent. It was completely unrideable.
Jiang Yi pushed his bike and walked next to Zhou Wanfeng, muttering, “You live in South Lake Mansion, but there’s no one with the surname Zhou living nearby.”
Zhou Wanfeng said nothing, just glanced at him. “If you don’t fight back when you’re robbed today, you’ll just become their ATM in the future. The worst thing to do in a situation like this is to hide it. If you endure and say nothing, they’ll just get more and more brazen.”
Jiang Yi said nothing.
“Hey, are you sure you don’t want me to get it back for you?”
Jiang Yi still shook his head.
“Suit yourself,” Zhou Wanfeng said coldly, pushing her bike and walking forward quickly. She suddenly said, “It was Peng Zhen and his group from the third grade, right?”
Jiang Yi was taken aback. He was about to say that he hadn’t seen clearly, but he realized it was too late. Zhou Wanfeng had tricked him. His failure to deny it was a tacit admission.
Jiang Yi’s brow furrowed, a little troubled. “…My aunt is actually a very good person. When I was one, my biological mother left me at the doorstep. She took a sum of money and disappeared, and I was left behind. My aunt’s son is only a few months older than me. Whatever he had growing up, I had too. But I feel like I don’t deserve it.”
“Why did you go to Shuangshu?” Zhou Wanfeng was curious about this.
“In elementary school, I won an award in a math competition. I heard everyone around me praising me, but then the same people who had praised me turned around and laughed at my aunt and my brother. My brother, Jiang Chen, is very good to me. Ever since we were little, whenever someone said something about me, he would protect me and even get into fights for me. His grades are very good, he’s very outstanding. Do you know of Yunhai City Experimental Middle School? It’s a key junior high in Yunhai City, and he’s in a key class.”
Zhou Wanfeng understood. She looked at Jiang Yi as if he were a fool. This person just wanted to be a green leaf to set off his half-brother.
“Then what about your life?”
“Me? I have math, that’s enough. I really can’t get into the other subjects anyway,” Jiang Yi said with great satisfaction.
Zhou Wanfeng took a deep breath. She couldn’t understand it at all.
Zhou Wanfeng woke up earlier than usual. She increased her morning run from five kilometers to seven, then came back to practice boxing. She went upstairs to wash up and ran into Zhou Zhiru.
Zhou Wanfeng ignored him and went straight upstairs. Everything that needed to be said had been said. The last layer of pretense had been torn away.
But Zhou Zhiru stood there, looking at Zhou Wanfeng as she went upstairs. “What happened yesterday? You came back pushing your bike.”
Zhou Wanfeng turned around and stood on the stairs, looking down at Zhou Zhiru with a blank expression. She asked coldly, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“I’ll drive you to school today. Leave the bike at home and have Old Dong fix it,” Zhou Zhiru said and turned to leave.
Zhou Wanfeng frowned, wondering what Zhou Zhiru’s purpose was.
On the way, Zhou Zhiru drove, looking straight ahead. “At dinner last night, Jingya’s grandmother asked me to borrow money.” At this, Zhou Zhiru snorted. “She said that Yuxiang Pavilion had closed three branches last month and lost a lot of money. I’ve been dealing with Jingya’s grandmother for a long time. You can’t just listen to what she says. She’s checking my assets and how much money I have.”
Zhou Wanfeng raised an eyebrow. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Isn’t this what you wanted to see? To stir up trouble between us, starting with a conflict of interest,” Zhou Zhiru said, turning to look at Zhou Wanfeng with a smile. “In this respect, you’re really like me.”
“From the moment Yuxiang Pavilion started to expand aggressively, I advised against it, but no one listened to me. I had already foreseen the outcome. Jingya’s grandmother isn’t really asking me to borrow money. After all, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. She’s using this opportunity to help Yun Lan get a portion first, to prevent me from transferring it.”
A hint of confusion flashed in Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes.
Zhou Zhiru’s uncharacteristic behavior made her unable to figure him out for a moment.
“I’m telling you this because your surname is Zhou. No matter what our real relationship is, in the eyes of outsiders, we are father and daughter. You can also inherit my assets. I don’t have the concept of favoring sons over daughters. It doesn’t matter to me whether Yun Chengbin’s surname is Zhou or Yun. Whoever is more outstanding will inherit. That’s what I think.”
They had arrived at Shuangshu Model Middle School.
Zhou Wanfeng got out of the car, leaned down, and said to Zhou Zhiru in the car, “A hunter who sets a trap in the forest will also put some food around it. Even if you get your foot caught in the trap, you still get to eat. That’s much more generous than you.”
During morning self-study, Zhu Junling kept his eyes on Zhou Wanfeng, or would glance at Jiang Yi a few times.
Both of them were acting as usual. During the lunch break, they went to the restroom. Zhu Junling’s slightly anxious heart returned to its original place, and at the same time, a guess began to form in his mind.
“I don’t think Zhou Wanfeng is that great. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Apart from a few moves and a few harsh words,” Zhu Junling didn’t deny that Zhou Wanfeng had some skills.
Chen Hao, who had come with him, nodded. “No matter how strong a girl is, she can’t beat a boy in terms of strength. She wins with technique. If three or five of them went at her at the same time, she probably wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
“Right? That’s what I thought too. What makes her think she’s the boss of Class Nine? She’s been taking herself too seriously these past few days. If she wants to study, why didn’t she go to a public school? She tells us not to disturb her, but isn’t she disturbing us?”
Zhu Junling had been worried that Zhou Wanfeng would suspect him if she found out her bike tire had been deflated. And even though Jiang Yi had been robbed, she hadn’t done anything about it. He suddenly felt that Zhou Wanfeng was not as formidable as he had imagined. At the same time, he felt a little contemptuous. She was the class president and had said she would protect her classmates. But when her good friend Jiang Yi was robbed, she hadn’t done a thing.
Zhu Junling felt that he and his classmates had been deceived by Zhou Wanfeng.
The third period was English class.
A few minutes before class, Sun Mulan came to the classroom and announced, “It’s been a few days since school started, and our class is slowly getting on track. The classmates are also getting to know each other. Recently, the school has been promoting the creation of a reading corner in the classroom. We can subscribe to a few interesting magazines. This involves the issue of class fees, and with Teachers’ Day coming up, we should write some cards or give some small gifts to the substitute teachers. The class president can calculate how much to collect later.”
Zhou Wanfeng nodded, indicating she understood.
The students in the class were clamoring, asking if they could subscribe to Red Dust Men and Women and Short Story Magazine.
The bell for class rang.
“Alright, you can only subscribe to the few magazines that the school has provided. Others are not allowed. Now, everyone, settle down and get ready for class,” Sun Mulan said, turning to write the lesson content on the blackboard.
But the back row was still as boisterous as ever, especially the last four or five rows, where the talking was the loudest.
Zhou Wanfeng stood up and turned to look.
They still didn’t restrain themselves.
Jiang Yi turned to look. Chen Hao and his group clearly saw Zhou Wanfeng stand up, but they ignored her.
Sun Mulan also noticed that the class was unusually noisy today. “Class is starting. Students in the back row, please be quiet. Don’t disturb others by talking.”
“Let me tell you, the things in Red Dust Men and Women are all fake. The stories about lovesick men and women are too fake.”
“Exactly. It’s better to subscribe to a folklore magazine. I’ve read one issue, and it’s all about real people and real events. Things like moving graves to improve feng shui, and what’s inside the coffin when you open it…”
The students in the front row also noticed that the class was very noisy today and couldn’t help but look back. Tang Yuqing saw that her deskmate, Zhou Wanfeng, had stood up, but the people talking in the back showed no signs of stopping. The provocation was too obvious.
And the talking was getting louder and louder. Zhou Wanfeng was standing there, but the few of them were acting as if they were blind and couldn’t see her.
Sun Mulan frowned and pursed her lips. She slammed the blackboard eraser on the desk and scolded the few students in the back row, “The bell has already rung. What are you doing? Still chatting?” As she spoke, she caught a glimpse of Zhou Wanfeng leaving her seat and walking towards the few students who were talking in the back.
Zhu Junling coughed twice as a warning. He really hadn’t expected these few people to be so bold. They had just chatted a bit during the break at the restroom, and now they were really going for it.
Zhou Wanfeng walked over with a cold face. Before she could grab them, Chen Hao and two other boys stood up in a defensive stance.
“Get out,” Zhou Wanfeng said, her chin pointing towards the door, her eyes cold.
One of the boys pouted and looked at the homeroom teacher in the front. “You say get out, and I should just get out?”
Sun Mulan was very supportive. “Li Hui, Huang Jiankang, Chen Hao, if you three don’t want to listen to the class, then get out and stand.”
“Teacher, who said we’re not listening? We’re listening,” Chen Hao shouted to the front, then pulled over his stool, preparing to sit down.
Crash. Zhou Wanfeng kicked the chair away.
Chen Hao reacted quickly and held onto his desk to keep from falling, but he was furious. “Zhou Wanfeng, what the f*ck are you doing? I’ve been putting up with you for a long time. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“You’re just a cheap class president. Do you really think you’re the boss? You appointed yourself, didn’t you? Who agreed? You’re having a lot of fun, aren’t you? You really think you’re something.”
“The classroom doesn’t belong to you alone. You say get out, and we should just get out? We’re not going out. What are you going to do about it?”
Seeing someone stand up to her, the students in the class covered their mouths, their eyes filled with the excitement of watching a show.
It was three against one. Zhou Wanfeng looked small in front of Chen Hao, Li Hui, and Huang Jiankang. It was a visible disadvantage.
If she couldn’t win, then all the big talk she had said before would really become a joke.
Sun Mulan quickly came down from the podium. She was really afraid that a fight would break out. Teenagers, especially boys, didn’t know their own strength when they fought. Zhou Wanfeng was tough, but she was still a girl, and she was alone. She couldn’t possibly win.
Zhou Wanfeng still had that cold and indifferent look, her eyes dark. This time, she didn’t even say anything. She just started to fight.
Chen Hao covered his face with his arms. Li Hui, seeing this, also started to fight. Huang Jiankang threw a punch.
Seeing that it was three against one, Jiang Yi suddenly stood up. Before he could go over,
“Ah!” A pained cry. Zhou Wanfeng directly grabbed Li Hui’s wrist, and with a slight twist, Li Hui cried out in pain.
Huang Jiankang threw a punch. Zhou Wanfeng raised her leg in a side kick, kicking him squarely in the chest. After retracting her leg, she pulled Li Hui and slammed him into Chen Hao’s face.
The students in the class were dumbfounded. It was so easy. Everyone could see that Zhou Wanfeng was not serious. At least, it wasn’t like this when she had fought with Zhao Shenyu.
She was holding back. She was clearly holding back. There was no blood.
Zhou Wanfeng stretched Li Hui’s arm and pushed him out the back door. Chen Hao touched his forehead, his gaze meeting a pair of ice-cold eyes. He walked out on his own, still muttering, “The classroom doesn’t belong to you alone, and you’re not the only one who has a say.”
Everyone in the class could see that Chen Hao was just putting on a brave face.
The three of them stood outside the classroom.
Sun Mulan let out a soft breath of relief. Class continued, but many of the students still stole glances at Zhou Wanfeng from time to time.
At the cafeteria at noon, Jiang Yi carried his tray and sat down next to Zhou Wanfeng.
“What are you going to do in the future? That group of people in the class will probably continue to be noisy like this. In fact, every class has students like that,” Jiang Yi felt that this kind of thing couldn’t be controlled.
Zhou Wanfeng swallowed her food, her expression calm. “It’s normal for the screws to loosen over time. Otherwise, why would there be words like ‘repeatedly emphasizing’? At the morning assembly, the school also talks about the school rules and regulations every day. It’s all the same.”
“But you can’t just fight with them in every class, can you?” Jiang Yi was a little worried. He was so worried that he hadn’t even taken a bite of his food.
But Zhou Wanfeng didn’t care. “Because the rules haven’t been formed yet. With rules come constraints and limitations, and naturally, there will be those who want to break the rules. How long has it been since school started? The rules can’t be formed so quickly. I said I wanted to be the boss of Class Nine, and I wasn’t kidding.”
Jiang Yi looked at Zhou Wanfeng, not understanding at all. He asked tentatively, “Why do you insist on them following your rules?”
Zhou Wanfeng smiled. “When you grow up, you’ll find that this world is just the strong setting the rules for the weak. Have you ever seen the strong accommodate the weak? Do you think what I’m doing is wrong? That I should just give in and do things their way just because they’re the ones disrupting the class order and there are more of them?”
Jiang Yi looked at Zhou Wanfeng’s sharp gaze and was at a loss for words.
Zhou Wanfeng lowered her head and ate. “I have what I want, and I’m actively striving for it. If they really have the guts, then they can continue.”
Zhou Wanfeng had calculated the class fees. During the evening self-study, she announced how much each person had to pay. People gradually started to pay.
There were still some who hadn’t paid. Zhou Wanfeng didn’t rush them. She kept the money bag in the inner pocket of her backpack.
She took it home with her after school.
The next day, the remaining students also paid their class fees. Only a few hadn’t paid. Zhou Wanfeng planned to give the money bag to Sun Mulan in the afternoon. It was inconvenient to carry it around, and she was afraid it would be stolen.
The matter of collecting class fees was known from the first to the third grade. It was for the classroom reading corner, after all.
After lunch, there was a long lunch break before the afternoon classes.
Zhou Wanfeng was copying her homework. It wasn’t class time, so the class was as noisy as usual. The students who were sleepy in class were now full of energy, chatting about everything and anything.
Some people also ran to other classes to chat. In the first grade, with the budding of adolescence, the first signs of puppy love were just an extra glance, a little more activity around you.
Anyway, who you liked had nothing to do with your grades.
Zhou Wanfeng vaguely knew that some people in the class were discussing things like the school beauty, the class beauty, and so on. The girls were also discussing which boy in the next class was handsome.
Tang Yuqing next to her was talking to the nearby girls about who was dating whom in the other classes, and how the teachers had talked to them one by one.
As she was talking, Chen Yisen and Ding Gaoming rushed in. “Is anyone free? The upperclassmen have cornered Zhu Junling in the restroom. We should get a few people to go and bring him back.”
Hearing this, the noise in the class subsided by half. “Didn’t they say Zhu Junling was on good terms with the upperclassmen?”
“I don’t know. The three of us were on our way to the restroom when a few people came up from behind, pushed us two aside, and surrounded Zhu Junling, pulling him into the restroom. I saw that Zhu Junling’s face was pale. It didn’t look like they were on good terms,” Ding Gaoming said, looking at the boys in the class, especially Chen Hao and his group. They usually hung out together.
Chen Hao and his group hesitated. “Why don’t we tell the teacher? We won’t be of much use if we go. The upperclassmen are tough.”
Chen Yisen frowned. The teachers were all on their lunch break and not in the office.
Ding Gaoming’s face was contorted. “Will Zhu Junling get beaten up? I heard the upperclassmen all smoke. They might burn him with a cigarette…” At the thought of being burned by a cigarette, he immediately sucked in a breath, feeling the pain.
Jiang Yi noticed that Zhou Wanfeng in the third row had stood up and subconsciously called out, “Zhou Wanfeng, where are you going?”
“The men’s restroom.”
Hearing this, Ding Gaoming immediately perked up and hurried to follow. “Boss, I was going to call you, but I was afraid you wouldn’t want to go into the men’s restroom.”
Chen Yisen looked at Chen Hao and the other boys in the class, his tone sarcastic. “Zhu Junling is in the same class as us, after all. You guys usually seem to have a good time together, but you’re a bunch of cowards when it matters. And you still have the face to cause trouble in class?”
Chen Yisen insulted them and then followed.
Jiang Yi came out. Zhou Wanfeng pointed at him. “You go and check every office. No matter who it is, as long as it’s a teacher, just drag them over.”
Jiang Yi ran to find a teacher.
Ding Gaoming and Chen Yisen quickly led Zhou Wanfeng to the men’s restroom. As they got close, the thoughtful Ding Gaoming ran in first and shouted, “Hurry up if you’re taking a crap or a piss! We’re cleaning!”
But Zhou Wanfeng smelled smoke coming from the men’s teachers’ restroom next door. Before Chen Yisen could react, she went straight in.