Chapter 24: I’ll Make You More Famous p2
It was getting colder day by day, and it was most noticeable in the morning. On Monday, the first-grade classes at the school began to record the students’ height and weight, preparing to order school uniforms.
The Teachers’ Day gifts, a card and a small potted plant, were bought by Sun Mulan herself. The potted plants were all easy to care for and inexpensive, and they looked nice on the desk. There were cacti, succulents, and so on.
Zhou Wanfeng called on two girls from the class to help. One was Tang Yuqing, who had volunteered, and the other was the fattest girl in the class, named Zhang Xi, the one who had been teased and cried at the beginning of the school year.
She was tall and plump, which made her look sturdy and fat. But she actually had double eyelids and a high nose bridge, and her features were very pretty. And after getting to know her, she had a very soft personality.
Zhou Wanfeng had noticed that she brought a roll of toilet paper every day, and all the boys and girls around her would tear off a piece. Zhou Wanfeng had once said that they shouldn’t treat her things as if they were picked up from the street. It was fine for an emergency, but using it every day was bullying, wasn’t it?
Just for that one sentence, Zhang Xi had given her a fragrant grape eraser. She liked to go to the restroom and the cafeteria with her.
Tang Yuqing was a social butterfly. She could chat with anyone, and was carefree and thoughtless.
With someone to help, Zhou Wanfeng didn’t have to run to several offices by herself.
When Li Jianbang returned to his office, he saw a palm-sized cactus pot on his desk, bright green, with long, thin spines. Next to it was a card.
“That Zhou Wanfeng from Class Nine put it on your desk. She said it’s a Teachers’ Day gift. She also put a small iron can in your drawer. I asked her what it was, and she said it was her own Teachers’ Day gift to you,” a teacher next to him said, curious about what was in the iron can, and urged Teacher Li to open it.
Li Jianbang glanced at the cactus on his desk. The spines were so long that you could easily prick yourself.
He unscrewed the small iron can. As soon as he opened it, a fresh fragrance wafted out.
“Oh, tea leaves. What kind of tea is it? It smells so good.”
The tea Zhou Wanfeng had given him was from Yang Yijun’s tea caddy. Yang Yijun was not at home, so she had asked Yun Lan. When she heard that it was for a teacher, Yun Lan was not secretive at all and directly contributed her mother’s private collection.
There wasn’t much left, so Zhou Wanfeng had just taken a pinch and put it in a small iron can.
Li Jianbang looked at the tea leaves, then at the cactus on his desk, and said to the teacher next to him with a smile, “Students these days are different from when we were young.” He then put a few leaves in his teacup, poured hot water over them, and in a short while, the whole room was filled with the fragrance of tea.
It was peaceful until Wednesday. Every day when Zhou Wanfeng arrived at school, she would be greeted with stares, to see if she was unharmed.
From last week until now, Zhu Junling had been privately telling Ding Gaoming that maybe Peng Zhen and his group had just let it go.
After all, Zhou Wanfeng was a girl, and it would be quite embarrassing for a group of boys to corner a girl on the street.
But on Wednesday evening, after evening self-study, it was cold and windy. Riding a bike at this time, the wind felt bone-chilling.
Jiang Yi was shivering all the way and didn’t dare to ride fast, saying it was better this way.
Zhou Wanfeng, on the other hand, was riding very fast in front. Wouldn’t it be better to get home earlier? As she was riding, Zhou Wanfeng’s speed slowed down, and she even stopped altogether.
“Jiang Yi, you turn around and take another road home. This one is blocked.”
Zhou Wanfeng had already gotten off her bike.
Under a streetlight ahead, there were people squatting, standing, and leaning against the lamppost, each with a cigarette in hand. Seeing the two of them, someone cursed, “Damn it, we’ve finally been waiting for you.”
Jiang Yi also got off his bike. He watched as Zhou Wanfeng squatted down and retied her shoelaces. The group of people opposite them were cursing and walking towards them.
Jiang Yi pulled on Zhou Wanfeng and whispered, “Let’s go. You can’t beat them. There are too many of them. We can ride our bikes and take another road.”
“Turn around and take a look,” Zhou Wanfeng said, tying her shoelaces and getting up. She stretched her limbs and neck. She took out something wrapped in a cloth from the inner pocket of her backpack.
Jiang Yi looked back. Sure enough, there were two bicycles following them. He was stunned for a moment, then looked down and saw that Zhou Wanfeng was wrapping a cloth strip around her right hand. On closer inspection, he saw that she had four iron rings on her knuckles.
After tying it, Zhou Wanfeng clenched her fist to test the feel, then handed her backpack and bike to Jiang Yi. “Find a chance and run. Don’t worry about me. No one will die.”
“Zhou Wanfeng, you really have guts. You didn’t even turn around and run when you saw us?” the fat boy from Peng Zhen’s group said first. He was holding a baseball bat, which scraped against the ground as he walked over.
“Your family really lives in South Lake Mansion. Did you bring enough pocket money?”
“Zhou Wanfeng, if you dare to bark like a dog and crawl between our legs, we’ll let you go today.”
Zhou Wanfeng took off her jacket, stretched her wrists, and slowly moved into the shadows by the side of the road. “One, two, three, four, five… eight. There were four, or was it five, in the restroom that day. It’s been so many days, and you’ve only added three more. No wonder you want to recruit people. Your team is so small, you can’t even scare people.”
“Damn it, I’ll teach you a lesson today, you bitch.”
Eight people, six in the front and two in the back, in a pincer formation. Zhou Wanfeng’s words were still provocative. A medium-sized boy was the first to rush forward, his right fist aimed at Zhou Wanfeng’s head.
It all happened in a flash. Zhou Wanfeng’s left straight punch was even faster, hitting the other person’s face. The sudden punch made the other person’s attack falter. Even if it was just a moment’s pause, Zhou Wanfeng’s backhand hook was unexpected, and it slammed into the boy’s abdomen.
It had been less than three seconds. Jiang Yi was close and was stunned. The other person was clutching his stomach and lying on the ground, wailing in pain.
Zhou Wanfeng adjusted the tightness of her hand wraps. She had missed the core of her strength just now.
In just a few seconds, she had taken someone down. One of them took a drag from his cigarette, and when he exhaled, he saw his own person rolling on the ground in pain. He hadn’t even seen clearly what had happened.
Immediately, the people who had been making threats were now looking at Zhou Wanfeng, and they had to be on their guard.
The fat boy with the baseball bat looked back and forth, gritted his teeth, and shouted, “Let’s go together! No matter how strong she is, she’s still just one person.”
Zhou Wanfeng stood there and sneered. “Yes, let’s go together. If you come one by one, you’ll just get beaten.”
The person on the ground was still clutching his stomach and reminded them in a pained voice, “Be careful of the thing she’s wearing on her hand.”
The fat boy shouted sternly, “Go!”
Four people rushed forward at once. Zhou Wanfeng quickly turned and ran, coming face to face with one of them. That person subconsciously turned around. Zhou Wanfeng’s presence was too strong, her eyes cold and terrifying.
Jiang Yi watched as Zhou Wanfeng was surrounded by four people. He jumped on his bike in a panic and pedaled, charging straight at them.
Zhou Wanfeng targeted one person first. Before the other three could surround her, she grabbed the back of his shoulder with her left hand. The boy only felt a weight on his shoulder and subconsciously raised his hand to shake it off. Just as Zhou Wanfeng was about to grab his arm,
she suddenly sensed someone approaching from behind. She quickly bent down, supported herself on the ground with her hands, and did a powerful sweeping kick. The other person was also agile and quickly dodged, then pounced forward, his right hand trying to grab Zhou Wanfeng’s collar.
Zhou Wanfeng sneered. Her left palm was down, her right palm was up. With a very clever force, she pushed down on the other person’s wrist with her left hand and grabbed it in a second.
Her right hand lifted the enemy’s right elbow. As Zhou Wanfeng’s body quickly turned to the right, she also kicked high, forcing back another person who was approaching.
With the cooperation of her hands and body, she completely twisted the person’s right arm. At the same time, Zhou Wanfeng moved behind him, her left hand twisting his right wrist. The person struggled to turn around, but the more he struggled, the more his own elbow hurt.
He opened his mouth to curse, but suddenly felt a cold wind on his neck.
Thud. A sharp pain in the back of his neck, and sparks flew before his eyes. He fell straight to the ground.
Zhou Wanfeng had delivered a heavy punch, and the person was completely silenced.
Jiang Yi, on the other hand, had charged at the fat boy with his bike. The fat boy was smashing the bike with his baseball bat.
In less than a minute, Zhou Wanfeng had blocked, dodged, and kicked, delivering straight punches to the abdomen and whip punches to the head.
These people usually relied on their numbers and strength. They had no actual fighting skills, just straightforward attacks.
Jiang Yi was pulled off his bike.
The fat boy had just grabbed Jiang Yi’s ear and was about to threaten Zhou Wanfeng when he saw her charging at the smoking Peng Zhen.
Someone tried to stop her, but she poked him in the eye. He stumbled back in terror. Zhou Wanfeng turned her fingers into a palm and grabbed his neck, pushing him back with all her might. When he was unstable, Zhou Wanfeng pulled him and delivered a hard knee strike, then a reverse shoulder throw.
Jiang Yi, taking advantage of the other person’s distraction, lowered his head and bit his arm, closing his eyes and biting down hard. The other person cried out and shook him off. Jiang Yi ran for his life, running more than ten meters behind a tree.
Unfortunately, no one chased him, otherwise he could have helped to hold one of them off.
But Jiang Yi looked at the people lying on the ground, motionless. There were only four left.
Peng Zhen hadn’t expected Zhou Wanfeng to be so young and so good at fighting. He looked around. There weren’t many cars on the road, and even fewer pedestrians.
Seeing that his side couldn’t win, he suddenly understood something. When they hadn’t fought in the school restroom, it wasn’t because Zhou Wanfeng was afraid of them, but because she didn’t want to fight at school.
After figuring this out, Peng Zhen called to the fat boy and the others and said with a grim face, “Let’s go back first.”
The fat boy didn’t understand. They had come this far, how could they leave? They hadn’t even taught the other person a lesson yet.
“I said go, so just go. Stop talking so much nonsense. Zhou Wanfeng, you’re tough today,” he said, making a threat. He then pulled and supported his companions and retreated.
Hearing that the other party was leaving, Jiang Yi quickly ran to Zhou Wanfeng’s side, an inexplicable sense of excitement in him. “Zhou Wanfeng, you’re the best fighter I’ve ever seen.”
Zhou Wanfeng looked at Peng Zhen and his group as they walked away and sneered. “What’s there to be happy about? Peng Zhen is smarter than I thought. He knows when to cut his losses.”
“They can’t beat you. This should be over, right?”
“I hope so,” she said, hoping that Peng Zhen was not a hyena.
Zhou Wanfeng was unharmed. Zhu Junling, who had been paying attention to her appearance, really thought that Peng Zhen and his group had let it go because of their pride, and were not going to bother with Zhou Wanfeng anymore.
Jiang Yi also didn’t say anything about being cornered at night.
After the four classes in the morning, the bell rang, and the students in the teaching building all rushed to the cafeteria, the tuck shop, and the school gate.
Zhu Junling, Chen Yisen, and Ding Gaoming finished their meal and were strolling back to the classroom. As they walked, they said, “Peng Zhen and his group probably thought Zhou Wanfeng was a girl, so they just let it go. They can’t just drag her into the men’s restroom to teach her a lesson. It would be embarrassing for a group of boys to corner a girl on the street.”
“That’s true. It’s been so many days, it should be over.”
“Thank goodness. It was a false alarm,” the three of them were celebrating when they saw a lot of people standing outside the First Grade, Class Nine classroom. Tang Yuqing and Zhang Xi were fiddling with something by the flowerbed.
When they got closer, they saw that the two of them were drying books by the flowerbed.
All the books were soaked, dripping with water. “Whose books are these? Did they fall into the water?” he said, seeing the workbook that Zhang Xi was fiddling with. The three characters on it, Zhou Wanfeng, were blurred by the water.
Ding Gaoming was taken aback. He pointed at all the wet books on the flowerbed. “Are these all the class president’s? What happened? How did they get soaked?”
“I don’t know. When we got to the classroom, we saw that the bucket in the cleaning corner at the back was full of books,” Zhang Xi said, laying out the workbooks one by one, hoping the sun would help to dry them.
Tang Yuqing pointed at a pile of bicycle parts against the wall. “Is that Zhou Wanfeng’s bicycle?”
The white bicycle was scratched beyond recognition. The tires had clearly been punctured with scissors, the wheels had been smashed into a twisted mess, and the chain had been cut. Apart from the frame, everything else was ruined.
It was clearly an act of wanton revenge.
The students in the class were all gathered around, discussing it.
Ding Gaoming looked at Zhu Junling. It was Peng Zhen and his group who had done it.
Chen Yisen had already run to inform Zhou Wanfeng.
By the time Zhou Wanfeng arrived, she saw that her desk had been hacked to pieces with a knife, and was uneven.
The bottom of her backpack had been slashed.
All her textbooks, workbooks, and the test papers Jingya had given her were soaked. She casually flipped through her Chinese textbook. The notes she had written in it were all blurred.
Tang Yuqing and Zhang Xi were carefully drying them by the flowerbed outside. The white pages attracted the attention of the classes upstairs, and they all looked down, discussing it.
Zhou Wanfeng saw the bicycle, which was damaged beyond repair. And the seat was missing. At that moment, Zhou Wanfeng felt an uncontrollable surge of anger rush to her head.
The more furious she was, the calmer her expression became.
“Peng Zhen, which class is he in, in the third grade?” Zhou Wanfeng turned to look at Zhu Junling.
Zhu Junling subconsciously replied, “Class Five.”
Zhou Wanfeng said “oh” softly and turned to Zhang Xi. “Help me put them away later.”
With that, she walked into the classroom. Her voice was so calm that everyone felt something was wrong. But before they could figure out what it was, Zhou Wanfeng, who had walked into the classroom, came out with the mop stick from before in her hand.
She walked straight towards the third-grade teaching building.
“Ah, ah, ah, what should we do, what should we do?” Zhu Junling followed her, then suddenly turned to look at Ding Gaoming and Chen Yisen.
“Is anyone coming with me?”
The few of them were about to call a couple more people for courage when they heard Tang Yuqing exclaim, “Ah, ah, ah, Zhou Wanfeng is running, she’s running!”
She had been walking at a leisurely pace, but had suddenly accelerated and started to run. In just a moment, she was out of sight.
Zhou Wanfeng ran all the way to the second floor of the third-grade teaching building. To the right of the stairs was Third Grade, Class Five.
It was just after lunch. The people who had returned were sitting and chatting.
Zhou Wanfeng entered the classroom from the front door and immediately saw Peng Zhen in the back row. The fat boy was leaning against his desk, holding her bike seat in his hand. The waterproof seat cover that Old Dong had found for her was also gone.
As she got closer, she could hear their laughter. “Damn it, I really wanted to stay there and see her expression. Damn it, she thinks she’s so arrogant just because she knows a few moves. I’d like to see what she can do at school.”
“Hey, which class are you from?” someone in the classroom said, seeing Zhou Wanfeng come in with a stick in her hand.
This made the fat boy and Peng Zhen turn around.
Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes were icy. She struck so fast, swinging the stick at the fat boy. The force was so great that the mop handle actually broke with a crack.
The fat boy didn’t even have time to react before he let out a cry of pain.
Zhou Wanfeng grabbed an empty chair next to her, raised it, and with a crash, the fat boy didn’t even have time to speak or fight back. Then, he was grabbed by Zhou Wanfeng, dragged out, and slammed against the back wall.
The class cried out in alarm.
In the blink of an eye, the fat boy was lying on the ground. Peng Zhen’s mouth was agape in shock, and he met a pair of ice-cold eyes.
Zhou Wanfeng’s expression was dark. “You thought I wouldn’t dare to fight at school?”
It was originally the lunch break, but the third-grade teaching building suddenly erupted in a boil.
“A fight has broken out! A first-year student ran to a third-year classroom, pinned someone to the ground, and is now dragging them out of the classroom. No one can stop her. There’s another one lying on the ground.”
“Where’s the teacher? Hurry up and get a teacher!” someone was seen rushing downstairs to the office.
Zhou Wanfeng grabbed Peng Zhen’s hair with one hand and sneered, “I heard you’re very famous. Then I’ll make you more famous.”