Chapter 35: I Want to Stab Her p2
Zhou Wanfeng glanced at Yun Jingya. After she had left the sticky note, Yun Jingya had gone back to her old self, and was even more intimate with her than before. She didn’t mention being friends anymore, but she did talk about how she was the older sister because she was born a few months earlier.
Yun Jingya looked at Zhou Wanfeng, pointed at Jiang Chen and Lu Qing, and smiled.
But Zhou Wanfeng looked at Jiang Yi, who chuckled. “I came to buy books too.”
Lu Qing looked around and suddenly rushed up to Zhou Wanfeng. “Hello, Zhou Wanfeng. Long time no see.”
Zhou Wanfeng sneered, pushed him aside with her hand, and went into the bookstore to pick out books first. Lu Qing was caught completely off guard and stumbled back a couple of steps. It was Jiang Chen who was quick-witted and steadied him from behind.
Lu Qing’s eyes were wide and round. He steadied himself and immediately ran up to her again. Jiang Yi, seeing this, also immediately followed.
Zhou Wanfeng went straight to the study materials section.
“Zhou Wanfeng, Jiang Xiaochen said you also want to go to No. 1 High School for high school?” Lu Qing was extremely curious about Zhou Wanfeng. Jiang Yi was behind the two of them. He casually pulled out a book and interrupted Lu Qing’s question. “Zhou Wanfeng, what do you think of this book?”
Zhou Wanfeng turned to look at him and asked with surprise, “English? Are you going to study it?”
Jiang Yi glanced at Jiang Chen. Seeing him looking at him sideways, he immediately nodded heavily. “I also told Song Zhang that I’m willing to participate in the math competition,” he said, then picked up another book and said in a low voice, “I’m also preparing to go to No. 1 High School.”
Zhou Wanfeng smiled. “Then you’d better buy a few basic books and make up for the basics first,” she said, taking him to another section to pick out books. Yun Jingya followed to help.
Lu Qing nudged Jiang Chen. “What’s up with your brother? He’s so tall, but when he talks to Zhou Wanfeng, he’s like a student reporting to a teacher.”
“Don’t worry about it. And don’t cause any trouble today. We might all be in the same high school in the future. If we’re friendly, united, and help each other, and we have her to protect us in high school, who would dare to mess with us?” Jiang Chen was now hoping that they would be in the same class in high school. What a great fate that would be. They couldn’t have any internal strife.
Yun Jingya helped Jiang Yi pick out four or five workbooks. Zhou Wanfeng bought a Chinese reading comprehension workbook and an English reading comprehension one.
Lu Qing hadn’t forgotten his purpose for today. In the blink of an eye, he had shamelessly sidled up to her again. “Zhou Wanfeng, was it you who kicked our team’s baton away in the relay race at the sports meet?”
Zhou Wanfeng looked up at him and snorted, asking in return, “Did you see it?”
“Yeah, I saw it with both my eyes,” Lu Qing said, gesturing to his two eyes to show that he had seen it clearly.
“It doesn’t matter if you saw it clearly. The referee didn’t see it, and the staff didn’t see it,” Zhou Wanfeng felt that Lu Qing was just a nitpicking child.
Lu Qing’s eyes widened in excitement. “So you admit it? It was you who kicked our team’s baton away.”
Zhou Wanfeng looked at him with a cold smile.
“You also cost Zhou Wanfeng her first place in the 800m. Even if you hadn’t dropped the baton, you’re not a fast runner,” Jiang Yi said from behind, having heard the whole conversation. He didn’t like Lu Qing.
Jiang Chen pulled Jiang Yi away. “What are you arguing with Lu dog for? In his mind, he’s the only one who’s right in the whole world. You can’t reason with him.”
Lu Qing was not willing to give up and followed behind Zhou Wanfeng like a green-headed fly, buzzing.
Zhou Wanfeng pulled out a book and suddenly turned and threw it. Of course, she threw it at the side of Lu Qing’s head, right next to his ear.
Lu Qing shut up. He was very well-behaved.
After wandering around the bookstore, it was time for lunch. Should they go home to eat, or go to the snack street?
“Let’s go to the snack street. I know a very delicious fried sauce noodle place. It’s an old recipe, and it’s not far from here,” Jiang Chen had had tutoring classes nearby during the summer vacation, so he also knew a shortcut.
The shortcut was a somewhat dirty and dilapidated small alley. It was about a meter wide, with storefronts in the front and piles of waste paper boxes, wine bottles, and some overflowing dirty water in the back.
Lu Qing was shouting all the way, saying his shoes were dirty, that it smelled bad, and that he was going to throw up.
It did smell bad. The few of them covered their mouths and finally made it through the alley, and saw a decent concrete road.
But in front, a few people in blue bell-bottoms and black leather jackets were squatting or standing, smoking, blocking the exit.
Lu Qing covered his nose and mouth and quickly ran through the middle of them.
Yun Jingya was second, Jiang Chen third, Jiang Yi fourth, and Zhou Wanfeng was at the very back. Jiang Chen kept explaining that it had been very clean during the summer vacation, and that a classmate from the same tutoring class had shown him the way.
As Zhou Wanfeng walked past the few social youths, she suddenly noticed a gaze on her. She instinctively stopped and looked over.
Peng Zhen was smoking. He was stunned when he saw Zhou Wanfeng.
The moment Zhou Wanfeng’s cold gaze fell on him, he was choked by the smoke and couldn’t stop coughing. The few people who had walked a few meters ahead turned and saw that Zhou Wanfeng was standing still.
“Wanfeng?” Yun Jingya called her.
Jiang Yi saw Zhou Wanfeng staring at someone and followed her gaze. The person had a messy haircut, was wearing blue denim bell-bottoms, and a sports shirt. The hand holding the cigarette had some kind of symbols on it, either drawn or tattooed.
He looked at the face again. It was a little familiar.
Just as he was wondering who this person was, Jiang Yi exclaimed. He remembered.
Jiang Chen leaned over and whispered, “Who is it?” Those few people looked like social delinquents. They were not old, and the oldest was no more than in his early twenties.
“He’s a third-year student from our school who was expelled. The one… the one who caused trouble with Zhou Wanfeng,” Jiang Yi said in a small voice.
Lu Qing heard it.
The few people who had been squatting and smoking now stood up one by one.
Zhou Wanfeng glanced at Peng Zhen. Compared to when he was at school, he had completely blended in with this group of social dregs.
“Who is it? Do you know her?” the few people asked Peng Zhen curiously, looking at Zhou Wanfeng’s retreating back.
Zhou Wanfeng had only seen Peng Zhen, but she hadn’t seen Liang Shuai, who was standing on the other side. He had been nicknamed “Fatty” at school, but now he was completely thin, and looked completely different from before. His eyelids were drooping, and he looked older than his actual age.
“Zhou Wanfeng. The first-year student who got us expelled from school.”
“A girl?” the oldest of the group said, throwing away his cigarette butt in surprise. He then turned to look again, pointing a finger. “A first-year girl beat you guys up?”
“Brother Hao, don’t look at her like that. She’s a very good fighter. She can take on several people at once with no problem. And the rumor is that her family is rich and powerful, and she’s even related to the school leadership. We were expelled, but nothing happened to her. The school even praised her. It’s so f*cking ridiculous,” Liang Shuai said, thinking of what had happened then. He felt that the school was a piece of trash.
“She can fight? A few of you couldn’t beat her? What about a dozen of you? Do you want me to help you get your face back?” the one named Brother Hao said, grinding the cigarette butt on the ground with his foot. “I’ve been bored lately. I’m looking for some fun.”
Peng Zhen was still looking at the retreating figures of Zhou Wanfeng and her group. He didn’t particularly hate her. He bullied others, and others could bully him. And when he met those sharp and cold eyes, he could still remember the fear he had felt then.
“Forget it. Her family is rich and powerful. If something really happens to her, and it blows up, we won’t have a good time either,” Peng Zhen said.
But Liang Shuai’s eyes were filled with unwillingness. “Forget what? That day was a complete humiliation. Whenever I think about how so many people saw me lose face, I really want to stab her. At worst, I’ll just go to jail for a few years,” he said, gritting his teeth viciously.
Zhou Wanfeng and her group went to the fried sauce noodle restaurant that Jiang Chen had mentioned. Lu Qing was curious about the conflict between Zhou Wanfeng and that person just now. He only knew a little, and now that he had seen the person involved, he wanted to know all the details.
Yun Jingya was the same. Seeing those people, she realized that the matter was far from what she had heard.
Zhou Wanfeng lowered her head and focused on her noodles. She would not talk about the past.
Lu Qing kicked Jiang Chen’s leg under the table, giving him a look, telling him to ask Jiang Yi. As a classmate, he would definitely know.
Jiang Chen slurped his noodles. Lu Qing kicked him harder.
Jiang Yi kicked back with a thud. Lu Qing cried out, stood up, and pointed at Jiang Chen. “Is your brother crazy?”
“You kicked me first,” Jiang Yi retorted in a muffled voice.
Lu Qing looked down. Jiang Chen’s legs were tucked under his chair. Jiang Yi, to avoid Yun Jingya, was sitting sideways, closer to him. He had really kicked the wrong person.
He rubbed his nose and apologized in a small voice, “I’m sorry.” He then looked up. “But you can’t kick me so hard. It hurts.”
“You should remember how many times you kicked me.”
Amidst the bickering, Zhou Wanfeng finished her meal, pushed her bowl forward, and stood up. “I’m leaving first.”
The few of them were left looking at each other. The other three all looked at Lu Qing, all feeling that it was his fault.
Zhou Wanfeng had seen Peng Zhen on Saturday, but she hadn’t paid him any mind. She knew too well what this group of people would be like after a few years of messing around.
Jiang Yi had also kept his word and had started to work hard to catch up on the other subjects.
For Chinese and English, it was all about memorization. Zhou Wanfeng lent him her notebooks to copy. He had to be able to recite and write from memory.
For someone with a talent for math like Jiang Yi, he felt that the liberal arts subjects had no rules. Each one had to be memorized specifically. Just one text, this core, that meaning. It was just a walk in the neighborhood after a meal. How could there be so many meanings?
“They’re just taking advantage of the fact that the author is dead and can’t refute them to interpret it however they want. They want to put all the loyalty and filial piety into it. What are they doing?” Jiang Yi, who was usually quiet and had little presence in the class, had become irritable since he started to study the other subjects. He would get even more angry when he was copying.
Zhu Junling was stunned. He usually couldn’t hear his deskmate’s voice all day. He was always studying his math problems. Now he was like a patient with a manic disorder.
Zhou Wanfeng was aiming for first in the grade this time, so she had to solidify her weak areas. It was an exam-oriented education system. She was not stupid, but she was not a top genius either. It was all about hard work and effort, studying hard and doing a lot of problems.
Yun Jingya had said that the students at the experimental middle school would study on their own and would not wait for the teacher’s pace. There were a few particularly outstanding students there who would finish the junior high school curriculum in advance and then study the high school curriculum on their own.
Zhou Wanfeng had a sudden epiphany, a feeling of opening up a new world. Only then did she realize that she had been too conservative in her studies.
Zhou Wanfeng was immersed in her studies, and she also pulled Jiang Yi along to study with her. If he was good at math, his brain was definitely good enough. When he started to study physics and chemistry in the future, these were all subjects that Jiang Yi could score well in. She even felt that it wouldn’t be long before Jiang Yi could catch up.
Studying made time fly by. During the lunch break on Friday, Zhou Wanfeng and Jiang Yi were doing the math test paper from the experimental middle school together.
Zhou Wanfeng’s was from Yun Jingya, and Jiang Yi’s was from Jiang Chen. As expected of a key junior high school’s teaching and research group, the questions were really sharp.
Zhu Junling came into the classroom and pulled on Zhou Wanfeng, his face filled with a gloomy cloud, but his voice was urgent. “Class president, come out with me for a minute. I have something to tell you.”
Zhou Wanfeng was pulled outside by Zhu Junling. Class Nine was next to the playground. The back door was against the wall, and there was no one around.
Zhu Junling looked around and rubbed his hands anxiously, jumping up and down. “Class president, why don’t you ask for leave now and go home? I saw the expelled Peng Zhen at noon. He told me that Liang Shuai has found more than a dozen hooligans from outside to come after school this afternoon. He said that Liang Shuai has been holding a grudge ever since you beat him up in public, and he wants to get revenge on you at the school gate.”
Zhu Junling was like an ant on a hot pan, unable to stand still. “What should we do, class president? You should ask for leave and go home now. Liang Shuai is actually much more ruthless than Peng Zhen, and he’s also very petty. He’ll definitely want to get his revenge on you and get his face back.”