Chapter 33: Dedicate My Life to the Country
After seeing Zhou Zhiru last night, Zhou Wanfeng had been feeling suppressed, as if she were trapped in a small, enclosed space.
She couldn’t describe the feeling, and she refused to dwell on it.
A long time ago, she had learned that some things were unsolvable and would only drag her into a terrible abyss.
She looked at the grade director with a cold gaze. “You can continue to scold her. If she resigns, I’d like to see what kind of homeroom teacher the school will assign to First Grade, Class Nine. If you really can’t find anyone, you can do it yourself. You were so imposing when you were scolding her just now, pointing fingers and criticizing. Why don’t you try being the homeroom teacher of First Grade, Class Nine? If you can manage it well, if the average score on the exams is not at the bottom, if the morning exercises are neat, if the sanitation area is clean, if the class atmosphere and discipline improve, I will give you three bows of apology in front of the whole school.”
With that, she reached out and pulled Sun Mulan, pushing her in front of the grade director. “If someone is scolding you unfairly, you can just open your mouth and refute it. What are you afraid of? Is Shuangshu Model such a good school? Are the students of First Grade, Class Nine worth you standing there and being scolded? Scold him back loudly, and then go and write your resignation letter. After you leave Shuangshu Middle School, you can go anywhere and say how much Shuangshu bullied you, how formidable the grade director is. He can scold you for no reason. You’re young and afraid you won’t be able to find a job. What are you putting up with this for?”
Zhou Wanfeng snorted coldly, glanced at Yuan Hongying, and finally looked at the grade director, whose face was flushed with anger. “I’m staying in First Grade, Class Nine. Next time I get first in the entire grade, don’t try to pull this class-changing stunt again. I’m making it clear now. I’ll be in First Grade, Class Nine until I graduate from junior high. I’m not going anywhere.”
With that, she ignored everyone and pushed the door open to leave.
The cold wind blew on her face. The main road of the school was covered with a thick layer of plane tree leaves. The withered yellow leaves on the branches rustled, and every second, leaves would float down from the trees.
Zhou Wanfeng took a deep breath. She didn’t want to go back to the classroom right now. She stepped on the thick layer of plane tree leaves, as if walking on a thick carpet.
She sat on the steps of the small playground, pulled her zipper up to the top, and buried half her face in her collar, her hands in her jacket pockets. She felt the cold wind blow through her hair, watching the plane tree leaves desperately float across the main road and land around her. The wind picked up again, and they scraped along the ground for a distance.
She should have gone to Class Two. Yuan Hongying was the kind of strict, old-fashioned homeroom teacher she had imagined. If she went to Class Two, she could study in peace. That was the quiet life she wanted.
Zhou Wanfeng let out a soft sigh.
Meanwhile, Sun Mulan came out and saw the person sitting on the concrete steps of the empty small playground.
Her back was hunched, and behind her was a sea of withered yellow leaves and bare branches. At that moment, Sun Mulan’s heart was touched. She vaguely felt that Zhou Wanfeng was lonely.
But, like the fallen leaves around her, she had isolated herself. Her coldness and distance would make others hesitate.
Sun Mulan walked over, her eyes red, her nose red, her eyelashes wet.
Zhou Wanfeng glanced at her, then turned her head to gaze into the distance again.
“I refuted him fiercely. If he says anything more to me, I’ll resign,” Sun Mulan said, her voice heavy with a nasal tone. She lowered her head and fidgeted with her fingers, saying softly, “Zhou Wanfeng, I’m sorry. As a homeroom teacher, I’ve really failed. My own student got a good score, and yet she’s being suspected of cheating.”
Tears streamed down Sun Mulan’s face. It was probably because Zhou Wanfeng had stood up for her when she was at her most helpless and embarrassed.
“You want me to transfer to Class Two.”
Sun Mulan sniffled and nodded. “Yes. You’ve always wanted that kind of learning atmosphere. In fact… you don’t want to be the class president, and you don’t want to manage the people in the class. You just want to study quietly. But… the environment in Class Nine is too terrible. It’s forced you to stand up.”
Zhou Wanfeng chuckled and took a tissue from her pocket, handing it to her.
“If I go to Class Two, there will be no one to be the boss of Class Nine, and no one to maintain discipline in the class. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘when the tiger is away, the monkey is king’? With that group of monkeys in Class Nine, what a mess the class will be.”
“But what about you?” Sun Mulan looked at Zhou Wanfeng with regret.
Zhou Wanfeng stood up, her hair blowing in the cold wind. “I’ll continue to study in Class Nine. Didn’t I get fourth in the entire grade in Class Nine?”
Sun Mulan also stood up and walked back to the classroom with her. Looking at Zhou Wanfeng’s straight back, she suddenly became curious. “Zhou Wanfeng, you’re studying so seriously. Is there a university you want to get into?”
Getting into a key high school was for the purpose of getting into an ideal university.
Sun Mulan looked at Zhou Wanfeng. She felt that although Zhou Wanfeng was only twelve, she often seemed very mature and rational, as if she had seen through life and didn’t care about many things. Running first in the sports meet, getting fourth in the entire grade. All these honors, she seemed to take them lightly. But she was still studying so hard.
It could only be that she had a greater goal in her heart.
When Zhou Wanfeng had woken up in this world, she had thought carefully about what she wanted to do in this life. To make up for the regrets of her past life, she wanted to study hard and enjoy this student life in peace. But the time for studying in life was short, and there was a long time to do other things.
Zhou Wanfeng looked at Sun Mulan, her tone devoid of any mockery. “XXXXXXXX University.”
Sun Mulan secretly sucked in a breath. She quickened her pace and looked at Zhou Wanfeng’s expression seriously. “Are you serious? Why do you want to go to this university? I… I’ve rarely seen girls go to this university. They basically have very few female students.”
Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes held an emotion that others couldn’t understand. “Perhaps, I caused trouble for the country in my past life. In this life, I want to dedicate my life to the country.”
With that, she looked at the slightly stunned Sun Mulan and smiled faintly. “Just take it as a joke.”
Zhou Wanfeng walked towards the classroom of First Grade, Class Nine. She was still some distance away, but she could already hear the commotion, as if Class Nine were about to tear the classroom down.
As the weather got colder, a lot of leaves would fall in the courtyard overnight. The first thing Old Dong did when he came to work was to sweep the fallen leaves. If he was a little slow, Auntie Zhang would go over and scold him with a stern face.
Old Dong heard it every day. He was an honest man and didn’t think much of it. He would just scratch his head and go back to work.
On Saturday, the sky was like a gray silk cloth, pressed very low. It didn’t look like it was going to rain. The sun was blocked by the thick gray silk cloth, and the whole sky was gray and a little oppressive.
Zhou Wanfeng sat in the pavilion for a while, watching the few fat fish swim around. She didn’t know if it was because the weather was cold, but their swimming speed had slowed down. Or perhaps they recognized her and knew that she always came empty-handed, and that there would be nothing even if they swam over.
She stood up and went back to the house. On the way, she ran into Auntie Zhang.
The wrinkled face simply ignored her and walked past.
Zhou Wanfeng went straight up to the attic from the back stairs. After reading for a while, she went downstairs.
After the birthday banquet, Zhou Wanfeng and Yang Yijun had not run into each other.
She was not in the Go room. Zhou Wanfeng went to the first-floor bedroom.
The door had been replaced with a new one, which looked much sturdier than the last one.
She knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response, Zhou Wanfeng pushed the door open and went in. The luxurious bedroom was so large that she couldn’t see it all at a glance.
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t go too far in. Yang Yijun was wearing a white lace nightgown, her long hair loose, and was sitting in front of a dressing mirror.
Seeing Zhou Wanfeng come in, her brow furrowed unconsciously, and she pointed at the door and scolded, “Get out.”
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t leave. She stood there, sizing up Yang Yijun with a faint expression, then asked, “I heard that a coach from the municipal sports bureau came to the house.”
Yang Yijun was fiddling with her skincare products, rubbing them in her hands and then applying them to her neck in small circles. She completely ignored Zhou Wanfeng’s question.
Zhou Wanfeng had her hands in her pockets. She tilted her head and looked at Yang Yijun, her face calm. “Let’s talk. After all, I did help you in this room before.”
Hearing Zhou Wanfeng mention what had happened before, Yang Yijun turned around. “Talk about what?”
“Let’s talk about why you hate me so much. After all, I’ll be living at the sports school after I transfer, and I probably won’t have time to come back here.”
Yang Yijun looked at Zhou Wanfeng with a cold face. She noticed that her mood was a little off today. She was very calm, very sad, and a little frustrated.
Zhou Wanfeng continued, “If you don’t answer, I’ll say it for you. After all, I’ve been thinking about it for so long. It’s nothing more than this.
“Because my surname is Zhou, and I’m Zhou Zhiru’s biological daughter. Even if we’re not close, his blood flows in my veins. You’re afraid that Zhou Zhiru will dote on me and neglect Yun Jingya.
“You don’t want Yun Lan to be a stepmother. Even if she is, you want me to stay in my hometown and never come to Yunhai City.
“You’re afraid that Yun Chengbin will get close to me. You’re afraid that my existence will interfere with your current family of four.
“You’re also afraid that I’ll become more and more outstanding, better and better, and overshadow the Yun Jingya you’ve so carefully cultivated. After all, you’ve put in so much effort. You would never want to see a girl from the countryside who came halfway steal her spotlight.
“And it’s also because you know what kind of person Zhou Zhiru is. The more outstanding someone is, the more he will value and care for them. Because you’ve seen Changfeng Electrical thrive, and you’re a very greedy person. You want both fame and fortune, and you also want everyone to obey you. You treat everyone in this family as chess pieces, to be placed where you want them.
“Zhou Zhiru is capable of making money and also wants money. To put it bluntly, you are probably the same kind of person. But you should have a trump card to keep him in check.”
Zhou Wanfeng had analyzed it. Zhou Zhiru wanted to secretly cultivate a beast, and the great price he was paying was to get rid of the Yun family.
But he and Yang Yijun were cooperating with each other, and at the same time, they were suspicious and wary of each other. Neither of them trusted the other.
Yang Yijun’s eyes narrowed, her hands paused, and she looked at Zhou Wanfeng coldly.
Zhou Wanfeng’s lips curled into a faint smile. “That sports coach was able to find this place because Cousin-Aunt Jiawen gave him the address, right? She probably also told you that I got 707 on this monthly exam, fourth in the entire grade. The first place got 715. If it weren’t for the fact that I lost so many points on my Chinese composition, I probably could have gotten into the top three in the grade.”
“Hearing my score and my grade ranking made you feel a sense of crisis. And just as this sports coach came looking, you took the opportunity to transfer me to a sports school. Practicing sports will definitely delay my cultural classes. So what if I can win a national championship? In your eyes, it’s completely worthless.”
Yang Yijun pursed her lips, her fingers digging into her palms. She was extremely shocked, and at the same time, she was sure that her thoughts were correct. Zhou Wanfeng was too smart.
“I don’t want to practice sports. I have a university I want to get into. You adults are always so self-righteous. You want both fame and fortune, and you even scheme against a twelve-year-old child. You’ve ruined other people’s lives. You sent me to Shuangshu Model Middle School. Do you know what kind of class First Grade, Class Nine is? A bunch of guys who don’t even put their textbooks on their desks in class. And you, in order to have the homeroom teacher take care of Yun Jingya, you found ways to give gifts. You have her take all sorts of interest classes. In order to show off how talented she is, you didn’t hesitate to force me on stage. A country bumpkin from the countryside, what talent could she have? At twelve, a person has their pride. Why do you have to be so ruthless? I won’t get in Yun Jingya’s way.”
“You shouldn’t have come to Yunhai City,” Yang Yijun said after a long silence. She looked at Zhou Wanfeng’s calm face. “No one wants to be the bad guy. Because of you, I’ve also done many things I don’t like to do. To make things difficult for a child, to frame a child, to control her life before she comes of age. All of this, you can just… think of it as me just wanting to leave the best for my own child.”
“Leave the best for your own child?” Zhou Wanfeng murmured, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. She looked straight at Yang Yijun. “Have you ever thought… that in Yun Jingya’s heart, her kind, gentle, elegant, and generous grandmother is actually such a despicable and ugly person in private? Yun Jingya is very kind. Does she know that for her sake, you’ve done everything you can to destroy an innocent child?”
Her lips curled into a sneer. “You want both fame and fortune, and you also want to protect your beloved child at all costs. You know what? In my eyes, you’re full of flaws. You and Zhou Zhiru are the same. The more you want, the more places there are to attack. You’re easier to deal with than Zhou Zhiru. Do you know why?”
Yang Yijun’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes were filled with sarcasm. “Zhou Zhiru has no one to protect. He doesn’t love his own child at all. You’re different. I know that you truly love Yun Lan, you love Yun Jingya. And I also believe that everything you’ve done to me is out of your protection and love for them.”
Her expression was calm, her tone even, and her deep eyes seemed to be sucking Yang Yijun in, and there was only an icy coldness there.
“But are you sure that what you’re giving them is what they want?” Zhou Wanfeng turned and walked towards the door. She pushed the door open, then suddenly pulled it, and a shocked and flustered Yun Jingya was forcefully pulled to the doorway.
Yun Jingya was as shocked as a block of wood, standing there. Her eyes trembled as she looked at Zhou Wanfeng, then at her grandmother.
Zhou Wanfeng stood behind her, her hands on her shoulders. She leaned down to the slightly trembling Yun Jingya’s ear and whispered coldly, “Your grandmother, because I got 707, is afraid that I’ll steal your spotlight, so she’s forcing me to transfer to a sports school. All the despicable things she’s done to me have been done in your name. The kind grandmother in your eyes is now looking at me with a ferocious expression. Look clearly. Now, the old woman opposite you, with the vicious eyes and the furious face, is your grandmother.”
“Zhou Wanfeng!” Yang Yijun’s hands were clenched into fists. “…Jingya, don’t believe her. She’s been against me ever since she came to this house. She resents us for leaving her in her hometown and not bringing her here. She hates us.”
Zhou Wanfeng let go of Yun Jingya. Ignoring Yang Yijun’s anger, she just said in a clear and light tone, “Jingya, remember to tell your grandmother that if Zhou Wanfeng transfers to a sports school, you won’t go to school anymore.”
With that, she pushed Yun Jingya into the room with a slight force, then thoughtfully closed the door and turned to walk towards the stairs.
Zhou Wanfeng was sure she would win, because Yun Jingya was truly kind and truly considered her a friend. And also because Yang Yijun truly loved Yun Jingya.