♂?，，

  Chapter 147: The First Day of Beiqi's Seventh Month

  "Uh-huh." I responded softly, my heart aching.

  From the moment I smashed the flower pot at Zou Yang, I made up my mind to never be manipulated by others again. From then on, it was a step-by-step process that led me to today, where I've experienced humiliation and glory, and finally managed to make my heart hard and ruthless. I had decided to make a big move to let others look at me with new eyes, but because of my father's gentle five words, the worldview I had painstakingly established was easily shattered.

  No... are we going to fight? I clenched my fists tightly. How can a fist that has already been clenched be easily loosened?

  The autumn wind suddenly rises, blowing a chill over my body and making my heart feel icy. I have an innate dislike of fighting, but at the same time, I have a craving for it in my blood. As long as others don't come looking for trouble with me, it seems I can get along peacefully with people; but when someone tries to trample on me, it awakens the most primitive ferocity deep within my heart.

  I don't want to go back to my three years of junior high school life. Although I was expelled from the city's top school, I have no regrets about what I did. But when my father said five words, I suddenly felt ashamed and guilty again. It can be imagined that when they received the notice of my expulsion from school, they were extremely disappointed, sad, and heartbroken. However, despite this, they comforted me instead, never speaking harshly to me or showing any sign of annoyance from start to finish.

  Now they have only one requirement for me, which is not to fight again in the future. How can I refuse? Can I bear to refuse?

  But thinking of others bullying me, and I can only choose to endure it, there is a faint sense of resentment in my heart. To this day, when I recall my life in junior high school, it still makes me shudder with fear. The scene of being bullied but unable to do anything about it sometimes flashes into my mind in fragments, even making me wake up from sleep with a start, fall silent while laughing, and become subdued in joyful moments.

  "It seems... " Father muttered suddenly: "It seems I was too selfish..."

  I stared at my father in astonishment, unsure what he meant by his words. "Son..." My father put his arm around my shoulder, as if we were old buddies or something, "From your experiences in middle school, I've heard a thing or two..."

  I knew that the father of a classmate worked in the same factory as my dad. The classmate went home and told his father about me as a joke, his father then passed it on to mine at work, so when my dad came home he asked me if it was true.

  "My father continued to say: 'At that time, I was also very angry. I thought why not fight back? Why not counterattack? Clench your fists and hit them hard! No matter what happens, I'll pay the medical bills! A person can't live without dignity, especially when humiliation comes, you must choose to fight back mercilessly!"

  I stared blankly at my father, unable to believe that he, who was usually so honest and down-to-earth, could say such a thing. My father burst out laughing again: "I wanted you to focus on your studies in high school, so I forced myself not to fight with others anymore, but this makes me seem too selfish, doesn't it? So, for ordinary small things, just bear with them, and getting along well with classmates is still very important. But if someone does something that's really over the line, and you can't take it anymore..."

  His big hand slapped heavily on my shoulder: "Then there's no need to endure anymore, give him a good scolding!"

  "Great!" The corners of my mouth rose, and my heart suddenly opened up, all worries disappeared.

  Dad, this sentence is enough!

  "Oh no, oh no." The mother exclaimed beside him: "How can you teach children to fight, what kind of father is this?"

  "Go, go, go..." Father waved his hand at Mother: "Women have long hair but short sight, is this teaching kids to fight? This is teaching kids how to maintain a man's dignity! In this world, a man's dignity is the most important thing!"

  "Is that right, son?" The father was really drunk, actually grinning at me with a playful face, without any of the dignity of being a father.

  But... I really like my dad now!

  "Right!" I shouted loudly, and hooked arms with my drunken father, the two of us standing at the side of the road, grinning foolishly.

  After sending my parents to the train station and watching them leave, I returned to Beiyuan Middle School. I wasn't familiar with this school, so I walked around it twice first. The layout was similar to that of Chenggao High School; basically all high schools are about the same, just some teaching buildings, faculty buildings, stadium, basketball court, library, boys' and girls' dormitories, and other such structures.

  It was almost time for class, so I found the head teacher's office. According to procedure, he should have taken me to the classroom. The head teacher was a middle-aged man in his 40s, who looked very good-tempered, with more than half of his hair gone, and smiled three points before speaking. However, I wouldn't be fooled by his appearance, as it's said that teachers at Beiqi are much tougher than those at Chenggao.

  However, it is also said that the teachers of Beiqi are not able to control their students. In Chongqing No. 7 Middle School, although the students may be unruly, they still have a sense of awe for their teachers and would never dare to physically confront them, whereas Beiqi often has incidents of students and teachers fighting each other.

  The head teacher's surname is Hu, so we call him Teacher Hu. Teacher Hu obviously didn't know my background and thought I was just an ordinary transfer student, only asking me where my family was from and how my studies were going. I said I was from Dongguan Town and that my grades were average.

  Mr. Hu didn't ask any more questions and led me to the classroom. The classroom was in a mess, Mr. Hu clapped his hands twice, and it finally quieted down, but the buzzing sound never stopped. Mr. Hu stood with me on the podium and said slowly, "Today, I'd like to introduce a new classmate to everyone. This new classmate's name is Wang Hao."

  When I mentioned the two words "Wang Hao", the classroom became noticeably quieter, with everyone staring at me. I guess they must have heard of this name before, as the rumors about the top student in the three schools always spread the fastest. I roughly scanned my classmates and suddenly found a girl with short, wine-red hair, who was none other than Zhou Mo, also known as "Wu Jie" from the Seven Dragons and Six Phoenixes. Zhou Mo was looking at me with a somewhat playful gaze, and since we had met a few times before, I smiled at her briefly before shifting my gaze away.

  Mr. Hu was very wordy, saying a lot of nonsense about how everyone should unite and help each other, I almost fell asleep listening to him on stage. Finally, after Mr. Hu finished speaking, he pointed his hand: "Wang Hao, sit down over there."

  I followed his pointing finger and suddenly found it was next to Zhou Mo. Next to Zhou Mo, empty and deserted, I didn't think of anything and walked straight over to sit down. The classmates in the class all made a "hiss" sound, but I don't know what it means either.

  As soon as I sat down, Zhou Mo quietly asked: "How did you end up here?"

  "I replied: 'Since the city is heavily guarded and closed off, I had no choice but to come here.'"

  Mr. Hu said on the podium: "Wang Hao, you haven't received your book yet, and you're already chatting with Zhou Mo. Go to my place after class to get your book!"

  "Good." I nodded.

  After Mr. Hu left, the teacher who was supposed to take over hadn't arrived yet, and the class had descended into chaos again, with all sorts of gossip and rumors floating around.

  "Is his name Wang Hao? Could he be the big boss of Cheng Gao?" "There are so many people named Wang Hao, it's not necessarily him." "I think it must be him, I heard Wang Hao was kicked out of Cheng Gao." "I also think it might be him, just looking at his eyes is quite scary." "If Wang Hao joins our side, that would be interesting!" "I heard Wang Hao took down Mai Zi and Lao Gou in Cheng Gao, but looking at him, he doesn't seem like that kind of person." "I also don't think so, this Wang Hao is thin and small, who can he beat?"

  "Not bad." Zhou Mo said expressionlessly: "Just arrived and already causing a stir, not planning to stand up and introduce yourself?"

  "Whatever," I said: "I don't want to stir up trouble, just want to study hard, and they'd better not think I'm that Wang Hao."

  Zhou Mo looked at me with a strange gaze, as if it was ridiculous for me to say "study hard" out of my own mouth.

  "Don't make wild guesses, this person is absolutely not Wang Hao, that big shot from Cheng Gao!" a somewhat familiar voice suddenly said.

  The class suddenly quieted down. My heart skipped a beat, and I looked towards the person who was speaking. As expected, it wasn't wrong - it was Lu Xiang, a classmate from my middle school days. Lu Xiang was very short and sat in the back row, so I hadn't noticed him when I scanned the classroom earlier. Speaking of Lu Xiang, I felt a surge of anger. This guy was even shorter and thinner than me, but he had always been the first to bully me.

  Of course, his bullying was not physical, to say that he couldn't beat me in a fight, but he liked to stand behind Zhou Yang and others, waving flags and cheering them on. When Zhou Yang and the others bullied me, Lu Xiang would shout loudly, saying things like "beat him to death", and when he saw me being bullied, he would laugh loudly, more excited than if he had taken medicine.

  Lu Xiang is a terrible person. In the past, I had a crush on a girl in my class and didn't dare to confess, so I could only express my feelings in my diary, writing many things like "I miss her so much". Later, this diary was stolen by Lu Xiang, who stood on the podium in front of the whole class and read it aloud with great emotion, making vomiting faces as he read. When he got to the most exciting part, Lu Xiang even jumped up and down, shouting loudly like a monkey in a circus.

  So, I not only hate people like Zou Yang who directly bully me, but also people like Lu Xiang who indirectly bully me. When I'm being bullied, Lu Xiang's laughter is especially piercing, and he's always the most enthusiastic when spreading rumors about others.

  Because I was always bullied in class, I did everything with caution. But the more cautious I was, the more likely I was to make a fool of myself, just like Murphy's Law, the less I wanted something to happen, the more it would happen. To put it bluntly, even if I accidentally farted, Lu Xiang could help me publicize it for three days, and in his mouth, it would definitely be "Wang Hao farted so hard that shit came out of his pants", and he would say it with such vividness, as if he was the hair on my anus, witnessing it with his own eyes.

  Complete works txt download, full text free, e-book, remember 77 reading books