Chapter Twenty-Three: Challenging Shi Bai

Chapter Twenty-three: Challenging Shi Bai

Shi Bai was caught completely off guard, immediately overwhelmed and forced to bend over, crying out repeatedly, “It hurts, it hurts!”

The burly boy’s name was Gao Wenqiang. His face was thickset and rough, and he was the landlord of a city village. His family collected tens of thousands in rent each month without lifting a finger.

He was strong and had practiced taekwondo, so Shi Bai was no match for him at all.

Liu Feifei, who had been about to leave, suddenly saw Shi Bai pinned by Gao Wenqiang. Instantly, she became domineering, pointing at Shi Bai’s head and saying, “Shi Bai, let me tell you, from now on, you’d better never mention that matter of marriage again! If you do, I won’t let you off!”

“Did you hear that?!” Gao Wenqiang twisted Shi Bai’s arm, questioning him like a hero mocking a clown.

A blaze of fury ignited in Shi Bai’s heart. “Gao Wenqiang, you bullied me in my previous life, made me fetch lunch for you, insulted me at every turn. I didn’t expect you’d still do this now. Fine, then don’t blame me for not being polite!”

“Who cares!” Shi Bai shouted, ready to summon the system.

“Hey! What are you doing?” At that moment, a teacher approached, riding a bicycle.

Gao Wenqiang saw the teacher and quickly released Shi Bai. “Nothing, just fooling around!” He still kicked Shi Bai in the backside, causing Shi Bai to stumble forward several steps, nearly falling flat on his face.

Liu Feifei and her friend covered their mouths, giggling.

The teacher frowned but saw nothing particularly egregious and didn’t interfere much, only saying, “You should get along with your classmates. When you graduate, you’ll realize your best friends are those from school.”

He glanced at Shi Bai with a complicated expression, as if to say, “Are you really so useless, letting him bully you like this?” Then he pushed his bike and entered the school.

After the teacher left, Gao Wenqiang bared his teeth fiercely at Shi Bai. “Watch yourself!” Then he hurried to Liu Feifei’s side, saying, “Feifei, with me around, that guy won’t dare do anything to you.” The three entered the classroom, chatting and laughing.

“Damn it!” Shi Bai cursed under his breath. “Gao Wenqiang, is it? Just you wait!”

The morning classes passed quickly, but Shi Bai hadn’t thought of a way to deal with Gao Wenqiang—not that he couldn’t, but none seemed spectacular enough.

He wanted a method that would make Gao Wenqiang regret ever coming to school.

Soon, afternoon classes began. It was an easy day, with a period of physical education.

In PE, the teacher taught the students wrestling.

Gao Yang whispered to Shi Bai, “This teacher is strange, teaching wrestling. I’ve never heard of that before.”

Shi Bai was puzzled as well. After all, this wasn’t some elite private school—PE usually meant long jump or vaulting, not wrestling.

After a while, he suddenly remembered that this teacher’s surname was Chen, and he had once been a national-level wrestler. After a tragic accident, he lost the chance to compete forever, and his life declined until he could only become a PE teacher.

But he never gave up his passion for wrestling, and so he privately added wrestling lessons for the students.

Shi Bai still remembered that later, because of wrestling, a student had an accident and broke his arm. The parents raised a fuss, and the school, under pressure, fired the teacher.

After that, Shi Bai never saw Mr. Chen again.

Thinking of this, Shi Bai suddenly fell into deep thought. “I should find a way to help the teacher.”

...

“Hey! Shi Bai! Shi Bai! I’m calling you!” Gao Yang jabbed Shi Bai with his elbow.

“Huh?” Shi Bai snapped out of his reverie. “What’s up?”

“They’re calling you!” Gao Yang replied.

“Me?”

“Yes!” Gao Yang pointed to Gao Wenqiang on the field. “He specifically asked to spar with you!”

“What?”

The whole class grinned mischievously, for everyone could see Gao Wenqiang’s true intention.

Gao Wenqiang liked Liu Feifei, and Liu Feifei’s first kiss had been stolen by Shi Bai. How could Gao Wenqiang not bear a grudge? He would certainly seize any chance to teach Shi Bai a lesson.

Gao Yang chuckled quietly, “Good luck.”

But Shangguan Yunfei and Wang Zhongtian didn’t think so. Especially Wang Zhongtian, after yesterday’s events, he viewed Shi Bai as if he were an alien. In his mind, Shi Bai definitely wasn’t an ordinary person.

A man with no internal energy could casually unleash the Dragon Subduing Palm—how could he be from Earth?

Shangguan Yunfei felt similarly. Previously, he thought himself superior to Shi Bai in every way, but now, although Shi Bai still appeared ordinary, in his heart, Shi Bai had already surpassed him by miles.

Seeing Gao Wenqiang foolishly challenge Shi Bai, he smiled wryly and shook his head. “A worm trying to shake a tree—how laughable.”

Shi Bai looked at Gao Wenqiang, who was grinning maliciously at him, flexing his prized biceps as if to say, “Just wait till I beat you up.”

The other students believed Shi Bai was doomed, except for Ye Ying’er and a few others, who watched Shi Bai with anticipation.

Shi Bai smiled faintly and was about to step forward, but just then, the PE teacher spoke.

...

“Shi Bai, if you’re unwilling, you don’t have to go up. After all, your build is too different from Gao Wenqiang’s. There’s no point in you two sparring.”

“No, no!” Gao Wenqiang quickly grabbed the teacher. “It’s meaningful! Teacher, you said martial arts are for self-defense, right? Most of the time, it’s the strong attacking the weak, not the other way around. Isn’t it the weak who need to learn to overcome the strong? So self-defense should teach the weak how to defeat the strong!”

Mr. Chen grinned slyly and patted Gao Wenqiang’s head. “You think I don’t know what tricks you’re up to?”

Gao Wenqiang immediately protected his head. “Teacher! I’m not up to anything! What tricks could I possibly play?”

The students laughed.

The teacher said, “I can tell what you’re up to just by the way you stick your butt out—don’t try to fool me.” He pointed to Wang Zhongtian standing in the back row.

“You, the new student, come spar with Gao Wenqiang.”

Wang Zhongtian was startled and glanced at Shi Bai. “Teacher, I don’t know how to wrestle. Let Shi Bai spar with him.”

“Yes!” The students echoed, “It’s only interesting if they fight!”

“Teacher, let Shi Bai do it!”

“Enough!” The teacher insisted, “Can athletes of different weight classes compete? Don’t you know anything?”

Seeing the teacher’s attitude, the students who had been jeering showed disappointment.

“Ah, now we won’t see the show.”

“Yeah!”

“Boring.”

Even Gao Yang sighed and shook his head. “What a pity.”

“Teacher!”

Just then, Shi Bai strode forward.

“Let me make him cry.”