The more a child is bullied, the more ruthless they become. On the contrary, children who often bully others learn how to control their strength. Zhang Lei never considered the consequences of his actions. It was lucky that Lei Xiaofeng was unharmed this time, and perhaps it was also lucky for Zhang Lei.
Just as Zhang Lei had predicted, when Lei Xiaofeng tried to find Zhang Lei, he suddenly discovered that Zhang Lei wasn't in class, which nearly drove Lei Xiaofeng crazy. After inquiring further, he learned that Zhang Lei had gone to a special classroom. To isolate him from outside interference, unrelated students weren't even allowed to approach. How could they not take the orders from above seriously? The school was practically asking the security department to stand guard.
Those who enjoy bullying others all share a common trait: they'd rather die than suffer a loss. Zhang Lei had given Lei Xiaofeng such a humiliating defeat, naturally leaving him resentful. In the past, few people witnessed the fights firsthand. Although Lei Xiaofeng usually bore more severe marks, Zhang Lei was typically the one who ended up crying. The prevailing opinion here was that whoever cried was the loser, so Lei Xiaofeng always considered himself the victor. But this time, Zhang Lei's defeat was witnessed by many students, both on the playground and in the classroom, and rumors about it quickly spread.
But at this moment, Zhang Lei couldn't move a single finger. If this affected the students participating in the competition, then Lei Xiaofeng's family would have to leave the power plant. This wasn't just a school matter; the three plant directors and deputy directors had already come to check on the progress of the competition preparations.
Taking his anger out on others might be his only option at this moment. San Leizi knew that Zhang Lei's best friend was Tian Zhiguo, but Tian Zhiguo was also a member of the advanced class for the competition. San Leizi wasn't stupid; of course he knew whether or not to mess with him.
This leaves only Leng Weifeng, who dared to befriend Zhang Lei even after San Leizi had already started picking a fight with him. San Leizi had actually disliked him before, but Leng Weifeng was an important member of the Xiong Yong Group, and San Leizi didn't want to have a direct conflict with them unless absolutely necessary.
San Leizi wasn't entirely alone before, but his original gang had grown estranged from him after a long separation, so they probably couldn't offer any real help. In this class, Wang Baozhong and Song Yadong, who had also repeated a grade, weren't on his side at all; he often bullied them, and besides, those two weren't exactly known for fighting.
Moreover, Song Yadong and Leng Weifeng brought along a relative, who seemed to be Leng Weifeng's distant nephew. It's considered extremely disrespectful for a junior to hit an elder here. Even if you held a knife to his throat, he probably wouldn't dare to lay a hand on him. Besides, that guy is all strength and no guts.
After thinking it over, Lei Xiaofeng realized that the only way was to lure Leng Weifeng into a one-on-one fight. Only in this way would Xiong Yong and his men be of no use.
Unbeknownst to him, Xiong Yong and his friends had been accumulating resentment towards him during this time. They used to be the undisputed leaders of the class, but since Lei Xiaofeng came down, it seemed he had suddenly stolen all their power. These days, even when Xiong Yong and his friends bullied others, they felt it was unjustified and had to watch their step first. When Lei Xiaofeng was in a bad mood, anyone who made a disturbance nearby would be berated or thrown at them without a second thought. Under such a fearful and apprehensive attitude, bullying others wouldn't be satisfying.
Moreover, Zhang Lei had been their classmate for many years. Even if they weren't in the same group, they were still classmates. Lei Xiaofeng's constant bullying of Zhang Lei gave them the feeling that an outsider was bullying their own people. Although they didn't dare to take action for the time being due to the pressure of the rumors, their dissatisfaction was indeed accumulating.
Episode 1: Internal Strength Like a Drug, Chapter 9: The Battle of Displaced Anger
San Leizi is an impulsive person who doesn't think things through much. Otherwise, he wouldn't have reached his current status in the underworld. This time, Zhang Lei took advantage of him by striking first, but he has no way to retaliate. With a target for his anger in front of him, external factors usually don't have much influence.
"They're fighting! They're fighting!" Zhang Lei and Tian Zhiguo occupied a classroom, but the teacher couldn't stay with them all the time. He had other classes to teach and lesson plans to prepare, so he often left the questions to them and went to do his own thing.
This classroom is the only half-floor on the three-and-a-half-story building. The school specially designated this least disturbed classroom to provide these two people with a quiet environment. It was originally a meeting place, and all the equipment was top-notch.
Even in this quiet classroom, you could hear a cacophony of cheers from below. You know, fighting isn't uncommon in a school for children of employees; what kind of fight could make these students so excited?
"Let's go down and take a look?" Tian Zhiguo was getting restless. From the fourth-floor window, he could only see two blurry figures. The battle was taking place right in front of the building, which was probably one of the reasons why it was attracting attention.
"Want to see? Let's go!" Zhang Lei grabbed his coat from the table and rushed out. "Wait for me! Slow down, slow down!" Tian Zhiguo also grabbed clothes from another table. These two were really extravagant, taking up an entire table with their clothes, backpacks, and even pencil cases.
Because of the teachers' supervision, many students, despite wanting to go out, were still confined to the classroom and could only compete for the few windows where they could barely see other people.
Another reason why there weren't many spectators was that one of the fighters was San Leizi, who was known for beating up spectators.
Logically speaking, the party in a fight is most afraid of incurring public wrath, but San Leizi doesn't care about that. Even a group of rabbits wouldn't dare to bare their teeth at a lion, so here San Leizi is the lion.
The one who fought with San Leizi was Leng Weifeng, but none of the teachers around knew why.
Most students were still somewhat afraid of teachers, so there were few people on the steps of the gate where the teachers were watching the excitement. Zhang Lei had seen these teachers often since he was a child; they were all his parents' colleagues, some even from the same teaching and research office. Of course, there was nothing to be afraid of. This was the least crowded, safest, and highest point, not too far from the battlefield. Zhang Lei couldn't help but admire these teachers; they really knew how to use their status to occupy the best spots even for watching the battle.
Since this place was so nice, Zhang Lei naturally didn't stand on ceremony and pulled Tian Zhiguo into the best viewing spot.
However, every advantage has its disadvantages. The teachers, of course, won't have any information about what's going on between the students; they can only watch the excitement and comment on the situation.
Teachers are human too, and they also enjoy watching a spectacle. The teachers at the door are mostly female or older, while the male teachers usually hide in their offices to watch, so they can have an excuse to shirk responsibility if someone criticizes them for not separating the two students who are fighting.
Lei Xiaofeng did not gain much advantage over Leng Weifeng. Leng Weifeng's combat ability may have far exceeded his expectations, and his strength may have even surpassed Lei Xiaofeng's.
Some children develop earlier, and Leng Weifeng might be one of them. Even though Lei Xiaofeng is two years older, he doesn't have any downy hair on his upper lip, so he probably doesn't have any downy hair either.
Boys develop very quickly during puberty, and their muscles and bones become stronger rapidly under the stimulation of male hormones, easily bridging the two-year age gap.
However, Leng Weifeng's reaction might not have been very fast. He kept seeing San Leizi jump up and attack randomly. But Leng Weifeng protected himself very well, and the few times he managed to strike, he could still cause San Leizi a lot of trouble.
The two fought so fiercely that the sky darkened and the sun and moon lost their light. Of course it got dark, because it was already evening. Normally, school would have already let out by this time, but many students had to stay on campus, and those who left had to jump out of the back window and take a longer route.
Girls might be affected a little less, but even they have to stay far away for fear of being implicated.
The middle school building was an older one, and the toilets weren't inside the building. They were built separately at the other end of the playground. Two students who happened to be cleaning the toilets got stuck inside. They were peeking around in the toilet, wanting to take the buckets and mops back to the classroom but not daring to. Even if they didn't go back, they couldn't stay in the toilet and smell the odor forever.
Just as the two of them had finally mustered up the courage to sneak around the battle and head back, San Leizi erupted.
"Look, look at your mother's eyes, what's so interesting? I'll show you!" Lei Xiaofeng jumped up and chased after the students who were watching. The students were like sheep being chased by a lion, and they quickly scattered. If they didn't have time to run away, they could only consider themselves unlucky. Who told them to watch the show so closely?
Lei Xiaofeng was already in control, so when he took the initiative to break away from the battle, Leng Weifeng couldn't stop him. Watching San Leizi jump up and beat the audience like a monkey, Leng Weifeng took the opportunity to bend over and rest for a bit.
Sanleizi, on the other hand, showed no signs of fatigue, as if he hadn't been the one fighting the whole time. This might be one of the reasons why he has been able to dominate the power plant.
As the saying goes, those who know it are not as good as those who love it, and those who love it are not as good as those who enjoy it. When it comes to fighting, these three Lei Zi are definitely tireless in their enjoyment. Moreover, they probably qualify as both those who know it and those who love it.
"Give it to me!" San Leizi snatched the mop from the hands of the two warriors who had just returned from cleaning the toilets. The two warriors dared not utter a single objection in front of him.
Having obtained his new weapon, San Leizi rushed back to Leng Weifeng excitedly. With this thing in hand, his chances of winning had undoubtedly increased significantly. In fact, judging from Leng Weifeng's performance during the break, he probably wouldn't have been able to keep going if he had continued fighting for a little longer.
Zhang Lei didn't see how it ended. They were quickly called back by the teacher in charge of the math competition. He only heard that San Leizi didn't win in the end. The teachers saw that a large-scale chemical weapon had been used, so they called out a few male teachers to go up and separate the two of them.
Unlike Zhang Lei, who was still worried about Leng Weifeng, Tian Zhiguo hated Leng Weifeng even more than he hated Lei Xiaofeng. After all, Lei Xiaofeng hadn't had any real conflict with him yet, but he had been beaten by Leng Weifeng twice. In his opinion, it would be better if the two of them died together. Because of their differing stances, this topic didn't stay discussed between the two for long.
Fighting in front of the school building, and disrupting normal teaching, would usually result in severe punishment in other schools, even if the student wasn't expelled or forced to leave. However, at Yudian Middle School, it was just a student's way of venting their frustrations. The two students didn't even receive a warning, and the matter was quickly forgotten.
Episode 1: Internal Strength Like a Drug - Chapter 10: No One Is Jesus
There's not much to say about the Junior Olympics. For these specially trained students, the test questions are so simple it's like a hypnotic spell, probably just to see who might accidentally answer something wrong.
Zhang Lei has never been a very careful child when it comes to exam papers. Getting high scores is normal for him, but getting full marks is rare. He always makes a small mistake unintentionally, and checking doesn't help. It's just his nature.
This time was no different; under the watchful eyes of the leaders, everything proceeded very quickly. Before Zhang Lei and his team even returned from Changchun, the competition results had already been sent to the school. As expected, Zhang Lei once again missed out on a perfect score, getting only 94 points after missing one question.
Originally, this score wouldn't have been enough to qualify for the finals. However, after selecting all the perfect scores and two scores of 97 (who missed half a question), there were still two spots available. Zhang Lei was lucky enough to be selected from among the many scores of 94 and will participate in the finals held in Jinzhou during the summer vacation.
As for whether he had a connection with Teacher Ma from the provincial bureau, or for some other reason, Zhang Lei didn't know. At that time, Zhang Lei probably didn't know much either.
When the second semester of the first year of junior high school started, the international situation in the class had changed drastically. Because of a fierce battle between San Leizi and Leng Weifeng, Xiong Yong Alliance finally faced off against Lei Xiaofeng.
The matter was dropped by the school, but it was unlikely to be dropped by the students. Neither side could back down even a step; any retreat would mean a complete loss of face. Although it wasn't as dangerous as between real nations, the principle was the same.