Pang Jiao slapped Wu Xiaoqi's face with several hefty smacks, first grabbing his hair to position his head before whipping her hand down.
The force was immense, the sound thunderous, as one can well imagine.
Wang Longlong reacted swiftly. As he patted Ma Shicheng on the shoulder, he had already stood up, looking towards the source of the noise.
The sound from moments before was truly loud, startling many of the classmates, the class suddenly buzzing like boiling water.
Jiang Ning and Bai Yuxia, along with Chen Siyu, were all alarmed.
The two girls cast curious glances in that direction. Before they could get a clear view, Dan Kaiquan had already sussed out the situation.
He quickly informed the girls, "Pang Jiao slapped Wu Xiaoqi three times. This is going to be good!"
Dan Kaiquan's face was alight with excitement, ready for the show.
Suddenly, his gaze moved down and he saw Xue Yuantong, sprawled on his desk, sound asleep.
Dan Kaiquan paused, then looked at Jiang Ning with a puzzled expression. Had Xue Yuantong not heard such a loud noise?
Why was he still sleeping?
Jiang Ning gestured to him, signaling not to interfere.
Of course, Dan Kaiquan would not pry into others' affairs; he swiftly turned his attention back to the actors.
Having been jerked awake by his hair, Wu Xiaoqi was groggily coming to his senses. He was about to fully recover when a few more slaps dazed him for several seconds.
It wasn't until he collected himself that he felt his entire face go numb.
He glared at Pang Jiao, "Are you insane? How dare you hit me? Do you want to die?"
His face flushed with surging blood, swollen all over.
The bystanders didn't know whether he was flushed from anger or from the slaps delivered by Pang Jiao.
"I was sleeping peacefully, what's it to you? If you don't give me an explanation today, I'll twist your pig head off!"
Wu Xiaoqi's eyes bulged, his expression ferocious, more terrifying than a wild dog baring teeth by the road.
At this moment, the classmates of Class 8 recalled Wu Xiaoqi's legend from before he transferred to Class 8 at Fourth Middle School.
He was someone who could be ruthless when provoked!
Definitely not one to be trifled with.
With Wu Xiaoqi's current clout in Class 8, he could easily overpower Song Sheng, ranking him among the top three.
While the other students felt intimidated, Pang Jiao was not the least bit afraid. She had been in more fights than most people had ever seen in a lifetime.
Bullying playmates from the same neighborhood, beating up kindergarten kids, forcefully cornering the class dreamboat, engaging in off-campus fights with the dreamboat's three brothers, single-handedly taking on a group of girls from her class, facing down a quarrelsome neighbor lady, and furiously kicking an old woman at the market.
At 16, Pang Jiao had an impressive record of countless victories, the only draw being the epic fight last semester with Miao Zhe.
"You think you're Miao Zhe?" she thought with utter disdain.
She retorted, "Weren't you the one who asked me to wake you up?"
Wu Xiaoqi bellowed, "I asked you to wake me up, did I ask you to hit me?"
Pang Jiao shouted back, "Did I call you, did I call you!"
She repeated the question several times, pushing her face close to Wu Xiaoqi's, less than five centimeters apart by the last repetition.
Pang Jiao roared in his face at such a close distance, "Did I, or did I not, call you to wake up!"
The forceful blast of her voice wrinkled Wu Xiaoqi's face and splattered it with her saliva.
Wu Xiaoqi only felt a wave of pickled cabbage odor assault him; his face felt as if showered upon, instantly wet in a large area, his eyelids twitching madly—some of it had sprayed into his eyes, stinging.
He wanted to wipe his face, but couldn't, as it would weaken his stance and make him seem intimidated.
Wu Xiaoqi continued to stare furiously as he shouted:
"Did you do it on purpose?"
"Ah, did you do it on purpose!"
Pang Jiao stepped closer, Wu Xiaoqi wanted to back away but couldn't; he watched in dread as Pang Jiao's flat pancake face came smashing towards him.
"You think I'm scared of you!" Instead of retreating, Wu Xiaoqi advanced.
"Bang!" Their foreheads collided, like bulls in a tussle, each determined to overpower the other.
The desks trembled non-stop, the chairs pushed back by their scuffle.
It wasn't just a physical struggle but also a battle of wills and spirits!
Their foreheads pushed against each other, their eyes fiercely glaring at close range; Pang Jiao yelled:
Wu Xiaoqi, refusing to be outdone, retorted: "Pig head, pig head!"
The classmates were thrilled, some of them trembling with excitement over the commotion.
From the back row, Wang Longlong exclaimed:
"Holy crap, are they kissing?!"
At that comment, Wu Xiaoqi and Pang Jiao instantly separated as if frantically shaking off something unclean.
Wu Xiaoqi wiped his face, sticky; when he looked at Pang Jiao again, his eyes were full of disdain.
Pang Jiao pinched her plump index finger and coquettishly pressed her bright red lower lip, her face turning stern:
"You smeared my lipstick!"
Wu Xiaoqi scoffed with practiced ease, threatening with ease:
"I will not only mess up your lipstick, I will mess up you!"
This remark left all the boys in Class 8 dumbfounded, including Meng Gui with his ten-centimeter-high hairstyle, staring at Wu Xiaoqi in shock!
Despite Meng Gui's recent enlightenment, he doubted he could achieve such a feat even if he attained enlightenment a hundred times over.
Cui Yu found it unbelievable too, but he had been watching too many such films recently, becoming highly familiar with the actions and poses.
Wu Xiaoqi's words invited Cui Yu's wild imagination.
"Is it that kind of 'mess' that I'm thinking of?"
But when Cui Yu turned his camera-like gaze back to the two of them, his heart skipped a beat.
This was going to be epic!
With Cui Yu's discerning eye, this scenario would be legendary, but certainly not best-selling.