Chapter 6 Encounter with the Big Bad Wolf

  In the second year of spring, school resumed classes. Actually, last October, the school had already shouted to resume classes, but the two factions of the "rebels" fought for leadership rights and did not give in to each other, delaying things. In the end, it was the Commune Revolutionary Committee that intervened and established a "three-in-one" combination that allowed school to start. Zhang Peng's school was located at the west end of the village, with only elementary school, and children from nearby villages went to school there, with over 30 teachers and more than 300 students.

  On the first day of school, Zhang Peng wore a backpack made from an old military uniform to school. The straps were a bit long and the metal pencil case inside kept hitting his buttocks with a "slap, slap" sound. The doors and windows of the school had been painted bright red, and the classrooms were plastered with colorful slogans. On the playground, after the classes were divided, everyone waited for the meeting to start. A banner had already been hung on the stage, but Zhang Peng couldn't make out what was written on it even after staring at it for a long time. At this moment, senior students led by teachers shouted "Long live Chairman Mao!", "Long live the proletariat!", and "Down with ***! Let him never turn over!"... Amidst the slogans, two Red Guards, one male and one female, wearing green military hats and uniforms, with armed belts around their waists, escorted a middle-aged woman onto the stage. The middle-aged woman was the school's original principal, her head bowed deeply, her arms raised in a "jet" shape, a blackboard hung from her neck, the iron wire already digging into her flesh. To prevent the blackboard from touching the ground, several bricks were placed under her feet. Zhang Peng stared at this scene with wide eyes, unable to understand why the Red Guards were doing this. In a daze, he didn't hear what the people on stage said, but someone in the crowd shouted slogans again, and several Red Guards walked onto the stage, took off their armed belts, and took turns whipping the old principal's back fiercely, with a "whooshing" sound, like whipping a cotton package. The old principal struggled violently, her mouth saying something that couldn't be heard clearly. Suddenly, the female Red Guard shouted loudly into the microphone: "Resolutely defend the great line! Whoever doesn't bow their head will be destroyed!" The female Red Guard's hoarse voice made Zhang Peng shiver involuntarily, and the people below also followed with loud slogans, as if everyone had gone mad.

  When everything was over, Zhang Peng and the others were taken back to the classroom. The classroom had several rows of old desks covered with dust, on the wall hung Chairman Mao's and Vice-Commander's portraits which were quite new, with slogans written on both sides "Long live China" and "Long live Chairman Mao". The teacher organized everyone to clean up the classroom, distributed two textbooks, talked about the class schedule and then dismissed school.

  Zhang Peng's homeroom teacher was a female teacher in her thirties, named Liu Wei Hong (she changed her name from its original during the movement because she felt it wasn't revolutionary enough). She looked fairly delicate and used to be a worker at the county machinery factory. Because of her active performance during the movement and some cultural background, she was assigned to become a teacher. This person was quite vicious. Within days after school started, students were divided into several categories: on one side were the "red five classes" who were considered good, and on the other side were the "black five classes" who needed reform, and they were asked to supervise and report each other for any counter-revolutionary words or actions.

  One day, a student named Li Yan pointed to the portrait on the wall and said: "The days of Lin Vice-Chairman's family are definitely not as good as those of Chairman Mao's family, because Lin Vice-Chairman is thin." Someone reported it, and Teacher Liu was convinced that he was stirring up trouble between national leaders, intending to split the Party Central Committee. He criticized him for a whole week. Another unlucky guy threw chalk on the Chairman's portrait during a fight and was immediately reported, attacked the great leader, and expelled from school that day. After several incidents, it seemed that all the classmates had matured, speaking and acting cautiously, defending against each other, and their relationships became increasingly indifferent.

  At that time, school was half-day classes and half-day 'learning agriculture'. Classes were mainly about learning Mao's works, with cultural courses as supplementary. Learning agriculture meant participating in labor at the production team, stopping classes during busy farming seasons to participate in harvesting and planting. There were many 'movements', with rebel groups taking turns in power, one group stepping down and another taking over, even 7-8 year old kids couldn't understand what was going on, younger students followed older students who were part of the rebel groups to participate in 'revolution'. Students didn't care about studying anymore, teachers slowly stopped caring too. Zhang Peng muddled through until third grade like this.

  Today is really damn cold, Zhang Peng wore an old military canteen around his waist with a rope, rubbing his hands while walking up the mountain. That damned labor team leader, only when it got cold did he remember that the school's winter heating firewood hadn't been prepared yet, so he gave the order to let students stop classes for a week to collect firewood, declaring that they couldn't take any from home, and had to uphold the spirit of 'hard work and self-reliance, being content with simple living', with a quota of 30 kilograms, which would be weighed, exceeding which would be praised, failing to complete would result in writing a self-criticism and holding a struggle meeting. Yesterday Zhang Peng went around the village edge and even picked up dry grass, today he had no choice but to go up into the mountains to try his luck. The trees on the mountain couldn't be cut down, only the fallen branches could be picked up, after picking for half a day he only managed to pick up about 10 kilograms or so. Zhang Peng was prepared and brought food, finding a sunny spot under a big tree to sit down, taking out the big pancake hidden in his chest to eat, fortunately the pancake had been kept warm in his chest, but the water in the canteen was too cold and hurt his teeth when he drank it.

  Suddenly, a black shadow flashed before Zhang Peng's eyes, "Wolf", Zhang Peng's hair stood on end.

  Zhang Peng's eyes are now sharp and fierce, that tail which was almost dragging on the ground is pointing downwards, no mistake about it, it's definitely a wolf. As he made this judgment, Zhang Peng threw away the big pancake in his hand, used both legs to jump upwards with force, grabbed onto a thick tree branch, and did a "cat flip" to land on a high fork of the tree more than three meters above the ground. The wolf probably felt that its sneak attack had failed, slowly walked out from its hiding place, suddenly pounced, almost biting Zhang Peng's foot. Zhang Peng was scared and quickly stood up, the wolf tried several times but couldn't bite him, then found a place to crouch down. One person, one wolf, one on the tree, one under the tree, they faced off against each other.

  Zhang Peng looked around from his high vantage point and didn't see any other wolves, so he let out a sigh of relief. As the saying goes, "A good tiger can't beat a pack of wolves." This was a lone wolf that had failed in its bid to become the wolf king and had been driven out of the pack, making it even more ferocious and cunning.

  Zhang Peng wasn't worried and carefully observed the wolf from the tree. The wolf was still a black wolf, which was quite rare. Its fur was very thick, and if he could get his hands on its pelt, it would make for a warm bedspread, perfect for his old man. Wolf meat was said to taste similar to dog meat, and looking at the wolf's size, he estimated that there would be around 60 kilograms of meat left after skinning it. He hadn't learned how to hunt wolves before, but he had learned how to fight people! How could he take down this wolf?

  The wolf was also feeling quite frustrated. Its life had been going well until that beautiful little female wolf kept egging it on to challenge the old wolf king. If it hadn't lost that fight and been forced to roam around, things wouldn't have turned out like this. Ugh! What made it even angrier was this little brat who thought he could just run up a tree and get away from it. Wasn't this just bullying a wolf? It would wait... Wait, what's wrong with this kid's eyes? Never mind, its neck was getting tired, so it lay down for a bit.

  Who the hell was pulling on its tail?!

  Zhang Peng saw the wolf crouching down, and with a swift jump, he grasped the wolf's tail, using both arms to swing it upwards and slam it against the tree trunk. However, the wolf suddenly straightened its body in mid-air, kicked off the tree with its hind legs, and pounced at Zhang Peng like an arrow. Zhang Peng had no choice but to sidestep, avoiding the wolf's jaws, and with a swift motion, he slapped the wolf on the head, causing it to let out a mournful howl as it crashed to the ground.

  Just as Zhang Peng was about to approach, the wolf surprisingly sprang back up, its four paws grasping the earth, ears perked up, fur standing on end, lips curled back, and teeth bared. It arched its back and let out a low growl.

  "The old folks in the village say that wolves have copper heads, iron backs, tofu waists, and hemp stalk legs," Zhang Peng thought to himself. "No wonder it's still fine after I slapped it."

  As he was thinking, the wolf crouched down again and pounced once more. Zhang Peng hastily stabilized his stance, grabbed the ground with all ten toes, and launched a double-fisted attack, using the "Wild Horse Charging" technique to strike the wolf right on the nose. The wolf stood up on its hind legs, and Zhang Peng took advantage of the momentum to deliver a powerful shoulder tackle to the wolf's belly, sending it tumbling to the ground.

  Before the wolf could react again, Zhang Peng's left foot came crashing down on its waist with incredible force - he was normally able to kick apart thick wooden clubs, let alone now when he was enraged. The wolf let out a few whimpering cries, blood flowing from its nose and mouth as it convulsed for a moment before lying still.

  Zhang Peng untied the rope from his waist, tied up the wolf, sat on the ground, drank half a bottle of water, and slowly calmed down. After resting for a while, Zhang Peng shouldered the dead wolf, didn't even want firewood, and headed down the mountain. He had originally wanted to drag the wolf along, but was afraid of damaging the wolf's fur, so he could only shoulder it, walking and resting along the way, not arriving home until nightfall.