Plan A
Mist Map 20
Rescue
Time was getting tighter and tighter. They had searched every place in this city related to the clown, but found nothing.
The clown youth Su Xin had encountered in the park also said apologetically that he hadn’t found anyone strange or unfamiliar.
At night, Su Xin sat on the hotel bed, her mind filled with all sorts of clowns; her head felt like it was about to explode.
Every night, what she dreamed of were faces covered in greasepaint. She racked her brains but couldn’t come up with a solution. There had to be somewhere she hadn’t noticed, or rather, a place she had noticed but hadn’t studied carefully.
The Captain was the most anxious one, but he just threw himself into running around, never a chatterbox.
What Liao Qingjie saw was Su Xin’s glum expression, her brows tightly furrowed.
“Stop frowning. Go wash up first. Things will sort themselves out eventually1; there’ll definitely be a way. Later, we can go look for any clues you find suspicious together.”
The cool towel pressed against her face, dispelling some of the natural heat from her body. Su Xin took the towel and wiped her face, then let out a long sigh. Through the unclosed curtains, she looked at the scenery outside the window. That night view must be cool. A pitiful person was struggling in some corner of the city, perhaps in a comatose state, desperately waiting for her arrival.
“I think that ugly statue in front of the park is very strange. There’s no reason, I just feel it’s very strange, like there must be something different inside, but then again, there really isn’t.”
Su Xin zoned out again. More importantly, she had already examined that statue several times. She had gone to look at it the night before last; it was seamlessly joined, well-fitted. Even if it was hollow, there was no way it could be taken apart.
She had always trusted her sixth sense or intuition. This wasn’t something without basis; relying on this keen sense, she had avoided many dangers, so she still believed in her judgment.
“If you still think it’s strange, then go look at it again. Either dispel your doubts or confirm your thoughts.”
Liao Qingjie said this. Of course, she wouldn’t think her sweetheart2 was being overly suspicious, guessing this and that. Things could actually be very simple: if you don’t believe it, then go look. If you still don’t believe it, then look again. There was nothing to hesitate about.
Everything in this world is very simple. Within the limited scope of choices one can make, do what you want to do, eat what you want to eat, chase what you want to chase, like what you want to like.
“Okay, then wait for me to finish my shower. After my shower, I’ll go there and look again.”
“Okay.”
Liao Qingjie didn’t like seeing her sweetheart unhappy. She hoped Su Xin could always live under bright sunshine, revealing a cute and charming smile.
Su Xin took a combat shower3, dried herself, put on her clothes, and pulled Liao Qingjie out the door.
In a city this size, if you wanted to quickly reach a place, the most convenient transport service was undoubtedly a taxi.
Su Xin had taken many taxi rides these past few days, at least four or five trips a day. She had already gotten to know many different cabbies in this city.
And every time she got into a car, Su Xin would choose to chat, not remain silent. Although she didn’t like talking to drivers when she took taxis in the past, now, only by knowing more could she understand more.
“It’s already past nine at night, where are you two off to play?”
This time, the taxi Shifu4 was a slightly chubby, bald middle-aged man. He looked like a bit of a ruffian.
It was just that if someone saw this taxi Shifu’s appearance late at night, they might think he was up to no good.
This face really wasn’t suited for the service industry. However, in the days to come, Su Xin would thank herself more than once for encountering this taxi Shifu.
“We’re going to the Clown Theme Park.”
“Isn’t it past nine at night? The theme park closed long ago. You two must be from out of town, right? Find another place to play; there’s nothing much to see there anymore.”
“We’re not going inside the Clown Park. We want to see that statue outside the park.”
“For a photo op? It’s pitch-dark5 this late at night, and the lighting isn’t good enough. I think it’s better to go take pictures tomorrow during the day. Although there will be a lot of people, you can go early, can’t you?”
“You have a point, but we just want to see that statue tonight. It feels very different.”
“Of course it’s different. Do you know why so many people want to take photos with it?”
The taxi Shifu showed a smug smile.
“Hmm? Why is that? Isn’t it just because it’s a clown statue? People take photos with it as a memento, to prove they’ve been here, right? Anyway, that’s what we were thinking.”
Su Xin was all smiles, her accent even changing.
“Pfft, young girls still have limited experience. If you want to prove you’ve been to that park, wouldn’t taking a photo at the entrance or going inside to take a photo with the clowns there be enough? Why bother queuing up in the hot weather just to take a picture with it?”
The taxi Shifu turned the steering wheel, making a turn at an intersection.
“It seems Shifu, you know quite a lot. Why don’t you tell us two outsiders if there are any stories?”
Su Xin felt a little excited, always feeling like she could learn some unknown things. Maybe these things could help her solve the puzzle.
“Actually, I’ve been in this line of work for a long time. When this city was just starting to develop its taxi services, I was already in this job.”
The Shifu drove very steadily, stopping at a red light.
“Yo, an old hand,6 huh.”
“When these roads weren’t even properly planned, I was already buzzing around here. I’ve loved cars since I was a kid. My studies weren’t good back then, so I just learned to drive. That Clown Park, I watched it being built. In the very beginning, there was no statue at the entrance.”
“Then how did that statue come about?”
Su Xin chimed in. Chatting, isn’t that how it works? You have to chime in from time to time, otherwise, it’s boring for one person to talk.
“You should know that the boss who built that park really likes clowns, right? He had a lover who also really liked this kind of thing. His lover was a very famous designer, especially fond of tinkering with mechanisms. That thing was a perfect piece of work.”
The Shifu seemed quite cultured, the way he spoke and all.7
“Mechanisms?”
“Right. When that thing was built, wasn’t it empty inside? It looked like it was tightly fitted without any gaps, but actually, you could use a mechanism to open it from the middle of its waist. People could hide inside. Back then, that boss was talking from inside it, wow, it scared a bunch of people badly. They thought they’d seen a ghost in broad daylight, that some supernatural event had occurred.”
The Shifu laughed heartily, as if remembering something very amusing.
“That group of people all ran away scared. Then, a few braver ones continued to touch it, and when they found there were no gaps at all, they were terrified.”
“Why? Couldn’t it be that someone was already inside when the statue was being made?”
“Because when the statue was first being welded there, everyone was watching. It was empty inside, nothing at all. But that was seven or eight years ago; many people have probably forgotten.”
This city changed too quickly. Some buildings were torn down, other buildings went up, roads were replanned and reorganized, and new residential areas were built here and there.
As someone who needed to drive on the roads in various parts ofthis city, the taxi Shifu needed to understand the terrain, so he felt these changes more deeply.
The Clown Theme Park was an eight-year-old structure. It had been renovated many times, of course, with the boss himself paying for the renovations. This hobby of his was quite enduring; he’d liked it for so long.
Su Xin’s heart pounded. That was it, that was exactly it.
The most dangerous place is actually the safest place. Who would have thought that a person was hidden inside the clown statue in the square, where people come and go all the time?
So, the clown is ‘the clown’.
The clues given by the killer were far simpler than they had imagined, without any particularly complex symbolic meaning.
The killer was probably laughing, right? This move was definitely brilliant, banking on the certainty that no one would ever discover it.
“Shifu, do you know where that mechanism is?”
“I have to know. After all, I was at the scene back then. But knowing this thing isn’t necessary; only a few people know. Otherwise, there would definitely be people squatting inside to scare others every day. But it’s been so long, I don’t know if that mechanism is still working. It’s right there under the base, a small protruding spot. I tried it before, but it wasn’t much fun after playing with it once.”
“Alright then, we’ll go try it out later too. If it’s not broken, we’ll take a picture, hehehe.”
Su Xin was still smiling, but her heart was dark. This kind of unknown secret, playing with it, and it had been eight years already—how did the killer know?
Just as Su Xin was thinking this, she saw a phone extend towards her from the back seat.
The content on the phone screen was simply heart-piercing.8
HideAndSeek#
OP9: As the title says! Want to play hide-and-seek with a friend at K City Clown Park. Whoever gets found first has to pay for the whole day. Just the two of us playing, winner decided by how long it takes. Does anyone have any good hiding spot recommendations! People of K City, please give us some tips!
1F10: Why go to so much trouble to play hide-and-seek? Wouldn’t rock-paper-scissors just do the trick? I’ve been to that place, but it doesn’t seem like there are many places to hide people.
2F11: Definitely the clown statue! It’s a super hidden spot. But if you’re thinking of playing hide-and-seek during the day, forget it. There are way too many people there, and many later visitors don’t even know there’s a mechanism. They’re just there joining in the fun blindly taking pictures.
This post was published four years ago. It would show up if you searched for [K City, Clown] or [K City, Hide-and-seek].
“Could it be that…”
Su Xin handed the phone back to Liao Qingjie. Could it be that the killer chose such a careless method as Baidu?12
“This is just a guess.”
Liao Qingjie took back her phone. It just confirmed that there was indeed a way to find out through other channels.
Su Xin felt a bit annoyed. She had been anxiously searching for related information and indeed hadn’t seen this post. Moreover, the Captain and the others hadn’t seen it either.
“Girls, we’ve arrived at your destination. Eight yuan in total.”
“Alright, thanks.”
It was a genuine thank you. This Shifu, you would never know that in an unintentional conversation, you saved a person’s life.
Su Xin ran towards the square, Liao Qingjie striding with her long legs to keep up.
The statue still stood there quietly, unchanged from the daytime. The smile on its face had long since solidified, though its paint was already somewhat mottled and faded.
Su Xin hurriedly ran over, squatted down, and fumbled around the side of the base.
After fumbling for a while, Su Xin finally found that round, protruding spot. That thing was hidden too well.
Su Xin used a lot of strength to press it down. Accompanied by a vibrating sound, the clown statue split open from the middle. A man, with his hands and feet tied and his mouth taped shut, was in a comatose state, his hair sweat-soaked, lying slumped there.
Indeed!
Liao Qingjie quickly made a call to the Captain, telling him the hostage had been found, on the left side, outside the Clown Theme Park.
Zhang Shuyi was already at death’s door.13 Every night, that clown would inject him with nutrient solution, maintaining his life. But the space was too small, his limbs couldn’t move, blood couldn’t circulate, and his breathing wasn’t smooth.
Although this statue had many small ventilation holes, it still wasn’t enough.
What made him despair even more was that when light illuminated the land, so many people were outside him. He couldn’t see outside, and the outside couldn’t see him. Such a bustling crowd, yet no one could save him.
He could only wait for the outside to change from noisy to quiet, for day to turn into night.
His consciousness became increasingly adrift, then sank.
“Captain, we found him. Clown Theme Park, come quickly.”
The Captain’s originally upright body suddenly slumped, collapsing onto the sofa, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Lao Mo, I realize I’m still quite useless. In the end, it was the young lady who found the person. I’ve really let down this uniform.”
The Captain stood up, picked up the water cup on the table and drank it all in one go, wiped his mouth, then rubbed his hair, looking very tired.
“What’s there to blame yourself for? This is still my turf, and I didn’t find anything either, did I? But your witness is really quite smart. Do you want to consider developing her as an unofficial informant?”
Lao Mo rarely refrained from mocking his old rival; after all, the facts were laid bare. It didn’t matter who found this clue, who solved this case, or who saved the hostage. As long as the hostage was safe and sound, it was a good thing.
“But I suspect the killer must have run off long ago.”
Lao Mo sat down on the sofa, feeling somewhat sympathetic towards his old rival.
This kind of case was the hardest to crack. Because although it was murder, it wasn’t a simple murder case.
If the victim was targeted because of people around them, some social connections, or other reasons, then even if these cases were a bit tricky, they could still be solved. Some were very easy, some were difficult, but as long as one diligently searched for clues, justice could still be served.
What was most feared was this kind of purposeful or random serial killer, a perverted murderer. You don’t know who the victims are, you don’t know who will be next. You clearly know someone will get hurt, but you’re powerless.
His old rival had come to this place for that person. Next time, who knows where he’ll have to run off to.
Because it wasn’t his sphere of influence, he could only act alone. This time, he ran into an old acquaintance like him, which was fortunate. If he encountered someone unfamiliar or perfunctory, things would be even more difficult.
The Captain drove a car from the bureau, reaching the destination at lightning speed.
By this time, Su Xin had already restored the clown statue to its original state and untied the ropes on the hostage’s hands and feet. However, the tape on his mouth hadn’t been touched yet, because it had been stuck on for several days. If it was rashly torn off, it might injure his face and mouth.
“Let’s send him to the hospital first. He looks very weak. I’ll take a photo later and send it to Lao Mo, let him check this person’s identity.”
The Captain took out his phone, snapped a picture with a kachak, and after getting it done, carried the man horizontally, a standard princess carry, into the car.
“Okay.”
Su Xin and Liao Qingjie also got into the car, one in the front seat, one in the back.
They quickly arrived at the hospital. The staff were a bit clueless seeing this situation, but their professionalism was unquestionable. They immediately sent the man for treatment.
“How on earth did you guys find him?”
Su Xin then recounted the whole story, starting from her feeling that something was off, then the conversation with the taxi Shifu, and finally opening the clown statue and successfully rescuing the hostage.
“I also looked at this statue several times, but I just didn’t feel anything was wrong. After all, so many people come and go here during the day, taking pictures and talking. Who would have thought there was a person locked inside?”
The Captain looked terrified in retrospect, feeling his heart pound with fear. If they hadn’t found him in time, this life might have vanished from the world.
“Miss Bai, you are truly amazing.”
“No, our search still wasn’t thorough enough. For example, such an ingenious mechanism design, we actually didn’t even know about it.”
“Lao Mo, he didn’t know about this matter either, and we didn’t find it when we investigated.”
The Captain sighed. This killer was simply capable of driving him to a hormonal imbalance.14
The doctor came out soon and told them the examination results.
“The patient is generally fine, just hasn’t eaten or drunk water for a few days, relying only on nutrient solution to maintain basic bodily functions. The tape on his mouth has been treated and removed. There are no external injuries on his body. I believe this is entirely sufficient to inform the police to file a case. If you need my help, I can testify.”
“Thank you, comrade. I am the police. He is a hostage we just rescued.”
“I see.”
The hostage had already been sent to a ward for an IV drip. At this moment, the Captain also received a call from Lao Mo.
“The hostage’s identity has been found. Zhang Shuyi, from a relatively ordinary family, recently resigned from his job, has been missing for over forty-eight hours. His family has already filed a case. Our people over there investigating haven’t found anything. He went missing on his way home from working overtime at night. His company’s surveillance shows he did indeed leave the company, but his family hadn’t seen him arrive home.”
Actually, finding the hostage’s identity at this point wasn’t very useful, because the killer had probably already left this city, fled far away, to hunt for the next target.
His purpose wasn’t perfect murder, but designing a hiding game.
It was simply infuriating.
In the following time, Su Xin was waiting for the killer to contact her, and for the man lying in the bed to wake up.
Liao Qingjie had run off somewhere; only Su Xin was sitting beside the hospital bed.
The Captain finished his call and walked in, glancing at the man lying in the hospital bed.
“His identity has been confirmed. Lao Mo’s side has already notified his family; they’ll probably be here to visit soon. Zhang Shuyi, an ordinary office worker, but he was fired15 by his company a few days ago.”
“Mm.”
Su Xin didn’t care what Zhang Shuyi’s identity was. What she cared about was what he could tell her after he woke up, whether he still remembered what happened six years ago, whether he saw anything while the killer was kidnapping him, and whether the killer revealed anything to him.
About ten minutes later, hurried footsteps sounded at the door of the ward.
“Son! My son has been found, is that right? Son, are you okay?”
A woman, already showing signs of old age, with a lot of white hair and a haggard face, came in wiping her tears. Upon seeing the person lying on the hospital bed, she rushed over.
Walking in behind her should be Zhang Shuyi’s father, wearing glasses, looking rather thin and scholarly.
Su Xin stood up from the bedside, leaving time for this pair of parents.
“It’s only been a few days, how did you get so thin? Where’s the doctor? Where’s the doctor? When will my son wake up?”
“Quiet down, it’s late at night, and this is a hospital. Don’t shout. Isn’t our son alright, safe and sound? It’s good that nothing happened. Don’t disturb our son.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Mother Zhang nodded.
“The doctor said he should wake up in about two or three hours. Because he hasn’t eaten or drunk for several days, his body is somewhat malnourished. Because he was in a confined and narrow space, he experienced difficulty breathing.”
Su Xin explained.
“Are you the police? Did you find my son?”
“She found him. If you want to thank someone, thank her.”
“Thank you, young lady! Our Zhang family owes you a huge favor! What happened to my son? He was perfectly fine and full of life just a few days ago, although he worked very hard overtime every day.”
“Something happened, but at least he wasn’t injured.”
The ward returned to quiet. Zhang Shuyi’s father seemed to be the taciturn type, not very talkative, standing by the hospital bed quietly looking at his son’s sleeping face. Mother Zhang, on the other hand, wiped Zhang Shuyi’s face with her hand.
“I’ll go buy some food for our son, some congee. He’s been starving for several days, what if he wants to eat when he wakes up? I’ll also go pay his hospital fees. You probably haven’t paid them yet, right?”
Mother Zhang said, tucking in the corner of her son’s blanket.
“We haven’t had time yet. You arrived very quickly.”
“That’s good. Young lady, would you like something to eat? I can bring it back for you.”
“No need, thank you, Auntie.”
Su Xin and the Captain walked out of the ward to wait. They both had questions to ask. It was too troublesome to go back now, so they might as well wait here.
Su Xin looked left and right but couldn’t see Liao Qingjie anywhere. She wondered where she had run off to.
“Where’s Liao?”
“Don’t know where she went, but she should be nearby. She wouldn’t go too far from me.”
After all, she was a woman who insisted on sleeping in the same room, even squeezing onto the same bed with her.
“Mm-hmm. Do you have any clues for what’s next?”
“None at all. This situation is really too annoying.”
“We can find information on Lin Qiaoying16, but there’s no record of her buying tickets at major train stations or airports with her ID. Also, her hostage status, when you saw her, she was unconscious. I think the killer probably didn’t take her along when going out to commit crimes.”
“Yes, I think so too. Because we don’t know how many accomplices the killer has, nor do we know where the killer’s base is, nor what kind of person he will target next.”
The two fell silent. The Captain habitually wanted to take out a cigarette to smoke, but then he remembered this was a hospital and deeply suppressed the urge.
“This time, I really have to thank you for your help. I feel like I haven’t been much use. I’ve been busy for so many days with no results at all.”
The Captain looked at the hospital’s white walls, rubbing his fingers together.
“You can’t say that. It’s just that perhaps a woman’s sixth sense was at play, so I felt that clown statue was off. I don’t have any sophisticated investigative methods. If you asked me to solve a case, I might not be able to, after all, I’m not someone who studies this stuff. The main thing is that the killer is playing a ‘game’ with me.”
Su Xin said helplessly. It was really because they had already done a carpet search and eliminated everything. There was nothing left but to repeatedly chew over and scrutinize the existing clues, dissecting everything to see if anything was missed.
“Captain, how could you not have helped much? You helped me a lot, and so did Captain Mo. If you hadn’t spent so much energy investigating one by one, I wouldn’t have so easily noticed something was wrong. After all, although this city isn’t particularly large, it’s not small either, right? If I searched bit by bit on my own, who knows how long it would take, until what year and what month.”
The Captain chuckled, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“Actually, the main thing was luck, right? If I hadn’t taken that taxi tonight, but another one. If I hadn’t met that taxi Shifu, I might have missed this information. Even if I went to look at that clown statue again, I wouldn’t have seen anything.”
Fate really is a magical thing. To say it’s predestined by some unseen force isn’t quite right, yet it can’t be explained by scientific probability. It’s like luck with one’s hand in cards, mysterious and profound.
“Yeah, what I heard also sounds incredible. How could it be such a coincidence? Thanks to such a coincidence, and that Shifu also liked to chat. If we had met someone who knew but didn’t like to talk, then that would truly be… Ai…”
Some clues are buried very deep. If not for the right moment, they might lose their effectiveness.
“We can only say that even Heaven didn’t want this guy to die.”
“Yeah.”
The atmosphere finally lightened up a bit, instead of being stagnant in that thick, suffocating heaviness.
At this moment, all they thought of was the relief of victory, not letting themselves be constantly mired in that unknown confusion and fear. Even if some things were bound to come. But as long as one held a fearless heart, all difficulties would be readily solved.17
Like day and night, neither can be resisted by humans.
The inevitable arrival, just like they currently had no way to stop the killer from continuing to commit crimes. But fortunately, the killer wasn’t continuing with brutal murder and dismemberment, but adopting a puzzle-solving approach.
But this didn’t mean the killer had become merciful; on the contrary, he had become even more cruel and indifferent.
To be able to kill, calmly dismember a body, and feel no guilt—that’s one kind of psychology. But to hold a person’s life in one’s own hands, decide how they will die, make them tremble in anticipation of death’s arrival, and enjoy that feeling of toying with human life—that’s another kind of psychology.
The latter is even more powerful, more indifferent, more contemptuous of life, more cold-blooded.
“When will the next Death Communication18 be? The killer is playing a game with you. Is there any reward for winning?”
“Yes, some secrets I want to know. Those secrets are unrelated to the murder cases. But when the game reaches its end, whether I win or he wins, he will come back to kill me.”
Su Xin stated this very calmly. It wasn’t a detached indifference that had seen through everything, but a fearless confidence.
I am right here, not afraid of anyone’s challenge.
“We’ll send many people to protect you then.”
“Close protection?”
“If that’s what you want, then, of course, we’d be very happy to. But don’t you already have a close-protection expert by your side?”
The Captain joked along.
“Actually, if she and I fought one-on-one, I wouldn’t be afraid either. As long as you give me a weapon, a knife, or a gun.”
“You know how to use a gun?”
“Hmm… I like darts. I practiced at home for a while before. I think my aim is still pretty good, although I haven’t practiced for a long time. I threw them all away.”
Su Xin’s transition was seamless, absolutely flawless. But she knew the Captain couldn’t possibly give her a gun. No matter, she could touch Liao Qingjie’s.
“Little brat.”
The Captain suppressed a laugh.
At this moment, Su Xin’s phone rang.
It was a number with no caller ID. Su Xin knew who was calling.
The young man’s voice sounded again from the other end.
“You really didn’t disappoint me. On the last day of this game, you successfully rescued that person.”
“Our agreement. I will tell you the answer to a secret. But you must know, the initiative is in my hands. I have the right to first tell you the answer to whichever of your perplexing questions I choose. How about we talk about Xiao Xiaoruo?”
“I don’t want to hear about this one, thank you. Can we change it?”
“If you don’t want to hear about this one, then we have nothing more to say. You can only know the answer to one puzzle per game.”
“Then you can say it.”
Su Xin didn’t put it on speaker. Although the Captain was beside her, this was, after all, a hospital corridor, a public place.
“Why did she steal the Mist Map, and why did she try to harm you in the underground palace? Of course, it’s because she cooperated with us. What she wanted, you don’t need to know now. But she betrayed me, with Teng Li. I really didn’t see that she had such capabilities. Betrayers must die.”
The young man let out a burst of cheerful laughter, seeming to be in a rather good mood.
“So, has the next game started?”
“You’re really impatient. However, I can tell you very honestly, not yet. You still need to wait quietly for one day. But I can tell you the keyword and location in advance: Withered Vine, R City. The time limit is three days.”
The call was cut off, but Su Xin didn’t feel as agitated as when she received the call last time. Her heart was very calm.
It was bound to come eventually. It would come whether she was anxious, it would come whether she was peaceful. Might as well let herself be in a better mood.
“The keyword is Withered Vine, the location is R City.”
Su Xin handed her phone to the Captain, letting him listen to the recording himself.
R City was another, slightly more distant city.
“How can this killer run so much, and to such a distant place again.”
The Captain felt like coughing up a mouthful of old blood. He had just caught his breath not long ago.
“Withered Vine? What’s Withered Vine? How is this keyword even more abstract than ‘Clown’?”
The Captain was on the verge of a breakdown.
“R City. I’ll buy a plane ticket first, and book one for you too while I’m at it.”
“Thanks. How much is it? Tell me later.”
The Captain said, very embarrassed. All his money was with his wife; he had to go ask for some now.
“It’s just the price of one plane ticket, it’s fine.”
The original host’s assets were still quite substantial. Due to the inheritance left after her parents passed away, a large sum of compensation from the perpetrator of an accident, and money from insurance, if she didn’t go on shopping sprees19 or live an overly extravagant life, as a single person, her latter half of life would still be relatively comfortable.
“How can that be okay? I must pay you back.”
This wasn’t a friend, and she was a young lady. He couldn’t just freeload.
Liao Qingjie was standing at the hospital entrance making a call. It was Lao Liu calling her, his tone particularly anxious and angry.
“Lao Liao, where are you now? Can you do me a favor? Your sweetheart, she should be fine with the Captain protecting her, right? Just for one day!”
“What is it? You tell me first.”
“Just now, my little niece called me, crying her eyes out, feeling incredibly wronged. She said she was bullied at school, and after the teacher found out, not only did the teacher not help her but also joined in bullying her. Her mother is out of town, not at home. She lives at school alone, very independent, with a very good personality, a bit of a pushover.20 She’s not very close to her parents; those two are real workaholics. She doesn’t dare to call her parents and tell them she was bullied because her parents wouldn’t come back to stand up for her, let alone confront21 the teacher. She’s been closer to me since she was little, so she’s complaining to me and asking for protection.”
“Are you asking me to help your niece get even?”
“Yes, yes. Those two boys and her homeroom teacher are too much, absolutely disgusting. Let me tell you…”
There’s a rather common and nasty game among boys, where two boys hold another boy’s legs and use his middle part22 to hit a pillar. This is just a joke among boys, of course, it still needs to be treated differently; if played well, it’s a joke, if played badly, it’s an insult.
Two male classmates in my little niece’s class, seeing she was easy to bully, actually held her legs and rammed her into a pillar, laughing non-stop.
“When I heard about it, I was so angry I could have died. I wanted to pull out a gun and shoot them both. My little niece, because she basically grew up alone, is very introverted. What’s even worse is her female homeroom teacher.”
I don’t know if it’s that most younger female teachers don’t have a good attitude towards the female students in their classes. When the incident happened, the female homeroom teacher not only didn’t comfort her but actually said things like… ‘That must have felt good,23 right?’, ‘Why don’t they tease others, only you?'”
“I really wanted to tear that old hag apart. But I’m on a mission abroad right now, I really can’t get away. The main thing is time; I can’t make it back in time. My little niece must be hoping I’ll go to her side immediately right now. You go help me deal with it. I’ll fly back tomorrow.”
“No problem. I will absolutely help with this kind of thing.”
A bunch of trash.
“R City No. 2 High School, Year 1, Class 3.”
“Photos and names, I’ll send them to you later.”
“Alright.”
“Please, Lao Liao. I don’t want my niece to develop even bigger psychological problems at this time.”
Those actions are enough to destroy a child.
Because this period is the most sensitive, the most confusing, the most helpless. If one is ostracized or humiliated, it really feels like the sky is falling.
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