Chapter 106

Happy laughter and cheerful voices are everywhere; you can't see any of the tears these people hide behind their laughter. - Demons

The female teacher's surname was Ge. Her name was Ge Ni.

She was around forty, wearing glasses, her makeup light, her speech refined and well-mannered. She was wearing a half-skirted coat. From her hair to her heels, all was dignified.

So dignified she hardly seemed like a middle school teacher.

Being a core class teacher at a middle school, especially a homeroom teacher, meant having the sword of Damocles of university entrance rates hanging over your head. As soon as you opened your eyes, you'd feel you were a mentally and physically exhausted sheep dog corralling a group of blind strayed lambs over a single-plank bridge, frequently drowning in a snow storm of exam papers. Very few people would dress themselves up well enough to be able to take fashion shoots in the high street.

No time, no energy, no proper setting, and no one to see…and no money—those were the normal conditions of a female teacher's bitter life.

Luo Wenzhou calmly looked her over. As Feng Bin's homeroom teacher, Ge Ni had been invited individually to cooperate with the investigation.

This time, the person who received her had changed to the captain of the Criminal Investigation Team.

At first Luo Wenzhou spoke warmly, asking, "How long have you led the class, Teacher Ge?"

Ge Ni answered in a soft voice. "I took it over less than half a year ago."

"I see." Luo Wenzhou nodded. "Are you familiar with the female student Wang Xiao?"

Teacher Ge smiled slightly, not showing teeth. "There are thirty-six students altogether in our class. I have each student's circumstances in mind.—Wang Xiao is a very well-behaved and quiet girl. Her grades really aren't ideal at the moment, but she's always been very diligent, especially outstanding in English class."

"I heard this child only transferred to your school in junior middle Year 3. Her studies weren't very good, so her family spent a great deal of money to enroll her in your school's international path."

Yufen Middle School's "direct road to study abroad" was one of its tricks for recruiting students. Starting from junior middle, the school had a certain proportion of foreign studies classes, and it had agreements with many foreign schools for studying abroad. Each year during the winter and summer vacations, they organized winter and summer camps to take classes abroad; after senior middle Year 2, they even had a special team to assist in planning for study abroad. Aside from students they had "for show," like Xia Xiaonan, the majority of those who spent money to study at Yufen were planning to go study abroad right after graduating senior middle.

"All parents have high expectations of their children." Teacher Ge pushed at her glasses, which had slipped down, very aptly saying, "It's nothing for the adults have to scrimp and save a little to give her the best education."

"I don't think it stopped at 'scrimping and saving?' From what I understand, she must have used up all her family's resources." Luo Wenzhou narrowed his eyes slightly. "Your school's expenses are an overwhelming burden for us ordinary salaried workers. In Wang Xiao's situation, ninety percent of her parents' income will be going in tribute to the school, and they'll still have to use their family savings. With her grades, it will be difficult to test even into an ordinary undergraduate program. If she can't smoothly go abroad in the future, then won't her family have been ruined for nothing?"

Hearing this bitter argument, Teacher Ge agreed, "That risk really is an objective reality, but…"

Luo Wenzhou didn't wait for her to finish talking. "So the child is tantamount to carrying her whole family's hopes on her shoulders. No matter what, she can't leave school. No matter what, she has to smoothly complete her studies for the next few years, smoothly go abroad—even if she's suffering from all kinds of bullying at school, even if she'd rather be dead, she still can't say a word at home. No matter how large her grievance, she still has to swallow it. Teacher, does that make sense to you?"

Ge Ni's expression altered slightly. Her lips shook. She was only now realizing that today's questioning wasn't routine.

"Suffering from all kinds of bullying?" She paused, then raised her long, shapely eyebrows very high, displaying excessive innocence and blankness. "That's… Captain Luo, what are you talking about? Our class…"

"Is all very friendly, one big happy family," Luo Wenzhou expressionlessly finished her sentence. He leaned forward slightly and very oppressively said, "Teacher Ge, do you know that the students organize their own activity after the Christmas party every year?"

Ge Ni pushed at her glasses for the second time within a very short span. "Yes, I know—our school strongly emphasizes study abroad programs. To help the students adjust to cultural differences in the future, we encourage them to organize activities for Western holidays like Halloween and Christmas. It's tradition to let them stay out all night without locking up. They can arrange their own time and exchange sentiments with their classmates…"

Luo Wenzhou interrupted her again. "Exchange sentiments using the means of a 'hunting game?'"

"Hunting game?" Ge Ni very quickly blinked her eyes a few times, then smiled. "Who told you about that? I don't know what their game is called. Ah, children these days, they all like to play games that sound frightening, all about 'killing,' 'killing werewolves,' or 'werewolves killing,' and really they're just playing cards."

Luo Wenzhou's gaze displayed a faint chill. "I'm afraid the students in your class aren't only playing cards. Someone told me they play a game where one person hides and everyone 'hunts them down to kill them.' That must make a lot of noise. And the school doesn't know about it at all?"

Ge Ni gave an "Ah!" Her smile didn't move a hair.

"But isn't that just hide-and-seek?" she said lightly.

Hide-and-seek.

The games big children played often had similarities to the games of little children—only they were more complicated, trickier.

Yesterday evening, going back and forth, Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du had pried open pudgy little Zhang Yifan's mouth.

Zhang Yifan had said that last Christmas, the 'deer' had been Wang Xiao, who'd just transferred to Yufen. She'd had no idea what was going on then. She hid in the dormitory's public bathroom. Before hiding, without any vigilance, she'd spoken to another girl from her dorm.

In the end, not ten minutes later, a girl taking part in the game rushed in and dragged her out by the hair.

Wang Xiao hadn't known then that her nightmare had begun.

The person who was appointed the "deer" wasn't only responsible for hiding so people could catch her during the hunting game; it also meant that she would be excluded and despised by the school's "mainstream." For a time she would become the person everyone in school could bully.

When you had disputes with other classmates, there were always worries—was this a person you could thoroughly "offend?" Would they be as easy to bully as they ordinarily seemed? What was their family background? Whose side would the teachers and others stand on? Did they belong to some clique, did they have any friends you couldn't afford to offend? Therefore, you couldn't cheerfully turn hostile; even if you would have loved nothing better than to hack them to pieces, you still had to preserve appearances on the surface.

But the "deer" was different, a "government-sanctioned" waste of space, certainly very useless and loathsome. Dealing with this kind of person complied with "public opinion" and "justice." Everyone would be on your side, gasp in admiration at your sharp and bitter "talent." You could find this person when you had nothing else to do to vent your frustrations, even relieve stress, as well as contributing to promoting your friendliness with the others, accomplishing many things at once.

"Who didn't play hide-and-seek when they were little?" Luo Wenzhou crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning back in his chair, looking loftily down on the delicate and pretty teacher across from him. "Though the usual rules are that whoever gets caught has to do the catching in the next round. Perhaps it's my own inexperience, but I've never heard of rules that say the person who gets caught has to drink from the toilet."

Ge Ni said, "What?"

"Last Christmas, in this so-called…'hide-and-seek' of yours, some of her female classmates pulled Wang Xiao out of the bathroom by her hair. They'd been forcing her to drink water from the toilet. When Wang Xiao refused, your students, with their 'fraternal unity, like one big happy family,' stripped all her clothes off in the lobby of the girls' dormitory and let everyone watch."

Luo Wenzhou tossed a folder in front of Ge Ni. The corners of some photographs stuck out. Ge Ni instantly clutched the handbag on her knees.

"These are the photographs that were circulated among the students then. Would you like to take a look, Teacher Ge?"

Ge Ni opened the folder, took one look, and instantly reached out to close it. The calm and composure on her face at last vanished altogether. "That's…that's too… I'm sorry, I didn't know about this, I wasn't their homeroom teacher then… I'll have to…"

"In the first half of senior middle Year 1, Wang Xiao was caught outside the dormitory by a patrolling teacher a dozen times because she was locked out at lights out and went roaming around. Because she didn't mend her ways, the school took disciplinary action against her." Luo Wenzhou looked into the teacher's eyes. "As homeroom teacher, you may not know the rest, but you must be aware of this?"

Ge Ni said, "That… About that, I…"

"I think it's strange, Teacher Ge. This girl was punished for constantly not returning to her dormitory. Why did you just tell me that she was 'well-behaved and quiet?'"

Ge Ni forced a smile and gave a pale and powerless defense. "I…I was afraid that if I spoke irresponsibly in front of the police, it would make the child look bad…"

"Then you truly are sincere and responsible, a credit to China.—Do you know why Wang Xiao went on purpose to take walks after lights out? Because when lights out was about to be called, people would throw her bedding and clean clothes out the window. If she went out to pick them up, the girl who had the keys would lock the doors to the dormitory and their floor.

"Why would the child rather be punished than tell a teacher or her parents? Because she knew whose territory the school was, and she knew the teachers's disposition. When she was being beat up, a teacher would walk by and pretend not to see her!" Luo Wenzhou gave Ge Ni absolutely no opportunity to speak, his cold gaze shooting towards her neatly made-up face. "Teacher Ge, how do you think this degenerate fellow professional of yours should be dealt with?"

Ge Ni said, "I…I…"

Watching on the surveillance feed, Tao Ran looked at Fei Du in shock. "What on earth is this? Is this true, or is Lao Luo fooling her?"

Fei Du was reading through the roster for Yufen Middle School's entire senior middle Year 1 grade. Without looking up, he said, "It's true.—If they didn't want to be bullied by everyone, they had to attach themselves to some fellow student with 'power' and become a 'slave.' Otherwise they might be chosen as the 'deer' the following year. The majority of the children chosen have weak natures, come from unremarkable families. You know, in ordinary surroundings, children like these will also be somewhat ostracized—if you sacrifice these few people who won't resist, the remaining vast majority will attain a certain level of internal satisfaction…"

The tone of Tao Ran's voice altered. "Internal satisfaction?"

Fei Du looked up at him, seeing that the pure and kind-hearted Deputy-Captain Tao's features were about to fly off his face. He couldn't help smiling. But then, restraining his smile, he said, "Internal satisfaction.—Some children are followers. They think, 'I fit in, I'm united with everyone against a common enemy. Since everyone despises her, the problem must be with her. She deserves it.' There are also some children who are cleverer, more clear-headed. They'll think, 'I have control, I'm not at the lowest level at school. Bullying her and ostracizing her will improve my social standing.'—With a target like Wang Xiao, the social order in the school will be very stable, and it'll really be more unified. The child who set this up to begin with really is a genius."

Tao Ran's shocked face clearly expressed, Do you know what you're saying?

Fei Du knew he'd made a slip of the tongue. Calmly, he backtracked, adding, "In the sarcastic sense.—The child who revealed this to us yesterday said that the 'target' chosen this year was Xia Xiaonan. Xia Xiaonan is more fortunate than Wang Xiao, because she isn't an ordinary little girl. She's rather pretty."

Tao Ran was fobbed off. Frowning, he pondering for a moment. He said, "You mean that because Feng Bin had a crush on Xia Xiaonan, he betrayed the group he belonged to.

"Wang Xiao and the other two boys were 'slaves' who were pushed to the limits of their endurance. Zhang Yifan also liked the beautiful young girl. Having just spent money to attain the qualifications to join the group, he learned of this news and got a serious shock and simply ran away with them before Christmas."

Tao Ran said, "What were they trying to do?"

"Didn't Feng Bin leave that letter before they left? I guess they wanted to expose this business," Fei Du said. "First use running away to attract the notice of society, and then, at a suitable time, go through the media to expose what was happening at Yufen Middle School. They never expected that Feng Bin would be murdered."

"No… Wait a minute." Tao Ran made a slightly panicked pausing gesture at him. "Just wait. You mean that they wanted to expose this business, so Feng Bin died, and now no one dares to open their mouth—in other words, Feng Bin's death is connected to his fellow students? One of his fellow students, a middle school brat, already knows how to kill people to silence them?"

Fei Du turned his gaze towards the surveillance feed.

Ge Ni had been pushed to collapse by Luo Wenzhou's questioning. Tears and snivel were coming down in full force, and her impregnable dignity had vanished. "I'm just a salary-earning common person. Many of the students come from wealthy and respectable families. Sometimes there's really nothing we can do about them. We can only turn a blind eye. Captain Luo…have pity on us… I really didn't know…"

"Bullshit," said Luo Wenzhou.

Ge Ni was a civilized person. She was scared silent as a cicada in winter by the great scoundrel Luo Wenzhou's outburst.

"We now suspect that one of your scumbag students hired an assassin," Luo Wenzhou said. "The brats may not understand what degree of offense that is, but are you fucking telling me you don't understand, either? Ge Ni, you'd better give me an explanation, or I'll have reason to suspect you're involved in this!"

Panic-stricken, Ge Ni desperately shook her head. "I didn't know, this is unjust treatment, I beg of you, don't ask me, I really…"

Fei Du drew closer to the security camera feed, carefully considering the female teacher's expression. "She clearly knew what was going on… Wow, to have the homeroom teacher protect them like this, this person's family truly must be highly positioned, and possibly they have close connections to the school, a trustee or someone who donated a great deal of money…"

Tao Ran turned his head towards the report his colleagues had handed over and asked Fei Du, "Is there anything else?"

"There's… Tao Ran-ge, I've been thinking, why did they choose Xia Xiaonan?" Fei Du's index fingers tapped lightly on the table.

Tao Ran thought about it. "Because she only transferred in for senior middle school, her family is poor, and there's no one to look after her or support her?"

"No. A pretty girl with excellent grades isn't a very good choice. Think about the girl you had a crush on in senior middle. Plenty of boys would like a girl like Xia Xiaonan. Rashly attacking her could attract needless trouble… So why?"

Hit out of nowhere in his weak point, Tao Ran's train of thought broke off momentarily, and his speech faltered.

But Fei Du didn't take notice of his unusual condition. "Excellent grades… Excellent grades?"

He suddenly paused, then went through the student records. After transferring to Yufen's senior middle school, Xia Xiaonan's first semester test scores were the highest in her grade.

Fei Du looked up at once. "Who's second?"

<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>