Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin

There are no secrets in this town, and if the story of the child’s assault became public, it would be the talk of the town in a day’s time.

Of course, there will be voices condemning the perpetrators, but the victims will also be finished for good.

–You’re a man and young and strong, why can’t you beat a man?

–Can’t be a student who’s trying to make up a rumour to get money from a teacher, can it?

–couldn’t it be that the students volunteered?

–Are your grades so good because you have a “good” relationship with your teachers?

–Oh, yo, sleeping with a man, that’s disgusting, that’s gay too.

The victim may not go to jail, but the victim’s life will certainly be bleak.

In this small urban-rural area, those who have the money and can afford to move out have already done so.

Should parents throw away their jobs and leave the country with their children to escape the gossip?

Justice is sometimes like a weak child in the face of reality.

But now, the situation is different.

When there are no victims, everyone can be a victim.

It goes without saying that the parents of the boys who were taught by Zhu Shoucheng saw him as a hungry, perverse man who dared to get his hands on even boys, but what about girls?

You know, he is married and has children, how can he not be interested in women?

Parents in front of the school were outraged, pulling banners made overnight and shouting, “Tell Zhu Shoucheng to get out!”

”Get out!!!”

”The surname Zhu give the parents an explanation!!!”

”We want an explanation!”

The hot gold sign of the secondary school is covered in egg paste and Zhu Shoucheng’s face on the gold medal teacher’s column has been painted black with a black oil-based pen.

The school was forced to close just one day into the school year and all students went home to study.

And the incident of parents forming a group to storm the school gate scared the headmaster who was out of town for the exchange and rushed back 800 miles.

Until the headmaster returned, it was left to the two deputy headmasters to organise teachers to reassure the parents.

However, words were too scarce for parents to listen, so they simply staged a sit-in in front of the school.

Meanwhile, the small local police station was in chaos.

A dozen parents, armed with a recording that had been forwarded to them for an unknown number of times, agitatedly demanded that the police arrest Zhu Shoucheng.

Old Dai, the most qualified man in the police station, could easily hear what was happening and waved his arm to try to quiet everyone down: “This …… recording can’t be considered evidence, someone has to accuse before we ……”

”We accuse!” A parent shouted, “Accuse this teacher of being a monster! It’s not human!”

”That’s not what I mean.” Old Dai wiped his head full of sweat, “This thing, there has to be a victim out there, just based on a piece of audio from an unknown source ……”

There was a moment of collective silence from the parents, followed by a torrent of irritation and rebuke: “Doesn’t that voice prove it? We’re not deaf, we can hear who it is!”

Old Dai’s mouth went dry: “It’s the law! Without real evidence, we can’t arrest anyone!”

Someone shouted, “What a bullshit law!”

Old Dai simply had one head and two heads.

The parents in this place are not even college-educated, and they are overwhelmed by anger, so they can’t listen to reason, and they are not willing to listen to him talk about the rules and regulations. What’s all the noise?”

The parents were quiet for a moment before a more piercing clamour broke out.

”Are you guys going to have a cover-up!”

”A nest of snakes and rats!”

Old Dai was so angry that he couldn’t even talk to the soldiers, and in the confusion he even received a kick: “Who hit you? I’m telling you, this is called assaulting a police officer! I’ll have you all arrested!”

He was then grabbed up and received several blows to the head and had his face scraped by the woman’s nails, causing him to cover his face and back away, shouting, “Don’t hit, don’t hit.

When the crowd dispersed, Old Dai’s badge was ripped off and his uniform shirt was slipping out of his trousers. He hissed and sucked in his breath, covering the corner of his eye which was swollen by his fingernails, and looked at the people in front of him with an indifferent expression of “the law does not blame the people”.

The parents, still angry, continued to accuse: “Don’t you police officers work for the people? Now that the people are in trouble, do you care?”

”What do you care what evidence we want? Find that Zhu guy!”

”That’s right! I have a friend who works at that school, and I heard that guy Zhu admit to doing it! It’s so fucking arrogant!”

Old Dai’s hand finishing his badge gave a beat and glared at the person who spoke, “Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

As for the front of the silo, it was also a mess of soldiers.

Zhu Shoucheng’s home is not difficult to find, and several parents who have sent their children to him for tuition know the place well.

At one time, it was the safest and most secure place in the whole world for them to feel.

A woman who had sent her children here last summer for tuition rapped on the door, her voice filled with endless despair: “Zhu Shoucheng, open the door! Open the door! Come out and tell me clearly, did you do this to my son?

”My son came to you for tuition last year and went back a different person, he stopped talking and smiling, we thought he was a rebel, but he killed himself earlier this year! He’s dead!”

”And you sent a wreath to our family!”

”Do you have a face? Do you have a heart?!”

” Zhu Shoucheng! Open the door! You’re going to fucking die, you’re going to fucking die!”

Woman crying in front of Zhu Shoucheng’s door.

The young policeman next to her, infected by her desperation, could not stop talking to comfort her and told her there was no one in the house, but the woman simply refused to believe it and broke out of the young policeman’s arms and stumbled and rapped on the door next door to Zhu Shoucheng: “Is there anyone?! Anyone – let me borrow the window, I want to go to his house, I want to kill him ……”

Zi Yu, who had been keeping order downstairs for half a day, finally sent the parents away and came upstairs, pulling the almost frantic woman to her feet: “Madam, please calm down. We have confirmed that Zhu Shoucheng is really not in the house. Someone said he came back last night and hasn’t been back since.”

The woman went limp and sat down, covering her face and sobbing.

Zi Yu gently reassures her for a moment, gesturing for the young policeman to take the woman back to her home, before turning his head to find the door to the room next to Zhu Shoucheng’s quietly pulled open a crack from the inside, revealing a nervous half-face.

Zi Yu quickly responded, “Are you the person who just contacted us?”

After confirming that it was the police outside, the door was pulled wide open.

An anxious Chi Xiaochi’s mother appeared behind the door, holding Chi Xiaochi’s shoulders, “Yes, yes, yes, you come in.”

As soon as yesterday’s story broke, some good people came to ask Chi’s mother if Chi Xiaochi had been victimised.

Chi’s mother opened her mouth and cursed, only to return home to ask Chi Xiaochi, and then listen carefully to the recording her son had left behind, and immediately panic.

Being as shrewd as she was, she of course had to quickly clear her son of any suspicion of victimisation, lest people in the building take advantage of the situation and say that her son had soiled his body, so after discussing the matter with her husband overnight, she gave Chi Xiaochi the next day off work and called the police straight to the house.

After inviting Zi Yu into her home, Chi Xiaochi sat down at the table in a dignified manner and called out to her tamely, “Sister Zi.”

Zi Yu froze and looked down at the police number and name tag on his chest before it dawned on him, “Your name is Xiaochi, isn’t it? Don’t be afraid, the police sister will only ask you a few questions.”

Chi Xiaochi answered whatever Zi Yu asked, exactly the same way he had answered the class teacher yesterday.

Zi Yu asked him again to confirm, “The ‘Xiaochi’ on the recording, is it really not you?”

”It’s not me.” Chi Xiaochi denied seriously, “Mr Zhu just verbally said a few bad words and didn’t even touch a piece of my coat, I’m watching out for him.”

With that, the teenager gave a rather broad smile, as if he could not yet understand what a terrible crisis he had been in.

Zi Yu’s heart sank slightly and he said approvingly, “You’re a smart boy. Remember to take care of yourself in the future, too.”

Chi Xiaochi nodded, “I will.”

The Chi Xiaochi of this world still have the opportunity and time to take their time and learn.

As Zi Yu was escorted out the door by Chi’s mother, she politely said, “Thank you for your cooperation. If there are any further questions, we will always be in touch with you.”

But Chi’s mother shook Zi Yu’s hand in return and exclaimed, “That’s really a bother to the lady officer. We will actively provide you with …… with that whatever, yes, evidence, to catch the surnamed Zhu as soon as possible so that we can bring justice to those victims na.”

Zi Yu was stunned by his mother’s gesture of loudly announcing something important, and obediently responded with an “okay” before heading downstairs.

As soon as Zi Yu turned around, someone came up and inquired, “What? Did Mr. Zhu also harm your son?”

Ji’s mother’s eyes glared, “Woe is me, how dare he! My son escaped from the clutches and testified to the police, not a homosexual!”

As Chi’s mother and neighbours joined in a crusade to curse Zhu Shoucheng, Chi Xiaochi lounged on the table and said to Lou Ying inside her, “Brother, I’m done here.”

Lou Ying took the form of a hamster in his spiritual core, cupped it in his palm and kissed the soft little pointy mouth in the light comfortingly.

He quipped, “Great job.”

Chi Xiaochi buried her flushed face in the crook of her arm: “So …… Zhu Shoucheng should start thinking of a way out for herself too.”

Zhu Shoucheng sensed early on that something was wrong and went into hiding in the small guest house.

Needless to say, it was a wise move for him.

He hunkered down in the guest house and slept through the night, waking up frozen for a long time, turning his switched-off phone on, and at once the sea of text messages and missed calls that flooded in made him turn it off again in a hurry and slam it hard against the opposite wall.

…… is not a dream.

It really isn’t.

–He’s finished.

After realising this, Zhu Shoucheng clutched his head and let out two low gasps, feeling his brain boil like lava.

Chi Xiaochi ……

Why has his bad luck not stopped for a moment since he started giving lessons?

It’s him in the dream, it’s him in the recording ……

But how did he do it?

…… Is there really a heavenly punishment in this underworld?

Zhu Shoucheng put an end to this unfounded idea and decided to make a practical effort.

He can’t just sit there and wait for it to happen!

With that in mind, Zhu Shoucheng reached down and pulled out something wrapped in a plastic bag from under his pillow.

Yesterday, he took the night to go home and take out the computer containing his important treasures, as well as the passport his son had made for him before he left the country.

It was during the days when his son came back to stay with him and dragged him to get it for him, saying that when he settled down in the US later, Dad could get a travel visa and come to the US for fun.

Little did he know that in less than two months, he would have to put this to good use.

He used the hotel phone to dial his son’s number abroad, trying his best to make his voice sound less shaky: “Son, are you asleep?”

”Not yet, not yet is fine. I wanted to go abroad recently and the school …… Oh, the school has retired me after the start of the school year and the school has given another period of sabbatical leave to retired veteran teachers. So ……”

”That, I just want to ask you, in addition to a passport, do I need a visa to go abroad? I’ve heard that it seems to be quite a hassle to get a visa …… what, and to make an appointment in advance?!”