The model student Lu Qingyuan had actually cut evening self-study sessions for an entire week!
When the teacher made this call to Lu Wenyuan, he was away in another city preparing for a lecture and wouldn’t be home for several days.
The teacher’s voice over the phone was very serious: “With his behavior, I still need you to come to the school. Even if he’s a good student, he can’t just skip class. I’ve already spoken with him about it. At minimum, this will require a school-wide notice of criticism.”
Schools had their rules. No matter how much a teacher might favor a good student, such a transgression couldn’t be tolerated. The Gaokao was imminent, and yet Lu Qingyuan had dared to skip an entire week’s worth of evening self-study, even after the teacher’s warning! How egregious, how brazen!
Lu Wenyuan pinched the phone between his shoulder and ear, signaling the staff beside him to wait a moment, then walked over to the window to talk with the teacher in detail.
Truthfully, his shock was no less than the teacher’s. His mind rapidly cycled through numerous possibilities, yet he couldn’t fathom why his son would cut class.
When he first answered the phone, he had even thought the teacher had dialed the wrong number, until the voice on the other end clearly confirmed the name Lu Qingyuan.
Lu Wenyuan asked, “Is something the matter with him?”
The teacher replied, somewhat irately, “I asked too, but he said no. So, I still need you to come to the school before this Friday.”
After hanging up, Lu Wenyuan hurriedly called his son, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter. But the answer he got was the exact same as what the teacher had received: He was simply cutting class, without any reason.
Lu Wenyuan could only finish his work and immediately buy a plane ticket to rush home.
Lu Qingyuan had indeed skipped class. No one had expected it. And he wouldn’t say why.
This was the first time Chen Annan had seen Lu Wenyuan sit before them with the posture of an elder patriarch. His expression wasn’t very good; one could even say it was somewhat stern. He was a gentle, mild-mannered man, but when he truly turned cold-faced, the oppressive aura and authority were enough to make one shiver.
Lu Qingyuan stood silently before his father. Had there been a court gavel in this room, it would have long since been slammed down with a bang, like a magistrate commencing a trial.
Because Lu Qingyuan simply couldn’t provide a decent reason for skipping class. Getting disciplined by the school at this juncture was extremely serious.
In private, Lu Wenyuan had asked Chen Annan first, but Chen Annan also had no idea why his brother would skip class. The two had been quarrelling and hadn’t spoken for many days. He didn’t even know about this matter at all.
Resting his elbows on the table, Lu Wenyuan pushed up his glasses and rubbed his brow. “Is there something you can’t tell me? Did you run into some kind of trouble?”
Lu Qingyuan just said no, offering no other words.
Lu Wenyuan walked out.
The past few days, the atmosphere at home had become very delicate. Even though it was March, stepping inside felt like falling into an ice pit. Even Chen Annan had quieted down, obediently doing his homework in his room after school and no longer going out to play.
However, what Lu Wenyuan didn’t know was that Chen Annan had already been in this state for many days.
Because, talking about it, this matter was actually related to him.
Before Lu Wenyuan went on his business trip, Chen Annan and Lu Qingyuan hadn’t spoken for some time. It was just the usual spoon hitting the pot edge; neither took it to heart.
Chen Annan was a child who wore all his joys and sorrows on his face. He couldn’t hide a single thought—as straightforward and clean as a sheet of white paper. Any speck of color that landed on it would stand out conspicuously.
So, that night, when Lu Qingyuan saw Chen Annan lying on the bed, huddled under his little blanket, trembling like a sifter, eyes filled with unconcealable terror, he felt this kid must have encountered something.
Lu Qingyuan found it very strange. The next day, he found an opportunity to take a conciliatory step and asked Chen Annan if something was up. But the kid acted as if he hadn’t heard, just walked right past him on his own, like a walking corpse.
However, before Lu Qingyuan could get angry and grab him to demand an explanation, he soon found out the whole story.
Chen Annan’s class had recently been abuzz with Detective Conan manga. Everyone would buy a volume and pass it around the entire class. You buy one today, I buy one tomorrow, that way everyone could read them all.
When the teacher found out, she immediately confiscated the manga books, citing the need to prioritize academics.
Consequently, Chen Annan and a few classmates who were die-hard Conan fans decided to go to Xinhua Bookstore after school to read the manga there together.
On the way from school to the bookstore, there was a narrow alleyway, with gray brick walls and dark-tiled roofs—a preserved architectural structure from the Republic era, with cultural relic protection signs still pasted on it. On bright, sunny days, it was a picturesque scene of blue sky framed by the narrow lane. But when it rained and the sky darkened, it was truly gloomy and eerie, enough to make one’s hair stand on end.
It was still spring, and thunderstorms had been frequent these past few days. Raindrops splattered noisily against umbrellas. Though it wasn’t yet five o’clock, the sky was already so dark not a sliver of light seeped through.
After school, Chen Annan and a few classmates were walking this way, stepping through puddles.
After some discussion, the group unanimously decided to take a shortcut through this alley. The alley branched out in all directions, and cutting through would save them quite a bit of walking. The rain today was truly heavy, and no one wanted to walk an extra distance.
It was strange. There were many alleys in Nanjing, but for some reason, this particular one could only be described as gloomy. The crumbling, aged stone brick walls formed a narrow, cramped path. Gloom, decay, and stuffy oppressiveness seemed to be its dominant themes.
Rainwater poured down in torrents; between heaven and earth, only the rushing sound of the downpour could be heard.
In the alley, even the light from the streetlamps was blurred by the heavy rain into small, fuzzy patches of light.
Chen Annan walked along with everyone else, hopping over puddle after puddle, trying his best not to splash mud onto his pant cuffs. In his ears, his classmates were still passionately discussing who the culprit was.
Then, so suddenly, they heard a scream. The sharp sound tore through the sky but was swallowed again by the torrential rain.
The few classmates hurried towards the source of the scream. And then, they all stared blankly, frozen in place like statues.
It was a very thin, small-framed adult man. He wore a very old, faded blue canvas work jacket. Even the rain couldn’t mask the fishy stench emanating from him. His hair was plastered greasily against his forehead in strands, impossible to tell whether wet from sweat or rain.
His face grimy, he clutched a little girl, panting heavily, breaths hot. “Little sister, don’t be afraid. Uncle will give you some money. Would you keep Uncle company for just one night, hmm?”
Chen Annan felt as if he were rooted to the spot, his heart pounding wildly. The school uniform on the girl had already been torn open; she was flailing wildly in the rain.
Her tearful cries were broken and fragmented. The man’s suffocatingly pale face was pressed right against her cheek. However, someone reacted quickly—rushing forward, ferocious like a little leopard, venting all their fury by beating on the man. Their small, unsolid fists thudded against the man’s scrawny body, sound after sound.
The man yelped in pain, crying out. The few boys began shouting at the top of their lungs: “Help! There’s a pervert! Call the police, call the police!”
Before any adults could arrive, the man had staggered, pushing and shoving the kids aside, and fled without looking back.
Chen Annan saw his shadow dragging along the ground, twisted like a demon under the streetlight’s glow.
Watching such news on TV and witnessing something like this unfold right before your eyes were two utterly different things.
Chen Annan was terrified. Like a little mouse scared out of its wits, he shrank back into his bedding after getting home, too afraid to come out. He trembled like a leaf. Even in his dreams that night, he seemed to smell that fishy stench that even the rain couldn’t wash away.
He remembered that man’s eyes: thin and narrow, watching him, like a predator hiding in the shadows, terrifying to behold.
Chen Annan had nightmares the entire night. The next day when he got up, his mind was still in a daze. He wanted to tell his brother but didn’t know how to begin. Sitting in class, he felt his head weighed a thousand catties.
Very quickly, the incident spread like wildfire through the school. There was an exhibitionist pervert in the alley leading to Xinhua Bookstore.
For a time, the students were in a state of panic. When the teachers learned of it, they immediately had the school’s security department check it out, but they couldn’t catch the man anymore. It was as if he’d vanished into thin air, never showing up again. The school had no choice but to negotiate with the local police station to check the surveillance footage.
Parents also didn’t dare let their guard down. They came to pick up their children right after school, gathering in clusters under the shade of trees. The men smoked, the women chatted, and electric bikes squeezed among the people, blocking all movement.
Lu Qingyuan was in the middle of handing out a chemistry test paper when he learned about this.
Their evening self-study these days was basically all exams. Today was the chemistry quiz.
He sorted out the papers sheet by sheet, letting the first student in each row pass them down.
The young girls were still huddled together, unwilling to disperse, whispering about the incident, narrating with vivid detail: “Oh my, it was really terrifying. I heard that girl is in the hospital now, scared out of her wits. Her mental state’s been affected.”
“Have they caught the guy yet?”
“Dunno. The school’s keeping things really tight-lipped. Some say he was caught, but who knows?”
“If you ask me, the country’s laws need to be changed. They should just execute these perverted rapists. How many more girls do they have to hurt before they stop? If they’re not sentenced to death, they won’t be afraid.”
“Yeah. Oh, by the way, Qianqian, is your mom coming to pick you up tonight? If not, you can come in our car.”
In the middle of this chatter, bang—Lu Qingyuan suddenly shot up from his seat and left the classroom without a backward glance.
Ever since that incident, Chen Annan never went to Xinhua Bookstore to read comics again. He was incredibly frightened. His brain felt like a broken DVD player, replaying the image of that man on loop every single day.
However, the teacher had privately told him that the man had been caught and locked up. She hoped Chen Annan and the few other students who witnessed the incident could help keep this girl’s secret, not to spread it around. After all, she was still so young, and she would be subject to public gossip.
Chen Annan thought to himself: Did that man think about her young age when he committed the crime? Why should the girl be the one to suffer gossip? She was clearly the victim.
Carrying his schoolbag as he walked the path home, he was completely oblivious to the figure following behind him.
The rain had stopped over the past few days, but puddles of water still dotted the ground, brightly reflecting the lush green canopy. They shattered like broken mirrors as people stepped through them. In the spreading ripples, the form of Lu Qingyuan blurred in the reflection.
