Chapter 14: A major incident of a previous life

During lunch break of the second day, the vice-principal spoke over the broadcasting system.

“I know that our students have been feeling rather repressed lately, especially the twelfth grade students on whom the pressure is immense. The school understands this, and has been as lenient as possible. Still, I hope that you can understand that there are some things that as a school, we can definitely not tolerate.”

“Yesterday night, during evening self study, patrolling the school grounds, I encountered a pair of students who were being overly intimate.”

“As soon as I appeared, the boy began running. Actually, running is still normal, very normal. But, he forgot to bring along that girl with him. He ran on alone ahead, the girl running after him. Then, the girl… fell, and I stopped.”

“You must know that having started out as a physical education teacher, even having grown a little older now, it would still not have been a problem for me to catch that boy. However, that girl fell, falling onto a pile of grass and gravel. So, I stopped. My conscience, sense of responsibility as well as morals all called for me to stop. But what of that boy? Hearing the cry of that girl, he glanced back, and then…continued running.”

“I helped the girl up. She flung away my hand and continued running. She fell down again, but this time, the boy ran off without even looking back.”

“What could I do?… I let that girl go. Why? Because I don’t believe that any punishment could have been any more painful and any more of a warning than what she had just experienced.”

“I want to say something to this female student. I don’t know who you are. I didn’t ask yesterday, and I will also not be investigating into it. Still, you yourself have to consider this – was it worth it? Look at that type of thing you found. How foolish is that!”

“Finally, I wish to ask that male student – are you even a man?!”

……

Xu Tingsheng, Huang Yaming, and Fu Cheng privately found Song Ni.

Huang Yaming said, “The next time he looks for you, we will beat him up. Each time he does, we will beat him up once.”

Song Ni said, “You don’t have to do anything. I was the one who went to look for him.”

Xu Tingsheng said, “If you look for him again, we will also beat him up. Each time you do, we will beat him up once.”

Fu Cheng said, “Break his leg.”

That night, the boy secretly found Song Ni, saying, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t let myself be caught. If I had been caught, I would have been ruined. The university entrance examinations are right up the corner; my whole family is depending on me; I can’t ruin myself… you understand me, don’t you? Please, forgive me.”

Song Ni asked, “What about me?”

The boy answered, “My, my hopes are a little greater. Your results…”

Song Ni said, “So you thought this way.”

The boy said, “Can you come to my house on Satuday? My parents will not be home.”

Song Ni returned and found Xu Tingsheng, saying, “He just came to look for me.”

The trio escorted the boy to the roof and beat him up.

Afterwards. Song Ni raised her head which had been buried in her desk, smiling bitterly with a face full of tears, “You didn’t injure his hand, right?… He still has to sit for the university entrance examinations.”

Fu Cheng said, “I’ll go back and break his hand.”

Song Ni laughed, “Don’t worry, I won’t be so silly anymore.”

Xu Tingsheng patted her little head, “Study well and take the exams in peace. The entire China will have twenty million whole bachelors in the future, a great many men for you to pick a good one from.”

After evening self study had ended, Song Ni came to look for Xu Tingsheng, saying, “The vice-principal clearly took down my name and class.”

Xu Tingsheng smiled, “That shows that he is a good principal. Relax, no one will know.”

The second day after having taken leave to return home, Xu Tingsheng found a chance when no one was around to sneak into the vice-principal’s office.

He said, “Now, everyone is praising you for your tolerance and your humanistic management. I hope that you will always guard this secret.”

The vice-principal smiled, “You can rest easy; I’ve already almost forgotten about this incident. Also, are you curious about why I accepted your proposal and used such a method to handle this matter?”

In Xu Tingsheng’s impression of him, this lovable yet also aggravating vice-principal actually also had some deficiencies. Perhaps it could be said that he was too simple and straightforward. Xu Tingsheng played along, shaking his head.

The vice-principal said, “It was because the consequence that you described to me… would be too disastrous. Thinking about it now, I feel like I should thank you. I am a rough person, and if you had not come over to find me in time back then, the matter might truly have developed the way you said.”

Xu Tingsheng said, “It was because of your good personal upbringing and character that I had the chance to convince you. Thank you.”

The vice-principal said, “But I am very curious now – how did you know of the situation then? Did you escape from class as well?”

Xu Tingsheng fled from the office. In truth, the disastrous consequence he had described to the vice-principal were the true events that had unfolded in his previous life.

In his previous life, because of the immensity of the matter, the vice-principal had called a meeting with the relevant personnel of the student affairs office that night, revealing everything that he had seen. Afterwards, he had publicly dealt with the matter, openly announcing the name of the people involved. Everything that he had witnessed, including the scene that he had seen of Song Ni’s skirt being lifted up had afterwards been gradually spread by gossips as well as ‘do-gooders’. Consequently, Song Ni had been seriously injured when she had leapt off a building in an attempt to commit suicide. She had then quit school, and no news of her had been heard afterwards. The vice-principal had also been punished for this, fired from his position.

After the incident, that student affairs office chairman who had advised the vice-principal in private after the meeting that night to ‘employ harsh methods amidst a chaotic world’ had very quickly obtained the chance to fill in the empty position, being promoted to vice-principal.

A few years later, he had risen to become the principal, as well as the vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference. He had sat on this position for almost ten years, till finally the parents of a pregnant female student had disregarded everything to take him to court, and the public had learnt of all those young female students and teachers he had harmed all these years, along with a series of other crimes.

In this life, Xu Tingsheng had broken off his first step to ascension.

“Hopefully, he won’t be able to climb up this time,” Xu Tingsheng thought.

…

In truth, when Song Ni had announced her relationship with the boy, Xu Tingsheng had vaguely already thought of what was going to happen after.

However, his memories on this were not precise enough. In his previous life, he had not personally participated in this matter, only having slowly come to understand specifically what had happened afterwards. Therefore, he was not sure on when exactly the incident had transpired.

In the end, as he had still been pondering on how to resolve this problem, the incident had occurred.

That night, discovering that Song Ni was not in the classroom, Xu Tingsheng had felt that something might be up. Having found her afterwards and seeing her covered in mud, only then had all his memories on this incident become clear in their entirety.

That night, after Song Ni had returned to her room, Xu Tingsheng had immediately rushed over to the vice-principal’s office, trying to remedy the situation before it was too late.

When he had knocked on the door to the vice-principal’s office, the vice-principal, who was in charge of the student affairs office, had just been holding up the phone, about to inform the relevant personnel to come for a meeting.

Xu Tingsheng had very much hoped to convince the vice-principal to completely pretend that this incident had never happened.

The vice-principal had finally accepted his suggestion of playing down the matter in other to safeguard the interests of the student involved, yet had resolutely been against completely letting this matter go. It was precisely because of that that the words in his broadcast afterwards had come to be.

Xu Tingsheng could accept how this matter had eventually been dealt with. Even if someone figured out that the couple that night had been Song Ni and that scumbag, they would only know that they had gone on a date, not knowing the specifics of what had taken place in that small thicket.

Being caught on a date was still a pretty normal thing. Xu Tingsheng remembered that afterwards, Huang Yaming and Tan Qinglin would be caught together once. Still, that matter had occurred just a few days before the university entrance examinations, and the ones in charge had not pursued it.

“I will definitely not be reminding him,” Xu Tingsheng delighted in Huang Yaming’s upcoming misfortune.