Between the violent roar of his eardrums, Zhu Shoucheng thought, this must be a nightmare.

…… Real Nightmares.

Another Chi Xiaochi-related nightmare.

Otherwise there is no way to explain how his private conversations with Chi Xiaochi in his dreams could have been recorded and played in public.

Thinking this through, his whole being relaxed in a strange way.

As the murmur of voices grew, more and more teachers came around the broadcasting room, surrounding the gold medalist teacher in silence.

Facing the gaze of Mr Li in the broadcasting room, Zhu Shoucheng gave a dry laugh, took a step backwards and turned his head to look at the face of his familiar colleague again.

The strange and unfamiliar stares were like glue poured over his face, and shame burned like acid against Zhu Shoucheng’s cheeks, wanting to scorch the skin off his face.

The feeling was so real that Zhu Shoucheng laughed twice, opened his arms, faced the source of the nasty recording and, in a fearless manner, said loudly, “Okay, once is not enough, twice is not enough, give me a third time, right?”

The teachers in the room were stunned by his half-crazy appearance, and all looked at each other in disbelief. A large, lanky male teacher, with the school’s equipment setter, unceremoniously pushed past Zhu Shoucheng, who was blocking the doorway, and entered the broadcasting room: “What the hell is this? It’s not right for the children to hear it!”

Li glanced at Zhu Shoucheng, whose eyes were red with palpitations, and said with a sweaty head, “I don’t know, the equipment suddenly went out of control ……”

The filthy sound continued in stereoscopic 3D surround as emergency repairs were made, and already class teachers were folding back into their classrooms and hastily organising students to leave the classroom and take refuge in the playground for the time being.

However, the loudspeakers for eye exercises were connected to classrooms all over the school, and the sounds faintly emanating from each classroom, ghostly, balked and echoed in the daytime schoolyard.

Some students already recognise who’s voice is on the radio.

Students at this age can never hide anything, and as soon as they find out, they immediately spread the whispers.

But no matter what the outside world has to say, Zhu Shoucheng himself has gradually calmed down.

After two experiences, Zhu Shoucheng is unlikely to be afraid of a third.

He looked contemptuously askance at the young junior teachers who were gesturing at him, reminding himself repeatedly that he could not afford to lose any more to illusion.

If he is composed enough, he can take charge of his dreams and wake up from his own bed ……

As Zhu Shoucheng repeatedly convinced himself, the vice-principal arrived in a hurry with a sullen face.

When he came across Zhu Shoucheng standing in front of the radio room like he was nobody’s business, the vice-principal’s pale face broke out in anger, but more in disbelief.

…… Zhu Shoucheng is the signature teacher of their school, the second most qualified, third on the list of gold medal teachers in front of the school, and can be considered one of the faces of the whole secondary school, how could he do such disgusting things to children?

When he got a vague “I’ll take another look”, he was already a bit angry. When he turned his head and saw Zhu Shoucheng’s forcibly indifferent face, his expression became even colder, and he didn’t even have to be polite: “Come to my office.

Zhu Shoucheng decided not to listen to this dream NPC’s reassignment: “I’m not going.”

The vice-principal’s anger rose steeply, “What does ‘not going’ mean?”

Zhu Shoucheng remained silent, and this silence no doubt angered the vice-principal even more.

He pointed to the nearest classroom speaker, his fingers twitching with anger, “Don’t tell me you really did this mess?!”

”Yes.” Now that he knew he was in a dream, what was Zhu Shoucheng afraid to admit, “So what if it’s me?”

The people around the room all burst into a flurry of colour, and even the vice-principal didn’t look back for a moment.

How dare he …… just admit it? And as if it was some glorious deed that he deserved to do?

Hearing the young teacher behind him unable to hold back his curses, the vice-principal held back and held back. Finally, for the sake of the school’s face, he turned to the two male teachers teaching the second year and said, “Mr Hou, Mr Chen, invite Mr Zhu to my office.”

Zhu Shoucheng did not resist when confronted by the two tall, dark-faced young men.

He didn’t want to be beaten in his dreams, even if he wasn’t afraid of the people in them.

As he walked through the crowd, Zhu Shoucheng was so happy to see a circle of people looking at him with astonishment and hatred that he wanted to scream out loud.

I didn’t know it would be so good to have your secret exposed in public!

The secret had been weighing heavily on his heart for years, almost turning it into a canker sore, and now that it had suddenly seen the light of day, a breeze passed through the window of his long-depressed heart, soothing all his organs and limbs and making him feel like he could fly in the next moment.

He marched past the crowd with his head held high, as if he were a general on glorious parade.

After inviting Zhu Shoucheng into the vice-principal’s office, the two men discussed the matter and decided that the other man had no classes for the last two periods of the morning, so they stood guard in the office in order to prevent Zhu Shoucheng from escaping.

Zhu Shoucheng, too, is a change from his usual mild-mannered demeanour and sashays into the vice-principal’s office chair, relaxing and waiting to wake up from his dream.

However, as time went on, the office was still the same and the guards were still the same two guards.

Zhu Shoucheng’s sweat glands, which had been dried up, began to glisten outwards again, producing a tingling, hot sweat.

…… Is this dream too long?

……

Before the afternoon class, Chi Xiaochi, who has started at the same time as the public junior high school where Zhu Shoucheng teaches, is in her seat, warming up her book, while her tablemates chew on their pencils next to her, studying the practice problems assigned by the maths teacher in the morning and said to be covered in the afternoon.

After studying for a while and finding that he couldn’t, the table turned its big head to Chi Xiaochi and hinted, “Table, let’s promote the spirit of communist internationalism.”

Chi Xiaochi didn’t even look up: “Choice D.”

You’re not listening to me, you don’t have a fucking heart for me.”

Chi Xiaochi was just about to speak when the class teacher stood at the door with an extremely pale face, “……Xiaochi, come out here for a moment.”

The table gloated, “Oooh, a big gift for the start of the school year.”

Chi Xiaochi didn’t say a word and slapped his back-handed exercise book, which he had filled to the brim, in his face.

Two minutes later, the class teacher and Chi Xiaochi are looking at each other in the cramped office.

And the class teacher is holding in his hand a recording that a classmate who graduated from the same teacher training college as him and teaches at the public junior high school next door came to school at lunchtime today and handed it to him.

The original quote from the classmate was, “The teachers in our school’s maths group met today on an emergency basis, all remembering that before the holidays, Mr. Zhu had turned down several requests for extra lessons from the parents of several students, saying that they were going to give extra lessons to a neighbour’s child named ‘Xiaochi’. I’ve heard you mention that there’s a student in your class with extraordinarily good parents called …… Chi Xiaochi , right?”

The class teacher turned blue, completely at a loss as to how to face Chi Xiaochi’s frank, clear eyes.

He pulled out a stool for Chi Xiaochi and politely invited him to sit down: “Xiaochi, where did you go over the summer ……? What did you do?”

Chi Xiaochi is righteous: “Do your homework at home.”

Knowing the seriousness of the matter, the class teacher, seeing him in such a serious state, could not smile half-heartedly, but could only hold her tongue and ask in a step-by-step manner, “And? Apart from doing your homework?”

”Followed my brother for tutoring, skating, watching movies, eating ice, playing pool, going to game halls, visiting haunted houses, and taking a two-day trip out of town to see the Yellow Crane Tower and eat hot noodles ……”

After a long and varied count, Chi Xiaochi cut to the chase, “Oh yes, and I’ve been tutoring with Mr Zhu next door for a while.”

The class teacher’s heart fell heavily downwards, her body couldn’t help but lean forward, her expression adding a bit more anxiety: “What did he do to you …… ahem, what did you do?”

Chi Xiaochi looked puzzled but counted obediently, “Mr Zhu took me fishing, ate grilled fish, took me home for tutoring and treated me to a green bean lollipop.”

The more the class teacher listened, the whiter her face became, “Did he do anything else to you?”

To the class teacher’s surprise, Chi Xiaochi shook his head and said cheerfully, “No.”

”…… no?”

The class teacher remembered the unpleasant recording he had received, and after listening to it with trepidation, he literally almost threw up.

He suspects that Chi Xiaochi is too young to understand what has happened to him and changes his expression several times before finally making up his mind to ask.

The class teacher softened her voice: “Xiaochi, tell me frankly to your teacher, did Mr. Zhu do something …… not quite right to you?”

Chi Xiaochi wondered, “What is ‘something not quite right’?”

The class teacher was so anxious that she almost stamped her foot and asked, “Did he touch any hidden parts of your body? Did he ask you to come into his bedroom? Has …… ever kissed or hugged you?”

Chi Xiaochi blinked and gave the exact same answer as earlier, “No.”

The class teacher, who had never talked to a student about such a private matter, turned red in the face and patiently coaxed, “Xiaochi, whatever Mr. Zhu threatened you with, there’s no way he can hurt you now. You can tell the teacher the truth, don’t be afraid.”

Chi Xiaochi, however, smiled brightly, “Teacher, Mr Zhu didn’t do anything to me. I followed him for half a month for tuition, and then when Mr Zhu fell ill and was hospitalised, I didn’t go to his house anymore.”

The class teacher was skeptical, “Really?”

Chi Xiaochi nodded, “Yes. But fortunately he’s sick.”

The class teacher’s heart, which had just been lowered, tightened up again in an instant, “What?”

Chi Xiaochi lowered her voice and assumed the posture of telling a little secret to a trusted elder: “Teacher, I’m telling you, don’t tell anyone else about it. Teacher Zhu is always saying strange things to me and I feel so uncomfortable listening to them that I actually tried to pretend to be sick and not go, but it turned out that Teacher Zhu himself was sick ……”

”Strange words?”

”Hmm.” Chi Xiaochi dug in his pocket, fished out a tape recorder and sold his teammate with a straight face, “My mum told me to record every time I went to Mr Zhu’s house so that I could come back and revise. I felt that Mr. Zhu sometimes treated me strangely, but I didn’t dare to tell my mother, so I took the recording to my neighbour’s brother to listen to it. After listening to it, my brother said that I should not get close to Mr. Zhu again and that I should not tell anyone else about it. …… He said a bunch of things that I didn’t really understand.”

The class teacher was relieved to see that Chi Xiaochi did not look like he had been hurt, and took the tape recorder he handed over, intending to send it to his classmates to listen to it for clues.

After putting the recorder away, the class teacher couldn’t help but ask him, “Why didn’t your brother let you tell anyone?”

A strange emotion suddenly appeared in Chi Xiaochi’s eyes, which did not match his youthful face, as if a blade from a previous life had cut through his heart once again.

But soon that hint of incongruity disappeared without a trace from his face.

Chi Xiaochi leaned back and licked her lips, “…… because no one would believe me at all.”

Once it was established that the victim was not Chi Xiaochi, the class teacher was not completely reassured.

This means that the real victim has not yet been found.

In contrast, Zhu Shoucheng’s colleagues are the ones who are really burnt out.

The audio was played over and over again, and after repeated confirmations, apart from the certainty that one of the protagonists was Zhu Shoucheng, there was a further dispute among the teachers as to what the name of the victim was.

Zhu Shoucheng read the child’s name in a soft and ambiguous tone, not knowing whether it was Xiaochi, Xiao Chi, Xiao Shi, Xiao Zhi, or Xiao Zhi, and Zhu Shoucheng, who had swept away his indifferent attitude when he was caught in the morning, refused to admit a single word and hid in the vice headmaster’s office.

In any case, the date of the recording is unknown, and the specific victim is even more unknown, and could even be any of the boys Zhu Shoucheng taught.

The equipment, which had been damaged for no apparent reason, was not repaired until after the third period bell rang. And there was enough time in the middle of the day for the students to parrot this new school story to their parents.

Several parents had already accompanied their children to school before the afternoon session, asking seriously what had happened and why indecent audio related to the teacher and their children had been played.

The class teachers gave a few pale explanations and finally managed to coax the questioning parents to leave first.

However, what comes around always comes around.

Early the next morning, the road outside the school was blocked directly by parents who had spent the night exchanging messages with each other in utter rage.