Qiao Lanshu explained the situation to Director Han, including the fact that Han Ye had grabbed a stick and gone looking for a fight.
When Han Wenlin heard this, his face turned livid. He glared at Han Ye. “Who gave you the nerve, huh? In a situation like this, you should have listened to your teacher and simply gone home. You’re just a kid, and you thought you could fight them? Do you have any idea how serious this is?”
Han Ye was unconvinced by what his father had said. “I wasn’t actually planning to fight them. I just wanted to drive them away. They were all gathered outside the school, chattering nonstop. It was driving me crazy.”
At his age, Han Ye was especially concerned about his pride and reputation.
He felt that those people had come to cause trouble because of him.
On top of that, they had been shouting outside the school that he was a pervert who toyed with female students’ feelings. He had never done anything of the sort, and he was furious.
So, acting on impulse, he had grabbed a stick and gone looking for them.
Han Wenlin sighed helplessly. “You clearly never considered your future. This matter isn’t nearly as simple as you think.”
After saying that, Han Wenlin fell silent for a moment before turning to Qiao Lanshu. “Comrade Xiao Qiao, how about I meet with the female student’s parents? Maybe we can sit down and talk.”
Of course, anyone capable of becoming a provincial bureau director was bound to have considerable means.
But when it came to Han Ye, Han Wenlin was still rather cautious.
If the matter could be resolved without making it bigger, that was what he preferred.
By “sitting down and talking,” he meant seeing whether the other side was willing to mediate and settle the matter through negotiation.
Qiao Lanshu thought for a while, then said to Han Wenlin, “Director Han, how about this? I’ll go over first and see what they want. If things really can’t be resolved, then you can step in. The reason they’re targeting Han Ye may well be because of you.”
Han Wenlin understood exactly what she meant without her having to say more.
Han Ye was smart too, and he understood.
So he muttered, “Women are terrifying.”
Since Qiao Lanshu had put it that way, Han Wenlin naturally had no objections.
Qiao Lanshu added, “By the way, Director Han, lock him up first.”
She looked at Han Ye sternly. “That brat is capable of doing anything. I don’t think he even realizes what he did wrong. Lock him up for a day and make him reflect properly. Let him out after this matter has been dealt with.”
Han Ye was stunned. “Mom, I’m your actual son! You can’t be this heartless.”
Han Wenlin’s brows twitched as well.
But after looking at Qiao Lanshu’s expression, then at Han Ye, who was wailing and clinging to Qiao Lanshu’s arm as he begged for mercy, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
Han Ye was practically at a loss for words. “I swear, I really won’t do anything reckless again. I’ll go home and stay there right now, okay?”
Qiao Lanshu looked at him and said sternly, “Teacher Zhao told you to go home and hide. You agreed, but then you turned around and went looking for a fight. You even deceived your teacher. How am I supposed to believe you now?”
Han Ye was frantic. “But—but I never lied to you, Mom! I promise I’ll keep my word. I’ll never lie again, okay?”
Qiao Lanshu shook her head. Usually, she was very lenient with the children, but Han Ye had infuriated her this time. She rejected him coldly.
“You can reflect properly at the Public Security Bureau. You can come home after this matter is resolved.”
Han Ye: “…”
Han Wenlin was standing right beside them. He wanted to plead for his son, but when he saw how stern Qiao Lanshu looked, he didn’t dare say a word.
After all, Han Ye had practically been raised by Qiao Lanshu. When Han Ye called her Mom, she was his mother, and a mother had every right to discipline her son. He had better keep quiet.
Because of this son, he was always a step lower than Qiao Lanshu and Qin Yuanzheng, in a manner of speaking.
He coughed, nodded, and said, “All right. I’ll lock him in the interrogation room. Should I assign two people to go with you?”
Qiao Lanshu nodded. “Yes. Arrange for two public security officers to accompany me. I’ll go with the other teachers to visit their home.”
Han Wenlin assigned two young men who had recently transferred from the military to accompany Qiao Lanshu.
Han Ye, meanwhile, was pitifully locked up in the interrogation room.
Qiao Lanshu arrived at the entrance of the middle school with the two public security officers.
The people who had been causing trouble had already been mediated with and dispersed by the school’s security department. The only one left was the female student’s father—Liu Wenqiu’s father—who had been invited into the school office for a discussion.
Clearly, the discussion had not gone well or pleasantly.
The school director and Teacher Zhao looked extremely grim as they followed the man out of the school. The three of them had just stepped through the entrance when Qiao Lanshu arrived with the two officers.
“Teacher Qiao!” Zhao Yanfang called out hurriedly.
The female student’s father had been acting quite aggressively, but when he saw Qiao Lanshu arrive with two public security officers, he stopped at once. He turned around and glared at Zhao Yanfang.
“You actually called the police? We’re the victims! We didn’t even call the police, and you have the nerve to accuse us first?”
His booming voice gave Zhao Yanfang a headache. She looked at Qiao Lanshu for help.
Qiao Lanshu sized him up. He appeared to be in his forties, with dark, weathered skin. His clothes were covered in patches, and the cloth shoes on his feet were caked with mud.
He did indeed look like someone from an impoverished family who worked as a laborer on construction sites, just as Teacher Zhao had described.
But his temper was clearly poor, while his courage was not particularly great. The moment he saw the public security officers, he became nervous.
It was hard to imagine that someone like him would think of coming to the school to cause trouble.
Qiao Lanshu said to him, “The school didn’t call the police. I did.”
The man stared her up and down several times before asking suspiciously, “You called the police? Aren’t you a teacher at this school?”
Qiao Lanshu shook her head. “I’m not a teacher at this middle school. I’m Han Ye’s mother. I came here to see your daughter and discuss how we should deal with this matter.”
The moment the man heard that she was Han Ye’s mother, his expression darkened, and he was about to start berating her.
Then Qiao Lanshu continued, “But don’t get angry yet. That good-for-nothing Han Ye did something wrong and refuses to admit it. I’m not going to indulge him, so I called the police and had him taken to the Public Security Bureau. He’s already been locked up.”
The man: “…”
The school director and Zhao Yanfang exchanged a glance, both of them seeing the shock in the other’s eyes.
Zhao Yanfang carefully ventured, “Xiao Qiao… Han Ye really was taken to the Public Security Bureau?”
Qiao Lanshu nodded solemnly. “That’s right. Didn’t student Liu Wenqiu say she was going to kill herself? This matter appears to be very serious. One wrong step, and it could become a case involving someone’s death. We had to call the police. Otherwise, the school wouldn’t be able to bear the responsibility.”
Zhao Yanfang nodded. “You’re right. I didn’t think it through.”
The middle school director rubbed his bald head and sighed. “Ah, Xiao Qiao, you really have thought this through. I never would have considered that.”
Zhao Yanfang had mentioned calling the police before, but Liu Wenqiu’s father had objected. He refused to let them report it, insisting that they resolve the matter through negotiation because involving the police would be bad for his daughter.
As it turned out, the two sides had actually reached an agreement.
But Han Ye’s mother had nevertheless brought two police officers with her.
Liu’s father suddenly snapped, “Who do you think you’re fooling? You’re not Han Ye’s mother at all. Han Ye comes from a single-parent family, and his father is the director of the provincial Public Security Bureau. You expect me to believe that you had him arrested? You might as well just say you sent him home.”
Everyone fell silent.
Qiao Lanshu asked in surprise, “How did you know his father is a bureau director? Teacher Zhao, did you tell him?”
Teacher Zhao was stunned. “I didn’t… I don’t actually know what Han Ye’s father does for a living. How could I have told him?”
At that time, there was still a certain distance between teachers and their students’ parents.
Teachers generally didn’t ask what the parents did for work, what kind of homes they lived in, or what their family circumstances were.
Teacher Zhao only knew that Han Ye came from a fairly well-off family. His father seemed to be an official in the Public Security Bureau, but she had never imagined that he was the director of the provincial bureau.
The director of the provincial bureau was no minor figure.
Liu’s father was momentarily at a loss after Qiao Lanshu’s question, then angrily said, “What’s so hard to know about that? That boy told my daughter himself. He was dating her—of course he told her everything!”
As he spoke, he began cursing again. “That little bastard! Fine, he wanted to date my daughter, but things were going perfectly well, and then he went and plastered the love letter she wrote all over the place. Do you know that’s as good as murder? My daughter tried to kill herself because of him!”
Teacher Zhao couldn’t help speaking up. “Sir, we already explained this to you. Han Ye didn’t post that letter. Liu Wenqiu put it in his desk, and Han Ye mistook it for trash and threw it into the garbage can. Someone else found it afterward…”
Liu’s father said furiously, “I don’t care! This whole thing is Han Ye’s fault! If anything happens to my daughter, Han Ye won’t get away with it either!”
This was the first time Teacher Zhao had ever encountered a parent like him. She couldn’t help feeling irritated, and the man’s entire sense of right and wrong had left her deeply shaken.
Qiao Lanshu said, “Don’t get worked up. I’m here to resolve the problem. We’ll go home with you and see how your daughter is doing.”
Liu’s father glanced at the two tall, broad-shouldered police officers standing behind Qiao Lanshu and hesitated.
But the situation had already escalated this far. He couldn’t very well give up halfway.
So he led Zhao Yanfang, Qiao Lanshu, and the two police officers home.
Seeing that the police were going with them, the school director didn’t follow. He turned around and went back to school to write a report.
A report was mandatory after something like this happened. All he could hope for was that Qiao Lanshu would handle the matter properly and keep it from affecting the school.
They walked for three blocks, winding through one turn after another, before finally arriving at a dilapidated compound housing several families.
All the buildings in the compound were old. In a few more years, they would probably be declared unsafe.
The local residents had already moved away, and the people living there now were mostly migrant workers who had come to the city to find jobs.
The area was rather chaotic, and the ground was dirty.
But there was nothing anyone could do about it. Several years had passed since the beginning of the reform and opening-up, yet urban construction and city management had still fallen far behind the pace at which people were pouring into the cities.
Although the various municipal administrative and law-enforcement departments were increasing their staff, improving maintenance and management regulations, and expanding their enforcement teams, there were still times when they simply couldn’t keep up.
Qiao Lanshu had visited places like this during previous home visits. Her students had all been high schoolers, however, and families who could afford to send their children to high school despite living in such conditions tended to be more forward-thinking. They were not so difficult to reason with.
But the Liu family did not look like people who would be easy to deal with.
Liu’s father led them into the compound. Several families lived there, and everyone’s doors stood open. A few children ran around the courtyard while the elderly sat together chatting and knitting sweaters. The moment the group entered, several pairs of eyes turned toward them.
When those gossip-hungry eyes spotted the two police officers, they began to burn with excitement.
Zhao Yanfang leaned toward Qiao Lanshu and lowered her voice. “These are the legendary intelligence network of the communal courtyard. Whatever they ask you later, don’t say a word.”
Qiao Lanshu smiled and nodded.
But the two of them had overestimated the neighbors. As soon as the women saw the two big, muscular police officers accompanying them, they quickly suppressed their curiosity and turned their attention to the officers instead.
Qiao Lanshu almost expected them to grab the officers by the arm and start introducing them to suitable women.
Zhao Yanfang had visited Liu Wenqiu’s home before, so she knew the way.
Liu’s father glanced at the neighbors watching them, and his expression darkened further.
He was a proud man and had never intended to call the police.
Once police officers showed up, the neighbors were bound to notice.
If they learned that his daughter had fallen in love too young at school, dated a boy, and then attempted suicide—so much so that the police had come to investigate—how would he ever be able to face the neighbors again?
With a grim expression, Liu’s father reached his front door.
The door stood open. Three children were sitting on the ground outside. Two of them were girls, one around eight or nine years old and the other five or six. The youngest was a boy of about four or five.
All three children were playing outside their home. Their clothes were filthy and disheveled, and their hair was just as messy.
The moment Qiao Lanshu saw them, she instinctively thought of her good friend Zhong Mei.
Zhong Mei’s family circumstances were almost exactly the same.
Her family had been poor, and her parents had favored boys over girls. After having three daughters, they finally had a son, whom they treasured dearly.
From a young age, Zhong Mei had looked after her younger siblings. She had barely attended school before taking odd jobs wherever she could to earn money and help support the family.
In the end, her family had even planned to sell her off to pay their debts.
Standing at the doorway and looking at the three innocent, bewildered children, Qiao Lanshu felt a growing irritation. At the same time, she began to understand.
She understood why Liu Wenqiu, one of her students, had set her sights on Han Ye. She understood why the girl had used suicide as a means of forcing Han Ye’s hand.
Looking at her family, it was already astonishing that she had managed to continue her education through the eighth grade.
Qiao Lanshu guessed that Liu Wenqiu would probably be dropping out of school soon.
Sure enough, as Liu’s father walked into the house, she heard him grumbling and cursing:
“I told you not to go to school. What good does studying do? The more a girl studies, the more trouble she causes. A perfectly good girl should stay home, help take care of the children, feed the pigs, and get married once she’s old enough. Wouldn’t that be just fine?
“But you insisted on going to junior high. What use is that? If you hadn’t gone to school, you might not have tried to kill yourself. And now you’ve gone and threatened to die just because you’re studying. What a curse.”
As he spoke, he kicked open the door to the inner room and shouted inside, “Qiu’er, your teacher is here to see you, and so are the police. Tell them clearly how exactly Han Ye harassed you!”
