Chapter 38: The Parents Have Been Contacted
The reception hall of the police station was neat and bright. The reception desk, the office area, and the interrogation rooms were all separate.
A few police officers from the local precinct came back, bringing with them more than a dozen teenagers. The interrogation rooms were too small, so they had them squat against the wall one by one, and called them in one at a time.
There were too many people involved in the fight, so they had to call in a few more people to help.
“Such a big scene? What’s going on? A group fight?” a police officer in his fifties, Old Hong, glanced back and forth and saw a young man holding his hand in pain, his hand covered in blood. Fortunately, the blood had already clotted.
“Xiao Wang, take that person to get his wound cleaned and bandaged.”
Liang Shuai was in a daze, his whole body trembling, whether from pain or from fear. One of his hands was swollen, and on closer inspection, the bones in his fingers were dislocated and deformed. He held his hand to his chest, his nose and snot not even wiped, his eyes trembling, and he was extremely frightened.
Old Hong passed by and saw the broken finger. He shouted to a male police officer in the office area, “Ge Jiechao, don’t you know how to set bones? Come over and fix him up.”
“Coming,” the one named Ge Jiechao said, getting up and coming over. “Yo, this looks like the work of a master. There’s some technique in it,” he said, lowering his head and telling Liang Shuai not to move.
The moment he touched his hand, Liang Shuai started to scream. In the end, he was in so much pain that he couldn’t even make a sound. The people next to him who heard this couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines. Just hearing the scream, you could tell how much it hurt.
“Alright. When you get home, apply some medicine for promoting blood circulation, reducing swelling, and relieving pain. Don’t get into any fights for a while. This finger needs to heal. If you break it a few more times, it’ll really be useless,” Ge Jiechao said with a serious expression, then looked at Old Hong with curiosity. “Who did this? They’re experienced. It’s not a clean break, but it’s excruciatingly painful. It’s all about torturing the person.”
Just then, a young police officer with a registration book passed by. He turned back and pointed at a girl sitting on a wooden chair on the other side, and whispered, “The dozen or so people squatting here and the ones being interrogated inside, they all went to the school gate to hit that girl. The school teacher and the homeroom teacher have already been questioned. This girl just started junior high this year.”
“More than a dozen of them against her?” Not only Ge Jiechao, but even Old Hong was surprised.
The police officer with the registration book nodded. “The one with the injured hand was stabbed by her with a fountain pen nib. Four of them went at her at once. She threw off the one in front, and then turned and stabbed the one behind. As for this person, he cut the teacher with a knife, and then she broke his finger.”
Ge Jiechao kicked a boy’s shin and scolded, “Do you have any shame? More than a dozen big boys going to the school gate to beat up a first-year girl? You’re not studying properly, and you’re just messing around with others. You should all be locked up.”
Du Yong’an and Sun Mulan came out of the interrogation room. A few of the parents who had been involved had also been registered and questioned. Before they left, they all went up to Zhou Wanfeng to cheer her on.
“Zhou Wanfeng, don’t be afraid. It’s okay. You did a very good job. Protecting yourself and your classmates, I think you’re amazing.”
“My child is Huang Yingying from Class Four. She’s been talking about you for several days at home. She really admires you. Now she’s pestering me to sign her up for a martial arts class. She said that no one else dared to fight back, and she really admires you for standing up. She praised you for your courage.”
The parents cheered Zhou Wanfeng on. One of the student’s mothers even went up and gave her a gentle hug. “It’s okay, child. Don’t be afraid.”
In their eyes, this girl was the same age as their children. She had just been ganged up on and then taken to the police station. Now she was sitting there quietly, the dried blood on her face not even wiped off. It was a heartbreaking sight.
Du Yong’an pulled Sun Mulan to a corner to talk. “Teacher Sun, you stay here with Zhou Wanfeng until the interrogation is over. I have to go back to the school. The school leaders are all still there. They’re holding an emergency meeting about this. I have to go now. I’ll come back after the meeting. If there’s any change here, call the school immediately.”
Sun Mulan looked down at Director Du’s hand, which was still wrapped in her scarf, and said with concern, “Director Du, why don’t you get your wound treated first…”
“There’s no time. The school leaders are all waiting at the school. The Education Commission might even come tomorrow. The wound is not deep, just a cut. It’s not bleeding anymore. I’ll get it treated after this is over. You stay here and keep an eye on things. If anything happens, call the school,” Du Yong’an instructed Sun Mulan, then sighed and walked over to Zhou Wanfeng.
She looked up at him. Du Yong’an had wanted to comfort her and tell her not to be nervous. But her eyes were so calm that there was not a single ripple of emotion.
Du Yong’an let out a deep breath and still said in a small voice, “Don’t worry. It’s okay.”
“Are you going back to the school?” Zhou Wanfeng’s tone made Du Yong’an freeze. That composure, that calmness. Even sitting in a chair at the police station, she showed not a shred of fear.
Du Yong’an nodded, thinking to himself, Which school’s student would dare to talk to the director of the political and educational affairs office like this?
“My backpack is probably at the gatehouse. When you come back, please bring it for me,” Zhou Wanfeng said, thinking of the test paper Yun Jingya had given her in her backpack. It would have been a good way to pass the time, but it was a pity.
Sun Mulan sat next to Zhou Wanfeng. It was the first time in her life that she had been to a police station. When the police were questioning her, she had been so nervous that she had stumbled over her words, and she was also afraid that her words would affect Zhou Wanfeng.
The more Sun Mulan thought about it, the more scared she became. Her hands on her knees couldn’t help but tremble. She turned to look at Zhou Wanfeng next to her, her voice trembling. “Zhou Wanfeng, what if I said the wrong thing? What if it affects you?”
Zhou Wanfeng’s face was cold. She looked at her silently for a few seconds. “Teacher, do you think I did something wrong?”
Sun Mulan was taken aback. She couldn’t judge for a moment. In her heart, she felt that Zhou Wanfeng hadn’t done anything wrong. But what Zhou Wanfeng had done was at odds with the rules she knew.
“I… I don’t think you did anything wrong. It’s just that no one would do it like you,” Sun Mulan said, following her heart.
A police officer in the interrogation room called for Zhou Wanfeng.
Zhou Wanfeng sat in a dark chair. Two police officers were in charge of recording across the table, and an old police officer was flipping through the previous record book next to them. Before the two of them could ask, the old police officer looked up and asked first.
“You’re so young, but you’re a little ruthless,” Old Hong’s gaze was sharp. Zhou Wanfeng’s gaze was cold and calm. With his years of interrogation experience, he saw a sense of incongruity in this girl.
This demeanor, this expression, was like that of a leader of some organization or gang being interrogated. No, at the very least, it was a middle-to-high-level leader.
Zhou Wanfeng tilted her head and looked at him. “If your son, daughter, or grandchild was dragged into the restroom at school, beaten and kicked, slapped, forced to kneel, steal money, and so on, would you still think it’s ruthless?”
Old Hong narrowed his eyes and sized her up, saying seriously, “They were in the wrong first. It’s not wrong for you to fight back. But it’s also wrong for you to deliberately harm others with your skills.”
“Their injuries will heal with some rest. But can the psychological and spiritual wounds of those who have been bullied, intimidated, and beaten by them be healed? This kind of shadow might follow them for the rest of their lives. Some might even develop a dislike for school, social phobia, and be unable to lead a normal student life,” Zhou Wanfeng said unhurriedly, her calm and narrative tone making both police officers frown.
“And he was the one who swung a dagger at me first. The teacher took a cut for me. It was after school, and there were still many students around. I broke his finger to prevent others from being stabbed. You can’t just judge that I deliberately harmed others just because I’m skilled. And you can’t ignore the fact that I am the actual victim. I neither provoked them nor deliberately caused trouble. I was studying properly at school, and disaster fell from the sky. They are the ones who are wrong.”
Old Hong and the two police officers looked at each other. The three of them suddenly felt that this was a tricky situation. They had already understood the conflict between this group of people and the girl during the previous interrogation. It was true that she hadn’t caused any trouble. In fact, her courage in daring to resist the school’s evil forces could even be praised.
But the problem was that this Zhou Wanfeng’s methods were very radical, especially after reading the teacher’s interrogation record.
Old Hong felt that this child’s nature was good. At a young age, she could be guided and taught that she couldn’t do things like this.
“Zhou Wanfeng, we know from your school teacher that you are a smart student. I just don’t understand why you didn’t seek the teacher’s help. That would have reduced the risk and also kept you out of trouble,” Old Hong said directly. “You are a minor now. It’s like this in junior high. What about high school? What about university? Will you still act like this?”
“The environment is very important. I will be quiet in the library. I will not laugh out loud in a funeral home. I will listen attentively in class. If possible, I would not want to get involved in fights and trouble. Some people cannot be educated or managed. What can the teacher do? They can only turn a blind eye and let it go. Just like you police officers. You don’t arrest everyone. For the ones squatting at the door, at most, they’ll just get an administrative punishment, be detained for a few days, and fined. They are bad, but they haven’t fallen to the level of evil. And evil is divided into small evil, big evil, violence, wickedness, and treachery. If they really commit a crime of a certain level, they’ll be locked up directly. But when people are on the verge of being bad and evil, is there a way to restrain them? Should we just watch them fall and commit a crime, and then arrest them?”
The shock in Old Hong’s eyes was so great that he was almost speechless.
“Morality can’t restrain them, but it restrains you. You think I’m cruel for breaking his finger? But I can intimidate them. They won’t come to the school again, and they won’t think of getting revenge on me. Maybe the shadow of the pain I left them will make them afraid, and they won’t fall any further.”
“The environment I’m in was created by them. I have to fight back in the same way, but even more fiercely. If my high school is a place with a strong learning atmosphere, where people compete in their studies, I will blend in and study hard. If I have a conflict with someone, and the other party seeks a teacher’s judgment, I will also silently abide by it.”
With that, Zhou Wanfeng looked at the old police officer and said, “I think you should be able to understand. You police officers are always talking about arresting people, but I’ve never seen you just shout, and the criminals come over on their own. It’s pretty much the same at school. The person whose finger I broke, even the school teachers can’t control him. How can you expect them to listen to a teacher?”
Zhou Wanfeng spoke very calmly, and she also made it clear to Old Hong and the others that she was not a violent or radical person. She had been forced by the environment.
Meanwhile, Du Yong’an had rushed back to the school. The school leaders were all in the school’s conference room.
Du Yong’an took a gulp of water from Teacher Ma’s cup, caught his breath, and then explained in detail what had happened at the school gate and what had been said during the interrogation at the police station.
Especially the matter of Zhou Wanfeng having found him in advance. “Zhou Wanfeng knew that Liang Shuai, Peng Zhen, and the others would come to the school to get revenge on her after school.”
The first-grade grade director said angrily, “This Zhou Wanfeng has been causing trouble ever since she enrolled. Although she’s not the one who starts the trouble, she always takes the opportunity to blow things up. This time, since she clearly knew, why didn’t she hide? Why did she have to make such a big scene at the school gate?”
Du Yong’an frowned. He felt that the first-grade director’s suspicion of Zhou Wanfeng cheating was because he personally disliked her, and now it was even more obvious.
“It’s a good thing it was at the school gate this time. If it had been somewhere else, and Zhou Wanfeng was alone, the consequences would have been even more unimaginable,” Du Yong’an said. In his opinion, the current outcome was a good one. If someone had really died, the school would have been finished.
Du Yong’an looked at the others in the conference room, hesitated for a moment, and finally looked at Principal Wang Zongping and voiced his suspicions. “Actually, after the incident, I had a guess. A normal, ordinary student who knows that someone will be waiting to beat them up at the school gate would basically hide if they could, or delay leaving until the very end. Zhou Wanfeng knew that someone was waiting for her, and she informed me in advance. And she appeared at the school gate as soon as school was out. That was the most congested time, with students leaving and parents coming to pick them up. It was at this time that Zhou Wanfeng got into a fight with that group of people.”
“During the fight, she deliberately stirred up the emotions of the parents present, using the enthusiastic parents who were there to pick up their children to help her disperse the people who were surrounding her. The entire scene was filled with righteous indignation, and the parents were all furious,” he said with a bitter smile, holding up his own hand. “I was injured. She said it was good that I was injured, and that because I was there, the reputation of Shuangshu Model Middle School was saved.” He paused and then added, “Zhou Wanfeng said that the school will have to give her an award for protecting a teacher later.”
Du Yong’an guessed that Zhou Wanfeng had done it on purpose this time. Now that so many students and their parents had seen it, and even participated, what were they going to do about it? She had hit someone, and she had done it.
If she really wanted to take things to the extreme, the reputation of Shuangshu Model Middle School could have been ruined this time. But she had informed him in advance.
He was injured, and only then did she get serious. And she even had to be praised for protecting a teacher.
At Du Yong’an’s words, the conference room immediately fell silent. Everyone’s IQ was online, and they all understood the current situation.
Finally, the principal, Wang Zongping, who was sitting at the head of the table, frowned. “This matter has a great impact. In a couple of days, the Education Commission and the inspection team will come to ask about it. As for the investigation and questioning from above…” At the same time, they also had to consider the emotions of the school’s students and the parents who had been present. If it was not handled properly, some students or parents might complain to the higher-ups.
After some thought, he concluded, “Zhou Wanfeng from First Grade, Class Nine is a good student with excellent character and grades. She respects her teachers, cares for her classmates, has a strong sense of justice, and often stands up for the weak.”
With that, the others all nodded in confirmation.
“Director Du, get your hand bandaged first. You’ll have to go back to the police station to follow up. Also, have Zhou Wanfeng’s parents been notified?” Principal Wang asked.
“Teacher Sun has already contacted them. They will go directly to the police station,” Du Yong’an recalled. Zhou Wanfeng had caused a lot of trouble at school, but her parents had never come, not even once, and the matters had all been resolved.
This time, it had gone to the police station. No matter how busy they were with work, they had to come.