Chapter 36 (1/2)
“Hey, man up. Don’t tell me you have cold feet?
Or you afraid your girlfriend will mind the intimacy?”
Lee Wei scoffed witnessing the
squirming Se Cai.
Egged on by Lee Wei’s
condescension, Se Cai blurted out confidently, “I don’t have a girlfriend and
who said I’m afraid. Honey, let’s go!”
Se Cai regretted the moment the
words left his mouth.
Lee Wei was the Vice
Superintendent for the province station, even though he was just echoing her
but had he crossed the line calling her honey?
“Now, that’s more like it!”
Lee Wei smiled satisfactorily.
She adjusted the car seat and
leaned back down. She continued, “Let’s go. Leave everything to me later, try
not to draw unnecessary attention and help me block the view of the camera.”
Se Cai was relieved that she
didn’t seem to take offense to him calling her honey.
Lee Wei should be a power worker
type or she wouldn’t have become a vice superintendent at your young age. She
wouldn’t be petty enough to care about small things like that.
Se Cai convinced himself. He
slammed on the oil pedal and the car sped towards the northern side of the
county.
There sat Blue Sky Online
Addiction Rehabilitation School!
Blue Sky Rehab sat at the northern
outskirts of the county. It was far from other modern amenities, practically
hidden in the middle of the jungle.
According to the school’s promo
flyer, its secluded location decreased distraction and helped its students to
focus on their rehabilitation.
Se Cai parked the car and walked
to the school with Lee Wei.
From a distance away, he could
see the school’s signboard, a giant banner hung between the pillars that decorated
the school’s entrance.
“Is your child reluctant to
study because of online game addiction? Blue Sky Rehab is here to solve your
problem!” it read.
Furthermore, on the school
compound walls were the school’s promo posters. They featured before-and-after
shots of their students. The before shots all showed teens in sallow
complexions and wiry frames. In the after shots though, they lined up in army
fatigues, flas.h.i.+ng smiles that were usually reserved for toothpaste
commercials.
If Se Cai was an actual parent,
he would be appropriately impressed by now.
After all, which parent doesn’t
want the best for their child? And this school presented an image that it would
help accomplish that.
This was Lee Wei’s first time
visiting the school, she looked about curiously, adding, “This place looks
pretty standard for an internet addiction school.”
Se Cai nodded, adding, “The
number of teen afflicted with internet addiction is on the rise in our country
and schools like these are earning higher and higher paychecks, the school
needs to look good to beat out the increasing compet.i.tors.”
Blue Sky Rehab was a famous
school of its kind. According to the tipper, its monthly fee could reach up to
4000 RMB, higher than even international schools.
In other words, most of the
students here were from good family background. The addiction started because
there was a lack of parental supervision.
However, a small section of the
students came from families whose parents needed to scrounge up an exorbitant
amount of money each month for the fees, which was a pity.
At the end of the day, all the
school did was to suppress the addiction that would eventually exacerbate after
graduation. The school had no intention of nipping the problem at its bud, it
only relied on so-called a military school style education to force out the
result to reap monthly fees. What happened after graduation was none of their
business.
The rich could afford to waste
such money but for the poor, it was heartbreaking.
All these information was given by the
mysterious tipper. They tried to trace the tipper but he or she used a public
phone and refused to leave his or her name and address. The person probably
feared retribution from the school.
Viewed from outside the steel
fence wall, they could see quite a fair amount of students playing badminton on
the field.
A female student swung her bat
too strongly and her shuttlec.o.c.k flew over the wall and landed beside Se Cai.
The freckled girl ran to the fence
and waved at Se Cai.
“Uncle, please help me pick up
the ball!”
Se Cai realized with a start
that she was talking to him. He forgot he had an appearance of a middle-aged
man.
He looked at the girl and
smiled. He bent down to take the shuttlec.o.c.k.
“There you go. Be more careful
next time.”
Se Cai tossed the ball back over
the fence with a smile but after the girl departed, his face dimmed.
“What’s wrong?”
Lee Wei saw the change in his
expression and she asked softly.
Instead of answering, Se Cai
opened his hand to reveal a piece of neatly folded paper.
“Save me, but don’t tell the
teachers, my parent’s phone number is 1862365548.”
“I want to go home because the
instructor likes to hit me, my mum’s number is 138531788.”
“My name is Lin Lin, aged 15. My
father is Lee XX, phone number 1501553155, tell him to come save me!”
“15722153245, please call my
mum. I’m scared.”