Ch1 - Deep Sleep (1/2)
It is often said that “when men are born, all are free and equal”. But the truth is, from the moment we are born, we are doomed to be unequal, and we can never be considered equal.
This kind of inequality is now reflected in this conference on “how to deal with student Yu Hao for ‘taking’ other people’s things”. The attendees are the counsellor, the vice principal, and the Secretary of the College’s League Committee.
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Everyone centered on the topic of this problem student as they launched a heated discussion with the aim of clearing his name and discovering the truth of the matter.
Of course, the party concerned had not been invited to participate in their discussion.
“Everyone has arrived, so I’m going to start. Firstly, let’s briefly talk about student Yu Hao. Male, local. When he was five, some unforeseen events occurred in his family. His parents left him and he was raised by his grandmother. He has no other relatives.”
“During his third year of high school, Yu Hao’s grandmother was sick in bed and passed away after his college entrance examination. He sold their house, arranged her funeral and paid off several debts. Then he tidied up the rest of his belongings and enrolled in our college. His high school results were average, or else he wouldn’t have enrolled in our college.”
“I observed him briefly during military training, this kid barely talks to anyone. After military training ended, his life was indeed tough. He went to the Student Affairs Department to sign up for their work-study program and obtained the opportunity to work as a part-time tutor, and tutored a sixth-grade student in English.
“…….but what happened in the end? He hadn’t even tutored the kid for two months before her parent came to the college and said that during one of his tutoring sessions, he had taken away a watch that they left in their study room while his student wasn’t paying attention.
As the vice principal listened to the counsellor give a brief overview of the situation, he wiped his glasses with a piece of flannel cloth. Yu Hao’s file was placed in front of him. He stared at it intently and said, “I’ve looked at his files. This student even has a criminal record?”
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
“Yeah, he took his classmate’s wallet once when he was in junior high, it’s written in his files. But because he was still underage, that incident was left unresolved.”
The vice principal put on his presbyopic glasses, picked up his files, then slammed it against the table in a fit of fury to express his dissatisfaction.
“Last Friday, the kid’s parent brought the police over so that they could conduct an investigation. Ai—yo! My God! All the students in the department were pointing fingers at them. At that time, I was interrogated at the entrance so harshly I couldn’t even come up with a single reply! A watch that costs sixty thousand yuan, sixty thousand! If he were to receive a sentence, he’d be sentenced to jail for at least a few years! The dean had said that this matter must! Must be investigated thoroughly! Must be dealt with seriously! No one can take this matter lightly!”
The counsellor answered with an ‘un’, and didn’t have much hope in trying to trivialize this matter anymore. He probably can’t escape a deduction from his bonuses either.
The league committee’s secretary was a young girl. She was very absorbed in using WeChat before she raised her head and asked the counsellor, “How’s his life on campus? Does he have any friends? Maybe we can understand him better from these other aspects?”
“Yu Hao lives in dormitory 405. There are seven people who live in that dormitory — three are from the sports classes and four are from the psychological classes. They had all said that this Yu Hao has a slight hatred for the rich. He seldom hangs out with them, and usually says that it’s because he’s poor. After their military training ended, there have been several minor conflicts between the roommates in that dormitory.”
“His roommates all don’t like him?”
“He lives a tough life, so he can’t play with them. He’s not being isolated, he’s just a bit on the quiet side.”
At this moment, there was a knock on the door. A boy entered the conference room — sports department, about 1.8m tall, dressed in sportswear, had just ended training, short red hair, and drenched in sweat. The secretary passed him a bottle of water. The boy accepted it and downed a few mouthfuls.
The secretary asked, “Didn’t we ask Xiao Fu to come? Why is it you?”
All the leaders in the conference room looked at the red-haired boy with disdain.
“Zhou Sheng, you still haven’t cut your hair.” The counsellor pointed at the red-haired boy he called Zhou Sheng and said, “Dye it back!”
“It’ll be fine when it grows out.” Zhou Sheng said impatiently, “Fu Liqun has a match in the afternoon and asked me to attend the meeting in his place.” As he talked, he was about to put his foot up when he noticed the counsellor’s fierce glare, so he could only put his foot back down and ask, “What’s up?”
The secretary said helplessly, “We wanted our college’s basketball team captain to come, he’s the errand runner for the league committee and the Student Affairs Department. Yu Hao’s work-study schedule was recommended by him…….Zhou Sheng, do you know Yu Hao? Talk about him to the teachers?”
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Zhou Sheng thought about it, then shook his head.
“Yu Hao? Our dormitory isn’t familiar with his ba? Fu Liqun recommended him because he once saw him drinking tap water by the basketball court. He guessed that his finances were a bit tight, so he asked him to go find a part-time job. He asked him what he could do, and he said that after he graduated from high school, he tutored primary school students. Coincidentally, Fu Liqun was the errand runner for the Student Affairs Department, so he helped him get a form and got him to fill it in……that should be it ba? That’s what I heard.”
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The secretary said, “What do you think of him as a person?”
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The secretary motioned that he could go. After Zhou Sheng took his bottle of water and left, the counsellor asked again, “At that time, this watch was taken from his bag?”
Counsellor, “The first person to discover it was his roommate. Last Thursday, he saw him fiddling with the watch in their dormitory.”
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Vice principal, “He openly wore it on his hand?”
The counsellor wasn’t sure either, so he could only shake his head.
“Any surveillance?”
“Mr. Shi’s house has no surveillance cameras.”
“I meant, when it was taken from him.”
“There’s a surveillance record. We were in my office, and when I asked him about it, he immediately took it out to give it to me.”
The secretary nodded and said, “At least he didn’t deny it.”
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The vice principal helplessly said, “This can be denied? How can it be denied? Has he admitted his mistake?”
The counsellor regretfully answered, “He doesn’t admit it. He said that someone had framed him. But according to his student’s report, she said that she saw Yu Hao turn around from facing the bookcase where they kept the watch with her own eyes.”
Secretary, “Could it have been the student’s prank? For example, she wanted to play a joke on him by placing the watch in his bag?”
“We won’t exclude that possibility. But that Yu Hao……how do I put it? He’s quite materialistic ba, he applied for financial assistance and yet he’s using an iPhone. On the second day, he went to the shop where gold and mobile phones were recycled at the back of the school to get some information on the watch. He let the store’s owner look at the watch cause he wanted to get rid of it, but in the end, he didn’t sell it. He might have regretted his actions then.”
The secretary stopped talking.
The vice principal fumed, “Horrible! He’s really too horrible! Is there a record of him trying to sell the watch? Was there any surveillance camera around?”
The counsellor helplessly said, “The police made a voice recording of the store owner’s statement, it’s in the files.”
Vice principal, “Xiao Xue, I’ll ask you just one question. He’s your student, do you think that he has been wronged? Just tell us the truth. When we leave this conference room, we won’t tell anyone about what you say here.”
The counsellor thought to himself ‘I’m not shouldering this blame’, then said in an obscure way, “Even if he hadn’t taken it, the fact that he tried to get rid of it is a bit, un, a bit……Miss Li, what do you think?”
The secretary said, “Usually, when people realise that there’s a random valuable in their bag, their first thought would be to return it. This kid…….ai……”
The vice principal appeared to have suddenly thought of something, then anxiously asked, “The other party’s parent didn’t look for the media, did they? Who has the details of this case?”
“They didn’t.” The counsellor immediately clarified, “Witness testimonies and evidence are all with the police. No one wants this matter to blow up, but if the college doesn’t give them an answer, then we don’t know what they might do.”
Vice principal, “This matter must be dealt with as soon as possible in a decisive and peaceful manner. Or else, it’ll have a negative influence on our college.”
The secretary asked, “Xue Laoshi, when the parent came to the college’s doorstep, based on your observations, did Yu Hao show any sign of shame?’
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The counsellor hesitated, and didn’t know if he should say what he was thinking.
After a short moment, the counsellor said, “He looked very calm, but it could have been because we hadn’t come to a final conclusion on the matter? I did promise him that I would definitely help him investigate this case thoroughly, and had even arranged for his roommates to carefully observe his every move.”
The secretary muttered an ‘un’ and said, “After he returns to his dorm, his attitude might be different.”
The counsellor pondered for a long time before he decided to just say it anyway.