Chapter 70 – Freedom of Belief

It seems that I underestimated Eunuch Cao.

Since the headteacher only monitored the door as a supervisor, the Discipline members of the Student Council were responsible for inspections, which gave Cao JingShen an opportunity.

Cao JingShen’s bag was usually filled with things like game consoles, magazines, trading cards, H manga, and Japanese actress photo magazine… Everything was contraband, let alone the possible hidden nude photos of the class leader.

However, the committee member responsible for Cao JingShen’sinspection only momentarily paused beside his desk and glanced at his bag, then he continued on to inspect the next person.

Later, I realized that Cao JingShen had always been bribing the Discipline Committee since a while back. Everyone from the vice-leader and lower position has already been successfully bribed by Cao JingShen.

Also the person responsible for his inspection would receive an extra red envelope (TN: bonus money) from Cao JingShen.

That’s why the tanned disciplinary member that paused at Cao JingShen’s seat had a hand inserted in his pocket and an indescribable expression of glee.

“Shady! Too fucking shady!”

But should I be happy? If the discipline member was not corrupt, then the naked photos of the class leader would have been exposed.

Although Cao JingShen sold a lot of photos outside of our class, most of the buyers would sneakily bring it back home without sharing with others. There is much less harm compared to being exposed in a public place, like our class.

In particular, you can’t ignore the headteacher, who was like a watchdog, ferociously guarding the door to our class.

If she discovers the photos of the class leader, she will take all it as evidence. She will never destroy the photos in consideration of the victim. She might even interrogate the class leader, asking how Cao JingShen got the originals for the PS photos!

All of those potential troubles were solved by Cao JingShen’s dirty bribes.

If the class leader knew how corrupted the student council was, maybe she would suddenly explode into a ball of anger.

But if all students were as upright as you, you would be extremely embarrassed if the photos were exposed in public!

Ah, sometimes life is such a contradiction. I must be getting old if I am seriously thinking about these kind of problems…

It was almost my turn for bag inspections, and it was darky (nickname for the tanned committee member) who was in charge of my inspection.

Since there were no contraband in my bag, I safely threw my bag on the table and let him check all he wants.

However, darky did not move. He wanted to skip me not because I was the master of Cao JingShen, but because he was afraid of me due to my infamy.

Although darky was already a third-year student, he probably remembers the time when I fought the boss of 28 Middle on the first day.

Although I did not win the fight, my stubbornness and unyielding attitude left a deep impression on the boss, and I have since been regarded by him as his successor.

Darky obviously didn’t want to push my buttons.

He was planning on skipping over me, but unbeknownst to him, the class leader, Shu Sha, came over.

It seems that the headteacher called the class leader and told her something. After that, the class leader came and rushed straight to me.

The headteacher is so cunning! She knew that the disciplinary members didn’t want to offend me, so she sent Shu Sha to deal with me.

Darky and the class leader stood side by side, surroundingmy desk. This situation was extremely uncomfortable.

I felt that they were both the school’s dogs, and they were terrorizing a hardworking student like me.

Although darky was a corrupt dog, and the class leader was a justice hawk. Even though their nature was slightly different, they both made me angry.

I pushed my bag towards them.

“Go ahead and inspect it, the earlier you finish, the earlier I can leave. But I have to tell you guys that I have a mousetrap in my bag, it’s not my fault if anyone’s hand gets caught!”

Darky made a complex expression and glanced at class leader to his right, then whispered in a low voice:

“Shu Sha, let’s just give Ye Lin some face, the headteacher can’t see anything from this angle anyway…”

The class leader scrunched her brows and the words she said made darky swallow his words.

“What face? Why would you check everyone’s bags and not check his? Is that fair to other students?”

The rhetorical questions made darky ashamed of himself and uncomfortable.

The class leader reached out and grabbed the zipper of my bag. She’s not afraid of mousetraps?

I suddenly wanted to tease the hawk and hound couple. I had no fear since I was in the clear anyways.

“Class leader, I forgot to tell you, there’s a dead mouse on the mousetrap!”

The class leader had already stuck her hand into my bag. After hearing what I said, she retracted her hand immediately as if she was electrocuted. Not only did she retract her hand, she also stepped backwards with her body.

It appeared that halfway through stepping back she found her behavior inappropriate, and stopped herself from moving. She forced herself to step forward and maintain her original position.

Those movements may have violated human mechanics, and her faced turned red.

I will never forget this scene. That moment when she retreated with a deathly pale face and oscillating eyes. It was definitely a rare sight.

So it turns out you are afraid of mice? Unexpectedly, you have the same weakness as ordinary girls! After learning that you are afraid of mice, the dignity of the class leader has disappeared from my mind!

Even darky could not hold back his laughter and made “puhpuh” sounds.

The class leader’s face changed between red and white, she hated me so much and was biting down hard on her lips.

“Whatever is in the bag, take it out and show it to me!”

The angry tone of voice and expression was quite rare, I should take a photo.

I nonchalantly stuck my hand into my bag and took out a thick English-Chinese dictionary.

I threw it on the table and it landed with a thud, causing a lot of dust to fly out, which was particularly obvious under the sun.

The class leader and darky both covered the bottom half of their face in case my dictionary was covered with anthrax.

My mood was great.

Then I took out 16 classical Chinese workbooks and threw them even harder on the table.

The dust flew everywhere, causing the class leader and darky to repeatedly cough.

How’s that? Do you see any contraband? Now you should be satisfied!

I reached my hand into my bag once again and randomly pulled out a thick book and threw it on the table!

The book was pretty hard, it almost split my table in half.

Hmph! Take a look! Look at whatever you want! It’s the same as your bags, it’s full of reference books!

Now that I think about it, which subject did I pull out? Why is the cover so black?

I took a closer look and written on the hard covered black cover in gold words: The Bible, the Old Testament.

Holy shit, why did I take this one out! Does this count as literature or is it an extracurricular book! It would be strange for a junior high school student to carry around the Bible!

I made a prompt decision, and calmly pulled out a middle school politics textbook. I wanted to use the textbook to cover up the bible and hope they didn’t notice.

It turns out the class leader wasn’t blind, and quickly seized the Bible.

When she saw the words “Bible” on the cover, she was momentarily stunned. She thought that it would be impossible for a degenerate like me to read the Bible. She probably thought it was false cover and I probably hid a sexual novel or something.

She probably had that idea, since the class leader handed the Bible to darky, hoping that he would examine the contents.

He was already a third year, and he was pretty tall. Yet next to the class leader, he was forced to perform menial labor.

Darky held the Bible and started flipping through some pages, the more pages he flipped, the more perplexed he became.

“Why is it all traditional characters? It’s even written vertically! I can’t read it!”

The class leader clicked her tongue and took back the book from his hand. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a third-year student and a disciplinary member, she definitely would have scolded him as “useless”.

After the class leader opened the book and took a look, her expression was also bewilderment.

“Why is every page filled with ‘God’ and ‘Devil’? Is this the real Bible?”

Seeing the class leader question herself, darky shook his head like a rattle-drum.

“I haven’t read the Bible, I don’t know, Shu Sha, don’t ask me…”

The class leader turned her sight back to me.

“Ye Lin, since you carry this with you at all times, are you trying to propagate an evil cult in our school?!”

After being reminded by the class leader, darky made an expression of sudden realization:

“Oh yeah, I heard that the cult organization ‘The Church of Almighty God’ and ‘Eastern Lightning‘ are getting pretty rampant lately! I wonder if Ye Lin is associated with them…”

I was very angry. These two imperial dogs were ignorant and incompetent. They have not even read the Bible, yet accused me of being a cult leader.

Although Cao JingShen often called me the head or leader, our group was only composed of us two. We have not deceived, stolen, or raped. How can you call that an evil cult?

So I argued:

“Don’t look down on people, okay? This is the real Bible! “The Holy Bible, The Old Testament” tells the story of whoever does not listen to God’s words must die. It is a beautiful and moving myth! Also our Constitution guarantees freedom of belief. If you want to persecute me, I’ll go to the US Embassy to seek political asylum!”

Actually, there was no US embassy in our city. At best, I can go to Ai Mi to find freedom of belief.

But my liberal remarks clearly shocked them.

Darky felt awkward for standing here for a long time, and discussed with the class leader if they should just let it go. In any case, the Bible was not listed as contraband.

The class leader was unwilling, but felt that there was really no reason to confiscate the book, and finally put the Bible back on my desk.

I exaggeratedly brought the bible to my chest, and pretended to be a faithful devotee, to signify that no one can take away my unwavering faith.

The class leader couldn’t bear seeing my pose and sarcastically asked:

“Do you really believe God exists?”

I nodded like a saint, and imitated priests from movies and I reached out a hand and said in a sermon tone:

“Child, if you believe in the Lord, I will certainly save your fallen soul…”

Ah! She stepped on me! She shifted all her weight on my right foot! It’s broken!

The class leader stepped on me right in front of the disciplinary member, and pretended as if nothing happened.

Darky went awkwardly to check the next group of students.

The class leader warned me before leaving:

“You are not allowed to preach in class, Satan!”

Who is Satan?! Your brother is the one who is like Judas who betrayed Jesus! In order to prevent you from being crucified, I have been secretly protecting you!

Damn class leader who can’t distinguish from loyal or disloyal! I won’t care about your matters anymore if you keep disrespecting me!