CH 96

Although the school had informed everyone that the girl was being treated at the hospital, everyone already knew that it was too late; they knew that she had passed away at that point.

In the wee hours of the morning, before the crack of dawn, Miaomiao was woken up by the ringing of her mobile phone. She took a gander at the caller ID and realized that it was her new headteacher.

She got out of bed cautiously and headed to the balcony to answer her phone.

The cold wind whistled all around her. She briefly hearkened to its mournful susurrus before finally answering the phone. The headteacher asked her, “Miaomiao, are you the administrator for the school’s forum?”

Miaomiao was indeed the administrator for the school’s forum. She knew many seniors from their school. When they had graduated, they made her take up this post.

“Go to the forum and delete a few posts.”

Miaomiao agreed and hung up the phone. Then, she logged into the school forum. In general, there was no news on the forum, but occasionally, there were some posts from middle school students who wanted to apply to their school. There were also some posts from graduates who were leaving messages for their old classmates and friends.

But today, there were a multitudinous amount of new posts on the homepage today. The top post stated:

“Senior Tao Ming. It’s your fault. You were the reason why Ji Hao had committed suicide. Don’t walk outside at night!”

Miaomiao remained standing on the balcony, listening to the sorrowful sighing of the frigid wind. It was raining outside, and droplets of rain pattered against her pristine skin. She glimpsed a virescent light in the distance, but it was only the green light of a distant building’s safety exit. She then tore her gaze away from the viridescent light and focused her attention back to her phone.

Miaomiao clicked on the post and learned that Tao Ming was the class president of his class. His family was rich and powerful. No one knew why he hated the girl named Ji Hao. He often bullied her, insulted her, and accused her of being a prostitute. But he also frequently tried to make advances on her. 

Ji Hao told the teacher about this, but the teacher said that she was immodest and full of impropriety, and therefore, she couldn’t help her with her problems. Somehow, all of the girls from her class found out about this. This led some people to write some indecent things about her on the walls of the men’s washroom; they even posted some photos of her on various dating apps…

Ji Hao’s family wasn’t financially stable, so it was very difficult for her to be accepted into this school. Due to this boy, Ji Hao’s grades dropped year after year, and she wanted to quit school to work, but her mother wouldn’t allow it; she simply made her return to school…

It rained heavily that day, and Ji Hao didn’t have an umbrella. The rain soused her clothes, and even though she was wearing dark clothes, one could still note the curves of her body. Tao Ming insulted her, and all of the boys peered at her with strange, inimical gazes. The girls also whispered to each other…

But what came afterward was the final straw. Their class wanted to announce to everyone that Ji Hao had an off-campus boyfriend who had slept with her, causing her to become pregnant, and then he abandoned her. Ji Hao couldn’t take it anymore, and she jumped off the building.

Miaomiao perused this piece of information, and she felt a fit of discomfort. Especially when the other party had Ji Hao’s mobile phone with the boy’s message in it. The language used was disgusting. The methods used to abuse her were abhorrent and despicable…

Miaomiao froze for a moment and scrolled down. She noticed a lot of scolding due to the fact that news of this incident had also spread to Weibo.

Miaomiao didn’t delete the post. Instead, she went onto Weibo and saw the hashtag #Senior girl forced to commit suicide# on the hot search.

It turned out that a clutch of girls had recorded videos of Ji Hao when she threatened to commit suicide that day. Everyone made fun of her threats.

Miaomiao felt uncomfortable, and tears began streaming down her cheeks.

At this time, she had received another message on her phone.

It was from Jingjing, “Are you asleep, Miaomiao?” Although Miaomiao and Jingjing were also girls just like Ji Hao, their parents had shielded them from the cruelties and malevolence of society, which seemed to lurk beneath the glamor of every street and institution. No one dared to bully them.

That girl…was she alone all this time?

Miaomiao paid close attention to Weibo and the school’s forum in the middle of the night. Some netizens began writing angry messages directed at the boy, Tao Ming, and deluged him with messages of harsh reproach and ire.

Miaomiao then fell asleep before waking up with swollen eyes and dark circles under her eyes.  When they arrived in the classroom, everyone wore strange, indescribable expressions, especially the third-year students.

Miaomiao then received some disturbing tidings. A third-year student from Classroom 4 had entered the classroom only to discover three bloody words written on a wall situated at the back of the room: “I am back.”

He instantly fainted.

The other students went there to check it out, but they saw no such words on the wall. But they said that they didn’t want to go into that classroom anymore.

The first-year students occupied one building, whereas the second-year students occupied another building. Students, who were in their third-year of high school, were split and occupied the same buildings as the first-year and second-year students of high school due to the fact that the building, which was originally intended for the third-year students, had been rented out.

Students from that class refused to return to their classroom, and the school couldn’t convince them otherwise, so they allowed them to change classrooms.

Miaomiao’s class was on the fourth floor, and the classroom across from them was devoid of people. So the entire class from that empty room poured into her classroom, causing the room to become inundated with students.

Miaomiao heard about this as soon as she arrived at school. They didn’t want to come to school, especially when they found out that the girl was a victim of harassment. And now, they found out about the blood-scrawled words on the wall. But more importantly, in the class…

Zhou Yuan assumed that Miaomiao’s dark circles under her eyes were caused by her fear of ghosts, so he assured her, “We caused her no ill will. Nothing will happen to us.”

She still wore a very solemn expression on her face as she replied, “If things like ghosts, gods, and the supernatural do actually exist in this world, that is.”

Miaomiao didn’t delete the posts, so the school found other administrators to delete the posts.

Since the school had deleted the posts, this caused everybody to erupt in public outrage since their deletion of the posts implied that the school was suppressing this matter, which revealed the school’s attitude towards this incident. It implied that the school cared more for their reputation than for the death of the poor girl.

Throughout their morning classes, everyone was distracted by this incident. When they exited their classes at noon, they noticed the shameful looks on the faces of the seniors.

Miaomiao’s classmates naturally were cognizant of every detail about this girl. Many of the students from her class had families that were not rich, but they were still admitted into the school through their laborious efforts. After finding out that this girl’s family was also indigent, they felt a sense of oppressing forlornity, which led them to reproach that boy. 

Because of this incident and the backlash that it entailed, the boy didn’t even come to school today.

The headteacher then came in and asked Miaomiao to inform everybody to head to the playground.

At noon, they had to listen to a speech.