Just as the atmosphere was harmonious and joyful, there was a knock on the courtyard door. Ah Hao’s face darkened. At this time, the only person who would come to his house was his self-centered mother.

Granny Fang looked at him. “Go open the door. If she comes again, take the broom and chase her out! She’s already married out and has nothing to do with us anymore.”

Ah Hao listened to Granny Fang very much. Although he was still unwilling, he still stood up and went with a stern face. But after opening the courtyard door, he instantly became happy. “Why are you here?”

Lin Shuyue turned her head to look outside. The person who came was Zhou Bingrong, carrying a basket of fruit in his hand.

When Lin Shuyue saw him, she remembered those words he had said in the infirmary that night. She had to admit that this child named Zhou Bingrong was a bit funny.

“Aren’t you welcoming?” Zhou Bingrong didn’t care at all about Ah Hao’s answer and immediately continued.

“My mom is on another business trip, and my dad is staying in the hospital and not coming home. I’m bored at home, so I came to find you to play,” Zhou Bingrong said, entering Ah Hao’s house very familiarly.

Ah Hao closed the door.

Seeing Lin Shuyue, he exclaimed in surprise, “Ah Hao, you have a guest! Is this your older sister? She’s really beautiful.”

Ah Hao’s gaze lingered on Lin Shuyue’s face for a moment, and then he unconsciously curled up the corners of his lips into a smile. “You don’t recognize her?”

Zhou Bingrong rolled his eyes at him. “The way you say that, if I knew such a beautiful older sister, how could I forget?”

When they were rescued, Zhou Bingrong kept muttering in his ear about how much he admired the dormitory auntie who had rescued them from the fire pit.

But this was it?! Back then, he had felt familiar with Sister Ah Yue the first time he saw her!

Ah Hao immediately felt refreshed and happy!

Only he knew Lin Shuyue’s true identity! He now looked at Zhou Bingrong with a bit more superiority in his eyes.

Zhou Bingrong didn’t understand what was wrong with Ah Hao, but that didn’t stop him from trying to curry favor with the beautiful older sister.

He didn’t have any other intentions towards Lin Shuyue; after all, Lin Shuyue looked several years older than him.

He just simply liked good-looking people, regardless of gender. When he saw handsome or beautiful boys and girls, he wanted to go up and strike up a conversation and make friends. This was also one of the reasons why he became friends with Ah Hao. After all, Ah Hao was indeed good-looking.

Granny Fang had already met Zhou Bingrong and was very familiar with him. She asked Ah Hao to get another set of bowls and chopsticks for Zhou Bingrong. Zhou Bingrong didn’t stand on ceremony, picked up the chopsticks, and started eating.

The nanny at his house was the one who usually cooked, and her skills were just so-so. Ah Hao’s family’s food was much better! To put it pretentiously, Zhou Bingrong felt that Ah Hao’s family’s food had a taste of home!

With the addition of this lively character, the atmosphere at the dinner table became even more active. Granny Fang and Lin Shuyue were both amused by Zhou Bingrong and couldn’t stop laughing.

Ah Hao found Zhou Bingrong a bit displeasing to the eye, but there was nothing he could do. Who could blame him since his own mouth wasn’t sweet enough?

In the afternoon, Lin Shuyue had to go to work. Ah Hao insisted on seeing her off, and Zhou Bingrong wanted to follow along too.

Watching Lin Shuyue go upstairs, the two teenagers started walking back.

After walking a few steps, Zhou Bingrong said to Ah Hao, “This morning, Zeng Xiaoyi sent me a message saying that her parents were very dissatisfied with her, even without knowing what the instructor did to her. Her parents still felt she had disgraced them. Her mother told her to go die.”

“Her mom said that because she was disobedient, the fact that they sent her to the internet addiction school was known by relatives and friends. Everyone blamed her parents for being cruel. Her parents valued their reputation the most, and after being blamed, they vented their anger on her.”

While in the hospital, more than eighty students had already exchanged their contact information. After Zhou Bingrong received Zeng Xiaoyi’s message, he came to find Ah Hao.

Those who came out of the internet addiction school knew what the girls experienced, but none of them said anything.

No one, regardless of who it was, said an extra word about their particular ordeal.

Everyone tacitly kept this secret for the girls.

These boys had only suffered physical pain in the internet addiction school. The girls’ experiences were much, much worse than theirs!

They didn’t have the ability to protect them in school, but outside, they didn’t want to become the abusers.

But there were still some parents who didn’t know about the girls’ experience and still spoke harshly to their own daughters.

“If it really doesn’t work out, just let her come out. She can just find any job here, it’s better than staying at home,” Ah Hao said.

Zhou Bingrong put his hands behind his head as a pillow. “That’s what I told her too. What exactly will happen depends on her choice.”

A mocking smile appeared on Zhou Bingrong’s face for the first time. “Some parents are really not suitable to be parents.”

“Just like my mom and dad. They gave birth to me, but I never drank a drop of her breast milk. They sent me to my grandma’s house, and I wouldn’t see them even once throughout the year. When I was three years old, they threw me to a nanny. Sometimes I couldn’t even get enough to eat.”

“It was hard for me to grow up on my own. Finally, their positions were promoted, and then their attention turned to me. They started to think I was disobedient, started to think that I didn’t meet their expectations in every way.”

“Ah Hao, I don’t care for their belated concern, and I especially don’t care for them sending me to that kind of place under the guise of doing it for my own good. I will never forgive them.”

“Ah Hao, I’ve thought it over. I’ll study hard in the future and strive to get into university as soon as possible, then become independent and leave them. Didn’t they think I was already hopeless? Then just treat me as dead. If they want an obedient son, they should have another one as soon as possible.”

The two teenagers stood side by side, discussing the path they would take in the future.

Before going to the internet addiction school, they had never thought about their future, but after coming out of the internet addiction school, they already had a relatively vague plan for the future.

–

Lin Shuyue returned to her office. She turned on her computer and started searching for the definition of internet addiction and psychological problems of teenagers.

After reading, she began to write the report.

The term “internet addiction” was initially spoofed by an American psychiatrist. Based on the definition of addictive behaviors like alcoholism and gambling, he fabricated seven diagnostic criteria, including “the action of fingers consciously or unconsciously tapping on the keyboard,” and claimed to have discovered a new type of mental illness. However, due to being highly controversial, in 1997, this doctor personally admitted in front of the media that this was a prank he played on a life forum. In fact, this disease didn’t exist.

Since 1995, the American psychiatric community has conducted a large amount of academic research on “internet addiction.” In the end, they believed that internet addiction was not a disease but a manifestation of “impulse control disorder” in internet users. It was just like TV sickness and air conditioner sickness, a psychological habit caused by long-term exposure, a psychological problem rather than a disease.

However, the diagnosis made by the American academic community and the statement made by the person who initially proposed this disease didn’t have much effect. Some people with ulterior motives completely copied his seven diagnostic criteria and brought them back to the country. As a result, internet addiction officially became a disease in many countries!

Speculators saw business opportunities, and various institutions sprang up like mushrooms.

Some didn’t even have proper school-running qualifications. They didn’t teach either, they only used beating, scolding, and threats to intimidate and threaten children. After the children were beaten into fear, they got the money, satisfied their emperor-like desire to abuse, and the parents got an obedient child who dared not to argue with them.

So both sides were very happy, but no one cared about the children’s wishes or health.

Condemning these schools is certainly important, but don’t those parents need to take responsibility?

They only used the old standards to demand things from their children. They had a hard life when they were young, so they felt that the current children should feel happy and grateful for being able to eat and wear warm clothes, grateful to themselves for creating a good life for the children.

They believed that children were their “private property,” and this “private property” had to grow according to their ideas. They felt that they had the power of life and death over this “private property.”

They never thought about what era they were in back then and what era it is now! After the country’s reform and opening up, development has been rapid, and it has become easier and easier to earn money. As long as you are diligent and have hands and feet, everyone can have enough to eat. It’s different from when they were young and worked from the beginning of the year to the end but still couldn’t even get enough to eat.

They couldn’t open their eyes and see the changes in this world. They covered their ears and were unwilling to listen to the sounds of this new world.

They also wouldn’t accept new things. When children played on the computer, they said the children were addicted to the internet, but they never mentioned themselves sitting in front of the TV for two or three hours at a time, nor did they mention themselves sitting at the mahjong table all night long as soon as they weren’t working.

Chinese-style parents always believed that parents could never be wrong. Taking this group of people who sent their children to internet addiction schools this time, even if they felt guilty, how many people would apologize to their children like Huang Xiaoqin’s father who wrote a letter?

Counting ten would be a lot.

Therefore, this time, Lin Shuyue pointed her pen directly at the parents of these children.

She set the title as: 《Shocking! Behind the Internet Addiction School, Parents are Actually Accomplices!》

Lin Shuyue revised her report multiple times, only sending it to Wang Mingzheng when she was about to clock out.

After Wang Mingzheng opened and read the report, he sat in his office chair and silently smoked two cigarettes. Finally, he let out a soft sigh and gave Lin Shuyue’s report the front page, though not the top story.

Before leaving for the day, Wang Mingzheng called Lin Shuyue to his office, eager to share his excitement. “Xiao Lin,” he said, “the report you wrote, ‘Internet Addiction Schools are Concentration Camps,’ has been picked up by the Yangcheng Daily and will be on their front page tomorrow!”

For a small paper like the Pengcheng Metropolis Daily, it was incredibly rare for their reports to be reprinted by official media within a year. Yet, in less than a month, it had happened twice! How could Wang Mingzheng not be thrilled?

He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, but he didn’t own it. He was just a managing editor who received a cut of the profits. These reprints were all to his credit!

However, being the leader he was, Wang Mingzheng, in his happiness, didn’t forget to dangle a carrot in front of the promising young talent he had his eye on. “Xiao Lin, you’ve got a real knack for investigative journalism! I have high hopes for you. Work hard, and promotions and raises will come.”

Lin Shuyue wasn’t swayed by the editor’s empty promises, but she was genuinely pleased to have her professional abilities recognized by a senior colleague.

Especially later that evening when she got home and saw the report about internet addiction schools on Yangcheng News.

And this was far from the end of the matter.