After an hour, the instructors went downstairs, laughing and talking. Lin Shuyue quickly came out of the dormitory and, as Tian Li had instructed, pulled the metal gate closed and locked it.

The instructors didn’t pay her any attention, discussing where they would go for drinks later, and left.

Lin Shuyue took the key back to her small room. Before going in, she casually glanced at the camera flashing red in the corridor.

Lin Shuyue didn’t sleep well that night.

The next morning, as soon as the school’s alarm clock rang, Lin Shuyue glanced at the system panel floating in the air. It was only 5:20.

Without thinking much, she got up and went to open the metal gate at the stairwell. Neatly dressed students poured down from upstairs.

Lin Shuyue stood to the side, waiting for Ah Hao to come down from upstairs.

Just as Lin Shuyue had thought, he, with the blue wristband on his hand, was still at the very end.

As he came downstairs, Lin Shuyue, using the other students as cover, quickly slipped a note into his hand.

Feeling something foreign in his hand, Ah Hao quickly looked up, seeing the unfamiliar yet vaguely familiar face of the woman in front of him. He didn’t have time to think. The person in front of him had already moved away, and Ah Hao quickly followed.

He tightly gripped the note and, taking advantage of the moment, he bent down, stuffed it into his shoe.

The sky wasn’t yet bright, it was hazy. More than eighty students stood in a line on the synthetic running track. An instructor blew a whistle, and they shot forward like arrows from a bow.

Lin Shuyue held a broom, sweeping up the mess, watching them run lap after lap as if their lives depended on it. No one dared to stop.

One girl really couldn’t run anymore. The instructor closest to her strode forward, raised the ruler in his hand high, and brought it down heavily. The girl grunted in pain, quickly got up, and mechanically ran forward.

Lin Shuyue quickly picked up the broom and the swept-up trash and went to the cafeteria.

She was afraid that if she watched any longer, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from going up and beating up that instructor.

Mei Daliang had already prepared breakfast in the cafeteria.

A thin porridge that you could see your reflection in, a dark-colored plate of pickled vegetables of unknown origin, and a large basin of steamed buns with unknown filling.

Lin Shuyue used water to wipe the table in the kitchen near the door, and then mopped the floor again.

At seven o’clock, the students finally finished their one-and-a-half-hour run and came in to eat. A spoonful of porridge, a chopstickful of pickled vegetables, and a fist-sized steamed bun—that was their breakfast.

After finishing their meal, they went to class.

Lin Shuyue cleaned up the kitchen and carried a bucket to clean the teaching building.

When she looked at the classrooms where the students were attending class this time, they were very different from the day before yesterday when Lin Shuyue had pretended to be a parent on an undercover visit. There were no desks in front of them now. They just sat on stools, one hand holding a pen, the other holding a notebook on their laps. The teacher taught in front, and they took notes on their laps.

Lin Shuyue mopped very slowly. She listened to the teacher’s lesson for half a class. Really, it was complete nonsense. Lin Shuyue felt that this teacher definitely didn’t even have a junior high school diploma.

Otherwise, how could he not even read the text from the textbook fluently?

She walked along the stairs to the second floor.

There was no one on the second floor. The infirmary and the art room were empty.

Lin Shuyue cleaned the second floor and then went to the office building in front.

It was just after eight o’clock.

The students at the internet addiction treatment school had already been up for almost three hours, while outside the school, many people were just starting to head to work.

Wang Mingzheng was also like this. He had a smile on his face and was carrying the Pengcheng Daily he had just bought while passing a newsstand. On the front page of the second section was the article that their Metro Daily had published yesterday.

As soon as he sat down in his chair, the phone rang.

Wang Mingzheng casually picked it up. The caller was his friend at the Pengcheng Daily, and their interview program wanted to interview Lin Shuyue. After all, apart from this case, Lin Shuyue, as an intern reporter, a young woman in her early twenties, had bravely captured a vicious murderer.

Since yesterday, many people had called Wang Mingzheng wanting to interview Lin Shuyue.

Wang Mingzheng hadn’t agreed to any of them. After all, publishing such news would surely be another exclusive, and Wang Mingzheng wanted to keep this news in-house.

He had already found out that the court hearing for Duan Taoyong’s trial was in half a month. At that time, he could publish this report along with the results of Duan Taoyong’s trial as a headline, and he wouldn’t have to worry about sales.

“Ah Feng, it’s not that I don’t agree with you, it’s that Xiao Lin already went out to cover a story yesterday. I can’t contact her right now…”

A voice came from the other end of the phone: “That’s no problem. We have to schedule interviews here anyway. It will be at least half a month before we can air it. Ah Ming, you and I are old classmates. You have to do me this favor. How about this, I’ll treat you to a meal at Suxizhai tonight.” (Suxizhai: likely a vegetarian restaurant)

Wang Mingzheng’s fingers tapped on the desk. He pondered for a moment and then agreed.

Ah Feng, on the other end of the line, hung up.

The water Wang Mingzheng had boiled when he entered the office was now ready. As the sound of knocking came, he casually called out, “Come in.”

The person who came in was Li Weisheng, and Wang Mingzheng’s face broke into a smile.

This Li Weisheng was the nephew of Lao Li from the advertising department. He hadn’t studied anything related to media in school, but after joining the newspaper, he had shown good ability. He had joined the internship at the same time as Lin Shuyue, and several of his reports had already been published. Wang Mingzheng quite liked him.

Li Weisheng had been anxious and frustrated for two days. He just wanted to know what news story Lin Shuyue was working on. He had tried to subtly inquire with Lin Shuyue’s mentor, Huang Qiang, but Huang Qiang didn’t know anything, claiming ignorance! Li Weisheng couldn’t stand it any longer and planned to ask Wang Mingzheng early this morning.

Wang Mingzheng naturally wouldn’t tell him. Undercover reporters were a high-risk group. Whatever interview they were going to do, no one would know except their direct superior.

Even though Wang Mingzheng didn’t think undercover reporting on internet addiction schools was a dangerous profession, he still wouldn’t reveal Lin Shuyue’s whereabouts.

Li Weisheng returned in disappointment, his expression even more unpleasant. His loyal lackey, Qian Yongqiang, saw this and didn’t immediately go to him. Li Weisheng saw this and became even angrier.

–

Ah Hao took out the note Lin Shuyue had slipped him from his shoe while going to the restroom.

The first sentence that met his eyes was, “Ah Hao, your grandma is waiting for you outside.” Ah Hao’s tears welled up and streamed down his face.

It had been four days since he was captured and brought to this school. He had resisted every day, and he had been beaten every day. No matter how much it hurt, he hadn’t shed a single tear. But when he saw this sentence, he couldn’t hold back anymore.

His grandmother had diabetes, and last year her blood pressure had also started to rise. His father had passed away early. He died in an accident while working on a construction site. The compensation money from the construction site had been taken away by the woman he called mother, without leaving a single penny.

Over the years, he had been raised by his grandmother, who earned money by doing odd jobs and selling vegetables. It wasn’t until he was thirteen that he started following his neighbor’s older brother in making money online by playing games for others that their lives improved.

His grandmother’s health was getting worse and worse, and her biggest worry was him. So, after that woman came back, she had been working hard to get him to reconcile with her so that she could rest in peace.

Ah Hao didn’t want to make her sad, so even though he hated that woman, he was still willing to interact with her.

That woman said she wanted to send him to an internet addiction treatment school. He didn’t care at the time. He thought this kind of school was the same as a boarding school. But after truly arriving at this place, he realized how outrageous it was.

Four days had shattered Ah Hao’s understanding of schools, which he’d built up over more than ten years.

If it weren’t for thinking about his grandmother every day, he wouldn’t have been able to hold on. The only thought that supported him to live was to get out of here alive and see his grandmother.

This note was like a beam of light shining into the darkness for Ah Hao. He almost greedily looked at the note, deeply imprinting the words on it into his mind, and then threw the note into the toilet and flushed it away.

During lunch, he subtly tapped his spoon on his bowl, a secret code Lin Shuyue had written to him on the note.

So, in the afternoon, when she opened the metal gate after the break, she took the opportunity to slip the prepared miniature camera into Ah Hao’s hand.

Ah Hao still put it in his shoe, and when he was alone, he put the button-style camera on his clothes, replacing the previous button.

After finishing the nonsensical Chinese classics class where the teacher couldn’t even pronounce the words correctly, an instructor called Ah Hao out. “Xu Shuhao, you’ve been here for four days now. Tell me, have you realized your mistakes?”

Ah Hao looked at the man in front of him. The words of admitting his mistakes reached his lips, but he swallowed them back down.

The note the dorm supervisor had given him said that she was an undercover reporter. He needed his cooperation to capture more evidence of the school’s abuse and beatings of students.

Ah Hao chose to believe her. He really wanted to get out of this place too much. His grandmother was still waiting for him outside the school.

He looked into the instructor’s eyes and said, word by word, “I’m not wrong. What have I done wrong?!”

The instructor admired Ah Hao’s rebellious spirit. Grabbing him by the neck, he walked towards the infirmary upstairs. “Good boy, it seems your illness is very serious. Today, we must show you what’s what.”

When the doctor in the infirmary saw him coming, he called Principal Xiao Changxin. The electroshock therapy for students had always been done by Xiao Changxin personally, never by anyone else.

Soon, Xiao Changxin arrived with people. He put on a white coat, looked at the stubborn Ah Hao, and a smile filled his small eyes. “I say, Xu Shuhao, you’re really brave, kid. It’s been four days, and you still haven’t admitted your mistakes?”

“If I were you, I would have admitted my mistakes early and suffered less physical pain.”

Ah Hao stiffened his neck and sneered. “I’m not wrong, so why should I admit it? And even if I did admit it, would I suffer less physical pain? The students in this school get beaten even if they fart too loudly during class!”

“If earning money with my own hands to support my family is wrong, then why don’t you arrest everyone in the country and treat them?”

The smile in Xiao Changxin’s eyes faded. He said to the doctor in the infirmary, “This kid still doesn’t admit his mistakes. Give him some treatment.”

After a pause, he looked at Ah Hao. “Remember, this treatment you’re receiving today is called ‘instant cash.’ This medical expense is also included in the tuition your mother paid. Take him inside.”

The doctor nodded. The instructors dragged Ah Hao into the inner room of the infirmary.

The inner room of the infirmary had another room, the key to which was only held by Xiao Changxin. He opened the door.

Several metal-framed beds were placed against the wall, and an electroshock therapy device was placed at the head of each bed.

Four instructors strapped Ah Hao to the bed, one holding down each of his limbs. Xiao Changxin put on the equipment and casually pressed a button on the machine.

In an instant, screams rang out in the small infirmary, cut off by the extremely soundproof room.

At night, when Lin Shuyue was closing the metal gate to the students’ dormitories, Ah Hao slipped the button camera into her hand and then went upstairs without a word. He grabbed the iron railing, his body trembling involuntarily.

Lin Shuyue clutched the button camera and entered the dormitory, storing it in the backpack rewarded by the Good and Evil Detection System.

The Good and Evil Detection System detected the footage inside and played it for Lin Shuyue.

In the darkness of the night, Lin Shuyue hugged her legs, and covered her eyes, but tears still seeped through the gaps between her fingers.