Judge of Souls - Chapter 78

Kong Su read through it again and couldn’t help cursing. She pulled up a web page to search for related news.

Sure enough, two months ago, around the beginning of the school year, A City had reported a case of a middle school teacher sexually harassing students.

Because it involved minors, many details were blurred in the reporting process. The victim’s name and school were completely removed, and since the teacher had not yet been convicted, his face was pixelated.

However, internet users were indeed ferocious. After several news stories had fermented, the public attitude toward teacher sexual abuse remained in a sensitive and strongly opposed state.

Some netizens, based on the pixelated face of the suspect, visited various middle schools and eventually identified him as Teacher Wei. They published his real photo, family background, current address, and family relationships online, conducting an extremely thorough human flesh search.

The comments below were unbearable to read. They were overwhelmingly full of humiliation and criticism. When the incident first came out, it generated a lot of heat. Under media sensationalization, students and parents at A Foreign Language School were terrified. Only after learning that the school had already dismissed the teacher and conducted comprehensive questioning of students with no other incidents found did the resentment finally subside somewhat.

Kong Su bit his finger and went on to browse A Foreign Language School’s website.

From the school’s announcement, it was clear that A Foreign Language School had unceremoniously thrown Teacher Wei under the bus, seemingly manipulating public sentiment and indirectly confirming Teacher Wei’s guilt. It also stated, “After reporting to the police, the case has been submitted to the court for processing. Currently, we are waiting for the trial. The school is following up, but there are no definite results yet,” to demonstrate their innocence and preserve the school’s reputation.

They were all experienced manipulators. Having been in the entertainment industry for so long, Kong Su knew what the art of language was and the treachery of human hearts. This kind of diplomatic writing simply took advantage of the public’s rage, during which they overlooked logical loopholes, transferring responsibility to Teacher Wei.

But what did they actually say? They said nothing. They just whitewashed themselves into a pure lotus flower. So when you came to your senses, they also had reasons to refute you.

However, a lie isn’t just about telling falsehoods. Deliberately concealing part of the truth to mislead the public is also a form of lying.

Kong Su went back to read the comments. From the pictures, it was evident that some radical netizens had already gone to Teacher Wei’s doorstep to dump garbage and verbally abuse him…

Even for such illegal violent behavior, netizens were still applauding.

Judgment without evidence, with one’s own arrogance serving as the judge of justice.

Kong Su sat up straight, taking the matter seriously.

Sexual harassment, unlike sexual assault, was difficult to prove. The standard for defining sexual harassment was sometimes influenced by the victim’s subjective perception.

Especially when dealing with minors like Zhu Yan, people would instinctively side with the vulnerable group. If she also provided a certificate of depression, the bias would be even more apparent.

Kong Su guessed that if this were true, it would be impossible to estimate human malice. She went to find that middle school student again.

Kong Su asked: “Do you have other friends who can confirm this? Do you have any evidence about Zhu Yan’s regular behavior?”

Class One Little Cutie: “Yes. A few of us quietly decided that if evidence is needed, we’ll step forward and speak up.”

Class One Little Cutie: “Those two students who were bullied into dropping out—one of them really developed depression and is now taking a break from school to recover. We also bear inescapable responsibility for this, and thinking about it now makes us feel terrible. This can’t continue. We need to fight back! We can report with our real names. We’re all minors, we’re not afraid of her!”

Kong Su: “First, send me all the materials, and I’ll organize them. I want to meet you. Would tomorrow work? It’s Saturday, so you’re off, right?”

Class One Little Cutie: “Our school has make-up classes tomorrow morning, and I have training class in the afternoon. After 5 PM, I have an hour and a half for dinner.”

Kong Su was stunned.

Make-up classes were truly a magnificent thing.

Kong Su: “Then I’ll come find you after 5. You set the time and place.”

The account on the other side sent him an address, then showed “typing” for a while, before finally sending: “Thank you, Teacher Kong.”

Kong Su: “[pats head]”

Kong Su organized all the information from this side and, seeing how enthusiastically the internet trolls were jumping around in the comments, did not immediately respond. Instead, he first told Jiang Feng about this matter.

****

By this time, Zong Ce and Meng Po had both heard the news and arrived. After seeing the online developments, Chu Xuanliang felt that Jiang Feng was likely being implicated because of him. Worried that someone might go looking for trouble after the human flesh search, he quickly rushed over as well. Mainly, he had connections with the school and could help mediate to prevent the school from making improper decisions under the heavy pressure of public opinion.

As for Zhang Yangyang… he and his dormitory alliance were rallying friends from A University to condemn the situation online. But fearing that Jiang Feng lacked self-protection abilities or might suffer extreme psychological damage, the group of brothers specially dispatched Zhang Yangyang, this low-EQ overgrown child, to cheer him up.

Fortunately, Jiang Feng had just moved, and quite discreetly, so not many people knew about it yet. However, a group of reporters had surrounded his previously rented old house. The landlord and tenants were nearly furious.

Meng Po sat on the sofa, still holding her porcelain bowl as steadfastly as ever. Zhang Yangyang looked left and right, not believing his eyes, and went over to poke her arm with his finger.

Meng Po spoke languidly. “Hooligan.”

Zhang Yangyang jumped far away, holding his breath. “Whoa——!”

Jiang Feng was very exasperated.

Zong Ce said, “Are you an idiot?”

Zhang Yangyang clutched his chest. “Who is she? I thought she was a lifelike doll!”

Meng Po raised her eyelids and looked at him, cold as ice.

Zhang Yangyang was nearly ready to kneel down. “I’m sorry.”

Meng Po: “Forget it……”

Chu Xuanliang noticed she had no vital energy but also contained her yin energy without letting it leak out. Unable to discern her true form and origins momentarily, he asked, “Who is she?”

“Meng Po,” Jiang Feng pointed at Zong Ce, “Came to keep an eye on her.”

Chu Xuanliang was greatly surprised. It was his first time seeing a famous underworld  official. He very politely kept his distance from her, while controlling himself to not appear too startled or agitated.

…Although the truth was quite different.

But none of this mattered now, as Kong Su’s message came through at that moment.

Everyone gathered together and read the content thoroughly.

Zhang Yangyang immediately burst into cursing.

Although Jiang Feng and Chu Xuanliang sighed, they weren’t surprised. After all, this revenge approved by the Ten Kings of Hell—most likely the King of the Fifth Hall—surely involved grievances that couldn’t be ignored.

Zong Ce sat on the sofa, crossing her legs and taunting, “Justice in the human world isn’t always on the side of truth. Sometimes, it stands with shamelessness. This is human nature at its worst. Judge, what will you do now?”

Chu Xuanliang: “Let’s report to the police first.”

“Report to the police? Can you always entrust everything to the police? Isn’t Teacher Wei’s tragedy precisely because the national judicial system is very likely not going to take his side?” Zong Ce said. “Think about the Fu Fushan incident. Students who made mistakes due to temptation safely lived through the second half of their lives, changing to a new environment, forgetting a few passersby, and starting anew. People with little integrity hardly face inner questioning and don’t need to bear much consequence. While the accused remains forever stuck in the day of false accusation, with the rest of their life spent compensating for that suddenly malfunctioning gear. And then there’s the Japanese Otemmachi incident. Even if all people know what the truth is, victims still can’t wait for the justice and apology they deserve. What is justice? This kind of justice is found in the Minor Protection Law.”

Jiang Feng asked, “What are these two cases?”

Chu Xuanliang’s face darkened as he explained. “Both are false accusations of sexual assault cases. One defendant was a teacher, the other a delinquent youth.”

He briefly described the two cases.

After listening, Jiang Feng remained silent for a while, his brows tightly furrowed. Zong Ce stared at him with a mocking gaze.

Jiang Feng said, “One case happened over fifty years ago when the legal system was still imperfect, but after forty-seven years, the person finally recovered his truth and cleared his name. The other case involved the judicial system making an unjust decision despite having complete evidence to maintain its authority, ultimately leading to public backlash. Although the accused bore responsibility that wasn’t his, weren’t all the people of the nation on their side? It shows that more people still have their own sense of right and wrong.”

“Tragedies in this world have never been in the minority. No law or deterrent can completely prevent such things. Victims standing in the present certainly suffer greatly, but society is indeed getting better. Although it’s difficult for victims to do so, only by embracing this hope can people continue living forward. Only we can save ourselves; that’s reality.”

“Pushing society forward has always involved pain, sacrifice, blood, tears, and oppression. These things seem cheap and ordinary in the vast tide of history, but if we hesitate because of them, true despair will arrive. Only after learning to resist do we understand what greatness means. Respecting, sympathizing with, and remembering every person who has been hurt, and taking it as a warning, is the reason human society has developed to this point and continues to develop. Complaining and self-destruction are definitely not.”

Zong Ce’s eyes darkened, but he didn’t continue speaking.

The glass of the living room was tapped, and Zhang Yangyang asked, “What’s that sound?”

Outside floated a ghost with white hair and beard—the one who had been beside Zhu Yan before.

He bowed to the people inside, seemingly very frightened, but after Jiang Feng nodded to him, he floated in.

Chu Xuanliang asked, “How did you get here?”

The old ghost clasped his hands and bowed. “Zhu Yan invited several black Taoist priests to help. They set up poisonous yin formations around the villa, and I dare not approach anymore. Please help.”

Zhang Yangyang listened to them talk, horrified with his hair standing on end, retreating alone to the corner of the room.

Jiang Feng said, “I understand. We’ll handle this matter. You can observe from the sidelines for now.”

The old ghost continued to bow. “There’s a young one from my family home alone— I’d like to ask you all to go over and lend a hand.”

Jiang Feng: “Understood.”

The old ghost hoarsely lowered his head. “Thank you, thank you.”

So it was decided that Jiang Feng and Chu Xuanliang would go to Teacher Wei’s home to check things out, Zhang Yangyang would go with Kong Su to meet those middle school students, and Zong Ce would stay at home, unable to move around.

****

At five o’clock the next afternoon, Kong Su drove with Zhang Yangyang to the designated teahouse.

A group of not-quite-grown students on the other side shifted in their seats and stood up, bowing. “Teacher Kong, you really came.”

Kong Su gestured downward, indicating for everyone to sit down.

Six students came this time. Five wore loose blue and white school uniforms, looking at Kong Su with innocent big eyes. Another one sat timidly in the corner with slightly long bangs, afraid to look at her.

Zhang Yangyang introduced himself. “Call me Brother Zhang.”

Kong Su said, “I brought him to help you relax a bit. He’s a student at A University, a good friend of Jiang Feng.”

The shop environment was quite peaceful. Opposite them, the six people squeezed onto four chairs, sitting in a row.

Kong Su said, “Go ahead and speak. Where should we start?”

A girl with pigtails raised her hand and said, “I’m Class One Little Cutie. Let me introduce everything.”

“In our class, there’s a six-person team led by Zhu Yan, including the class monitor, study representative, and other class cadres. Basically, anyone who gets along well with Zhu Yan can become a class cadre. If Zhu Yan doesn’t like someone, the small team will bully them together.”

She pointed to the boy in the corner and said, “He’s one of the students who was bullied into dropping out.”

“They’d do things like splash him with water, forbid us from talking to him, secretly hide his homework notebooks, deliberately throw small notes at him during exams and then report him to the teacher, replace the hot water in his thermos with urine, use various methods to make him smell bad… Anyway, there were many approaches.”

The boy still didn’t speak, sitting there picking at his fingers.

Class One Little Cutie pushed him and said, “Speak up! If you don’t stand up and speak for yourself, no one will ever help you!”

Zhang Yangyang encouraged, “Come on! You can do it!”

Class One Little Cutie glanced at him with a look that clearly said: Please shut up.

After someone has been hurt, avoidance is an instinctive self-protection response. Outside observers shouldn’t judge by their own standards. His lack of courage comes from experiencing fear that others can hardly imagine.

“One day, if you want others to apologize to you, first you need to tell them what they did wrong,” Kong Su said. “Your friends are all here this time, aren’t they?”

The boy mumbled, “Mm.”

He took a deep breath and said softly, “We’re in a fully enclosed boarding school, but they wouldn’t let me use my bed because I smelled. Other classmates and teachers from different classes all hated me and didn’t like talking to me.”

Zhang Yangyang felt very uncomfortable hearing this and solemnly asked, “What about your teachers? Didn’t they do anything?”

Class One Little Cutie: “Teachers never asked. That girl who’s now on sick leave, the one I told you about before—Zhu Yan had people touch her chest in public. She couldn’t take it anymore and went to find a teacher. But the teacher not only suppressed the matter but also asked her why Zhu Yan got along well with everyone else and only bullied her? Those people laughed at her right there in the office, along with students from other classes.”

Class One Little Cutie asked, “This is illegal, right? Right, Teacher Kong?”

Kong Su was seriously taking notes and looked up briefly. “Huh? I don’t study law.”

“Some teachers are good, like Teacher Wei,” the boy from before said quietly. “He would comfort me, find clean clothes for me to wear, help me get hot water, and talk to those class cadres who bullied me. But because he wasn’t our class teacher, they said he was meddling and were very unhappy with him. Then in the first semester of ninth grade, that girl from our class took a break due to depression. Teacher Wei felt very guilty when he found out, so he strongly requested to be transferred to teach Class One.”

As he spoke about Teacher Wei, his voice instantly rose, and his expression became animated.

“In his first class after the semester began, he severely criticized Zhu Yan and said that if such situations in the class didn’t improve, he would take forceful measures. Then Teacher Wei was falsely accused of sexual harassment! It’s completely fake! I’ve never seen a woman as vicious as her!”

When Class One Little Cutie was describing his experiences, he listened as if detached, showing no reaction. A gloomy and closed-off aura surrounded him. But when Teacher Wei appeared in the story, his character became vivid. He was angry, grieving wildly, trying to defend and speak up for this person who had cared for him.

The harm he suffered had eroded his courage for life, but the warmth that once flashed in the darkness guided him like a bright lamp.

What use is human kindness in this world? Perhaps it’s for moments like these.

Class One Little Cutie said, “Zhu Yan’s father is really rich, extremely rich. Her mother is also a celebrity. Look at this time—she wanted to harm Teacher Jiang, and just one sentence was enough to ruin his life. We don’t know who to ask for help. We previously sought help from Teacher Jiang, but that ended up harming him like this. Would asking for your help harm you too?”

She bit her lip and said, “If there’s no one to help, we’ll do it ourselves!”

Kong Su stopped her next words, “Trust adults, you silly baby! This society hasn’t reached the point where you need to be on the front lines clearing the way.”

She smoothed her hair. “This is now an adult battlefield!”

Zhang Yangyang reminded her, “You can’t really say much without their testimonies. This should be everyone’s battlefield together! They’ve stepped forward—they’re the vanguard!”

“Right!” Class One Little Cutie slid off her chair and said, “We must rescue Teacher Wei at all costs!”

The boy said, “I still want to see Teacher Wei.”

Kong Su remembered and said, “My friend is at your Teacher Wei’s place now. Let’s take a photo together?”