Chapter 10: Astonishment

As Qiong Cang walked up, a wave of jeers erupted from below.

At first, there were only a few scattered voices, but as more and more people joined in, the sound swelled into a collective roar.

A few teachers nearby tried to intervene, pulling back the students who had started it. Unfortunately, there were too many of them, and the teachers could not stop the overwhelming tide of “public opinion.”

By the time Qiong Cang stood in the center of the Rostrum, the jeers had turned into bursts of laughter.

All kinds of inexplicable laughter filled the air, though it was likely that even the students themselves did not know what they were laughing at.

Standing on the high platform, Qiong Cang looked from one end of the crowd to the other.

The bright light made her pupils look slightly pale, which only accentuated the pallor of her face.

It turned out that being stared at by countless hostile eyes brought a spine-chilling shudder.

When those dense waves of mockery washed over her all at once, they brought a hair-raising dread.

The absurd scene spread before her like a giant net.

Qiong Cang watched silently, and then, to everyone’s surprise, she laughed.

The teachers and students felt a chill run down their spines at her sudden laughter, and the clamor gradually died down.

The viewers in the Live Stream Room felt the same way.

“I’m not afraid of the boss getting angry, but I’m terrified when she laughs…”

“R.I.P. Wishing them a safe journey in advance.”

“This shot is so intense, it feels really uncomfortable.”

“If it were me, I’d just want to bash their heads in. These people are making me too angry to think!”

“Welcome to the hit series: The World of Idiots.”

“I hope the next episode is: The Repentance of the Idiots.”

·

In truth, not much time had passed since Qiong Cang stepped onto the stage. A male voice from below shouted shrilly, “Are you out of your mind? If you’re crazy, get the hell down!”

Someone else quickly chimed in, “Yeah! Get down! Who wants to look at you!”

“Apologize!”

“Get lost!”

Qiong Cang raised the microphone and spoke slowly to the crowd.

“I really hate studying psychology.”

Her opening line was bizarre.

“Because I hate trying to figure out what other people are thinking. It’s an unpleasant thing to do. However, more often than not, human instinct forces me to sense the emotions others inadvertently reveal.”

Qiong Cang paused, her eyes sweeping toward the few middle-aged men standing in the corner.

“For example, the people standing behind me. Although they have solemn expressions on their faces, they are secretly gloating. They are gloating that they have admitted a group of students who are so foolish and incapable of independent thought.”

The already restless students grew even more agitated after receiving her mockery.

Qiong Cang turned her head toward the small room on the other side. “To the students in the broadcasting room, I suggest you don’t cut the audio. First High School has already had two students commit suicide in succession. Just now, you allowed a student to accuse me of crimes in front of the entire school. If you don’t give me a chance to clarify, I believe the public and the police will have absolute reason to suspect that you are deliberately instigating conflict among students, condoning, or even guiding school bullying. If that happens, I will call the police directly and contact the media. I imagine the school leadership is terrified of either party getting involved.”

The commotion grew louder, the noise almost drowning out Qiong Cang’s voice.

Qiong Cang smiled. “Thank you. What I have to say is actually very brief. I might not convince you, or even if I do, you might not admit it.”

“Xu You accused me of driving Zhou Nansong to her death. Of course I reject that accusation. The reason is simple: there has never been any concrete evidence to prove that Zhou Nansong died because she couldn’t handle my bullying. It’s all just groundless speculation.”

Her voice was clear and resonant. Her calm, unhurried pace caused most of the noisy students to quiet down and listen to her speech.

“So far, no one, including my classmates, my roommates, and perhaps even my teachers, has actually seen me do anything extreme. Otherwise, with their strong sense of justice, they would have stepped in to stop me long ago. Yet, after Zhou Nansong died, they instinctively assumed that I must have done even worse things to her in private. Why?”

“‘In private’ is a very interesting phrase. It’s as if I could somehow defy the laws of nature, find a place completely devoid of people, inflict non-physical psychological violence on Zhou Nansong, and simultaneously force her to keep it a secret from everyone. Even though this is highly illogical, they still believe it to be true. On what basis are they making this assumption?”

Qiong Cang took a couple of steps on the Rostrum, looking down at the tips of her shoes.

“Let me tell you.

“Every single one of you sitting here: if you have ever sworn, fought, insulted someone, gotten into a conflict, made an inappropriate joke, had wild or extreme thoughts, hated someone out of selfishness, or isolated and excluded someone, then all of you who have done these things have committed the exact same mistake as me. You should also stand up on this stage, face public criticism, and repent for your mistakes. You should let thousands of people scream “get lost” to your face.”

Qiong Cang stopped walking and reached her hand forward, asking, “Well? Which side looks more like a lunatic?”

Some faces still wore expressions of indignant disdain, some were indifferent, while others looked shaken.

Qiong Cang said, “You love to use collective morality to hijack others. You demand justice, kindness, fearlessness, and courage. But while selfishness is not something to be encouraged, it is simply human nature.

“Being too afraid to step forward.

“Being unwilling to let go of what you cherish.

“Being unable to compromise on what you value.

“Being unable to move on from what you desire.

“Are these unforgivable sins? Do they justify you raising your weapons, determined to hack her to death? Do they justify you gathering in a frenzied mob to launch a crusade against her?”

Qiong Cang tilted her chin up slightly, looking down at everyone with a mocking gaze.

“What is your ultimate goal? A life for a life? To watch Wang Dongyan, to watch me, die under your pursuit of justice, sacrificing my life as an offering for this revolution? Is that it?”

Her final words suddenly turned cold and sharp. “Isn’t this just murder? Is that really something for you to be so happy about?”

Silence fell over the crowd of students for a moment, and then someone roared in anger:

“Bullshit! I would never do something that cruel to someone with depression!”

“Stop twisting the truth! You’re the one who drove your roommate to her death in the first place!”

“You’re shameless! Are you trying to say what you did was nothing, or that the victim was just too fragile? How do you have the face to say something like that!”

A harsh screech of static erupted from the speakers, drowning out the voices of those students.

Qiong Cang pulled her phone from her pocket and saw that He Jueyun had sent her over a dozen text messages earlier, none of which she had noticed. The latest one had arrived just a moment ago.

She turned around and looked off into the distance.

A tall figure was sprinting toward her, rapidly crossing the stairs and the sports field.

He Jueyun had taken off his jacket and clutched it in his hand. He had been running for who knew how long, and was already drenched in sweat. His wet bangs clung messily to his face, completely ruining his appearance. He had already been modeled as an ordinary middle-aged police officer, and now he looked even more unremarkable.

Once he reached a spot where Qiong Cang could see him, he pointed to his phone, then to the students, and gave her an encouraging gesture.

Qiong Cang read the message carefully, the corners of her lips curling into an enigmatic smile.

Straightening her back, she raised her voice.

“It seems some of you still don’t understand what I’m saying. Let me give you a simple reading comprehension lesson then.”

“In Zhou Nansong’s suicide note, she didn’t mention me at all. The subject of her words was the school. Her descriptions were, ‘I didn’t expect the school to become this kind of place,’ and ‘I can’t hold on anymore.’ This shows she felt powerless, that she had tried everything she could but found no way out. Yet, according to you, no one in this school besides me ever did anything violent to her. Why would she expand her accusation to the entire school? If she wanted to fight back against me, it would have been simple, she just had to tell a teacher.”

“That idiot Xu You said it was because Zhou Nansong had depression. I’ve never suffered from depression, so I won’t make assumptions about how it affects people. But I think, compared to someone who has always hated you continuing to hate you, the death of her best friend would have been far harder for her to accept, wouldn’t it?”

Qiong Cang held up her phone, facing the crowd. “On the day Tian Yun died, the police requested the surveillance footage from the school. There is now clear evidence proving that the footage was falsified. The school administration altered the timestamps and the footage to create the illusion that Tian Yun went straight back to her dorm and jumped to her death.”

“And Zhou Nansong must have found out about this.”

“I believe only something of this scale could warrant the severe accusations in Zhou Nansong’s final words.”

The crowd erupted instantly at her words. Even the school administrators standing to the side began to look panicked and flustered.

Qiong Cang questioned them in a calm, measured tone. “Who altered the timestamps on the footage? And who pretended to be neutral while disciplining me, eager to tell you all that Zhou Nansong committed suicide because she couldn’t endure school bullying? And what role did all of you play in this?”

The students began to clamor like headless chickens, turning to those beside them in bewildered innocence to verify what they had just heard. The scene descended into utter chaos, spiraling out of control.

A teacher from behind rushed forward, trying to snatch the microphone from Qiong Cang’s hand.

“I suggest you don’t make any sudden moves. The police are right down there.” Qiong Cang took a step back, putting some distance between herself and the teacher.

Meanwhile, He Jueyun, clutching his jacket in one hand, bounded up the steps of the Rostrum two at a time and stood protectively in front of her.

“I’m not finished speaking yet.”

Qiong Cang walked around him to the edge of the Rostrum, facing the stunned students who were still frantically trying to verify the news with one another.

To Wang Dongyan, how utterly detestable these people were.

“Actually, I was indeed wrong.”

“I was too naive. At first, I really thought you were just a flock of lost sheep. But you aren’t.”

“You are merely indulging in a self-satisfying sense of justice. That sense of justice is actually nothing more than a morbid vanity, a way to vent your pent-up frustration. And this sickness, fueled by spreading rumors and subconscious reinforcement, spread from individuals to the collective. You fed off each other, until it finally became your ridiculous creed.”

“You believe your boycotts and bullying have become justice. You think you are being mavericks¹, filling the societal gaps that the law cannot reach.”

“All of you are simply hiding behind the safety of numbers to escape accountability, enjoying the superior status of judges who get to pass sentence on the lives of others. That is why you desperately cover up your own inner baseness, refusing to admit your mistakes or face the consequences of your actions. In the end, you are just ignorant and irresponsible. Years from now, you might realize your mistakes, but when that time comes, you will just find a new excuse to justify yourselves: ‘I was young back then,’ or ‘Everyone was doing it, I only said a few words.’ How could it be that simple?”

“Let me tell you, the more foolish and incompetent a person is, the more they need the suffering of others to prove their own strength.”

“You are exactly those kinds of people. Led by the nose, you easily became degenerates. I hope you remain this lucky forever, and never have to experience the same humiliation they did. Remember this lesson well, you idiots.”

Translator’s Notes