DBTHDCAR Chapter 91

『dapotaturs note: Content Notice – This chapter contains discussion of violence and non-consensual image distribution. Reader discretion is advised.』

Fan Xia said he truly couldn’t understand those two. Back when their parents opposed them staying in Shanghai and opposed their puppy love, the two of them made a huge, dramatic scene; swearing to stand together against all parental pressure, as if they were young men and women of the May Fourth era¹The May Fourth Movement (1919) was sparked by Chinese outrage over the Treaty of Versailles, which gave Chinese territories to Japan, leading students in Beijing to protest for national sovereignty and political reform. It also ignited a cultural awakening, promoting science, democracy, and social freedoms while challenging traditional Confucian norms, fighting for the freedom to love and the freedom to study.

And now that they were officially together, having secured all that so-called freedom…

Ding Zheyang couldn’t get used to spicy food and started feeling homesick; missing Shanghai’s sweet-and-sour pork ribs and Nanxiang soup dumplings, calling home up to three times a day. Meanwhile, Chang Leyun began to feel her boyfriend was utterly ordinary, with no particular strengths or charms beyond studying, frankly boring, and started wanting to break up.

Ning Xiaobei wanted to say that Ding Zheyang did have a skill; he was exceptionally good at crying.

Yesterday, he had been on the phone for over an hour, sobbing nonstop. If Ning Xiaobei hadn’t claimed his phone was dead, he probably could have gone on crying even longer.

“They say Lele has started practicing violin again. Didn’t she say she hated playing? Every time Aunt Wang sent her to the music room, she felt like she was sawing wood? Now she’s back at it, performing at malls and going to arts salons in her spare time. Honestly, anything seems more interesting than being with Ding Zheyang. She meets new people, even makes money.”

Thinking about the real world, Chang Leyun was still single in her thirties, flaunting the image of a trendy, avant-garde art girl. Compared to her, Ding Zheyang seemed almost incompatible.

Fan Xia suddenly felt uneasy. He had everything now; he’d been admitted to his dream university and finally ended up with Ning Xiaobei, but what came next?

Would he and Xiaobei eventually end up like Lele and Ding Zheyang? Or, one day, face the same struggles as Teacher Gu and Teacher Peng, since his future path in public service would bring pressures from all directions?

Could he really defeat the whole world for Xiaobei?

For the first time, he seemed to ponder life so deeply. That night, Fan Xia returned to his dorm and lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling until around two or three in the morning before finally falling asleep.

“Fan Xia, Fan Xia, wake up! Something’s happened!”

The next morning, Fan Xia was shaken awake by his dormmate nicknamed Little Mapi, who had suffered from acne in middle school and left his face pockmarked from picking.

Though not much to look at, Little Mapi had a kind heart. He took on most of the chores in the dorm, insisting he couldn’t tolerate a dirty environment, which conveniently saved the others from work. Of course, it wasn’t free, he never bought breakfast himself; the rest of the dormmates took turns treating him.

“Ugh, it’s only 6:30… wait a bit, I’ll sleep a little longer before buying breakfast for you.”

Monday happened to be Fan Xia’s turn to buy breakfast for everyone. In this freezing Shanghai winter, the dorms had no heating, and the bed felt like an icebox. He had stayed up too late the night before and wanted a few more minutes of sleep.

“Forget breakfast. you’ve got a buddy at J University, right? Last night… no, this morning, something happened! A lunatic in their men’s dorm stabbed everyone with a knife. Wake up!”

Little Mapi had overheard this while going to the bathroom and rushed to inform Fan Xia, remembering that he often bragged about having the campus heartthrob of J University as a close friend. He even sometimes went over there to hang out, so he hurried straight over after tying his pants.

Fan Xia almost leapt out of bed the moment he heard the news.

He yanked the clothes draped over the chair, didn’t care which way the sweater was facing, and shoved it over his head. Socks? Forget it. He kicked on his sneakers and tore out like a maniac.

Without brushing teeth and combing hair, he stormed downstairs as if riding a whirlwind.

J University sat in the southwest corner of the university town; normally biking there would take him a while. Now his mind was completely blank. He could think of nothing, and feel nothing. He just pumped his legs, sprinting with all his might.

“Boss, boss…”

Wind blasted into his mouth, into the unbuttoned collar of his jacket. Gusts from the northwest carried northern sand, pellets of grit crashing against his teeth, making them rattle.

He didn’t care. He didn’t feel anything. He just ran.

Finally, he reached the side gate of J University; the closest entrance to the men’s dorm. Usually, Fan Xia could walk right in without anyone stopping him. Today, however, a couple of security guards blocked him, demanding to see a student ID.

“I don’t have one! I’m not from J University, I’m from H University of Political Science and Law. My buddy is in there, I need to check on him!”

Fan Xia tried to circle around, hoping to shake the guards off, but they wouldn’t budge.

“No ID, no entry. It’s chaos inside.”

Other people were also held outside; some curious, some panicked like him, all desperate to know what was happening.

Soon, police cars arrived with sirens wailing, and yellow tape was strung up, sealing the gate completely.

It really had happened!

Slapping his forehead, Fan Xia cursed himself for being an idiot. Shouldn’t he have called first? He dug into his pockets, fumbling hopelessly, and then realized in despair that he’d left his phone on the bed in his rush out.

“Senior, I’m a student from H University, Criminal Investigation Department. Sort of your junior brother. I’m going to be a cop too. Can you let me in?”

He couldn’t give up and stepped forward, trying to cozy up to the young officer.

“Student, that excuse of yours is way too weak. Wait until you actually become a cop before trying that again.”

His words left the officer’s half laughing, half crying. He gestured for Fan Xia to step back three paces.

By now, the crowd outside had grown even larger; students from J University and others from nearby schools are all drawn by curiosity. Fan Xia frantically scanned the crowd and finally spotted someone he knew.

“Tang Xin! Quick, give me your phone!”

He grabbed Tang Xin by the shoulder, and she spun around in surprise. Intimidated by his wild, disheveled appearance, she obediently handed over her phone.

“Fan…Fan Xia? What happened to you? If it weren’t for your skin being so hard to miss, I wouldn’t even recognize you!”

No time for chatter. Fan Xia quickly keyed in Ning Xiaobei’s number and pressed call.

—— The number you dialed is switched off. Please try again later. Sorry……

A cold, mechanical voice echoed from the phone.

“How could his phone be off? Boss, what’s going on!”

Fan Xia refused to give up and tried calling again, but the same automated message came through.

“Tang Xin, you’re a J University student! Tell me, what the hell happened at your school? Speak up!”

He shoved the phone into her hands, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her hard while shouting, making Tang Xin feel like her brains were about to rattle out.

“Fan Xia, calm down! I don’t know anything. I just got back today. Didn’t you see I’m wearing makeup… don’t go all Ma Jingtao²A Taiwanese actor known for melodramatic roles, often used to describe over-the-top emotional reactions on me!”

Well, looking at the man in front of her, with his hair nearly standing on end, eyes bloodshot and bulging from fear and anxiety, and his handsome face twisted from panic; if not a melodramatic romance hero straight out of a Qiong Yao³A Taiwanese romance novelist and screenwriter, associated with highly dramatic and emotional plots drama, then what else could it be?

“Fan Xia…”

Just as Fan Xia felt like he was about to explode on the spot, a familiar voice came from behind.

“Boss!”

Seeing Ning Xiaobei frozen and staring, Fan Xia lunged forward and locked him tightly in his arms.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, that’s great.”

He was fully intact, just a bit cold on his face and hands, probably from the cold, but he was fine, not hurt at all. Relief washed over Fan Xia.

“No…why are you two here…what happened?”

Ning Xiaobei, who stayed out late, looked a bit guilty at the two of them.

The situation was somewhat complicated and indirectly involved both Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia. But once clarified, it was simple: the school’s negligence and lax policies had allowed the bathroom secret filming incident to escalate, producing these somewhat shocking consequences.

The pervert that Fan Xia and his friends had caught on the bus finally received school punishment. While it fell short of the expulsion many of the girls had expected, receiving a formal disciplinary action and losing postgraduate recommendation privileges. it was far fairer than the original plan of a light slap on the wrist.

But fairer doesn’t mean it was really fair.

For the victimized girls, especially those constantly living under his harassment, crying out with no help, having posts deleted online, or having protest posters removed, this was hardly the best outcome.

— Because the disciplinary action came with a note of probationary observation, meaning that before graduation, the punishment could still be overturned.

But the worst part hadn’t even come yet. Nobody knew who got hold of the memory card from that digital camera, but the explicit photos had been uploaded to the campus network. Hundreds of unedited pictures, fully exposing the girls’ faces and private parts, were being frantically shared among the male students.

This happened on Friday night. Over the weekend, with no one moderating the school forum, the photo stack exploded online instantly, even showing up on some well-known entertainment gossip boards, plastered with the scandalous images of the Normal University girls.

At that time, Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia were both at home preparing for Aunt Xiao Mei’s wedding the next day. Internet on phones wasn’t common yet; the most they had was QQ for chatting and checking social news, not much in the way of entertainment. By sheer coincidence, though they were technically involved in the overall incident, they were safely on the sidelines.

By the afternoon, after the police had left, Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia returned to their dorm and realized just how lucky they had been to escape unscathed.

Their dorm had indeed been targeted, and the culprit wasn’t anyone else; it was Old First Liang Wei.

Liang Wei’s girlfriend at the time was a freshman at the Normal University. Her explicit photos had also been posted online that Friday. Liang Wei had been at an internet café playing games when he heard some suggestive laughter next door. Curious, he peeked over; and in that one glance, he recognized the girl in the photos: his girlfriend.

Earlier, when the university had that sexual harassment incident, his girlfriend had complained about the school protecting the pervert. But Liang Wei had shrugged it off, thinking it didn’t concern him, and even felt the girls were being a bit overbearing, trying to destroy the guy completely. His advice had been for them to watch their own safety and avoid revealing clothing.

Who would have thought? His own girlfriend had also been targeted by that pervert. How many men had seen her photos and her body by now?

Enraged, Liang Wei stormed over, overturned the computer of the boy looking at the images, and beat him severely.

Then he headed to the men’s dorm at the Normal University. On Fridays, the dorms were usually nearly empty; most either went home or visited girlfriends. The first-floor dorm office was deserted, the TV left on, and the old lady who normally manned the gate was gone, giving him the perfect opportunity.

It was that damn pervert’s own fault. He stayed in the dorm that day, sulking over the disciplinary action he’d received. The other guys in his dorm were too ashamed to be around him; basically, whenever he wasn’t asleep, the room was empty if he was in it. So when Old First Liang Wei grabbed the fruit knife from the dorm supervisor downstairs and made his way up to their room, the pervert was the only one inside.

What followed was a scene of blood splattering across five steps. The Normal University pervert never could have imagined that one day he’d almost die just for secretly photographing girls.

After all, he had always been so arrogant. He knew exactly how the school covered things up. As long as the school protected him, all the girls’ protests were useless. In a few more months, he was sure no one would ever bring it up again.

He could graduate as usual, find a job, maybe even get into a higher-level department. After all, although there were many female teachers, school principals were almost always men.

Even as he kicked his legs and collapsed, his head smashing heavily against the cement floor, he probably still didn’t realize he’d done anything wrong.

Old First Liang Wei, completely furious, went from room to room opening other dorm doors; these guys, most of the male students at Normal University, had almost certainly all seen his girlfriend’s body!

Fortunately, the dorm wasn’t very crowded. After circling the building twice, he didn’t find many rooms with people inside. The dorms that were full, he dared not touch, so he went downstairs and left.

Wearing a black winter down jacket, with the knife hidden in his sleeve, he passed through the sparse late-night pedestrians without anyone noticing anything unusual. He swaggered through the two campuses and returned to his own dorm .

The cold wind blew as he walked. Once inside, Liang Wei sat dumbly on a chair. Three or four hours passed before his blood-smeared mind finally began to clear.

He had killed someone. He had killed another student.

The knife slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor, waking the two guys sleeping in the top bunks.

“Big Bro, please, don’t scare people like that in the middle of the night! You almost made me die sitting down here!”

“Please, Old First, can you be quieter? Some of us still need to sleep. Show some manners.”

Unlike Ning Xiaobei, who went home frequently, these two were preparing for the graduate school entrance exams and only went home once or twice a month. Being woken up so abruptly, they couldn’t help but speak harshly.

Liang Wei picked up the knife from the floor. His normally dull eyes slowly lit up, glinting red; the same color as the blood droplets that hadn’t been wiped off the blade.

He scanned the room and noticed that his most hated student, Ning Xiaobei, wasn’t there. A small pang of regret hit him—he despised Xiaobei’s fake moral superiority, always engrossed in books day and night, playing nice in front of teachers and advisors just to win scholarships. Judging by his clothes and things, did he really look like someone struggling for a scholarship?

These past few days, teachers had warned him that he missed too many classes and should learn from the others in the dorm, especially Ning Xiaobei. Ning Xiaobei never skipped class or was late, and every teacher praised him. Liang Wei was reminded that getting into university didn’t mean he could slack off; if attendance was low at finals, he’d still fail. Teachers wouldn’t go easy.

And those two guys calling him old first and big bro? They didn’t respect him at all.

The three of them, who were local, used their closeness to bully him, the outsider.

At that moment, Liang Wei was like a freshly sharpened blade. He had seen blood already; more didn’t matter. He was ready to vent all the frustration he’d bottled up over the past months.

Raising the knife, he swung toward the head of the guy in the bottom bunk, Old Four.

By luck, the blade didn’t hit him; it struck the metal bedframe instead, clanging loudly.

Old Four was about to curse when he opened his eyes and, in the dim dorm hallway light, saw a cold-glinting knife by his head. The person holding it was the same Liang Wei they had complained about moments ago.

Terrified, he slid off the bed with a whoosh and started screaming.

Old Two woke up to the commotion and immediately saw Liang Wei swinging the knife. He rushed forward to help, and the three of them tangled together. The shouting finally drew the attention of other dorm residents.

In an instant, the entire building was stirred. Some came to help, others ran for their lives, and some called the police. By the time the news spread to the other universities in the campus town, it was already five or six in the morning.

“Xiaobei, luckily you weren’t in the dorm that night, you narrowly escaped.”

A week later, Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia returned home. Sitting at the dining table, they recounted the events of that early morning to their family, leaving everyone present visibly horrified.

“Xiaobei, Xiao Xia, how come the newspapers didn’t report this at all? No one died, sure, but so many people got hurt! It should have been reported.”

Ning Jianguo brushed the hairs on his arm and let out an incredulous sigh.

Fortunately, the Normal University pervert wasn’t killed; not even a major artery was severed. He was seriously injured, but the classmates who brought him back to the dorm got him to the hospital in time, and he survived.

As for Xiaobei’s two roommates, their desperate struggle left them with only minor injuries; they were back in class by the third day.

“The school’s old trick of covering it up.”

Fan Xia set down his bowl and covered his mouth with his right hand.

“Just like before with the pervert who harassed girls, this time the two schools worked together to cover it up. Even though Liang Wei was caught, students aren’t allowed to talk about the incident. Homeroom teachers and advisors are keeping a close eye on everyone. Tang Xin, in particular, already has a prior warning; she is strictly forbidden from posting anything about this online. If she does, the consequences will be severe.”

“Hmph, what a bunch of garbage. Cover it up, cover it up, just to keep things quiet. If you ask me, last year when they caught that pervert climbing into girls’ dorms, they should’ve expelled him outright. Then none of this mess would’ve happened, and we wouldn’t have nearly had a deadly legal case.”

Zhao Jingwen cursed.

“The funniest part is, if it weren’t for Liang Wei, there really wouldn’t have been anyone to deal with that pervert.”

Ning Xiaobei let out a cold snort. “Our dorm’s Old Two and Old Four actually benefited from this misfortune; the school gave them a guaranteed deal. As long as they don’t pursue this further and their parents don’t make a scene, they can secure graduate recommendation directly in their junior year.”

The two of them essentially got their wish early.

This bus pervert case had been dragging on since the start of freshman year. No one expected it to finally end this way.

“Xiaobei, doesn’t that mean you lost out big?”

Zhao Jingwen blurted it out without thinking and immediately got glares from both Ning Jianguo and Fan Xia. He sheepishly shrugged.

“Xiaobei, where were you that day? Why weren’t you in the dorm?”

After circling around the topic, Ning Jianguo finally turned the question to his son.

“I… I went to the internet café to look up some research materials. I ended up dozing off, and when I woke up, the curfew had passed. I just didn’t go back and figured I’d wait until morning to return to the dorm. Who knew… I narrowly escaped disaster.”

Ning Xiaobei’s tone was firm, though a trace of guilt flickered across his expression. Fortunately, the two elders at the table trusted him, so they didn’t press further. Fan Xia, however, noticed the slight slip, but he didn’t comment; he’d wait until after dinner when they could talk in private.

“Spill it, where did you go that night? Be honest with me.”

As soon as they entered the room, Fan Xia roughly tossed Ning Xiaobei onto the bed, jumped onto his waist, and started tickling his sides. Ning Xiaobei wriggled and squirmed, tears of laughter and physiological reflex spilling from the corners of his eyes. Naturally, their youthful bodies reacted before they could control themselves.

Embarrassed by the adults outside, they had no choice but to sit facing each other, cheeks burning red, suddenly very serious.

“I went to VENDY, to ask Boss Wen about something…”

“What? You went to that old trickster? He’s no good,” Fan Xia blurted, panicking. He lowered his voice, worried the uncles might overhear.

“I just felt what he told us that afternoon had holes. And doesn’t it seem strange to you? We all found him, yet he didn’t even give us the teacher’s new contact info,” Ning Xiaobei said.

Ning Xiaobei, like Wen Di, was an old hand in the gay community; a seasoned trickster of sorts, maybe even a little more tricky than Wen himself.

After parting from Fan Xia that day, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He returned to Boss Wen to confront him, sparring in a half-hour of verbal Tai Chi before Wen finally relented and handed over Gu Kaige’s contact info.

Although the first part involved some fibbing, the second part was true: he had missed curfew, spent the night in the shop, drank two glasses of wine, and politely turned down three or four advances—details he deliberately kept from Fan Xia so as not to worry him.

After last night, he realized he was actually quite popular in the community. A sophomore from their school even recognized him, and they spent a long time chatting. When the other asked if he wanted to go somewhere to talk more deeply, he declined.

Fan Xia was a jealous type, like a black-bone chicken soaked in vinegar, prone to stirring up a fuss even on calm days. Ning Xiaobei wasn’t about to let him misunderstand.

“This is Brother Kai’s address,” Ning Xiaobei said, pulling a slip of paper from the pocket of his coat on the rack. The handwriting was delicate—no surprise, Boss Wen being an artist, refined in both appearance and skill.

“Fan Xia,” Ning Xiaobei bumped his shoulder and winked. “During winter break, let’s go to Yuyao and visit Brother Kai.”

……………… 

Author’s Note:

Xiaobei is cursed when it comes to dorm life.

====================

• 1
  The May Fourth Movement (1919) was sparked by Chinese outrage over the Treaty of Versailles, which gave Chinese territories to Japan, leading students in Beijing to protest for national sovereignty and political reform. It also ignited a cultural awakening, promoting science, democracy, and social freedoms while challenging traditional Confucian norms
• 2
  A Taiwanese actor known for melodramatic roles, often used to describe over-the-top emotional reactions
• 3
  A Taiwanese romance novelist and screenwriter, associated with highly dramatic and emotional plots