Principal 010

"What are you doing? Not sleeping in the middle of the night, trying to act all deep and brooding?"

Ruan Wenkang, who had been sitting on the steps staring blankly at the night sky, was startled by the voice behind him. He immediately stood up and saw Fang Zhiyi's face.

"Hello, Principal." After a semester, Ruan Wenkang had veered away from his original suicidal trajectory. Instead, he was studying subjects he actually liked under a teacher's guidance, and his personality had become much more cheerful.

"I'm off the clock, so stop calling me Principal. Call me Brother Fang." Fang Zhiyi plopped down on the steps.

Ruan Wenkang was a little taken aback. "Um... that doesn't seem appropriate."

"What's inappropriate about it?"

"If I call you Brother Fang, you'd be of the same generation as Big Brother Chenghan."

Fang Zhiyi choked on his words a bit; he really hadn't thought about that.

He immediately changed the subject. "I heard from your teacher that when you went to work part-time and had to come back for school, your boss was quite reluctant to let you go?"

Ruan Wenkang chuckled. "That was all because of the teacher's connections, not me."

"Haven't thought about going home for a visit?"

At the mention of home, Ruan Wenkang stared off into the distance. "No, my parents had another baby brother. They probably don't want to see me anyway."

"I've read your file. When your dad dropped you off, he said you were quite extreme and often smashed things at home." Fang Zhiyi looked up at the sky. "No matter what, smashing things at home is wrong."

Ruan Wenkang nodded. "It was wrong of me to smash things, but it was mainly because my dad wanted to throw away all of my mom's belongings."

"Your mom?"

"My mom passed away, and my dad found me a stepmom. She treated me well on the surface, but in private, she would call me a jinx, a sullen freak, and things like that."

"Oh... you didn't tell your dad?"

"Principal, you don't know my dad. He believes my stepmom, not me. If I told him, the most I'd get is a beating." Ruan Wenkang spoke very calmly. "Before you came, I thought I was going to die here. But I figured, maybe it would be better if I died. At least my dad wouldn't have to agonize over how to get rid of me."

Fang Zhiyi sighed. "And now?"

"Now? Now I want to learn a bit more. Our teacher said that to live, a person must have goals and dreams."

Fang Zhiyi looked at the student. He seemed to have grown quite a bit taller than before. "Yeah... so live well and grow into an adult." He stood up. "Children can have dreams, but adults can make those dreams come true." Fang Zhiyi winked at him.

"Go to bed early. School starts tomorrow."

Watching Fang Zhiyi walk away, Ruan Wenkang suddenly stood up. "Principal, you haven't asked what my dream is!"

Fang Zhiyi didn't turn around, simply raising his hand and waving. "Dreams are the kind of thing that stop working once you say them out loud!"

"He was talking about wishes, right?" Ruan Wenkang was startled by a voice behind him. He turned around to see two other classmates and couldn't help but smile bitterly. "Are there really this many night owls?"

"You're allowed to stay up, but we aren't allowed to come out for a stroll?" came another voice from the left.

"Alright, alright. If this were the old days, we'd all be standing on the athletic field together until dawn."

One month later.

"Happy Life School? What kind of school is this?" A passerby looked at the list of award winners, feeling somewhat bewildered.

"I heard it's a special school. All those annoying, troublesome students are sent there by their parents," someone said.

"Never heard of it. Students from this kind of private school can actually win a design award? You've got to be kidding me."

"Recently, someone leaked that some private schools physically punish and abuse their students."

"Then it's not surprising. If you asked me to study voluntarily, I wouldn't be able to absorb a thing. But if you held a knife to my throat and forced me to study, I might just win an award too."

A reporter standing to the side pricked up her ears to listen to their discussion, her eyes filled with a thirst for gossip.

After she left, one of the people who had just been participating in the discussion suddenly turned to look at the van she got into, his eyes full of calculation.

That very night, she and her cameraman drove to the main gate of the Happy Life School. Looking at the barbed wire on the surrounding walls, she immediately made up her mind about the nature of this school.

"Are we really going in?" The cameraman was a bit scared.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained!" the female reporter said firmly.

Just as she was pondering how to sneak in, the cameraman nudged her. Following the direction of his pointing finger, she was thrilled to discover that the security guard had actually fallen asleep, and the main gate was left slightly ajar.

"Hurry!" She immediately led the cameraman through the crack in the gate and into the school.

Right after the two of them passed through, the security guard lifted his head and took a glance. "Aren't they idiots? What is the Principal thinking?"

Hu Die was the city's biggest gossip reporter, famous for her audacity and her knack for twisting the truth. At the very least, many people loved reading the explosive scoops she broke.

This time, she had originally just gone to do a casual interview about the youth design competition. Just as she was feeling bored, she caught wind of a piece of gossip from the bystanders, and she was instantly thrilled.

And now, walking through the school at night, Hu Die was so excited that her heart was about to leap out of her chest.

Soon, she discovered a problem. It was late at night, yet several students were still standing blankly on the athletic field. She immediately approached them.

"Students, what are you doing here?"

One student cast a sidelong glance at her. "I, I, I..."

Behind Hu Die's back, where she couldn't see, another student pinched him and took over the conversation. "We didn't pay attention in class, so we are being punished by having to stand here."

Hu Die let out an "Oh" and then nodded. It seemed these students were all quite afraid of this school.

"Isn't it normal to be punished by standing if you don't pay attention in class?"

"We have to stand here until tomorrow morning. The principal said it only ends when we pass out!"

Hu Die's eyes brimmed with excitement. "Good, good, good."

She signaled for the cameraman behind her to follow, then turned and walked away.

Next was a girl kneeling on the floor, scrubbing it. Facing Hu Die's interview, she timidly said that because she accidentally bumped into a teacher, she was being punished by having to scrub the floor.

Hu Die felt that today's trip was not in vain. Everywhere she went, she encountered students being subjected to corporal punishment. There were even students pathetically begging her for food. Hu Die agreed verbally, but then turned her back and walked away.

"Let me go! Let me go! I'll play a heinous, unforgivable teacher!" A teacher hiding in a nearby warehouse watched secretly, while another teacher pulled him back. "Forget it, your acting is way too over-the-top!"

"Why aren't they leaving yet? I want to go back to sleep."

"Wait a little longer."

"Are you saying that if you're disobedient, the teachers will get physical and beat you?" Hu Die's face was full of excitement, without the slightest hint of pity.

The person she was interviewing nodded. "They hit us really hard, even kicking us. Like here, and here..." She gestured on her body, making Hu Die nod repeatedly. Suddenly, there was a noise behind them. Just as Hu Die was about to turn her head, someone suddenly shouted, "Who's there!"

Hu Die immediately grabbed the cameraman and ran. It would be huge trouble if they were cornered by these people!