Chapter 67: Taking a Stand

2022-05-20

The night buzzed with noise outside—neighbors gathering under the streetlights to chat and play cards. Inside, though, Zhang Xue and I just sat in silence. For a girl barely fifteen, she’s endured far too much. No wonder she’s already reading ‘To Live’.

It’s not easy for people to truly figure out their own lives. Like Guo Degang once said: some people learn their lesson at three, others make it to sixty-nine only to drop dead from a glare. Zhang Xue never let anyone see that side of her. Of course she couldn’t have friends—she’s been through more than any of her peers.

But what about the other four? Did they face the same harsh fate?

Li Taida’s heart overflowed with resentment for his father—sometimes he even wished he could kill him. These five kids didn’t come together just because they all came from single-parent homes. After all, at Yucai High School—a top junior high in Dongxing City—there were plenty of kids from single-parent families, not just the five of them.

“Do they know about what happened to you?” I asked Zhang Xue quietly.

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Since she’d already decided to trust me, she wasn’t going to hide it anymore. And sure enough, she told me the story of how the five of them met. As it turned out, it all started because of one person: Zhou Guo.

Zhou Guo was a star student. He rarely spoke, always wearing thick glasses, and didn’t have many friends in class. Still, he topped every exam and was the teachers’ pride—the perfect student in their eyes, never rebellious, always polite.

But being the model student wins you fans and enemies both. People just didn’t like him.

His doormat personality didn’t help. No matter how badly he was bullied, he never told a teacher.

Good people are often picked on. The broken windows theory says once a single window in a building breaks and isn’t quickly fixed, it won’t be long before all the windows get smashed. Zhou Guo got bullied over and over, never fighting back, and soon more and more people joined in—each time bolder than the last.

Picking on the good kid gave them a twisted sense of pride, a way to prove their worth when classes were all about test scores. If they couldn’t outdo Zhou Guo in studies, they found other ways to beat him.

But one day, while he was being bullied again, someone shouted, “That’s enough! Everyone stop!”

They were tossing Zhou Guo’s shoes around, with him red-faced, running after them.

Suddenly, the whole class fell silent.

It was Zhang Xue who had spoken.

With all eyes on her, Zhang Xue walked right up to the student holding Zhou Guo’s shoe. She didn’t say a word—just held out her hand. Maybe shocked by her presence, the student wordlessly gave her the shoe. Zhang Xue took it, strode over to Zhou Guo, and faced him.

Now everyone’s attention was fixed on Zhang Xue. Zhou Guo, blushing, reached out for his shoe, quietly whispering a thank you.

But Zhang Xue lifted the shoe and smacked Zhou Guo’s face with the sole. Laughter exploded around them, the air charged with a strange sense of fun.

Zhou Guo froze—hand out, stuck between reaching and retreating, unsure whether he should take the shoe.

“Quiet, all of you,” Zhang Xue commanded. She tossed the shoe at Zhou Guo’s feet. “From now on, nobody bullies Zhou Guo again. Those ten slaps put an end to it. Especially you, Liu Yang!”

She jabbed a finger at Liu Yang.

With that, Zhang Xue sat back down. The classroom went quiet once more as Zhou Guo put on his shoe.

Liu Yang, the notorious troublemaker, finally snapped out of it. Wasn’t Zhang Xue usually the target of girl bullies herself? As a boy, at least he had enough self-respect not to hit girls…but today, Zhang Xue had flipped the script and shouted at him like never before.

If he couldn’t handle even Zhang Xue, how was he supposed to maintain his reputation?

With that in mind, Liu Yang was just about to drag her over when the bell rang.

He tossed out his classic threat: “Zhou Guo, Zhang Xue—don’t even think about going home after school.”

Usually, at the end of the day, students would spill out of the classroom like souped-up tractors—shouting and racing down the halls. But today was different. Most everyone stayed behind, pretending to pack up as an excuse to stick around. After the teacher left, one student slipped out—Liu Yang’s lookout.

Whenever a teacher came back or passed by, he’d warn Liu Yang right away.

“Alright—I don’t know what kind of stunt you’re pulling today, but if I don’t teach you two a lesson, you’ll think you’re untouchable.” Liu Yang dragged a stool over, plopped down in front of them, his voice slow and threatening.

A crowd of Liu Yang’s friends boxed Zhang Xue and Zhou Guo into a corner. Maybe they thought of themselves as tough or loyal, but really they just made Liu Yang look even more important.

“If you want to fight, bring it on!” Zhang Xue shot back, not wasting a single word.

“Hmph.” The girl hanging on Liu Yang’s shoulder let out a snort. “You really don’t know your place, do you? You dare talk to my boyfriend like that? Girls—watch me rip that mouth of hers open!”

She marched forward, brimming with menace.

Next thing she knew, she was flat on the floor. Zhang Xue had landed a swift kick to her stomach—so fast she never saw it coming.

Everyone was stunned. None of them had ever seen someone fight back when they were outnumbered. Usually, their victims would huddle in the corner, waiting for the beating—or breaking down in tears, begging for mercy.

Turns out, some people really didn’t fear a crowd.

Liu Yang finally got his bearings. “Get them!” he shouted, throwing a punch at Zhang Xue.

But Zhang Xue didn’t try to dodge. The punch never landed on her. Someone else had stepped between them and took the hit—Zhou Guo, grinning his goofy grin, stood in front of her.

Now Zhou Guo blocked every blow aimed at Zhang Xue, refusing to fight back, but never letting anyone get to her.

Zhang Xue simply looked at him in silence.

Then the door swung open.

“Hey, who are you? What class are you from?” Liu Yang’s lookout at the door called out.

Two figures strolled in—a boy and a girl. It was Li Taida and Lin Rou.

“Someone’s here!” The lookout realized these newcomers didn’t care for his warnings. He frantically called out.

Thinking it was a teacher, everyone froze and glanced back. By the time they figured out what was happening, Li Taida and Lin Rou had already reached the back of the classroom and were pushing their way through the crowd. They saw Zhou Guo, covered in shoeprints, and Zhang Xue, unharmed.

“Who are you? What class?” Liu Yang frowned. “Mind your own business.”

Li Taida answered with his fists. “The thing I hate most in this world is a man who hits girls.”

Despite being a girl, Lin Rou fought like any boy—maybe better. Chaos exploded. With the numbers on Liu Yang’s side, tables and stools crashed, and soon a few people were rolling on the floor, clutching bruises.

All four of them were battered and bloody.

Suddenly, someone spotted blood—and yelled, “My head—my head’s bleeding!”

More voices joined in, shouting and groaning. At some point, a towering student had appeared, swinging a hefty stick. It was rare to see a kid over six feet tall in junior high; in his eyes, everyone else in the room looked like watermelons on the ground.

With all the yelling and crying, the mob scattered. They’d only flexed their muscles because they had numbers. Now, no one dared to stand their ground—some even raced outside to fetch a teacher. In seconds, only Liu Yang and a couple of his cronies were left groaning on the floor.

“W–Who are you?” Liu Yang stammered, genuinely frightened for the first time.

“Name’s Zhao Erming,” announced the giant, dropping the stick—actually just a broken stool leg.

Li Taida glared at him. “Lay a finger on them again—you know what’ll happen.”

Liu Yang quickly nodded.

Finally, a teacher rushed in, took one look at the chaos, and started sending people straight to the school infirmary.

Not long after, the five found themselves standing in front of the Dean of Students.

It was the same old routine: don’t fight, fighting doesn’t solve anything, write a reflection, call your parents, go home and think it over for a week, and pay damages.

Zhang Xue tried her best to explain—they weren’t the instigators, Zhou Guo was the one who got bullied first. But nobody listened. To them, the five of them were just rebels with dyed hair and bad grades. Who’d believe their side of the story? Besides, with so many witnesses in class, were they all bullies too?

Zhang Xue said they were—right before the homeroom teacher slapped her across the face.

In that moment, Zhang Xue remembered something from history: ‘Tyranny of the Majority’. Most of the time, we assume that what the majority says is right…but is it really?

When they left the Dean’s office, Zhang Xue and Zhou Guo wore dark, heavy faces. But the other three just burst out laughing. Zhang Xue and Zhou Guo couldn’t understand why they found it so funny.