When the happy boy appeared, Chu Shici was on edge, he knew there was something wrong with this group.
He rubbed his hands together and replied: [I am ten years old this year!]
Happy boy: [Ten years old, as old as my sister. I am fourteen years old, when the group leader is not here, I am the oldest in the group. Newcomers have to be banned for a week when they join the group. In order not to neglect newcomers, I will take the initiative to add friends. Don’t be afraid, this is also part of the assessment.]
Pink Little Superman: [Thank you big brother, you are so kind!]
Happy boy: [You are so polite, little sister, do you know what this group does?]
Pink Little Superman: [I saw the group name, the whole world united to protect minors, I am here to protect other children.]
The other side sent a laughing and head-touching emoji, [You are so cute, gege is going to class first, I will chat with you later.]
Pink Little Superman: [Okay, goodbye gege!]
The profile icon of the happy superman darkened, Chu Shici propped his chin and fell into deep thought.
So far, Happy Boy seems to be just a friendly and warm older brother. But he remembered Mingzhe said that he was the first to launch a suicide group vote.
The profile picture of the happy boy features the most popular cartoon character currently, and that animation was broadcast on the prime time of the official media.
He is very popular among children, even Mingzhe, who looks mature and stable, has this character’s posters on the bedroom wall.
The signature is one of the most popular quotes on the Internet, [The world pushes me into the abyss, in the endless darkness, there is light.]
Chu Shici clicked into the happy boy’s profile again. Judging from the photos he posted, his family seemed to be very wealthy.
A few pictures show a boy sitting in front of the piano and playing. The camera did not capture the face, only a pair of white and slender hands. The hand shape is very good-looking, almost comparable to the hand of the male protagonist in a romance manga.
Chu Shici used to have a pair of good-looking hands, and Su Zheyan liked to kiss his fingertips when they were doing sports.
A wave of nostalgia swept in and he raised his hand, wanting to hold on to the past.
However, all he saw were his two short, fleshy little plasticine hands. He shook his eight fingers, feeling a little sad all of a sudden.
I miss Yan-ge very very much. He thought.
The happy boy’s latest update is his report card and daily diary entry.
[Ms. Zhang is my new tutor. She is very good at teaching. She used to be the first violinist in the music hall, but I prefer to play the piano.]
[I travelled to Japan during the holidays and bought a lot of books. Translated books are not as tasteful as the original ones. This mystery novel is written too professionally, and I can’t understand it. It deserves to be a book that won an international literary award.]
[Recently I am studying child psychology, haha, am I too arrogant to say such things when I am fourteen years old. But I really want to help those little sisters, they deserve to be happy like princesses.]
[Which girl doesn’t want to have a gentle mother and a reliable father, but all the world gives them is scars on their wrists.]
After Chu Shici went through it, he found that this was not a happy boy, but a Versailles boy.
Every post in his space has many people like and comment. Look at the online names of ‘xx princess’, ‘xx family xxx’, ‘Liuli/Crystal xx’, and occasionally a few personalised online names with non-mainstream symbols.
According to Chu Shici’s experience, the age group of these people is about 8-15 years old.
If you are younger, you have no chance to surf the Internet.
If you are older, you won’t call yourself a princess.
After reading the space back and forth several times, Chu Shici also had a preliminary understanding of the happy boy.
He is a young master who is proficient in piano, violin, Japanese and English. He has excellent academic performance in school, and is recognized as a gentle academic overlord, and is also secretly called a school grass.
He is very rich and is a super member of the chatting application, and has a customised chat space. The unique chat space has a dynamic background and entry sound effects.
There is no child who doesn’t like fancy themes. In the eyes of adults, meaningless memberships and themes that affect reading are messy, but in the eyes of children, they are status symbols.
But this young version of tall, rich and handsome also has his own troubles.
His parents are busy running the company and often hold meetings abroad to do business, so they have no time to accompany him. He was lonely and even thought about suicide. So he taught himself child psychology, hoping to get back on his feet.
Chu Shici shook his head.
Which serious young master would hook up with a bunch of little girls on the Internet, and open a fish pond at a young age?
The happy boy’s space is fancily decorated, every post and every punctuation mark reveals his personality.
It didn’t make any sense to read it any further, Chu Shici started to leave messages through his chat space, peeking at those other little girls’ spaces.
A few posted a picture of their wrists being cut in the space, and some posted their own scars.
The happy boy didn’t leave a message in their space, he was like a cold male god.
Chu Shici quit the happy boy’s space and started to decorate his own chat account.
When the system woke up, Chu Shici had already turned the “Pink Little Superman ” into a little girl who was sexually harassed on the bus, but still innocent and romantic.
Looking at the headshot full of girlish hearts, the system hissed, [Cute girl big tool.]
Chu Shici silently changed his screen name to ‘Superman Little Princess’.
[Fuck, that’s even more disgusting, what are you doing?]
‘There is a ghost in the group, I want to fish him out. This is Xiao Zhe’s group, if something happens, he will cry.’
The system let out a long oh, and its bright round body swayed back and forth: [Husband, you are really amazing, and coquettish 0 at home is the most handsome.]
‘……Give me a break.’
It may be that he has stayed in the first world for ninety years, causing something to go wrong with the system.
Chu Shici felt that his system was broken.
He was chatting with the system and received another friend request.
[The dancing little rabbit requests to add you as a friend.]
Chu Shici was very impressed with this screen name. In Mingzhe’s records, she was the most miserable girl in this group.
Being ridiculed by classmates, bullied on campus, and sexually harassed.
Chu Shici felt sorry for her.
Dancing little rabbit: [Are you a girl?]
Little Princess Superman: [Yes, hello jiejie.]
Dancing Little Rabbit: [Why did you join the group, and where did you find this group?]
Chu Shici sent the speech he had prepared, [I saw it in a nearby group chat, I also want to save children all over the world.]
There was no reply, only a hug emoji.
After a while, the message indicated that someone had liked Chu Shici’s post.
He just registered an account and only posted two updates.
Under the post in which he hinted that he had been sexually harassed on the bus, there was a message from Dancing Rabbit.
[Don’t be afraid little meimei*. I have encountered it too. If you are afraid, you can tell this jiejie.]
*(mei – sister)
Chu Shici tapped the keyboard with his fingers, added everyone in the group as friends, planning to chat with them one by one.
Most of them are not online, they reply to him individually and they also speak normally.
After talking to everyone, there was still only Happy Boy on the list of suspects. There must be something wrong with him, but who are the other two?
Chu Shici fell into deep thought, and the system followed suit and said: [Mingzhe hopes that all the children in the group can survive, and the hidden mission requires 17 people to survive, which means that 3 were judged as fake children by the detection system. What are those adults trying to do by pretending to be children to join the group chat?]
‘The best scenario is that they’re just people with no empathy. They think it’s interesting that a group of children meet to commit suicide, so they dive in the group to watch the excitement.’
The system has cooperated with Chu Shici for more than 90 years, and they have a tacit understanding.
Before Chu Shici finished speaking, he immediately gasped, [Then what’s the worst scenario?]
‘I don’t know, it may be to induce children to commit suicide; there may also be pedophiles who are taking the opportunity to lure minors. After all, the 17 children in this group are very special. They all lack the care of their parents and are eager to get help. If you can’t find it in reality, you can find it online. Young and lacking in love, this kind of child is the best to lie to.’
[You know it really well, by the way, they are very similar to you when you were young, how did you grow up safely at that time? Pass on your experience to these children in the group?]
Chu Shici was taken aback for a moment, a little bewildered expression appeared on his face.
He hesitated and said: ‘The time that I was almost dragged into the groove in the park was the only time I was in danger. I haven’t met any bad guys since. At that time, I was bold and reckless, and I often just covered myself with a piece of clothing and slept directly in a small alley with few people. Thinking about it now, I’m really lucky.’
[You’re lucky in all the strange places.]
___
When Mingzhe was in class, he kept thinking about his little Superman.
He was thinking about why Chu Shici appeared. It was clearly an inanimate thing before, but how did it suddenly come to life?
Little Superman has just been with him for three days, but Mingzhe already regards him as his most important friend.
He was very worried that when he woke up one morning, his Little Superman would become a plasticine toy that could not move or talk.
After the physics class was over, Mingzhe walked up to the teacher and asked him in a low voice, “Teacher, what are plasticines made of?”
The teacher gave him a rough explanation, and Mingzhe asked again: “Can plasticines change?”
The male teacher said: “Yes.”
Mingzhe’s eyes lit up, “How does it change?”
“Leave it for a long time, it will dry.”
Mingzhe: …
That’s not what he wanted to ask.
After finishing thought and politics in the afternoon, Mingzhe grabbed the politics teacher, raised his head and asked earnestly, “Teacher, is this world materialistic or idealistic?”
The female teacher looked at him tenderly, “It’s both materialistic and idealistic. Depending on the angle you look at”
“Then teacher, can plasticines fly into the sky?”
“No.”
“But you said…”
“But you can have a romantic fantasy. By the way, I am a materialist.”
The biology teacher was also asked, but no teacher could answer Mingzhe’s doubts. The physical education teacher called in sick, so he couldn’t ask.
Before school ends, Mingzhe packs his schoolbag.
The four students put their homework books on his desk, “Here you are Mingzhe, one subject is 50 cents per person, and you must remember to do it.”
Several girls passed by him and greeted him with blushing faces.
Mingzhe knows that they have a crush on him, and there are often stationery that does not belong to him on his desk, and occasionally snacks and breakfast.
People often ask him to give lectures, even if those questions seem very simple to him.
The dilapidated school bag contained homework for five people, and it became extremely heavy.
After all the classmates left, Mingzhe looked around. After making sure no one was around, he walked quickly to the trash can at the back of the class.
Dig out the plastic bottles inside, the notebooks with only a few pages used, and the obsolete exercise books.
Mingzhe’s parents send him some money every month, but the money is all in Uncle Liu’s hands, and he doesn’t get any of it.
His parents know about it and just pretends not to.
After going to them once, Mingzhe understood that they thought he was a burden and they didn’t want him anymore.
Uncle Liu is unreliable, hence he needs to save a lot of money to support himself and his Little Superman.
Mingzhe was flipping through the notebook when suddenly footsteps came from the corridor.
His cheeks flushed instantly, he immediately picked up his schoolbag and hid under the table in the last row.
A few seconds later, two people walked in.
Mingzhe poked his head out and looked around, a man and a woman who are his classmates. They sat in the front seat, hugging and kissing.
Realising what they were doing, a blush spread from Mingzhe’s face to his neck.
He retracted his head, pretending he didn’t see anything.
At this moment, Mingzhe’s cell phone vibrated for a moment. The sound is not loud, but in the silent classroom, it is very obvious.
The two students who were kissing asked warily, “Who!”
Mingzhe stood up and looked at the two of them indifferently.
The boy said nervously: “Mingzhe? Why didn’t you go home? You didn’t see anything just now, so don’t complain to the teacher!”
Mingzhe glanced at him, “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in what you guys did.”
He picked up his school bag and wanted to leave this place quickly.
The boy stepped forward and grabbed his arm, “Don’t leave, you have to swear that you won’t tell!”
“Is there any use for me to swear? One day if the teacher talks about it, you will definitely think that I am the informer. My words are meaningless, and you won’t believe them anyway.”
Mingzhe was rarely expressionless, and this attitude seemed to irritate the boy.
The boy grabbed Mingzhe by the collar, pressed him against the wall, and threatened loudly: “Stop pretending, you act all cool in front of the girls during the day, peep in the classroom at night. As if you’re so special, if you continue to keep this up in front of me now, believe it or not, I will ask someone to block* you!”
*(by block I think he means find him after school with his gang to beat him up.)
The girl he fell in love with came up to persuade him to stop fighting, the boy became even angrier.
“Why are you stopping me, you wrote a love letter to him before, do you still have a crush on him?!”
The girl slapped the boy angrily, and the two screamed at each other while pulling and pushing at Mingzhe.
In the end, the girl hugged Mingzhe fiercely, and screamed: “I like him, okay?”
Mingzhe broke free from the girl’s arm, but was grabbed by the boy again.
He looked at the time and sighed silently.
It’s over, I can’t catch the bus, I really shouldn’t be digging through the trash can today.
___
Chu Shici was online the whole day, chatting privately with everyone in the group.
Except for the few who were not online, he was familiar with the rest of the group.
Xiao He felt like he was on cloud nine the whole time after being called gege by him repeatedly.
He was directly put into the group before the one-week review period.
The leader of this group, Lanlan, has passed away. Currently, it is managed by the acting group leader ‘Mingzhe Protects You’, administrator No. 1 “Society Lord He” and administrator No. 2 “I continue to be lonely”.
Chu Shici chatted with ‘I continue to be lonely’ for several hours, and felt that the person opposite should be a sophomore boy.
He should have an ordinary family, with parents who work overseas and live with his elderly grandma. His old man has bad legs and is deaf. He is not as independent and strong as Mingzhe, he doesn’t know how to cook and he just waits for his grandma to cook.
He often drinks a pot of porridge for a day, and doesn’t take a bath for at least half a month. There is lice on his head and a bad smell on his body. Isolated by his classmates at school, his temper became more gloomy and inferior.
“I continue to be lonely” is obsessed with Japanese comics, and regards “Happy Boy” as a big brother, always asking him about Japan in the group.
Although “I continue to be lonely” has an unsatisfactory life in reality, he is very popular in the group. He is online all year round and is very friendly.
Chu Shici has already figured out the general situation of these online group members. Although he cannot rule out the possibility that the other party has a glib tongue and has perfected their character setting.
There are three main people who he is most suspicious about now.
The most suspicious ‘Happy Boy’ who took the initiative to strike up a conversation.
Diving long-term, the weakest sense of presence. Normally difficult to get in touch with, but who will give out red envelopes during the New Years and holidays: ‘Drowned Fish’. The gender is kept secret, and the chat space only shows the news of the past three days. The latest news was three days ago, and the content was only one sentence.
‘Since it is not my turn to commit suicide, then I’ll have another serving of grilled fish. Qiang Qiang Qiang Xiaoyu* Restaurant grilled fish is the best, I want to eat a few more meals before I die!’
*(Qiang I believe is the clanking of utensils and xiao means little/small, yu means fish.)
Qiang Qiang Qiang Xiaoyu Restaurant is a chain restaurant brand unique to Northeast China. This is the only personal information revealed by ‘Drowned Fish’. He is from Northeast China or temporarily lives in Northeast China.
Chu Shici asked the administrator Xiao He about him, but Xiao He didn’t have a deep impression of him.
Society Lord He: [‘Drowned Fish is a man, I have spoken to him before. There are three children in his family. After the twin brothers were born, his parents stopped loving him. He felt left out, so he joined the group.]
Chu Shici’s third suspect was the ‘Lemongrass Fairy’.
He pretends to be a man, and no one knows how to be a cute girl better than Chu Shici. The two chatted for only a few words, and he knew that the opposite party must be a man.
When ‘Lemongrass Fairy’ chatted with Chu Shici, he was mainly coquettish and cute, they didn’t touch on any sensitive topics.
The reason he joined the group was that his parents found out that he was gay, and he was almost sent to a rehab centre.
When Chu Shici asked him how his sexual orientation was revealed, ‘Lemongrass Fairy’ hesitated and refused to say.
But from ‘Lemongrass Fairy’, Chu Shici got a new piece of information.
This person knew about the existence of this group only after seeing the group’s relevant information in Tieba.
Superman Little Princess: [Did someone mention this group in Tieba? Great! Our group is famous!]
Lemongrass Fairy: [No, there are many recommendations in the hobby Tieba. There are dozens of them, I just add one at random.]
According to the link he gave, Chu Shici found the post on Tieba.
Because computers are not popular yet and the number of internet goers is limited, there will be people recruiting group members in Tieba.
In September 2003, the group leader “Lanlan” and the administrator number 2 “I continue to be lonely” posted on Tieba together to promote their small group.
‘Dancing Rabbit’ and ‘Lemongrass Fairy’ were both recruited into the group that year.
The group was established in May 2003, when Lanlan was 12 years old. Mingzhe is 9 years old and Xiao He is 10 years old, and both of them have not joined the group yet.
From the establishment of the group to the present, a total of 3 years have passed, and the number of people has increased, decreased, and finally stopped at 21 people.
The more Chu Shici thought about it, the more confused he became.
Mingzhe is a very smart kid. He is more sensitive than his peers and is good at catching rats who slipped past the net.
According to Xiao He, Mingzhe can stop people with bad intentions, and he has successfully stopped four or five adults pretending to be children before.
Chu Shici was thinking that this group had problems since its establishment. When Mingzhe was not online, the other two small administrators were tricked into letting in some dangerous people.
Since Mingzhe did not have the same information as them, when he went online, all abnormalities would have been covered up.
Chu Shici was contemplating, when the system suddenly asked curiously: [Why don’t you call the police?]
Chu Shici looked at it with a complicated expression, ‘What reason can you use to call the police, suspecting that someone in the group is plotting against the children? What should I say if they ask me to talk more about it and whether there are any victims? The law does not stipulate that adults cannot join children chat groups.’
The system smacked its lips, [Yes, by the way, what are you going to do about Uncle Liu?]
‘I have a plan to play tricks on him. If all goes well, Uncle Liu will be admitted to the hospital soon, and Mingzhe will have two bedrooms and one living room.’
[Not calling the police?]
‘No, Mingzhe suffered minor injuries. For the crime of intentional injury, one person shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years for minor injuries. Mingzhe curled up while sleeping, and cried out in pain even in his dreams. He suffered so much, why should Uncle Liu get such a light sentence of only two years in prison, and come out alive and well after? I won’t allow it. I want Uncle Liu to taste the sufferings of Mingzhe personally. I want him to stay in a mental hospital for the rest of his life.’
[Fuck, you are so ruthless. Then why don’t you send Mingzhe back to his parents?]
Chu Shici didn’t answer, and sat silently in front of the plasticine computer.
The system observed his expression, [You don’t want to send him back?]
‘His parents don’t want him anymore, I can take care of Mingzhe.’
The system thought about it, [That’s…not too good though?]
Chu Shici suddenly became agitated, ‘Send him back? What if he is domestically abused again? If his parents cared about him, why would they pretend to be deaf and dumb when he asked for help? I won’t send him back, I can raise him!’
He was silent for a long time, wiped his face and said softly: ‘No, I saw the shadow of my parents in them. Even if his parents show a little concern… I’m afraid Mingzhe will repeat my mistakes. Tong-ge, you are right, I will consider your words. Observe for a while, if I really can’t support him, then call the police. Let the police arrest Uncle Liu and send Mingzhe back to his parents.’
Before he finished speaking, there was a soft knock on the anti-theft door.
Mingzhe came in with his schoolbag on his back, his soft black hair was in a mess, and his face was covered with bruises.
He was dishevelled, and his school uniform had a few big holes, making him look quite embarrassed.
Chu Shici flew in front of him, and Mingzhe greeted him, before spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Chu Shici took a deep breath, “What happened to you? Who hit you?”
“Classmates. They stopped me from leaving. We agreed to fight one-on-one, but in the end, it was three against one.”
Mingzhe puffed up his chest slightly and, with a slight smile on the corner of his mouth said: “I won.”
___
T/N: Proud of you baby <3
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Update: Tomorrow~
- After becoming enemies with the lord god
- Blog
- Completed
- Don't talk to me!
- Dropped
- Ghost Marriage
- Hunger Academy
- I opened a safe house in the Infinite Stream
- Notices
- Ongoing
- The Dragon Lord is Weak and Helpless but Has a Big Appetite [Interstellar]
- Want to ascend? Then fall in love.
- What can I do, I'm not human.
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