Chapter 67
The blogger who published the headline article posted their high school registration info to prove their identity, hiding their privacy-related info.
In the article, they wrote: “Lin Qin was just a normal student at our school, and we were in the same class. When he first started high school, he was popular, and I even passed a love letter to him from a junior high girl. I couldn’t help it, Lin Qin looked the same then and even as a straight guy, I thought he was handsome.
Maybe it was his looks that brought him trouble. A wealthy and influential senior transferred in during our second year, and many saw this senior stop Lin Qin several times, seemingly confessing, but Lin Qin rejected him.
This senior’s family must’ve been powerful, because after being rejected, he spread rumors in school that Lin Qin was gay, and society wasn’t as open-minded then, so soon, Lin Qin was ostracized by classmates. Then, our class teacher spoke to Lin Qin, learnt it was a misunderstanding, and stood up for him…”
The article detailed Lin Qin’s high school experiences.
The blogger added: “Back then, nobody dared to speak or comfort Lin Qin, afraid that they would be isolated and bullied like him. A lot of people pitied him. He clearly didn’t do anything wrong, but faced campus violence, including violence from our school leaders.
So I was shocked when I learnt of his background recently. If Lin Qin really had such a background, then why did he suffer such bullying?
Watching [We Are Together] recently, influenced by my partner, I felt guilty seeing him. I remember him as optimistic in our first year, always smiling, graceful, and confident.
But in [We Are Together], he seemed to avoid contact with the world, always observing others’ reactions cautiously.
That isn’t an act, but the impact of that high school violence. In our final year, he even took a three-month sick leave, returning only for the University applications.
And I saw him from afar, standing alone in a corner, his eyes lifeless, shrinking nervously whenever others looked at him.
Though I didn’t join in the bullying, my bystander silence was another form of violence.
So Lin Qin, I’m sorry. I hope you can come out from the darkness.”
A lot of people had tears in their eyes, their hearts aching as they read this headline article. And regardless of whether the article was true or not, if someone had really suffered this, then it was heart rendering.
However after recovering from the shock of the article, many people started to question its truth.
Because as the article said, Lin Qin wasn’t an ordinary student, he had a background, and even if it wasn’t as influential as that despicable senior’s, he could’ve transferred schools through connections.
But as the article had said, he didn’t transfer, staying until he graduated.
Something which contradicted his background.
There were those who doubted and there were those who spoke out. Some were Lin Qin’s high school peers like the blogger, others from his university.
With his high school peers confirming the blogger’s words and even sharing their eyewitness accounts, saying that Lin Qin had even been beaten by that senior right in front of the principal’s office door, but the principal ignored it.
Then his university peers confirmed Lin Qin’s social phobia. Always alone, he’d turn pale and would be unable to squeeze out a word even after a long time when someone said ‘hello’.
Hence even if he had good looks and his academic performance was top of the line excellent, he was barely visible outside of the class.
As more and more people spoke out, doubts over the truth grew.
However most people held themselves back from asking Lin Qin or his studio directly, afraid that they would trigger bad memories and cause secondary harm.
However even though they didn’t go to the person himself to ask for confirmation, this topic sparked widespread online discussions, shifting from Lin Qin to broader debates on the cruelty of ‘campus violence’.
A persistent issue that, despite the government and schools expending great effort in recent years in order to rectify this behavior, still happened, causing distress.
Gradually, the debate on campus violence gained traction, pushing Lin Qin’s story to the hot search, then immediately afterwards, someone picked up that Lin Qin’s then-principal, was now a district education leader.
And the netizens, reading the original post and then going down to read this comment, felt that the principal was disgusting as they gritted their teeth, hating that they couldn’t rush over to beat him up if the exposé was true.
What did the words one had to be a worthy teacher mean? What did the words one had to impart knowledge and educate people mean? Your own student was being beaten right in front of you and you were just sitting in your office without stopping it?
The district education bureau, unable to bear the pressure from the public, announced that they would investigate, and that if the netizens’ claims were true, they would punish the principal who had failed in his duties.
And with that, almost everyone watched this investigation unfold, and in two days time, the bureau issued another announcement. The principal had been expelled from the bureau and stripped of his teaching license, barred for life from teaching.
The moment this result came out, it shocked the entire internet.
Why was he dealt with? Because he had really made a mistake! Which was to say, the severe campus violence Lin Qin faced in high school was real!
Lin Qin’s fans, who had previously laughed at his awkward on-screen presence, saying ‘my cub is so cute’ now felt their hearts ache after understanding why he had become like this.
They couldn’t imagine how he had gotten through that period. Because if it had been someone else, they would have long been unable to hold on, right?
At this time, Lin Qin’s studio shared the bureau’s announcement, with a picture of a rainbow.
Lin Qin Studio: After gloom, comes brightness. [Image]
Translator’s Note: Sorry for the no show yesterday.
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