This school has a status equivalent to Xiaohuanggang in the city. If a family has a child who can be admitted here, the parents will hang a red banner at the entrance of the community.
We entered the school with our visitor badges; Xu Tuo didn't say who had given them to him. There was supposed to be an education expert named Xia Mo giving a lecture on campus today, and the atmosphere inside was like that of a distinguished guest. There weren't a single child in the hallways or on the playground.
The school has its own large classroom on the first floor, seating over 300 people—a size considered quite large for a school. When we entered, the room was clearly dispersing, likely due to a lecture, but there were still many people inside: not only teachers and students, but also parents, armed with notebooks and cameras, gathered in the back row to observe.
On the screen was a concise introduction with white text on a blue background - Theme: "Treating Children with True Love."
I asked Xu Tuo softly, "Are you sure it's here?"
He didn't say anything, just smiled and ruffled my hair.
The podium was empty; the speaker must have left after the lecture. However, the background music from the lecture was still playing softly in a loop.
——That's Jackman's new song.
Finally, there were some clues that allowed me to connect a righteous teacher with Class L.
Xia Mo's location is not difficult to find, but it is difficult to enter.
There were many parents in the corridor who wanted to see him, and they were all walking towards the principal's office - after the speech, the principal asked Xia Mo to sit in the principal's office for a while.
This kind of "sitting for a while" may develop into "sitting in the principal's office for an afternoon" or "having dinner together" depending on the situation.
Are we really going to wait a few hours? I looked at Xu Tuo questioningly. Could this be a tradition? Jackman made us wait for almost five hours. A teacher of his stature should have waited at least fifteen hours. How about we go see a movie nearby, have lunch and dinner, and then go to the bookstore to read a little?
Xu Tuo shook his head slightly and made a call on his cell phone.
The call was connected quickly.
"Teacher, I'm Ayan," he said. "We're here, outside the principal's office."
——Is this too direct?!
I was stunned for a few seconds. But a few minutes later, there was a commotion outside the principal's office—someone came out, and the parents and teachers waiting outside immediately rushed forward like fans meeting their idol.
A man who was almost fifty years old came out. He was slightly fat, had a stern look on his face, and was slightly bald.
I stood up a little straighter. I had to admit, he wasn't what I'd imagined. But there was no denying that this old man had an intimidating aura.
Hiding behind Xu Tuo, I pushed him and said, "Let's go. I'm ready."
Xu Tuo was confused: "Hmm?"
"Um?"
"Where are you going?"
"Aren't we going with that old man?"
"Ah, that's not my teacher."
——Two teachers from our school accompanied the old man away, and I heard them calling him Principal Wu.
...Is this a mistake...?
Then, the crowd finally erupted like boiling water. Another person came out of the office, but I couldn't see him clearly because of the crowd.
"Excuse me, please move aside..." His voice was so gentle that I couldn't recall where I'd heard it before. It wasn't the creepy, perverse gentleness of Dong Quanming's, but a completely soft voice, like silk draped over gravel.
With the help of his entourage, the man finally squeezed out of the crowd. The moment I saw him, I was momentarily dazed.
He was younger than I'd imagined, perhaps around forty-five or forty-six, but very fair and slender. Like me, he had long hair and wore glasses with very thin metal rims.
Time had left no ugly marks on his body, but rather beautiful sculptures. He wore a slim-fitting black suit, and squeezing through the crowd made him look a bit disheveled. A wry smile played on his face, his hair was slightly disheveled, and even his glasses were askew… but no one would consider this ugly. He naturally exuded a soft, almost genderless aura.
I suddenly understood why Xu Tuo trusted this teacher so much. If he were my teacher and he said in class, "Killing is right," I guarantee that all the children in the class would think that what he said was the truth.
At some point, he was standing in front of us, smiling at me. This beautiful animal held out his hand toward me: "Hello, Xueming. I'm Xia Mo."
A few minutes later, we were sitting in an empty classroom that served as his makeshift lounge.
I still couldn't take my eyes off Xia Mo. He was looking for a song on his phone, and the last song he found was Jackman's.
"I don't really understand Ajie's songs," he said. "I once secretly attended one of his concerts... Seeing that he was happier than before, I felt relieved."
Xu Tuo lowered his head and asked, "Did my affairs cause you any trouble?"
"No." He smiled at Xu Tuo. "The incident at the hospital was a huge commotion. Compared to Dong Quanming, what happened to you is nothing. What happened to Xueming? Why isn't she talking?"
I came back to my senses: "Hello..."
"It's okay, just call me Teacher Xia, just like Xiao Yan." He held out his hand to me, and I jumped. But Xia Mo simply adjusted my glasses for me. "Tell me what you think. Do you really have to live with Xiao Yan... or Xu Tuo? Or can you live separately and see each other occasionally?"
"…"
"Don't worry, even if you say you don't want to separate, I won't suddenly pull out a gun and kill someone."
"...I have a favor to ask of you..." I looked into his eyes. This man had a pair of smiling, peaceful eyes that could calm all hesitation and anxiety. "...Can I be Xu Tuo's juice man?"
The gentle smile on Xia Mo's face froze for a moment. Xu Tuo interrupted me: "No."
"Since Dong Quanming can bring Juice People to attack us, why can't I become your Juice People? Juice People are not members of Class L, they are still ordinary people, but it is not a violation to come into contact with Juice People, right?"
Xia Mo said, "Xue Ming, you've got one thing wrong. You don't understand what a Juice Man is. You can't become Xu Tuo's Juice Man. You'll only become the Juice Man of the entire L Class... or simply defined as a tool. Juice Men must obey everyone in L Class; they don't belong to anyone in particular."
I see.
I nodded. "I see. So what's the point of our meeting?"
This was a harsh remark. Xu Tuo glared at me, but Xia Mo didn't get angry. He waved his hand and said, "You've always lived an ordinary life, studying, studying abroad, working... Suddenly, you encountered so many things, and you can still be so calm. I'm really surprised."
There were a few strands of hair by his ears, swaying slightly with his movements. They were stained with something very familiar to me.
I reached out my hand to him as well. Xu Tuo grabbed me and said, "What are you doing? Stop it!"
"...your...neck." I slid my fingers over the rope marks on my neck and gently wiped off a little concealer - ever since the last car accident, I started using concealer to cover them up, and because of this, some of the concealer would occasionally stick to my long hair.
Xia Mo was stunned for a few seconds. He understood what I meant and used his fingers to wipe off the powder marks on his neck, revealing the purple marks.
"…It's not a good habit," he said. "I just do it to relieve stress. You do it too?"
"No," I shook my head. "I like it this way."
We stared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, Xia Mo shrugged and said, "I thought it was Xu Tuole's."
"Haven't you investigated me thoroughly?"
"Not so thoroughly, because I think there is still room for improvement."
Xu Tuo heard the breakthrough: "Room?"
"Well, that's a good opportunity." He turned off Jackman's song and showed a photo to Xu Tuo, "—Do you know this person?"
Xu Tuo frowned. "I don't know. They're too young. The L class members I've met generally don't have any members of the new generation."
"He was a 'freshman', but he killed his teacher just two months after joining the class. This freshman... has a very troublesome habit." Xia Mo smiled helplessly, pointing to the marks on his neck.
I took concealer from my bag and patched up the marks I had just rubbed off. "So, the teacher is planning to drag him in, and the three of us will form a hanging interest group?"
"Hahaha... Of course he can, but it's a pity he didn't strangle himself."
At this moment, some information that had been shelved for a long time was floating in my mind.
"—Does he like killing women?" I asked.
I should have used this information as leverage. That would have been the calm and rational approach.
But for some reason, in front of Xia Mo, I lost my previous vigilance and caution.
Xia Mo's eyes brightened and he nodded in agreement. What made me feel comfortable was that he didn't ask me why I associated it with strangulation.
"The L class is only allowed to hunt those who can't control their hunting urges. They're like scavengers, using their own hunting urges to stifle the uncontrolled hunting urges of other people in the world. But, this kid is a little... high? This matter has attracted the attention of ordinary people."
So, Xia Mo found a way for Xu Tuo - to get rid of this freshman who was crazy about killing. He could use this credit as a bargaining chip to persuade other people in Class L not to care about Xu Tuo and me.
"Well, the privileges of an honor student." He winked. "By the way, why didn't Ajie come today? I've prepared his album and want him to sign it."
Xu Tuo agreed to this condition and saved the target information sent by Xia Mo: "Ajie said that you will definitely ask him to sign an album or something, which is too embarrassing, so he doesn't want to come."
The meeting ended unexpectedly successfully.
Everyone originally wanted to go to Jackman's restaurant for dinner together, but Jackman seemed to feel that it was too embarrassing to give an autograph to the teacher, so he ran to other cities to participate in activities overnight.
Xu Tuo and I decided to go home for dinner and rest early. On the way back, I thought about Xia Mo and asked him, "Did Teacher Xia kill anyone too? I can't imagine it."
"Well, kill." Xu Tuo was driving and answered briefly.
"What did he...kill?"
"Killing a kind of person who can't be killed even by death." Xu Tuo stopped the car when the car passed a fried chicken shop. "Want to buy some for a midnight snack?"
We entered the fried chicken shop. Inside, a wall-mounted TV was showing a news story about two children who had gone hiking during their vacation and had fallen off a cliff and died.