Chapter 168: Easy to Bully

Before he knew it, the night grew deep. Chang Yu turned off the light and climbed into bed.

In a hazy state, he fell into a long and sorrowful dream.

"Hao Qifu!"

On the school's spacious athletic field, a thin and diminutive boy was suddenly stopped in his tracks.

It was a group of tall and sturdy peers, dressed in oversized basketball jerseys and tucking basketballs under their arms, looking as though they had just finished a game.

"Is something the matter?" Hao Qifu instinctively frowned, sensing that those fellows were smiling with malicious intent.

"I heard your old man went gambling again yesterday and racked up a mountain of debt?" The ringleader's words dripped with mockery and ridicule.

Hao Qifu froze. He had not told a single soul about this, not even his classmates.

So how did they find out?

"The debt collectors came chasing after you at your house early this morning. Your family's business has already spread all over the neighborhood."

"Even if you don't talk about certain things, you can't keep them hidden forever."

The leading boy smugly shared in someone else's misery, as if doing so brought him joy.

"Sorry, this is my family affair, and it doesn't seem to concern you lot, does it?" Hao Qifu's face flushed red, feeling his dignity deeply insulted.

"How could it not concern us?" A bizarre smile crept across the boy's face. "We all saw you picking up bottles on the street the other night!"

"Are you running a bit tight on cash lately, needing money so badly? Otherwise, you wouldn't stoop to picking up bottles for a living."

"Then again... that gambler of a father of yours is nothing but a money sink, only taking and never giving. I suppose your family doesn't even have money for food by now, right?"

"And what about your fickle mother? She must have had enough of your father and simply remarried. I heard she even married a wealthy man and is living quite comfortably."

"Since she's so rich now, why doesn't she give you some money to help out with household expenses? Oh... I get it!"

The boy put on an expression of sudden realization, though the trace of disdain and mockery in his eyes never faded.

"She's moved on to a new life and thinks of you as dead weight, which is why she deliberately cut ties with you, isn't it?"

"She knows full well that you can only survive by scavenging bottles, yet she still pretends to see nothing just to safeguard the stability of her current family."

"So, you really are a stray bastard with no one to raise you. How pathetic~"

"Have you said enough!" Hao Qifu was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, instantly bristling.

Trembling with rage, his vision darkened as all the blood rushed to his head.

Extreme anger forced out the most aggrieved shout of his entire life, but to the ears of the youths before him, it sounded no louder than a mewing kitten, carrying not an ounce of intimidation.

"We're all friends, and I don't want to see you suffer. Just say the word if you're short on cash, and the boys and I will figure out a way to show you some pity."

With that, the repulsive-looking boy actually pulled a wad of loose change from his pocket, picked and chose a couple of one-yuan bills, and tossed them nonchalantly onto the ground.

"This is more than enough for you to buy steamed buns for several meals. If it's not enough, just let me know, and I can give you more anytime." The boy wore a gloating smile on his face, the characteristic, evil grin of a bully.

Hearing this, the boy's companions burst into loud laughter. Their laughter was wild and cruel, entirely oblivious to the fact that they were brutally trampling upon the dignity and heart of a young boy.

Following the ringleader's lead, they each reached into their pockets for their pocket money, casting the lowest-denomination banknotes and coins onto the ground, right before Hao Qifu, right beneath his feet.

It looked like pity, but it was actually humiliation and degradation.

After the group of youths sauntered away with giggles and jeers, Hao Qifu could no longer hold back his tears, weeping bitterly and unworthily.

His whimpers were faint and low, resembling a pathetic stray dog that dared not cry out too loudly even when wronged, terrified that someone would notice and chase it away.

He dropped heavily to his knees, tears sliding down his face one by one, mingling with the dirt and sand of the playground, quickly dampening the earth beneath him.

At last, his crying subsided.

He wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve, gritted his teeth, and stubbornly picked up the scattered loose change from the ground piece by piece.

Though picking up these coins filled him with humiliation, he did it anyway.

For even at his tender age, he had long since learned the cruelty and harshness of society, and how difficult it was to make money.

Others might have the luxury of refusing, but he did not!

He was so poor that he went hungry day after day; how could he possibly let money lying right before his eyes go uncollected?

Though meager, these coins would take him days of scavenging bottles to earn.

He had already suffered whatever grievances and humiliation were coming to him. If he refused to pick up the money just for a momentary flash of pride, wouldn't he simply be letting those bastards off the hook?

"Those kids are absolute bullies." Chang Yu, watching the entire ordeal from a third-person perspective, was burning with anger.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his thighs and back tensed up, breathing heavily like a wild beast driven to madness.

Had he not been merely observing this dream in an illusory state, he would have stepped in, knocked that bunch flat with a few punches and kicks, and taught them how to behave on behalf of their parents.

"Has school really become such a cesspool? Thank goodness I never went to school. Studying in the same institution as people like that would only bring me shame!"

With these thoughts, the scene in the dream shifted in the next instant.

This time, the setting was the men's restroom.

A group of half-grown kids had cornered a thin, pitiful figure.

"Hao Qifu, oh Hao Qifu!"

"Who gave you the nerve to refuse me?"

"I only asked to copy your homework. Why wouldn't you let me?"

The boy interrogating Hao Qifu was none other than the scoundrel Chang Yu had seen earlier. By now, his face was consumed by fury, his cold eyes glaring as if ready to devour someone.

"Why should I let you copy my homework and help you cheat?" Hao Qifu pressed his lips together stubbornly.

"You dare talk back!" The boy lashed out viciously, kicking Hao Qifu squarely in the stomach.

Hao Qifu let out an involuntary gasp, doubling over like a shrimp, his face flushed red with agony.

As if given a signal, the ringleader's accomplices joined in, kicking and beating Hao Qifu indiscriminately.

For a moment, the entire restroom echoed with the dull thuds of blows landing on flesh, frantic and deeply unsettling.

After some five or six minutes, the group finally ceased their pummeling, panting heavily.

By then, Hao Qifu lay battered and bruised on the filthy restroom floor, saliva and white foam dribbling unconsciously from his mouth, devoid of even the strength to stand.

"Remember this: don't ever defy me again." The leading boy spat fiercely onto Hao Qifu's face, then unzipped his pants and urinated all over him with a sneering laugh. "When I tell you to let me copy your homework, you damn well let me copy it!"

"That's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to castrate this bastard with my own hands!" Chang Yu could no longer contain himself. He lunged to grab the arrogant figure, but his hands grasped only empty air.

In his flash of fury, he had forgotten that he was still trapped within a dream.

This meant he was completely powerless to alter the course of the dream and could only watch helplessly as Hao Qifu was tormented.

What happened in the dream had already taken place in reality.

Even if he could intervene in the dream and change its trajectory, he was powerless to change what had already transpired in the waking world.

Reality was always so helpless.

...

Chang Yu finally drifted back to wakefulness, a look of lingering melancholy on his face.

It turned out that not everyone in this world was blessed with a happy and complete family.

Where there were people living in honey pots, there were bound to be those living in misery.

Where some walked proudly under the sun, others were destined to languish in dark, foul gutters.

Some were born with guaranteed comfort, while others came into the world lacking even a morsel of food.

While some spent their prime years sipping coffee and eating pastries cozily with classmates in cafes, others agonized over the livelihood of a few meager coins every day.

The world had never been fair; one could not expect the heavens to treat everyone equally.

Compared to Hao Qifu, Chang Yu felt his own life was fortunate indeed, floating as if on clouds.

Though he had been an orphan without parents since childhood, he at least had a director grandfather and companions who loved him.

His early days might have been impoverished, but they were carefree nonetheless.

At the very least, the orphanage had granted him a joyous and happy childhood.

Chang Yu sat up in a daze, staring blankly at the ceiling above.

Faintly, Yangyang's snoring drifted from nearby; he seemed to be sleeping soundly.

"How wonderful, Yangyang," he sighed sincerely. "May you always live such a carefree life."

"The tragedy that befell Hao Qifu shall never happen to you, because I will not allow it!"

Rising to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth, Chang Yu splashed his face with water and shaved his stubble.

He dressed, walked downstairs, and knocked on Katerina's door.

Katerina was in the middle of applying a facial mask. Accustomed to rising early, she woke up even earlier than Chang Yu, setting her apart from most girls of her generation.

Nowadays, very few girls were willing to get up early.

"What is it?" Katerina's face was covered in a black sheet mask when she opened the door, giving Chang Yu a start.

"I wanted to ask about Hao Qifu," Chang Yu said, realizing the figure before him was indeed human and not a ghost.

"I mainly wanted to know, how do you plan to deal with him?"

"Him?" Katerina blinked, clearly caught off guard by Chang Yu's sudden inquiry.