A man in a leather jacket, with a carefree attitude, stood on the podium and yelled. As his voice fell, several punks with hair dyed in all colors of the rainbow charged in, grabbing anything they could to start smashing without showing any mercy.
The people in the school were panicking, especially the young children, who were now huddled outside, crying.
The cries of the children echoed through the school, and Ning Fan and Zhang Shiya could hear them clearly as they approached the entrance.
Inside a classroom, the hunched old headmaster desperately pleaded to the hooligans: "Please don't smash it, please! These are for the children's education. Even if you don't pity me, pity the children of our little Orphan Village, okay? They are the hope of our village. We can't do without students."
As he spoke, the helpless headmaster began to cry. All these items were the fruit of everyone's hard work, and the children relied on this place for their knowledge.
The punk looked at the headmaster, sneered, and then slapped him across the face.
The headmaster fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face, watching in despair as the hooligans vandalized the classroom.
The aged headmaster, having suffered a beating, cried even more woefully.
At the school gate, a group of elderly men, women, and children from Orphan Village stood helplessly. The men were all older, and the rest were mostly children and women.
The young and strong of the village were working outside, leaving these elderly and women powerless, only able to cry with tears streaming down their faces.
Outside the classroom, twenty or thirty little students, bruised and battered, were also crying.
"Uncle, please don't smash anymore, waaaah..."
"Don't hit Grandpa Headmaster, please don't hit him!"
Outside the classroom, the crying of the children reverberated throughout the campus.
Inside, the ring-leader with pierced ears, upon hearing the children's cries, began to smash even more viciously.
"Cry, cry, cry, I'll make you cry! Your crying is making me annoyed!" he yelled at the children, their wailing causing his head to buzz and tremble.
In irritation, he picked up a book from the desk and threw it toward the children at the door.
"Ah!" One of the students was hit right in the face and fell to the ground, crying in pain.
Seeing this, the headmaster crawled over and clung to the leg of the punk, pleading, "If you want to hit someone, hit me, please don't hit the students!"
These children were born to poor families. It had been so hard to build this school and bring hope to them and the entire village, but these thugs were trampling on it mercilessly.
The hooligans in the classroom laughed maliciously, excited by the sight of the headmaster's helplessness, as if bullying the weak satisfied them.
"Old man, I'm telling you, our Brother Zhu has taken a liking to this land. If you don't sign the papers to sell it, we'll come here every day to 'teach' you all a proper lesson!"
The Brother Zhu mentioned by the punk was Zhu Ba, a local thug and the unofficial ruler of the nearby town. He had the good fortune to become acquainted with a boss who had connections in town, and that boss happened to be involved in real estate.
The land on which Orphan Elementary School stood was exactly what they wanted.
But the headmaster and all the teachers were firmly against selling it. It was not easy to build a school, and while it might be humble, it represented everyone's hope.
Zhu Ba had people make trouble here every day because the headmaster refused to sign the papers to sell the land. With the classrooms smashed, there was nowhere for the students to learn.
Additionally, with these thugs coming here every other day, some of the students' grandparents were afraid of the children getting hurt and prevented them from coming to school.
Because of these bastards, many poor children in the small orphan village no longer had a place to read and write, which was utterly detestable!
"Brothers, smash everything for me. Today, Brother Zhu has set us up a great meal in town, so let's do this with joy!"
As he spoke, the little punk with the earring waved his big hand and started advancing towards the next classroom.
The old principal stood in the doorway, refusing to budge, until the little punk with the earring couldn't hold back any longer and kicked him out of the way.
The crying of the children became even louder, and the crowd at the school gate was filled with righteous indignation, but they were all meek women and elderly people.
"These animals are despicable!"
Zhang Shiya looked on in heartache at the school campus, which had become a scene of pathetic disarray, and she charged forward in a rage.
"Stop it right there!"
Zhang Shiya blocked these bastards and glared at them fiercely.
The scumbags, seeing a young and beautiful woman standing in front of them, all laughed out loud.
"Beauty, what are you doing here? Are you here to console us?"
"Beauty, big brother here has some treasures, want to come over and have a look?"
"Brothers, how about you let me have this woman?"
The group of scumbags looked at Zhang Shiya with lecherous eyes, and their intentions were clear without saying a word.
Zhang Shiya's face darkened with these utterly shameless people in front of her, she took out her cellphone and shouted, "If you don't get lost, I'll call the cops and have all of you arrested!"
But would calling the police really be effective?
Even Zhang Shiya herself couldn't be sure, let alone these fearless scumbags.
At that moment, the earring-clad scumbag leading them laughed, "Go ahead, give it a try. People in town know us. You'll see who they'll help when they arrive!"
"I'm dying of laughter. Beauty, don't bother calling the police. Come keep us company instead. If we're in a good mood, we'll treat you to a drink!"
Zhang Shiya watched the group of bastards furiously but found herself unable to utter a word.
From within the crowd, Ning Fan watched these scumbags with cold eyes, clenching his fists uncontrollably. As he twisted his neck, preparing to step out and teach these punks a lesson, someone came over and patted his shoulder.
"Ning? Is that really you?"
A young man with a simple and honest appearance stood in front of Ning Fan, looking at him with excitement.
Ning Fan recognized him immediately and called out with surprise, "Dashun!"
The young man with the honest face was Ning Fan's friend in this place, named Liu Dashun. The two often played together when they were in the small orphan village.
Ning Fan had come to the small orphan village five or six years ago, and he got along quite well with Liu Dashun. During several trips up the mountain, Liu Dashun almost got eaten by a wild boar and was saved by Ning Fan.
Since then, Liu Dashun had always called him Ning.
Liu Dashun had been working outside for the past two years and had only recently returned home. Now, seeing Ning Fan, he was extremely excited. He had been sad for a long time when he came back earlier and heard Ning Fan had gone out.
Ning Fan also smiled happily when he saw Liu Dashun.
[Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, prosperity to all!]