At the entrance of Brightside University, Huojin stood with his hands in his pockets. He watched the hustle and bustle of students’ everyday life on the campus that revolved around completing assignments and going from one class to another.
He inhaled the tepid air with a smile. "The oxygen at a university is always so rejuvenating. Makes one feel younger."
Outsiders were naturally not allowed inside the campus, but this was the admission season luckily so he didn’t have to put much effort with the excuse.
"I am here to make some enquiries about the college. My sister is looking for admission here."
"Sure," the guard said, "The faculty room is on the third floor. Go straight that way."
"Thanks man."
Now that he gained entry, his next mission was to dig about Anhe and her group, particularly about Anhe.
Now, who can give me some spicy information?
He stuck out his tongue, realizing the use of the word spicy.
"Nowadays I feel Yang Mingshen has the sole copyright to use that word. Let’s change it to juicy information," he smiled to himself.
He saw his chance to find more about Anhe coming straight towards him in the form of a female lecturer, probably exiting from her class.
I hope she finds me charming enough.
She did.
As her gaze fell on him, she fell in a trance momentarily. Huojin didn’t come into the most handsome man category like Wei or Mingshen, but he held a rugged charisma that was hard to ignore as well. Coupled that with his casual wear, he exuded an air of playfulness with an added tint of reliability.
He started the conversation, politely asking her help for his sister’s admission.
"Oh sure! Do you need a campus tour as well?" She asked, tucking the strands of her hair behind her ear.
Perfect.
"If you are not in a hurry," he apologetically smiled.
"Not at all."
They walked across the different floors and facilities of the campus and the professor, Miss. Chiang proudly gave all the reasons of Brightside University being the best among its peers.
"That’s nice. The classrooms, canteen, library, sports ground - everything is so huge and neat."
"We take pride in our best facilities."
"How about the management? The staff? Are they friendly and approachable?"
"You don’t have to worry at all. All the teachers are very understanding and helpful towards all students. Your sister wouldn’t face any problem."
"That’s reassuring. How about...bullying? From such a reputable institution, I obviously don’t expect any harassment-"
"Of course not," Miss. Chiang immediately answered. "Bullying and harassment is not tolerated at all. We have a very strict policy."
Huojin caught a very faint sound behind him. He let out a troubled smile.
"What’s wrong?" She asked.
"That’s nice of you to say that but I am afraid...I have heard some rumors here and there concerning a particular girl."
"Oh my. Who is she?"
"Geng Anhe."
She stiffened.
"When I was asking about this college, I naturally got good reviews of its infrastructure and facilities. But since some time the atmosphere here has become, how do I put it delicately? A little fearful."
Miss. Chiang caught his underlying meaning and held her smile, albeit with slight difficulty. "Those are just rumors. You know how some people can get salty. They think Geng Anhe got in here because her father is the principal."
"Oh. I was worried because my sister’s friend was in the same high school as hers. Geng Anhe was very popular but not really in the academics department..." he gave an awkward laugh. "Maybe that’s why the rumors started of her admission here."
Huojin had done his homework.
She slightly cleared her throat. "Maybe that would be so then, but Geng Anhe definitely improved in her studies which is why she got in here. She is really a sweet girl. She helps out everybody."
He caught the disturbance somewhere in the background yet again.
"Oh dear. That means the things I heard about students being fearful of her because Geng Taio is her father are all false?"
"Yes, yes," she quickly said. "She is nobody’s enemy but jealousy can really...I will look into this. We don’t wish for any student to be unnecessarily harassed by rumors."
After the tour was over, Huojin excused himself and thanked her for taking out the time. He walked back, his countenance serious.
"She was really uptight and cautious about her," he murmured.
All his next efforts to probe into Anhe’s matters went to waste as Miss. Chiang never spoke even a single word of dissatisfaction about her.
But there was another thing to do.
He revisited an earlier path and found the place where he had heard the faint chuckling voice. He turned around the bushes and saw a group of three guys and one girl munching on chips. The empty packets were all around as if it was a dump.
"There is a trash can outside," he pointed out.
The four looked up at Huojin and then at each other. They burst into laughter as if he cracked some stupid joke.
One of them scoffed. "This whole college is trash. You care about some empty packets?"
Huojin joined them and grabbed the cigarette the girl was whiffing. "Smoking is injurious to health."
She laughed. "So are many other things."
"For example?"
"Hmmm~" she raised her brow, checking him out. She arched her back, supporting herself on her arms.
She tugged with the button on his shirt, smiling mischievously. "I will tell you if you let me give you a kiss on your cheek."
Back in my time, I used to stutter to even talk to girls. How the boldness has evolved these days, he thought.
He smiled and politely made her hand from his button back off. "Thanks for the offer, but I will pass."
"Why? Am I not beautiful?"
"Oh yes you are."
Huojin wasn’t lying. The girl before his sight was indeed a beauty to behold. He thought he could even give her the title of a campus belle.
"Then why aren’t you feeling lucky?" She tilted her head.
He shrugged. "Maybe I am just old-fashioned in these things."
She grunted after a pause and went back to her original position. She offered him chips. "Want some?"
"No, thanks. But I do want to ask some questions."
"About Geng Anhe?"
"Seems like you know already."
She smiled. "You aren’t here for your sister’s admission, are you?"
"What gave me away?"
"Even one question about Geng Anhe is enough to raise an alarm here and you asked a whole bunch of them. Naive."
To think a twenty year odd girl calling a twenty-seven year old cop as naive was an interesting take.
"My apologies. Can you tell me more about her?"
"What did she do?" She asked with interest.
"She didn’t do anything. Somebody did something to her."
"Keep talking."
Huojin weighed his options of revealing the incident or not, but he gauged he wouldn’t get their cooperation otherwise. He showed his badge and started retelling the events.
Despite giving the group the account of the details, none of them lifted even a single brow in shock.
"Ah, so the phone she loves so much finally broke. It was bound to happen."
"What do you mean?"
The girl chuckled. "What happens when you try to hold on to something by force?"
"It breaks apart eventually."
"Which is what happened today. I can tell you why her phone was broken so badly. It’s because it holds many secrets."
Huojin slightly narrowed his eyes. "Like photos and videos?"
"Tons of them, including mine. That’s why Aang broke her phone. They were friends with benefits before. Now I don’t need to spell out what would happen to him if she recorded the sex acts and threatened him that she could use them against him as rape evidence at anytime, right?"