Mediation
When Hu Tong received Cheng Zhou's call, he was learning how to use a video editing software he had randomly downloaded.
The stands were extremely noisy. Even with Hu Tong's ear pressed against his phone speaker, he could only hear Cheng Zhou's intermittent, slightly aggrieved voice: "That guy surnamed Guo... got beaten up... at the police station..."
Fragments of information quickly pieced together in Hu Tong's mind, and she concluded that Cheng Zhou had been beaten by a man surnamed Guo and was currently at the police station.
On her way from the sports field to the school police station, Hu Tong's heart was pounding. Intuition was clamoring in her mind, her thoughts a jumbled mess.
Along the roadside is a long, dark green barrier formed by a mixture of Chinese juniper and cypress. Someone stands under the trees smoking, and wisps of smoke seep into the dense, scale-like leaves, revealing a faint blue hue.
Hu Tong gripped her phone tightly and ran over. Like a gust of wind, she stirred up the translucent wisps of smoke, allowing her to smell the hot, sweaty odor emanating from the person.
Hu Tong felt disgusted and extremely annoyed, but she didn't think of arguing with that person. She ran away, holding her anger in her heart.
"Who hit Cheng Zhou? Who hit him? What right do they have to hit him!"
Upon entering the mediation room, Hu Tong pushed aside the counselor who was trying to persuade Cheng Zhou to apologize, grabbed his chin and saw that his lips were red and swollen. He immediately forced the man into his arms and shouted, "Look what you've done to him!"
"Weren't you supposed to be doing pole vaulting? You've become the pole instead, look at the mess!"
Cheng Zhou's forehead was pressed against Hu Tong's shoulder, and his whole body looked like a ripe, hunched shrimp, red from earlobes to fingertips, a bright, slightly pinkish red.
He didn't dare to move and explained in a low voice, "I'm sorry, I hit someone, Tongtong..."
With Hu Tong's arrival, Cheng Zhou felt at ease.
He no longer felt panicked, no longer dominated by anger, but after his mind calmed down, a dense wave of shame and remorse surged up.
What's shameful is that I hit someone, and what's remorseful is that I called Hu Tong over.
"You hit someone?"
Hu Tong pulled him away, staring wide-eyed in disbelief, and asked, enunciating each word clearly, "You...hit...someone?"
Cheng Zhou nodded slightly.
"Did you win?"
Cheng Zhou nodded again, his embarrassment mixed with a hint of inexplicable pride.
Hu Tong breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that we won."
"Hey kid, how can you talk like that!"
A male voice boomed behind her. Hu Tong turned around and saw Guo Lin and his counselor sitting in the corner under the pale, dim light.
Guo Lin's face was much more lively than Cheng Zhou's, like a pig's head meat mixed with red yeast rice and braised until it turned red.
Hu Tong also knew Guo Lin's counselor; he was her Current Affairs and Policy teacher this semester. He glared at Hu Tong, pulled Guo Lin to sit across the table, and together with Cheng Zhou's counselor, they used a two-pronged approach to force Cheng Zhou to apologize and persuade Guo Lin to reconcile.
“Let’s make big problems small and small problems nothing,” the male counselor said with a smile. “We are all alumni and pillars of the country. We might run into each other again after we enter society. You help me and I help you. Isn’t that great?”
Guo Lin glared menacingly at Cheng Zhou, spitting out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva. "What kind of alumni are you from the Academy of Fine Arts? I won't settle this! I'll kill you and send you to jail."
The female counselor frowned slightly: "That's not how it works, student. I know you're upset. How about this, I'll have Cheng Zhou apologize to you. You're both adults now, let's have a meal together privately, and all grudges will be forgotten, okay? Our priority right now is to take you to the hospital for a checkup..."
Cheng Zhou sat up straight and said expressionlessly, "I won't apologize."
The female counselor exclaimed "Oh!" and winked at Hu Tong.
Hu Tong gripped Cheng Zhou's hand, which was hidden under the table, and retorted, "Who asked you to reconcile? This is a fight between you two. If you want to go in, you go in with me!"
The female counselor exclaimed urgently, "How can you advise someone like that!"
"You look familiar, young man," the male counselor across from me said, narrowing his eyes. "You're a student in our college, aren't you?"
"Young lady, you're young and have a bad temper. You think fighting is no big deal. You're just trying to make things easier by sending your boyfriend and senior to jail together. You'll know how serious this is when you take the civil service exam in the future."
“Anyway, Cheng Zhou won’t apologize,” Hu Tong raised his chin and ordered Guo Lin, “You should quickly agree to a settlement.”
Guo Lin swore: "Why should I!"
"This is just you fighting each other!"
As Hu Tong was speaking, Cheng Zhou grasped her hand. Their warm palms met, and they could faintly feel each other's rapidly beating pulses at their wrists, like two converging streams that would flow together through the bitter summer and cold winter.
Hu Tong raised his phone with his free hand, tapped it, and Guo Lin's sarcastic, rough voice flowed out, leisurely, accompanied by unavoidable amplified static, filling the entire space.
"She's a total womanizer, her private life is so messy, she broke down as soon as I said anything..."
"Hu Tong, you guys don't know? I ran into her at a KTV before, she was dressed really scantily, at that place outside the South Gate! To put it bluntly, she's a prostitute..."
Cheng Zhou seemed to be hurt by those words, lowered his head, and gripped Hu Tong's hand even tighter, but controlled the force so as not to cause her pain.
The two counselors had complicated expressions.
Guo Lin's face flushed red and then paled, and he gritted his teeth as he protested, "I was just joking..."
The person who was falsely accused was actually the calmest one.
Hu Tong is not someone who is easily swayed by emotions. She is used to taking revenge on the spot. To outsiders, she may seem crazy and hysterical, but the impact of those things on her only lasts until the moment of revenge.
She wouldn't keep those hurts to relive in one lonely night after another.
Hu Tong glanced at Guo Lin's expression, tapped his phone screen, and closed the media player.
She leaned forward menacingly, her slightly upturned eyes seeming to burn with a flickering flame. "Agree to a settlement, apologize to me, or I'll kill you!"
Cheng Zhou added at the opportune moment: "He said he has your class schedule, so he's probably been following you."
Just then, a policeman pushed open the door and entered. She glanced at everyone's expressions, pulled out a small stool at the head of the long table, and sat down. "How did the talks go?"
Hu Tong deliberately lowered her voice to reply, "We've come up with something new, policewoman."
Hu Tong played the recording again, and Cheng Zhou repeated Guo Lin's words exactly as they were spoken.
Ordinary students may not understand slang such as "class" or "timetable," but the police are very familiar with them.
Ultimately, Guo Lin and Cheng Zhou reached a settlement regarding the fight. Guo Lin posted a public apology on his WeChat Moments and, accompanied by the police, went back to his dormitory to retrieve his old phone and delete the maliciously photoshopped images from his album.
The police officer cautioned Guo Lin, "Be careful, classmate. If we run into each other at a small hotel someday, it won't just be a matter of shaking hands and signing something."
Both parties signed the papers and went their separate ways.
Hu Tong linked arms with Cheng Zhou and skipped and hopped out.
"It's already noon, I'm so hungry, what do you want to eat?" Hu Tong turned to ask him, "Or should we go to the hospital for a check-up first? Don't take this beating lightly, a concussion is no joke..."
"I didn't realize, Cheng Zhou, that you're so capable of fighting! I have to give Grandma Cheng a good talking-to."
She chattered on and on, without end.
Cheng Zhou stopped, lowered his head, and his pupils, which appeared unusually dark against the light, were misty. "I'm sorry, Hu Tong, I was too impulsive. You had a better solution..."
Hu Tong withdrew her hand, put her hands on her hips, and looked at him. "There's no such thing as a good or bad solution. As long as it's solved, that's fine. Besides, I think your method is more satisfying!" She took a step forward, tilted her head back, and blinked her bright eyes as she asked, "How did you hit him?"
"Like this?" Hu Tong raised his fist and gently tapped his cheekbone.
Cheng Zhou looked at her and smiled slightly: "Yes, that's true."
How about this?
Hu Tong's fist moved to the tip of his nose.
"Yes."
Hu Tong's fists quickly covered every inch of Cheng Zhou's face. Cheng Zhou remained smiling, only frowning slightly when she touched the cut on the corner of his mouth.
He took Hu Tong's hand and said softly, "Guo Lin did throw a punch to retaliate, but I dodged quickly and he didn't hit me... Actually, I did this myself in the chaos, otherwise I wouldn't have a scratch at all..."
Hu Tong burst out laughing, his laughter echoing in the golden autumn sunlight, his sunflower-colored windbreaker creased with laugh lines.
The ginkgo trees along the roadside were covered in golden leaves, and the fallen leaves on the ground rustled softly underfoot, as if they were secretly laughing.
Passersby stared at the two standing on the asphalt road covered with fallen leaves, bewildered, and laughed until they could hardly breathe. The girl with her hair in a bun bent over, repeatedly patting the arms of those around her.
Cheng Zhou was still wearing the white short-sleeved shirt and red vest he wore during the game, with a gray baseball uniform over it. He looked a bit silly and out of place, and his smile was also a bit silly.
He stared at Hu Tong and smiled, asking in a seemingly serious but actually feigned tone, "If someone talks nonsense again next time, will I still hit them?"
"Hit yourself or hit someone else?"
Hu Tong stopped laughing, wiping away the tears that had welled up in her eyes with the back of her hand, and said, "There's no need to care too much about those people. They're just trash who almost got aborted before, that's why they care so much about that kind of thing, thinking they can hurt people by spreading rumors related to sex."
“I am a baby that my mother gave birth to with great anticipation, unlike them.”
"Come with me."
Hu Tong rolled her eyes, took Cheng Zhou's arm again, and led him through a maze of turns to the laboratory building dedicated to the School of Information Science.
The silver-gray building stands under the clear sky, exuding a strong sense of technology.
Hu Tong stood on tiptoe and looked around, then focused on two students who had just come out of the laboratory building. He lowered his voice and explained to Cheng Zhou, "I remember those two. They're in the same grade as Guo Lin. Quick, let's go with them."
Cheng Zhou was dragged along like a thief, following behind the two male students. In a daze, he heard Hu Tong start sobbing loudly and scold him for his recklessness, "Why did you fight with Guo Lin? Look, you've got a bruise on your face."
Hearing that familiar tone, Cheng Zhou felt as if he had returned to junior high school, when Hu Tong stood on the podium and asked him, "Who is the author of 'Bring in the Wine'?"
Questions that do not require a correct answer.
Cheng Zhou looked at the two people in front of him who suddenly straightened their backs, slowed their pace automatically, and seemed to have their ears perked up. He wisely chose to remain silent and let Hu Tong do as he pleased.
Hu Tong gave his arm a satisfied squeeze and said quickly, "Because he spread rumors that I was doing improper part-time work? Oh dear, this is all my bad luck!"
Hu Tong lowered his voice mysteriously: "I ran into him and another senior student coming out of the hotel, the one outside the south gate! They were walking one after the other, both covering their butts... And I was slow to react, so I went up to him and said hello!"
"Oh dear, I've offended him."
The incident happened suddenly, and Hu Tong spoke quickly, so no one had time to record it. After speaking, Hu Tong grabbed Cheng Zhou and ran away, completely disregarding the shock his words had caused the two men and the shock they would cause Guo Lin.
Cheng Zhou was grabbed by the wrist by Hu Tong and staggered as he ran, his heart beating faster than if he had just finished a marathon.
Under the bright sun, her black-and-brown bun stood out in the sunlight, a few wisps of hair fluttering in the autumn breeze. She turned her head and smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with soft, golden light.
Hu Tong exclaimed crisply, "Let's go eat bullfrog hotpot!"
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