Chapter 5 — The Photograph in the Pocket

Without a doubt, every single individual who participated in fabricating lies, sharing malicious content, or launching personal attacks will be held personally accountable by me, one by one.

That very evening, the account belonging to Jiang's mother was permanently banned. The official notice issued by the platform stated explicitly that following a thorough investigation, the user known as Wang Lili had deliberately fabricated falsehoods during her livestream, maliciously defamed others, and incited online cyberbullying, resulting in the permanent suspension of her profile. Shortly afterward, an official statement from the local police department was also released. Due to her actions of insulting the surviving family members of a registered martyr and severely disrupting public order, she was placed under administrative detention for ten days. Meanwhile, the four students, including Jiang Zhenghan, faced formal disciplinary actions for intentional assault, received strict public security warnings, were mandated to remain under the intense supervision of their legal guardians, and were ordered to cover all medical expenses incurred by the victimized child. Across the wider internet, thanks to an ongoing and comprehensive cyberspace cleanup campaign, a vast multitude of accounts that had previously spread false information about me or participated in my cyberbullying were either heavily restricted or entirely deactivated. In the real world, those same individuals were on the verge of receiving formal attorney letters drafted by my legal counsel. I set my phone down on the table, though I knew the battle was far from over. I proceeded to file a formal, comprehensive complaint regarding every single incident that had transpired at the school directly to the municipal Department of Education. Before long, the official disciplinary measures taken by the school administration were publicly announced. The homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu, because of her blatant bias, her active condonement of severe school bullying, and her entirely inappropriate remarks made within the parents' messaging group, received a formal disciplinary mark on her record and was stripped of all teaching duties. A twenty-year teaching career was thus buried entirely by her own foolish hands. The head of academic affairs, owing to her severe intimidation of student parents and her obstruction of normal academic suspension procedures, was stripped of her administrative title. The final sentence of the announcement concluded with a formal, written apology directed toward my daughter and me. Reading those words at last allowed a deep sense of relief to settle into my chest. Only one final piece remained, and this entire nightmare would finally draw to a close. Lawyer Chu executed his duties with breathtaking efficiency. He swiftly submitted the lawsuit documents to the competent court with full jurisdiction. Backed by incontrovertible evidence and the severe nature of the offense, Jiang's mother was facing a guaranteed prison sentence of two years. As for the other parents who had enthusiastically participated in the mob mentality within the messaging group, the moment they received their respective lawyer's letters, every single one of them tucked their tails between their legs and began living in absolute dread. Desperate to beg for my forgiveness, they exhausted every conceivable connection and method available to them. After all, nobody wanted their own family name disgraced or their children publicly humiliated. Yet, they could not escape the unyielding reach of the law, and the lawsuit ultimately proceeded against them just as planned. Following those events, I never laid eyes on any of them within the school's parent community ever again. During the period while my daughter was recovering from her physical trauma, I hired a private tutor to assist her at home. I gently asked her whether she still wished to return to school. She replied that she no longer wished to postpone her education and was determined to catch up with her class curriculum. I reached out and gently stroked my daughter's hair. Soon after, Lawyer Chu called me on the phone and said, "The defense counsel appointed by Wang Lili stated that her psychological state has deteriorated severely, she refuses to eat properly, and she desperately wishes to meet with you one last time."

I deliberated over the matter for a long time before finally deciding to attend. The visitation room was rather small. When Jiang's mother was escorted in, I almost failed to recognize her. In the span of just a few short days, she appeared to have aged by a full decade. Separated by a thick pane of glass, she sat down slowly and picked up the telephone receiver, prompting me to do the same. The visiting room was heavy with silence. Neither of us spoke a single word for a long while.

"I actually thought you wouldn't come."

She finally broke the silence, her voice so rasped and worn down that it sounded as though it had been dragged across coarse sandpaper.

"Do you have something to say to me?"

"I still hate you." She lifted her head, her swollen, bloodshot eyes staring straight across the barrier. "I knew perfectly well that you hadn't stolen my husband. What I truly hated was the fact that you were living a much better life than I ever could. Raising a child entirely on your own, driving a nice car, living in a beautiful home, and never needing to bow your head or watch anyone else's expression."

"My husband is dead, but at least he died cleanly and with some shred of dignity; my husband is still alive, yet living with me made him far worse than dead."

So this was the underlying motive that had driven her to send that cryptic message only to retract it immediately afterward. In my past life, I had naively dismissed it as a careless mistake, assuming she had simply dialed the wrong recipient, only to be ultimately consumed by her bitter resentment. Of all things in this world, human malice and unpredictable hearts are the most perilous gambles of all.

"When my own mother was driven to jump from a building by that woman outside, I was only sixteen years old. For as long as I live, the thing I despise most in this world are women who destroy other people's families."

Her voice began to tremble uncontrollably.

"I couldn't catch the woman who ruined my father's life, and I couldn't catch the woman who ruined my husband's life, so the only person left I could catch was you. My luck has always been terrible, and the person I managed to grab turned out to be the wrong target all along..."

"Are you finished talking?"

She froze momentarily.

"Your own mother was driven to her death by a mistress, and your husband betrayed you with another woman, so you decided to come and destroy my life to compensate." I looked steadily at her through the glass.

"You lived a miserable, wretched existence, and so you tried to use my blood to warm your own cold hands."

She offered no rebuttal, sitting motionlessly behind the glass partition like a lifeless stone statue.

"Your son led a gang of thugs to ambush my daughter in a dark alley and beat her continuously for ten minutes. You brought a mob to smash my front door, and you even hired internet trolls to photoshop my late husband's memorial portrait into grotesque images and spread them everywhere online. When you were committing all those vile acts, did you ever stop to realize that you had transformed into the exact kind of monster you claimed to despise the most?"

She offered no response. Through the static of the telephone receiver, the sound of her ragged breathing was all that remained.

"I did not come here today to listen to you recount your pathetic life story. Your misfortunes and your wretched marriage are entirely your own burdens to bear. Do not ever weaponize your tragic experiences to ruin the lives of innocent people. I will never forgive you simply because you happen to appear pitiful now."