The Secret Comes to Light; Liu Xu's Father Goes Mad

Liu Xu's father was in his office reading documents when his phone suddenly rang. The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number. He frowned and answered, "Who is this?"

"Is this Uncle Liu?" Fu Li's voice came over the phone, tinged with glee at his misfortune. "I'm Fu Li, the one who had a conflict with Liu Xu at school last time. I have something to tell you. Your Liu Xu and that guy called Wen Shiming are together now."

Liu Xu's father's heart skipped a beat, and his voice instantly turned cold. "What did you say?"

"I took pictures too," Fu Li said with a laugh. "I've put them in the mailbox outside your house. Go home and see for yourself. Uncle Liu, don't let your 'good daughter' fool you."

With that, Fu Li hung up. Liu Xu's father could no longer focus on work. He grabbed his coat, ran outside, and drove home. All the way there, he wondered whether what Fu Li had said was true. Was Liu Xu really with that boy?

When he got home, he hurried to the mailbox by the door and opened it. Sure enough, there was a white envelope inside. He quickly tore it open, and several photos fell out: Liu Xu and Wen Shiming eating at a hotpot restaurant, the two of them walking side by side outside a photo studio, and another of Wen Shiming with his arm around Liu Xu's shoulders, both smiling happily.

The sight of Liu Xu's smile in the photos made his father tremble all over with rage. He remembered Liu Xu saying he was "going to a classmate's house to study" that morning, when he had actually gone on a date with a boy.

Looking at the unfamiliar bracelet on Liu Xu's wrist in the photos, he remembered the bird doll from a boy hidden in Liu Xu's room.

"How dare you! How dare you!" He hurled the photos to the floor and stamped on them. "I had you live in your mother's place and let your hair grow long, and this is how you repay me? How dare you fool around with a boy! How could you do this to your mother?"

"You wretch! You wretched child!" When Fu Li had called him earlier, he had thought it was a child's prank. But after seeing these photos, he realized that Liu Xu not only dared to go out with a boy behind his back, but also dared to wear "indecent" clothes and wear things given to him by another man!

He remembered Liu Xu saying he was "going to the library to study" when he went out that morning. Now it seemed that had all been a lie! He remembered his own "teachings" to Liu Xu and his wife's memorial portrait. Rage burned wildly in his heart.

He rushed into Liu Xu's room and turned it upside down, searching for evidence—evidence that Liu Xu had "betrayed" him and "betrayed" his wife.

Soon, he found a locked diary under the pillow. He easily snapped the lock and opened it. The writing inside was faint, but it stabbed into his eyes like needles:

"Today Wen Shiming said my hair looked nice. He's the first person who hasn't laughed at me."

"To help me, Wen Shiming made a bet with Teacher Wang that he'd score 90 points. I'm going to help him organize his English study materials."

"Today I went to the arcade with Wen Shiming. I won the motorcycle race, and he also helped me win a bird doll. I was very happy."

"Wen Shiming said he'd protect me. He's like a little sun..."

Every sentence, every word, told him that Liu Xu already had someone else in his heart and was no longer his "obedient daughter."

"How dare you! How dare you!" He hurled the diary to the floor and stamped on it, crumpling the pages underfoot until the writing slowly blurred.

Then he saw the little green bird doll at the corner of the bed. Wen Shiming had helped Liu Xu win it. He remembered how Liu Xu had smiled while holding the doll in the photo, and his rage grew even fiercer.

He picked up the scissors on the desk and savagely cut into the bird doll. The green fabric split open, stuffing spilled all over the floor, and the bird's head was severed from its body.

Still not satisfied, he picked the doll up, put it on the floor, and stomped on it several more times. Only when it had been reduced to a ragged bundle of green cloth did he stop.

Just then, the door lock clicked softly—Liu Xu had come home.

Liu Xu pushed open the door and saw the photos scattered across the living room. His heart skipped a beat. He was just about to speak when he saw his father standing in the doorway of his room with scissors in his hand. On the floor lay the trampled diary and the ruined bird doll.

"Dad... you..." His voice trembled, and his feet seemed nailed to the spot.

His father turned around, his eyes bloodshot, like a beast that had lost control. He walked toward Liu Xu one step at a time, scraps of fabric still falling from the scissors in his hand.

"So you still know how to come home?" His voice was icy. "You went out fooling around with a boy behind my back, and you dared to write this kind of thing too? How could you do this to your mother? To me?"

Liu Xu looked at the diary and bird doll on the floor, and tears instantly welled up in his eyes.

That was his only diary, the place where he recorded warmth; that was the doll Wen Shiming had helped him win, his little bit of hope for freedom. Now his father had torn and trampled them all to pieces.

"I didn't go out fooling around," Liu Xu replied through a sob.

"Then where did you go?" His father's voice was frozen over, cold enough to make anyone shiver.

Liu Xu said through his tears, "I... I went to the library."

"The library?" His father sneered, bent down to pick up the photos, and flung them in front of Liu Xu. "This is the library you were talking about? Dressed like this, fooling around with some strange man—how could you do this to your mother?!"

Liu Xu's face went deathly pale. He tried to explain. "No, Dad, he's my classmate. We were just..."

"Shut up!" His father cut him off, seized his wrist, and stared at the bracelet on it. "What's this? Who gave it to you?!"

"A... a classmate gave it to me..." Liu Xu's voice trembled, and his wrist throbbed where his father gripped it.

"A classmate?" His father's gaze grew fiercer. He reached out, tore the bracelet from Liu Xu's wrist, hurled it to the floor, and ground it under his foot. "That'll teach you to take things from other people! That'll teach you to forget who you are!"

The bracelet was crushed out of shape, its little bird pendant lying among the fragments, its once-gleaming silver dulled.

Liu Xu looked at the ruined bracelet, tears instantly welling up in his eyes. He picked up the broken bracelet and shouted back, "It's mine! What gives you the right to destroy it?!"

"Because I'm your father!" His father flew into a rage and slapped Liu Xu across the face. Liu Xu staggered back several steps and crashed into the wall. The photos in his hand fell to the floor.

His father went over, picked up the photos, and tore them to pieces. "You're not allowed to have anything more to do with that boy! You're not allowed to wear those ridiculous clothes! And you're certainly not allowed to show that shameless smile again!"

Liu Xu crouched on the floor, looking at the torn photos and broken bracelet. His heart hurt as though a knife were cutting into it.

He knew his father was going to start controlling him again, and the happiness he had struggled so hard to find was going to be destroyed by his father again.

"I wasn't fooling around! Wen Shiming is my friend!" Liu Xu mustered the courage to argue, though his voice was thick with tears. "The diary is mine, and so is the doll. What gives you the right to tear it up and trample it?"

"What gives me the right?" His father sneered and slapped Liu Xu across the face. "Because I'm your father! Because I gave you your life! Because you're living in your mother's place! Everything you have belongs to me!"

The blow knocked Liu Xu to the floor, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He looked at his father's twisted face, and the warmth in his heart vanished bit by bit, leaving only icy despair. He tried to get up and run, but his father had already grabbed him by the hair and was dragging him into the room.

"Since you're so disobedient, don't blame me for what happens." His father's voice sounded as though it came from hell. "I'll make you remember who you should be obeying above all others."

Liu Xu's cries mingled with his father's curses, drifting through the crack in the door and out the window.

The night grew darker and darker, completely shrouding the little home in darkness. Meanwhile, far away in another residential complex, Wen Shiming was still grinning foolishly at the historical-costume photos on his phone, utterly unaware of the pain Liu Xu was going through.

Wen Shiming hummed as he walked into the house, still clutching the jade pendant Liu Xu had given him. The pendant rested warmly against his chest.

Fu Yanzhi was clearing away the dishes in the kitchen. When he saw Wen Shiming return, he smiled and asked, "Did you have fun today? Judging by that silly grin on your face, you must have had a good time."

Wen Shiming walked to the kitchen entrance and leaned against the doorframe, smiling. "I had so much fun! We had historical-costume photos taken, ate hotpot, and finally went boating on the lake. Liu Xu talked to me a lot today. He even gave me a jade pendant and said it would keep me safe."

Fu Yanzhi wiped his hands, came over, and patted him on the shoulder. "Seeing you so happy makes your big brother happy too. Make sure you have a good time together."

"I know, Big Brother!" Wen Shiming nodded vigorously. "I told him I'd protect him from now on and never let anyone bully him again."

Just then, Xingxing and Huanhuan ran over and crowded around Wen Shiming. "Third Brother, Third Brother, what did you and Brother Liu Xu do? Did you bring back anything yummy?"

Wen Shiming smiled and crouched down, taking four strawberry candies from his pocket and handing them over. "Liu Xu gave me these. I'll share them with you. Next time we get a chance, how about I take you to play with Liu Xu too?"

Xingxing and Huanhuan immediately cheered, then took the candies and ran off to share them with Brother Yueyue and Brother Xiaoxiao.

Wen Shiming sat on the sofa, touching the jade pendant against his chest. He thought he had to get to school early tomorrow so he could see Liu Xu sooner.

After playing with his younger brothers for a while, Wen Shiming returned to his room.

Wen Shiming lay in bed, refreshing the chat screen over and over. The screen still showed the message he had sent: "Good night, see you tomorrow." Liu Xu's profile picture remained gray, and there was no reply.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking Liu Xu was probably tired after a full day out and had already fallen asleep. He put his phone beside his pillow and closed his eyes, looking forward to tomorrow.

But he didn't know that, at that moment, the fragments of Liu Xu's phone were still scattered across his bedroom floor. Fluff from the green bird doll clung to the torn diary pages, looking just like Liu Xu's silent tears.

Liu Xu curled up in the corner of the bed, listening to his father's heavy footsteps outside the door. He didn't sleep a wink all night.

Early the next morning, Wen Shiming woke up before his alarm. He made sure to wear the jade pendant Liu Xu had given him close to his body and brought some of the breakfast his big brother had made for Liu Xu.

When he walked into the classroom, the morning sun was shining through the windows onto the desks, but Liu Xu's seat was empty, and the surface of his desk was spotless.

"Why isn't he here yet?" Wen Shiming put the breakfast in Liu Xu's desk drawer, a faint panic stirring in his heart. He took out his phone and sent another message: "Morning! Where are you? I brought you breakfast." Once again, the message vanished like a stone into the sea; there wasn't even a "read" notification.

"Wen Shiming, do you know why Liu Xu hasn't come today?" The classmate in front of him turned around and asked in a low voice.

Wen Shiming shook his head, his throat tight. "I don't know. He didn't tell me."

In fact, he had sent three messages the night before, from "Good night" to "See you tomorrow" and then "Are you feeling unwell?" All of them had vanished like stones into the sea, and when he called, all he got was a cold busy signal.

By the break for exercises, he couldn't bear it any longer and ran to find the homeroom teacher.

The homeroom teacher sat at the desk, holding a leave request. When Wen Shiming came in, the teacher said, "Liu Xu's father called this morning and said he wasn't feeling well. He's taking a leave of absence for the rest of this semester."

"Not feeling well?" Wen Shiming frowned, the unease in his heart growing stronger. "But he was fine yesterday, Teacher. How did he suddenly get sick?"

The homeroom teacher put down the pen and patted him on the shoulder. "I don't know about that. Don't worry. What could happen to Liu Xu at home?"

Liu Xu's father sat on the living room floor, cigarette butts scattered all around him.

Outside the window, the sky went from pitch-black to pale. All the while, he clutched those photos, his knuckles white from the force of his grip. Fu Li's words on the phone and the words "I want to be myself" in Liu Xu's diary echoed over and over in his mind.

A twisted idea gradually took shape: Liu Xu must be "sick" to like boys and defy his wishes.

He turned on his computer and typed "schools for correcting abnormal psychology" into the search bar. Row upon row of glaring links appeared on the screen.

He clicked on a page for the Talent-Nurturing Correction Academy and looked at its promotional slogans: "military-style management," "correcting bad behavior," and "specializing in treating rebelliousness, early romance, and abnormal gender identity, bringing children back onto the right path."

"This is the place," he muttered. His eyes lit up at once, as though he had seized a life-saving straw. As long as he sent Liu there for proper "reform," he could turn him back into what he wanted him to be, and Liu Xu would never have anything more to do with Wen Shiming.

He immediately called the school and nodded repeatedly at the person on the other end. "Yes, my son has a psychological problem. He likes to hang around with boys. You must help me correct him... Money is no problem. Can you come and take him there tomorrow? All right, I'll get ready!"

After hanging up, he stood, walked to Liu Xu's bedroom door, and listened to the faint breathing from inside. A cold smile curled his lips.

He had already made up his mind: first thing tomorrow morning, he would "send" Liu Xu to that school and make him give up all thoughts of Wen Shiming once and for all.

He walked to Liu Xu's bedroom door and listened to the faint breathing from inside, a cold smile curling his lips. As long as he sent Liu Xu to that school, he could not only sever his connection with Wen Shiming, but also make him obedient and keep him as the "substitute for his wife" he imagined him to be.