There wasn't a sound outside. It was winter, and he was locked in the bathroom, wearing only a thin padded jacket.
Su Fengzi remembered. He had been an orphan since infancy, born to a mother who never raised him. Wrapped in a bundle, he had been abandoned at the orphanage gates in the freezing cold. The director had happened to find him while heading out to buy groceries.
Otherwise, he would have frozen to death that winter.
With his delicate features and small, scrawny frame, Su Fengzi had been bullied since childhood. Sometimes bugs would crawl out of his bedding just as he was about to sleep. Sometimes a stone would hit his head as he walked. Sometimes he would be locked in the bathroom all night.
There were too many children at the orphanage for the director to keep an eye on everyone. Besides, Su Fengzi felt grateful enough that the director had saved his life all those years ago. He had no reason to trouble the director any further.
That day, he had spent the whole night huddled in the bathroom. It wasn't until the elderly janitor came to clean the next morning that he was let out.
After that day, Su Fengzi grew increasingly timid. If he couldn't fight them, couldn't he at least avoid them? He watched their expressions even more carefully, but the weaker he acted, the further they went.
One morning, Su Fengzi was getting dressed as usual. The moment he pulled his clothes on, his back began to itch, as though little bugs were stinging him.
Terrified, Su Fengzi frantically struggled to take his clothes off. The others didn't lift a finger to help when they saw him like that. Instead, they burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha, look at him!"
"He looks just like