Someone was about to jump

Drowsiness gradually crept over him.

In his half-conscious haze, Jian Shuyue's and Tian Tian's faces flashed through his mind, one after another.

Zhou Yi suddenly remembered two lines of poetry Jiang Yu, the literary genius in his high school class, had once written.

One was, "A hibiscus face so delicate a breath might break its skin; phoenix eyes alive with spirit at every passing glance."

The other was, "A slender willow dancing in the breeze; a tender oriole singing free and clear."

The first described Jian Shuyue.

The second described Tian Tian.

Apparently, each line belonged to a complete poem. Unfortunately, Jiang Yu had flatly refused to share them, so even now, nobody knew what the full poems looked like.

Zhou Yi had to admit that even with eighteen extra years of life experience, and after seeing every variety of beauty on Douyin, he still couldn't remain entirely unmoved when faced with Jian Shuyue and Tian Tian.

That was a perfectly normal reaction for a man, and he felt neither conflicted nor troubled by it.

After all, he had already set his goal for this life: to devote himself to his career in government without distraction.

So how could a mere pair of beauties shake his resolve?

Before he knew it, Zhou Yi had fallen sound asleep.

The smile on his face and the drool trickling from the corner of his mouth suggested he was having a pleasant dream that night.

At breakfast the next morning, Zhou Yi could clearly tell that his mother was in a bad mood.

Not only was her brow furrowed, but she kept sighing.

Was she upset because I came home too late last night?

"Mom, I promise I'll come home earlier from now on. So could you please, in your great kindness, give me just a tiny little smile?" Captain Zhou pleaded, positively groveling.

"Eat your breakfast. This has nothing to do with you." Guo Dongmei absentmindedly took a couple of sips of rice porridge, then put down her chopsticks.

"What's going on? Tell your son about it." Holding his bowl, Zhou Yi pressed her with a grin.

"What good would telling you do..." Guo Dongmei stopped halfway through, suddenly realizing that her son was no longer the ordinary rural police officer he had been. He was now the bona fide captain of the Public Security Management Brigade.

So perhaps he really could help!

"There's a student in my class named Shen Mo. He came to see me yesterday afternoon and thanked me for looking after him this past year. He said that once today's final exams were over, he wouldn't be coming back next school year."

Guo Dongmei sighed. As a teacher, she truly felt for that child, whose face was so often covered in bruises and whose eyes were always filled with defiance and sorrow.

Shen Mo!

At that name, it was as though a bolt of lightning flashed through Zhou Yi's mind.

He suddenly realized that since his rebirth, he had overlooked something particularly important.

Shen Mo, the crime boss who had single-handedly built an enormous criminal empire with its tentacles stretching into entertainment, real estate, internet information services, and other industries, had once attended Class Six of the second year at Dongji No. 2 Senior High School. He had been one of his mother's students. After amassing a vast fortune, he had almost successfully legitimized himself, becoming chairman of the Liaodong Business Association and a member of the provincial political consultative conference. When he was finally arrested, he had implicated nearly half of Liaodong's officialdom, causing a nationwide sensation.

"Ahem, maybe his family's struggling. Don't worry too much, Mom. Everyone has their own path. Dropping out doesn't necessarily mean he won't amount to anything. I'm done eating, so I'll be off."

After brushing his mother off with a few words, Zhou Yi got up to make his escape.

Was she kidding? Shen Mo was a walking disaster. I can't get away from him fast enough, so why would I go looking for him?

"Hey, hey, get back here. I haven't finished." Guo Dongmei reached out and dragged her son back, sounding rather annoyed.

"Go ahead, I'm listening." With no other choice, Zhou Yi sat down again.

"Shen Mo's family is poor, but that child has pride. He managed to scrape together his tuition and textbook fees by collecting trash and selling recyclables. Even with all that, he's never fallen out of the top ten in the class on any exam."

"I have some idea why Shen Mo wants to quit. A few students from other classes keep bullying him. They even get little thugs from outside the school to corner him after classes. I've reprimanded those students several times, but it hasn't done any good. I reported it to the school leadership, too, but I still haven't heard anything back."

Guo Dongmei had probably been bottling this up for too long. Now that she finally had an opportunity, it all came pouring out.

"But this isn't something I can handle either." Zhou Yi spread his hands, indicating that he was powerless to help.

"Aren't you the public security captain? Don't tell me you can't even deal with a few little thugs. You have no idea how vicious they are. That child Shen Mo comes to school injured practically every day."

Guo Dongmei stared at her son, her expression saying, You're handling this whether you like it or not. Don't make me lose respect for you.

"All right, all right. I'll send someone over to take a look later. Will that do?" Unable to defy his mother, Zhou Yi could only nod obediently.

As he was leaving, his father quietly cautioned him, "Don't take on more than you can handle. I hear those students' parents aren't easy to deal with."

At ten o'clock that morning.

The clear, urgent ringing of the bell echoed across the No. 2 High School campus.

First- and second-year students who had just finished their first final exam began trickling into the corridors and onto the sports field.

The weather was awful that day. Dark clouds blanketed the sky without a trace of sunlight, and gusts of cool wind carried the smell of dampness through the air.

Two students emerged from the classroom building, laughing and chatting. Suddenly, with a smack, a Chinese textbook fell from above and struck the steps in front of them.

Startled, the two students looked up and immediately spotted a lone, conspicuous figure standing at the edge of the rooftop.

"Look! There's someone up there!"

"Who is that? Does anyone know?"

"I think it's Shen Mo!"

"That's right! Shen Mo from Class Six, second year!"

"What's he doing? Is he going to jump?"

"Quick, go tell a teacher!"

A large crowd of teachers and students soon gathered beneath Classroom Building Two.

As they watched the male student standing in the wind on the fifth-floor rooftop, some were shocked, some worried, and some frantic. Yet a few students actually stood there pointing at him with mocking smiles.

In the principal's office, Sun Qifa was being interviewed by the Anping Daily News Agency. When he heard the news, his vision went black, and he nearly fell out of his chair.

He immediately hurried to the scene with several vice principals, the director of student affairs, and others.

Meanwhile, the utterly distraught Guo Dongmei's first thought was of her son, the police officer.

"Yi, hurry over here! That child Shen Mo is going to jump, and the school won't even let us call the police..."

Hearing his mother's panicked, anxious voice over the phone, Zhou Yi dared not delay. He immediately went downstairs, got into his car, and drove straight to Dongji No. 2 Senior High School.

Shen Mo silently watched the dense crowd below and tossed down another book.

He wondered what sound his body would make when it hit the ground like those books.

Would it be a bang? A smack? Or a thud?

Would it hurt?