Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 25 - East, South, West, North
Chapter 25: East, South, West, North
Cheng Yuan was dead. The girl who had jumped from the building was her. The scene was cordoned off, surrounded by crowds, filled with countless voices.
Zhou Yao didn't want to go to class. Chen Xuze stayed with her on the sports field. They stood at a distance, watching from afar. They couldn't even make out Cheng Yuan's shattered face, only the bloodstains covering the ground.
“The first afternoon I arrived, she lent me a draft book,” Zhou Yao said. “She was the first person to talk to me.”
Her voice trembled. Chen Xuze sensed her emotions and raised his hand to shield her eyes. She pulled his arm down and said, “It's fine. I can handle it.”
They watched the commotion from afar. A woman knelt on the ground, wailing uncontrollably. Her features bore some resemblance to Cheng Yuan’s. Despite her neatly combed hair, a few strands had come loose.
They had said she was a maid, kneeling on the floors of other people's homes, scrubbing away dust. But Zhou Yao thought that no matter the job, nothing could be more lowly or pitiful than how she looked now.
Cheng Yuan’s mother sobbed, her cries uncontrollable, her breath hitching, on the verge of passing out multiple times. The school staff and police could only keep trying to comfort her.
The school was now swarming with people. Reporters tried to push their way in but were blocked at the gates. Inside, students secretly took pictures. The whole place was in chaos—
Like a giant, absurd spectacle.
“If…” Zhou Yao's nostrils flared slightly, but she stopped, unable to continue.
This time, Chen Xuze fully covered her eyes with his hand. He felt the burning heat of her tears—scorching.
Zhou Yao lowered her head, pressing her eyes and half her face into his palm, refusing to look anymore. Her nose turned red, and silent tears trickled down, one drop after another.
“Cheng Yuan’s mom is really clean… not dirty at all… just like Cheng Yuan said… hardworking, and very…”
She couldn't go on. She pursed her lips tightly, crying without a sound.
Cheng Yuan’s mother was a great person. Zhou Yao believed that Cheng Yuan had been absolutely right.
……
The two of them stood beneath the tree, skipping class, listening to rumors flying across campus.
People said Cheng Yuan wasn’t supposed to die.
After lunch, she had been walking back from the cafeteria when she ran into Guan Xiaoxiao’s group, who had just returned from eating outside. They had bought a small toy megaphone that could both amplify sound and play a siren—a silly little gadget they were using for fun.
When they spotted Cheng Yuan, they deliberately slowed their pace, trailing behind her while repeatedly honking the siren and broadcasting through the megaphone: “Attention, everyone! Attention! A thief has been spotted nearby! Watch your belongings!”
Someone started it, and the whole group burst into laughter.
Then, one by one, they took turns playing along, following behind Cheng Yuan as they goofed off. She ignored them for a while, until one girl took it too far—grabbing the megaphone and yelling: “Stealing money and returning it is only right! Stealing money and returning it is only right! Hey—you! Don’t pretend to be dead—”
That was when Cheng Yuan finally snapped. She turned and screamed, “I DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!”
It was the first time she had responded after all this time.
The group was momentarily stunned, then sneered at her. “Oh? Then where did the money go? You didn’t steal it? You’re the poorest in the class, and the filthiest. Stop pretending!”
Cheng Yuan’s breathing was ragged. She turned and walked away.
Seeing her finally react, they were encouraged—like they had discovered a game that could get results. They kept at it, raising their voices through the megaphone: “Cheng Yuan stole money! Pay it back now! Cheng Yuan stole money! Pay it back now!” "Hey, does your mom know you steal? Hey, dirty thing! Thieving dirty thing—!"
They chanted it three times, drawing more and more attention. Then, suddenly, Cheng Yuan stopped in her tracks. Everyone froze, unsure of what she was about to do.
She turned to face them. Her eyes were bloodshot—so red, it was terrifying. Cheng Yuan trembled all over, like a small, frantic beast backed into a corner.
The girls were a little scared at first, but they quickly brushed it off, putting on smug faces. “What? Gonna fight us?”
Cheng Yuan took a deep breath, then screamed at the top of her lungs: “I DIDN’T STEAL MONEY—! MY MOM AND I ARE NOT DIRTY—!!”
Then, she ran. She sprinted straight to the teaching building.
The girls hesitated for a moment before laughing it off.
“Tch. What was that about?”
“Such an idiot.”
“If she really stole, she should just admit it. Acting all righteous—disgusting. A coward through and through!”
……
They were still mocking her when someone suddenly pointed up at the rooftop.
“Look… look!”
Cheng Yuan was standing on the railing. A crowd quickly gathered. The girls paled, stunned. Guan Xiaoxiao tried to stay composed, thinking she was just putting on an act. She shouted, “Who are you trying to scare? You think jumping off a building will make us afraid of you?”
Cheng Yuan looked down at the growing crowd below and yelled at the top of her lungs: “GUAN XIAOXIAO! YOU'RE A BITCH! I HATE YOU!”
That set the girls off, and they immediately shouted back.
The teachers and school administrators arrived, assessed the situation, and ordered everyone to step away behind the barricade. They called the police and prepared rescue efforts, trying to coax her down.
Cheng Yuan stood on the railing, oblivious to the commotion below. She gripped the metal bars behind her, her twin braids tousled by the wind.
She lifted her head slightly, gazing into the distance. No one knew what she saw in that moment.
Before the rescue team could reach her, she closed her eyes. Tears slipped down her face, and with a voice choked with sobs, she cried out to the horizon:
“I DIDN’T STEAL MONEY—!”
“MY MOM AND I ARE NOT DIRTY! MY MOM IS A GOOD PERSON—!”
The school tried to stop her, but in the next instant, she jumped. Right in front of everyone’s eyes—her body shattered into a pool of blood.
“AHHH—!!!”
Screams rang out. Especially from Guan Xiaoxiao’s group. They clamped their hands over their mouths, their bodies rigid with shock. Seconds later, they began trembling—eyes blank and lifeless.
Cheng Yuan was dead. Crying, covered in tears—her last words, besides her plea for innocence, were: “Guan Xiaoxiao, you’re a bitch. I hate you.”
Seeing a life end right before them, knowing they were part of it, Guan Xiaoxiao’s body shook uncontrollably. Suddenly, she burst into wailing sobs.
……
Photos of the scene spread online. Someone wrote a vivid, detailed account of the entire event, attaching images, making everything painfully clear. They compiled it into nine long images and posted it on Weibo.
Soon, a big-name influencer noticed it. The post exploded, spreading like wildfire. Condemnation and grief flooded the internet.
No. 7 High School was in complete chaos. The students were sent back to their classrooms, including Zhou Yao’s class. But she refused to return. She and Chen Xuze hid in a secluded corner, standing beneath a tree, listening to the noise of the campus.
The Weibo post that went viral was filled with heartbreak for Cheng Yuan.
“This girl is so foolish, it’s really pitiful. What will her mother do…”
“I feel like crying so much. I just want to hug that girl. For her to jump from the building so decisively, there’s no way she stole the money. And yet, those people still insulted her parents. So what if they’re poor? Does being poor mean they don’t deserve to live? I feel so sad.”
……
On the other hand, there was another type of comment—ones full of insults toward Guan Xiaoxiao:
“This disgusting bitch went too far! She forced someone to death!”
“The one who pushed her to her death should die too, see how it feels to jump from a building!”
“Why isn’t that girl dead? She’s the one who shouldn’t be alive.”
“I really want to curse her with the most vicious words. Just die already, you bitch!”
……
Guan Xiaoxiao was soon taken away by her parents, who had rushed to the scene. Reporters chased after them for interviews, but they walked quickly, almost as if fleeing.
Amidst the chaos and noise, the place where Zhou Yao and Chen Xuze stood felt eerily quiet, as if isolated from the world.
Zhou Yao suddenly tugged at Chen Xuze’s sleeve and looked toward a corner of the sky.
“Look, doesn’t that look like a snowy mountain?”
Chen Xuze nodded.
Zhou Yao gazed into the distance.
“That snowy mountain… looks like it’s about to collapse.”
……
The incident did not end there. It continued to escalate, especially after causing a massive uproar online, severely disrupting the daily operations of No. 7 High School. Even the teachers and school leaders were mercilessly cursed by netizens.
Students were also affected in class, often distracted.
Ever since Cheng Yuan jumped from the building, Guan Xiaoxiao had not returned to school. She was taken home and protected by her parents, but her days were anything but peaceful. The online hate against her never stopped. People dug up her personal Weibo account, where she used to share her life, and every single post was now flooded with thousands of hateful comments.
Some people lit virtual candles for her. Others photoshopped her picture onto a memorial portrait and posted it repeatedly in her comments. Her social media was filled with messages telling her to die.
Some netizens even doxxed her completely—her parents’ jobs, her home address—exposing everything under the cruel light of the internet.
The glass windows of the Guan family home were smashed three times. Once, when Guan Xiaoxiao went to a convenience store, someone kicked her from behind, sending her crashing to the ground. That person even threw a cup of ice water at her before running off, before she could get up.
Her parents’ workplace was also flooded with harassing phone calls. The callers would immediately demand to know why they were employing the parents of a murderer. Their email inboxes were filled with threats. Sometimes, when they returned home, they would find two red marks painted in front of their door—forming a giant X, as if demanding that she die immediately.
Guan Xiaoxiao’s mental state finally broke. Her parents kept her at home, refusing to let her go out, but they couldn’t watch her every second. One afternoon, while they were not home, she logged into her Weibo account for the first time in a long while and posted:
“Will you only let me go if I die?! Fine, then I’ll die! If I die, will you stop harassing me?! I’ll do it! I’ll die for you to see!”
Underneath her post, there were no words of comfort. No one told her to calm down. Instead, every comment was the same, cold and cruel:
“Then do it. Hurry up, don’t waste time.”
“Jump off a building. Experience what it’s like to have your body shattered, to die in pain just like the person you killed.”
“If you want to die, do it already. Stop putting on a show. You’re disgusting, you bitch. Just die!”
……
In a beautifully decorated lace-covered princess bedroom, Guan Xiaoxiao clutched her phone and curled up at the head of her bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Her head hurt from crying. She threw her phone aside, stumbled to the living room, and opened her parents’ liquor cabinet. She drank a lot of alcohol. As the drunken haze set in, she staggered into the bathroom with a knife, filling the bathtub to the brim with water.
Wearing her favorite princess nightgown, she stepped into the tub. She had always been afraid of pain, but now she gritted her teeth and slashed a deep, heavy cut across her left wrist.
Drunken and drowsy, she leaned against the bathtub and hummed a song. Gradually, the water turned red with blood. She seemed to be asleep, or perhaps unconscious. And then—there was no more movement.
……
In the No. 7 High School incident, the one who drove Cheng Yuan to jump from the building was her classmate, Guan Xiaoxiao. Less than half a month after Cheng Yuan succumbed to school bullying and took her own life, Guan Xiaoxiao committed suicide at home by slitting her wrists.
When the news broke, it shocked the entire internet.
Many people began condemning the netizens who had cursed Guan Xiaoxiao and told her to die, saying that they had essentially forced another person to death. It was as if separate groups of people were locked in a battle, hurling accusations at each other, but in the end, no one could identify the true ‘killer.’
That winter at No. 7 High School was much colder than in previous years. Every student wrapped themselves tightly in their coats. The usual sounds of laughter across campus seemed to have vanished overnight.
……
After night classes ended, Chen Xuze and Zhou Yao still walked home together. As they neared the entrance of the alley, Zhou Yao suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
“My hands are so cold.” Zhou Yao suddenly stretched out her hand toward him. “Hold my hand.”
Without hesitation, Chen Xuze gently took her hand and placed it in his pocket.
They walked side by side.
Zhou Yao suddenly said, “I feel so cold.”
Chen Xuze glanced at her. “Then wear more layers tomorrow.”
She didn’t reply.
Zhou Yao felt an overwhelming sadness.
No one thought they had done anything wrong.
Not toward Cheng Yuan, nor toward Guan Xiaoxiao. No one believed they were the snowflake that tipped the avalanche. No one believed they had caused a death.
As time moved forward, and as the days passed, those once-vivid lives that had faded away would become nothing more than a small part of everyone else’s life experiences.
That’s just how it is.
Once guilt is diluted and divided, no one truly carries it in their heart anymore.
No one.
——
“I wish… this winter could be a little warmer.”
Zhou Yao leaned closer to Chen Xuze, her hand in his pocket, her arm brushing against his, as if sharing warmth.
“And I also wish… that there were more people willing to be a little kinder to this world.”
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
0 comments: