Chapter 31 Part 2

Seeing her actions, Wang Han was puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"Just chatting with you." Song Ran smiled. "Not as a reporter and a victim, but as friends. Of course, I don't know if you consider me a friend."

Wang Han was taken aback, then said, "We are friends. I haven't dared to tell anyone else about these things except you. I also know you didn't reveal my information, otherwise my classmates would definitely be ostracizing me by now."

"Let me tell you something too." Song Ran gave a faint smile, looked out at the green surface of the river, and said, "Do you know why I wanted to help you?"

Wang Han shook his head blankly.

"Do you know CANDY?"

"Of course."

Song Ran raised her hand and gently ruffled his hair. Wang Han shrank his neck like a little quail, looking at her with confusion in his eyes, but he didn't pull away.

"You're like those children I wanted to save," Song Ran said.

Wang Han didn't understand, but he still said, "You've already saved me. Now Teacher Zhao doesn't dare to come near me anymore."

"Maybe. But, I might get fired from the TV station."

"Why?" The boy was surprised and scared. "Did someone threaten you? Right, I saw that all your articles were deleted." He was angry and indignant, but what power did he have? He could only say with reddened eyes, "I saw my classmates' petition. It's fake! None of them saw the truth!"

Song Ran turned to look at him, her eyes calm. "I don't know either if what I saw was the truth."

"You..." Wang Han was stunned. "What do you mean?"

"I've been sick recently, and my mind has been a mess. I overlooked something very important. Wang Han, Teacher Zhao beat you, and you gave concrete information and evidence. But regarding Teacher Zhao's bullying of Zhu Yanan, besides your testimony, that unclear screenshot, and that chaotic short video, can you give me any more evidence? Even if you just tell me which part of Zhu Yanan's body was bruised or contused. You tell me."

She said, "as long as you give it to me, I can write another article. Even if I get fired from the TV station, even if I get cursed by hundreds of millions of people.

"My friend said a reporter shouldn't get emotionally involved, but if you can promise me that every word you say is true, without the slightest exaggeration... Wang Han, I can stake everything I have to protect you and help you fight them. Can you promise me that?"

Before her, the skinny boy was stunned, his short hair whipped wildly by the river wind. He opened his mouth as if to say something.

But in the instant he hesitated, Song Ran smiled at him, a smile more desolate than the river wind.

She looked back at the bluish-green river, murmuring as if delirious, "I thought it was atonement, but I never expected it would be another crime."

Wang Han didn't understand her words, but he grew flustered, his eyes welling up. "Sister, I swear!" he said fiercely. "Teacher Zhao really did hit and curse me, for almost half a year! The place, the time, every single instance, I didn't lie! The wounds on my body and in my heart are all real! I told you when I saw the doctor, when I complained to the Education Bureau, and to the dean's office!"

"I know," Song Ran said. "I verified it, so I believe you. But... what about Zhu Yanan?"

"He..."

"In the scenes you described, was he there? Was he hit along with you?"

Wang Han froze, then gradually lowered his head. "He told me... that the teacher once cursed him, and seemed to have, pushed, him... I didn't see it with my own eyes..."

Li Zan's words suddenly echoed in Song Ran's ears: "I'm worried you'll have to bear the consequences alone."

She looked towards the islet in the river and seemed to see a hint of green emerging from the mudflats, connecting with the river water. But on closer inspection, it seemed like an illusion.

Yes, it was already this time of year, but spring hadn't arrived yet.

The river wind was as cold as a knife. She suddenly wanted to walk down this path, to sink to the bottom of the aquamarine river, to sink into that clear color. If she jumped into the water, would the world become transparent and pure?

She said, "Wang Han."

"Hm?"

"Don't believe the things Teacher Zhao said to you. I think you're a good kid. Please don't turn bad because of the hurt you've suffered in the past. Continue to be a good person, okay?"

"...Okay."

"Study hard, okay?"

"...Mmm."

Wang Han went to school.

Song Ran walked on the street, not knowing where to go.

The traffic was dense, car horns blared incessantly, and the clamor of the city filled her ears, tearing at her nerves.

She felt like she was walking in a completely alien world. The billboards, traffic lights, skyscrapers, and overpasses, the faces of oncoming pedestrians—everything was unfamiliar and cold.

She kept walking and walking, heading in that direction, trying to grasp at a lifeline in this vast city, even if it was just a trace of the only familiar scent she knew.

When Song Ran burst into the Baixi Road Police Station, after walking for several hours in the cold wind, her lips were already purple from the cold.

All the police officers' gazes gathered on her, their faces showing bewilderment.

Song Ran's voice was as faint as a thread as she asked, "Is Li Zan, Officer Li, here?"

"He took leave this afternoon and went out."

"Where did he go?"

"He didn't say."

She turned to leave and ran into Officer Jia.

He wasn't very polite. "You've ruined Ah Zan. He vouched for you, and what did you do? You turned around and published the article, causing all of us to have our bonuses docked. Good thing the case is about to be closed now."

"I'm sorry," Song Ran said in a very low voice, her head bowed low as she walked out the door.

Behind her, a police officer shouted:

"Something else has happened! A student from Shiyan Middle School named Wang Han has come forward, saying he is the Student Wang who accused Zhao Yuanli. He's publicly requesting a police investigation into Zhao Yuanli and also says the school and the Education Bureau covered it up..."

It was unclear if Song Ran heard, as she left without stopping.

...

Song Ran stood at an intersection, realizing she had nowhere to go. Her phone was dead. She couldn't go back to the TV station. Her father's house had never been her support.

When the light turned green, she moved forward with the crowd, unconsciously searching the faces of the people coming towards her, hoping that fate would create another chance for her to meet him.

But this time, it seemed their fate had run its course.

Among the so many faces approaching, his figure was not there.

Song Ran walked alone through half the city and returned to Beimen Street.

It was dark, and the alley was cold and deserted.

Her empty shell walked forward along the deathly quiet alley. When she reached the corner of Qingzhi Lane, she looked up and froze.

Li Zan was standing at the entrance to the alley, the exact spot where he had driven her last year.

From waiting too long in the cold night, his shoulders were slightly hunched and his face was a little pale, but his eyes were still clear and bright.

He looked at her quietly, with the same gaze he had at the airport departure lounge—as if gentle, as if sad, yet even more resolute.

In an instant, all her sorrow and grievances surged up like a river.

Song Ran's breathing hitched. She immediately walked towards him, but it was Li Zan who spoke first. "Song Ran, I have something to say to you."

"I lied!" she interrupted him urgently, her eyes fixed on him. "I haven't been doing well this past half-year, not well at all."

She tilted her head up and smiled at him. "My smiling at you was fake. My saying I was happy was fake. That my family was fine, work was going smoothly—it was all fake. I was pretending. ...Just like right now..." She grinned at him, a terrible smile, a smile that filled her eyes with tears. "See, I had a great day today. I'm lying. I've told so many lies. Today felt like I was going to die. Every day I feel so awful it's like I'm going to die. I..."

Her emotions surged up, and she suddenly choked, unable to cry or laugh, not knowing what expression to wear to face her absurd self at this moment.

"I lied to you too." Li Zan smiled faintly, his eyes shimmering, whether with light or with tears. "That I'm doing well now, that I'm relaxed, that bomb disposal is dangerous and I don't want to do it anymore, that I don't care—it was all lies to you. I'm actually..." He shook his head gently, the smile on his lips heartbreaking. "...I'm a wreck now."

As the words left his mouth, he felt a pain as if he had shot himself in the temple.

He looked up at the sky, taking a breath, his eyes red-rimmed, suppressing the tremor in his voice. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you yesterday. I didn't know about CANDY, didn't know the pressure you were under... I only tried to stop you and question your judgment because I've been through a desperate situation myself and was afraid you'd go through it too. I'm sor—"

"No!" She shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm the one who's sorry. I said things that were too harsh. Don't be angry... okay?" she cried. "It's because I'm emotionally unstable... and I was too stubborn to listen, which created the current situation... I shouldn't have been a reporter for a long time now. I was wrong long ago...

But please don't be angry. Let's not fight, okay? Because, you're the only one I have... the only one..."

Her face was already covered in tears, and she was sobbing so hard she couldn't form words anymore. "I... can't tell anyone. Ah Zan, don't you know... I can't tell..."

She covered her mouth and nose with both hands, bowed her head deeply, and cried uncontrollably.

His eyes red-rimmed, he took a sharp breath, clenched his jaw, and forced himself to look up. The night sky seemed to be sparkling brilliantly.

He lowered his head and pressed his forehead into her hair.

"I know," he said.

I know you can't tell anyone.

Because I'm the same.

Because there's no such thing as true empathy in this world;

Because saying it out loud feels like asking, why am I the only one who's so fragile? Why am I the only one who's so incompetent?

Soldiers who fought on the battlefield return to their peaceful homeland. People are laughing and celebrating, and no one can hear the roar of cannon fire in their memories.

In this era of peace, war has left a deep brand on them—ugly, private, and unknowable to others.

Outsiders who see it might peek out of morbid curiosity or dismiss it with contempt. They can't see the shattered bones beneath the scar; they don't know that though it seems healed, it will cause excruciating pain on rainy days.

And after all this time, only tonight did they finally meet someone who had also returned from the battlefield, gaunt and desolate; someone who had the same scar and suffered from heart-wrenching pain every night.

Just like the white olive tree they saw that day.

Those who have never seen it will never believe such a magnificent sight existed in the world, will never understand that such a moment of tenderness ever existed between heaven and earth.

Those who have never seen it loudly proclaim, "There's no such thing as a white olive tree in this world!"

But only he/she knows that the white olive tree exists.

Because on that day, he and she saw it together.

How fortunate that, in that moment, under the white olive tree against the blue sky and sandy ground, he/she was by the other's side, proving that he/she was not in a dream.