DTTCM Chapter 16

This was the first time Sheng Yuan had truly experienced the rampant and arrogant deviant culture of this world.

Public order and control had regressed due to the widespread rise of delinquency.

He stood in the alley, the veins on his neck bulging, suppressing his anger as he quickly examined the condition of the thugs lying on the ground.

Most of them were still conscious, but their external injuries were horrifying and gruesome. Some had half of their faces disfigured, rendering their features unrecognizable. They had been beaten to the point where they dared not get up or resist.

Brother Long’s throat felt as though it was filled with gravel, and he tightly clutched onto the hem of Sheng Yuan’s pants.

Begging and sobbing.

“Please… please save me.”

Sheng Yuan: “The ambulance will be here soon.”

He bent down in the alley, repeatedly stooping over like a savior to these people, and each time he stood up, he appeared even more upright.

Yu Zuojin looked into Sheng Yuan’s angry eyes and offered a brief explanation.

“They provoked me first.”

It was that low and hoarse voice with a shifted tone, and it was particularly eerie in the dark alley.

Sheng Yuan’s furious eyes clashed with his.

“You shouldn’t have done this.”

A solemn and stern reprimand.

With a resolute tone, it firmly pinned him to the high pillar of accusation.

Rejecting his explanation.

Yu Zuojin’s face instantly darkened, and he was visibly displeased.

Like a majestic lion prowling in the darkness, his gaze turned fierce and menacing.

Soon, the ambulance arrived, and the medical staff lifted the injured onto stretchers and took them to the hospital.

Upon seeing the delinquent youths in the alley, their actions quickened.

They didn’t even want to glance at them, hastily avoiding them.

Disgust, fear, and incomprehension.

All their reactions were not unfounded but arose from their actions.

“What the hell are you looking at!”

An intern trembled with fright and immediately averted her gaze.

Sheng Yuan positioned himself in front of her.

“Why are you barking like a dog?”

The person stepped forward, “You…”

Sheng Yuan looked at him without a hint of fear.

The ambulance drove away, and the delinquents began to leave one by one.

The wails and cries disappeared, leaving only dried bloodstains on the ground as evidence of the violence that had just occurred.

Sheng Yuan was unable to dial 110 for their self-protection, and his inner anger and unwillingness continued to roar.

As Yu Zuojin passed by Sheng Yuan, his wrist was grabbed.

“Come with me to school.”

His hand was scorching like a branding iron.

Yu Zuojin wanted to shake it off, but it held on tightly.

Sheng Yuan looked into his eyes and told him, word by word.

“Come with me to school.”

Unlike the conversation from last night, it was a straightforward and authoritative command.

Just as decisive as when he rejected his explanation.

Yu Zuojin lowered his head, looking at him and then at the hand on his wrist.

The brothers behind them wanted to mock Sheng Yuan, laughing at him for his not knowing the heights of heaven.

But the next second, Yu Zuojin walked away with him.

The brothers were dumbfounded.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Sheng Yuan pulled Yu Zuojin out of the alley, striding towards the direction of the school.

Yu Zuojin looked at the person in front of him, pondering something, but he couldn’t figure it out, unable to reach a conclusion.

The other person was filled with anger. He was completely different from their previous encounters, and refused to look at him.

“You…” He hesitated to speak, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Sheng Yuan stopped at the red light.

“You do all this just to make others fear you?”

Sheng Yuan’s tone was filled with incomprehension.

Yu Zuojin sensed the other’s dissatisfaction and his face grew sour, but he remained silent.

“I’m asking you a question! Is instilling fear in others your purpose in doing all this?!”

Yu Zuojin intentionally chose not to answer the question, becoming impatient.

“Yu Zuojin! I’m asking you a question!”

He was extremely arrogant, “They provoked me first.”

“So, that’s your reason for beating people like that!” Sheng Yuan said, “Do you think using violence to counter violence is the best solution?”

Seeing Yu Zuojin’s unyielding expression, Sheng Yuan grabbed his collar.

He couldn’t understand why someone could be so indifferent, unable to feel any guilt for his own mistakes.

“Do you know what kind of consequences this will bring?” he asked.

“Do you know, huh?”

Yu Zuojin’s anger had clearly reached its peak. The injured people had already been taken away in an ambulance, so what more did this person want?

He didn’t understand Sheng Yuan’s fury, nor did he care about the injuries those people suffered.

Faced with the accusation, a sense of restlessness surged within him.

He flung Sheng Yuan’s hand off, clearly not wanting to listen to any more preaching. He raised his hand to remove the suction cup on his head.

But Sheng Yuan quickly grabbed hold of it.

“What if the other party’s family sues you?”

Yu Zuojin’s eyes widened.

“What if they retaliate against you for this incident? What will you do then?”

“Before you laid a hand on them, you were in the right. But once you resorted to violence, you lost that right. If the injuries meet the criteria for legal assessment, what will you gain?”

“Yu Zuojin, you did that just because of a momentary satisfaction and majesty in the eyes of outsiders, but have you ever considered yourself? Have you taken responsibility for your actions?”

Sheng Yuan looked into his eyes. “Do you know how many years in prison you can get for assault causing injury or disability? Your deliberate acts of violence, can you truly pretend as if nothing happened?”

Not a threat, but genuine concern.

Yu Zuojin stared at Sheng Yuan, the always indifferent youth was so stunned that he could only blink his eyes.

“Do you really want to go to the police station one day, without anyone to firmly defend your case? Will you resort to using your fists to speak?!”

The deafening anger filled the air.

No one had ever spoken to him like this before.

Sheng Yuan’s tone softened.

“I understand your intentions. I know that if others don’t provoke you, you won’t go after them. I also know that some people can’t be reasoned with, and they need to be taught a lesson and experience hardship before they can learn. But, Yu Zuojin, before it reaches that point, we have many ways to resolve such matters. If one day a person truly becomes isolated and has no one to rely on, the act of resorting to violence out of desperation will also garner sympathy.”

“What you’re doing is wrong, not because others have annoyed you and fighting back is wrong, but because your actions are wrong. There’s no reason in this world to silently endure any injustice, it’s just that you’ve chosen the wrong approach.”

He criticized his behavior while understanding his motives.

Did Brother Long oppress the vendors, making him angry?

Certainly, otherwise Yu Zoujin wouldn’t have stood up.

So he understood Yu Zuojin’s feelings.

In any incomprehensible argument, the contradiction lies in the inability to empathize.

But resolving oppression with another even more terrifying form of oppression is never the solution.

To oppress the weak with strength is the weakness of the strong.

What we have always fought for is not assimilation with evil.

The chilly evening breeze of autumn blew away Sheng Yuan’s anger. He let go of the hand protecting the suction cup and the green light came on. He walked across the zebra crossing.

Yu Zuojin watched his back and stood still for a long time. When he wanted to catch up, the red light came on.

“Wait.”

The voice came from across the road.

Yu Zuojin instinctively stopped like a dog obeying a command.

It wasn’t until the next green light came on again that he moved.

Sheng Yuan was waiting for him on the other side, and only when the other person walked over did he turn around and start walking.

He only showed his back throughout the journey.

When they reached the school gate, Sheng Yuan spoke again.

“I didn’t clean up your dormitory.”

Yu Zuojin walked forward without blinking an eye.

The result was the same as what he had thought when he messed up the dormitory yesterday.

No one could tolerate him.

“Everything is mutual, and you didn’t cherish the fruits of my labor.”

Yu Zuojin turned to look at him.

“I won’t come to pick you up like this tomorrow.”

After saying these words, Sheng Yuan turned around and left.

His steps were hurried, and in the end, he started running as if he wanted to escape as soon as possible.

Yu Zuojin didn’t stay in place but turned back to the A building of the dormitory.

Zheng Zilu was holding instant noodles when he saw him, and he immediately lowered his head and made way to the side.

There was an aura of someone close to beating others.

Clearly, he was in a very bad mood.

Yu Zuojin opened the door and walked into room 408. The mess in the room was the same as when he left this morning, or rather, the same as before. Yesterday’s tidiness was just an illusion that disappeared in an instant.

He went into the bathroom to take a shower and came out with a towel on his head. The only tidy place in the room was the bed where Sheng Yuan slept at noon every day.

–“Everything is mutual.”

Yu Zuojin stood in the dormitory and stared at the bed for a long time.

He walked to the door and picked up the fallen shoe rack.

He only had the most basic self-care skills, and with strong arms, he held his clothes without folding them and stuffed them into the wardrobe in one go. He closed it, considering it as tidying up.

The vibrating sound of his phone on the bed caught his attention. Yu Zuojin glanced at it and picked it up to silence the call.

It started raining in the autumn night.

It was close to midnight, but the lights were on in the Yu family’s seaside mansion.

“Did he pick up?”

The butler shook his head at Yu Zhen.

“The young master didn’t pick up.”

Yu Zhen touched his graying hair, leaning on a cane with a broken heart. “It’s the Mid-Autumn Festival, I want to see Zoujin.”

He was the only one in the spacious villa, worse off than he was in his countryside home.

His son had made a name for himself, studying hard and having great ambitions, becoming the mayor.

So his life had also improved.

Others would say that he should enjoy the rest of his life.

But he would rather not.

The sound of the door opening came from the entrance.

The maid’s voice was jubilant. “Sir, Master is back.”

But Yu Zhen couldn’t be happy.

Yu Fengren walked in. “Dad, did the mooncakes I had someone buy arrive?”

As a man of integrity, he had a dignified face. Without facial expressions, he appeared very serious and didn’t smile easily.

Yu Zhen stood by the window, looking at the autumn rain outside.

The butler mentioned the incident of calling Yu Zuojin.

Upon hearing that his prodigal son, who had left home, didn’t answer the phone, Yu Fengren’s face also turned unpleasant.

“There’s no need to be angry with him. When he’s had enough suffering, he’ll come back on his own.”

“But it’s not enough! You even suspended his card, and he still didn’t come back!”

Yu Zhen stomped his cane.

“It’s been years! He’s still a child.”

“Even children need to learn their lessons. When I was his age, I was already supporting myself. He has always had a stubborn temperament, causing so much trouble from childhood.”

“When he was eleven or twelve, he either lost or broke his hearing aid. He changed it four times in one semester! And that’s a conservative estimate!”

Author’s Note:

Brother Sheng leaves in a hurry.

Brother Yu: My wife doesn’t want me. (Collapse) (Despair) (Doggedly tidying up the room)

On the other side, Brother Sheng is rushing back home for 10:30 curfew.