Chen Daipeng — Prototype

The character of Principal Chen Daipeng is based in part on a case in Hainan Province that became, for a period, one of the most widely discussed school abuse cases in the country.

The real case involved a principal at an elementary school who was found to have sexually abused multiple female students over a period of years. The abuse had occurred during school hours, on school premises, using the principal's administrative authority to isolate victims. The case came to light through parents, not through the school's internal systems; the school's internal systems had produced no flags or escalations during the entire period.

When the case was reported, the immediate institutional response — before criminal investigation was underway — was an attempt at reputation management. Several administrators at the district level were subsequently found to have received early notification of the allegations and to have taken steps to contain rather than report them. This secondary layer of institutional concealment was, in many observers' assessments, as significant as the primary crimes: it demonstrated that the system designed to protect students had been repurposed to protect the institution and its personnel.

The principal was convicted and sentenced. Several district-level officials received administrative sanctions. The school continued to operate.

Chen Daipeng in this novel carries the specific horror of that case: not simply the predatory individual, but the individual who has been made untouchable by his position, who understands his position as a form of protection, and who is eventually undone not by the system that was supposed to catch him but by the person he buried.