Chapter 7: The Hidden AIDS Patient (3/5)
She opened a thick record of testimonies, containing statements from the students of Class 3, Art Design, Grade 20, the couple Dong Lixin, and Ren Jie. She went through them one by one, starting with the classmates.
Class Monitor
Are you Lin Zhiyang, a student of Class 3, Art Design, Grade 20, and the class monitor?
I am.
As your classmate, did you have any contact with Dong Qian?
With her, well, just matters related to schoolwork, I suppose. A very ordinary classmate relationship.
What kind of person do you think Dong Qian was?
I think—well, I knew she was the principal's daughter, an out-and-out spoiled young lady. I originally thought she'd be quite well-bred and cultured. But it turned out she was a hellraiser, not only dead last academically, but also—there's Ren Jingting in our class, as for how she bullied her, you should ask her yourself. Anyway, she had nothing good about her at all, that's just my impression of her, at least. As for others, I wouldn't know.
Do you know anything about her private affairs?
No, I think her roommates might know.
Did you hear about Dong Qian's death?
Yes, it caused an uproar in the class at the time.
How do you feel about her passing? Do you have any thoughts on it?
No particular feelings. I never thought she was a good person to begin with, and she was no relation of mine, so I feel pretty indifferent. No particular thoughts either.
Class Academic Representative
Are you Jiang Chuanhui, a student of Class 3, Art Design, Grade 20?
Yes.
Do you hold any position in the class?
I'm the class academic representative.
Did you have any contact with your classmate Dong Qian? What was your relationship with her?
Not much contact, just a very ordinary classmate relationship.
What kind of person do you think Dong Qian was?
Honestly, I really didn't like that spoiled young lady, I found her quite disgusting—a total delinquent, with neither manners nor decency, who often bullied a girl in our class.
Who was the girl she bullied?
Ren Jingting. Maybe she was jealous of her being pretty and good at schoolwork, but she bullied her terribly, way too much. I wanted to step in and stop her several times, but my friends held me back, told me people like that shouldn't be provoked. There was nothing I could do, I could only feel bad for that girl. Fortunately, she's finally free of it now.
Do you know anything about her private affairs?
How would I know that? I had no contact with her at all.
Did you hear about Dong Qian's death?
Yes, the roommates were discussing it heatedly at the time.
What were they discussing?
Mostly foul language, saying things like Dong Qian, that slutty woman, finally screwed herself to death.
How do you feel about her passing? What are your thoughts?
As for feelings, I'm simply happy for Ren Jingting. And my view is simple too—what goes around comes around.
Ren Jingting
Are you Ren Jingting, a student of Class 3, Art Design, Grade 20?
Yes.
Do you hold any position in the class?
No.
Did you have any contact with your classmate Dong Qian? What was your relationship with her?
As for my relationship with Dong Qian, the whole class witnessed it. I don't know why, but ever since the first class meeting of the semester, it was as if I'd offended her somehow. She kept targeting me, making things difficult for me, often humiliating me in front of the whole class before lessons, and even beating me together with her friends. I couldn't fight back against them, so I just endured it, which of course only made them worse.
What kind of person do you think Dong Qian was?
I think she was despicable. I'd never even known her before, we had no past grievances nor recent conflicts, and I'd never provoked her in any way, yet she treated me like that. I really felt wronged, and helpless too.
Do you know anything about her private affairs?
No, not at all.
Did you hear about Dong Qian's death?
Yes, a classmate told me before class this Wednesday. I could hardly believe it at the time—that she was actually dead.
How do you feel about her passing? What are your thoughts?
As for my feelings, I wasn't particularly happy, just felt like it was finally peaceful, that I could finally have proper classes. That's it, nothing else.
Other classmates who had contact with Dong Qian
Boy A
As for me and Dong Qian, it would be hard to say we had no contact, no relationship at all. At the start of the semester, she took the initiative to ask me out to a nightclub. I agreed, and we played there until midnight, then spent the night getting intimate in a private room. But afterward she never came looking for me again, and when I tried to reach out to her, she didn't respond. Ah, what a shame—it was pretty satisfying doing that with her.
Boy B
As for Dong Qian, the only interaction we ever had was on the first day of class at the start of the semester. I sat in the row in front of her, and she struck up a conversation with me on her own initiative. I have no idea why—what about me could possibly have caught her attention? She even exchanged contact information with me. I didn't much like her, so I didn't talk to her much after that. Later I deliberately sat further away from her in class, and that's how we gradually drifted apart. And that was that.
Girl A
As for Dong Qian, I won't hide it from you—she was my high school classmate. My high school was a middling public school in the city, nothing like a key school, so naturally not all the students there were exemplary. Anyway, she was already deliberately excluding and isolating people back in high school. It just wasn't as extreme as what she did to Ren Jingting. She was small in stature and didn't get into physical fights with people; her main methods of bullying were deliberate insults, mockery, and making things difficult for people. Even when she did get physical, it was just shoving someone. As for why her methods suddenly escalated once she got to college, honestly, I have no idea.
Girl B
My only impression of Dong Qian is this one incident. Once before class I was putting on some lipstick, and she walked past me and knocked it out of my hand. I quickly picked it up to check if it was damaged, but I heard her say beside me: "Ugh, you still use fake MAC? Isn't that embarrassing?" I was really angry at the time. I looked at her, and she wore a look of pure contempt, then swaggered off.
Girl C
While sketching in the art building, Dong Qian borrowed a pen from me, but didn't return it after class. When I asked her for it, she said she still needed it and would return it the following week's class. So I waited until the next week and asked her again, and she said she seemed to have accidentally lost it. I was furious, but she said with total self-righteousness: "It's just a pencil, so what if it's lost? At most I'll buy you a whole pack to make up for it." I had nothing to say to that. And of course, to this day, she never gave me that pack of pens she promised. Ha, but I'm not about to chase down a dead person over it.