Chapter Fifteen: Use Forceful Methods on a Forceful Person

  Ten days ago, Ye Haodong met Li Weidong who came to visit him at the reception office. The business of the acquisition station was booming, but because of this, their liquidity had a big problem. Ye Haodong previously instructed him to only buy and not sell, now all their liquidity was stuck in the piled-up waste products, Li Weidong urgently needed to consult with Ye Haodong to clarify the next step.

  Ye Haodong thought for a moment and said, "Only collecting without selling is indeed not the way to go. The funds still need to be recovered. I won't let you sell, but I'm worried that you guys don't recognize the value of things and will sell the good stuff as trash. That would be unfair to our ancestors and the renminbi. So here's what we'll do: for miscellaneous items like paper products that you can't understand the use of, let's not rush to sell them; for metal items like copperware, don't sell them for now; everything else can be sold. For bottles, keep all the ceramic ones and sell all the glass ones. I won't be staying here for much longer either. In a few days, I plan to do something big. If it succeeds, maybe we'll be able to get bail soon and we brothers will be together again."

  Li Weidong: "Do you need me to find someone outside to help you?"

  Yeh Hao Dong smiled: "I have a trick up my sleeve, a better one than any other, you'll see later."

  For several days, Zhang Shaowei and his gang had been taking pleasure in tormenting Song Jinwei, but they finally started to feel bored. Today was Sunday, and the detention center designated one Sunday each month as a rest day. Today happened to be this month's rest day. Due to its rarity, everyone would busy themselves washing their clothes, and if the weather was good, they would also sun-dry their quilts. Zhang Shaowei was too lazy to do these chores because he had others to do them for him. When everyone went out, and there was no one else in the room, his rampant hormones acted up again. He disgustingly climbed onto He Lin's bed, embracing He Lin's fragrant quilt and indulging in self-pleasure. This ugly incident finally exploded at night, with He Lin furiously shouting and pouncing on the unguarded Zhang Shaowei like a lamb turning into a wolf.

  Wu Dalong rushed over to help when He Lin was crazily biting Zhang Shaowei's shoulder, ignoring the rain of punches on his back. Wu Dalong pulled He Lin by the collar, and He Lin finally let go due to lack of breath. The enraged Zhang Shaowei joined forces with Wu Dalong to knock He Lin to the ground, first punching and kicking him, then attempting to pull down his pants, and even mocking him as a fake girl.

  Ye Haodong was carrying a washing basin into the house when he saw this scene.

  A battle that was previously thought to be a fierce fight has begun. What the juvenile delinquents in room 306 didn't expect was that the process of the battle, which they thought would be a showdown at the summit, ultimately became one-sided.

  Ye Haodong calmly put down the washing basin at the door. Suddenly, he rushed towards the two men who were committing a crime at a speed of 100 meters per second. Wu Dalong saw him and immediately lifted his leg to try to block Ye Haodong, but was hugged by Ye Haodong's legs, and the force of the rush made Wu Dalong lose his balance and fall over. Zhang Shaowei, who had reacted, dropped He Lin, who was crying with closed eyes, and hit Ye Haodong on the back of the head with his elbow. Ye Haodong didn't care about him at all, lowered his head and continued to push Wu Dalong forward, and Zhang Shaowei's elbow hit his back. In the end, Wu Dalong was pushed under the bed by Ye Haodong, who twisted his right leg and violently collided with the iron frame of the bed, causing Wu Dalong to let out a mournful cry and lose the strength to resist.

  Enraged Zhang Shaowei went crazy, taking advantage of Ye Haodong's momentary distraction from Wu Dalong. He found the only thing that could be used as a weapon in the corner of the room - a thermos bottle. With a loud crash, he charged towards Ye Haodong, who looked at him with an icy expression, not dodging or flinching. The thermos bottle in Zhang Shaowei's hand smashed heavily onto Ye Haodong's head, splashing hot water everywhere. At the same time, Ye Haodong's hands had already grabbed Zhang Shaowei's throat and lifted him up. A gash was opened on his head, with blood flowing freely. With one hand holding the struggling Zhang Shaowei like a hanged man, Ye Haodong looked as if he were possessed by a demon. The room full of juvenile delinquents was shocked into silence.

  Just as Zhang Shao Wei was having difficulty breathing and felt despair, Ye Hao Yan put him down and pressed him onto the bed, with his face facing Zhang Shao Wei's face. The fresh blood flowing from his head dripped into Zhang Shao Wei's mouth. Ye Hao Dong seemed to be unaware of it: "Do you know that just now I could have strangled you to death as a defensive measure? Do you know why I let you go? Do you like living this way for the rest of your life? Do you think you can live this way for the rest of your life? Do you know why I look down on you? You think you're good at fighting, take a look at yourself now, do you still think you're good at fighting?"

  Ye Haodong let go of Zhang Shaowei and shouted: "Get up! Don't you think you're a real man? Get up and continue!"

  Zhang Shaowei suddenly jumped up, his eyes blazing with fury, and rushed forward like a madman, shouting loudly.

  Ye Haodong didn't give him any chance, and once again cleanly knocked him to the ground, this time using his knee, which landed right on Zhang Shaowei's chin.

  Zhang Shaowei lay on the ground panting heavily and struggled a few times but couldn't get up.

  Li Wei saw that things were not going well, and slipped away to find Guan Jiao to get stitched up, but did not expect such a big commotion would come out of it. If Guan Jiao had not received instructions from his superiors, he would have arrived by now.

  Ye Haodong noticed Li Wei and growled in a low voice: "Get back here, it's none of your business. If you want to die, you'll have to make an appointment first."

  Zhang Shaowei hysterically shouted: "Ye Haodong, you have to be brave, if you dare to kill me, then go ahead and do it. If you don't dare to kill me, I'll make sure to get rid of you later."

  Ye Haodong: "Do you know why I look down on you? You can't beat me, that's normal. Because I've put in a lot more effort into practicing fighting than you have. Being inferior in strength can be made up for, it's nothing to be ashamed of. What I look down on you for is that you only know how to shout but not do anything. Why did you guys bully Song Jinwei every day the other day? Wasn't it because you looked down on him and thought he was too despicable? But take a look at what you've done today, including what you've done before, are you any better than him?"

  Although Zhang Shaowei was spoiled by his grandparents since childhood and became a selfish and self-interested person, his model policeman father was not someone to be trifled with. Under the traditional Chinese way of educating children with corporal punishment, Zhang Shaowei at least had a sense of right and wrong, and from a certain perspective, his sense of justice was even stronger than Ye Haodong's.

  Ye Haodong's angry question caused a hint of confusion in Zhang Shaowei's eyes, but he still stubbornly said: "What right do you have to lecture me? You're also here, aren't you? When we were dealing with Song Jinwei, weren't you just standing by and watching too? What makes you any better than me?"

  Ye Haodong smiled, wiping the blood from his forehead. His tone turned calm: "I'll teach you a lesson because of what you did today, and I'll do it with my fists; I ended up here because I was forced to, but you're here by choice; When you dealt with Song Jinwei, you were standing on moral high ground, taking care of him with an air of righteousness. To me, it just looked interesting; I'm better than you in many ways. For example, I would never want to spend my whole life in a place like this, so I cooperate sincerely with the government's reform efforts. Also, I wouldn't bully any of you just because I'm stronger; I wouldn't waste my precious youth on idle chatter and sleep in class; And I wouldn't squander the care my family gives me, putting them in a state of anxiety for my sake even now. If everything continues like this, I can responsibly tell you that our biggest difference is: I have a future, but you don't!"

  A deafening roar! The ear-piercing but unmistakable accusation made Zhang Shaowei's arrogance weaken: "Why did you let me go just now? Just as you said, your action just now was a heroic act of justice. When I was hitting back at you and threatening your life, you choked my neck."

  Ye Haodong: "Because I think you're still a person, you hate Song Jinwei because you still have a sense of justice in your heart. In my opinion, you just lack care from others and are overly spoiled by them, which is why you've become like this today. If you want to change, if you want to leave this place quickly and become a useful person, everything can still be salvaged. I'm willing to lend you a hand."

  Wu Dalong crawled out from under the bed, limping and staggering to his feet. He said to Zhang Shaowei, who was hesitating on the ground about whether to stretch out his hand: "Brother Wei, I heard everything you two said. Today's matter is excessive for us. Ye Haodong said some things that make sense. If we continue like this, it won't do us any good. Who knows when we'll get into trouble and end up with a heavier sentence? Who wants to spend their whole life in here? Ye Haodong says he can help us out, I think we should listen to what he has to say."

  Zhang Shaowei finally handed over his hand to Ye Haodong, and the two of them exerted their strength at the same time. Zhang Shaowei jumped up in an instant.

  The atmosphere in the room gradually stabilized, and He Lin also stood up at this time. Zhang Shao Wei even apologized to him with a humble attitude, saying that he would not bully him again in the future. Seeing Zhang Shao Wei being beaten by Ye Hao Dong more severely than himself, He Lin's mood improved a lot. His gentle personality made him choose to forgive Zhang Shao Wei and Wu Da Long, and he said that he would never interfere with those who were punished.

  "Your sentence is eight years, if I'm not mistaken. You've already been here for over two years, more than half of your sentence. If you behave well, you'll have the chance to be released on parole and become a free man again. Don't you think that's good?"

  Zhang Shaowei's expression darkened: "Me? How is that possible, I was too harsh in the past two years, Qi Zhendong and Qian Jin don't have a good impression of me at all. My dad has a bad temper and doesn't like to take care of me because he thinks I'm not promising. It's impossible for them to say a few good words for me."

  Ye Haodong: "I can get them to help you out when the time comes, as long as you change your ways from today on. I remember that you're a music lover and those songs you've rearranged are quite nice, even I enjoy listening to them. Since you don't have much to do here anyway, why not spend your free time on music? I can also help you apply for a guitar with the cadres, specifically for you to study music."

  Zhang Shaowei looked at Ye Haodong with a mixture of doubt and suspicion, very puzzled: "How can you? What makes you think so? You said before that your father was an ordinary worker and had already passed away. Who's backing you to dare say something like this?"

  Yehao Dong smiled: "Don't ask me what channel I use to help you achieve your goal, just tell me if you are willing to let me give you a hand and choose the right path for people to take."

  "Alright! As long as you can do it, from today on I'll listen to you."

  Ye Haodong waved his hand, with a teasing tone: "It's not about listening to me, but rather we both listen to the government. Striving to get out early is the right thing to do. I think we can learn well and cause less trouble, which will make the government happy, and help you apply for a guitar, it's not without hope."