Han Ruochen was good-looking, and she looked really responsible. She was also holding Han Beijiang, who was cuter than most of the children around his age. Thus, Mr Tang agreed with her and quickly stamped the notice and handed it to her. But when Han Ruochen was leaving the staffroom, he said to her, "Please tell Han Jianyou to attend his classes; if he continues living the life he is living right now, I am worried that he will end up in prison."
Han Ruochen narrowed her eyes when she heard the concern in Mr Tang's voice. She had a feeling that the man knew something, but he was not telling her outright. She didn't have much idea what happened to Han Jianyou; she only knew that he was caught for ruining a woman's reputation and was executed publicly. Han Ziyan was quite fond of relaying that story in front of her.
"I understand, don't worry, Teacher Tang. I will make sure that Jianyou will start attending his classes very soon," said Han Ruochen as she walked out of the staffroom. She looked at her youngest brother, who was staring at her curiously. She smiled at him and said to him, "Beijiang, today your sister will show you what happens to bad students."
As she spoke, she walked out of the school, and as she turned around the corner, she picked up a thick pole that was lying next to the trash can.
Han Beijiang: "..."
**
"Are you sure that we will be fine?" Han Jianyou peered inside the gigantic house. His heart was thudding violently; he was used to skiving off and going to smoke and play games with his friends, but he had never, not once, thought of stealing from someone.
"We will be fine," said one of his friends with an eye roll. "I have already checked the schedule of the owners of this house. Both of them are workers and are really well off. Even if we steal a few things, they will never find out. They are so freaking rich."
"That's right. They have so much stuff; would they still be able to find out that they are missing something?" said another boy. "Anyway, we are all in a pathetic condition, aren't we? Even our parents don't care about us. Since that is the case, then we might as well take care of ourselves."
The more Han Jianyou listened to them, the more he thought that they were making sense. Maybe if he got arrested, then someone in his family would be willing to pay attention to him? These past few months, he had gotten into trouble one after another, and no one cared. Maybe the small messes were not enough; he needed to do something big.
"Alright, let's do it," he said, agreeing with his friends. He looked at the big mansion and asked, "But who is going to sneak in?"
As if they had already decided, the five boys pointed at him.
"Me?" Han Jianyou was stunned when he saw that they were all looking at him. He couldn't believe that they all were looking at him; he was the shortest among the six of them. How could he even jump inside and steal something from the mansion without getting caught? This was asking for too much. What if he slipped and twisted his foot? He would end up getting caught in no time.
"Yes, you. You are the only one who is short and thin enough for us to carry. If either of us tries to jump inside by sitting on the shoulders, then we would end up tumbling down. Only you are thin enough to do that," said the tallest boy. He looked at Han Jianyou as if he were asking a foolish question and even urged him to quickly climb on Lao Wu and jump inside.
Han Jianyou hesitated. It was not that he didn't trust his good friends; he just felt a bit troubled. He had never jumped inside someone else's house or even tried to steal from them.
"What? You don't want to?" snapped Lao Wu. They had been planning for so long and wanted to go to the state-run restaurant to eat a hearty meal, but if Han Jianyou didn't jump inside the mansion and steal something valuable. How were they going to afford that meal?
He glared at him and said to Han Jianyou, "If you were not going to steal, then why did you waste our time? You should have just told us earlier. We would have found someone to do it instead." Lao Wu looked fierce, and his voice was even more fierce. He scared Han Jianyou but the boy didn't dare to say anything against him. After a lot of pushing and shoving, he finally agreed to jump inside the mansion.
"You all better not abandon me and escape on your own," whimpered Han Jianyou while sitting on Lao Wu's shoulders. He was scared out of his mind, worried that these people would leave him alone if trouble came knocking.
"Just jump, didn't we tell you already? We will not do it," said one of the boys as he rolled his eyes at Han Jianyou when he was not looking.
Lao Wu also nodded in agreement as he swore his loyalty to Han Jianyou. "That's right. We will not leave you alone; just jump now. Do you even know how heavy you are?" Lao Wu was nearly shaking due to the weight that he was carrying on his shoulders and was about to fall. If not for the fact that he was greedy to eat the meal at the state-run restaurant, he would have definitely thrown this brat off his shoulders.
Han Jianyou nodded and then turned to peer inside the mansion. When he was quite sure that there was no one, he nodded to himself and placed his hands over the wall of the courtyard, all prepared to jump inside the house, when—
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed behind them.