DLRAS Chapter 27

Chapter 27: I have a friend…

By the time Qi Tongzhou dawdled his way back to the open lot where the convoy was parked, the members of the Student Union were busy assigning who would ride in which vehicle.

Zheng Yucheng, who had left ahead of him, was already gone.

Qi Tongzhou knew he had been brainwashed by Zheng Yucheng; the guy had definitely been deliberately smearing his impression of Chen Wengang. But infuriatingly, he couldn’t just dig this mental pollution out of his head and rewind back to before he had heard anything.

As a result, the moment he saw Chen Wengang, he couldn’t help recalling Zheng Yucheng’s words about him being “attracted to strength.”

Was it real or fake? What kind of person counted as “strong”? Was there a standard? What counted as being able to protect him?

In short, he worked himself into a knot of utter conflicted turmoil.

No one paid any mind to his teenage inner angst as the volunteers boarded the vans one by one.

Aside from the driver, each Jinbei van took along one tall male student so that upon arrival, the two of them would be just enough to unload the cargo.

Chen Wengang was assigned to one of the vans, and his was the only one that also carried the Student Union president, You Ying.

Snapping back to his senses and unwilling to be left behind, Qi Tongzhou brazenly squeezed himself on board as well.

To transport the goods, the rear seats of the Jinbei van had all been removed. Looking out for their prospective junior, Chen Wengang and You Ying both yielded the only front passenger seat to him. The two of them sat facing each other on top of the book boxes in the cargo area, which only made Qi Tongzhou feel sheepish and embarrassed.

You Ying didn’t mind in the slightest, chatting with Chen Wengang: “It was a pity you weren’t there last time. Professor Huang invited us to dinner at his home to reward everyone for their hard work lately. He’s really a wonderful person, and he agreed to supervise my graduation thesis next year.”

Chen Wengang said, “Congratulations. So that means you won’t have to worry about a recommendation letter either?”

You Ying was delighted. “Naturally. I couldn’t let him off the hook easily on that.”

In the front, Qi Tongzhou pricked up his ears to listen to their conversation, chiming in whenever an opportunity arose.

In a great mood, You Ying promised the future freshman: “Tongzhou, when you report for orientation next semester, if you want to join the Student Union, be sure to apply right away. My term won’t be over yet, so I can put in a good word for you in whichever department you want to join.”

“Awesome.” Taking the opening, Qi Tongzhou asked Chen Wengang, “Which department are you in?”

Chen Wengang laughed, “You’ll have to ask your senior sister for that. I didn’t join the Student Union.”

Unexpectedly, You Ying said, “Speaking of which, there’s something I found strange. Do you know where the rumors came from? A while ago, someone posted on the school forum—and guess what? They suspected this whole event of ours was arranged just to parachute you in as vice president of the Student Union.”

Craning his neck, Qi Tongzhou asked, “What parachuting? What do you mean?”

You Ying explained, “Normally, students join the Student Union as freshmen doing grunt work, serve as officers for a few years, and get elected up. Of course, no one works for free; everyone does it to get extra credit here and there. Suddenly parachuting in a student leader out of nowhere—how would people take that?”

Qi Tongzhou understood instantly. This was stirring up resentful sentiment behind the scenes, hinting that Chen Wengang was reaping benefits through privilege without putting in the work.

Moreover, his mind worked fast: why would such rumors pop up out of nowhere? If it wasn’t true, Chen Wengang must have been blocking someone’s path.

“Anyway, it’s absolute nonsense,” You Ying said firmly. “I replied directly beneath it back then, saying that I am the Student Union president, and even if the faculty agreed to parachute someone in and hire an extra vice president, it would be procedurally impossible to bypass me. How could I not know?”

“What did they say after your reply?” Qi Tongzhou asked.

“What else could they say? They shut up immediately,” she answered.

“Is this forum our school’s forum?” Qi Tongzhou took out his phone, intrigued. “I want to go check out the drama.”

“It is our school’s, but you won’t be able to see it anymore; it’s already been deleted,” You Ying said. “Thanks to my handy work.”

Chen Wengang paused, feeling a faint premonition.

Qi Tongzhou looked at her curiously. “Senior Sister, do you also moonlight as a forum moderator?”

You Ying said, “Nope. I simply submitted a proposal to the principal’s suggestion box in the name of the Student Union, stating that we recently found the student forum poorly managed, chaotic, and with rules practically nonexistent, recommending that the Network Technology Department conduct a rectification… and it was approved.”

Qi Tongzhou burst out laughing, listening like it was a story. “Our principal is that easy to talk to?”

You Ying said, “I wasn’t sure initially. But the Student Union is supposed to care about student affairs; how would you know without trying? If he didn’t take it seriously, I could’ve gone to the campus media. Especially the Confession Wall board—it was practically a disaster zone. People were actually digging up girls’ private info under the guise of confessions! With name initials, grade, and major, anyone could easily identify them. Anyway, I couldn’t stand it, so I got it taken down.”

The scenery outside shifted from urban cityscapes to suburbs. The welfare home they were heading to was located in the far outskirts, taking the driver two hours to reach.

The street was narrow, packed solid with two dense rows of illegally parked vehicles. The Jinbei van couldn’t get through and had to park outside the intersection.

Including the driver, all four of them got out. But Chen Wengang caught hold of Qi Tongzhou, who was about to dash to the back. “Wait.” He led a bewildered Qi Tongzhou into a small roadside clothing shop and smiled. “I’ll treat you to a pair of pants.”

Qi Tongzhou looked down. “My pants aren’t okay either?”

Chen Wengang pointed at the logo on the edge of his pocket: “Once we go inside, the kids might pry off these rhinestones. If a child picks one up from the floor, they might shove it up their nose. It’s dangerous for your pants, and dangerous for them.”

Embarrassed, Qi Tongzhou followed him inside and picked out a random pair of sweatpants to change into. You couldn’t expect any style from this kind of shop; falling somewhere between ordinary and tacky, it completely forced him to bid farewell to his hypebeast aesthetic. When he stepped out from behind the curtain acting as a fitting room, he felt a bit disdainful of them.

Yet glancing up, Chen Wengang had already handed the money to the shopkeeper, who was giving him change.

Touching the seams of the pants, Qi Tongzhou suddenly felt they didn’t look so ugly after all—in fact, they took on a special significance.

Back at the street corner, the driver had already unloaded two boxes of books onto the cart. They helped push it along the pitted, uneven street.

Qi Tongzhou saw dusty gray concrete walls topped with jagged shards of broken glass, enclosing two six-story buildings that resembled school blocks. Beside the gate hung a faded sign with vertical text stating the institution’s name: “Hope Home Child Welfare Institution”—their destination.

The moment he stepped through the gate, Qi Tongzhou was stunned.

In his eyes, this single black iron-bar gate cleanly separated two completely different worlds.

Once inside the courtyard, Qi Tongzhou understood why there had been cause to worry about his rhinestones—several children freely playing in the yard swarmed over at once, ranging from ten-somethings to five- or six-year-olds, noisily clinging to them without letting go.

Chen Wengang had somehow bought a bag of fruit candies and handed it to You Ying; once torn open, it was quickly distributed and gone.

In the office, the director signed the “Donation Acceptance Confirmation” and handed them the prepared donation certificates.

Afterward, staff members took them on a brief tour of the living quarters as visitors.

Here, Qi Tongzhou realized that the children outside who could run and jump were actually the lucky ones.

With You Ying in front and him following behind, the moment they stepped into the room, they saw a dozen infants and cribs.

The room’s conditions weren’t bad; there was air conditioning and air purifiers. Yet it was still suffocatingly oppressive. Some children lay in cribs with abnormally enlarged, hydrocephalic heads; others were held by staff, their faces contorted with misaligned eyes and mouths. Some drooled, others had deformed limbs…

Among those lying there, virtually none were fully able-bodied.

Under the bright fluorescent lights, staff fed them, gave them medicine, and changed diapers soiled with urine and feces.

Disinfectant mingled with various bodily odors into a smell that even air purifiers couldn’t completely erase.

Goosebumps broke out on Qi Tongzhou’s arms. Hesitating mid-step, he bumped back into Chen Wengang’s chest.

Chen Wengang steadied him. “Are you alright?”

Qi Tongzhou’s breath hitched, feeling deeply humiliated by his own reaction.

In reality, their tour wasn’t very extensive; they only skimmed through before preparing to leave so as not to disrupt daily life there. Coming down the stairs, Qi Tongzhou spotted a little boy hiding in the stairwell corner. The boy was eight or nine years old, with intact limbs, looking fully capable of running and jumping.

Qi Tongzhou waved, wanting to greet him. As he secretly wondered why such a healthy child hadn’t been adopted, the boy suddenly flashed him a hostile middle finger and mouthed the words, “Get lost.”

Stepping out of the main gate, he actually felt a sensation of regaining his freedom.

The driver asked if they needed a ride back, and upon receiving a negative answer, drove off in the Jinbei, leaving the three students strolling down the street.

Chen Wengang bought three ice cream cones from a roadside window: one strawberry, one chocolate, and one vanilla cream.

Unable to hold them all, he handed one to You Ying first, then took another from the clerk and handed it to Qi Tongzhou.

Qi Tongzhou took a lick, tasting the cold sweetness of the chocolate, and only then did his scattered wits finally return to his body.

In just half an hour, his definition of happiness seemed to have been rewritten; being able to buy ice cream on the street like this made him feel that life was tranquil and good.

Chen Wengang seemed to understand his feelings: “Were you startled?”

“Ah, no, no,” Qi Tongzhou hurriedly denied. “Actually, I just… couldn’t process it all at once. I know most abandoned infants are abandoned because of illness, and intensive care wards in children’s hospitals are probably just like this… I was just making a fuss over nothing.”

Chen Wengang smiled at him.

Qi Tongzhou admired his composure, unaware that his calm came from having already passed through that phase.

It’s an instinctive reaction for ordinary people to feel fear when faced with deformed, sick bodies, but seeing enough of it naturally desensitizes a person. In his past life, the team at the Niansheng Foundation had mentored many college volunteers, which was why Chen Wengang had been willing to bring Qi Tongzhou along.

Feeling that he had performed poorly, Qi Tongzhou thought about it and asked Chen Wengang, “Is this the one where you usually volunteer?”

Chen Wengang said, “No, that’s one located inside the city.”

Qi Tongzhou pleaded, “Could you take me along next time?”

Chen Wengang didn’t refuse: “I happen to have business there tomorrow. Come with me.”

The next day, Qi Tongzhou indeed set off with him.

This time, he remembered to change into lightweight, practical clothes and brought candy.

The welfare home Chen Wengang mentioned, called “House of Love,” certainly looked better in terms of hardware and facilities, but it similarly took in many disabled children. Having mentally prepared himself, Qi Tongzhou didn’t lose his composure again. He handed the candy over to the staff.

There was no tour scheduled for today, but while passing a half-open door, he peered through the crack and saw a two- or three-year-old girl.

The child sat on the sofa, giggling at him—incredibly sweet, without a trace of worry.

Watching her, Qi Tongzhou cheered up along with her: “Wengang, look, she’s so adorable.”

Chen Wengang knew her and quietly explained, “She isn’t actually laughing… That’s just the only expression she can make.”

Qi Tongzhou let out an “Ah?”

The child suffered from a rare neurodevelopmental disorder—Angelman syndrome.

She forever wore an angelically radiant smile, but that smile carried no meaning; it was merely a pathological symptom. The upper limit of an affected child’s IQ was only around two years old; she would never form a genuine emotional connection with this world throughout her life.

She wouldn’t remember the people who cared for her, couldn’t learn to speak or think, and without training, couldn’t even learn to crawl or walk on her own.

This disease was genetic; currently, there was no targeted medication, nor any possibility of a cure.

Qi Tongzhou’s chest felt constricted, a different kind of suffocating ache this time.

As he stood outside the door in a daze, the staff member feeding the child noticed them.

She was clearly very familiar with Chen Wengang; needing to fetch more diapers since they had run out, she asked him to keep an eye on the child for a moment.

With the surveillance camera overhead flashing a red light, Qi Tongzhou stood rigidly with his hands at his sides, nervous about being recorded doing something inappropriate.

Chen Wengang picked up the spoon and naturally continued feeding the child her baby food. She took two bites and threw it all up again; with quick reflexes, he caught it with his hand, tossed it into the trash, pulled out a tissue, and wiped his hands with practiced familiarity.

In that instant, an indescribable feeling swelled in Qi Tongzhou’s chest.

Director Liu of House of Love was very close with Chen Wengang and warmly received them in the meeting room.

Shortly after, a middle-aged man arrived and introduced himself as Ma Wen, head of a certain Foundation.

Had You Ying been here, she would likely have recognized him as the bearded man who had attended meetings with them previously.

Though it was called a meeting, they didn’t ask Qi Tongzhou to leave. Still, the discussion was very technical and difficult to follow. He could only rest his chin in his hand and watch Chen Wengang, listening to them discuss Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Pivotal Response Training, targeted intervention methods, behavior management, and behavioral therapy… In the end, what he understood was that Director Liu and the others wanted to establish a non-profit special education institution.

Spearheaded by the foundation, they had already applied for a venue from the government and were currently recruiting staff.

Qi Tongzhou interjected, “Does it require a lot of funding?”

The burly Ma Wen smiled at the college student: “Money is always an issue, of course. But talent is an even scarcer resource. If pillars of society like you want to come hone your skills, you’re more than welcome.”

Qi Tongzhou nodded politely.

Unexpectedly, Ma Wen clapped Chen Wengang on the shoulder: “Someone like him, we’ve already secured internally. His offer letter is signed, and he’ll be a pillar of our team moving forward.”

Under his hand, Chen Wengang smiled sheepishly. His scholarly air was so pronounced that it made the bearded man look like a sun-weathered sailor by contrast.

Qi Tongzhou was astonished. He asked Chen Wengang, “You plan on doing this full-time in the future?”

Chen Wengang indeed had this intention, so there was nothing to deny.

Director Liu thought the young student looked down on the low starting point of such a job: “Working in an NGO might not pay very well initially, but for young people, it’s a different kind of tempering and a unique life experience.”

Qi Tongzhou already understood the lofty platitudes she was preaching. That wasn’t what surprised him.

His astonishment was akin to suddenly discovering that Chen Wengang was someone with such distinct, independent ideas of his own.

And having stumbled upon this unique facet by accident, he felt a surge of secret delight.

That evening, Qi Tongzhou had dinner at home. Seeing him so absent-minded, his mother laughed: “What are you daydreaming about so intently?”

Qi Tongzhou hurriedly buried his face in his bowl, shoveling rice: “Nothing, Mom. Just eat.”

In truth, his thoughts had completely derailed, shamefully fast-forwarding to whether his parents would like such a male daughter-in-law. His parents doted on their youngest child; even when he came out as a teenager, they had accepted it quite calmly. He had no obstacles on that front.

Imagination wasn’t a crime anyway, so Qi Tongzhou rehearsed in his mind how to introduce Chen Wengang and his career to his parents.

Yet when he hesitantly opened his mouth: “I have a friend…”

His older brother and sister burst out laughing: “Right, you have a friend.”

Qi Tongzhou bristled: “It’s not about me! I really do have a friend, and I found out he’s exceptionally kind-hearted.”

However, after hearing him out, his older brother said with realization: “Then he probably intends to enter politics.”

This reaction left Qi Tongzhou a bit dumbfounded: “What politics? Enter what politics? He never said he had that intention.”

His brother sighed: “Didn’t you say yourself that he’s long been passionate about charity and public welfare, and plans to work in an NGO to build experience?”

Qi Tongzhou said, “Right.”

His sister asked, “And you said he wants to pursue a master’s in sociology to research certain social issues?”

He nodded: “Yes, that’s right.”

He saw his elder brother and sister exchange a look.

Then his brother smiled: “Silly little brother, isn’t that just accumulating political capital? Especially in the charity and welfare sector, as long as one produces noticeable achievements and consistently advocates for social issues, nine times out of ten, they’re taking this shortcut.”

Qi Tongzhou shifted his gaze to his father. His father also agreed: “We can’t be sure what the person wants to do in the future, so don’t talk nonsense, you two. But if he plans to pursue politics, this trajectory is indeed very suitable. I imagine this young man must be very smart.”

With every word he heard, Qi Tongzhou’s heart sank deeper, like unrequited passion having the firewood pulled from beneath the pot before it could even reach a boil.

Qi Tongzhou was merely a half-beat slow, not stupid. He realized that his family was sharper than him; those words were meant to advise him.

It wasn’t that politics was bad; Chen Wengang could shine brilliantly on that path too. However, the domestic climate was not open. If he chose to climb upward, he would inevitably have to compromise with tradition, at most resisting the pressure by remaining unmarried… and even that was something Qi Tongzhou wouldn’t dare demand of him.

Let alone expecting him to risk universal condemnation by taking a man as his lifelong partner.

A chill ran through Qi Tongzhou’s heart. Even thinking with his kneecaps, he knew: where would there be any place for him?

__

Author’s Note:

I researched many reference cases regarding the conditions of welfare homes. To prevent any misunderstanding, I’d like to clarify that the story does not involve child abuse. The staff work normally, the facilities are standard, and medical resources are provided. Xiao Qi was frightened simply because he was unfamiliar with many illnesses and disabilities, which is why he felt embarrassed by his own reaction. The source of suffering is the disability and illness itself, not the welfare home.

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