The Divorced Chemistry Teacher's Plea for Help

When Zhao An reached the street outside the bar, he saw a young man being beaten. A moment later, police officers moved in and hauled the brawlers away. They seemed to be saying something about a prostitute not being paid, and it sounded like the whole mess was real enough.

“Didn’t pay a hooker? That’s interesting,” Zhao An said with a smile. He shook his head and headed for the gym. He still needed to train; only a strong body could conquer women.

After half an hour of working out, his phone rang. Zhao An picked it up and saw an unfamiliar number.

“Hello? What is it?” Zhao An replied coolly. His muscles were sharply defined, not bulky like a brute’s, but lean and hard with the kind of sharklike definition he wanted, stripped of excess fat.

A woman’s voice came through the line, faintly familiar. “Zhao An, this is Lin Cui, your chemistry teacher.”

“Oh, Ms. Lin. What do you need?” Zhao An asked, a little puzzled. He didn’t know why she was calling him, or how she had even gotten his number. But the image of Ms. Lin flashed through his mind: a forty-two-year-old woman who wore huge glasses all day and dressed very conservatively. He had once seen her without her glasses, and she had been stunning. He remembered her so clearly because Ms. Lin was divorced and raising a child on her own.

“Do you know anyone at the police station, Zhao An?” Lin Cui asked uneasily. While she had been signing a document, she had overheard the principal talking and seemed to sense that he was wary of Zhao An. Now that something had happened to her son, Zhao An was the first person she thought of. Zhao An’s mother was a lawyer, and by all accounts a very decent person, the sort who seemed easy to talk to.

“I do. What’s the matter?” Zhao An asked casually, sipping a bottle of sports drink to quench his thirst.

“It’s like this. My son got taken to the station over something. Could you help me get him out on bail?” Lin Cui said awkwardly. Her voice was very small, as if she were admitting to something shameful.

“Let me see. If it isn’t a serious problem, he should be able to be brought out. What’s your son’s name?” Zhao An replied calmly, a few thoughts already flickering through his mind.

“Liu Rui. Thank you, Zhao An. I’m really grateful,” Ms. Lin said, delighted. She hurried to thank him at once; she really hadn’t misjudged him.

“No need. It’s nothing. If anything comes up, I’ll contact you later.” Zhao An ended the call. He already understood what Ms. Lin was thinking.

After hanging up, Zhao An took a shower, then put on his earbuds and called back to check on things.

Li Hechuan was the top man at the branch bureau, and Zhang Chang’s father’s superior. Zhang Ming, Zhang Chang’s father, was only the second-in-command.

Zhao An had the leverage of their secrets in his hands, and none of those people were clean. Still, as long as they did a good job, he didn’t mind giving them a push when it mattered. Favor and force together were the best way to work with people; otherwise it just became one-sided oppression. “Let him go. I’ll have someone handle the bail.”

“Understood. If that’s what Young Master Zhao says, I’ll make sure it’s done,” Li Hechuan said, almost euphoric. He wasn’t afraid of Zhao An asking him for favors; he was afraid Zhao An would never ask, because then there’d be no way to build the connection. What puzzled him, though, was that Zhang Ming’s son was Zhao An’s classmate, so how could he have had no idea about Zhao An’s background? Maybe Zhao An had hidden it too well.

“All right. I’ll have someone clean up your mess. That’s enough.” After hanging up, Zhao An wasn’t being prematurely sophisticated for his age; it was just that, when you added up his years, he was already almost thirty or forty inside. He had seen too much, so dealing with things was easy.

After the call ended, Zhao An headed for Ms. Lin’s home. On the way, he called Bao Xiong and had him send people to post bail for her son, and on top of that, take the boy to a sauna to see if they could gather some evidence.

Ms. Lin didn’t live in a very good area. The school provided dormitories, but she still rented a place off campus. Rent here was more than a thousand a month, which was a considerable burden for a teacher earning only three or four thousand.

He went straight up to the fifth floor. There was no elevator. He knocked on the apartment door.

The door opened. Lin, with her pretty face and fair skin and a look of anxious worry, answered. “How did it go?”

“Come inside and I’ll explain.” Zhao An stepped into the living room. It was small, but that was how rentals were. Still, it was clearly kept very neat; someone here must clean often.

“How did it go, Zhao An? Is Xiaorui all right?” Ms. Lin asked anxiously. She was already divorced, and her son was all she had. If something happened to him, she truly didn’t know how she would go on.

“He was picked up on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. Now that woman is denying everything because they didn’t get any money, and she’s planning to accuse your son of rape. If this keeps going, that rape charge will stick.” Zhao An said lightly, with a tone of detached indifference.

“What!” Ms. Lin shrieked. She couldn’t let anything happen to her son. Absolutely not. “Zhao An, can you help me? Please, help me. Xiaorui can’t go in there. He’s still young, he’s still a college student!”

“I can help you with that. I can even smooth things over so nobody finds out about it. But what do I get out of it, Ms. Lin?” Zhao An asked with a smile. If she could see his expression, she would have seen a devil smiling back at her.

Lin Cui was at a loss and could only try tentatively, “Zhao An, I can tutor you. I know your chemistry isn’t very good. How about I give you free tutoring?”