She is in the fog

Adolescent boys and girls always have an inexplicable curiosity and thirst for knowledge about campus gossip. More than two weeks have passed since the day of the light show, and they are still happily discussing and reasoning about who the two parties are.

Everyone had different guesses about who was behind the light show, but they all agreed on the true identity of "MM".

After analyzing various facts, they believed that there was a 99% chance that "MM" was Mingmei.

Even Mingmei's classmates believed it. When the lunch break was over and there were still five minutes before class, class monitor Fang Yiyi couldn't hold back her curiosity and walked over to Mingmei and asked curiously, "Mingmei, do you really not know who gave you this surprise?"

"Here we go again... I really have no idea." Ming Mei sighed in pretended helplessness, "I've already said it's not necessarily for me. It might just be that the initials of the name happen to be the same as mine. Oh, anyway, don't make random guesses anymore."

Fang Yiyi said "Oh" in a half-comprehending way, selectively filtered out the latter part of the sentence, and left muttering: "It seems that you really have no idea. That person is too confused. He didn't even inform you before giving you a surprise. Isn't it a waste of preparation?"

Mingmei: “…”
It's useless to explain.

She walked to He Xi's seat, bent down and put her head close to He Xi's ear, and whispered, "What should we do? It's been so long, and this matter is still making a lot of noise. The school has no intention of giving up the investigation. Will the investigation really lead to your friend?"

He Xi was about to answer when Jiang Qi's voice suddenly came from the radio: "Notice! Notice! All students are requested to gather in groups, led by their class teachers, and bring their own stools to the lower playground."

Zhong Nuo, the head teacher of Class 5 of Grade 5, asked for leave yesterday to go back to his hometown for work. Class was leaderless. When the classmates heard this sudden notice, they all looked at Fang Yiyi excitedly: "Class monitor, the final exams are almost here, why are you asking us to gather in the playground now? Is there something important?"

Fang Yiyi shook her head in confusion. The head teacher probably didn't tell her anything to be careful about before he left, right? But she still took on the responsibility of class monitor and organized everyone to gather in the lower playground with their stools: "It's okay, you'll know when you get there. Everyone quickly take your stools and stand in the corridor according to the formation for the break. We just need to follow behind Class 4."

"Did you find out who controls the lighting system?" Ou Yanuo asked suddenly, "Are you planning to criticize him publicly in front of the whole school?"

Hearing this, everyone became excited. Qin Yiran put the stool on his head, as impatient as a monkey on Mount Emei seeing food, and urged: "What are you waiting for? Everyone, hurry up, I want to see which god is so capable, he is simply a role model for us!"

Ming Mei, however, had a worried look on her face. She hesitated and whispered to He Xi, "It won't be discovered, will it? This is terrible. If I had known earlier, I should have admitted my mistake to Director Jiang in advance. Now, your friend has been implicated."

"Don't worry." He Xi picked up her stool and said confidently, "They can't find out."

"Then why do all the students in the school have to gather in the playground?"

He Xi stacked her stool with Ming Mei's and asked, "What day is today?"

"November 6."

"That's right." He Xi pointed towards the classroom door, signaling Mingmei to quickly go to the corridor to line up.

Mingmei didn't take any action, but asked, "Why are you asking about the date? Is there any connection between the whole school gathering and June 6th..." She stopped talking halfway, and smiled as if she had suddenly realized something: "I see, June 26th is the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, so tonight is going to be an anti-drug propaganda event? Right?"

"Congratulations, you got it right!"

The Nanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Ministry of Education have reached a consensus to actively carry out the "Anti-drug Propaganda in Campus" campaign. Therefore, not only Nanzhou No. 1 Middle School, but all primary and secondary schools in Nanzhou City will hold anti-drug propaganda activities tonight.

If Zhong Nuo had not asked for leave, she should have informed the classmates yesterday. She was a responsible class teacher, and even if she had asked for leave, she asked the Chinese teacher Yang Jianwen to pass on the message in advance, but Teacher Yang forgot about it the moment he turned around.

Therefore, the students in Class 5 did not know the reason for the gathering until they were sitting in the playground and saw the big words "Nanzhou No. 6.26 Middle School Anti-drug Awareness Campaign" on the podium in front of them.

Qin Yiran was a little dejected, and sighed: "I thought I had found out the identity of that great god, but it turns out that he wasn't. I got excited for nothing. But then again, from childhood to adulthood, schools and society have always emphasized the harm of drugs. Why do some people always think of taking drugs?"

Indeed, although schools and society have repeatedly emphasized the harmfulness of drugs and asked everyone to stay away from drugs, some people, with the mentality that "one or two times will not make one addicted" or "I can control it myself", try them out of curiosity. The result is that they go down a path of no return, harming others and themselves.

In his previous life, He Xi had seen many such cases. Most drug addicts, especially young ones, were initially looking for novelty, excitement, and fun, and they were complacent and tried it, but it got out of control. In the end, no one regretted it, and at the very least, their family was broken up, and at the worst, they died. What's worse, when drug addiction strikes, their personality becomes distorted, they lose their reason, and endanger society and others.

On the podium, the person in charge projected the PPT onto a huge screen. A female police officer with a righteous face stood beside him, holding up a microphone and popularizing anti-drug knowledge to everyone based on the PPT content.

First, the types and appearance of common drugs are introduced, and the harm of drugs is emphasized: "Drugs poison important tissues and organs of the human body... digestion and absorption functions are impaired, appetite is lost, and nutrition intake is seriously insufficient... destroy and disrupt the normal higher nervous activity of the human body, and even poison and damage nerve tissue... destroy the human immune system... drug users who use unclean syringes or share syringes are very likely to be infected with HIV... drug users cannot bear the pain of drug addiction and often resort to self-harm, self-mutilation or even suicide..."

The female police officer spoke incessantly about anti-drug knowledge. Every word she spoke was powerful and thought-provoking. Combined with the various pictures on the PPT, it was even more chilling and made people stay away from drugs.

"Next, please continue to concentrate and watch an anti-drug propaganda film."

The promotional video mainly tells such a story: a vigorous student accidentally met a group of bad friends, who lured him to try some "new things" under the pretext of seeking excitement. The student knew that drugs were harmful, but still thought it was fashionable. He mistakenly believed that he would not be addicted if he took drugs occasionally, and he was confident that he could easily quit even if he was addicted. However, when he was really addicted, the group of bad friends no longer let him take drugs for free, but asked him to buy them at a high price. It was too late to regret. In order to buy drugs, he almost spent all his family savings. Later, when he had no money, he went to steal and rob, and finally went to prison. When the drug addiction attacked, he was like a madman, wishing he could kill himself. A good young man, in the end he was haggard, neither a human nor a ghost.

At the end of the film, the protagonist shed tears of regret and slowly uttered two words: "If..."

Then the screen went black, and four large white characters appeared on the screen: "No ifs", and then -

"Cherish life and stay away from drugs."

It seems that the relevant departments have put in some effort. This promotional video is shot perfectly. The actors alone deserve praise. The main characters' acting skills are superb and lifelike, and the emotional changes before and after are even more amazing. As Mingmei watched, she almost forgot that this was a post-production scene. It was as if this incident happened around her, and the protagonist became someone she knew.

Of course, the most shocking thing is the string of small white words on the opening screen: "The film is based on real events."

While watching the film, Mingmei's right hand was tightly grasping her school pants until the end of the film, then she slowly let go of her hand and said to He Xi beside her: "What a pity, his life is ruined like this." He Xi nodded in agreement and concluded: "Don't be lucky, drugs are something that you can never get rid of once you get involved."

The content of the promotional video is very simple, but the meaning it conveys is very profound. The students in the class were deeply touched and started discussing the if line.

Qin Yiran said, "I just couldn't resist the temptation. If I had clearly refused at the beginning and had a firmer attitude, I wouldn't have ended up like this, right?"

He Jiahe said: "If it were me, I would call the police directly."

Fang Yiyi said: "Just don't make friends with that group of people, they are not good people."

Afterwards, Jiang Qi gave a complete summary of today's publicity and announced that everyone should leave in an orderly manner.

I thought today's anti-drug propaganda ended here, but unexpectedly, during the last class in the afternoon, Fang Yiyi walked up to the podium with a USB flash drive.

He Jiahe saw Fang Yiyi fiddling with the computer and guessed what she was going to do. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Class monitor, are you going to show us a movie? You can't do this when the class teacher is not here?"

Fang Yiyi plugged in the USB drive, rolled her eyes at He Jiahe, and retorted, "How could that be? This is a task assigned by the school, and it's not a movie, it's a documentary. Anyway, the teacher is not here, so we can use her class to show it and finish the task ahead of time."

A documentary is different from a propaganda film. It is completely based on real life as its creative material, uses real people and real events as its subjects, and records the truth.

In other words, the people and events that appear in the documentary all really exist and have happened.

Qin Yiran asked, "Is it an anti-drug documentary?"

"Well, it's called 'Sword of China', with 8 episodes and 300 minutes of running time." Fang Yiyi said as she clicked the mouse to bring up the first episode. "I guess I won't be able to finish it during evening self-study. It's okay. I can continue watching it during evening self-study tomorrow."

The film began to play, and the heavy and tense music instantly silenced the students in the class. After a serious preface, a four-wheeled vehicle driving on a steep and muddy road slowly opened the documentary.

"Sword of China" is the world's longest documentary on the fight against drugs. Since the filming process is full of dangers, the crew members are basically soldiers or police officers. Two police officers even died during the actual filming.

As the documentary went on, the entire classroom fell silent. Even after the class, no one left their seats to go to the cafeteria to eat. Everyone stayed quietly in the classroom.

Compared to the artistic processing of the propaganda film, this documentary is a completely real record. You can see that many shots are shaky, but it gives people a great shock. Because it is too real and cruel, some netizens later commented: "It is large-scale, bloody, and terrifying. Don't watch it while eating or before going to bed."

Fang Yiyi originally planned to finish reading "Sword of China" in one class of the homeroom teacher, plus the evening self-study today and tomorrow. Unexpectedly, the classmates did not leave the classroom after class, and they finished reading it in one go before the bell rang for the evening self-study, and then prepared to leave the classroom with a sense of unfulfilled desire.

The students had different emotions, some were quietly wiping away tears, some were secretly covering their eyes, and some were gritting their teeth in hatred.

Mingmei is the type who wipes tears and covers her eyes. She is born to be a crybaby. She covers her eyes because some scenes are too scary for her. She dares not look directly at them, but she wants to continue watching, so she is very conflicted.

"He Xi." After returning to the dormitory, Ming Mei held her hand and called her name while sobbing, "Being a drug enforcement officer is so dangerous, can you please not become a drug enforcement officer in the future?"

He Xi was stunned for a moment. All she had been thinking about was preventing Ming Mei from repeating the same mistake, but she had never thought about whether she had to go down the same path?
Perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that she never thought from the beginning that she would have any other path.

He Xi was speechless, but the expression on his face said it all. Ming Mei was even sadder and more emotional: "You said that I died at the age of 18 in my previous life, but you also died in a capture mission at the age of 28! You said that the main reason you became a drug enforcement officer in your previous life was because of me, so in this life, if I live past the age of 18, can you promise me not to put yourself in danger, okay? The 18-year-old He Xi would lose control because of the death of the 18-year-old Ming Mei, and the 28-year-old Ming Mei would not be able to accept the sacrifice of the 28-year-old He Xi."

"Shh-"
It was lights-out time and the dormitory fell into darkness.

He Xi, who had long been accustomed to facing difficulties bravely, became timid once she returned to the time before liberation. She was like an ostrich in the desert, burying her head deep in the sand and avoiding everything.

"Turn off the lights, time to go to bed." He Xi said.

Mingmei suddenly became like a deflated ball. She closed her eyes, wiped her tears, and after an ambiguous sigh, she held up the desk lamp and slowly walked to the balcony to wash up.

At night, lying on the small lower bunk bed, He Xi had no sleepiness at all. He held the back of his head with both hands, staring at the bed board above with his eyes open, his mind in a mess.

Mingmei on the upper bunk seemed to have fallen asleep and there was no movement for a long time.

I don’t know how long it was before I heard someone getting up from the upper bunk, followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

The bright moonlight shone into the house through the balcony window. He Xi could clearly see the bright white feet stepping on the stairs. She thought she was going to the bathroom, so she hurriedly closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.

"He Xi."

A soft call came from her ear, and He Xi opened her eyes, only to find that Mingmei did not go to the bathroom, but was standing in front of her bed. In the moonlight, she could just see her slightly furrowed brows.

"Hmm?" He Xi also turned over and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Mingmei lowered her head and played with her fingers, without even raising her eyes, she whispered, "I'm a little scared, can I sleep with you?"

(End of this chapter)