Crimson Instinct

*Xin Lei*

Chu Jie widened his eyes. "K-kidnap?"

He looked at all of us one by one.

"T-that's not possible. She is my date."

I shook my head and typed. "No, she is not. She is a part of a gang that kidnaps their targets."

"No...but we like each other!"

He once again raised his voice.

"Hey!"

A man from outside shouted. "What is with the yelling! Stop it, kid, or I will beat you up!"

He gave a hard bang on the door.

Chu Jie looked petrified. He jolted in fear, and his back hit the wall.

"Who is he? What is happening?"

His eyes began to tear up. He was nervously looking here and there. After all, he was only sixteen.

Bai Li said, "You need to help us with that."

"How? I-I know nothing. I was supposed to meet OFluffy…"

Huh?

I typed. "Who?"

Wait. But then I remembered something. I had seen that name in Gen Gen's place. It was on the computer opened in that chatting app.

"OFluffy is the girl I met today. B-but…kidnap...She cannot do that. What will happen now? My mom! She must be worried, sick!"

He sniffled as he started crying hard.

"Where am I? This is scary. This is not how it was supposed to go. I want to go home…"

My heart ached for him. He was just a teenager. Even an adult would freak out in such a situation. I hugged him and patted his back.

Cocoa rubbed his head against him.

Chu Jie looked at him and slowly raised his hand. He was curiously looking at Cocoa, but at the same time, there was a little wariness in his gaze.

"C-can I pet him? Will he bite me?"

I smiled.

Bai Li shrugged. "No, he won't. Go ahead."

Chu Jie slowly brought his hand and started to gently rub over Cocoa's head. Cocoa seemed to really enjoy it as he furiously wagged his tail.

Cocoa turned his head, and Chu Jie gasped softly, startled. But he was just licking his hand.

"Tickles…" Chu Jie giggled. Cocoa leaned and licked his cheek too. "He is cute."

"Why don't I feel that?" Bai Li dryly said.

I rolled my eyes.

"Arf!" I could sense Cocoa's protest.

Chu Jie fearfully asked, "B-But, what will we do now?"

Bai Li said, "Don't worry. We will take you from here. But first, tell me everything you know."

"W-what?"

"How did you meet that woman?"

"OFluffy and I met on a chatting app."

I typed. "FriendsChat?"

"Yes."

"And then?" Bai Li asked.

"We were chatting for a month. She was nice, and we had many things in common, so we hit it off and then became friends."

"Then?"

"Then she confessed to me one day that she liked me. I-I liked her, too, because only she understood my problems."

"Problems?" Liao Huifang asked.

"Yes…"

Chu Jie looked a little downcast. "I-I am always bullied in school. So I don't like to go. And then my mom keeps pestering me for getting in the top three, which is too d-difficult for me. It's hard, but she doesn't understand."

Well, it was quite common with teenagers nowadays. Parents pressurize them to score not only good but top the exams.

Well, they were not wrong. They just want their child to be successful, but they fail to realize that pressurizing could put the child in great stress.

Bai Li said, "Kid. I don't say that you are wrong in feeling that way or that your mother is fully right. But if there is something that you cannot handle it, then you should talk to your parents. You don't communicate, and that is what's the problem is."

"But, she wouldn't have understood."

I typed. "How do you know when you didn't try? You shouldn't have kept silent about the bullying either."

Chu Jie bit his lip. "I told her about it. But those boys denied it at school, and then Mom thought that I was making excuses for not going to school."

Bai Li said, "Obviously they are going to deny it. They are the miniature versions of thugs who grow up to become idiot minions for such gangs."

Liao Huifang laughed out. I held in my chuckle too.

"But you should never bear that shit and fight for yourself. Otherwise, you stay quiet once, and you get the habit of being bullied and trampled upon every time precisely because you don't dare to speak up. Hell beat those bullies twice as much they hit you and make them confess."

I twitched my eyebrow.

"B-but I cannot fight."

Bai Li raised his brow. "Not all battles are fistfights kid. Learning to fight is good anytime. But you can beat them up using this too," He pointed his finger at his head.

Liao Huifang said, "You should complain to the teacher or the principal."

Bai Li snorted. "Heh! Says the one who brought out a knife at her first meeting."

Liao Huifang glared at Bai Li. I could see her getting embarrassed.

Chu Jie seemed to ponder over it.

I typed. "What did the woman tell you?"

Chu Jie said, "OFluffy was also suffering the same things at her side too."

"She was lying to you," Bai Li said. "She is not any high school student. She just pretended to be one to lure you in."

Chu Jie covered his head with his hands. "Lie? It was all a lie?"

He bit his lips, and his shoulders were trembling. "But why me?"

"We are also finding that out. How did you decide to meet today? She must have asked you, right?"

Chu Jie looked astonished. "Yes...she said that our parents don't treat us well. They force us to study and yell at us. So she told me to run away and meet her."

Chu Jie then said all the conversation that took place between them.

Oh, dear. Teenage was really vulnerable. Just like now how it was easy for that woman to turn him against his parents.

"She took advantage of your weakness and your feelings." Bai Li said. "She did not call you out for a date. It was a plan to kidnap you."

I typed. "I saw you outside MC'D and then at the hotpot restaurant."

I bit my lip. "But, I didn't know that you were Chu Jie all along."

Chu Jie looked surprised. "Yes...I came to Andingzhen, and then I was starving so I went to the MC'D first. Then I went to the bus stop near the hotpot restaurant, which was the place to meet her."

Bai Li asked, "Do you remember what happened after you met her?"

"I….we met, and we introduced ourselves. Then we talked for a few minutes and then she took me inside a car. I could faintly see a man sitting in the driver's seat."