Papa's Princess | 时代少年团 TNT ✓

•CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE•

‘Yeah mom, I’m not coming home this evening. I’m going to Maggie’s.’ I lied to my parents for the second time over the phone.

‘Are you sure?’ my mom asked with concern. ‘With what we just talked about, I’d prefer you be here…’

‘No, me and Maggie have an assignment to do.’ it was hard mentioning the name of someone I was absolutely loathing at this moment.

‘Okay honey,’ my mom sighed. ‘Stay safe.’

‘I will.’ I hang up then turned to Jiaqi and Chengxin, all of us were in Chengxin’s room after classes. It was the only place we could privately talk to each other without rousing suspicions.

‘So we all agree that we wanna get out of here?’ Jiaqi asked the boys who were scattered about the room.

‘We all want to, but we’re all worried about our parents. What if they get in trouble with the law too?’ Yaowen asked something that Jiaqi had seemed to overlook.

‘I don’t care about whatever happens to them! They deserve it for putting me in this mess just for money!’ Junlin slammed his fist into his open palm for emphasis.

‘Well that’s you,’ Yaxuan commented after. ‘Did you consider that our parents may have done this for us? My mom was a struggling musician who had me when she was a teenager. She even considered putting me up for adoption because she couldn’t afford to take care of me. Then this contract came up and she was able to get money to finance her music career and get into the best studios with the best producers. She did everything for me.’

The situation had suddenly taken an emotional turn.

‘So how was it like for you guys when you first got into King’s Academy?’ I asked curiously. This time, I was sure they would be open because it almost seemed like the resolution and everyone knew that I knew. ‘Did you try to tell your parents what was going on?’

‘At first it was fine, a few weeks into it and it was hell.’ Haoxiang answered, shaking his head. ‘It was the fancy life we were used to, great education, nothing was wrong. Then we started having these classes at night and all, and the better we performed, the more money our parents would receive. If we were ever kicked out, everything would be taken from them. And things got even worse when Papa’s Princess showed up.’

‘She was like there to watch our every move and control us,’ Yaxuan continued. ‘But then she started to punish us and we couldn’t do anything about it. Last time someone tried to defend himself, it didn’t go very well for him. Let’s just say he’s gone and so is his parent’s business and money.’

‘Oh,’ I sighed. ‘Fine.’

‘So here’s the plan.’ Jiaqi cut the story short. ‘Right, Lina is going to take photos so that they can be direct evidence to the police. Because right now, we don’t have any direct evidence against Mr. Ma.’

The guys nodded.

‘I hope that won’t be too risky for Lina.’ Yaxuan commented.

‘It’s okay, the school is virtually empty at night.’ Jiaqi commented. ‘Anyone willing to make a mistake so that we can catch his violence live on camera?’

Haoxiang immediately raised his hand. ‘Yes, me. If I’m going out of here, I’m doing anything.’

Jiaqi chuckled. ‘Okay then…’

‘Jiaqi?’ Hui’s voice was heard approaching Chengxin’s door. I remembered that she was allowed to go anywhere on this school were as for the rest of us? Not as much.

‘Oh damn,’ Jiaqi said and walked over to the door. He opened it and stuck his head out, making sure that Hui wouldn’t see what was going on inside. ‘Yes Hui?’

‘When are you going home?’ she inquired inquisitively. ‘and where’s all the guys?’

‘Home, right. I think I should be going now. In fact, let’s both be going now.’

‘What are you doing in there right now?’ Hui attempted to push past in, but Jiaqi remained solid against the door.

‘Let’s go home.’ he continued. ‘Um you can’t come in, Chengxin’s dressing up.’

‘Oh-kay.’ Hui finally stopped. ‘Since when do we go home together? You must be going with Lina.’ Once again, she sounded rather quiet. She just hadn’t been the same ever since that day she was crying.

‘You’re right. I forgot. Okay bye.’ Jiaqi moved back in and shut the door. ‘Now be quiet for a minute, she might still be around.

Sitting on Chengxin’s bed, I looked through the window into the sky. There were rain clouds building up again, and I was guessing the night was going to be wet.

…

That evening, as I had expected, the rain was falling quite heavily. Jiaqi had decided to go home before the plan, just to make sure that the butler and the maids don’t inform Mr. Ma that he’s not home. If they told him, it could have caused the plan to crumble since Mr. Ma would probably start looking for him. He was expected to always be home unless he had communicated otherwise, which seemed understandable.

Of course Junlin had speculated that Jiaqi just didn’t want to be part of it because he would leave us to get in trouble with it, but everyone disagreed with him. We all knew Jiaqi was trustworthy and honest.

So around 8pm, the young men all got into class for lessons with Mr. Ma. We already had evidence of the books, all I had to do was take videos and photos of him in the act. As usual, I knelt by the window in the hallway. I put my phone on record and held it above the sill.

When the boys started reciting their “mantra”, I noticed Haoxiang wasn’t saying it along with them. I guess this was the way to provoke Mr. Ma.

‘Haoxiang, what’s going on?’ Mr. Ma asked as he walked over to Haoxiang’s desk.

‘I forgot the words.’ Haoxiang responded, playing with his pen.

‘What do you mean you forgot? You haven’t been studying?’

‘Yes.’

Mr. Ma was surprised with Haoxiang’s rudeness, it was evident in his eyes. ‘How can you even answer me like that!?’

Before Haoxiang could respond, Mr. Ma grabbed Haoxiang’s hair and slammed his face against the desk. Everyone in the classroom murmured, and I gritted my teeth as I filmed it. I don’t know if Haoxiang had prepared for that much pain.

‘How could you forget after how long we’ve recited it!?’ he grabbed onto his Haoxiang’s hair again.

This time I didn’t want to see it, but this video was definitely going to be golden in proving the abuse that happens in the school. But before Mr. Ma could slam Haoxiang’s head on the desk again, something interrupted him.

It was my ringtone, and I mentally cursed myself. I couldn’t believe I didn’t put my phone on silent, and here was “Ice Cream” by BLACKPINK ringing at full volume in the empty dark hallways. I had ruined everything with a simple mistake.

Mr. Ma immediately let go of Haoxiang’s hair, walking towards the door. ‘Who’s out there!?’