Hello, Welcome to Merit Supermarket (SUPERMARKET)
The day after the incident, Huo Yunxi asked the Huo family to investigate the child named Xiao Xiao.
Soon, a reply came: "The child's information is here. Would you like to come home for a meal? We can also discuss yesterday's events.”
Seeing their reaction, Jiang Chenyi knew that Qingqing must have reported the matter to the family.
Otherwise, the Huo family wouldn't have seemed so prepared in advance.
When they returned to the Huo family, they were greeted by Song Miao and Yu Shun. Yuan Aiping was not present.
"Grandma went to pick up the kids from school. Here's the information you requested." Song Miao slid the file of the child, whose full name was Wang Wenxiao, over to them.
Huo Yunxi opened it and, upon seeing the child's parents, was visibly shocked.
"These... are border soldiers? They actually bullied a soldier's child!" Huo Yunxi's anger burned even fiercer than the day before.
Jiang Chenyi took it and looked at it.
It turned out that the child wasn’t orphaned; rather, both his parents were stationed at the border—one a soldier and the other a military doctor—and they were usually too busy to take care of him.
The only thing he felt relieved about was that the child’s family wasn’t as impoverished as he had imagined. It was just that the elderly were accustomed to frugality, making the family’s living conditions appear modest.
However, with the parents absent, people around them assumed the child was parentless, and such children were most vulnerable to bullying.
"According to our investigation, this isn’t the first time this child has been bullied," Song Miao’s gaze gradually sharpened.
"That’s not even the most pressing issue. There are many children of border soldiers in Xiaocheng." Yu Shun chimed in this time.
After learning about Huo Yunxi’s identity and what Jiang Chenyi had done, she was now able to set aside her role as a Supervisor of the Celestial Masters Association and calmly converse with the young man.
"Although not both parents are stationed at the border, the father is rarely home, and the mother is left to raise the child alone. Such children are often mistaken for those from single-parent families and are equally prone to being bullied."
While investigating Wang Wenxiao, they unexpectedly discovered many similar children in Xiaocheng. Following the trail, they found that such children were frequently bullied.
Upon learning this conclusion, everyone in the Huo family was furious.
"Let’s not even talk about whether they’re children of soldiers. Just the issue of school bullying—are the teachers and leaders in these schools dead? Why aren’t they stopping it?"
Yu Shun, with her fiery temper, slammed her hand hard on the table.
Huo Yunxi and Song Miao were equally enraged. The only one who remained calm in the room was Jiang Chenyi.
Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t care, but he had noticed something else.
"Bell, do you remember the deal we made with the police bureau in Chashan City?"
Huo Yunxi’s heart skipped a beat.
Chashan City, the deal—that must be the time when Director Zhou and the supermarket traded information about the human trafficking organization.
Suddenly, a sense of foreboding washed over him.
"Wasn’t it said before that each city should retrieve the abducted women and children themselves? I’ve seen that record sheet, so…" He pointed to one family on the data sheet.
Huo Yunxi and the others leaned in.
The family Jiang Chenyi pointed to was an ordinary household, consisting only of grandparents and a young granddaughter. The father had passed away early, and the mother had gone missing at some point, never to be found.
When Huo Yunxi saw the word "missing", he vaguely guessed what was going on.
"It’s been a month since that incident, hasn’t it? Don’t tell me Xiaocheng, with such detailed identity information, still hasn’t managed to bring the person back!"
The more Jiang Chenyi spoke, the more sarcastic his tone became.
At this rate, even the Air Force could have caught a fish.
"What? What trafficking?" Yu Shun and Song Miao, as women, reacted extremely sharply upon hearing the word "trafficking".
Huo Yunxi briefly explained to them about helping the police in Chashan City crack down on a large human trafficking organization and subsequently submitting a list of the abducted to the central government, which then ordered all provincial and municipal governments to act. In theory, all city governments should have received the order by now.
"Since there's been no movement for such a long time... it might not be an issue of efficiency." Yu Shun said as her sharp features make her look like a formidable blade.
She glanced at the three people beside her and tapped her finger on the table: "I personally suggest we go and see what's really going on."
Although Xiaocheng isn't a first-tier city, its location near the border means it receives considerable attention.
It's just that the focus of that attention is somewhat different.
Jiang Chenyi silently noted this point before finishing reading the entire document.
After going through it, he also felt a slight headache coming on.
Perhaps due to its proximity to the border, the environment here isn't very stable.
With an unstable social environment, insufficient economic prosperity, and possibly other reasons, the data collected by the Huo family shows that in just the Jin'an District of Xiaocheng, there have been multiple incidents of school bullying. Some were reprimanded by teachers, while others escalated to the police station, yet such incidents continue unabated.
The perpetrators even show signs of escalating their actions and becoming more covert in their methods.
If the Huo family were to investigate this, even the local police stations might find it difficult to get to the bottom of it.
"So, what do you plan to do?" Jiang Chenyi asked.
Since Song Miao had presented such a detailed report, it was clear she had other ideas.
"To be honest, I've previously discussed whether we could lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old or even younger, but such a proposal was rejected." Song Miao said.
Having worked with the police on various criminal investigations, she had seen children as young as 12 who were as ruthless as wild beasts.
One such case involved a child who brutally murdered two of his close friends. No one could understand what he was thinking when he took advantage of the adults' absence to kill his companions.
When the police asked for his motive, he simply said, "It was fun."
Fun? How could something as serious as taking a life be associated with fun?
Such a heinous case did not go unnoticed by the central authorities, but due to the perpetrator's age, the final punishment was merely being sent to a juvenile detention center.
It was only after this case that the age of criminal responsibility was lowered to 14.
But now, she wanted it to be even lower.
Yu Shun wasn’t optimistic about her idea. It wasn’t that she disagreed with her sister-in-law’s opinion, but she felt that since the country had just lowered the age, it was unlikely to change again in the near future, perhaps not even in the next decade.
Moreover, some people might argue that these were just rare exceptions, so why rush to amend the criminal law every time something happened?
Jiang Chenyi and Huo Yunxi also felt it was difficult. Instead of lowering the age, they thought it would be better to establish a separate regulation specifically addressing school bullying.
After all, the data showed that not all instances of school bullying involved physical violence.
If it was just emotional abuse, isolation, and similar behaviors, these couldn’t be dealt with under criminal law.
But…
"Even so, it’s not something that can be done just because you want it. You took the initiative to invite us here today. Do you have something in mind?"
In a sense, both of them were ordinary people, without any political affiliations.
The Supervisor was also just an ordinary person, at best able to coordinate with the police, but when it came to decision-making… they had no authority.
Song Miao’s lips curled into a faint smile.
This woman, who appeared gentle and virtuous, was actually quite strong-willed at her core.
"I know. I’ll keep working on this. If one year isn’t enough, then two. If two years aren’t enough, then five. I won’t give up. The reason I invited you here today, Mr. Jiang, is to propose a deal."
A deal, between the bullied children and their loving parents.
Since the current laws and regulations couldn’t fully protect these children, they would have to resort to other means.
"If it’s only a spiritual punishment, they won’t have anything to say." After all, the methods of a Celestial Master couldn’t be constrained by ordinary laws.
And if Jiang Chenyi really made this deal with them, to the outside world, it would simply look like karma.
Who could blame him when those people refused to change their ways?
Song Miao had thought it through clearly. She could even use Jiang Chenyi’s significant deal to push for the creation of a school bullying regulation.
Of course, what they were doing was also quite risky.
If they encountered someone who stubbornly refused to cooperate and decided to make a big deal out of Jiang Chenyi’s involvement, the young man could be in trouble.
"Alright, but you’ll need to gather them all together, and I’ll personally screen them."
The young man agreed decisively, not even considering the possibility that he might be caught in a compromising situation.
If some people couldn’t control their own malice, then someone else would have to help them do it.
Besides, there were many ways to suppress it. Some methods could even be carried out right in front of the police, and they still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
As for the Celestial Masters Association coming after him?
Celestial Masters were most concerned with Merit and the law of cause and effect. Not only would the unscrupulous ones dare not touch him, but even the reliable ones might actively offer their help once they learned about this matter!
"So, is it settled? But I must make one thing clear: not everyone will meet the conditions for the deal. You should be prepared that only one in ten people out of a hundred will qualify."
Song Miao pursed her lips and nodded. She had already investigated this when she decided to use Jiang Chenyi.
"Then I’ll leave the preparations to you. Huo Yunxi and I need to go see the woman who was trafficked."
He wanted to find out what was really going on there.
He didn't mention finding evidence to send the buyer to jail, but isn't it too outrageous that he didn't even bring back the trafficked woman?
Could it be that they didn't want to bring her back because they were thinking about the "Bed Warmer Project"?
Or perhaps they thought that the family was living happily and shouldn't be disturbed?
"A family? What a hellish joke." Huo Yunxi sneered with a mocking smile.
If it weren't for the trafficking, those victims might still be the treasures of their own families. Why would they need to become part of a stranger's family!
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•