The date is 14th May 2007, 3:50 pm.
It is about time for the students to head to Lecture Theatre 28 for the freshmen orientation lecture for all first-year students there. By the time Chengyu arrived inside the Lecture Theatre, it has already been crowded with first-year students.
“Compared to the canteen before...... this is far worse...!”
Ten minutes later, the principal of the Information and Communications Technology Faculty came onto the stage and the people there starts to quieten down. The principal starts to introduce herself and started introducing the courses offered by the Faculty. His course, Diploma in Multimedia & Animation, was also mentioned, in which he immediately checked his notebook computer for background information.
“Looks like my current batch is the third intake in the course's history......”
The principal of the Faculty also mentioned something important: A student is only allowed to fail any module once. A repeat fail of the same module in the course will mean immediate ejection from the entire course itself.
“That's a pretty tall order for me in this kind of condition though......”
Chengyu continued to listen to the Principal's speech while looking at more background information on his notebook computer.
After the lecture ended at around 4:45 pm, the students in the Theatre exited the hall in a long stream. But he waited for almost all to leave before keeping his things inside his bags and move out of the Lecture Theatre. On his way there, he stopped by a vending machine, and noticed that the machine is selling iced coffee in a can.
“That's quite a surprise here......”
He placed some coins in the coin slot, and selected the coffee before the long can drops out of the dispenser.
“I guess there are some people who still wants to keep themselves alert after many hours of studying, huh...”
He finished the coffee quickly before dumping the empty can in a rubbish bin at the central lift lobby in the Faculty before taking the lift up to the 7th storey of Block 31 where his class mentor's office is located. The correct procedure is that he should go to the top level of the block to speak to the staff via the telephone inside the office there, but since he has lost his speech capabilities where he needs them most for no apparent reason, this would be a problem. So he has no choice but to wait for Mr. Chua to come out of his office floor on his own and meet him personally.
And surprisingly, the mentor that wants to see him came out of the office floor within 20 minutes of waiting outside!
“Oh, Chengyu! It's you. I've been waiting for you for quite some time.”
Mr. Chua invited him to a meeting room in the office floor, and both of them went in and sat down. Chengyu noticed that Mr. Chua has carried a notepad and a pen with him.
“Chengyu, I know you now have problems expressing yourself using speech, so I prepared something for you to write down on this, because I hope you can answer some of the questions I wish to ask you. It's okay if you don't wish to answer all my questions though because some of them might involve intrusion into your personal life, so answer them with the best of your ability, okay? If there are any questions you don't want to answer, just signal me to let me know.”
Mr. Chua then placed the notepad and the pen on the table right in front of Chengyu.
“Okay, first question. What made you choose New Hope Polytechnic as your choice of school after your 'O' Levels?”
Chengyu hesitated, but thinking that the question has not probed too deeply on his past, he starts to pick up the pen and wrote down on the notepad: “To learn animation.”
Mr. Chua was not surprised initially, but what he wrote next surprised him!
“I cannot have any tolerance on people who pick on someone apparently weaker than themselves!”
While writing, Chengyu's anger seems to have intensified.
“Anyone who does this kind of lowlife-thing will be crushed to pieces with everything I have!”
“Calm down, Chengyu. It's okay.” Mr. Chua said to him to calm down his anger. “I guess he really far more anger and hatred in his heart than I have ever imagined...”
Then he tries to ask him a second question.
“So, what does this bullying issue have to do with you studying this course?”
Chengyu immediately wrote his answer on the next line available: “I am trying very hard to make people know about the harmful effects of bullying being more potent than smoking or taking drugs because it can harm people not only in his own generation, but also the next ones after it if not handled properly. I can't think of any other way than through something I can make to force people to understand this!!”
“Looks like Chengyu here is hurt pretty badly by those people who have tormented him years ago......” Mr. Chua thought about the notes that the teacher from Chengyu's former secondary school have given him.
But suddenly, Chengyu wrote a question about the incident during the student introduction session in the morning that surprised him further.
“Do you know something about my past? How come you don't show any rejection when I was not able to express myself properly this morning?!”
This clearly impressed Mr. Chua about the ability Chengyu actually had in him.
“Oh? So you noticed that I tried to speak a little about your past pain to your classmates, huh? Your observation skills are much more sharper than a normal student would have. I am really happy that you show such talent in this, you really are suited for this course, you know, since that skill of yours will be important to excel in this course.” Mr. Chua praised him, but that only served to increase Chengyu's defences and immediately wrote something on the notepad.
“I am a person born with no talent. These skills are never talents because they took years to extremely harsh training to develop and grow so that I can tell good persons from bad ones and avoid harm as much as possible. Due to the skills that I have developed all by myself, I have absolutely zero tolerance for grey areas in a person for fear of betrayal and the eventual irreparable damage that it will cause. It will be “Game Over” immediately for a person who dares to attempt this heinous act.”
Reading what Chengyu wrote made Mr. Chua feel that he really needs help after his ordeal before coming here to study.
“I think that's pretty sad for a person like you. Actually I know a little about you from your class form teacher from your previous secondary school, the school that you took your 'O' Level Examinations in. That teacher from your class was one of my former students in New Hope Polytechnic more than 10 years ago and she knows that you've been hurt seriously before and even ended up in hospital twice because of what happened in your first secondary school before transferring to her class. I was thinking: 'This boy may end up shutting himself out of the outside environment completely after all these things that happened to him, and it reflected on your behaviour in that school.' Even though I do not study deep into psychology, but I knew from all these things that you are actually a very good person deep inside who has potential to fly high in whatever you choose to do in the future. You just need the right help to do just that and also to open yourself up once again.”
Mr. Chua then went outside the meeting room to call someone on the phone and returned 5 minutes later.
“Chengyu, for your problem, I may not be in a good position to offer you advice on this, but I may recommend you to someone who just might be able to do that......” Mr. Chua gave him a green-coloured slip and a map. “You can approach the Student Services Office at Block 4 of the polytechnic where a counsellor will talk to you. Hopefully, they can help you to untie the knot that is stuck in your heart. I really hope that you can give it a try because these counsellors are more than willing to help you with your school life here when you need them.”
The green-coloured slip is actually a recommendation for counselling at the Student Services Office at Block 4. The time scheduled is on the 30th May 2007, 2:30 pm.
“According to our class timetable, I don't think you have any classes during that period, do you? So I really hope you can at least make a trip there to find out about our student care programmes that may be of help to you, okay?” Mr. Chua patted Chengyu's left shoulder. “Meanwhile, if you have any problems, please
know that I am always be there to help you. I won't want to have any prejudices against people like you so you can be assured that you will never be ostracised when we're around.”
Amazingly, Mr. Chua's hand on Chengyu's shoulder did not invoke his emotional defence mechanisms at all!
With that, the first one-on-one meeting with Mr. Chua ended without any hitches.
The date is 14th May 2007, 6:10 pm.
Chengyu has finished his classes for the day, and heads for the bus stop to take his bus ride home.
During the ride, he thought about the treatment dealt on him in his former secondary school compared to the treatment in this polytechnic.
“Is it true that they are genuinely wanting to help students not only academically, but also on other aspects of the students' lives here?? If that's really the case, I still have to be careful with every word I say, or every action I take towards these people. What I've gone through 2 years ago back there, I don't have the physical or mental stamina to allow that kind of experience to make a repeat of itself all over again right in this campus...... If that happens, all my extreme training over the past 2 years or so will be completely wasted down the drain!!”
But as soon as he starts recollecting those horrible times, he starts to feel intense pain in his chest almost immediately! Clutching to his chest, he rids himself of all those memories temporarily and sits his ride home.
The date is 14th May 2007, 10:30 pm.
A very tired Chengyu lies down in his bed, thinking about the first day in the new polytechnic.
“Right now I am still fully-guarded about myself and refused to let anyone in in case of a unprecedented attack on me. Since primary school I've always been an unwilling victim of these attacks, which inevitably forced me to create my own defence mechanism against everyone in the school before. Sometimes having to hurt other peoples' hearts may be the only way I can protect my own from their attacks. Any hostility will only serve to strengthen my defences against them. Many times I wish I could bring a weapon to school just to protect myself from those bullies back in secondary school. But if not for that mysterious Zhiwei person, I would have been a dead person by now..."
“As for the support supposedly planned for me, I don't know if this may help me or break me, but since I can only talk to my parents right now and not to others my age, maybe this might serve as an
opportunity to start talking to people that may be willing to trust me. However, wrong use of this trust can backfire so I have to use it very wisely and correctly or the incident with the friend I issued a 'Policy Fail' long ago may repeat itself all over again!”
Thinking about the past has caused him to drift off to sleep due to the effects of the medication he took for his headache. Hopefully tomorrow can be less sad than today and he can be able to cope with the demands of tomorrow as the journey in his Polytechnic life had just set off from the starting line......
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