Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

“We’re just making sounds,” Su Ting said, holding up the tape. “And sounds are never a crime.”

She walked past Teacher Zhang and pushed open the door.

The auditorium was empty, with only rows of low desks and chairs with microphones covered by cloths.

The cloth had the children's names written on it: Xiaoming, Lili, Ahao, Niuniu...

“These are…” Tian Tian reached out and touched one of them.

“The missing children.” Su Ting gently lifted a piece of cloth. “They didn’t die, they were just ‘sent away.’ But their voices still linger in the system, like ghosts.”

She shoved the cassette tape into the old-fashioned tape recorder under the podium.

The machine started with two beeps.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from the ceiling.

A red alarm flashed, and a mechanical female voice blared through the loudspeaker: [Illegal assembly detected. The Silence Law Enforcement Bureau is about to take over the scene. Please evacuate immediately, or your memory will be reset.]

"It's too late." Su Ting pressed play.

As the cassette tape whirred and hissed, a child's voice rang out:

"Mom... I don't want to go to school anymore. Teacher Zhang said that if I don't smile, I'll be taken to a dark room with no windows, and no one will stay with me... But I'm still so scared. I drew a picture of you hiding in the kitchen crying when Dad hit you... The teacher said that picture was 'negative energy pollution' and tore it up. Mom, am I a bad child? I don't want to lie... But they say only bad children tell the truth..."

The recording stopped abruptly.

The next second, all the microphones in the auditorium lit up red simultaneously.

The network signal is at full strength.

Live stream begins.

Chapter 1509 Shouldn't I have thought about it?

“Now,” Su Ting said, standing in the center of the podium, looking at the camera, his gaze piercing through the screen and landing on every dark corner, “it’s your turn.”

A girl's voice rang out first, trembling but resolute:

“My name is Lin Xiaoyu. I was given sedatives three times at the ‘growth camp.’ They said I was ‘overly sad,’ but I just miss my grandma… I miss her, shouldn’t I?”

“I’m Li Wei, a fifth grader, and the fattest in my class. People laugh at me every day. Our teacher says, ‘Humor promotes unity.’ But today I want to say—you’re bullying me, and that’s not funny at all.”

“My daughter is eight years old. Yesterday she asked me, ‘Mom, why do I have to be happy all the time?’ I didn’t know how to answer… so I came here. I am Chen Fang, a parent. I want to tell everyone—our children are not products; they have the right to be sad.”

The sounds grew louder and louder, like a tide overflowing a dam.

Outside the auditorium, the sky was dyed blood red by a swarm of drones.

But at that moment, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The law enforcement drones that were supposed to drop sedative gas suddenly changed direction and hovered in the air.

Each speaker began playing a synchronized audio clip.

It's Dora's voice:

"I was seven years old, and I hated being forced to perform dances. But I liked rainy days because no one could see me crying."

Immediately afterwards, the second verse began:

"I was ten years old when my brother died, and they wouldn't let me say I missed him."

Third paragraph:

"I was nine years old, and I thought my teacher was a monster, but I said I would be punished by copying 'I love school' a hundred times."

The number of viewers worldwide for the live stream has surpassed one billion.

Su Ting squatted down and patted Tian Tian's head: "Are you scared?"

Every day, he shook his head and shouted, "I'm not afraid! I want to speak too!"

He snatched a microphone, his face turning bright red:

“My name is Tiantian! I don’t want to go to ‘Happy Growth Camp’! I don’t like to laugh! I like dark rooms, I like strange stories, I like to draw skulls! I’m not sick! I’m just…different! But that’s okay! Right?!”

Inside and outside the auditorium, countless children shouted in unison:

"right!!!"

"Boom--!"

The door was knocked open.

A team of Silent Ones, dressed in silver-gray uniforms, rushed in, their faces covered by masks and holding sonic suppressors.

The leader announced in a cold voice: "The rally is over. The ringleader, Su Ting, is to be arrested immediately."

Instead of backing down, Su Ting stepped onto the podium and laughed loudly at the camera:

"You can arrest me? Sure. But can you delete recordings of a billion people? Can you silence ten thousand children?"

She abruptly pulled up her collar, revealing a barcode on the back of her neck: "Scan me! Check my file! See who I was before I was six! See what's locked up on the third basement floor of 'Sunshine Elementary School'! See how many children's voices you've cut off!"

She scooped Tian Tian up in her arms and held the microphone high:

"Come on! Broadcast it now! Let everyone see it! Let everyone hear it!"

The silent ones raised their weapons.

But at this very moment—

On the side of the podium, a microphone that was originally covered by a cloth automatically lit up.

A weak yet clear child's voice rang out:

"Help...help me...we're down there...it's so dark..."

The auditorium fell into a deathly silence.

Su Ting's pupils contracted: "That voice... is..."

She whirled around, staring at Teacher Zhang: "Is the third basement level where the first batch of 'naughty' kids are kept?! You said they transferred schools, but actually you're keeping them as sound samples, aren't you?!"

Teacher Zhang's lips trembled, and she finally broke down:

“I…I don’t know…They said that’s how to maintain order…But every night I hear noises coming from inside the walls…I thought it was the water pipes…”

Chapter 1510 That's a Forbidden Zone

"Take us down," Su Ting said, approaching step by step. "Now."

"No! That's a forbidden area! They'll kill me—"

“Then you should go even more.” Su Ting stared at her. “Because you are also a victim, Teacher Zhang. You were also deceived for twenty years.”

The alarm blared higher and higher.

In the distance, a large number of riot police are approaching the campus.

Su Ting's voice suddenly blared in the earphones:

"Su Ting! An order has just leaked from the military's encrypted channel—'Purge Operation' has been launched! They are preparing to use high-frequency sound waves to cleanse the entire area, formatting all unauthorized streams of consciousness within a five-kilometer radius! Including children! Including the listeners! You only have ten minutes!"

Su Ting took a deep breath, grabbed the cassette tape, and smashed it against the main control panel.

Sparks flew.

She turned to all the children and adults still broadcasting live, her voice echoing through the night:

"They are afraid of us speaking."

They were afraid we would cry.

They're afraid we'll say 'no'.

But today, we won't utter ten thousand slogans.

We'll only tell you one truth—

I'm here.

I am alive.

I will no longer keep quiet.

She took Tian Tian and Dora's hands and walked towards the door that had never been opened deep inside the auditorium.

"Teacher Zhang!" She turned around, her eyes blazing. "This is the last time I'm asking you—"

Would you like to listen to how the child inside the wall calls for their mother?

Teacher Zhang slumped to the ground, her fingers digging into the cracks in the floorboards until her knuckles turned white.

“I…I’ve been a good teacher for twenty years…I’m an outstanding counselor…I’ve received the ‘Smiling Education Award’ three times…” Her voice trembled, “If I said yes…if I took you down there…I wouldn’t be that person anymore…”

Su Ting squatted down in front of her, his gaze not fierce, but like a tongue of fire licking through ice.

“Then tell me, Teacher Zhang,” she asked softly, “do you sleep well at night?”

Teacher Zhang shuddered suddenly.

"Do you always have the same dream? A child inside the wall calls out to you, calling you 'Mama Zhang'—because you once said that you are our mother. But you dare not answer, because you are afraid that if you answer, the whole wall will crack open and crawl out children who never smile."