Huaian Internet Addiction Treatment Center dormitory, after an escape incident, each dormitory has at least two coaches on watch
Completing high-intensity physical training is the main task of students in the Internet addiction treatment center
South Weekly reporter Jilun Qi, reporting from Huaian, Jiangsu. Photography by Jilun Qi.
A dull clang echoed as the door to the dormitory of the "Huaian Internet Addiction Treatment Center" was suddenly pushed open, and several shadowy figures quickly ran toward the staircase. Guard Guo Jinfu chased after them, losing his slippers in the panic, and screamed hoarsely, "Coach Jiang! Coach Jiang!" There was no response. A sudden wave of indescribable fear overcame him, but he didn't forget to pull out his phone and dial 110.
Suddenly, the crowd burst forth directly towards the gate of the yard. Guo Jinfu went mad trying to block them, but before he could even recognize their faces, his chest had already been struck hard with a few punches, and he was then thrown to the ground. In the narrow and winding alley outside, the chaotic footsteps gradually faded away.
The mobile phone that fell into the mud flashed clear characters: 23:10.
This was the night of June 3rd when 14 trainees of the "Huaian Internet Addiction Treatment Center," after tying up the coaches, collectively escaped.
Confined Life
The large gate of the Huaian Internet Addiction Treatment Center now has a big lock on it. Watching the camouflage-clad teenagers shouting slogans while running inside the locked gate, Guo Jinfu sighed awkwardly, saying that all students wanted to run, and there was no stopping them.
At 10 o'clock on the morning of June 9th, when 16-year-old Han Yixin ran out from a classroom on the first floor, he looked somewhat nervous. After the escape incident, management at the rehabilitation center became stricter. The backpack ropes used for military training were confiscated, the number of coaches increased from four to eight, and at least two coaches would accompany each male dormitory to sleep. The school required the coaches to monitor the trainees 24 hours without interruption. Trainees who seemed overly familiar with each other were isolated to avoid collusion and joint escapes.
Han Yixin, with a round face and short hair, kept showing signs of unease in his eyes during the conversation—a mixture of fear, longing, and expectation towards the visitors. Every time there was any sound at the dormitory door, he would turn around nervously to look. About ten meters away, a leader of the rehabilitation center named Yin Yulai was walking over from the canteen.
Two months ago, while using the internet at home in Siyang County, Suqian City, Han Yixin was taken away by some "plainclothes police" who suddenly broke in. The "plainclothes" said he was suspected of using hacking methods to attack a network in Huai'an and needed to "assist in the investigation." His parents told him they had seen the credentials, confirming they were real police officers.
However, the "plainclothes" did not take him to the police station but instead sent him to this internet addiction rehabilitation center. What was called "assisting in the investigation" was actually a performance put on by his parents. According to the contract between his parents and the school, after paying 20,000 yuan for internet addiction rehabilitation, he would have to stay here for six months until he quit his internet addiction and could apply to return home. Before leaving, all his personal items were confiscated. Now, he couldn't make calls, see his parents, go to school, and for his former friends, he had disappeared.
For Han Yixin, life at the rehabilitation center was strange, special, and even "abnormal." For instance, the school occasionally organized outings for the trainees, but transportation was never used—no matter how far it was, they walked the whole way. Once, a large group walked from Huai'an to Chuzhou for an entire day.
Most trainees found it unbearable to endure not only the closed management but also the high-intensity training. Moreover, they often got beaten on the palms and soles with a ruler. This so-called ruler was a thick bamboo piece about 20 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide. To demonstrate fairness, every trainee, regardless of their behavior, sooner or later had to endure such a beating. "When it reaches dozens of strikes, you feel like dying," one trainee said.
A former trainee named Yu Li said that for minor violations, they would get 10 strikes on the palm, more serious ones would result in dozens of strikes. If they resisted, the coach would first threaten them with fists. If they continued to resist, they would be dealt with sticks. Among the coaches, there was one called "Fat Jiang," who was a martial arts school coach. Han Yixin mentioned that once a black belt seventh dan Taekwondo practitioner was admitted, and three coaches couldn't defeat him, but Fat Jiang managed to subdue him alone.
Han Yixin wanted to go home. He reflected like writing a confession, admitting that he used to be obsessed with online games, but now he knew he was wrong. After being here for more than two months, he had corrected his habits. He conveyed this thought to the leadership of the rehabilitation center, but the head of academics, Yin Yulai, sternly told him, "Don't pretend, I see you haven't reformed."
About a month ago, several trainees were about to "graduate" from here. Han Yixin and other classmates secretly wrote notes to give them, hoping they would pass messages to their parents. However, not only were the notes discovered and intercepted, but everyone who wrote the notes was beaten with bamboo boards.
Conspiring to Rebel
In the morning of June 3rd, after a class on the Analects of Confucius, Fu Xiang, who had arrived at the rehabilitation center two months earlier than Han Yixin, quietly approached and asked softly, "Do you want to go out?"
Fu Xiang, who lost his freedom for four months, came from Xuyi County, Huai'an City. This 16-year-old boy was promoted to class monitor three months ago. Not only did the leadership of the rehabilitation center appreciate his intelligence, but he also had significant influence among the trainees.
Before inviting Han Yixin to join the escape group, Fu Xiang had already discussed the idea separately with four other tall and strong individuals. As for those physically weak or whom he didn't trust, he hadn't informed any of them.
Cold Bing, upon hearing this, was very excited. This Nanjing youth, born in 1988, had only been here for a few days. He strongly disliked the management of the rehabilitation center and had confronted the disciplinary coaches several times.
One day at the end of May, "Fat Jiang" was teaching Cold Bing a lesson and was counterattacked. In the middle of the yard, he grabbed a wooden stick over a meter long to chase Cold Bing—this was a violent scene witnessed by all the trainees. That night, when sleeping, everyone saw the bloody stripes on Cold Bing's back.
On the night of June 3rd when 14 youths "escaped," Cold Bing vented his anger on another coach surnamed Jiang—Jiang Ming. According to Han Yixin and Fu Xiang, Jiang Ming was the coach who had the best relationship with the trainees. Another recognized fact was that he was also the weakest among the four coaches and most likely to be defeated by the trainees.
Just before going to bed on June 3rd, the six or seven core members of the escape team reached a consensus: don't sleep after the lights are turned off tonight. Wait until the coaches fall asleep, then rush together. The astute Fu Xiang had observed that Jiang Ming always placed his keys and phone under his pillow every night.
June 3rd was perfectly chosen because two coaches had asked for leave to go home. That night, apart from the gatekeeper couple Guo Jinfu, only Jiang Ming stayed on campus, and he hadn't noticed anything unusual until the lights were turned off, nor had the informants planted among the trainees provided any clues—"These kids hid their intentions too deeply."
Successful Escape
After the lights were turned off on the evening of June 3rd, Jiang Ming simply covered his stomach with a blanket, leaving his feet exposed.
At 11 o'clock, he suddenly woke up, vaguely seeing several trainees tying his feet with backpack ropes. After shaking off the ropes, he stood up and turned on the light.
The moment the light turned on, Jiang Ming saw the panic, fear, and shame in the eyes of the trainees in front of him. Two children kept apologizing while tying him, saying, "Sorry, Coach Jiang."
Within just a few seconds, the trainees turned off the light. Seeing someone hesitating, Han Yixin shouted, "If we can't tie him down today, we'll be even worse off tomorrow." A group of people rushed forward again, finally tying Jiang Ming.
"Are you rebelling? Where is the monitor?" Jiang Ming loudly questioned.
As the mastermind of the escape plan, Fu Xiang was right behind Jiang Ming. This time, unlike during regular cleaning duties where he helped the coach, he directly strangled Jiang Ming from behind and knocked him down.
After shouting "Uncle Guo, help!" once he fell, Jiang Ming's mouth was stuffed with towels and blankets. When he continued to shout, the boys tightly tied him from his mouth to his ears with a rope.
Jiang Ming, bound like a starfish on the concrete floor, struggled fiercely. Cold Bing, who had been beaten by other coaches before, kicked and hit Jiang Ming a few times, with some punches landing on his face, breaking his nose, and blood flowing onto the ground.
By the time everyone had dressed, someone had already found the key ring by the bed. At this point, Fu Xiang noticed that almost all the boys had gotten out of bed, ready to escape.
The 25-year-old trainee Shang Jie took advantage of the chaos to slip away that night.
Shang Jie later said that when Jiang Ming shouted for help, the gatekeeper Guo Jinfu actually heard it, but he didn't dare approach the room. Instead, he kept yelling at the door, "He was afraid of getting hit."
A few minutes after unlocking the lock, the trainees surged out. Guo Jinfu, standing in the middle of the yard, was scared cold sweat: "I thought, oh no, Coach Jiang might have been harmed."
The trainees didn't run directly but wanted to go upstairs. On the third floor, they had stored their confiscated clothes, phones, and other items. At this moment, someone noticed Guo Jinfu making a phone call. They realized the police (110) would arrive soon, so they abandoned the plan to continue upstairs and rushed to the gate, pushing Guo Jinfu aside and escaping.
The only female trainee still at the rehabilitation center, Sun Jingge, said that night she heard the commotion but didn't know what happened. She was too tired and fell back asleep.
At 11:30 PM, the principal Zhao Weidong, arriving at the rehabilitation center upon hearing the news, was shocked by the scene: turning on the dormitory lights revealed the room in disarray, Jiang Ming lying trembling on the cement floor with blood all over his face, bound like a dumpling with backpack ropes, his mouth deformed from being tied with ropes. Apart from three trainees who had some reservations or hadn't had time to leave, all the trainees had escaped.
This wasn't the first time the rehabilitation center experienced a trainee escape accident. In the previous few months, female trainees twice successfully escaped en masse by climbing out of windows: five girls escaped the first time, and two the second.
Rehabilitation Center
Zhao Weidong, who only taught primary school Chinese as a substitute teacher in a rural area twenty years ago, is now the legal representative and principal of the Internet Addiction Rehabilitation Center. In recent years, he was an individual entrepreneur dealing in soybeans, coal, fertilizers, pesticides, and driving cars for transportation.
Sworn as vice-principal by Zhao Weidong, Jiang Kun is 30 years old and graduated from Southeast University in 2002. He studied secretarial science and wanted to be an official. Before graduation, to find a job, Jiang Kun worked at Xu Xiangyang's studio (an institution specializing in educating "problematic students"), then quickly became inspired by Xu's passion. After resigning, he felt that such a school could be run if one had money.
In 2005, Jiang Kun met Zhao Weidong through a friend. In front of Zhao, he gave a vivid speech about the market prospects of this field, and Zhao was moved.
Zhao Weidong visited the famous "Internet addiction expert" Yang Yongxin multiple times. He went to Yang Yongxin's Internet rehabilitation center in Linyi, Shandong Province more than once: twice in 2005, three times in 2006, six times in 2007, and eventually registered his own institution on June 18, 2008.
This was a peculiar institution combining educational and internet addiction rehabilitation functions, located on the old site of the Shiqiao Primary School in Huai'an. The "faculty" consisted of only a few people. Zhao Weidong introduced that his school (when referring to the rehabilitation center, Zhao always referred to it as "our school") had at least two full-time teachers, one "Teacher Gao" and one "Teacher Jiang." "Teacher Gao" was an English teacher who retired early from a certain middle school many years ago, and "Teacher Jiang" was Jiang Kun. Additionally, there were four coaches (increased to eight after the escape of 14 youths), one "consultant," who was actually a part-time psychology graduate student coming to teach every one or two months, and leaving immediately after class without interacting with the trainees.
Those trainees defined as "internet-addicted youths" by their parents and Zhao Weidong, sent here to undergo "reform," spent most of their time watching a few legal education DVDs and playing small games in the abandoned elementary school classrooms, with no real cultural classes. As for the subjects listed on the timetable such as the Analects of Confucius, painting, calligraphy, and English, apart from lectures given by Zhao Weidong and others, the rest were mutual learning among the trainees.
The central activity for the trainees each day was running in the courtyard according to the tasks of 20 laps in the morning, 50 laps in the afternoon, or practicing formations and shouting slogans.
Jiang Kun, who rarely uses the internet, has never played online games, and has never heard of "Sister Furong" or BBS, claims to have extensive research on the internet and "internet addiction."
In Jiang Kun's view, the key to quitting "internet addiction" lies in shifting interests, and high-intensity physical training is indispensable, "First, collapse the child's energy, making him too exhausted to misbehave anymore."
As for how to determine whether a child is addicted to the internet, Zhao Weidong paused for a moment and said, since the parents sent the child here, there must be something wrong with him. Admit him first, then observe and "diagnose and treat accordingly, tailor-made education."
Back to Prison
At 2:30 AM on June 4th, Officer Qian Kun from the Xucheng Police Station received an emergency dispatch order from the 110 Command Center of the Xuyi County Public Security Bureau, saying that eight sixteen- or seventeen-year-old camouflage-clad youths were gathered in front of the Xuyi County Public Security Bureau, suspected of being a pyramid scheme gang.
Five minutes later, Qian Kun encountered the seven so-called "internet-addicted youths," including Shang Jie, and brought them back to the police station for investigation. An hour earlier, Cold Bing had already left with his mother in a taxi. Before leaving, this parent paid the full fare of 700 yuan for two taxis and left 200 yuan for the remaining youths.
The 14 escapee youths originally planned to take a taxi to Fu Xiang's home in Xuyi County, Huai'an. Fu Xiang and Han Yixin and six others boarded the first taxi and left first, followed by eight others in two additional taxis. However, the latter vehicles failed to catch up with the first one, and no one clearly heard where Fu Xiang's home was located. Finally, following Cold Bing's suggestion,