Chapter 94: No Smoke Without Fire

Since Daniel’s father had already paid, it would have been strange if old Principal Batistuta had still put up a fight. In any case, the school wasn’t paying for it, so there was no need even to haggle, and he agreed to the purchase on the spot.

Private secondary schools and private universities rely heavily on donations. Alumni and people from all walks of life contribute money to fund scholarships, campus construction, major events, and so on. Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, and the like are prime examples: most of the buildings on those campuses were funded by private donors.

Now the alumni of Stanford had also grown wealthy, and each year the university received plenty of donations. Lately they had been improving student housing, even installing air conditioners and water heaters in the dormitories. In short, the wealthier the alumni and parents of students on campus became, the wealthier the school itself grew. Giving back to one’s alma mater after achieving success had already become a tradition in Western society.

People often say that the rich donate assets merely to evade taxes, but some of those donations do go to practical use. More importantly, such acts help cultivate a healthy social ethos of helping others.

Whether one called it a casual kindness or simply Daniel’s father not caring, Sumu had already decided he would voluntarily reduce part of the profit margin. Otherwise, there was no way to make it sound reasonable.

“That’s right. He is a very generous man. We’ve known each other since we were young. Now go on to class; the computers don’t need to be anything special, just enough for the students to learn on.”

With those words and a smile, old Principal Batistuta went into the teachers’ office. He had only come to pass along the news and had no intention of staying to chat with Sumu for long.

Still dazed, Sumu remained where he was. Then the bell for class rang in his ear, and he remembered he still had to go to history class. He broke into a run to find his classroom.

Breaks between lessons were very short. It was not until lunch that Sumu finally had a chance to look for Daniel.

He bought an egg sandwich and a hot dog stuffed into a bun and spread with ketchup. Lately he had been growing faster, so he ate quite a lot at lunch. As he ate, he looked for Daniel, only to notice, to his surprise, that students kept pointing at him. He wondered what was going on.

A senior with red hair and freckles saw Sumu and instantly showed a look of disgust, hurling an insult without the slightest restraint: “Freak. You’re interested in men’s asses? You make me sick!”

Beside him, a white boy holding a football also looked down on Sumu and said, “How can a student like you be allowed at our school? Get out now!”

A man of Indian descent standing nearby also said in English, “Where I come from, someone like that would be held under a river until he drowned, unless he admitted he liked women...”

At last Sumu understood what they were saying. He stopped walking and frowned hard.

“Me? Gay? Don’t spout nonsense here. My orientation is perfectly normal. Just seeing you makes me want to vomit.”

The sturdy white boy instinctively clenched his fist, wanting to punch Sumu and teach him a lesson, but then he remembered this was a school and ultimately did not dare make a move. Instead he said, “Molly and the others already told their friends that you’re gay! Always hanging around that skinny white boy. Disgusting.”

After all the uproar in later generations, even drawing in Supreme Court justices and the president, gay people still faced discrimination everywhere in society. That was to say nothing of the 1980s, when there was no protection at all.

Even if someone liked their own sex, they usually would not dare tell anyone. It was slightly better for women, but men were discriminated against everywhere and might even be beaten.

In the Middle Ages, men caught in such acts were hanged or burned, treated as something akin to heretics. During World War II, the Nazis executed such people without mercy, not even sparing Germans. In more modern times, some medical experts considered it a disease and forced them to undergo testosterone injections, electroshock therapy, castration, lobotomy, and other brutal treatments.

Sir Alan Matheson Turing, hailed by many as one of the founders of modern computing, was accused of “gross indecency and sexual inversion” and forced to undergo hormone treatment. He ultimately died by suicide and has still not been fully vindicated.

Same-sex behavior is visible throughout the animal kingdom: swans, monkeys, mandarin ducks, lions, and many more. Human beings are not the same. Orientation is determined from birth and cannot be changed.

Sumu did not like men. He knew this very well. Otherwise, the first unlucky one would have been the beautiful Miss Du, not Daniel. Whatever the case, it was not Daniel who should have been involved. At last he understood why such rumors had spread. Most likely it was because the girls around Molly had been rejected by him too many times, grown angry and embarrassed, and deliberately spread this false story. Whether by accident or on purpose, it left him thoroughly annoyed.

He could not be bothered to argue with these people, who already looked down on him. There were many Indians in America, and they knew exactly where they stood, always cast in the role of little sidekicks, one step below the white people, and even looked down on by black people. Hearing the Indian student continue to insult him, Sumu tossed out the words “idiot” and walked away.

He still could not find Daniel. After lunch break, classes continued, and this time even his classmates knew he was gay. Menlo Park High was simply too small; any piece of gossip would spread through the whole school in less than half a day. Sumu did not want to deal with them, and no one believed his explanation anyway.

Compared with becoming the school’s “star,” he preferred the time before anyone paid attention to him. Even the white students who had occasionally spoken to Sumu before now quietly kept their distance, a faint contempt showing in their eyes.

Before this, Sumu had not understood what sort of discrimination those people endured. Today he understood. This kind of prejudice was even more hurtful than racial discrimination, and yet there was no way to complain about it. He spent the entire afternoon distracted.

When school ended in the evening, Sumu learned that the computer club he had just joined had rejected his application. The reason need not be repeated. Wherever he went, people pointed at him, and one girl even asked whether he squatted to use the toilet.

He was not the type to passively endure humiliation. He only replied, “You’re too ugly for me to talk to,” and left without giving her another glance. On the other hand, an Italian boy with a rather flamboyant way of walking eagerly came over to welcome Sumu, even giving him a flirtatious look and asking whether he had time to go out for dinner together.

Sumu answered, “This is exactly why people keep discriminating against you. Do you understand?”

The other boy did not care at all. His smile was strange. “Not you people. Us.”

Fine. Even ten mouths would not be enough to explain it clearly. After thinking it over, the best solution was still to address the root of the problem. Unfortunately, after searching all over, he still could not find the girls who usually teased him.

Daniel was the same—perhaps deliberately hiding, perhaps purposely distancing himself. Sumu did not see him after school that day either.

Li Pingan was waiting for Sumu at the school gate. Since he was not wearing a uniform and could not prove that he was a teacher, the security guard stopped him. When he heard that Sumu had actually been slandered as liking men, he laughed so hard he collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach, his face twisted. “Hahahahaha! I’m dying, I’m dying!”

Annoyed, Sumu kicked him and said with a headache, “Stop it already! Laugh again and I’ll make you sleep on the street! Or else you go help me find those girls and, after you win them over, help me explain things?”

“Yow, I’m about to suffocate from laughing. I’ll tell Du Niang to be careful—didn’t that guy have enormous appeal to you?”

After saying that, he burst out laughing again and could not stop. It took a long while before he finally managed to stand up. His face red, Li Pingan shouted with righteous fervor, “Good brother, we share the same fate in hardship! Tomorrow I’ll help you deal with them. We’ll take them on together! I can handle it...”