Watching the news about the fire on TV, Song’s grandfather worried about the safety of his grandson because he knew that the boy “stays in Internet bars all day long.” But the old man had not see his grandson since April. On June 18 afternoon, he felt something might have gone wrong when policemen came to visit him and asked about his grandson. He noticed that the policemen carefully put on white gloves when they opened door of the boy’s room. Tow days later, his grandson was declared suspect of the Internet bar arson. “I feel the heaven was down,” the old man described his feeling at the moment.

Song’s mother, a department manager of a computer company, cried desperately when she was told about the news. “I knew my child’s life is ruined,” she murmured. She divorced Song’s father 13 years ago and left her boy behind when he was only one-year-old. Now she has her own family and a second son.

When Song’s parents got divorced in 1988, the one-year-old child was asked to choose his guardian – whom of the two he turned to at the moment would be the one of his “willing choice.” But this was a wrong choice, according to the family’s neighbors. The Chinese believe that a child’s father should be his or her primary teacher. In Song Chun’s case, his father should be responsible for a great part of his criminal behaviors.

In 1992, Song Yi, Song’s father, became a fugitive for an incident that caused someone injured. Song was put under the care of his grandparents. Three years later, Song Yi returned home yet became a drug abuser. He cared nothing, even his son who was beside him, when he was addicted. Eventually the young Song learned where his father hid his drugs. Even more tragic for Song’s childhood was that his father has had three “wives,” though he did not go through the legal process with any of them. The first two stepmothers maltreated Song terribly, and the second one, by the name of Yu Ping, was even worse. Once she beat the boy’s hands with a dough-making baton that made them swollen high. In another case, she hit Song’s head mercilessly with her high-heeled shoe until the 10-year-old boy lost conscious.

However, in his grandfather’s memory, Song was such a smart boy that he could recognize all the chessmen of Chinese chess at the age of four. He was the monitor of his class when he was in primary school. During the second semester of his second year in junior high, he became very serious about his studies and made a great progress after learning that his mother might send him to study in the United States.

Song changed dramatically after his father was imprisoned for drug abusing in early 2002, shortly before the Spring Festival, a traditional Chinese festival for family reunion. From March 2002, Song stopped going to school. He threw away all his books and moved out of his grandfather’s home.

During the following three months, Song spent most of his time with Zhang Fan, also a victim of a broken family. Zhang’s parents got divorced when he was a little boy and the judge decided that Zhang should live with his mother since his father had been imprisoned because of deliberately injuring others. Thereafter, Zhang’s mother, instead of living together with her son, rent another apartment for him and provided him money for basic expenses each month. After knowing her son was one of arsonists, Zhang’s mother never showed up in her own neighborhood. The only thing showing her concern for her son was a note she left at Song’s grandfather’s home, which asked Zhang to go to see her if he survived this accident.

Zhang was a bad boy compared with Song. He often robbed his classmates for money and once broke a hand of one of them. A young man 1.7 meters tall, he was often seen wandering idly with a girl. The two boys became good friends early this year. Song took Zhang to his grandfather’s place and eventually moved the old man’s TV set and refrigerator to Zhang’s apartment. It was their crazy about Internet that had brought the two of them together. They spent their money for breakfast in Internet bars, and sometimes even stay online 24-hours-round.

In late May this year, the newly-opened Internet bar, Lanjisu, offered low cost to attract netizens in the nearby neighborhoods. Zhang and Song found their “happy hours” there, but their limited money was soon gone. “Don’t dream of logging in without money!” A bar clerk’s words made them feel insulted and they decided to revenge. That was how the fire was set.

Does the school in which both Zhang and Song studied have any responsibility for this accident? Song’s grandfather said “yes.” But the school’s authorities declined to face the media.

A criminal law specialist said that according to China’s criminal law, Song should be responsible for his crime because he has reached 14; as for Zhang, the 13-years-old boy, he may not be sentenced as a criminal, but there is still the question how he is going to face his own future.

(china.org.cn by Li Liangdu, July 27, 2002)