The last time his parents saw Liao Mengjun alive, he was heading to school to pick up his junior high school diploma.<\/p>\n
A few hours later, they were called to the morgue. They found that their lanky 15-year-old son’s forehead had been bashed in. His right knee jutted through the skin. Both his arms had been broken. He had several stab wounds, internal injuries and a swollen foot.<\/p>\n
His index finger was slashed, suggesting his tormentors had tried to make him write something in his own blood.<\/p>\n
As if things could be worse, writer Liao Zusheng and his wife, Chen Guoying, concluded that they knew who had killed their son: his teachers. And they believed they knew why: because of their bitter, public complaints about unauthorized fees and systemic corruption in schools and across Chinese society.<\/p>\n