The recent incident of a public assault vividly demonstrates the hyper-connectivity and widespread instant participation characteristic of today's platformization. Prior to the video of the assault appearing on the homepage of Douyin, another live-streaming platform had users broadcasting a significant portion of the assault incident. Despite the interruption of the livestream midway, the viewership had already surpassed hundreds of thousands. Public opinion surged, with related topics dominating the top six trending searches.
Fourteen hours later, the police in City C issued a public report on the "multiple men assaulting women" incident, emphasising that the case had been filed as a criminal investigation. The police swiftly apprehended the suspects involved and they are currently in criminal detention. Simultaneously, the social and political backgrounds of the suspects were uncovered by netizens, revealing that three of the men were involved in illicit activities, with two having prior criminal records. The two female victims from the video were urgently taken to the City People's Hospital that evening. After emergency treatment, they were placed under observation in the ICU.
Zhong Shao, Yu Cheng, and several staff members from WAT arrived in City C at dawn the next day and spent nearly three hours on the ICU floor of the City People's Hospital.
One of the injured female victims from last night is named Tao Tao, who underwent a successful hematopoietic stem cell transplant therapy not long ago and remains the first person who has not relapsed. Tao Tao.
This is her first trip with a friend after falling ill. Although Tao Tao's physical strength is not the best, she can still manage travelling in the city.
The incident occurred at an open-air barbecue restaurant on World Trade Street, just a few hundred meters from their hotel.
At the time, Tao Tao and her friend were undecided about whether to have a barbecue. Tao Tao stood at the door of the restaurant scanning the QR code on the menu, while her friend went to a nearby bubble tea shop to get some drinks.
It was during these few minutes when her friend was away that the incident happened.
Based on the surveillance footage from inside the store and CCTV, it is evident that Tao Tao was not the victim, but rather intervened to rescue a woman who was being dragged out of the store by a man pulling her hair.
The woman was seated across from a group of men who were initially chatting loudly and drinking alcohol in a public setting, showing no regard for their surroundings. Their behaviour was inappropriate, and they continued to leer at the woman throughout the encounter.
One of the men then placed a beer bottle in front of the woman and invited her to join them at their table, despite her initial polite refusal. As the woman persistently declined their advances, the intoxicated men became aggressive and made derogatory remarks towards her appearance.
Feeling harassed and uneasy, the woman, dressed in a white off-shoulder dress, attempted to leave the situation by picking up her belongings from another chair.
The woman's actions in preparing to leave made the man feel disrespected, with his machismo fueling a raging fire within. He grabbed the woman's loose hair and dragged her out of the barbecue restaurant, spewing unclean words.
Despite the woman's struggles, she could not break free from the man's grip. Two of the man's accomplices, as if coordinated, each holding a bottle, snatched the woman's phone while the other grabbed her bag. The commotion attracted a crowd as they made their way from the restaurant to the entrance, drawing unwanted attention.
The two accomplices flaunted their poorly executed tattoos to the onlookers, speaking harshly, "What are you looking at? Haven't you seen a couple argue before?"
The woman continued to resist, shouting, "I have nothing to do with them," but received no response.
The restaurant owner rushed out, hesitant to intervene as they were all his customers, worried about the impact on his business. Before he could speak, one of the men holding a bottle grabbed his chef's uniform, brandishing the bottle as a threatening glass weapon, warning him not to interfere.
The owner's expression showed signs of intimidation.
As the man with his hand tangled in the woman's hair approached the crowd, preparing to make way, Tao Tao grabbed the woman's hand with one hand and held the man's wrist with the other.
"Let go."
"Who are you?"
Both spoke simultaneously, their voices laced with impatience. Although the man in front was burly, his round belly and tattooed arms indicated his strength.
"She said she has nothing to do with you."
Tao Tao didn't release either of her hands. The man's fierce expression intensified, as he sneered, "Who do you think you are? She says it's none of your business, it isn't? What if I say I'm your father? You, neither man nor woman, mind your own business."
Tao Tao, dressed loosely, with short hair framing her face, looked somewhat handsome.
The man forcefully shook off Tao Tao's hand, while she still tightly held the woman. With a disdainful look, the man's accomplice pulled the woman away from Tao Tao, dragging her into a nearby alley.
Xiaoyou, Tao Tao's friend, returned when she was pulled away from the crowd, catching only a glimpse of her silhouette. As the milk tea spilt on the ground, Xiaoyou chased after the gap.
A crowd gathered outside the barbecue restaurant, surrounding the alley entrance. The alley was pitch black, filled with the sound of punches and kicks, mixed with curses and cries. No one dared to intervene, only hearing repeated shouts from the crowd: "Stop, stop."
Xiaoyou stood in shock, with a blank mind, tears on her face, legs trembling, leaning against the wall for a while before snapping out of it and running towards the depths of the alley as if insane. Just as they took a few steps, the sounds in the alley gradually faded, replaced by whispers, then three men passed by in a hurry, looking nervous and shaking with fear, their fat jiggling.
Before the men could push through the crowd at the alley entrance, police sirens pierced the sky. People seemed to find relief and a signal, using primitive physical tactics to surround the three men in the middle.
Meanwhile, Xiaoyou, who had brushed past the men, stood three meters away, looking at two girls covered in blood on the ground.
After the incident occurred 20 hours.
The relevant government departments in City C held a live working meeting, emphasising the need to strictly and promptly punish the severe incident of provocation, violence, and assault at the barbecue shop in accordance with the law. Simultaneously, a special campaign against organised crime and evil will be launched throughout the city to eradicate social evils such as organised crime completely.
However, this does not alleviate the criticism on social media regarding City C's claim to be a "female-friendly city."'
When an incident of female persecution happens in a city that boasts of being "female-friendly," with no one intervening or taking action, its friendly image is silenced in the noise of society, making the claim of being female-friendly seem laughable and ironic.
After a day and night, the information of the two injured women in public opinion is well protected, while the personal information of the two barbecue shop owners is leaked and exposed online, various degrees of harassment towards surrounding stores.
Out of public anger, his version of events goes unheard, with only a few words on the police record proving that he attempted to intervene, as evidenced by his emergency call.
However, these written accounts will ultimately be put aside.
Several topics with the keyword "superhot" continue to remain prevalent. In addition to requesting that the police and relevant departments in City C make the cases transparent to the public and awaiting the official announcement of the current physical condition of the two female victims, the topic #VisibleWomen: ICanSay# has accumulated 1.5 billion views since the incident.
Women, accounting for nearly half of the national population, have been ignored and silenced in the past. In this era, they can also represent themselves and speak out, rather than compromise and remain silent like objects.
Amidst the overwhelming public opinion, there are also many sympathetic comments towards male perpetrators of violence, directing blame towards the female victims themselves, aiming to subjugate women's appearance, clothing, and behaviour under patriarchal control. This inflammatory rhetoric undoubtedly further fuels the raising of the feminist banner by netizens.
Women have never been a gender to be taken lightly, devoid of any thoughts. They have long been trapped in an unreasonable social system, they are clear-minded, waiting for a revolution, ready to stir up a storm.