CH 74

Black jacket, tall figure, and the same old bracelet! The most important thing is that this bracelet looked like the same one in her purse.

Miaomiao had never quibbled, quarreled, or gotten angry with anyone since her childhood years, but she was extremely incensed today. At first, her Grandmother died, which was a very big blow to Miaomiao.

Miaomiao stood up and stared daggers at the boy. Then, she realized that she was too short, and her aura didn’t intimidate him at all. She tried her best to suppress her tears, and calmly asked, “Classmate…did you see a red bag today? I…I…” Her voice started to falter.  

She tried her best not to reveal details of her robbery since she wanted him to confess his crimes, “I lost it by accident.”

The boy, Zhou Yuan, froze for a moment. He didn’t understand what the girl was talking about. The girl in front of him was little, but her face was ruddy and round, and her eyes were very swollen. He inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity emanating from her. Normally, he wanted nothing to do with high-schoolers, but the other party desired his bracelet, which he naturally wouldn’t part with. The only party said so many strange things, and after listening to them, he felt a little strange, “Huh?”  

Confusion also consumed Jingjing, so she uttered, “Class president, is your school bag missing?” 

Miaomiao and Jingjing bought that big incarnadine bag together; therefore, Jingjing understood the hidden meaning behind her statements.  

Miaomiao was the acting class monitor during her middle and high school days, so everybody nicknamed her “class president”, whereas Jingjing simply called her Miaomiao just like in primary school.

Zhou Yuan was morose. His parents had forced him to enroll into a high school to assuage his stress. At first, he was hesitant to come, but it was even worse now since he has encountered two unreasonable people, which worsened his mood even more.

The girls were merely high school students, and Zhou Yuan had little concern for them. After putting on his coat, he turned around and left.

When Miaomiao noticed him departing from the room, she stepped forward to grab hold of him. She calmed down and chirruped, “Classmate. The bracelet on your hand greatly resembles mine. It was in my school bag, which I lost today. Do you recall seeing a large red schoolbag?”

That bag contained many things that were precious to Miaomiao, including an amulet of paramount importance.

A while ago, Grandmother once announced to her family that she had a nightmare in which Miaomiao fell into a dark river. She immediately dived in there and swam around in an attempt to find her, but she was unable to find Miaomiao.

The dream was so realistic that Grandmother even warned Miaomiao not to enter this river after having this dream.

In order to ease her disquietude, Miaomiao told her that she wouldn’t even touch a bucket of water. 

One day, she got home from school, and she found out that her Grandmother was still perturbed by all of this; therefore, she went to the temple to ask for an amulet. 

She had received it the night before, and then her Grandmother died the very next day.

No matter what, Miaomiao had to retrieve this amulet.

Her tears began to flow, but she couldn’t ask him directly for it since it would just anger the boy. A high school boy was filled with high self-esteem, and she could not tear their faces apart*.

Jingjing, who stood next to her, heard everything now, so she took a broom from the corner to use as a weapon. She said to Zhou Yuan while uttering, “Class president, don’t cry. I’ll get back your amulet for you!”

Zhou Yuan conjectured that the high school student before him had lost her bag. After realizing that she was his neighboring classmate, who suspected him of her things, he explained in a brusque manner, “I didn’t see your schoolbag.”

She obviously suspected him of taking her bag.

What would I do with a girl’s bag?

When he finished, Zhou Yuan glanced at the girl, who was almost about to pounce on him. Jingjing was startled by his abrupt glance and took a step back. Afterwards, Zhou Yuan departed.

Zhou stepped out of the school, and he noticed a car. After a brief moment of hesitation, he approached the car.

Mother Zhou asked him immediately after he sat in the car, “High school is different from university, right? Did anything exciting happen today?”

In a cheerful tone, Father Zhou added, “It must be a happy occasion.”

Zhou Yuan sat in the back seat. He didn’t want to spoil his parents’ good mood. He simply replied, “It was okay. I won’t go tomorrow.”

Mother Zhou looked at Father Zhou, her eyes filled with guilt. It would’ve been better if she had been more firm and resolute and forced him to stay in elementary school. At the very least, he would have a happy life filled with friends. At least, his life would be wreathed in smiles, and he wouldn’t be consumed by the morosity that he had now.

Mother Hua toughened up a bit this time, “It’s better if you take a few more classes. You will get a taste of what high school is like.”

It’s best to make some new friends and play basketball and other games with other boys of his age. It’s also okay for him to fall in love, so long as he could be happy.

In the end, Zhou Yuan didn’t say anything. His current tablemate came to mind. The more he thought about it, the more familiarity he felt with her. Discomfort would beset him when he noticed her crying.

This wasn’t the first time he saw someone cry, but this was the first time he saw someone whose face and eyes became swollen after weeping.

Is it an allergy?

Meanwhile, Miaomiao was speaking with Jingjing in their classroom; she explained, “It’s not an allergy.”

She wasn’t comfortable discussing her Grandmother’s death as it was a painful memory.

When Jingjing probed further, Miaomiao decided to tell her. The news shocked Jingjing. Jingjing spent a lot of time at Miaomiao’s house since her childhood years, and she had a special bond with her grandmother. Jingjing also cried with her.

After crying for a while, neither of them wanted to eat.

Miaomiao’s only clue concerning her schoolbag was the bracelet she placed inside of it, “Jingjing. Do you remember the bracelet that I gave you when you were a child?”

The reason why Miaomiao held onto the bracelet for so long was because she saved up some money to buy it when she was younger. At that time, she purchased four bracelets and kept one for herself. She wore it all the time during her childhood years. As she started gaining more flesh and weight around her wrists, she altered the chain to make it larger. But eventually, she became thinner again and couldn’t wear it anymore. But she didn’t want to keep altering the bracelet all the time; therefore, she simply stored it within her bag.

It was quite a coincidence that the bracelet on this person’s hand was also altered to become larger and was fraught with the wear and tear of time.

It’s obviously mine.

For a while, Jingjing was unsure about where she threw her bracelet. She often loses her things because she doesn’t take care of them.

But after digesting Miaomiao’s words, Jingjing was convinced that the boy had taken Miaomiao’s bag. 

“It’s okay. We’ve found a suspect now! We’ll definitely get your schoolbag back without any problem. By the way, Miaomiao, how much money was in there? Was your new cell phone also in there as well?” Jingjing asked. 

Miaomiao nodded, “My wallet was inside of it. It had about a thousand yuan inside.”

“Then that’s nearly six thousand yuan if you add them altogether. Did you call the police?”

Miaomiao nodded, “They’re looking for it. I’ll be notified if they find something.”

“Let’s speak with the police first!” Jingjing burbled, pulling Miaomiao to her feet.

Miaomiao pulled Jingjing back, “Wait a minute. If he found out that we informed the police to arrest him, what do you think he’ll do? He’ll try to exonerate himself by tossing away my bag and my belongings. He’ll try to get rid of the evidence. Then, I’ll never recover them.”

Jingjing thought that this was reasonable, “Then you shouldn’t talk to the police for now.”

After eating his lunch, Zhou Yuan went back to school. He went into the classroom and saw his deskmate scrawling something down. Shafts of sunlight poured through the windows and draped around her hair. This sight caused some long forgotten but blurry memory to awaken within him. It was like some abandoned memory, which tickled his senses.

He had an excellent memory, and even now, he still remembered what had happened when he was merely two or three years old. However, this memory wasn’t formed during his postgraduate years, but rather it was one from another time and place.

He strode into the room with his long legs. His tablemate raised her head and asked, “Can we talk about it?”

Zhou Yuan was confused when he heard this, “Although I’m your tablemate, you were already in your seat when I got here; therefore, why do you think I took your stuff?”

Miaomiao felt that Zhou Yuan was being unreasonable. She pointed at the bracelet on his wrist and angrily burbled, “This bracelet was the same one in my bag. If you didn’t steal my bag, then where did it come from?”

On the other hand, Zhou Yuan also found her to be unreasonable, “I had worn this bracelet since I was a child. As I grew older, I altered the chain to make it larger.”

How could it be hers?!

Miaomiao was red with anger as he refused to admit his crime. It was really too much!

In an instant, Miaomiao grabbed his bracelet and angrily exclaimed, “This is a woman’s bracelet!”

This is clearly mine!

She had never seen anyone so shameless! Although he had perfect looks on the outside, he was like this on the inside.

Zhou Yuan was starting to run out of patience, and he replied, “The person who gave this to me doesn’t know that it’s for women. Let go of your hand.”

Miaomiao was fraught with ire and consternation at this point, but he asked her to let go. Instead of letting go of it, she tightened her grip on it and didn’t let go.

Zhou Yuan attempted to wrest his hand away from her grip, which caused the bracelet to break.

Miaomiao immediately grabbed it, “If you like this bracelet, I could gift it to you. But you must return my amulet.”

Zhou Yuan looked at the bracelet. Anger gleamed in his eyes, and he coldly said, “Give it back to me!”

Miaomiao’s eyes were red with tears and anger, “Or tell me where you found this bracelet.”

Zhou Yuan was fuming, “I don’t know where your schoolbag is. Give me back that bracelet.”

“How could you not know? This bracelet is mine. It cost me ten dollars to alter it and make it larger.” Miaomiao burbled, “I’m not mistaken! Besides, it’s a bracelet that I bought years ago from a street stall. You can’t have the exact same bracelet with a larger chain!”

Zhou Yuan pressed his temples, grabbed his cell phone, and immediately called the police.

As soon as Miaomiao noticed that he was calling the police, she was seething with anger.

She was also very worried.

If he calls the police, will he throw everything away to hide the evidence?

Miaomiao was fraught with anger and anxiety. The police arrived quickly. Miaomiao visited them earlier this morning. Her eyes were so swollen that only a small slit could be seen, and her face appeared to be affected by allergies. It took the policeman only a single glance to recognize her.

“Hua Miaomiao?”

“Hello, uncle.” Miaomiao bowed politely.

Next to him, Zhou Yuan turned his head and gazed at the girl he had just judged to be unreasonable.

Suddenly, he remembered how his parents had repeatedly asked him during noon whether or not he was happy…

He wondered how he could be happy while attending high school.

Zhou Yuan’s mood was complicated, or so it was said.

Miaomiao elucidated the whole situation to the police, and she tried not to be influenced by her own personal feelings.

She looked at her tablemate and wanted to hear what he had to say!

Then she saw her tablemate smiling at her. He said, “Are you allergic? Why does your face look swollen?”

*Tear their face apart- Have no consideration for someone’s feelings; offend someone openly; shed all pretenses of cordiality.