CH 75

Originally, Zhou Yuan’s intention was to use the police intervention as an excuse to leave school. After all, he did not enjoy being forced to go to school by his parents. But he never had imagined that the high school student was Hua Miaomiao.

He had never imagined how his little deskmate would look like when she grew up. In his subconscious, the little deskmate was still the same timorous little girl with scars on her arms and timid eyes. 

Even if there was some degree of familiarity, he just couldn’t see the connection between the two.

He just heard her name again, which caused him to wonder why she was insistent that the bracelet was hers, which led her to fervidly argue with him. 

The bracelet, which he adorned, and hers were both ten years old.

He initially thought that the other person was unreasonable. However, after discovering Miaomiao’s identity, he understood everything all at the same time. This coincidence was just too much for him to comprehend, and he wasn’t foolish; therefore, he knew she shouldn’t be able to locate another person who wore the same women’s style bracelet with an altered chain.

Because of this coincidence, Miaomiao believed that it was hers, and it wasn’t unusual to suspect him of being the person who took it.

The more Zhou Yuan mused over it, the more he found this reunion hilarious. Especially when he noticed the other person’s swollen face and eyes. She wasn’t sure how to express anger and indignation when she was a child. It didn’t matter what tribulations she had to go through; she always felt sad for herself. Now she has grown into a brighter person.

A wave of inexpressible anger filled Miaomiao’s heart when she saw his smile.

He’s clearly doing it on purpose!

When the police were called, the teacher also naturally came along.

As soon as the teacher learned the details of this incident, he immediately defended Zhou Yuan and said, “He would never do that. His family is extremely wealthy, so he would never steal from other students.”

Miaomiao was taken aback, “But…this bracelet…it’s mine.” Miaomiao was certain that it was hers when she held the bracelet in her hands. When she was a child, she was incognizant of the material of the goods that she had purchased, and it was inexpensive as well. She peered at his bracelet and noticed that the silvery veneer was wearing away, revealing the cheap black material inside.

The teacher had a good impression of Zhou Yuan since he didn’t seem to be an average student. He explained, “Zhou Yuan was already wearing this bracelet when he first arrived.”

Miaomiao went to school before Zhou Yuan, whereas Zhou Yuan came to school afterwards. The timing and the misunderstanding that it wrought made perfect sense.

The teacher sent them away after explaining everything to the police. Then, he turned his attention to Miaomiao and explained that Zhou Yuan was an extremely intelligent student and was very wealthy; therefore, he wasn’t a thief.

Zhou Yuan glanced at Miaomiao when the teacher mentioned his name. He assumed that Miaomiao should be able to remember him.

Miaomiao was disconcerted since the teacher said he believed Zhou Yuan over her words.   

The teacher still believed him even though it’s the same bracelet.

The teacher finally said, “Please apologize to classmate Zhou Yuan. You broke someone’s bracelet.”

Miaomiao realized the futility of responding, so she clenched her fists and prepared to apologize in reluctance.

While Zhou Yuan did desire an apology from the other party, he never thought that the other party would be Miaomiao. He quickly said, “No need. It was just a misunderstanding. No one believed that we had the same bracelet.”

Despite Zhou Yuan’s words, Miaomiao still followed the teacher’s orders and bowed, and she hung her head, “I’m sorry. I’ve wronged you.”

She seemed to clench each word as she spoke.

Seeing her clenching her teeth, Zhou Yuan knew then in his heart that she did not recognize him at all, no matter how 

Although he was a little disappointed, he still asked her, “Do you really not remember me?”

Miaomiao raised her head and said, “I will remember you. I will always remember you.”

Miaomiao sat quietly in her seat all afternoon without uttering a word. Her classmates kept approaching her and asked if anything happened to her.

Zhou Yuan noticed how popular she was in class.

Miaomiao told them everything was fine, but she refused to speak with Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan touched his nose and watched Miaomiao drawing something in her sketchbook before declaring, “We met when we were kids. You gave me that bracelet. Do you really not remember me, Miaomiao?”

Miaomiao continued to ignore him.

I bought several bracelets a long time ago. I gave one to Jingjing, Deng Feng, and someone else…

Wait…

As she mulled over it, Miaomiao froze. Her head was a mess. She slowly remembered that she also gave one to another person. She could only recall a few memories about this person since her other memories took center stage in a disorganized way in her mind, like a pile of clutter. She recalled someone named “congee”.

When they were children, Miaomiao remembered that she had exchanged vows with him to never forget each other’s names. His name was ‘congee’, which was a foodstuff. Later…he went to university!

Miaomiao turned her head and gazed at the boy standing next to her. 

Why is he smugly smiling at me? And besides, that boy should’ve graduated from college by now. How is he still a high school student?

She didn’t want to argue with him at all. And his attitude made her feel as if it would be useless to try.

Zhou Yuan was a little hurt. Despite everything he said, she still could not remember him at all, yet he remembered everything about her. 

He walked out of the room, and when he returned, he placed something atop her desk. It was an ice pack.

Zhou Yuan didn’t know what had transpired that caused her face to become so swollen, but her face was tinged with shades of crimson, which the ice pack could help alleviate.

When school ended during the afternoon, Jingjing came to look for Miaomiao, but she wasn’t there.

Miaomiao didn’t tell her parents that she had been robbed. She was now outside her school, and she was traversing down a street, which bustled with activity.

With pen and paper in hand, Miaomiao realized that the only person that she could rely on was herself. She had to be the one schoolbag.

She was incognizant of the difficulty of this task, for she didn’t know how many places she needed to search.

She suspected that the thief would certainly not hold onto a large red schoolbag; it was far too conspicuous and eye-catching. 

He probably threw it away.

Miaomiao remembered which direction the motorcycle drove off towards, and she began walking in the same direction. She started to scour the garbage cans at the corner of the street for any clues about the whereabouts of her bag.

When her grandmother passed away, the thought of never seeing her again made her feel really uncomfortable.

When she couldn’t find it there, she kept combing the streets by moving from one place to another.

The physical discomfort, which was caused by this simple yet repetitive movement, made her feel a little relieved, for this discomfort made her feel as if she was making progress.

While she was searching for her bag, she came across an old lady who was combing through the trash.

The old lady was dragging a large bag behind her, and Miaomiao caught a glimpse of her red schoolbag within it.

Miaomiao was overjoyed, and she hurried after her, “Grandma, hello.”

The old lady peered at her and wondered why she had accosted her.

Miaomiao quickly said, “Grandma, this schoolbag belongs to me. I have something very important in there. Would you allow me to take a look at it?”

The old woman looked at her warily and suspiciously before saying, “I picked this bag out of the trash; it’s mine.”

Miaomiao didn’t want to argue with the old lady. “Grandma, I don’t need the schoolbag. You can keep it. I just want something that’s inside of it.”

The old woman handed the schoolbag to her and burbled, “You threw it away, and I found it. Yet now you’re asking for it back? This schoolbag is still intact and has its use.”

“It was stolen from me actually.”

She rummaged through the bag and found that her textbooks were still in the bag, but her wallet was missing. When she opened one of the inner pockets, she found the amulet inside.

Miaomiao quickly took it out, looked at the lost amulet, and cried with excitement.

I got it back, and I swear never to lose it ever again.

After returning to school, Miaomiao went to wash her hands. When she came back to her classroom, she noticed that everyone was looking at her strangely.

During this transient moment of silence, Miaomiao didn’t care about what anyone else was thinking or talking about. She returned to her seat and noticed that her tablemate hadn’t arrived yet. 

She sat down, and a girl behind Miaomiao immediately poked her with a finger. Then she uttered, “Class president, this is for you.”

She presented a small pink box before her; Miaomiao looked at it in surprise. 

The girl stood up and hugged her. “Class president. We will always be there for you.”

Another girl handed her a lunch box and chirruped, “Here’s something warm for you to eat. Jingjing told us that you haven’t eaten at all today.”

This group of high school girls had no idea how to comfort their class leader, whose loved one had passed away, but they tried their best and came up with some ideas.

Moved by their concern, Miaomiao hugged her and wept in her arms.

Jingjing arrived at Miaomiao’s classroom and found no one inside. Jingjing felt a little strange, but when she departed the classroom, she found that everyone from Miaomiao’s class was running around in circles in the playground.

The person who ran in front was Hua Miaomiao. Her very essence seemed to be filled with energy, and she ran like a madman possessed.

Jingjing joined her and ran with her.

They were followed by many classmates. Several minutes later, the girls were too tired to run anymore, so they reposed on the grass, whereas Miaomiao and the boys continued their run. The boys ran two more laps; then, they stopped and sprawled themselves on the grass.  

Miaomiao continued to run alone as if she was a madman possessed.

One of her classmates asked, “Did our class president break the record today?”

“She must be sad. I could understand.”

Another classmate added, “When my grandma passed away, I did the same.”

“I met the class president’s grandma. She had a very gentle personality.”

“I also met her.”

The boys felt a little strange, “When did you meet her?”

“When they were renovating the dormitory, we weren’t allowed to live there anymore. You boys all went to the cafe, whereas the class president took the girls to her house.”

“It was during our three-day holiday. The school didn’t want us to live in the dormitory due to the renovation, and our homes were too far away, so the class president allowed us to sojourn in her house. We didn’t even need to pay them for our sojourn.”

“Can you all live there?”

“The class president’s bed was large enough for eight people to sleep on it. The other girls had to sleep on the floor. Her grandmother insisted that we sleep with her in her room, but we wanted to chat at night, so we didn’t.”

Jingjing got up and grabbed Miaomiao as she was passing by. “Take a break,” she implored as she hugged her.

Everyone lounged on the playground, and they refused to get up due to their languor.

Miaomiao looked up at the sky and noticed that nighttime was approaching, for the evening sun’s aureous luster was beginning to surrender to the dark indigos of the night.

One of her classmates said, “I remember the last time we ran around like this. We were watching a film in our class, and it interrupted the neighboring class’ study session.”

“Our class should have also gone and reported those people next door when they first saw Sadako in the study hall.”

Miaomiao, who lounged languorously there, couldn’t help but reply, “You…you were being disobedient…” She then coughed thrice before continuing, “…At that time, I said that the teacher would definitely come and take a gander at our second class, but you didn’t listen.”

Miaomiao asked again, “How long until class starts?”

“It’s still going to take a long time. Let’s just lay here for a while and rest.”

“Yes, yes. Anyways, the English teacher will be watching over the first class of the evening’s self-study session. After a while, she will notice that everyone is gone and that there are more than forty empty seats. She’ll probably still stay in the class to watch over the seats.”

“The English teacher is too funny. She always scolds us using the same sentence.”

The male classmate mimicked the English teacher and began speaking, “It’s up to you whether to listen to me or not. The school will still pay me like usual. Even if the classroom is empty and all 42 seats are devoid of students, I’ll still teach.”

“And she also says this. If you haven’t done your homework today, get out of my classroom! Without you sesame seeds, I can’t fry the oil!”

“That one was the funniest, and as a result, the top ten students in class all went out. Someone said in a private group chat that without these ten sesame seeds, the rest of our group of muggles really couldn’t fry the oil.”

Miaomiao listened to her classmates’ rants. After running around too much, her entire body went limp, and she didn’t have the strength to talk, but her heart slowly calmed down.

“Did you guys already forget her classic line?” In a shrill voice, one boy chirruped, “You girls who are wearing skirts to school. Are you here for school, or are you trying to flirt and seduce?”

“Hahahahahaha, don’t talk about that!” Jingjing erupted in laughter, “And the very next day, you boys were a sight to behold at school! Your little incident would go down in school history!”

Miaomiao couldn’t resist smiling. The next day, all the boys from their class came to school wearing skirts in an attempt to mock their teacher.

It was particularly sensational, and it was a popular topic to talk about at school.

Although both the teacher and the school reproached her, the class president, the English teacher never reprimanded the girls or complained about their attire since that incident.

Everyone chatted and thought of many funny occurrences.

“What do you think of the handsome, new student, class president?”

Miaomiao was taken aback and replied, “…I don’t know.”

“The next class is full of idiots who don’t know that he’s out of their league. Someone should confess to him soon.”

“Class president. You should just confess to him and make him your boyfriend. That’ll piss off that group of girls next door.”

Although the two classes had the same teachers in every subject and were considered to be “brother classes”, the relationship between the two was terrible.

The next door class often reported them to the teachers for their rowdiness, and the two classes competed against each other to attain the best results. Whenever students from the two classes met, they couldn’t wait to roll their eyes up to the sky.

Miaomiao heard this, “After making him my boyfriend, should I also do some extravagant celebratory act like performing a 360-degree front flip jump, and then turn sideways for three and a half turns, followed by a 720-degree backflip?”

Jingjing teased, “Your class president already has a boyfriend.”

Miaomiao looked at Jingjing and teased back, “Why didn’t you tell me this important detail in advance? I didn’t know that I had a boyfriend.”

Miaomiao then remembered something else, “Jingjing. Do you remember anything from when we were young? We had another classmate who was very smart, and he went to college. What was his name?”

“You mean…Zhou Zhou?” Jingjing mused for a while, “His name should’ve been Zhou Yuan; I remember his name.”

Jingjing remembered his name because, at that time, she believed that Zhou Yuan’s mother must’ve only given him one yuan a week, so they named him Zhou Yuan.

Miaomiao was shocked after hearing his name, “Wait, his name was Zhou Yuan? Wasn’t his name congee?”

Jingjing nodded, “It’s Zhou Yuan.”

At this point, the bell rang.

Everyone sat up languidly, and Miaomiao began trudging back to her classroom.

When they returned to the classroom, a teacher stood near the gymnasium on the other side and asked, “Which class are you from?”

A boy cried, “Class 5!”

Then, everyone laughed and shouted, “We are in class 5.”

Finally, they helped Miaomiao go back to her classroom before hurrying back to theirs. They were in class four, and the adjoining class was class five.

Miaomiao couldn’t run back to her classroom because her feet were very sore. Two of the taller girls basically had to drag her back.

Zhou Yuan returned to the classroom a little later, and he saw the students stumbling.

Miaomiao dozed off directly on her table. She wanted to wait for Zhou Yuan to return so that she could apologize to him, but she was far too tired to stay awake. Additionally, the English teacher didn’t show up for their evening study session; therefore, she wasn’t able to resist the temptation of sleep.

A heap of gifts and cards was already piled up on a corner of Zhou Yuan’s table.

Zhou Yuan sat down and peered at Miaomiao. Her vestments and hair were soused in water, almost as if she was a fish that just came out of the water.

Zhou Yuan took off his coat and wrapped it around her.

Then, the gazes of several of his classmates greeted him regally.

After all, Zhou Yuan was a man of great importance. He sat down. His face was devoid of expression as if he hadn’t done anything of suspicion.

Miaomiao really didn’t eat anything for the entire day. First, she had to go outside to scour the city for her amulet, and then she went outside to run around wildly, accompanied by her classmates. After sleeping for a while, she woke up hungry.

After a transitory moment of bemusement, she noticed that she was sheathed in another person’s clothing. 

Miaomiao recognized the coat and returned it to Zhou Yuan. She gazed at him, and a feeling of abashment washed over her. In addition to what Jingjing had told her, Zhou Yuan also said that she had given him that bracelet when they were children.

That means…

Her gaze embarrassed Zhou Yuan, so he asked in an attempt to break her out of her stare, “Do you want anything to eat?”

He remembered that Miaomiao would become happier if she ate. This helped assuage her discomfort when she was a child.

Miaomiao pressed her temple and responded, “Um. I’m sorry. I think I misunderstood you.”