Chapter 9: The Thief
I was woken up by a text message ringtone, I was still very confused, the ringtone rang for a while and stopped, but I turned over smartly, turned on the phone, it was Zhang Xin coming.
I couldn't wait to click on it, and there weren't many words on it: thank you. This was followed by a smiling face.
Seeing that Zhang Xin could reply to the message, I felt an inexplicable fulfillment, and just wanted to make a phone call to greet Zhang Xin, Zhang Xin sent another text message: Work hard and pay attention to your body.
I dialed Zhang Xin's number, and after a while, Zhang Xin answered the phone: "Who?" β
I heard the word come out of Zhang Xin's mouth, deliberately saying in my rusty English: "i'mbe".
Zhang Xin on the other end of the phone was silent for a while, and then immediately giggled: "Okay, I know who you are." β
"How? Have you arrived? β
"It's been hours." Zhang Xin's tone was relaxed.
"And where are you?"
"City A of Province X. What's wrong? You wouldn't want to sneak over alone, would you? β
"No, I just wanted to greet you."
"I'll call you later, I see them."
Before I could say goodbye, Zhang Xin had already hung up the phone.
See them? Zhang Xin has already found her boyfriend and the foursome, and I reluctantly close the screen.
I don't know what Zhang Xin will go through, I can't do anything for her except pray for her safety.
At least, though......
With that in mind, I jumped out of bed, quickly got up and did all the daily work, and went downstairs to the print shop to start preparing for the day.
This time, I woke up very early, and the sky was still gray.
After I cleaned up the shop, I moved a stool and sat outside the door, and saw that there was already a cleaner sweeping the floor.
The sound of the salad was very pleasant, and I enjoyed the cozy morning.
One after another, students came here to print out materials and test papers and other things, and suddenly I was busy, which was a feeling that I had never felt before.
Just like a balloon full of air, I received every guest who came to print very politely and helped them bind the printed materials.
The smiles on their faces made me wonder what my high school was like, and I guess it was just a matter of going to school and doing homework every day.
"Boss, print six copies for me." A skinny boy handed me a USB flash drive.
I took the USB flash drive and plugged it into the port, and there were seven files inside: "One copy of each?" β
He glanced outside and said, "Except for that Wang Tao's, print a copy of the rest."
I was a little strange, and while I was printing, someone outside was shouting, "Shorty, is it printed?" β
The skinny boy didn't look back, just replied loudly "no".
"Shorty? Are they calling you? I asked him.
He didn't speak, just stared at me.
Only then did I notice that there were a few marks of a fight on his face, and I thought that he must have been bullied by these people all the time.
After I bound it for him, he whispered "thank you" and ran out with the papers.
There was a shouting and scolding outside: "You dead dwarf, you didn't help me print, are you looking for a fight?" β
I walked out the door and saw a thin boy being dragged by a much taller boy than him by a camphor tree not far away.
I immediately understood, walked over and pulled the two of them apart, and said to the tall boy, "Your name is Wang Tao, right?" β
The tall boy said yes with a look of chastity.
"I forgot, I didn't help you print it, I'll go and print another copy for you." I reached out and motioned for the skinny boy to give me the USB stick.
To my surprise, the skinny boy pushed the tall boy aside and ran towards the school.
The boy who saw Wang Tao also hurriedly chased after him, shouting: "You dead dwarf, see if I don't beat you to death after school!" β
There must have been a lot of this kind of thing when I was still studying, bullying, the inherent nature of living things.
When I went back to the print shop, I wanted to call Zhang Xin to ask about her situation, and I could call her number with one click, but I couldn't go on, and I always felt that I was harassing her too much?
But I was really worried about her safety, and I admired her skill and courage, but she was always facing the foursome.
I told myself that I would call once, and I would not be able to call in the future, so I dialed Zhang Xin's number, and after a few rings, I heard a sentence that made me smile bitterly: "I'm sorry, the user you dialed has been turned off." sorryβ¦β¦β
As I hung up the phone, my whole body seemed to lose all of my passion, and I leaned back in my computer chair and played cards aimlessly.
I seem to find it difficult to accept my unsatisfactory life, and I will struggle with every unsatisfactory thing for a long time.
And when I feel unsatisfactory, I feel as if God is working against me.
I lost several times in a row, until I was lucky enough to get four 2s, and I was blown up by someone, and I closed the page in frustration and sat in my computer chair in frustration.
"Boss, I'll print ......"
"The machine is broken, tomorrow."
I couldn't sit still anymore because of the similar conversations that repeated in the print shop, so I simply wrote a note and pasted it on the door, saying "Machine repair, open tomorrow", and then locked the door and went outside.
The wound on my hand began to heal and itch, and the doctor at the clinic talked to me again, so I decided to go and sit with him.
After turning a few corners, I entered the clinic, and the doctor, wearing reading glasses, seemed to have forgotten that I had been here yesterday, and he didn't remember that I had been there until I said I had come to his place yesterday morning to see my hands.
It's no wonder that he has a lot of people in the clinic a day, and the doctor is quite old, with white hair, and the age spots on his face are not exposed to his face at all.
"Yesterday I was going to ask you to come over today to change the gauze, but you ran away as soon as you slipped away, and you couldn't hear me shouting at you." The old doctor removed the gauze and said in a slightly reprimanding tone.
"Yes, yes, there was something urgent yesterday." I'm like a child of my elders' criticism.
"Your wounds heal well." The old doctor took my hand and looked at it over and over for a long time.
"Maybe I'm in better shape." I'm not here to change gauze, but because there is no one to talk to.
Later, when more people came to the clinic for medical treatment, the old doctor didn't have time to pay attention to me, so I left the clinic in a funny way.
When I walked out of the clinic, I was in no mood to go back to the print shop to continue working, and the temperature was around 35.36 degrees Celsius, which is not an exaggeration to describe it as hot as a dog.
I pulled out my phone, I knew nothing, I hadn't heard any text or ringtone for incoming calls, but my heart forced me to look!
Turning off my phone, I wiped the sweat from my nose, threw it on the ground, and went to my accommodation.
It was 10 a.m., and when I returned to my room door exhausted, I opened two large bags of shopping bags containing all kinds of snacks and bottled water.
Just as I was drinking water, I heard a strange sound coming from Zhang Xin's room.
It sounds like the sound of a moving cabinet rubbing against the floor.
My heart is tight, Zhang Xin can't come back at this time, was he robbed?
I ran to Zhang Xin's room and found that the door was closed, but there was a sound of rummaging through the cabinets.
With two clicks, my hand slapped the door, and then I shouted, "What? Stealing? Call the police! β
I put my ear to the door and listened, it was quiet inside, and I wondered if I should kick it open to see what was going on.
Immediately, I measured my strength, took a few steps back, and slammed my foot on the door.
There was a clang, and the door was broken, but something blocked it.
I pushed the door a few times with my shoulder, and found that something blocking the door was very heavy, like a bookcase or something.
After thinking about it quickly, I found a higher stress point, pushed the door hard, and with a bang, mixed with the sound of glass breaking, the door opened a small crack.
I hurried into the room, only to see a figure leaping from the windowsill.
No, although this is the second floor, ordinary people still don't dare to jump, I ran to the windowsill to take a look, I didn't have time to see clearly, the figure flashed, disappeared in the corner of the house.
I felt terrible, the bookcase collapsed by the door, the cabinet full of books was scattered on the floor, pieces of glass were shattered on the ground, and then I looked at the rest of the room, Zhang Xin's clothes and card materials were thrown all over the floor.
I had to clean up quickly, I first scrapped a lot of effort to lift up the bookcase, and almost all the books in the bookcase fell outside, this old-fashioned bookcase is quite heavy just with an empty bookcase.
I pushed the bookcase against the wall and picked up the books from the floor and folded them in a stack.
Zhang Xin's hobbies are really extensive, from romance magazines that girls like to read, to classical Chinese books to foreign books, which are basically brand new.
When I picked up a diary, I had a bad mind, this feeling I believe many people have, when they see other people's diaries, they will be very curious, a strong curiosity ** is inflated.
When I held the notebook, my heart was pounding, and I desperately suppressed my desire, but it seemed to my mind that this notebook might have clues about my amnesia, or somehow, I wanted to know Zhang Xin's secret.
Eventually, I lost in my own desires, and I opened my journal with a weak heart.
On the first page, Zhang Xin only wrote her name.
Page 2, blank.
Page 3, blank.
I flipped through more than 10 pages, and it was still blank.
Hasn't Zhang Xin had time to write this diary?
I became impetuous, flipped quickly, and there was a page that was not blank, and I quickly found the page, and there was a note in it, and I picked it up and looked at it.
It reads: Zhang Xin, don't come with you, cherish.
Don't come along?
I remembered the strange man who appeared with Zhang Xin, who should have left it, and when I was rescued, I also received a note, which looked like it was left by the same person.
I put the note away, trying to compare it with the one I had received.
I was about to flip through the diary itself when a voice came over: "What's wrong?" β
I was startled, I was already weak because I secretly checked Zhang Xin's diary, but at this time, someone was talking behind me.
When I turned around and saw that it was the landlord's aunt, I let out a long breath: "Someone just came into the house to steal something." β
"I was playing mahjong downstairs opposite, and when I saw someone jumping down from here and escaping, I hurried over to have a look." Aunt landlord said.
"It's okay, it's okay, I didn't lose anything valuable." I don't think I can report this to the police, I don't have an ID card, and I guess it's troublesome to go through the procedures.
The landlord's aunt came over, and while packing up Zhang Xin's clothes, she said, "Let me clean up this girl's clothes." β
"Don't bother you, I'll just come." I don't want to cause trouble for the landlord.
"You clean up, this girl is not your girlfriend, what do you want to do?" I was reminded by the words of the landlord's aunt.
"Yes, too." I closed my eyes tightly and cursed myself for what I was thinking.
"If you want to call the police, you can do it, report it in my name, but there is no monitoring here, and it is enough to investigate."
"No, let's see if there's anything missing." I put stacks of books in the bookcase.
"When you first rented the house, I said that there was no monitoring here, and you usually had to close the doors and windows."
"Yes, yes." I said in my heart that this wooden door was just this one, and I kicked it open and closed it tightly.
"If you're really fine, I'll play mahjong." The landlord didn't wait for me to speak, and had already walked out the door.
I'm very touched that the landlord can come over and help me clean up, and the aunt on the other side of Zhang Xin's bed is basically cleaned up.
Seeing that the landlord and aunt were gone, I was itching, and I wanted to peek at Zhang Xin's diary, but before I could get it, the landlord's aunt's voice came from outside the door: "What is the matter to find me in the mahjong shop below." β
"Okay." I responded, stopped thinking about what secrets were hidden in Zhang Xin's diary, and carefully cleaned up the house.
After tidying up, the room looked generally tidy, and I looked at it several times before I closed the windows again and prepared to lock them.
The door lock was broken, so I had to find a lock number attached to the telephone pole and call it to get it right.
I don't know when Zhang Xin will come back, but her phone still can't get through, and I don't know if she deliberately didn't answer or if her phone was dropped or stolen.
Things were lackluster after that, and I spent the day in a dazed and numb waiting.