Rebirth

"You said Zheng Tong doesn't live in the dormitory?"

Among the six tables, only Zheng Tong's table had very little stuff on it. He touched the tabletop and found it was indeed dusty.

"Yeah." Tan Xiaolian said, "She's rarely been in the dormitory since her sophomore year. Our school doesn't often check on dormitories, so she might have rented a house outside."

"Are you on good terms with her?"

Several people looked at each other, and Tan Xiaolian said timidly, "She's just okay. We... don't know her well."

There were few things on Zheng Tong's desk, and the drawn curtains showed that she had not been back for a long time.

"Do you know anything about her boyfriend Peng Yue?"

"Boyfriend?" Ge Qiushuang snorted in disdain as a reflex, "Peng Yue is next in line?"

This taunting remark drew a warning from Tan Xiaolian. Ge Qiushuang understood her expression and stumbled over it, "Ah... Peng Yue, I'm not sure."

Chen An smiled, pulled out Zheng Tong's stool, and sat down. "You seem to have a lot of opinions about Zheng Tong."

"No, no!" Ge Qiushuang, who had spoken too quickly just now, denied it dejectedly.

"You two must have had a good relationship before, why did you stop communicating later?"

Several people looked at Tan Xiaolian at the same time. It was obvious that Tan Xiaolian was the leader of this five-person group.

Tan Xiaolian frowned, "How do you know we had a good relationship before?"

"Books." Chen An pulled a poetry collection from Zheng Tong's dusty bookshelf. "Tagore's Stray Birds. Each of you has one."

Tan Xiaolian's book was tucked away under her subject textbooks, and her poetry collection had long since yellowed and looked worn, likely from numerous reads. Ge Qiushuang's book was on the shelf, twice as thick from the side, indicating she'd been through a lot of reading.

Chen An continued, "There's a poster for a poetry club event on her desk. I guess you two were in the poetry club together, right?"

Seeing that hiding it was useless, Tan Xiaolian said frankly, "Yes, we did have a good relationship before."

"Zheng Tong is a second-generation rich kid. Her family is very wealthy. She lives in a villa in downtown Qu'an. She wears high-end brand clothes and uses bags, perfumes, and cosmetics from brands we can't even name."

"She came by herself during her freshman year and looked down. When we recognized the brands of the items she was wearing, we thought she was one of those rich girls online who posts status updates with money and captions like, 'I don't want money, I want lots of love.' We even thought we'd take good care of her in the future, but that turned out to be completely different. Her parents were incredibly kind to her, and she grew up in a family filled with love."

Tan Xiaolian's narration brought back memories for Ge Qiushuang. She said, "You don't know, Zheng Tong calls her parents every week. Her tone is exactly like the princess in the TV series who has money, love and has been spoiled since childhood!"

"She gave each of us a copy of Stray Birds at the beginning of the school year." Ge Qiushuang opened a drawer. "Oh, and a set of skincare products! So expensive!"

Tan Xiaolian continued, "We're from the College of Arts, and we both happened to like poetry, so we signed up for the poetry club together. We got along really well back then, but later we discovered that Zheng Tong wasn't who we seemed."

"She doesn't have any ink in her stomach."

"She doesn't understand Tagore or poetry. She sent poetry collections to join the poetry club just to get closer to her classmates. What she likes is not words, but building relationships with others."

Chen An said, "You think she's hypocritical, so you stay away from her?"

"No," Tan Xiaolian said, "Although this incident makes us feel uncomfortable, it doesn't affect her friendship with us. After all, we are roommates, and she is not bad to us. It's mainly what happened later."

"In the eyes of the teachers, she may be a gentle and harmless little white rabbit, but what we see is a strong and extremely self-centered Zheng Tong. This is specifically reflected in her frequent changes of boyfriends."

Ge Qiushuang had a say in this matter. "She's had no fewer than twenty boyfriends since her freshman year. That's a lot. Her main draw is her good looks. Not only does she change boyfriends, she also steals other people's boyfriends, gets in the way, acts like a green tea girl, and becomes a mistress more than once! She even went after Rui Xi's crush!"

Ge Qiushuang was filled with righteous indignation, and the person involved, Rui Xi, warned her, "Don't talk nonsense. Peng Yue is not my crush. He is at most a rubbish."

Chen An asked, "The person you liked before was Peng Yue?"

Rui Xi turned around and said, "I was blinded for a moment, please forgive me."

"Anyway, she's been with a lot of guys. She was with the president of the poetry club when we were still together. She'd call us every day after class and talk to us until midnight, disturbing our sleep. Later, she used the lyrics we wrote in a poetry competition and only signed her name. It pissed me off!"

"The key is that she can't be brought back because the president is her boyfriend. It's ridiculous."

Chen An said, "Did you break up after that?"

"That's about right. We hardly talk to her anymore, but her behavior later on is even more unbearable. She likes to go out at night, date, watch movies, drink and go to bars, etc. But she also has a bad drinking habit. She comes back in the middle of the night and has to vomit in the dormitory, which makes us feel sick."

"After taking care of her a few times, just when she was about to explode, she suddenly told us that she was going to live with her boyfriend and asked us to help cover for her. We were very grateful and sent her away amicably."

Chen An remembered that in the previous questioning, Peng Yue and Zheng Tong had been together for a short time, and her boyfriend when she moved out should not have been Peng Yue.

"How much do you know about Peng Yue?"

Ge Qiushuang gave up the stage and turned her gaze to Rui Xi, "It's your turn to speak."

Rui Xi closed the book, sighed helplessly, and thought carefully. "He's a guy who's really good at manipulating girls. Peng Yue is good-looking, and one of the few boys in our literature class, so naturally he's more popular. He's very good at creating so-called chance encounters to close the distance, using ambiguous actions to give you hints, making you think he likes you too, but the truth is, he's a hypocrite who despises the poor and loves the rich."

Rui Xi crumpled a corner of the paper in anger as she revealed the truth. "He set his sights on Zheng Tong because she was rich."

"He used this method to seduce me, and then changed his target after discovering Zheng Tong. Unfortunately, Zheng Tong likes people who are challenging, and Peng Yue's active pursuit made her lose interest in this man. As for how they got together later, I don't know."

"Oh, it seems Peng Yue's current target is that auditor Anna." Rui Xi recalled what happened this morning. "In the past two days, Peng Yue has been actively looking for Anna, but Anna doesn't seem to want to pay attention to him. I don't know Anna's background."

"How long has Anna been around?"

Everyone was silent for a while, no one could tell the exact time. Tan Xiaolian said, "She seemed to have been there imperceptibly. I didn't pay much attention."

"Yes, it's a subtle influence. Our college welcomes auditions from other colleges, but every time Anna comes, she just sits in the back by herself, never talking to anyone. Her presence is very low, and to this day, we only know her name."

Chen An nodded. It was about time, so he prepared to leave the school to see the escape room base where the incident occurred.

The pendants on the canvas bag jingled and clanged with each other as the owner walked. He took off the pendant and inserted it into the keyhole. The old iron door was opened with difficulty. He looked up and saw Peng Yue sitting in the corridor. "Hi~"

Anna didn't show any expression. She closed the door when she went upstairs. Peng Yue followed her with one hand in his pocket. When she opened the door, he squeezed in.

"What have you thought about it, Miss An?"

Anna was like an emotionless robot, with no expression from beginning to end, and her brown pupils were full of alienation and coldness.

Peng Yue came over and put his arm around her shoulders. "Don't think about it. Zheng Tong's problem wasn't your fault. The most urgent thing now is to go home. Zheng Tong's parents must be very sad to have lost their daughter, so you should hurry back to them, right?"

Anna pushed him away and walked into the kitchen. On the cement counter were the vegetables she'd bought cheaply at the market this morning. She untied a handful and dropped them into the basin. Peng Yue rushed over and threw them on the floor. "Why are you still eating rotten vegetable leaves? You're the daughter of the Zheng family now. Come on! I'll take you back to your roots!"

He grabbed Anna's hand, trying to drag her out. Anna was not as strong as him, and when he dragged her to the door, she shouted, "No!"

She put her foot against the threshold, looked at the man's back, and suddenly pushed the iron door out, hitting him hard on the back. The man screamed and relaxed his strength. Anna quickly closed the door.

Peng Yue looked at his fingers that were almost pinched, his chest heaving violently, and his anger turned into footprints left on the wall at her door.

Anna didn't return to the stove until the footsteps faded away. She bent down to pick up the broken vegetable leaves. Ice-cold liquid flowed out of the faucet. After autumn, the water would become more and more biting. The cold stimulated her nerves and she couldn't help but think of Zheng Tong soaking in the water tank.

A tear fell on my wrist, and when I raised my hand to touch my cheek, it became cold.