Hazelnuts (Part 3)

A few days later, the competition in Belgrade ended, and everything went smoothly, but none of this had anything to do with Zhou Zeyu.

For the sake of so-called psychological treatment, she naturally did not board the plane back to China and stayed in this foreign land.

As one of her rare friends in the group, Fang Xiaocan met with her before leaving. Although it was called a meeting, the two only briefly bumped into each other at the airport. Fang Xiaocan was so upset that she almost cried, while she could only watch her go through the security checkpoint from afar.

Coach Xu originally wanted to stay here with her because he not only had serious doubts about Zhou Zeyu's poor self-care ability, but was also extremely worried about the worrying security situation in Serbia. However, after much persuasion, he was persuaded to leave, and before leaving, he entrusted her personal safety to Professor Elberlint.

Poor Coach Xu, a big, burly man, kept nagging her for ages in the waiting area, afraid that something might happen to her outside. He even counted on his fingers all the ways people could die, like shootings, murders, or terrorist attacks. In the end, he was even more frightened than she was.

"I will always keep this in mind!" She raised three fingers as if making a vow, "I will not indulge in drinking, gambling, or prostitution; I will not act recklessly; I will not stir up trouble. I will conserve my energy and create new glories!"

The next flight arrived quickly. Zhou Zeyu stood in the open space outside, watching the plane shrink little by little, feeling sad for a while, before slowly riding his bike back to his residence.

Zhou Zeyu rented a place in a somewhat remote suburb of Belgrade, but fortunately it was well-equipped and quiet, with a panoramic view of the lake from her room. This was specially arranged by Professor Xu through his guidance, so that she could better relax.

On the way back, she would pass a large lake whose name she didn't know. Beside the lake was a large lawn where many families with children were picnicking, their laughter mingling with Serbian words she couldn't understand. Everyone looked content and happy. Infected by the atmosphere, she unconsciously slowed down and stopped in front of the lawn.

She found a quiet spot to sit down, stretching her legs out into the sunlight. The Belgrade sun wasn't actually harsh; it didn't burn her skin with a fiery intensity. Instead, it was a calm warmth, carrying the gentle mellowness unique to this small Eastern European country, softly settling on her knees.

She actually sunbathes often, but only when she's doing physical training and running long distances under the sun with weights on her back. So she naturally dislikes any sunny day, but she doesn't reject the unprotected sunlight; she likes it.

People were swimming in the lake not far away, and several little girls with braids were learning to ride bicycles under the tree-lined path. She sat cross-legged for a while, then suddenly picked up her phone with great interest and started taking pictures, walking around and snapping away.

The spot where bicycles used to be parked was now completely empty, not a single thing left.

She had a sudden realization that something was wrong and hurriedly looked around. She grabbed a passerby and gestured wildly for a while, and finally, with the help of the passerby's half-understanding instructions, she spotted a blurry bicycle in the distance along the tree-lined path.

Zhou Zeyu was instantly consumed by rage, forgetting all her new and old ailments. She took off running and shouted as she went. She was sure the other person heard her, but clearly showed no intention of slowing down, not even a hint of guilt or hesitation. Instead, she rode even faster.

She started swearing, then after a moment's thought, she switched from her fluent Chinese profanity to English.

After the language was changed, he probably finally understood. The man looked back, then slowed down and finally stopped completely by the roadside. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhou Zeyu had already rushed up to him at lightning speed.

The other person was a shirtless young man, still wet, with a dripping swimming cap hanging from the handlebars. He was only wearing swimming trunks and looked like he had just climbed out of the lake. He stared at her with a very wary expression.

However, after seeing Zhou Zeyu's appearance clearly, he suddenly raised his eyebrows very slowly, his wary expression gradually turning into amusement. He placed both hands on the handlebars, tapping the bicycle bell casually with his index finger, and deliberately asked her in heavily accented English, "Is there something you need?"

Zhou Zeyu laughed in anger, stood in front of his car to block his way, and put his hands on his hips with a righteous air, "Sir, please get this straight, this car is mine."

The other person burst out laughing and, mimicking her gesture, put their hands on their hips and retorted in a clearly mocking tone, "No, this car is mine."

“Impossible!” Zhou Zeyu said decisively. “I just bought this yesterday, and I can even give you my receipt.”

“Wow,” he said nonchalantly, “fine, but it is indeed mine.”

He had a well-defined face, but his overly deep-set eyes gave off an invisible sense of oppression. Coupled with his extremely short buzz cut and that mocking smile, Zhou Zeyu's alarm bells went off. Something suddenly flashed through his mind, and he pointed at him but couldn't speak.

However, the guy suppressed his smile, shrugged indifferently, turned the front of the bike to the side, and tried to ride past Zhou Zeyu.

With lightning speed, Zhou Zeyu cried out in his heart that something was wrong and grabbed one of his arms.

Her forearm, still wet with water droplets, had become noticeably stiff. The other person almost fell over because of her, as she couldn't stop in time. She tried to reach out to grab the handlebars, but her hand was firmly held in Zhou Zeyu's grasp. In the end, she could only awkwardly steady herself with her feet, the soles of her shoes scraping against the concrete road with a screeching sound.

Zhou Zeyu saw him turn his head to look at her, seemingly wanting to say something nasty, but he barely held back after meeting her resolute gaze. He turned his head away, pursed his lips tightly, and stiffly said, "How about we go to the police station?"

She hesitated for a moment, then quickly accepted: "How do I get there?"

In fact, if Zhou Zeyu had thought about it for a little while, she would have realized that the current situation was quite bizarre, but the problem was that the scene was so chaotic that it didn't give her any time to think about it carefully.

So she sat there brazenly on the back of the stolen bicycle, while the thief carried her without a second thought or fear. The two of them moved slowly along the long, tree-lined road, neither of them uttering a word.

Zhou Zeyu thought to herself that she had never seen such an open and aboveboard thief.

However, the thief was also thinking that he had never seen such a shameless rogue before.

The two, each with their own ulterior motives, arrived at the police station. After a long and tedious process, they waited for the results in the lobby, sitting face to face with their eyes closed and mouths shut, the scene awkwardly strange.

Especially in this bustling hall, the man's bare upper body was dripping wet, and almost everyone who passed by stared at him in astonishment for a long time. Half an hour later, he had gone from being uncomfortable at the beginning to being completely numb, staring blankly at the ceiling in utter despair.

The long silence was a bit boring. Zhou Zeyu had nothing to do, so she subtly glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze swept over his lean arm muscles, then down his collarbone to his bronze abs. When her eyes slid to his swim trunks, she suddenly woke up, patted her face, and reflexively glanced at him, only to be met with his resentful eyes.

Awkward... She quickly turned her head away and started picking at her fingers as if nothing had happened.

Besides feeling embarrassed, Zhou Zeyu also felt a little sorry for him. After thinking for a moment, she took out a sun-protective jacket from her bag and handed it to him. His expression became very distorted for a moment, as if he had gone through a strong internal struggle. Finally, he slowly took the pink jacket.

So when Professor Elberlint rushed over, he saw the person involved wearing a pink coat with a dark face, and Zhou Zeyu, who was pretending to be nonchalant and looking around.

"what happened?"

Zhou Zeyu struggled to answer him with his broken English, but found that the professor was facing the man. The man pondered briefly for a moment, then spoke in a deep tone that was completely different from when he spoke English.

The man and the professor were communicating rapidly in Serbian, but their communication seemed to be very efficient, because just a minute later, the professor had a look of sudden realization on his face, turned around and patted Zhou Zeyu on the shoulder, saying in an ambiguous tone, "Well, my dear child, I think it's probably a misunderstanding."

However, because the professor spoke English so fast and Zhou Zeyu's listening comprehension was so poor, the professor had to use a lot of gestures to explain for a long time before Zhou Zeyu could only vaguely understand a few words, such as "reselling" and "ownership," but she had a pretty good grasp of the meaning.

It's likely that her car was stolen and then resold to her by an unscrupulous dealer, which led to this tragedy.

She recalled how she had grabbed his arm and argued vehemently, and how he had driven her to the police station with a dark expression. Overwhelmed with shame, she lowered her head and turned to apologize to the man, only to find that he was already gone.

Only one policeman explained to her, "He said he had to leave first, and that you could keep the car. Oh, and he also left you a message."

Zhou Zeyi raised an eyebrow, a bad feeling creeping over him. He took a deep breath and slowly asked, "What?"

“You’re too rude.”

Zhou Zeyu pressed his philtrum and silently cursed under his breath.

It was that pervert.

They even dared to mock her.

They were incredibly audacious.

The professor, amused by her discomfiture, asked with amusement, "Good heavens, do you two know each other?"

"I don't know him." Zhou Zeyu quickly waved his hand, intending to get on his bicycle and flee the area. After a few meters, he turned back to the entrance and asked the policeman, "Sir, may I know the man's name?"

The police officer read the file aloud and then kindly copied it onto a card for her.

"Thank you!" Zhou Zeyu stuffed the card into his pocket, rode his bicycle, quickly entered the asphalt road, and then swiftly disappeared at the end of the road.

“Sorkov…”

But this should be the worst one, she was so sure of it.