Chapter 29: I thought it was a gift from one of my classmates who had a crush on me...
May, 2016.
Summer is approaching, and temperatures are gradually rising.
Before school ended in the afternoon, Teacher Zhao came to the class to announce that starting from the next semester, the second-year students' evening self-study sessions would be synchronized with the third-year students, and would both continue until 10:30 pm.
A groan erupted in the classroom. Cheng Shiyun propped her head up with one hand, secretly playing on her phone under the desk with the other. Someone was advertising a newly opened boutique on Qianfeng Road on QQ Space.
Today happens to be Feng Yue's birthday, so as soon as get out of class ended, Cheng Shiyun dragged her to go shopping at a boutique.
Feng Yue picked out a transparent glass jar to hold the stars she had folded. Cheng Shiyun didn't know what to give her, so she asked her to take a set of headshots.
While queuing to pay, Feng Yue saw rows of shelves in the distance and suddenly patted Cheng Shiyun on the shoulder: "Yunyun, look at that keychain, doesn't it look like jelly?"
As Cheng Shiyun approached, her eyes lit up: "Exactly the same."
"How much?"
"69!" Cheng Shiyun glanced at the price tag on the shelf and muttered under her breath, "Even with the discount, it's still 55. Is this keychain made of gold?"
Feng Yue was also surprised and chimed in, "Items in boutiques are generally quite expensive."
It's ridiculously expensive.
Cheng Shiyun glanced at it a few more times before putting the keychain back.
She eats breakfast and lunch at home, and only eats dinner at school or outside with her classmates, so she has 200 yuan a week for food. She could have gritted her teeth and bought the keychain, but she has been feeding stray cats outside the school recently and has already cut back on her diet. She even asked Feng Yue to take a close-up photo of her, so she really has no money left.
Cheng Shiyun hung the keychain back up, and Feng Yue took it off again, taking it to the front desk. Cheng Shiyun stopped her: "What are you doing? Are you going to buy it?"
Feng Yue nodded: "Mm."
"Why did you buy this?" Cheng Shiyun remembered that she was not interested in things that had no practical use.
Feng Yue smiled and said, "It's for you."
Cheng Shiyun was taken aback: "It's your birthday today, why are you giving me a gift?"
"You asked me to take your headshot, so I'm giving you a keychain as a return gift. I won't give you anything for your birthday in July."
"No way, fifty yuan for a keychain is not worth it at all," Cheng Shiyun said disdainfully. "If you want to buy one, just hang it on your backpack."
Feng Yue glanced at her expression: "Really don't want it?"
"No," Cheng Shiyun urged her, "Let's go, let's go."
Cheng Shiyun didn't buy the keychain, but from that day on, every evening she would go to the boutique to see if the keychain had been bought.
That day, Ni Jiaqi and his family were having dinner with her.
"You like it that much?" Ni Jiaqi saw that she didn't want to let go of the keychain. "Call me 'brother' and I'll buy it for you, okay?"
Ni Jiaqi is a month younger than her, but he has always been enthusiastic about wanting to be her older brother.
Cheng Shiyun rolled her eyes and pinched his arm: "Ni Jiaqi, do you want to die again?"
"It hurts so much!" Ni Jiaqi rolled up his sleeves and saw that they were all red from being wrung out. "Cheng Shiyun, let me tell you, if you're this fierce, no boy will dare to like you in the future."
"Mind your own business." Cheng Shiyun scolded him without any politeness, "If you're sick, go home and eat more rat poison."
"..."
The girl stormed off.
Ni Jiaqi chased after him, saying, "You have such a sharp tongue, I might as well poison you to death."
Even if Cheng Shiyun doesn't call him brother, he will still buy it for her. The pendant on that keychain looks too much like jelly, but he didn't bring enough money today.
After taking a couple of steps, Ni Jiaqi turned back and said to the boutique owner, "Boss, could you please keep that keychain for me? I'll come back to buy it tomorrow."
Boss: "Which one?"
Ni Jiaqi pointed to the tabby cat on the shelf.
"Oh, that one," the shop owner said apologetically, "I'm sorry, someone already wants that keychain. They've already paid half the money and said they'll come to pick it up tomorrow."
"Are there any left? I'd like to pre-order one."
The shopkeeper shook his head: "This is the only one left. If you really want it, you can talk to that classmate about it when he comes to pick it up tomorrow."
When Ni Jiaqi returned the next day, the keychain had already been sold, and he didn't see the person who bought it.
Then came Cheng Shiyun's birthday.
Cheng Jinghua went to school to be on duty, while Ran Hongyin and Ni Jiaqi cooked in the kitchen.
Cheng Shiyun was taking photos and unpacking her birthday presents in her bedroom when she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Ni Jiaqi called out, "Cheng Shiyun, someone is knocking on the door."
"Don't you have hands?" Cheng Shiyun came out and saw Ni Jiaqi sitting in the living room.
Ni Jiaqi didn't even look up: "I'm looking at a recipe for pickled fish. Go open it quickly."
Cheng Shiyun rolled her eyes at him.
I opened the door, but there was no one outside.
"Who is it?" Ni Jiaqi asked.
"Nobody, it's just a prank."
Just as she was about to close the door, she noticed a pink ribbon hanging down from the milk delivery box next to the door.
Cheng Shiyun stood on tiptoe and took the thing off the top of the milk delivery box.
It's a small box, but the packaging is very elegant.
Out of curiosity, she opened it and took a look, and then discovered that it was the keychain she had wanted for a long time.
She still couldn't quite believe it, but there was a string of numbers engraved on the box's wrapping paper and the bottom of the keychain.
Her QQ nickname and phone password were both this string of numbers, and Cheng Shiyun immediately realized that someone had given it to her.
so……
Was the person who gave her the keychain Xie Shijin?
Cheng Shiyun looked up from his arms and stared at him in a daze.
Xie Shijin, barely able to contain himself, gritted his teeth and asked Yuan Shao, "Where is Cheng Shiyun's phone?"
At the time of the incident, the keychain was hanging on Cheng Shiyun's phone.
His voice was loud and menacing, attracting the attention of everyone passing by the hospital entrance.
Yuan Shao was taken aback by his shout: "What cell phone? I don't understand what you're saying at all!"
Xie Shijin: "Cheng Shiyun's cell phone."
It's Cheng Shiyun again.
"How could I have Cheng Shiyun's phone? You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?" Yuan Shao swallowed hard and stammered out the truth, "I found the keychain, I found it."
Xie Shijin's eyes were bloodshot, and his gaze became even more intense: "Were you there on the night of July 12th?"
"July 12th?"
The day Cheng Shiyun died?
Yuan Shao was stunned for a moment, and said repeatedly, "No, don't wrong me!"
Looking at Xie Shijin's bloodshot eyes, he got goosebumps and was afraid that Xie Shijin would think that Cheng Shiyun's death was related to him, so he quickly tried to distance himself from it.
"This keychain was unwanted by Principal Guo's family."
Xie Shijin stared at him with bloodshot eyes: "Guo Renyi?"
"Yes, that's right." Yuan Shao felt a chill run down his spine, his heart pounding with guilt. "Damn it, I really wasn't lying!"
“A few days ago I went to Principal Guo’s house to look for Director Qian.” He stammered, “Didn’t their cat go missing? The housekeeper was cleaning the villa and had a lot of garbage to throw away, so it was piled up at the front door. I saw that she was having a hard time carrying it by herself, so I helped her out.”
After the nanny left, he rummaged through the bags of trash and found this keychain.
He thought it was quite cute, and since it was new, it would be a shame to lose it, so he picked it up and gave it to his sister.
The surrounding air fell into a deathly silence.
At the bustling hospital entrance, the young man in front of me stood silently like a statue, his eyes lowered as he stared at the keychain, lost in thought.
But a closer look at his taut, white fingertips reveals that he is actually trying his best to endure.
Yuan Shao was a little intimidated by his current expression and cautiously asked, "Xie Shijin... is this keychain really Cheng Shiyun's?"
Even if I had told him it belonged to Cheng Shiyun, he wouldn't have wanted it even if it were a gift.
Xie Shijin clutched the keychain, turned around, and left.
"Hey! Xie Shijin!" Yuan Shao called out to him twice.
Watching the boy's hurried departure, the girl whispered, "Brother, was that girl you were talking about the one who died in a car accident in 2016?"
Yuan Shao hummed in agreement: "Do you think he's sick? What does Cheng Shiyun have to do with him? Every time something related to Cheng Shiyun comes up, he acts like he's gone mad."
The girl pursed her lips and said, "He likes that girl."
Yuan Shao: "Impossible."
Why is it impossible?
Yes, why is it impossible?
Xie Shijin found it strange that Cheng Shiyun was still alive.
Yuan Shao remembered that day in PE class, he and Cheng Shiyun got into a fight, and the PE teacher asked the students in the class to come and break up the fight. It was Xie Shijin who grabbed Cheng Shiyun's arm.
He and Cheng Shiyun were pulled apart and both of them were restrained. But then Xie Shijin suddenly let go for some reason, and Cheng Shiyun pounced on him, scratching his face several more times.
Old Zhao called him and Cheng Shiyun into his office and gave them a good scolding.
Cheng Shiyun had good grades, and he wasn't bad either. The two of them had their own opinions, which gave Old Zhao a real headache. He said that this time he wouldn't hold their mistakes against them, nor would he call their parents, but would only make them write self-criticisms.
Because she argued with Lao Zhao in the office, Cheng Shiyun fared even worse than him; she had to take her self-criticism back to her parents for their signature.
That afternoon after school, he went to hand in his self-criticism, only to see Xie Shijin knocking on the office door.
"Enter."
Today is a monthly holiday, and the teachers in the office are packing up to go home.
Old Zhao's table was at the very back. He looked up and saw Xie Shijin arrive, and waved, "Come and sit down."
Xie Shijin walked over.
Old Zhao opened the drawer, took out a document and handed it to him: "I called you here to talk to you about the student grant. Your application was rejected. In the contact person section, you need to fill in your immediate family member. You can't fill in your maternal grandmother; you have to fill in your parents."
The boy in front of him took the document, his eyes lowered: "I have no parents."
Old Zhao was taken aback.
He didn't ask for details, only saying, "Okay, the teacher will give you a supplementary explanation and report your situation."
"If there's nothing else, you should go home early." Old Zhao took out paper and pen and began to write an explanation.
However, the boy at the table didn't move his feet for a long time.
His shadow blocked the light, casting a deep shadow on the table. Old Zhao asked in confusion, "Is there anything else?"
The boy, who had been looking down, slowly raised his eyelashes and said decisively, "In PE class, Yuan Shao started it first. I saw it."
Old Zhao frowned: "Regardless of who started it, the fact is that they fought. When a conflict occurs, telling the teacher is always the best solution. Fighting is wrong."
Xie Shijin emphasized: "It was Yuan Shao who struck first."
"Cheng Shiyun would not hit anyone."
"She won't hit anyone?" Old Zhao, seeing that he was blind, angrily said, "It's already good that she didn't beat someone to death!"
Yuan Shao's glasses were broken, his face was bruised, and his mouth was ulcerated; his injuries were many times more serious than Cheng Shiyun's.
The boy fell silent.
She stood there blankly, arguing just moments before, but now she just pursed her thin lips.
Very stubborn.
In one class, there are two stubborn ones.
"Teacher Zhao, it was clearly the boy who was in the wrong first. You can't punish them both equally. That's biased..." The teacher at the next table smiled and tried to mediate.
Old Zhao pinched his brow, sighed, and said to Xie Shijin, "...Then go and tell her that she doesn't need to write a self-criticism."
...
Cheng Shiyun died later.
Even Cheng Jinghua has been let go.
Xie Shijin is still searching for clues.
...
Cheng Shiyun's heart was beating incredibly fast.
Thump, thump, thump, it's about to jump out of my chest.
This is undoubtedly her keychain, but why is it in Guo Renyi's house?
Did Guo Renyi find it? Or Qian Juan, or the family's nanny?
The more Cheng Shiyun tried to recall what happened during the car accident, the less she could remember.
She looked up, wanting to see Xie Shijin, but found his cheeks tightly clenched and his lips deathly pale, just like the day Cheng Shiyun first met him.
It was completely bloodless, as transparent as snow, and looked like it was about to melt away.
Xie Shijin made two phone calls to Yang Shengnan, saying that he had found clues about the 712 car accident case.
“I’m not at the station right now, you should go find Officer Liu first.” Fearing he might not recognize him, Yang Shengnan added, “He’s the skinny young man who came to your house this morning.”
Xie Shijin hailed a taxi on the roadside: "Municipal Public Security Bureau."
After getting into the car, he curled up in the seat with the cat in his arms, breathing heavily as if he couldn't breathe.
The driver glanced at him in the rearview mirror and sensed something was wrong: "Young man, are you alright?"
Xie Shijin closed his eyes.
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he said in a hoarse voice, "Master, drive faster."
"Meow~"
Cheng Shiyun raised her paw and touched his face, feeling the cold sweat seeping from his forehead, which dampened his short sideburns, strands of which clung to his fair and delicate skin, making him look unnaturally pale.
The little tabby cat meowed several times, clearly worried about him. Xie Shijin lowered his head slightly, took a few deep breaths, and reassured her, "...I'm fine. Let's go to the Municipal Bureau to find Officer Yang."
He gripped the keychain tightly in his hand, as if he had grasped a sliver of the truth, and struggled to suppress his surging emotions.
Cheng Shiyun dug and dug, prying his fingers apart.
The tabby cat keychain lay in his palm, small, lifelike, and exquisite.
"Meow, Xie Shijin, did you give me this keychain?"
Xie Shijin lowered his eyes and hummed in agreement.
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Cheng Shiyun squeezed out of his arms and squatted on his knees. "I asked a lot of people, and they all said it wasn't them who gave it to me."
"...I told you, I left you a message."
"A comment?" Cheng Shiyun tilted her head. "The one below that post?"
Before she went out to find Cheng Jinghua, she posted a status update, and to this day she still doesn't know who liked it or who left a comment.
There was nothing we could do; her death was too sudden.
Her social media profile is inaccessible now. Cheng Shiyun blinked and asked, "What are you talking about?"
Her eyes were both intense and pure, simply driven by curiosity.
The boy's Adam's apple bobbed, and after a moment of silence, he managed to squeeze out a very soft sound: "...I don't remember."
It's not below that post.
There were so many people sending their blessings in the comments section that he was afraid his words would get lost in the noise and fail to attract her attention.
He messaged me privately.
I sent her several messages.
He asked her if she had time the next day, and if he could take up ten minutes of her time, as he had something to give her.
She didn't receive the message, and he didn't get a reply.
Cheng Shiyun didn't notice the fleeting sadness in his eyes, and her tail tip drooped listlessly: "Yeah, it's been two years already."
It wasn't anything particularly important, so it's normal not to remember it clearly.
She looked up at him, her eyes brightening again, her voice soft yet incredibly earnest: "Although it seems a bit late to say thank you now, I still want to tell you that I really like this keychain."
"I like it now too." The more she looked at it, the more she liked it. Cheng Shiyun picked up the keychain, held it to her cheek, tilted her head, and asked, "Meow? Xie Shijin, look, doesn't it look like me?"
Xie Shijin nodded: "Very similar."
He had heard Ni Jiaqi say that the tabby cat was named Jelly, and that it was just as cute as her.
"It's a good thing it was from you." Cheng Shiyun looked at it again and again, muttering to herself, "Otherwise I would have thought..."
She hesitated for a moment, then suddenly felt embarrassed to continue.
Xie Shijin pressed further: "What did you think?"
Cheng Shiyun stretched out her little paws and threatened with a flower-like gesture: "You're not allowed to laugh at me."
She thought for a moment and said, "I thought."
"—It was given to me by a classmate who had a crush on me."
...
Yichuan City Public Security Bureau.
Xiao Liu, who had received Yang Shengnan's call in advance, was already waiting at the door.
Xiao Liu glanced at his watch, and when he looked up again, a taxi had stopped right in front of him.
The back door opened, and a clean-cut, black-haired boy stepped out of the car.
"Xie, classmate?"
Xie Shijin: "Officer Liu."
"Let's go inside and talk."
Xiao Liu was about to lead the way when he discovered that Xie Shijin was walking faster than him and was also very familiar with the layout of the police station.
They walked all the way to the interrogation room.
"Why did you bring the cat along?" Xiao Liu poured him a glass of water and teased the cat, "Little cat, are you thirsty? Let me pour you a glass too?"
"Meow—!" Cheng Shiyun bared her teeth.
Xiao Liu withdrew his hand: "So fierce."
Xie Shijin stroked the cat's head and asked, "When will Officer Yang be back?"
“I was just about to tell you that provincial leaders have come to give instructions, and the municipal bureau needs to send someone to receive them. Master probably won’t be back for a while.” Xiao Liu opened his notebook. “I’ve looked at the case file for case 712. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
The boy pursed his lips and remained silent.
Xiao Liu looked up and sensed a hint of distrust in the boy's eyes. A little embarrassed, he said, "I'm not lying to you. My master really has something to do and can't come back. Don't worry, when she comes back, I will relay everything you said today to my master without missing a single word."
Xie Shijin nodded: "I found Cheng... the keychain of the victim from the 712 incident. At the time of the incident, this keychain was hanging on her phone, as I mentioned in the statement. However, the police later conducted a scene investigation but did not find her phone or keychain. The person who found the keychain said that it was found by Guo Renyi's housekeeper while cleaning..."
"Speak slowly, speak slowly." Xiao Liu was getting confused by his words.
Xie Shijin took a deep breath and repeated what he had just said.
"Guo Renyi?" Xiao Liu frowned. The name sounded familiar. "The one who called the police to arrest you?"
Xie Shijin nodded: "...Mm."
Xiao Liu was surprised; how did this get involved with him again?
He asked, "Can I see the keychain?"
Xie Shijin hesitated for a moment before handing him the keychain.
Xiao Liu took it and examined it carefully: "Are you sure this is the victim's keychain?"
He felt it was pretty ordinary, somewhat like something mass-produced in Yiwu.
Xie Shijin's voice was low, as if he had no strength left: "I'm sure."
"You just said the keychain was attached to your phone," Xiao Liu asked. "What about the phone? Have you found it?"
Xie Shijin shook his head: "No."
“I’ve seen the case file. The 721 victim was in a car accident off-campus. You don’t think you saw the victim holding a cell phone at the time?” Xiao Liu said.
Xie Shijin: "At 9:05 PM, I saw Cheng Shiyun making a phone call, and there was a keychain on her phone."
"I'm referring to the moment the car accident happened."
Xiao Liu glanced at him and emphasized, "You didn't see her take the phone at that time."
"The accident happened at 9:37 p.m., leaving a 32-minute gap. Moreover, the police launched a thorough search on the seventh day after the incident. It's not impossible that the keychain was lost on the roadside and picked up by someone during this period."
Xie Shijin paused for a few seconds, then looked up at him: "What do you mean?"
His features were cold and sharp, his eyes were obsessive and gloomy, and Xiao Liu felt a chill run down his spine from his gaze.
What I mean is...
"Knock knock—"
Suddenly someone knocked on the door.
An older policeman came in from outside: "Someone jumped off a building in Lijing Garden Community. Xiao Liu, come with us on this call."
Xiao Liu looked troubled: "Brother Li, I'm asking you questions right now."
"It's him again..."
The man looked at the boy across the table and clicked his tongue: "Hurry up."
“What I mean is, you can’t really be sure when the keychain was lost, and you can’t say whoever found it is the murderer,” Xiao Liu said hurriedly. “Of course, your suspicion is also based on evidence; the keychain is a clue.”
He closed the notebook and said, "As evidence, the keychain will be kept by the police for now. As for the person you mentioned, we will have someone investigate him. If there's nothing else, you can go back now."
"Is it over...?" Xie Shijin asked.
"It's over," Xiao Liu said. "We'll let you know if we find any more clues."
"Xiao Liu, isn't it over yet?" Someone knocked on the door again.
Xiao Liu ran out carrying his notebook, shouting, "Coming, coming!"
There were two steaming glasses of water and a keychain on the table.
Xie Shijin's shoulders swayed slightly as he picked up the keychain and held it in his hand again.
The cicadas chirped incessantly outside the window, and a noisy crowd walked past the door, but the room was so quiet that only his breathing could be heard.
"Why..." After a long silence, his lips suddenly moved.
Why don't you believe what he says?
Why not check it now?
That nonchalant, indifferent attitude made it seem as if the car accident was just an accident, that the person was dead, and what was the point of trying so hard to prove anything? What was the use of finding so-called evidence?
It seems... everyone thinks this matter is no longer important.
Two years.
Only two years.
Why?
He repeated the three words over and over again, as if he couldn't understand them.
"Meow~"
A soft, gentle meow rang out.
"Xie Shijin, it's alright."
Cheng Shiyun jumped onto the table and cupped his face in her hands: "Look at me."
Xie Shijin looked up. His eyes were very red, especially the corners, and his brows were tightly furrowed.
He didn't cry, but Cheng Shiyun could feel that he was in so much pain...
Cheng Shiyun felt a sharp, persistent pain in her heart, which she found hard to bear.
She wanted to smooth out the wrinkles between his brows, but in the end, she very lightly touched the corner of his eye.
It felt warm and moist to the touch.
“I know you really want to help me find the driver who caused the accident back then,” Cheng Shiyun said softly. “But it’s been a long time since then, and the people and things that happened back then have changed a lot. The chances of finding any clues are slim.”
"I never had any hope for this. If we could find the person right away, we wouldn't have been stuck with no progress for two years, right?"
The girl analyzed the situation objectively and rationally, hoping to alleviate some of his self-blame and pain.
Xie Shijin simply looked at her, sketching her face with a complex and bewildered expression—the face that had appeared countless times in his dreams.
"I'm sorry..." he said softly, cupping the little tabby's face in his hands.
It seems he still can't help her.
Just like that stormy night two years ago, he could only watch helplessly as she closed her eyes in his arms.
But there was nothing he could do.
So useless, utterly useless.
Those three simple words were like an ice spike, piercing Cheng Shiyun's heart, both cold and painful. Her voice tightened: "Why do you have to say sorry? You didn't kill me, what do you have to apologize for?"
Why am I always blaming myself?
"Xie Shijin, you are the most amazing person I have ever met." She wouldn't allow him to belittle himself like that.
"Don't say sorry, don't apologize, and don't be sad."
Cheng Shiyun's voice softened, and she nuzzled his palm with her kitten-like face: "I'm really fine like this now."
Aside from not being human, he's no different from when he was alive.
Equally happy, equally fond of laughing.
She had come to terms with her death.
The dead cannot be brought back to life; she has already accepted this outcome.
But it seems that her parents, Ni Jiaqi, and Xie Shijin are not among them.
Two years, seven hundred and thirty days and nights.
Cheng Shiyun couldn't bear to watch them pursue a truth that might have no future.
For her, finding the driver who caused the accident wasn't really that important.
Evil deeds will eventually be punished.
She hopes that the bad guys will receive the punishment they deserve.
But she wanted even more to see them forget about her.
Live well.
-----------------------
Author's note: The road is winding, but the future is bright. [Lop-eared rabbit head]
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