Rebirth
It was a icy and snowy place with heavy snow falling from the sky. The girl was struggling to drag herself through the snow. The suitcase that was not higher than her waist was obviously empty, but it was a burden that made her move forward with all her strength.
While standing there waiting for the car, she took out the cell phone in her pocket, which was also frozen like an ice cube, with her frozen hands, and tremblingly found the driver's number. A quarter of an hour later, a motorcycle stopped in front of her.
The master was also shivering with cold. Seeing that she was wearing thin clothes, he expressed his concern for her in his broken Mandarin.
"It's so cold, and you're wearing so little. You're really cold-resistant, girl."
Anna forced a pale smile and didn't respond. She helped the driver secure the suitcase, and the car rumbled forward.
Warm spring is approaching, and students in the university town next door are returning to school one after another. You can see them just by standing by the windowsill and looking out.
All kinds of cars were parked at the school gate, and the people getting out of the cars were all young college students. They also had suitcases in tow, and they pushed the suitcases with their wrists and followed them, looking very light.
When the girl heard her mother calling her, she turned around and smiled, "Don't worry, go back soon!" Then she waved goodbye to them.
A few days later she learned the girl's name, Zheng Tong.
Anna rented a house on the back street of Qu'an Normal College. The house price was cheap and the view was good. Most importantly, she could go to the classroom through the door on the back street.
Every morning at 7:30, she would mingle with the school-going crowd and follow them into the classroom. Initially, she would just sit in the back row with her head down, feeling guilty, like a thief. But after doing it more often, she felt more at ease.
She spent a day or two shuttling between the teaching buildings and finally settled in the School of Arts, just because it was sunset that day and she happened to hear a teacher reciting a poem while passing by the corridor.
"Life is as brilliant as a summer flower, and death is as quiet and beautiful as an autumn leaf." The old teacher, his temples gray, pointed at the neatly written words on the blackboard. "Can any students share their understanding of this sentence?"
The teacher's earnest gaze did not impress the sleepy students in the audience.
It is still hot in late summer, and even with the air conditioner on, I can't resist the urge to sleep.
Two minutes passed and no one answered.
So he turned around helplessly and wrote two words on the blackboard, "Life."
"This quote, from The Stray Birds by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, expresses his philosophical reflections on life and death. The first half, 'Life is as splendid as summer flowers,' implies that life should be as passionate and brilliant as summer flowers. The second half, 'Death is as quiet and beautiful as autumn leaves,' demonstrates the calmness of death. Although autumn leaves wither, they depart in an elegant manner, encouraging people to remain at peace in the face of death."
The interpretation was just one or two minutes long, and perhaps only Anna, who was standing at the door, heard it.
The next day, Anna picked up a copy of "The Crescent Moon" from the library and she also stayed in the literature class.
"Didn't I ask you to save a seat for me?"
The bell rang and Zheng Tong walked into the classroom looking a little frustrated. Everyone in the dormitory was huddled together. She looked around and saw that there was no seat left for her except the last row, so she had to go to the last row.
When she sat down, the jingling chain on her schoolbag collided with the table, making a loud noise. Anna looked up at her, recognized her as the girl who got out of the limousine, and then lowered her head even lower.
They got along peacefully for two classes.
But Anna was very unhappy with Zheng Tong's attitude, because she just slept on the table during these two classes, and when she woke up occasionally, she took out her mobile phone to send messages to others. She hated people who wasted time and resources.
But she had no right to lecture anyone, so she could only pretend not to see it and think about staying away from her in the next class.
As soon as the bell rang, Anna took out her schoolbag and walked out of the classroom quickly. She always did this. After class, she would quickly leave the crowd and not give anyone the chance to recognize her.
But this time she was too flustered and left her key on the seat. University classrooms are not fixed, if she didn't go back, she would definitely lose her key, so she waited outside the door for a while and then walked through the crowd again.
The moment I got the key, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She hugged her schoolbag tightly, her baseball cap slipped down, blocking most of her vision, and she tripped over an obstacle, leaning forward and almost falling headfirst.
A pair of delicate hands caught her in time. After she stood up straight, she was stunned for a moment and heard the other person say, "Watch the road."
The person who passed by was the girl who had just fallen asleep.
A Klein blue short top, wavy hair tied up low, and two large steel hoop earrings instantly brought her back to the 1990s. Beautiful was Anna's second impression of Zheng Tong.
The secret room base is some distance away from the city center, and it takes forty minutes to drive there. Zheng Tong estimated that they would arrive here when they came out of the secret room.
After passing the sand pit, Chen An parked the car in an open area. There were a few big words "Ups and Downs" written all over the secret room base covered with iron sheets. Chen An stood below and looked at it for a while, shook his head, and said in his heart: This time it's really ups and downs.
Five days had passed since the incident, and Team Two had already made preparations to close the case. They were cleaning up the chamber base and preparing to resume work in a few days. If something like this were ruled an accident, at most it would be affected by public opinion.
Chen An observed the terrain here. The base built with containers and iron houses looked particularly weak.
An employee had been watching this place for the past few days. When he saw the license plate of the car parked at the door, he reported it to the person in charge. The person in charge wiped his face and received him with a smile.
"Comrade Police Officer, is there anything else you need our cooperation with today?"
Turning around was a short, fat middle-aged man who was wearing a long-sleeved jacket even in the middle of summer. When facing the police, his rough hands kept rubbing together, and he looked a little nervous.
Chen An said, "There are still some details that need to be supplemented. Please take me to see the house where the accident happened again."
"OK."
Zhu Liang opened the door with his key. The room where the incident occurred had been locked, and the notebook was no longer in use. The small control room was barely big enough for one person to stand inside.
"Is Anna in charge of this control room?"
Zhu Liangcong shook his head. "No, it's like this. We have a very flexible work system here. We work in two shifts, one for night and one for day. Positions are moved around according to the notebook. This device can only be used with this notebook. It just so happened that it was Anna's turn to work the night shift that day."
"So this is random?"
Zhu Liangcong thought for a moment and nodded, "Yes."
"Did anyone play with this notebook a few days before the incident?"
"A few days ago?" Zhu Liangcong couldn't remember. "How about going to the front desk to check?"
The record book at the front desk clearly recorded the number of times the book was used. Zhu Liangcong said, "I checked. Someone checked this book during the day and night on the 17th and 18th." He showed the record to Chen An, and he saw a familiar name on the list of registered people.
This book was clicked on both the 17th and 18th. Although they were basically two groups of people, there was one person who was always mixed in.
In addition, the 17th happened to be the day when the first girl had an accident.
"Mei Fang was locked in a water tank on the afternoon of the 17th and nearly drowned." Chen An stared at him with a scrutinizing look.
Zhu Liangcong felt a little guilty and glanced at him. "Yes, this girl was the first one to get into trouble. We know that the equipment is old, but..."
"But this book is so popular that the price is high," Chen An continued.
Zhu Liangcong nodded helplessly, "To be honest, this isn't the most popular notebook here. I don't know how it became so popular, but a bunch of college students came here to play with it, and as they played with it, it became the most expensive notebook."
“When did it become popular?”
Zhu Liangcong thought carefully and said, "Probably this summer vacation."
Chen An closed the notebook and asked, "Where's Anna?"
Zhu Liangcong said: "She is a student at Qu'an Normal School and lives in the dormitory."
"Did she say what her major was?"
"No, she just said she was from the Faculty of Arts."
Chen An understood and took two steps forward to answer the phone.
"Boss, there's no such person as Anna at Qu'an Normal School."
"I already know."
"Also, Anna has actually been living on campus. Her current address is on the back street of the Normal University." Bai Shuo said, "I'll send you the address and house number later."
"OK."
He hung up the phone and was about to leave when he suddenly heard the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. Several employees followed the sound and left. Zhu Liangcong also put down his things and asked, "What's going on?"
"Someone come! Someone fainted!"
The narrow door was immediately filled with people. Chen An pushed through the crowd and saw the boy lying on the ground in the warehouse. "What are you standing there for? Call 120!"
The ambulance arrived quickly. He was still trembling when he was lifted onto the stretcher. The medical staff gave him first aid. The whole journey was smooth. Chen An accompanied him to the hospital. The door of the operating room slammed shut. On the way, he asked Zhu Liangcong to call his family.
Only he and Zhu Liangcong were waiting outside the door. Zhu Liangcong sat powerlessly on a chair, thinking back on the past few days and feeling really unlucky. He took the initiative to say, "Zou Liang is a high school student who came to work here. He's not even sixteen yet. I know this is child labor, but he's in financial difficulty, and finding his parents is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I only came because I feel sorry for him..."
"Okay." Chen An interrupted him, "Now is not the time to talk about this."
Zhu Liang glanced at him angrily, and in the few minutes his mind was blank, he suddenly wanted to say something, "Zou Liang came here with Anna. It was summer vacation, and many students were looking for jobs. I was only hiring a few, so I didn't plan to hire them at first. But Anna actually knew how to write scripts, which surprised me. I've seen her manuscripts, and they're pretty good. So I thought of hiring her and having her write the scripts so we could save some money. But she insisted on bringing Zou Liang along, so I had no choice but to agree to her terms."
"Anna's joining us has really saved us a lot of money. She wrote three books for us in two months, and the response has been very good. She's a hardworking girl who can endure hardships, knows how to be grateful, and is very hardworking."
Zhu Liang couldn't hide the joy in his eyes when he talked about her, and it was obvious that he was very satisfied with Anna.
"How is her relationship with the staff in the Chamber of Secrets?"
"They are all very nice, but they don't like to talk much." Zhu Liang took out a photo from the album. It was a group photo of their staff. Although the girl was standing in the corner in the photo, she had a bright smile and didn't look like she was being bullied.
"The patient is no longer in danger of death and is now being transferred to the general ward."
Chen An helped push the person to the general ward, but stopped at the door and heard a familiar voice.
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