Out of tune (9)
Miss Yang followed the waiter up the stairs. Only then did Erice shudder as if waking from a dream. She rushed over and grabbed Shu Ningmiao's hand, her eyes filled with both fear and tension: "No, you can't."
She looked at Shu Ningmiao in a panic, her expression pleading: "You can't let her go."
"Take her to the guest room." Shu Ningmiao slowly withdrew her finger from her hand, signaled the waiter to come over, and then turned to Eric and said, "I understand. I won't make you pay for the bracelet. You can go back if you don't want to stay here. There's a driver outside."
Shu Ningmiao glanced at Su Ni, whose pupils trembled, and he retreated to the side as if he had done something wrong.
She ignored Su Ni, knowing he'd get what's coming to him later; Shu's father was already furious.
The guests in the hall were evacuated, and the atmosphere returned to its previous cheerful and talkative state, quickly covering up what had just happened. However, the fear from just now was still etched in Erice's mind.
Memories of the past flooded back to her. When she was in preparatory school, whenever something went missing in the class, they would say, "Sure enough, it's that orphan from Shinchi, he's always up to no good."
She did nothing wrong today, yet she was falsely accused and charged with a crime. Everyone was laughing at her, their eyes seemingly saying: "She's definitely from that place."
Shu Ning's words clearly proved her innocence, yet she handled the matter by ignoring right and wrong, good and bad, and simply erasing everything, making it seem like nothing had ever happened.
Yes, she doesn't have to pay for the bracelet, but she didn't do anything wrong!
The guests left, but the charge of theft remained firmly pinned on her. Those who wronged her went unpunished, and others still believed she was so poor that she stole someone else's bracelet, only that the Shi family covered it up to save face.
Eric clenched his fists and caught up with Shu Ningmiao through the crowd.
Shu Ningmiao walked quickly out of the hall and stopped in the less crowded garden. She wanted to get some fresh air. She thought Yu would handle the rest, so she didn't need to worry about it.
A flurry of footsteps followed behind her. Shu Ningmiao turned around, and Ai Ruiji frantically tried to grab her hand, his palms covered in cold sweat.
Shu Ningmiao calmly put her hands behind her back: "What exactly do you want to do?"
“I didn’t steal anything, I’m innocent.” Erice still grabbed her arm, stammering a few times before finally managing to finish, “Could you…”
Shu Ningmiao pulled her arm away from her hand and restrained her wrist with an irresistible force, her tone turning cold: "You didn't steal anything. You could have said it openly and honestly in front of her and demanded proof of your innocence."
“I…” Eric’s wrist trembled incessantly in her hand, her brown eyes filled with tears: “My mind is blank, I don’t know what to say.”
"Throwing a tantrum, rolling on the ground, acting crazy, letting her search your belongings—don't you know whether you have any of her things on you?" Shu Ningmiao had long since lost interest in her submissive attitude. Impatiently, she grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer, her reddish-brown eyes coldly fixed on her: "Who are you waiting for to help you? Who will help you?"
Erice choked back a sob, wanting to say Su Ni's name, but thinking that Shu Ningmiao would definitely explode if he did, he subconsciously swallowed it back.
“She’s a guest here, I was just recommended to help out…” Her face was flushed, and her words were jumbled and incoherent: “The orphanage mother recommended me here, and if I offend her, I’ll cause trouble for the orphanage…”
"So what do you want from me?" Shu Ningmiao frowned, her voice calming down: "Didn't you already make up your mind?"
Erice's eyelashes fluttered, her eyes tightly closed, but a single crystal tear slid down her pale, thin skin. She sobbed several times, her lips opening and closing several times, before finally uttering, "Because I... I feel... you're different, you're different from those people."
She opened her eyes, but Shu Ningmiao's vision became increasingly blurry. She pressed her eyes, shamefully trying to rub the tears back in, but they only grew thicker.
Shu Ningmiao released her hand, distanced herself from her, her face calm and composed, revealing no trace of emotion, and said to her word by word: "Then let me tell you, I am no different from anyone else here."
Erice's heart pounded like a drum, then suddenly slowed down. She lowered her head as if she had lost all strength and covered her face tightly.
What on earth is she thinking... Just a few days ago, Shu Ningmiao was nonchalantly listening to those girls mocking her as a lioness. Shu Ningmiao hates Su Ni so much, maybe she thinks she's dating Su Ni just like everyone else... It's already kind of her not to hit her.
“I won’t help you.” Shu Ningmiao was still standing in front of her, smoothing out her crumpled shawl. “You can go find someone who is willing to help you, until no one is willing to help you anymore.”
She crouched down, lifted Erice's wet face, and looked Erice straight in the eyes: "You never seem to see yourself as a superhuman."
“I know that you are ordered around by unfamiliar classmates every day at this school, and are sometimes locked in a room in the teaching building for several hours. They will make up some trivial things to keep you busy. This does not do them any good, but teasing you will give them some mental self-satisfaction.”
Erice's body suddenly stiffened, staring blankly at Shu Ningmiao. It turned out that Shu Ningmiao had seen everything that had happened to her. Why... every time she secretly looked over, Shu Ningmiao never looked in her direction.
"But I'm only curious about one thing, why didn't you say no?"
"Afraid of being expelled from school if you offend them? What will they do to the orphanage you came from?"
Shu Ningmiao seemed to have anticipated what she was going to say: "Xianguang Academy never actively discourages people with superpowers, even if you commit murder and arson. All the orphanages in Xindi are built with funding from the Yangsong Church, and no one would go against the Church for such a thing."
As she gazed at him, it was as if her very heart was being laid bare, completely seen through.
"You didn't think it through before deciding to swallow your anger; you never even considered it."
Shu Ningmiao lowered her voice, her eyelashes drooping down to cover her beautifully shaped eyes, making her coldness even more apparent: "When you expect someone to save you, no one can save you. Because they know you... are so weak."
After a few seconds of frozen silence, Erice began to tremble uncontrollably. Her nerves, stretched to their limit, snapped, and she clutched her skirt tightly, bursting into tears: "I don't know..."
"I don't know what I should do, or what the right thing to do is." She lowered her head, refusing to show any of her emotions, and slowly squatted down in front of Shu Ningmiao. The tears on her face were first large, sparse patches, then turned into fine, dense streams: "I'm so scared."
Eric's body trembled, suppressing his sobs, his voice almost distorted: "My original world was so small and so low, with only twenty or so children in the orphanage, and a living room that could only fit a long table. I didn't understand anything. I thought that if I came out, I could go to a bigger world, but I don't know why the road always gets narrower and narrower."
“The more I try to get out, the less I can get out. I can’t finish the course in Cornunos and I can’t get excellent grades. They don’t have my grades, but they have a brighter future than me.”
And every day off after the start of the semester, she pondered where her future lay.
Her mother sent her to school all these years, and she might still end up dusting the frames for celebrities and the wealthy—some jobs don't even earn as much as dusting a single frame. So what's the point of her studying so hard?
Superpowers are innate, as are a person's birth. It seems that everyone's life is predetermined from the day they are born, and any effort is futile.
Erice skillfully demonstrated the tantrum she had just mentioned in front of her, burying her head in her hands and crying incessantly.
Seeing that tears were about to fall all over her, Shu Ningmiao pushed her away with disgust and stood a little further away: "I'm not blaming you, I just don't understand."
“I don’t understand either!” Erice choked back tears, her voice unconsciously becoming shrill. “Why is it always me? Why is it always me who gets bullied? Why don’t they go to someone else?”
In despair, she covered her ears, pretending that she hadn't said such ugly and distorted things.
She had indeed had such dark thoughts: she wasn't the only poor person studying at the aristocratic school, so why did they have to target her?
Eric's crying gave her a headache. Shu Ningmiao turned to leave, but was stopped in her tracks by a single sentence from Eric.
Wait, why?
There are many specially recruited students in Cornunos, so why is it that Erici, who is a superhuman, is always bullied? Is it because she is easy to bully?
There are countless people with her personality; the weakness born of poverty is nothing special. Erice is even more low-key than others.
Shu Ningmiao never doubted it, because she had obtained the game before she even saw Eric, and that's how the game's plot unfolded.
Reality is not a game; reality needs reasons and causes.
Shu Ningmiao held her forehead. All along, she had treated reality too much like a game, and her mind automatically rationalized many illogical things.
Other people's behavior can be explained by boredom, but what just happened is simply illogical.
There are many ways to make life difficult for an orphan girl who has just arrived from a new place, but making things difficult for her and framing her is the stupidest, most inappropriate, and not worth it. The harm caused by such actions far outweighs the benefits.
So, why?
Shu Ningmiao suddenly realized what was happening and walked straight past Ai Ruiji, who was still sobbing rapidly, towards the Shi family's house.
Shi Yu had just toasted each of the guests, and there was no sign of drunkenness on his face. When he saw her return, he raised his glass to her.
The white wine reflected in his light-colored eyes, which showed no emotion.
Shu Ningmiao walked to his side: "Miss Yang didn't leave, did she?"
"There's no movement from the guest rooms upstairs." Shi Yu leaned against the stairs, raising his wine glass to his face, the glass rippling in the breeze.
He spoke slowly, and Shu Ningmiao thought he might be drunk. She reached out and touched his forehead, which felt like scorching hot glass.
Shi Yu's eyes did not move; he remained calmly looking ahead, his breathing even.
Okay, I'm drunk.
Shu Ningmiao pushed Shi Yu aside, called over the nearest waiter, and asked him which room the Miss Yang from earlier was in.
"Do you have a spare key for the guest room?" Shu Ningmiao asked the waiter, paused for a moment, and then took back her previous question: "Never mind, no need."
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