Chapter 44
Yu Aiai looked up with a bit of vigilance: "Why are you always playing with my phone?"
Chen He switched her phone back to the calculator page and threw it back to the desktop: "Link the widget back to me. Oh, by the way..." She pretended to be gossipy and asked, "How was your last date with your boyfriend?"
Yu Aiai's face froze: "What male god? Don't talk nonsense."
"Didn't he ask you out the day before yesterday?" Chen He said teasingly.
Yu Aiai laughed dryly: "No, you must have remembered it wrongly."
Looking at the vigilance and resistance in Yu Aiai's expression, Chen He knew something was wrong.
Yu Aiai wasn't that smart. Someone had reminded her to delete the contact information and keep her mouth shut. It was that man 001.
Chen He probed a few more times. Sure enough, Yu Aiai completely denied what she had said before about the boy asking Qiu Yue out. She angrily said, "Stop interrupting me! I wrote it wrong!" She pouted and rewrote the letter on a new sheet of paper.
Chen He knew the opportunity was lost. He gritted his teeth and skipped directly to the next round.
She suddenly raised her nose and sniffed the air, saying, "Hey, it seems you changed your perfume."
Yu Aiai, who was halfway through writing, immediately lost her mind and tilted her head to sniff her hair: "Yes, it's a new Dior model. My new boyfriend bought it for me. Doesn't it smell good?"
Chen He nodded appreciatively. "You've always liked this brand. Back when we were at the base, you also used Dior perfume. Not many students used famous brands back then, and we were so envious. Which one was it?"
A hint of pride appeared on Yu Ai Ai's brows again: "It's Dior's Pink Poison."
Chen He said slowly: "Yes, pink poison. I remember the smell, sweet and greasy. I smelled the smell when I fell off the cliff." The tone of the second half of the sentence suddenly turned cold, and his eyes pierced Yu Aiai's face like a needle.
Yu Aiai froze, with fear, surprise, and guilt clearly written on her face.
It took him a while to react and he laughed dryly: "Chen He, what nonsense are you talking about? Did you remember it wrong?"
Chen He didn't beat around the bush this time and said in a firm tone, "I'm not mistaken. Yu Aiai, five years ago, it was you who pushed me off the cliff."
The color drained from Yu Aiai's face, and she stood up suddenly: "You...you shouldn't be slandering me! It was clearly...it was clearly you who fell down!"
She was trembling and almost wanted to run away. Chen He read the affirmative answer from her panic:
Five years ago, when the teachers and students of the base discovered that Qiu Yue was missing, Principal Zhu organized everyone to search for her, and Chen He was among them.
Even though Qiu Yue had broken up with her before, she couldn't just sit back and watch. As the teachers and students searched everywhere, Chen He suddenly wanted to go to Qiu Yue's dormitory to see if she could find anything.
She went into Qiu Yue's dormitory alone, rummaged through Qiu Yue's upper bunk bed, and saw a small box next to the pillow.
I opened the box and found a small figurine inside: a little princess sitting on the moon.
The small ornament that Qiu Yue had smashed at Chen He's feet was carefully glued back together bit by bit. It was covered with cracks, but not a single piece was missing.
Chen He was stunned.
Why did Qiu Yue break it and then glue it together? Why was she so heartless and yet so cherishing?
Why did they, who once sympathized with each other, suddenly become enemies, yet secretly keep this little gift together and treasure it like a treasure?
What exactly happened in the meantime?
Chen He seemed to see a thin figure in a white dress squatting alone in the empty classroom, picking up the fragments bit by bit.
She must have cried then.
Chen He felt his heart slowly breaking, just like this little ornament.
Qiu Yue must be hiding some secret.
She stuffed the ornament into her pocket and jumped out of bed, eager to find Qiu Yue and ask her for answers. She didn't think Qiu Yue would leave the base; she might be hiding in a room somewhere. She searched dormitory after dormitory.
She had missed the public restroom in the girls' dormitory. If she had gone in, she would have found Teacher Feng, dying, hiding in the innermost cubicle.
After searching the third floor, we went from the second floor to the first floor, searching classroom by classroom.
Finally, she arrived at the small studio at the end of the first-floor corridor. Although she didn't find anyone, she stumbled upon scattered flower seeds. She was surprised to find that these seeds matched the pictures of red spider lily seeds that Qiu Yue had shown her.
An ominous premonition arose in my heart.
The door suddenly opened, and a man in a police uniform rushed in, scolding her while carrying her and running away. Only then did she realize that the surroundings were filled with smoke.
Just as they were being escorted out by the police, the building collapsed in flames. The students and teachers were thrown into chaos, with some being picked up by their parents and others catching the high-speed train on their own.
But Chen He didn't leave, she wanted to find Qiu Yue.
She overheard the police discussing a plan, figuring that besides Teacher Feng, Qiu Yue was likely inside the building. They focused their search and rescue efforts on the collapsed building, organizing a night-long excavation operation.
Chen He stepped on the rubble with one foot high and one foot low, and found the policeman who rescued her. She showed him the flower seeds in his hand and said that Qiu Yue might not be in the ruins, and asked if they could look for her in the mountains.
The police have their own ideas and procedures. Xiao Pingyuan, overwhelmed with worry, didn't understand what the girl meant. He was simply surprised she was still there and asked a colleague to take her to the city to arrange accommodation.
When I turned around again, Chen He had already slipped away.
She didn't leave, but found a corner to sleep in for the night. The next morning, she left the base and set out on her search alone.
Her search wasn't aimless. Ever since she discovered the red spider lily, she'd been thinking about Qiu Yue's death fantasy. Red spider lilies thrive in the shade of the mountains, in moist, sun-drenched areas.
Mingzhu Mountain was so vast that there were more than one such place. She had walked until the soles of her shoes were almost worn out, but she hadn't found anything.
Finally, when we arrived at the edge of a valley, the sun was about to set. The valley was quite steep, and to reach the bottom, we had to go down along an ancient stone staircase.
Chen He hesitated for a moment, gazing at the shadowy valley floor. Then, judging the sky, he decided he could make the round trip before dark, and so he set foot on the stone steps. Water seeping through the rocks had covered the steps with moss, making them extremely slippery. Beyond the path lay a twenty-meter-high cliff.
Chen He's last memory was a cool breeze blowing from behind her, carrying with it a hint of fragrance. She felt that the fragrance was somewhat familiar.
Then, the memory was fragmented.
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