It was a pity that Qian Wei didn’t seem destined to get a good night’s sleep that night. She had only managed to sleep for less than an hour when she was awakened by the sound of the dorm mother knocking at the door.
After a moment, the whole dorm room woke up sleepily.
Liu Shiyun poked her head out of the quilt and complained, “Auntie, are you running an anti-pornography crack down in the middle of the night or something…”
The dorm mother had an apologetic look on her face as she walked into the dorm room followed by a girl. Qian Wei opened her eyes and looked over, she felt the girl was a little familiar, but she didn’t recognize her.
“It’s really not appropriate to wake everyone up in the middle of the night like this, I hope you can all forgive auntie. Next time, auntie will bring you all some of my dumplings as an apology.” After briefly soothing the mood, the dorm mother quickly switched gears and started talking about business. “This is actually a bit awkward but we may have to open everyone’s drawers and cabinets and search them.”
“Huh? Why?”
The dorm mother pointed to the girl behind her: “Liang Qing has lost something very valuable.”
Liu Shiyun was muddled by sleep for a moment but she quickly sobered up: “She lost something valuable and suspects that it was stolen by someone in our dormitory, so she gets to come here and search?” Liu Shiyun smiled angrily and gestured to herself and the other girls in the room. “Do we look like thieves? Why would we steal from her?! it’s the middle of the night, it would be better if you really were waking us up to crack down on pornography and illegal activities! “
The dorm mother tried to appease her: “Of course, auntie believes you, but since you didn’t steal it any way you might as well let us open your cabinets and drawers in front of this classmate here to show her. Then this matter can be solved.”
“If we are innocent, we should just open our things to be searched?” Qian Wei also became a little angry. “The principle of law is innocent until proven guilty, and you haven’t even established that a crime has even been committed. How can you demand to search for us? Do you have any evidence? If people can just do whatever they want even if there is no evidence at all, wouldn’t society be a mess? Wouldn’t things break down if a person could just break into private property and search randomly without any reason?”
“Auntie knows that you are all from the law school, and she can’t talk about the law with you, but I’m not searching at random without any evidence.” The dorm mother looked back at Liang Qing behind her. “This classmate lost her foreign brand necklace that’s worth tens of thousands of yuan that was left to her by her mother. The necklace was lost only tonight and, just before she lost it, she took it off of her neck and put it inside her drawer. Her dorm room is very close to yours and she says that she saw someone from this dorm room carrying the same necklace inside.”
Liu Shiyun scoffed: “Necklaces are all mass-produced, it doesn’t mean anything even if someone else had the same one. Just because of this, you want to assume that there is a thief in our dormitory?”
“This classmate told me that her necklace is very unique, because it’s a custom-made piece from a foreign designer. It absolutely isn’t something mass-produced and it has some very distinctive features. For instance, there is a distinctive patch of wear and a crack on one of its corners, so if we can take a look we’ll be able to identify if it’s her necklace immediately.”
The other two girls in the dorm room had also woken up by now, and they also began to angrily complain: “Why should we let her search our dormitory? Why would you wake us up in the middle of the night for this!”
“We’ve all been roommates for years and we know each other’s character. If there were any thieves here, we would have been losing things from a long time ago, but we’ve never lost anything.”
The dorm mother hesitated uncertainly. She turned around and spoke to the girl named Liang Qing, “Could this be a misunderstanding? Could you have left it somewhere else while you were out? This dormitory has always been fine, there’s never been a case of anyone stealing anything…”
Liang Qing, who had been silent until now, pursed her lips and said, “I saw it clearly. I know exactly who took it.”
Liu Shiyun replied with a sneer: “OK, then tell me, who took your necklace?”
Liang Qing seemed very hesitant, and she muddled about for a long time before finally seeming to pluck up the courage to raise her hand and point at someone: “It’s her.”
Qian Wei: ??? She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. It seemed that Liang Qing had pointed to her.
As soon as Liu Shiyun saw that, she was completely enraged: “There’s a bottom line for trying to frame people, okay? Qian Wei is my best friend, do you think I don’t know what kind of person she is? Would she even want your stupid necklace?”
Liang Qing seemed to be frightened by Liu Shiyun’s ferocious expression. She weakly took a step backward, her eyes were moist and on the verge of filling with tears, and she timidly said: “It was really her. I saw it myself. I’m not framing her…”
Liang Qing paused and then continued in a soft voice: “My necklace is worth tens of thousands of yuan. If someone happened to think it looked good and decided to borrow it without permission, just give it back to me now and apologize, and I will not pursue the matter. But if they aren’t willing to give it back to me, I can’t just drop it, after all, the necklace was left to me by my mother and it’s very special to me, so I’ll have no choice but to call the police. You are law students so you should know that once the police are called, things won’t be able to be put down so simply anymore. Since the item is worth tens of thousands, won’t it be some sort of larceny?”
“Are you threatening us?” Liu Shiyun retorted angrily.
Qian Wei pulled Liu Shiyun’s arm and said, “Forget it.”
But Liu Shiyun was stubborn. She glared at Liang Qing and the dorm mother and said: “So you came here today to search through Qian Wei’s cabinets and drawers, right? You really want to come here talk about the law in front of us who study the law? Do you know what procedural justice is? Even if someone did steal something, you aren’t entitled to casually search them yourself without first initiating the judicial process. If you went to the supermarket and the supermarket suspected you of stealing something so they forcibly searched your purse, could you accept it?”
Liang Qing blinked: “Then I can only call the police.”
The dorm mother felt that this situation was a little difficult to handle. However, once the police were involved, things would only get worse. If something really happened then not only would the students be in trouble but even she, as the dorm mother, would be punished and have her wages deducted.
“Fine, you can search. But if you don’t find anything, apologize to me and also apologize to everyone in our dorm room who you woke up for this.” Qian Wei didn’t want to make things difficult for everyone, and she felt it was pointless to drag this out so she took the initiative to open her wardrobe. As someone who lived in the city, she would often go home on weekends so she didn’t keep many clothes in the dorm even though she lived here most of the time. Because of that, Qian Wei’s wardrobe didn’t have much inside and, after opening it, it was more or less clear at a glance that there was no necklace. She took the initiative to turn out the pockets of several of her clothes, but the necklace was nowhere to be found. She did find a ‘huge sum’ of a hundred yuan that she had forgotten about in one pocket though.
“See, Qian Wei is innocent. You can apologize to her and us now.”
“What about the desk drawer.” Even as Liang Qing spoke, Qian Wei briskly walked over and opened her desk drawer. It was a little messy and filled with a pile of red-backed law books.
Qian Wei was about to take out all the books, but her hand touched a cool metal object at the back of the desk. With a heart filled with misgivings, she pulled it out. It was a small heart-shaped pendant with a chic design, it was a little worn, and there was an obvious crack on one corner… Qian Wei pursed her lips and tugged on the small pendant and, sure enough, the pendant was followed by a thin platinum chain…
“That’s it! My mother’s necklace!” Liang Qing rushed forward and snatched the necklace from Qian Wei’s hand before holding it against her chest. Her eyes turned misty, as if she was overjoyed at having recovered something precious, and Qian Wei really wanted to tell her that her acting skills were really amazing.
She looked at the necklace for a long moment, tears welling in her eyes. Finally, she looked up and looked at Qian Wei, then she slowly said, “If you apologize to me now in front of everyone, we can pretend this never happened.”
“How could we pretend this never happened?” Qian Wei smiled angrily. She had never expected that the necklace would really appear in her drawer and, for a moment, she was shocked and confused, but despite that, her stance was very firm. “I didn’t take your necklace, and I also want to ask it when it grew legs and walked into my drawer to get me caught up in this ‘thief’ drama, so how can I pretend it never happened?”
The dorm mother hesitated for a moment. She looked between Liang Qing and Qian Wei and felt completely confused. Both of them looked serious, and neither of them seemed to be lying.
Because the incident was a bit noisy some people from the nearby dorm rooms also began to wake up one after another and walk over, bleary-eyed, to Qian Wei’s dorm room to check the situation.
“Then how do you explain the fact that my necklace was in your drawer?”
Liu Shiyun rolled her eyes: “Needless to say, you framed Qian Wei. Besides, what kind of idiot would steal something and then be so generous to let you search them and find the stolen goods in front of everyone?”
“Before today, I didn’t know Qian Wei at all. Why would I target her or frame her?” Liang Qing’s voice choked up. “As for why she let herself be caught on the spot, how would I know? I have never stolen anything, so I don’t understand the way a thief thinks. This whole time, I only wanted to make peace but you girls from the law school all just want to bully me. As the victim, is it my fault?” As she spoke, her voice began to raise with seeming anger, “Is there any thief like you who still acts so self-righteous after being caught red-handed?”
Her words stirred some misgivings in the other girls who had come to see what was going on. Soon, more and more people who had been woken by the commotion began to gather at the door of Qian Wei’s dorm room where they whispered uncertainly to each other.
Naturally, Liu Shiyun could stand beside Qian Wei and support her no matter what the situation was. However, other people weren’t like Liu Shiyun. They didn’t know Qian Wei very well and, under Liang Qing’s tearful accusations, the eyes on Qian Wei began to change.
Of course, neither side was willing to put this matter down and, in the end, the dorm mother had no way to mediate the situation. She could only call in the counselor from Qian Wei’s law school, who naturally wanted to press the matter down into something trivial but, no matter what kind of nice words they said neither Qian Wei or Liang Qing was willing to back down.
The matter couldn’t be suppressed, so it could only go up layer by layer until it reached the dean of the law school. The school was afraid that Liang Qing would really call the police, which would affect the reputation of the school, so first an investigation team was set up to appease her. At the same time, the dean told the counselor to convince Qian Wei to just soften her stance and offer an apology.
“You are a second-year student and it’s normal for you to make mistakes. Right now, the situation still isn’t serious and won’t follow you for the rest of your life. However, if this really blows up and you end up with a criminal record, it won’t only affect your registration for the judicial examination, it will also affect your applications to enter civil service in the future. As you know, many of our law school graduates enter the public security bureau or the procuratorate*…”
Qian Wei didn’t rest hardly at all that night. First, the counselor tried to persuade her, then she was called to the dean’s office to be further scolded and cajoled. The whole experience left her both angry and disappointed.
In the end, she just made her attitude to the counselor clear and then didn’t bother to argue with him anymore. She felt it was useless for her to say anything to someone who didn’t trust her anyway so, when the counselor saw that she had clammed up, he finally had no choice but to let her go.
Just looking at the conclusion, the necklace was indeed found in Qian Wei’s drawer in front of everyone. But as far as Qian Wei knew she had never met Liang Qing before this night. Even when she wracked her brains about it, not to mention in this life, she didn’t even remember such a person from her previous life, let alone how she might have offended her. However, from an outsider’s point of view, it really looked like Qian Wei stole the necklace.
Good things wouldn’t spread, but bad news traveled fast. Qian Wei arrived at the door of her tax law class the next morning when she heard some of her classmates gossiping about the matter.
“Hey, have you heard? About the theft?”
“What?”
“It’s Qian Wei. I heard she stole someone’s necklace. Is that true?”
“I don’t think she’s that kind of person.”
“I don’t know, it’s hard to say. Who can really know a person’s heart? Many serial killers from abroad looked like honest and ordinary people before being caught.”
“Why are you waiting here at the door? Not going in?”
Just as Qian Wei was hesitating, Lu Xun’s voice sounded out from behind her. Qian Wei looked back and was greeted by Lu Xun’s handsome and indifferent face. However, when he saw her, he showed a smile that was like the sun coming out after heavy snow, diluting his overly sharp temperament into something softer and warmer.
Lu Xun walked past Qian Wei, pushed open the door, and then just stood there waiting for her to go in.
“Oh, stop talking. Lu Xun is here.”
“Why should we stop talking because of Lu Xun?”
“Didn’t you hear? Qian Wei became Lu Xun’s girlfriend!”
“What the fuck? She’s so powerful?”
Just then, the tax law teacher walked in with the stack of tax law quizzes and everyone quieted down.
After the papers were handed out, everyone focused on the exam. Lu Xun, who was obviously full of questions, could only hold back. He looked at Qian Wei with questioning and worried eyes, but Qian Wei just smiled at him despite her discomfort.
However, almost the moment the quiz was done, Lu Xun grabbed Qian Wei and dragged her outside the classroom.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s no big deal.” Qian Wei didn’t know why she suddenly felt stuffy in her chest. She had been very calm when she was first framed but now that she was facing Lu Xun, although she said she was okay, she actually felt aggrieved and wanted to cry. As if she was a child who would try not to cry when they fell down alone, but once they saw the family member they relied on, they couldn’t help but burst into tears.
“What are you trying to hide at this point?” Ignoring the people coming and going all around them, Lu Xun reached out and rubbed Qian Wei’s head directly. “You have to remember that you also have a backer now so, tell me, who bullied you?”
“I’ll tell you!” Just then, Liu Shiyun also walked out of the classroom, “Those people are really bullying people too much!”
Qian Wei had to say, Liu Shiyun was very good at organizing her language and speaking clearly and concisely. Soon, the three of them found an empty classroom and Liu Shiyun explained everything that happened the previous night in exacting detail.
As he listened, the furrows on Lu Xun’s brow grew deeper and deeper, and his face became darker and darker. Actually, considering Lu Xun’s usual temperament, the fact that he was still sitting there calmly showed that he was using a great deal of his patience and restraint.
“I think she did it for revenge.” He said, after Liu Shiyun finished talking and he spent a moment considering.
Liu Shiyun nodded: “Right, ah~, I was wondering last night if it might be one of your fanatical suitors or something. After all, Qian Wei and you are in love so now she has to bear a lot of pressure! There are definitely a lot of jealous women out there. Who knows if one of them might become psychologically twisted and decide that Qian Wei has stolen you from them and want to retaliate against her. “
“What was the woman’s name?”
“Liang Qing.”
Lu Xun pursed his lips: “If she was able to go out of her way to frame Qian Wei because of an obsession with me, then she would probably be the abnormal type that would have been harassing me from long ago, but I have no impression of that name at all.” Lu Xun thought for a moment, “What school is she from?”
“Huh?” Liu Shiyun was briefly stunned. “I seem to remember that she’s from the foreign language school! Yes! She’s from the foreign language school!”
Liu Shiyun’s guess and the words ‘foreign language school’ slowly fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and, slowly, the image of Liang Qing’s face finally became clearer in Qian Wei’s mind.
“I got it!” She slapped her thigh and exclaimed. “Liang Qing is the girl who was crazily pursuing Mo Tao and harassing him! It was because of her that Mo Tao asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend so she would stop harassing him!”
Liu Shiyun also had a sudden realization: “Then this matter can be easily solved! She must still be under the misunderstanding that Mo Tao is your boyfriend, and she has been waiting all this time for a chance to get revenge on you. So all we have to do is get Mo Tao to make things clear to her and tell her that there’s no reason for her to attack you!”
“I’m afraid doing that won’t only be useless, but it will probably make things worse.” After a moment of excitement, Qian Wei calmed down and slowly reasoned. “Mo Tao occasionally complained about her to me in the past. He told me that she is very abnormal, so it will probably be very difficult to change her mind now that she has identified me as an enemy. If we ask Mo Tao to explain, probably she not only wouldn’t believe it, but she would just think that Mo Tao was willing to lie to protect me and hate me even more.”
For a moment, both Liu Shiyun and Qian Wei were at a loss about what to do.
“Don’t worry about it, just leave it to me.” No matter what the situation was, Lu Xun’s voice was always calm and steady and somehow Qian Wei felt that as long as he was there, there was nothing that couldn’t be solved. “I can protect my own girlfriend. I don’t need Mo Tao’s help.”
*the procuratorate is the ‘Supreme People’s Procuratorate’ or the ‘Prosecutor General’s Office’ and it’s ‘the highest national level agency responsible for both prosecution and investigation in the People’s Republic of China.’ (via wikipedia lol)
Yeah gi for it lun xu😆