Doce Torres de Jade

Capítulo 18

Aunt Zhang slipped!

Having anticipated this, Guo Qinqin swiftly caught Aunt Zhang, who was about to slip and fall!

Guo Qinqin revealed her true colors as a thief after Aunt Zhang entered the fitting room and stole her valuables!

It was another magnificent shopping mall. Xu Haibing rushed in, panting, and his eyes immediately fixed on it—

Ahead, Guo Qinqin was eyeing a well-off woman walking in her direction!

She half-squatted down, pretending to take off her shoes!

She took a small plastic bottle out of her bag!

A small plastic bottle sprays a colorless liquid onto a smooth marble floor!

...

In an instant, with a scream from the plump woman, one foot slipped on the liquid-splattered ground—

Guo Qinqin turned slightly to the side and swiftly reached out to catch the person who was about to slip!

She opened her mouth in surprise--

The woman she was supporting wasn't her prey, the plump woman, but Xu Haibing!

The noisy hall fell silent instantly!

Xu Haibing and Guo Qinqin stood facing each other, dumbfounded!

The shoppers, including the well-off woman whom Xu Haibing had just rudely pushed away from behind, all glanced at the two of them with inexplicable curiosity and hurriedly moved away.

Suddenly, Xu Haibing's phone rang!

He opened the phone cover and saw a text message displayed on the screen:

Shen Daxing has just been cremated, and his ashes are temporarily placed in Phoenix Ridge Cemetery.

Xu Haibing suddenly looked up, grabbed Guo Qinqin, and ran out of the mall...

QQ Lost (27(1))

"Squeak"

The heavy, large black door was pushed open, and dazzling sunlight flooded into the dark and spacious columbarium of the cemetery.

Guo Qinqin, with an icy expression, followed Xu Haibing in.

On the cabinet near the entrance, a brand-new urn stands out starkly among the other dusty urns.

A one-inch portrait of Shen Daxing is inlaid in the center of the urn!

Guo Qinqin looked closely, her body went limp, and she collapsed into Xu Haibing's arms.

A small river murmurs beside the cemetery, overgrown with weeds.

Xu Haibing, with a solemn expression, and Guo Qinqin, with tears in her eyes, sat on the riverbank, with tombstones standing behind them on the hillside.

Xu Haibing finally erupted from his silence: "Tell me, is Shen Daxing's death related to you or not?! He must have discovered your fraudulent activities, he was heartbroken and disappointed, he scolded you, rebuked you, and urged you to turn yourself in and turn back from the wrong path. Fearing exposure, you resorted to extreme measures and scared him to death in the middle of the night. Am I wrong?!"

Guo Qinqin stared at the clear river water, unmoved.

"I'm taking responsibility for you! Do you know that?! Tell me! What exactly is the feud between you and Shen Daxing?!" Xu Haibing was indignant. He stood up, grabbed Guo Qinqin, and glared at her angrily.

After a long while, Guo Qinqin slowly brushed aside the bangs that were falling towards her left forehead.

What appeared before Xu Haibing's eyes were ugly scars on her left forehead!

Then, Guo Qinqin calmly recounted a true story that happened more than ten years ago on a bus—

Back then, buses were dilapidated and just as crowded as they are now.

A chapped little hand was stealthily reaching into a passenger's pocket to steal. Just as the two trembling fingers pinched the wallet, it was grabbed by another large hand that quietly reached out!

The little girl, not yet ten years old, turned pale with fright. She glanced nervously at the person who had grabbed her hand, a simple and unassuming rural man.

The bus jolted violently, and the little girl tried to pull her hand away, but the older man from the countryside gripped it even tighter.

The bus chugged along. The little girl and the man from the countryside remained silent, their hands still tightly clasped together…

The bus pulled into the stop, and passengers began to surge through the carriage. The little girl gritted her teeth, suddenly and forcefully shook off the country man's hand, then slapped him across the face, yelling, "You bad guy!" before diving out of the bus…

On the street, the little girl, thinking she was out of danger, turned around and found that the silent rural man had also gotten off the bus and was following closely behind her. In a hurry to shake off this annoying tail, she turned and ran into the alley.

Inside the alley, a little girl walked briskly ahead, followed closely by a rural man!

As the little girl walked, she stopped because a gray building blocked her way, making it a dead end!

The little girl turned around, and the rural man stopped in his tracks, facing off in silence.

The little girl's hand began to reach for her schoolbag.

The older man from the countryside watched her movements.

The little girl suddenly pulled a pencil sharpener made from a hacksaw blade from her schoolbag and raised it high!

The rural man stepped back, about to speak, when the little girl's blade didn't stab him, but instead forcefully slashed her own left forehead!

The man from the countryside was stunned and didn't react for a moment.

The blade cut deeply into the little girl's forehead, leaving numerous wounds from which blood flowed freely!

The man from the countryside realized what was happening and rushed forward without hesitation, grabbing the blade with his left hand and struggling to break free!

The two men froze instantly, blood seeping from between the village man's fingers, dripping onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust...

Blood streamed down the little girl's left forehead, blurring her vision...

"You know without me saying it, that rural guy is Shen Daxing, and the little girl is... me..." Guo Qinqin wiped away her already dried tears and walked along the riverbank.

Xu Haibing followed, hesitant to speak, his heart filled with turmoil.

As Guo Qinqin walked, she continued in a low voice, "...That's how we met. He had just come from a mountainous area in a neighboring province to attend a junior college here. Later, he said that the day he grabbed me, he was determined to save me, so he got off the bus with me. He really treated me like an older brother, guiding me morally, tutoring me in my studies, and even scraping together a little of his meager scholarship to help me and encourage me to start anew... Until later, when my family's old house was ordered to be forcibly demolished by the district government within three days, my grandmother and I were displaced, and we lost contact... Perhaps fate really does have its own arrangements, because I never expected to run into him on the first day of the new semester..."

Guo Qinqin was describing exactly what Huang Mao had seen from the rooftop that day.

In front of the D-building student dormitory, Shen Daxing, who was studying for a part-time postgraduate degree, bumped into Guo Qinqin, who was looking down at her book.

Shen Daxing squatted down apologetically to help Guo Qinqin pick up the books that had fallen to the ground.

He was stunned.

I inadvertently noticed the scar on the girl's left forehead!

Guo Qinqin was also stunned--

The man who was helping to pick up the books had a familiar scar on his left hand!

The two slowly raised their heads, and after a long while, they both revealed heavy smiles...

"...After all, we're not the same age as before, and we can no longer find that brother-sister relationship we used to have...Even though we live just upstairs and downstairs, we don't see each other very often, and even when we do meet, we only talk about high-sounding topics..." Guo Qinqin said as she picked wild chrysanthemums on the hillside.

Xu Haibing probed indirectly, "It seems the situation I have isn't like that. You might have forgotten, but not long ago you two were seeing each other so frequently that you even went to get keys made..."

Guo Qinqin calmly explained, "Once, I asked him a political question, and the conversation drifted to political civilization. He angrily recounted how village officials in his rural hometown were tyrannical, extorting money and exploiting the villagers, causing immense suffering for the farmers. He believed the root cause was that the power to appoint village officials wasn't in the hands of the people; as long as they curried favor with those above, they could still be promoted, even the more corrupt they were, the higher they rose. This led us to consider starting with direct elections at universities. We could seize the opportunity when new universities were still establishing themselves and hadn't yet focused on forming student unions, and launch a surprise, groundbreaking initiative where students themselves elected the student union's organization and members. We analyzed the situation together, weighed the pros and cons, and felt this aligned with the spirit of the central government's political reforms—a positive and progressive initiative. With his support and guidance, everything was under my control, and we ultimately succeeded..."

QQ Lost, Chapter 27 (2)

As they spoke, Guo Qinqin and Xu Haibing, holding handfuls of golden wild chrysanthemums, returned to the columbarium.

Xu Haibing, still puzzled, pressed on: "It should be said that, no matter what, Shen Daxing has been kind and righteous to you, and you should be filled with gratitude towards him..."

"...I will be grateful forever." Guo Qinqin gently placed the wild chrysanthemums in front of Shen Daxing's urn, then clasped her hands together and stood solemnly.

Xu Haibing then bowed deeply respectfully to Shen Daxing's urn. Perhaps he felt that clarifying the cause of death was the best way to mourn the deceased, so he seized this special occasion and pressed on: "But...but why did you and he seem to have this...rift a few days before he died?"

Guo Qinqin's cheek twitched involuntarily. Avoiding Xu Haibing's aggressive gaze, she casually replied, "...Do I have to tell you everything?"

"The eyes of the gods are like lightning. In the face of the dead, what is there that we need to hide or that we can hide?" Xu Haibing stood firm.

Guo Qinqin's gaze met Shen Daxing's portrait on the urn, and a trace of panic immediately flashed across her face!

However, she quickly regained her composure, turned her back, and casually remarked, "He subtly expressed his love for me..."

"And you?"

"I politely declined." Guo Qinqin walked out.

"Where is he?" Xu Haibing followed him out.

"She seems fine on the surface, but she seems very hurt inside."

How did you figure that out?

"After that, he became addicted to online chatting. One time, I accidentally saw his chat history with a female netizen, which was full of cheesy lovey-dovey words. I couldn't help but scold him, and my words were a bit harsh. He also retorted a few times..."

Do you still remember that female online friend's username?

"...Call me...call me 'mischievous wild girl' instead."

"Thump!" The two large doors of the columbarium were slammed shut behind them by the administrator.

"Whoosh!" A flock of crows took flight in the pine forest, cawing loudly as they scattered...

QQ Lost (28(1))

Wow--!

In front of the electronic notice board at the new campus of Dalian University, a group of college students cheered, high-fived each other, and then scattered.

"What's gotten into you?" Xu Haibing, who had just entered the school on his bicycle, muttered to himself, puzzled. He curiously leaned over to look at the notice on the screen:

"Great news! Our campus internet cafe will be opening tomorrow! The first three days are free, welcome!"

Xu Haibing didn't react much. He rode his bicycle to Building D, leaned it against a tree, and went into the building. He was met by his coworkers, each carrying a computer monitor or host computer, coming down the stairs.

Xu Haibing turned aside to let him go upstairs. At the corner on the second floor, he encountered a chubby security guard shouting orders. Xu Haibing asked, "What's going on here?"

The chubby security guard replied, "Moving computers. The students have been clamoring for an internet cafe all the time. The school initially disagreed, and the student council held a debate about it. They argued it out until they were completely dead, but to no avail. Then, Director Ma of the Provincial Department of Education approved it in the students' petition. It's like the saying goes, 'one thing subdues another,' so the school had to vacate that big, round library on the roof of the lab building and convert it into an internet cafe. That's why all the computers in the dorms were confiscated and sent to the internet cafe. You're here just in time; don't leave yet, I'll go to your fourth floor right away to get them."

Xu Haibing objected: "What? You've confiscated our computers too? We paid for them all."

"The director said to use these to make up the numbers first, and then he'll get you higher-end ones later. One of those...what brand...is it? Oh, damn it (4)!"

Xu Haibing glared at him and hurried upstairs. Once inside room 407, he went straight to the computer. He wanted to remove the hard drive before the computer was moved and copy down all the information left by Shen Daxing.

Hmm? Something's not right! He took out his key to loosen the screws on the main unit's casing, only to find that the screws were already loose; they came off easily with his hand. When he picked up the casing, he was even more shocked—

The hard drive slot in the mechanism was empty!