Monday, November 9, 2009.
Cold raindrops fell from the sky, and a damp wind blew, making it feel like today’s temperature was definitely not as high as the weather forecast claimed.
An Jing put on the oversized denim jacket she wore while on the computer yesterday.
She would have liked to find something more fitting, but her wardrobe lacked her old thick clothes.
Fortunately, it was cold, so an oversized jacket was fine; it even felt warmer.
Chen Xiaochun’s “Suan Ni Hen” (You’re Cruel) was playing in her headphones.
An Jing shoved her hands into her pockets, gently caressing the metal buttons on her phone specifically used to control music playback, and her body swayed slightly along with the rhythm.
“What wine to drink~ what sorrow to drown~”
Raindrops pattered on the umbrella.
The streetlights were still on, casting an orange glow.
She woke up earlier today, perhaps because she had slept well yesterday.
When she got up, her eldest sister was still asleep, but the white porridge in the kitchen was already cooked.
She simply served herself a bowl, ate a little, and then left the house before dawn.
It was barely past six o’clock.
She lightly hopped over a shallow puddle, tilting her head to look at the lively street beside her.
Although it was early, the breakfast shops were already open.
Many people gathered in front of a shop specializing in “Qian Gao” (stuffed rice cake), chatting noisily with the owner, listing the ingredients they wanted added inside.
A specialty of the small city was this kind of snack, glutinous rice cake wrapped around a bunch of fillings, then molded into a dumpling shape.
An Jing, having eaten it since childhood, was tired of it, so she truly couldn’t understand why so many people still liked it.
Every morning, the busiest business was this Qian Gao shop…
“Ahhh—!! My phone! Someone stole my phone!!”
Just as An Jing was about to look away, she heard a scream.
The noisy crowd gathered in front of the shop instantly fell silent.
Then, everyone collectively turned their gaze towards her.
After a brief few seconds of silence, they became noisy again.
“Boss, it’s my turn. I want two dollars worth of rice cake, make it a lot!”
They were more concerned about their own breakfast.
“There’s a thief! Did any of you see the thief?!”
Those she asked just shook their heads while clutching their own pockets.
But thankfully, not everyone was so indifferent.
A man who looked like a school teacher spoke up, “When did you discover it was missing?”
“Just now!”
“Was it still there before you got in line?” another man in a blue and white shirt asked—An Jing took a few steps closer to see clearly that the white on his clothes wasn’t original, but paint stains that couldn’t be washed off.
“Yes, I put it in my pocket after making a call, and then I came to queue!”
“Who’s the thief! Stand out yourself, it’ll only be worse if you’re discovered!”
A burly man looked around and shouted, trying to scare the thief out with his imposing presence.
However, the crowd was only silent for two seconds before it became noisy again.
No one stepped forward.
“When you first realized it was stolen, did you see anyone suspicious?” another young man asked.
An Jing felt he looked familiar, as if he was the man who sang downstairs in the small plaza on her birthday.
His somewhat long hair and scruffy beard had left a deep impression on her.
The woman whose phone was stolen looked anxious, her words even starting to become incoherent.
Most phones in this era weren’t cheap.
A few hundred yuan would basically only buy a knockoff.
Many people needed to save for almost a month without eating or drinking to afford one.
A phone like An Jing’s sold for over 2,500 yuan back then, while the average monthly salary for most ordinary people in the small city was only just over 1,000 yuan at that time.
“Who! Who stole my wallet!!”
A man who was about to pay touched all his pockets, then nervously and angrily roared.
One more person was robbed, meaning the thief was so audacious that he hadn’t left yet.
Everyone looked at each other, as if every stranger could be a potential thief.
“No one move! No one move!”
The burly man spread his arms.
“There’s a thief among us, we must find him!”
His sharp gaze swept over everyone.
Some lowered their heads, some avoided his gaze, and some met his eyes without flinching.
However, just by looking at people’s reactions, there was no way to determine who the thief was.
If it were the old An Jing, she might only be able to observe from a distance in such a situation, but now she was different.
At this moment, a sense of mission welled up in the young boy’s heart.
She reached her hand into her collar, gently pinched the golden meteorite tied with a string and hanging as a pendant around her neck, and softly murmured, “Stone, oh stone, please help me. The great hero of the future is about to do something righteous…”
She didn’t vocalize the last four words, ‘mind reading,’ but just slightly parted her lips, and then felt a flood of jumbled thoughts rush into her mind.
—Most of the people here were silently saying nothing.
[“What an unlucky thing to happen to business in the morning…”]
[“Damn it, it was almost my turn.”]
[“What’s going on, who got robbed?”]
[“My phone… my phone… it has his photo in it. If I lose it, I’ll never have it again…”]
[“My wallet had five hundred-yuan notes! Damn it, who’s the scoundrel who stole it?”]
[“Last time I got robbed, no one stood up. This time, we absolutely have to catch the thief!”]
[“If I find the thief, everyone will be very grateful to me, right? Heh…”]
[“Who could it be…?”]
[“These idiots, still trying to catch me. So many people, who can they catch? The haul should be good today. This wallet is pretty thick, and the phone is good too, last year’s new model. It should be worth a lot of money…”]
An Jing, her head aching from the noise, suddenly looked up.
She finally found the thief’s inner thoughts.
Now it was simple.
All she had to do was lock onto that voice, and follow the guidance of the thoughts to see who was thinking those words.
“It’s him! He’s the one who stole it!”
An Jing suddenly pointed at a man who looked and dressed very ordinarily.
He wasn’t at all shifty, stood very straight, and blended into the crowd, giving no reason for anyone to suspect him.
“What? It’s him?”
The man who looked like a teacher glanced at her school uniform, then frowned.
“Student, are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Oh, are you the homeroom teacher for Class One?”
“I am.”
“Teacher, he’s the one who stole it! I saw it with my own eyes just now!”
“Little girl.”
The man, however, showed no panic, and even smiled very calmly, “You can eat whatever you want, but you can’t just say whatever you want. You’re slandering me. Do I look like a thief?”
[“Damn brat, how could she have seen it? My technique is absolutely flawless!”]
“You’re the one who stole it,” An Jing said firmly.
***
“The phone is in the left pocket of his overcoat, the wallet is in the right pocket of his overcoat… gotta find a way to hide them elsewhere, even if they search me they’ll never find them… now I just need to…”
“The phone and wallet are in his overcoat pockets, quick! He’s going to move the stolen goods elsewhere!”
“Damn it, could this little brat actually be a professional too?”
The burly man stepped forward first, “Excuse me, friend, if you really didn’t steal anything, could we check you?”
“Why should I? Are you a police officer? Do you have the right to search my personal belongings?”
Everyone else backed away several steps, and a small empty space suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd.
“It’s him who stole it, it must be him, I remember now! He was constantly bumping into me in the crowd!”
The woman whose phone was stolen cried out, rushing forward.
“You shameless woman, why are you pulling at me like this—”
“This is my phone, it’s my phone!”
“What makes you say it’s yours?!”
“It has my photos in it, and my husband’s photos!”
The burly man didn’t waste any more words with him, reaching out and grabbing his collar.
The man whose wallet was stolen also rushed forward and found his wallet in the coat pocket.
Seeing that these two were about to get angry enough to hit him, the Class One homeroom teacher quickly stepped forward and said, “Hey, hey, don’t resort to violence. If you do, you’ll also be held responsible. For now, just take him to the Public Security Bureau.”
“Damn it, he stole my stuff, and I’ll be responsible for hitting him?”
“One thing at a time…”
“This is great… I got it back…”
The woman hugged her phone, squatting on the ground, as if she had recovered a lost treasure, tears flowing uncontrollably.
A theft case that might have gone unsolved thus came to an end.
An Jing quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and the jumbled voices in her mind instantly vanished.
“Which class are you from?”
The teacher turned his head, smiling as he looked at her.
“Class Five, my name is An Jing, teacher.”
“An Jing from Class Five, right? I’ll report this to the school. You caught the thief for us this time, you definitely deserve school-wide praise.”
“I just saw it and spoke up, I didn’t really do anything.”
An Jing secretly rejoiced, but on the surface, she still tried to act embarrassed.
“Having the courage to stand up is something worth praising. This counts as an act of ‘seeing injustice and acting bravely’.”
“Ha, haha…”
“Are you also here to buy breakfast? If you don’t mind, let’s go to school together with the teacher.”
“Uh, no, I, I already ate!”
An Jing awkwardly pressed her lower abdomen.
“I have to go to school first, goodbye, teacher!”
With that, she turned and sprinted in the rain.
Running in the rain could easily get her pants wet.
But there was no other way; she had to rush into school quickly, or she wouldn’t be able to hold it!
She wondered if her bladder control had worsened after turning into a girl, or if the side effects of her superpower had increased…
Even so, the young person’s heart was filled with excitement and thrill.
“I helped someone today, I did a righteous good deed!”
She clenched her fists tightly, her strides becoming lighter.
“Indeed, this is what a hero with superpowers should do!”
Doing good deeds without expecting anything in return—the mind of a young person is always simple.
Young people don’t seek a vague, ethereal heaven; they always want to use their actions to build this world into a place more beautiful than heaven itself.
This is youth.
Ignorant yet fearless…
Awww… that’s adorable. I always forget that they’re actually middle schoolers so seeing her act like this reminds me that they’re genuinely just children.