Chapter 10

But before she settled that, she had to handle the matter at hand.
Qiao Zhenzhen crossed her arms and leaned against Chi Shen’s desk, watching the others.
The class was still in an uproar over the pads. After a few girls recognized their own and blushed as they snatched them back, some thicker-skinned boys wandered around with pads in hand asking whose they were, drawing laughter and jeers.
Amid the chaos someone suddenly spoke up: “They’re in every boy’s bag. It’s clearly a prank. Did we misjudge Chi Shen?”
His voice was loud, and everyone grew awkward. Ten minutes earlier they’d been acting like high-minded judges after finding a pad in Chi Shen’s bag; ten minutes later they’d found the same items in their own bags and reacted with teasing and banter. Such double standards, what kind of nerve did it take to pretend nothing had happened?
“…We didn’t see them in our own bags before,” the boy who’d supported Zhao Lianqiao muttered. “Besides, he’d been skulking around Qiao Zhenzhen and then suddenly produced her personal items, no wonder we suspected him.”
“If you don’t like him, say so. Don’t hide behind me as if you’re picking on someone because of me,” Qiao Zhenzhen said coldly.
The boy’s mouth twitched. With everyone looking at him he went a little pale. “B-but you can’t guarantee he didn’t do it, can you?”
“And the evidence?” Qiao Zhenzhen raised an eyebrow.
The boy froze for a moment, then immediately pointed at Zhao Lianqiao. “Isn't she the witness? She saw Chi Shen skulking around your desk with her own eyes.”
Zhao Lianqiao, still trying to make sense of everything, blinked. When she recovered she did her best to sound calm: “Yeah, I saw him go to your desk yesterday.”
“You saw him take my sanitary pad?” Qiao Zhenzhen looked at her coolly. “With your own eyes?”
Zhao Lianqiao's lips moved; she was about to speak when Qiao Zhenzhen cut in first: “Fingerprints on a pad can be analyzed by professionals to determine how long they've been there. You'd better think carefully before you answer. If the test shows your prints were left earlier than his, it proves you deliberately took it to frame him.”
“I, I didn't!” Zhao Lianqiao panicked. “Why would I frame him?”
“So you actually saw him take my pad?” Qiao Zhenzhen pressed.
Under everyone's gaze, Zhao Lianqiao desperately wanted to nod, but she couldn't be sure Qiao Zhenzhen was telling the truth. For one thing, Chi Shen hadn't had time to touch the pad at all; even if he had, it would have been just moments ago. If they could really determine the exact time a fingerprint was left, wouldn't it show that only she had touched it yesterday?
The more she thought about it, the more frightened Zhao Lianqiao became. When she met Qiao Zhenzhen's eyes again, she couldn't be so certain: “I, I don't know…”
“So you didn't see it with your own eyes,” Qiao Zhenzhen said, having already guessed Zhao Lianqiao wouldn't persist in the lie. Her tone was very calm. “You didn't see it, yet you led the bullying. Is that it?”
The moment the word “bullying” was mentioned, things turned serious. Everyone looked at one another. The boy who had been blocking Chi Shen rushed to back Zhao Lianqiao up: “Even if she didn't see it, that doesn't mean Chi Shen is innocent. Maybe he planted a pack in every desk hole to confuse everyone.”
“Who? Chi Shen?” Qiao Zhenzhen scoffed.
The boy lost face instantly.
Everyone in the class knew Chi Shen was a loner who did his own thing. He wouldn't care what others thought. If he really wanted something of Qiao Zhenzhen's, he would have taken it outright, there's no way he'd go to the trouble of framing every single boy in the class.
From the moment sanitary pads were found in every desk compartment, they stopped suspecting Chi Shen.
“…Then who did this?” someone muttered quietly.
“Right, right, if it wasn't Chi Shen then it was someone else. Who is this freak?”
The class erupted into discussion again. Just as things were getting noisy, someone asked the boy who had defended Zhao Lianqiao earlier: “Why wasn't there a pad in your desk compartment?”
“Yeah! Chen Le didn't have one either!”
Chen Le was the other boy.
The two boys both froze, baffled.
Every other boy had a pack in his desk compartment, only these two didn't, and they'd both been standing up for Zhao Lianqiao the whole time, insisting Chi Shen was the suspect.
That made things delicate.
The two boys felt something was off. Just as they were about to protest, the homeroom teacher walked in from outside. Seeing everyone clustered together, he immediately ordered them back to their seats. Before Qiao Zhenzhen returned to her desk she leaned toward Chi Shen in the back and said quietly, “Meet me on the field at noon after school. I need to talk to you.”
Chi Shen was silent for a moment. As she turned to leave he gave a slight nod.
Qiao Zhenzhen didn't see his reply and sat back down. It wasn't long before one of the girls couldn't help telling the teacher about the sanitary pad incident, and mentioned that only two boys were missing one in their desk compartment.
The two boys already had poor reputations in class. Once the teacher heard, he was convinced they were responsible and immediately launched into a scolding. The boys were furious and helpless; every time they tried to defend themselves the teacher only got angrier, and in the end they had to clam up.
Zhao Lianqiao felt guilty and dared not speak for them, so she lowered her head uneasily. Ever since she transmigrated into this book she'd been sailing along smoothly, manipulating everyone with ease. She'd never been humiliated like this before, and she still couldn't figure out where the pads in everyone else's desk compartments had come from.
Could it be that Chi Shen discovered her attempt to frame him last night and turned the tables on her?
Impossible, she thought without hesitation. Chi Shen was an idiot, barely worth a page in the original book, there's no way he's that clever. She bit her lip and dismissed the idea.
Having turned the tables on Zhao Lianqiao left Qiao Zhenzhen in a good mood. Xiao Ba praised her silently: “Host, you're amazing, thinking of using fingerprint analysis to make Zhao Lianqiao change her story. But is the technology in this world really that advanced? They can even tell when a fingerprint was left?”
“How would I know?” Qiao Zhenzhen said without thinking.
Xiao Ba paused: “Then just now you, ”
“Oh, I made it up.” Qiao Zhenzhen was perfectly calm. She was just an ordinary high school girl; how would she know whether fingerprint analysis could determine time? She only figured that if she didn't know, then Zhao Lianqiao, who killed herself each week with remedial classes and only got average grades, definitely wouldn't know either.
Xiao Ba: “...You're really clever.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” Qiao Zhenzhen accepted it without modesty.
Xiao Ba: no more words.
The class bell rang. The homeroom teacher handed out two versions of a test and the whole morning was consumed by it; you even had to ask in advance to go to the bathroom. By the time everyone finished the papers it was lunchtime and classes were over.
Qiao Zhenzhen lazily handed in her test and was about to turn to look for Chi Shen when the two boys blocked her.
Most of the class had already gone to lunch; the few who remained hurried away when they saw what was happening.
Qiao Zhenzhen frowned at the two and said sharply, “What do you want?”
“Did you frame us on purpose?” the two asked, thinking it through. That was the only explanation, why else were only their desk compartments missing a pad?
“Are you idiots?” Qiao Zhenzhen shot back, entirely unbothered. “I haven't been coming to school these past few days, what does that have to do with me?”
“Then was it Chi Shen?” the boys hesitated.
Qiao Zhenzhen glanced over to the back row. Not seeing Chi Shen, she relaxed; she remembered telling him to wait for her on the field, which put her at ease. She looked back at the two boys without hurry. “Don't you know his personality? Besides, if you two hadn't made such a scene this morning, even without pads in your desk compartments other people wouldn't be suspicious. What purpose would he have in doing this?”
“…What do you mean?”
“I mean whoever framed you had to make sure you were involved first.”
The boys looked at each other in confusion.
“Think about it, who started this, who egged you on to go after Chi Shen, and who vanished when the homeroom teacher was scolding you? I have things to do, I’m leaving.” Qiao Zhenzhen finished, grabbed her backpack, and walked off, completely ignoring the two of them.
The two boys frowned and thought for a long time; the only person they came up with was Zhao Lianqiao, and they immediately put on serious faces and went to find her.
Qiao Zhenzhen couldn’t be bothered with their petty quarrel and jogged toward the sports field.
It was lunchtime; most students were in the cafeteria, some had gone off campus, and the huge field was empty. When Qiao Zhenzhen reached the spot, she looked around several times but couldn’t find the person she was looking for.
Had he not come yet?
She hesitated for a moment and decided to check the classroom again. When she turned, she saw him standing in the shadow of the basketball hoop, staring at her intently, she had no idea how long he’d been watching.
Just the thought of him silently watching her while she fretted made Qiao Zhenzhen laugh with annoyance; she gritted her teeth and walked toward him.
Chi Shen sensed danger and his yellowed sneakers hesitantly shuffled back.
Seeing him about to run, she narrowed her eyes. “I dare you to move.”
Chi Shen stopped, not daring to budge.
Her temper finally eased a bit. She walked up and sized him up from head to toe. “Did you get hurt this morning?”
Chi Shen said nothing, only watched her cautiously.
“Answer me.” Qiao Zhenzhen narrowed her eyes.
“…No.”
She breathed out, glanced at the bright sun, then turned and walked toward the shadow behind the academic building. Chi Shen was silent for a moment, then followed.
Qiao Zhenzhen waited there. When he came over she curled her lips. “Last time you gave me all those mental hospital brochures, did you think I was crazy?”
“They were patients with mental disorders.” Chi Shen corrected her in a rough voice.
Qiao Zhenzhen laughed angrily. “Fine, patients with mental disorders. You think I’m one of them?”
Chi Shen remained silent.
She shot him a look and, annoyed, tossed him her backpack. He caught it and clutched it, his dark eyes looking at her uncertainly.
“Open it. It’s a present for you.” Qiao Zhenzhen crossed her arms.
He opened it in silence, hesitated for a long time, then lifted his head.
“Take it out.” she narrowed her eyes.
Chi Shen’s face drained of color. After a long while he pulled out a sealed pack of sanitary pads; his voice was hoarse and trembling. “You said you’d trust me…”
He hadn’t stolen it, and he certainly didn’t want her to give him this.
Qiao Zhenzhen: “…”