Growing Fond of You, Mr Nian

There was no reply and she felt an uneasy feeling deep down in her stomach.

She dressed herself quickly and went outside, but there was no one there.

Luosang thought she might have misheard something and left it at that. She dried her hair and then laid in bed to read.

At around 10pm when she was about to go to sleep, a series of footsteps could be heard followed by rattling knocks on her door.

She got out of bed and opened the door. She was greeted by a group of girls. Standing in front was Ni Miao and He Ruyi from her faculty. The dormitory housekeeper, Aunty Wang was there too, along with two police officers in uniform.

“Police officer, it’s her! I saw her leaving Ni Miao’s room in the evening. She must have been the one who stole the money,” He Ruyi pointed accusatively.

Luosang looked grim, “What money?”

Aunty Wang looked upset, “Ni Miao lost five thousand dollars from her wallet and someone saw you leaving her room in the evening suspiciously. It was Ni Miao’s class fees for her training course, and she called the police afterwards.”

“I didn’t enter her room in the evening,” Luosang was shocked at the outrageous accusation, and then she recalled the noise she heard earlier when she was showering. She knew something was up and hurriedly explained, “I came back to the room straight after class and had a shower.”

“Do you have an alibi?” the police officer asked.

Luosang frowned. It was a Saturday, and there weren’t many people around in the dormitory. She bumped into a couple of people on the way up but no one she knew, and her roommate wasn’t around too so she had no concrete alibi.

“I guess you don’t,” the police officer pushed her aside, “I’m sorry, I’m going have to search the room. Which bed is yours?”

“The one in the center,” someone pointed out quickly.

“Do you have a search warrant? You can’t just go ahead without an official search warrant,” Luosang blocked the officer.

“Out of my way,” the two officers shoved her aside roughly and began flipping her bed upside down and rummaging through her drawers.

After three minutes, they found a thick stack of cash in her school bag. It was five thousand dollars neat.

“Are you still going to deny thievery? You’re just a petty thief with a pretty face,” the officer said harshly, “Take her away.”

“I didn’t do it! You two framed me. I heard someone entering my room when I was showering in the evening,” Luosang had pieced things together and was glaring at He Ruyi and Ni Miao, “Are you guys jealous that I got the opportunity to host the Christmas event? You think you’ll stand a chance once I’m out of the picture, don’t you?”

The crowd that gathered outside her room starting whispering about Ni Miao and He Ruyi.

“Don’t spew nonsense, we respect Professor Li’s decision. It’s true that you have better grades than all of us. You stole my money because you are broke, and we all know that. You always order the cheapest set lunch at the canteen, and you only have plain buns in the morning. You could have told us about your financial difficulties, Luosang, we would have gladly lent money to you. You didn’t have to do such a thing,” Ni Miao spoke with empathy.

Luosang was furious. No wonder they were in the performing arts faculty.

“Cut the crap and follow us to the police station,” the officer pushed her along.

At this point, she knew that there was no point trying to defend herself. The cards were lined up against her. They must have plotted the scheme carefully.

Word would get out, and then her reputation would be on the line. At worst, she could be expelled. Even if she kept her place at the university, she would have to give up the emcee gig to someone else.

The more she thought about the repercussions, the grimmer she got.

She racked her brains for a way to clear her name.

Everything happened so quickly that she didn’t even get a chance to investigate and collect evidence.