Bai Tao had Pei Jin recount everything about the robbery. He described how many people there had been, what they roughly looked like, and every detail he could remember.
The police officer listened while taking notes. The more he listened, the more deeply his brows furrowed.
“That alley”
He put down his pen and sighed.
“There are too many blind spots in the surveillance coverage around there. And if those people are familiar with the area, they could split up and escape through the smaller paths. If they changed clothes afterward, there would be no way to recognize them.”
Bai Tao opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words back down.
The police officer closed his notebook and looked up at them.
“We’ll file a report first. If we get any information, we’ll notify you.
“But to be honest the chances aren’t great. Don’t get your hopes up too much.”
Bai Tao nodded and forced a polite smile, but her heart sank.
After walking out of the police station, Bai Tao squatted down on the steps outside and let out a long sigh.
The sunlight beat down on her back, hot enough to sting a little. But she did not want to move. She simply remained there, like a blade of grass that had been wilted by the sun.
What a pity.
If Pei Jin could get his phone back, their lives might be a little easier than they were now. She wondered how much money Pei Jin had in that phone.
“Ugh.”
She sighed again.
Pei Jin stood beside her and glanced down at her without saying anything.
Bai Tao raised her head and squinted at the vehicles coming and going outside the police station.
She was beginning to miss the days when she could sit in a Porsche with the air conditioning blowing.
Summer had never felt hot back then.
The air conditioning in the car was always turned up high, and even the seats had ventilation. She would wear beautiful dresses and elegant high heels, without breaking a single drop of sweat.
Bai Tao rested her chin on her knees and stared at the ground in front of her feet.
Beside her, Pei Jin stood silently. A thin layer of sweat had appeared on his forehead, and a few strands of his hair clung to his temples.
She could not afford a car.
But she could afford an electric scooter.
The problem was that even after living two lifetimes, she still did not know how to ride one.
In her previous life, even after being thrown out of the family, she had simply taken taxis whenever she went out. She would only take the bus when she was certain no one would see her.
She had never touched an electric scooter, nor had she ever thought about learning.
Bai Tao was still squatting there, her mind filled with all sorts of random thoughts, when she suddenly realized that the silence beside her was a little too strange.
She abruptly raised her head.
Pei Jin was gone.
Bai Tao’s heart shot into her throat.
“Pei Jin! Pei Jin!”
There was no response.
She looked around in a panic and suddenly stood up. The next second, her vision went black.
Her body swayed. Her knees weakened, and she fell forward.
A hand firmly caught her by the arm.
The darkness before Bai Tao’s eyes slowly faded, and Pei Jin’s face gradually came into focus.
He frowned slightly. One hand supported her upper arm while the other hovered behind her back.
“What happened?”
Pei Jin’s voice was slightly lower than usual.
Bai Tao took two breaths. Only after the darkness had completely disappeared did she straighten herself.
Pei Jin’s hand was still holding her arm. The warmth of his palm seeped through the thin fabric of her clothes, almost unbearably hot.
She lowered her head and glanced at his hand.
Only then did Pei Jin let go, his fingers slowly sliding away from her arm.
“Where did you go?!”
Bai Tao’s voice was louder than she had expected, carrying a kind of anxiousness that even she found unfamiliar.
Pei Jin looked down at her, a trace of an emotion he himself could not understand flickering in his eyes.
Why was she so anxious?
She had only been unable to see him for a moment.
Bai Tao seemed to… care about him very much.
The instant he released her, his fingers curled slightly, as though trying to grasp something in the air.
Even he could not explain what that feeling was.
“I went over there to ask around.”
Pei Jin’s voice returned to its usual calmness.
“I asked if anyone nearby was hiring and where it would be easiest to find a job.”
Bai Tao was stunned for a moment before nodding. Her tone gradually calmed down.
“Oh… okay. But you have such a high level of education. Finding a job shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Pei Jin followed Bai Tao as they walked away.
“I don’t know either.”
His voice was calm, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with himself.
“But my diploma and connections are all in my old phone. My ID card is in my suitcase too. I doubt any legitimate company would be willing to hire me.”
Bai Tao slowed her steps as though she were thinking about something.
Suddenly, she stopped and turned to look at Pei Jin, her eyes lighting up.
“That’s right. I know someone. I can ask him if he knows those thugs who robbed us.”
Bai Tao opened her WeChat messages and scrolled down for quite a while before finally finding that familiar yellow profile picture.
Society’s Brother Wang.
【Brother Wang, are you there?】
She sent the message, but there was no response.
Bai Tao stared at the screen for several seconds before putting her phone away.
“Why don’t we buy an electric scooter for transportation first?”
She looked at Pei Jin tentatively.
“We can buy the phone later. What if we find it?”
She had seen Pei Jin’s phone a few days ago at an auction shop specializing in high-end custom products. The price had nearly made her gasp.
She had thought the phone she used was already the best available, but apparently, there was always something even more extravagant out there.
She certainly was not willing to spend one-tenth of her own money buying Pei Jin a phone identical to hers.
What if they found his phone?
Wouldn’t that make her waste all that money for nothing?
Pei Jin nodded.
The two of them walked along the road for a short while before finding several unfamiliar electric scooter shops near the entrance of their residential complex.
The shops were small. Several rows of electric scooters were parked outside in all sorts of colors, with red plastic streamers tied to their handlebars and fluttering gently in the breeze.
Bai Tao looked at the scooters one shop after another before finally stopping outside the shop at the very end.
A second-hand Aima electric scooter cost only eight hundred yuan.
It looked quite new. It was a tender green color, with a small, rounded front and a light brown seat. There was even a tiny storage box behind the back seat.
In Taiwanese idol dramas, the female lead would ride this kind of scooter while the male lead sat behind her. The wind would blow through the woman’s long hair, creating a beautiful scene that looked as though it had been given a filter.
Bai Tao wandered around the shop and discovered that an identical model brand-new cost a whopping four thousand yuan.
She squatted down and carefully inspected the second-hand scooter’s tires and brakes. Then she stood up, twisted the throttle, and listened to the sound.
She actually knew absolutely nothing about electric scooters, but she put on an expression as though she were an expert.
Then she started bargaining with the shop owner.
After haggling for quite some time, the shop owner refused to budge from eight hundred yuan.
Bai Tao could only give in.
When she paid, the shop owner gave her two helmets for free. One was white and the other pink. They were round and covered with little rabbit stickers.
“Little girl, if you bought these two helmets somewhere else, they’d cost you sixty yuan!”
The shop owner handed the helmets over while emphasizing loudly,
“You got a great deal!”
Bai Tao nodded and accepted them with both hands before turning around and calling Pei Jin over.
Pei Jin stood beside the tender green electric scooter and remained silent for two seconds.
“I don’t know how to ride.”
Bai Tao froze.
Her mouth opened and closed.
“You don’t know how to ride? Why didn’t you say so earlier? I thought you knew how to ride, which was why I bought it.”
The shop owner was wiping down a scooter outside the shop. When she heard their conversation, even the rag in her hand stopped moving.
She had actually been sizing the two of them up for quite some time.
The little girl’s clothes were obviously high quality. Although she could not tell what brand they were, the fabric and tailoring clearly were not ordinary.
The phone in her hand was Hermès orange, a model her daughter was constantly browsing online. She recognized it. It was a new model costing more than ten thousand yuan.
The young man, on the other hand, was completely different.
He wore a white tank top, a pair of loose black shorts, and plastic slippers. Everything he had on from head to toe probably cost less than a hundred yuan.
And he had barely spoken the entire time. Even the payment had been made by the young girl.
The shop owner immediately imagined an entire television drama.
A wealthy young lady who fell in love and broke with her family, eloping with a poor man who had nothing but his looks. The two of them ended up sleeping on the streets and living frugally, even having to buy a second-hand electric scooter.
The shop owner felt a lump in her chest.
She threw the rag onto the counter and hurried over to stand between the two of them, subtly pushing Pei Jin a little farther away.
“Come, come, little girl.”
The shop owner enthusiastically grabbed Bai Tao by the wrist.
“I’ll teach you. Sit behind me first. I’ll take you around once so you can watch how I ride.”
Pei Jin was pushed hard enough to stagger slightly. He stepped aside and expressionlessly watched the woman pull Bai Tao onto the back seat.
The shop owner climbed onto the electric scooter, twisted the throttle, and steadily drove into the nearby alley.
Bai Tao sat behind her, unsure where to put her hands. In the end, she cautiously placed them on the woman’s shoulders.
“Little girl, how old are you this year?”
The woman’s voice floated back through the wind.
“I’m twenty-three, Sis.”
The shop owner quickly calculated in her head.
Twenty-three. Old enough to get married.
A rich young lady stubbornly marrying a poor man, her parents becoming furious and cutting ties with her. In the end, the young lady would end up living on the streets, eating steamed buns in a rented apartment.
This was bad.
“Twenty-three?!”
The woman’s voice unconsciously rose two pitches.
“Then you’re old enough to get married! Sis, let me tell you. Your parents worked hard to raise you. Don’t let love make you lose your head for a moment.”
She paused, then glanced at Bai Tao’s face through the rearview mirror before earnestly adding,
“A man still needs to have money in his pocket. Being handsome can’t put food on the table.”
Bai Tao was stunned for a moment before smiling.
She understood what the woman meant and knew she had misunderstood the situation, but she did not explain. She simply said softly,
“It’s okay, Sis. He’s very hardworking.”
Looking at Bai Tao’s innocent and adorable face in the rearview mirror, the shop owner suddenly remembered the television drama she had been watching recently.
The female lead in that drama had parents who had also worked hard to raise their daughter, only for their daughter to be tricked away by a poor man with nothing more than a bowl of white porridge.
The shop owner felt something clogging her throat.
Forget it.
She would respect the fate of a hopeless romantic.
She did not want to say anything else.
She silently took Bai Tao around the alley once before pulling over and stopping.
“Okay, now you try.”
Bai Tao moved to the front. She gripped the handlebars with both hands and planted both feet firmly on the ground.
Her shoulders were tense with nervousness, and her entire body was stiff on the seat.
“Twist the throttle slowly. Don’t twist it all the way at once.”
The shop owner stood beside her with one hand holding the back of the seat. Her tone was much gentler than before.
“That’s it. Just like that. Slowly…”
Bai Tao slowly twisted the throttle, and the scooter began moving forward.
She was startled and loosened her grip. The scooter stopped again.
She moved forward like that, twisting the throttle and stopping repeatedly, until she had crawled several dozen meters.
By then, her forehead was covered in sweat.
Pei Jin had appeared beside her at some point.
He had taken large strides and walked with ease. Bai Tao was slowly inching forward on the scooter, and he could keep up simply by lengthening his stride slightly.
“Pei Jin, I think I’ve learned how to do it.”
There was excitement in Bai Tao’s voice, like someone who had just mastered a new skill.
“Come up and try.”
Pei Jin glanced around.
There were not many cars or people in the alley.
He put on the pink helmet in his hand. It was decorated with several cartoon rabbits, with two fluffy little balls attached to the tips of their ears.
Then he climbed onto the back seat.
Being tall has its advantages.
He stretched his long legs out, planting both feet firmly on the ground with his knees slightly bent.
He adjusted his position, placed both hands on the handles behind the seat, and leaned his body slightly backward, doing his best not to lean against Bai Tao.
Bai Tao took a deep breath and slowly twisted the throttle.
The scooter wobbled forward several meters.
Bai Tao twisted the handlebars left and right, and the scooter swayed along with her.
There was a parasol tree ahead. Its trunk was thick, and its branches were lush. It stood directly in the middle of the road.
“Ahhh!”
Bai Tao panicked.
Her grip tightened, and instead of releasing the throttle, she twisted it even harder.
The scooter shot straight toward the parasol tree.
Just as the front of the scooter was less than half a meter from the trunk, one foot extended from the back seat and firmly planted itself on the ground.
At the same time, one hand reached over Bai Tao’s shoulder, grabbed her hand, and forcefully squeezed the brake.
The scooter stopped.
The front of the scooter was only a fist’s distance from the parasol tree.
Bai Tao’s chest rose and fell violently, her heart pounding inside her chest.
Pei Jin was still holding her hand, and her entire weight was leaning against his chest as he pressed close behind her.
His body heat passed through his thin tank top and made the skin on her back tingle.
“Get off.”
Pei Jin’s voice came from above Bai Tao’s head.
It was low and calm, as though the person who had nearly crashed into the tree had not been him.
Bai Tao obediently got off the scooter, her legs still a little weak.
Pei Jin moved forward and sat in the driver’s position.
He gripped the handlebars, both feet firmly planted on the ground. He already looked much more reliable than Bai Tao.
“Get on.”
Bai Tao looked at him uncertainly.
“Can you ride?”
“More or less. If I can’t, I’ll just go slowly.”
Bai Tao hesitated.
Several people riding electric scooters passed by nearby. They assumed the two of them were a young couple who had gotten into a fight and cast curious glances in their direction.
One older woman even turned around to look at them twice after riding past, a mysterious smile on her face.
Bai Tao’s face turned slightly red.
Pei Jin glanced around and spoke with a hint of impatience.
“Get on.”
Bai Tao also felt awkward being stared at like this. She gritted her teeth, slowly pressed down on the back seat, and climbed on.
She imitated the way Pei Jin had sat earlier, gripping the handles behind the seat with both hands and leaning her body slightly backward, carefully avoiding touching Pei Jin.
Pei Jin glanced at her through the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, Bai Tao sat upright on the back seat, both hands gripping the handles, her body perfectly straight like an elementary school student.
“Are you sitting securely?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Bai Tao nodded.
Their eyes met in the rearview mirror.
Pei Jin looked away and twisted the throttle.
The scooter moved steadily forward.
He actually had no idea whether he could ride it either, but his thinking was simple.
At worst, he could just drag the scooter back.
He was a man, after all, and he was strong.
Bai Tao’s small frame could barely keep the scooter steady when it wobbled, but he was different. His legs were long enough to support himself.
In Pei Jin’s hands, the electric scooter seemed to suddenly become intelligent. It moved steadily and obediently.
Gradually, Pei Jin found his rhythm.
When there was no one around and no cars on the road, he could even twist the throttle all the way.
The wind whooshed past his ears, blowing his loose strands of hair backward.
Sitting on the back seat, Bai Tao felt the cool breeze brushing across her face. She nodded in satisfaction.
Pei Jin was truly Pei Jin.
He really was smart.