The surroundings had fallen into complete silence.
At the sight of the police, everyone had quieted down.
As the cold silver handcuffs clicked around her wrists, Xing Zhaozhao helplessly hung her head.
It was all over now.
“Take them all back to the station.”
In the interrogation room at the police station, a young officer with a black eye was taking Xing Zhaozhao’s statement.
“Name.”
“Xing Zhaozhao.”
“Age.”
“28.”
The officer gave her a surprised look.
She was already 28!
“ID number.”
Xing Zhaozhao froze for a moment.
What was an ID?
“N-no…” she stammered, “I don’t remember.”
The officer frowned. “How can you not remember your ID number?”
Xing Zhaozhao looked blank. “I’m not very smart. Can’t remember things.”
The officer stared at her: “…”
She didn’t seem that way.
“Date of birth,” the officer continued.
“194…” Xing Zhaozhao blurted out instinctively, then abruptly stopped herself, realizing something was wrong.
It was 2025 now. She was 28. What year should she have been born?
She counted on her fingers, then looked at the officer. “November 19, 1997.”
The officer: “…”
She really didn’t seem very bright.
“Home address,” the officer pressed on.
“The Xing family house at the end of Liuwan Village,” Xing Zhaozhao said.
Xiao Gao Village was already submerged—mentioning it would raise suspicions. She used her maiden home’s address instead. Though since her parents had passed away, her brother had joined the Troops, she had married, and so many years had passed, the old family house was probably long gone. But it didn’t matter; she just needed to get through this.
The officer didn’t seem suspicious.
After finishing the basic information, he looked seriously at Xing Zhaozhao and asked, “Why did you run earlier?”
Xing Zhaozhao: “??”
Xing Zhaozhao was confused. “Didn’t you chase me first? I saw you chasing me, so I ran.”
The officer: “??”
The officer frowned. “Didn’t you run first? Why would we chase you if you hadn’t run?”
They stared at each other, speechless for a moment.
Could it be… a complete misunderstanding?
Then was it fair that he had chased her so far and even gotten a black eye?
The officer’s expression darkened. After a moment of silence, he pressed on stubbornly, “What were you doing on that street earlier?”
“Selling wild goods. I gathered them all myself from the mountains. If you don’t believe me, you can ask those elderly gentlemen who were with me earlier,” Xing Zhaozhao said. As for the wild mountain chicken, since they hadn’t brought it up, she didn’t mention it either, acting as if it never existed.
The officer: “…”
It really was a misunderstanding.
The officer looked at Xing Zhaozhao exasperatedly. “Next time, don’t run when you see us.”
Xing Zhaozhao pouted and muttered, “Then next time, don’t chase me when you see me running either.”
The officer: “…”
Fresh on the job, still lacking experience.
As he led Xing Zhaozhao out of the interrogation room, the officer lectured her, “If you’re engaged in legitimate business, don’t run when you see us next time. It makes you look guilty.”
Xing Zhaozhao nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, yes…”
Gao Lianzhou had been waiting in the outer hall for Xing Zhaozhao. Seeing her finally emerge, he hurried forward: “Fairy sister, are you alright? Did they do anything to you? Don’t be afraid, I’ve already contacted my uncle. He’s on his way. If they dare lay a finger on you, our family has an entire legal team ready to sue them into oblivion.”
The young police officer: “…”
Xing Zhaozhao: “…”
Could we please not complicate simple matters?
Xing Zhaozhao swatted at him, then smiled apologetically at the officer: “Sorry, the kid doesn’t know any better.”
The officer had already figured this out and ignored Gao Lianzhou, looking directly at Xing Zhaozhao instead: “There’s nothing else. You’re free to leave whenever.”
“Okay, okay.” Xing Zhaozhao agreed repeatedly, then turned to collect her belongings which had been placed in a corner of the hall. After all, no one would dare steal anything from a police station.
Gao Lianzhou followed closely beside her: “Fairy sister, you’re alright now.”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” Xing Zhaozhao responded absently, then asked, “What about you?”
“I’m the victim here, of course I’m fine. But those guys are in trouble now.” Mentioning the people who had surrounded him, Gao Lianzhou looked excited.
“You saved me again, fairy sister. Otherwise, I probably would’ve gotten beaten up.” Gao Lianzhou said excitedly to Xing Zhaozhao.
“Just happened to be passing by.” As she spoke, Xing Zhaozhao glanced at Gao Lianzhou with some confusion. “Why is it that every time I run into you, you’re in some kind of trouble?”
What an unlucky kid.
Gao Lianzhou scratched his head: “I don’t know either.”
“Maybe it’s fate wanting us to meet?” He looked at Xing Zhaozhao with sparkling eyes.
Xing Zhaozhao: “…”
Could you not say such disgusting things?
“I hope fate would mind its own business.” Xing Zhaozhao couldn’t help muttering.
“By the way, fairy sister, you ran off so quickly last time. My uncle and I thought you’d gotten lost and followed you to the reservoir, but then you vanished. We thought you might be the female ghost who used to live in that village – gave us quite a scare.” Gao Lianzhou said.
Xing Zhaozhao: “…”
He got half of it right – she did used to live in that village, though she wasn’t dead yet.
But the version of her in this world might actually already be dead.
Looking at it that way, they weren’t entirely wrong.
Xing Zhaozhao twitched her mouth slightly and casually responded to Gao Lianzhou: “What nonsense are you talking? If I were a ghost, would you be able to touch me?”
“That’s what I told my uncle too – I’ve hugged your leg before, so how could you possibly be a ghost?” Gao Lianzhou said.
The two identical-looking girls following behind Gao Lianzhou simultaneously showed identical expressions of surprise upon hearing this, turning to look at him.
The slightly more lively one quickly stepped up to Gao Lianzhou’s side and asked with great interest: “What hugging legs? Tell me about it, cousin.”
Gao Lianzhou didn’t shy away from describing his cowardly behavior at the time, explaining briefly in a few words.
The girl looked at Xing Zhaozhao with shining eyes: “You can lift wild boars weighing several hundred pounds? Fairy sister is amazing. I’m very strong too, but not that strong yet.”
Xing Zhaozhao glanced at the girl, momentarily stunned, unexpectedly feeling she looked somewhat familiar.
Gao Lianzhou introduced to Xing Zhaozhao: “This is my cousin from my aunt’s family, Xia Fanxing, and the other one is Xiaoyue. Like you, fairy sister, Fanxing also has great strength, and it’s innate too. According to my great-granduncle—oh, that’s my great-grandmother’s brother—it was inherited from my great-grandmother. She’s the only one in the whole family with it.”
Xing Zhaozhao was somewhat surprised and couldn’t help but take another look at Xia Fanxing: “What a coincidence, mine is innate too.”
“Really? Then it seems we share quite a fate, fairy sister.” Xia Fanxing said with a beaming smile.
Meanwhile, Xia Xiaoyue seized the moment when no one was paying attention, curled her lips in disdain, and muttered under her breath: “Acting like savages, I don’t know what there is to be happy about.”