Chen Lishu: "If everyone's bags are to be searched, I have no objections. But they immediately assumed I stole them. If the search proves my innocence, they must both apologize to me publicly!"
"Alright," Sun Ling agreed readily. She had personally put the items there, and she didn't believe they could grow legs and walk away.
"If the items aren't with you, I'm willing to apologize publicly. But if you did steal them, in front of the teacher, the director, and so many classmates, you probably won't be able to show your face at school anymore, right? For the sake of our classmates, if you voluntarily withdraw from school then, I won't pursue this matter any further."
"Withdraw from school? That punishment is too severe!" a classmate nearby couldn't help but exclaim.
"Too severe? If you have the audacity to steal someone else's belongings, you should have considered the consequences," Sun Ling said dismissively.
Zhang Xue wasn't foolish. Sun Ling's attitude gave her a bad premonition.
They were all classmates and lived in the same dormitory. Zhang Xue knew Sun Ling very well. Now that she was so certain Chen Lishu had stolen their clothes, there had to be something fishy going on.
Anxious, Zhang Xue gave Chen Lishu a look, signaling her not to agree, then stepped forward and said, "Sun Ling, don't go too far. Yang Lili and I have been with Chen Lishu the entire time. Everyone can see that. We can both testify for her. She never even touched your clothes, let alone stole them. Don't try to slander Chen Lishu."
Sun Ling sneered, "Zhang Xue, you're really something. Do you think Jiang Yuwei and I would skip the program just to frame Chen Lishu? Your idea is simply laughable. Why would I do such a thing?"
"Don't think I don't know you've always disliked Lishu. You can't compete with her in any aspect, so you came up with such a malicious plan to drive her away. Sun Ling, you are the most narrow-minded and despicable person I've ever met. You're truly disgusting!"
"It's alright, Xue'er. No need to argue with someone like her. The pure will remain pure. Since she insists it was me, I'll let everyone see." With that, Chen Lishu picked up the shoulder bag hanging on the back of her chair.
Sun Ling's gaze was fixed on Chen Lishu's bag, her heart pounding, whether from nervousness or excitement.
As soon as Chen Lishu opened the bag, the clothes would be revealed, and everyone would know what kind of person she was. The thought of her being unable to defend herself, or even being condemned by everyone and expelled from school, made Sun Ling stare intently at Chen Lishu's actions, not even blinking in her excitement.
As Chen Lishu opened the flap of her shoulder bag, everyone's eyes fell upon the contents.
Chen Lishu took out the items one by one: a hat, a scarf, gloves, a pen, and a small notebook cut to the size of her palm. The only thing missing was the plush jacket Sun Ling had previously shown everyone.
"How is it? Satisfied now?" Chen Lishu held the bottom of her shoulder bag and shook it, smiling at Sun Ling and Jiang Yuwei. "Do you want me to take out the lining as well? Perhaps I hid it in a hidden compartment."
Among the people present, two couldn't help but chuckle at her words.
Sun Ling, looking at the empty shoulder bag in her hand, was stunned at first, then incredulous. Her face quickly turned an unsightly shade of green.
"Impossible, how can it not be in your bag? I..." Sun Ling pointed at her and was about to speak when Jiang Yuwei, standing beside her, stopped her.
Everyone wasn't foolish. If they continued to pester her at this point, they would be the ones to suffer.
"Chen Lishu, I apologize. Sun Ling was just anxious when her clothes went missing and said some unpleasant things. I apologize to you on her behalf."
Chen Lishu looked at Jiang Yuwei and said with a half-smile, "Sun Ling is truly fortunate to have a friend like you."
Jiang Yuwei naturally heard the sarcasm in her words, and her fair cheeks instantly flushed a light red, unsure if it was from anger or shame.
"Alright, since Chen classmate's bag has been checked, everyone please cooperate voluntarily and glance into each other's bags to see if the missing items are there," the counselor said, glancing at the expressions of Chen Yinchu and Huang Jianjun.
To prove their innocence, everyone readily grabbed their shoulder bags and voluntarily allowed the person next to them to check. Soon, the results were in; the items were not in anyone's bags.
"Could it be that the clothes grew legs and ran away?"
"Could it be that some student secretly took them outside? One piece of clothing costs twenty yuan, so two would be forty yuan. That's not a small sum."
"I saw the clothes on the table before I went on stage. Not much time passed between then and when Sun Ling and the others discovered they were missing. I didn't see anyone leave in the meantime."
Chen Lishu listened to the murmurs of the crowd and suddenly chuckled, "Aren't there still two bags that haven't been checked?"
As soon as she spoke, the surrounding discussion paused for a moment, and then a new round of chatter erupted.
"There are two more people whose bags haven't been checked, who are they?"
"You're stupid, aren't they Jiang Yuwei and Sun Ling? Could it be that they themselves..." The student who spoke's voice was a bit too loud, and realizing what she had said, she quickly covered her mouth.
"Could it really be like that? They're even classmates, doing this just to slander someone? That's too much."
Sun Ling looked at everyone angrily. "You don't know anything, so stop gossiping. We know ourselves whether our own clothes were put in our bags or not."
Jiang Yuwei, standing beside her, frowned without speaking.
What perplexed her was that she had clearly seen Sun Ling place the clothes in Chen Lishu's bag, so why were they suddenly gone? Thinking about how Chen Lishu tripped Sun Ling with a stool when she entered, and her words just now...
Jiang Yuwei suddenly looked up, met Chen Lishu's calm gaze, and her heart skipped a beat. She immediately walked around the table, her hand reaching for her shoulder bag trembling slightly.
If it was as she thought...
Jiang Yuwei dared not think further!
When she grabbed her bag with trembling hands and felt its weight, she finally breathed a silent sigh of relief, and the tension in her nerves relaxed.
Thankfully, her bag was empty.
"Everyone saw that some people's suspicions were completely unnecessary," Jiang Yuwei said, emptying the contents of her bag onto the table and looking at Chen Lishu expressionlessly.
"Yes, now everyone has seen clearly, haven't they? We were already anxious and upset about losing our clothes, and yet there are people here fanning the flames. Who knows what their intentions are!"
Sun Ling followed suit, stepping forward and grabbing her own bag. But the moment the bag was in her hands, she noticed something was wrong.
It was much fuller and heavier than before.
Feeling the eyes of everyone around her, Sun Ling's heart tightened. She instinctively wanted to throw the bag away, or pretend it wasn't her bag at all, but it seemed neither option was feasible.
Jiang Yuwei looked at Sun Ling, who was frozen in place, and then at Chen Lishu. At this point, if she spoke up to help, she would surely be implicated as well, so she could only pretend to know nothing.
"Sun Ling, what's wrong?"