Chapter 6 — The Watch of Retribution

His voice was slightly hoarse.

When I saw that footage, I knew.

You were not the thief.

You were the prey.

From the very beginning, that was all it ever was.

I froze for a split second, realizing that even I had not noticed. The way my hand had gripped the bedsheets had been captured on camera all along. He had seen it.

Just go.

I turned my head. The ride-share had arrived. I pulled open the door.

Gu Yan, I heard your apology.

But I will not forgive you.

Not because of what happened today.

It is because someone like you will never truly understand...

What it feels like to be crushed beneath someone’s heel, unable to utter even a single cry.

I got into the car and pulled the door shut. Through the rearview mirror, I watched as Gu Yan remained standing motionless in the spot. Not until the car made a sharp turn did his figure completely vanish into the gathering darkness. Upon returning to the dormitory, Wang Qian and Zhao Min had already finished packing their luggage. They had been given disciplinary probations by the university and ordered to move out of the dormitories immediately. Seeing me step inside, neither of them dared to lift their heads. Wang Qian parted her lips, as if wanting to say something. I looked straight at her. Her throat worked convulsively, yet in the end, words failed her. Dragging her suitcase, she bowed her head and hurried away. As Zhao Min passed by me, her footsteps faltered.

Xie Yun... I am sorry.

Her voice was barely audible, so faint it was almost lost to the air. I offered no reply. Not every apology deserves to be accepted. The dormitory was left with only me. I gazed at the empty bed that once belonged to Lin Xiao Hui, letting out a long, heavy sigh. This was merely the prologue to everything. The following day, the university's disciplinary notices were plastered across every bulletin board and the internal campus network. Lin Xiao Hui, suspected of severe theft, had been taken into criminal custody by the police and expelled from the university. Wang Qian and Zhao Min, having provided false testimony, received disciplinary probations and had all honors revoked. The entire campus was shaken to its core. Those who had hurled the most vicious curses at me on the sports field now flooded the campus confession wall with public apologies, shifting their cyberbullying claws toward Lin Xiao Hui instead. I did not bother to read a single post. Lin Xiao Hui’s parents raised a ruckus outside the campus gates for days, unfurling banners claiming that the university and wealthy elites had colluded to frame their daughter. Consequently, they were slapped with a direct lawsuit by Gu Yan’s legal team. Coupled with the mother’s physical assault against a police officer, both parents were hauled into a detention center. One week later, the trial commenced. I attended the proceedings in the capacity of the victim. Seated in the defendant's chair, Lin Xiao Hui wore a yellow prison tunic. Her hair was disheveled, and her gaze was completely vacant. In the span of just a few short days, she had grown so emaciated she was nearly unrecognizable. Not a trace of her former radiance as the campus belle remained. When the prosecutor stated the total monetary value involved in the case was two million six hundred thousand, Lin Xiao Hui suddenly thrashed about like a madwoman.

I did not steal it! I only took it to look at it!

It was Xie Yun! Xie Yun deliberately left her locker unlocked! She wanted to frame me!

She framed me!

The judge struck the gavel heavily.

The defendant will maintain order!

Gu Yan’s lawyer rose, presenting all the evidence with absolute clarity and coherence. There was the surveillance footage, the official watch appraisal certificate, the seven hundred thousand repair invoice, and the search history retrieved from Lin Xiao Hui’s phone. On the very night before she stole the watch, she had searched for how much a Richard Mille costs and how many years someone goes to prison for stealing two million.

The defendant Lin Xiao Hui is not only suspected of grand larceny, but after the incident occurred, she also conspired to frame and slander an innocent fellow student.

Her actions were heinous, showing zero remorse.

Representing our client, the victim Mr. Gu Yan, we demand severe punishment in accordance with the law, with absolutely no leniency.

Simultaneously, we demand that the defendant compensate the full repair cost of the watch, amounting to seven hundred thousand.

Hearing the words seven hundred thousand and absolutely no leniency, Lin Xiao Hui completely shattered. She collapsed into her seat, weeping hysterically and miserably.

I will compensate... my parents have money... we will pay for it...

Yet the search history displayed on her phone stared unblinkingly back at her. Every word she had ever spoken, every action she had ever taken, stood recorded in stark, unyielding lines that nailed her coffin shut. The court delivered its verdict right then and there. Lin Xiao Hui, having committed the crime of theft involving an especially massive sum, was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment with hard labor, alongside a fine of one hundred thousand. The moment the sentence was pronounced, Lin Xiao Hui’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted dead away right in the defendant's box. As judicial officers dragged her away, her arms limp and dragging against the floor like a heap of wet mud, I sat quietly in the gallery, watching it all unfold. The colossal boulder that had crushed my chest across two lifetimes finally shattered entirely. In my past life, she had stolen my guaranteed postgraduate admission, stepping over my blood and bones to crawl into the upper circles of the capital, boasting to me even in our old age that it was the greatest thing she had ever done. In this life, I had sent her straight to hell with my own hands, locking her behind iron bars to waste away the ten most vibrant years of her youth. Stepping out of the courthouse gates, a chilling wind mixed with a fine mist lashed against my face, yet my mind had never felt so crystalline and awake. Sunlight pierced through the veil of clouds, casting its golden glow upon the stone steps. For the very first time, I felt that the road stretching out beneath my feet was broad and flat.