Evanescent Dreams

20. I'm sorry...

"Xie Xubo!" Weng Bai brightened, "you're finally back!"

The grey complexion and the purple rings surrounding his sore eyes made him look zombie-like, but his cleaned face made Xie Xubo looked slightly more resurrected compared to the last time they met him.

"Back to being a delinquent?" Weng Bai joked and tugged at Xie Xubo's old chain necklaces. 

He smiled weakly and showed off the dark earring on his right ear. 

"I just want to know who killed my Miaomiao. I'll tell you guys anything," he sat down besides them. 

Lin Xingren put down Xuan Miaomiao's phone and clicked her pen.

"Let's start with what happened that morning."

Xie Xubo first saw that day in the hallways during break. He saw Ye Zhen staring at her in a suspicious way, so he quickly pulled Xuan Miaomiao to somewhere else where they could have their date. 

"Hahahah," Weng Bai interrupted the narrative with his uncontrolled laughter, "no wonder! You were jealous? Lmao, you're- fejfn"

Ye Zhen forcefully covered Weng Bai's mouth for Xie Xubo to continue.

"During our date, I remember ranting about how I didn't realize I had finished my coffee pills, and how I had no time to buy new ones because of the loads of late homework. My Miaomiao then told me that she recently found out that the pharmacy next to the school had changed their supplier, and now have high quality products. I didn't quite understand why she mentioned this to me until she surprised me with coffee pills bought from the pharmacy that night in the library. She said she wanted to give me a surprise at the time I usually took my coffee pills."

"Gosh, why do you take them so late? Don't you sleep?" Weng Bai interrupted after he fought away Ye Zhen's hands. 

"I developed tolerance, " Xie Xubo sighed. 

"Anyways, right at this time, I saw my Miaomiao seeing a message from Ye Zhen, and I was kinda jealous so I pleaded her to not leave me. "

"Ahhh, so that's why!-" Lin Xingren blurted. 

She hid the urge to slap herself, blushed, and cleared her throat, "continue."

"After a while, I received a message from Ms. Mei, and left the library. In the study classroom, nothing special happened except Ms. Mei oversaw me and others to finish our late due homework. Zhao Zihai came, too. He was a bit odd that day. Anyways, I never knew that would be the last time I ever saw my Miaomiao..."

"I'm sorry," Ms. Mei uttered, "if only I did not push you to finish your homework, you might've stopped Xuan Miaomiao from taking those pills..."

"It's okay, Ms. Mei, nobody knew that time about the pills. It would be difficult to prevent," Weng Bai consoled her. 

"So Xuan Miaomiao took the pills after Xie Xubo left her," Lin Xingren forgot again from lowering her voice when talking to herself. She felt somewhat at ease and prone to be expressing herself more than she usually did to her classmates. 

Perhaps because we're being professional here...

She felt accomplished, albeit she was far from an actual professional. 

"When do you think the killer added the fake labels? " she asked Xie Xubo, "like, where would Xuan Miaomiao go to leave her stuff? It should be a place that the killer can conveniently make a move, and without her and others finding out."

Her heart thumped after she finished her sentence. She did not need to hear his reply. 

The bathroom.