I have always hated thieves, especially those who steal things from time to time.

If I remember correctly, tomorrow is Valentine's Day on February 14th, and now it is only 6:00 and 3 in the morning. It is not dawn. The mighty recruiting workers is standing in front of me who is yawning and reporting meticulously. In just one hour, the kitchen has lost a pot of chicken soup, half a pot of cold chicken, two braised pork trotters, sweet and sour pork ribs and fried cabbage.

It is necessary that the hungry ones who are ready to die can do such a thing! So, I really don’t want to believe that Mr. Zhao was holding the light little girl in his right hand, but the bright sauce and white rice grains on her mouth betrayed her.

"You..." I looked at the girl who looked calm and was only concerned about swallowing her last bite of food. The dark blue V-neck velvet top, dark red plaid pleated skirt, black knee-length stockings that were placed on her body, as well as the school badge and English characters embroidered on the neckline, all of which revealed her superficial identity to me - a student girl, between high school and junior high school, her short black curly hair was very fluffy and cute. With her mixed-race facial features, she was completely pretty and cute like a doll. Faced with my questioning gaze, she swallowed her last bite of food with difficulty...

I motioned Mr. Zhao to put her down and walked to her. The first thing I asked was: "Are you full?"

The doll grabbed the water cup on the table, and regardless of the heat and coldness, he poured all his stomach and wiped his mouth. He was calm and a little arrogant and said, "He asked me to come here to wait for him. I am very tired and hungry. Isn't this a hotel? I want to live."

It’s not that you want to live in a small shop, you can live as long as you want! I think my lines should be like this. She has no visible luggage around her, not even a wallet, only dust on her clothes and face, and a pair of scarred leather shoes. It’s rare that she is so confident that she doesn’t even frown when she sees the two inhuman existences of paper and Mr. Zhao.

I knew that normal customers would never appear in my store.

"It's a hotel to pay for it." I yawned again, "You have to pay for the food you eat, including disturbing my sleep, which will be converted into cash losses."

She took out a bright red gadget from her pocket, spread it in her snow-white palm, and delivered it to me.

"Pioneer blood red?!" My sleepiness was instantly defeated, and I jumped up and grabbed the ruby ​​that was perfect in terms of color clarity and cutting.

"I have only this one," said the girl.

"Piece of paper! Take the guests to the room!" I ordered without raising my head, "Also, give them all to the guests in the kitchen. If it is not enough, Mr. Zhao, please buy and cook!" Look, I am very good at adapting. Although I keep collecting gold, it is also very fun to have one or two top rubies occasionally deposited!

Before I finished speaking, I heard a "whoosh" sound, and a murderous aura surged from the darkness. In the lightning, the girl suffered a heavy blow on her head, and she fell to the ground with a thump and fainted.

Behind him, Ao Chi shook his shiny tail, stood proudly, and looked coldly at the successful target of the sneak attack.

Everyone was shocked by his sudden appearance and violence.

No matter how gorgeous a dragon with a fat and young teeth is, it cannot make people shine. But I am very familiar with the cold and ruthless guard in Ao Chi's eyes. At this moment, I sincerely feel that no matter what the body turns into, Ao Chi is still Ao Chi, with a domineering and murderous aura that remains unabashed...

"Look at your unreliable look!" Ao Chi jumped over and poked my head, snorting coldly, "A mere ruby ​​will blind your myopia! I think there are more than tens of millions of treasures in the East China Sea. Just grabbing a pearl inlaid with toilets is more valuable than this!"

It seems that ten pounds of onions are not enough to make him turn back to justice. I opened his claws and was about to get angry, but he snatched them first. He pointed to the girl on the ground and said, "You think this is just something? The pollution-free little loli? This is a female blood demon! It is a higher-end existence than a vampire! I smelled that smell from afar! You see the money eye open to her, aren't you afraid that she will keep slaughtering her?!"

When he heard the word "blood demon", the paper "swoosh" disappeared. Although Mr. Zhao remained calm, the stiffness of his body increased by ten percentage points.

I held it in for a while before saying to Ao Chi: "Can you get back to your nest and continue to sleep?"

"I'm here to save you when you see you are in trouble!" Ao Chi stepped on his feet with a hatred and turned to the unlucky girl on the ground, with his eyes showing fierce light, "I'll solve her first!"

As soon as he said something, a clear voice came from our feet - "Don't hurt her! She is no longer a real blood demon."

A round chocolate bean, the size of a thumb, jumped out of the girl's pocket. Ao Chi and I squatted down, and looked at the chocolate as a cross-eye: "Are you talking?"

"I asked her to come when the tree demon is in Wangchuan City." Chocolate said, "Only here can she wait for the person she is waiting for."^

I immediately searched the memory carefully, without any memory of living chocolate: "Well, do we know?"

"Ten years ago on Valentine's Day, everyone was drinking wine in the tavern in Fleet, London. Only you drink tea. The tea was green and clear, as if it had put the best time in spring in a cup. I asked you why you didn't drink, you said you were afraid of getting drunk because you were looking for someone. You gave me a prank and gave me a sip of tea. It was so bitter, but the aftertaste was sweet. In return, I sang a song for you." Chocolate said slowly.

It was him?! The memories that had been put on hold for a long time flew back from a distant place.

Ten years ago, on Valentine's Day in Fleet Town, I was alone in the bustling tavern. Because at that time, I was still looking for Ao Chi, this guy, once left for twenty years without saying goodbye in my life. In these long twenty years, I have traveled countless corners of the world, and the people I have seen and the songs I have heard gradually blurred in the running time.

But I still remember that night, he sang David Gate's "goodbyegirl". Everyone in the tavern was moved by his beautiful guitar and voice, including me. After singing the song, I applauded him sincerely. When we saw each other, we knew that neither he nor him were humans.

He also gave me a small gift box with a rose ribbon tied with a few sweet chocolates inside. On the cold foreign night, only my own Valentine's Day, someone gave such songs and gifts, and it's hard to say it's not warm.

I told him that I am a tree demon from China, thanks for his songs and chocolates. If he meets him again in the future, if it coincides with Valentine's Day, he can ask me for a gift. He said that he remembered this, maybe he will really come to me on Valentine's Day in the future.

Before saying goodbye, he asked me, would you still have to be that person? I said yes.

He was puzzled and asked why, why he spent endless time looking for another person.

I answered without thinking because I have feelings for this person.

He thoughtfully, took out a small notebook from his arms and wrote on it: The 17th type of emotional symptoms - constantly searching. I couldn't understand the meaning of this, and he didn't explain it to me, just said that he was studying.

The past was clear, and I looked at him in surprise: "Why did you become like this?"

Ten years ago, he had a charming and elegant young man, why did he become a chocolate bean now?!

Yes, at that time I didn’t see his original body, I only remember that he had a Chinese face like me.

"Is my return gift still valid?" he asked.

"As long as there is no murder or arson involved, it is effective." I nodded.

"Make a cup of tea for me." He smiled in ignorance, "Although I can't drink it now, it's good to smell it."

1.

It is only because of how boring people are that they are keen on trying to find such things.

Zhang Sanfeng threw the black envelope on the table, picked up a bunch of clothes and walked to the balcony of the dormitory, and carefully spread it out and dried it - dryer and sunlight are always two meanings. From the beginning of coming to this country, she always felt that there was a moisture hidden in her clothes, and she had to be sunbathed in the sun to make her feel comfortable.

She turned around and her eyes fell on the black envelope. This morning, the "Rose Cross Girls' Association", which is known as the gathering place for the most beautiful and wisest girls in the college, sent a representative to throw the letter to her. The envelope said the nonsense saying "Exclusive invitation letter for the test galls" was written on it. As for the contents, she had no time to read it. However, she had heard a lot about the name and style of the girls' association. The members here come from all over the world, but they have three things in common: one is that their family conditions are very superior, the second is that they look pretty, and the third is that they are all very keen to "establish prestige" in front of new students.

As a freshman at Rose Kross Art Academy in Fleet, London, Zhang Sanfeng had already experienced various tricks of the girls before receiving the "Exam Examination Club invitation". Strange bugs appeared in the meals, hard-working homework disappeared, dead mice in shoes, etc.

She couldn't understand why some people like to get satisfaction from hurting others. Are these people a monster without feelings?! She heard that girls will ultimately hit every new student they dislike, which is to force the other party to participate in the so-called gay test meeting. They write all kinds of tricky and weird tasks in the envelope, and they often suffer losses if they complete it or not. It is said that some people who have encountered gay test meetings were scared to the hospital, and some almost drowned. The school has dealt with the girls' association many times, but due to the lack of actual evidence, the parties involved refused to expose it, so they had to leave it alone.

Thinking of this, Zhang Sanfeng smiled. She had long expected that the girls would put out an "ultimate blow" to her. In fact, since the day she entered the academy, she had become the "enemy" of many people.

Sometimes, it is not hatred but jealousy that causes the enemy.

As an emerging art college established ten years ago, Rose Kross Art Academy has always recruited students from all over the world, regardless of age, gender, education, and only evaluated its professional talent and future potential. Once admitted, it will not only be exempted from tuition, but also have considerable living allowances every month. At the beginning of its establishment, many students with artistic talents and shame from around the world came here to further their studies. After graduation, all of them achieved remarkable results and the reputation of the college became increasingly popular. Later, no matter whether they had money or not, many students could enter.

The British Rose Cross is proud of. After strict selection of students who are allowed to enroll, they have extraordinary talents in music, painting or writing. However, Zhang Sanfeng, a seventeen-year-old Chinese girl, cannot recognize the score, cannot tell the difference between Picasso and Monet, and even does not know Mark Twain. During the interview, she only sang a song from the opera "Madame Butterfly" by the examiners, and was unanimously approved by the examiners. Afterwards, she honestly told the examiners that she only listened to the song two hours before the exam, and then sang it casually based on memory.

Therefore, her honesty became a show-off in the eyes of others, and there were envy and jealous.

She had no response to the various eyes of the outside world. She just carried her old denim schoolbags on her back every day. She could see her sitting in the last row in the basic class and vocal class. At other times, she was like a lone man, coming and going without a trace. Some people said that she had seen her wandering secretly in front of the internal archives of the school; some people said that she was digging hard with her hands in the garden behind the small church on the east side, and asked her, she said that she was trying to grow some beans; of course, what she was criticized the most was her appetite, how could a girl eat so much!

All kinds of strange behaviors were imposed on her, and she did not refute or deny it. She looked out of the matter, and completed the courses she should learn on time and quantitatively every day, abide by every rule in the college, and lived like air. In short, the Chinese girl Zhang Sanfeng was quickly labeled as a weird person by everyone. No one was willing to get close to her, and even the classmates in the vocal class were not.

Zhang Sanfeng was completely isolated, but she didn't care.

Her purpose in coming to the Rose Cross was not for herself.

Today's sunshine is surprisingly prosperous. She lay on the railings of the balcony, looking down at the college in front of her, full of artistic beauty and impeccable beauty everywhere. There are young and energetic students everywhere, and many of them have extraordinary artistic talents. She often stands here to see them. I hope that one day, she will feel a tingling pain in her heart whenever she has such thoughts.

There was a voice downstairs, and Mrs. Bell, with silver hair, walked back with a basket of fruit. Her voice was always loud and could be heard from afar.

The student dormitories here are all single rooms. The housekeeper in the boys' dormitory is a middle-aged uncle with a black eye mask on his left eye. Everyone calls him Mr. Nick. I heard that his left eye was injured during a hunting event in his hometown when he was a child. He holds a pipe in his mouth every day. His biggest hobby is to read beauty magazines happily with one eye. The person in charge of the girls' dormitory is Mrs. Bell. Although he has a loud voice, his face is as kind as a kind old lady in a fairy tale. She always knits sweaters while eating all kinds of snacks she makes.

Mrs. Bell is probably the only person in the entire academy who would take the initiative to say hello.

I remember that on the first day she moved into the dormitory, when she returned to the room after dinner, she couldn't open the door. Because the keyhole was filled with glue, no one announced that she was responsible for this matter. She contacted the school worker who was responsible for repairing the locks, and the other party said that at least it would not come tomorrow morning. The drunk guy suggested on the phone that she would go through the window of the next room-her room was on the fourth floor, and there was a hard marble platform downstairs.

Bell took her in for one night. In the office and lounge on the first floor, the old lady warmed her a pot of black tea, saying that this was not the first time that such a thing happened. She also joked that the students of Rose Cross are all communities of angels and demons. Their artistic attainments shine like the faces of angels, making people with mediocre qualifications dwarf, but they are only part of ordinary people after all. Sometimes, the shortcomings and dark sides of human nature are more powerful and exaggerated in children like them. People who are bullied will certainly be unhappy, but when they think about it, a smooth life is more dangerous.

Zhang Sanfeng just smiled at the old lady's consolation. For her, when a person has endured an experience called "tribulation", these foreign tricks are not worth mentioning at all.

But she still thanked Mrs. Bell and thought she was a good person.

Since then, every morning and evening, whenever she passes by Mrs. Bell's door, she will greet her. The old lady seems to like this Chinese girl very much and often gives her some snacks or exquisite candies that she baked by herself.

No matter what, it is always a pleasure to care about.

Zhang Sanfeng looked up at the sunshine. The sky in Britain always seemed to be covered with a layer of gauze, and the sun was also covered with unpleasant gray. Or maybe this had nothing to do with the region. Since many years ago, there was a layer of gray in her eyes that could not be removed. Not only on the rose cross, but even at home, she was not the one she liked.

She lowered her head and tidyed up the slightly hot bedding. When it was sunny, she would dry her bedding and clothes. She was the only habit she had retained, related to "home". When she was a child, whenever it was sunny, her mother would lead her and her brother, humming a song and holding something to the rooftop. Soon, "color flags" of various colors floated on the rooftop, and the breeze blew with a faint fragrance of washing clothes. At this time, her mother would magically take out delicious lollipops from her pocket. She and her brother took them happily, sat side by side on the bamboo chair on the rooftop, licking the sweetness of her mouth. Mom's face was always smiling, and sometimes she couldn't figure out whether the sun was just falling on her face or whether there was already brilliance in her smile, especially when she looked at her children, the love in her eyes was about to overflow from her eyes.

Dad never smiled like this. She even suspected that Dad was born without the physiological function of "laughing". What he did was to drink, to force her to eat, eat various foods, which completely exceeded the normal child's appetite, and then to get an injection. He said that she had a very serious illness and had to get an injection every day. A full of blue medicine was injected from the blood vessels on her neck. Every time it hurts so much that her internal organs were burned. She cried countless times and fainted from the pain. When her mother saw this scene, she wanted to stop her, but when she saw her father's eyes as red as beasts, she could only sob and retreat to another room.

At that time, Zhang Sanfeng had only two biggest wishes, one was that his father could smile at him, and the other was that he would not get any injections. She didn't feel sick. She went to school with other children after school, except for eating more than them, and even when the flu hit and other classmates were infected with the virus, she was safe and sound. Is this body unhealthy?

Her prayer for not getting an injection was flatly rejected by her father, and she didn't even give her a reason. She was only from the ground, and her father looked at her like a dangerous beast.

My father's rare tenderness was only revealed when facing his younger brother alone. She saw it through the crack of the door. My father touched his younger brother's head lovingly and put the toy in his younger brother's hand. The younger brother happily hugged him and kissed his unshaven face. The joy of family was beyond words. However, she was not the child she picked up. She and Xiaoxiao were twin brothers of the same mother and her brother!

Later, she learned a word called "prefer boys over girls" and asked her mother if it was because she was a girl that her father didn't like her. Her mother firmly denied it, and she said, "Dad loves you as much as your brother." In the end, she murmured - the person he hated was me.

Such words have confused Zhang Sanfeng to this day. She has seen her parents' photos in the past. Can they pretend to be happy snuggles and smiling faces? As long as she can remember, her parents never mentioned their past. What they showed was just an ordinary couple who had passed the cliché of getting to know each other and getting married, and then they wrestled their love in the ordinary years, leaving only family companions.

Before she could figure out what her mother said, the day after her twelfth birthday, her mother left, took nothing and left nothing.

Dad continued to drink his wine, as if there was never a mother in this family. Whether she left or stayed was not as important as the wine in his glass.

Afterwards, she looked for many places, but there was no news from her mother. Her father still forced her to eat, forced her to get an injection, and she would be beaten if she resisted. In recent years, her father has become older and even the fists that fell on her body did not hurt as much as before. The blue medicine did not make her feel uncomfortable, and time will make everything easier to adapt.

My younger brother is much better. My father is very kind to him. Although the harmony is at most a normal family communication between father and son, in Zhang Sanfeng's opinion, it is already the top of happiness. My younger brother has always been very sensible. He has to divide half of what delicious food and fun things he gets from his father. In winter, her hands are very cold. When my mother is there, she will untickle her clothes and cover her hands in her arms. After she leaves, the person who covers her hands in winter becomes my younger brother. Three years ago, on her birthday, the child went to work hard for half a month without her family, and used the money she earned to buy a pair of expensive ones.

When he gave her the gloves, he said that his sister's hands were always like popsicles. If he was not around, let these gloves replace them! The fourteen-year-old boy is nearly 180 cm tall, with handsome eyebrows, eyes and figure, and he has a brain that is better than many of his peers. In this year, there have been more than one admission letter from higher education institutions in front of him. When he looked more and more like his father, the only difference between father and son was that his younger brother always had a warm smile on his face. Zhang Sanfeng felt that the only warmth in his body came from this twin brother who was connected by blood.

He was the only person in her early life who would not be hurt even if she died.

If that's the case, why do you have to say such terrible things to him? Why do you have to drink so much wine that day?

How great would it be if I only gave birth to one of me! Dad gave you all the love! It was your existence, which robbed my happiness!

——These words still poked Zhang Sanfeng's heart like a blade. But these were indeed what she said in person on that night when the alcohol was raging. She still remembered her brother's silence after hearing it and his back as he snatched the door.

Two months after this incident, his younger brother left the house with all his luggage. He was always independent and did not worry. He left two letters, one to his father and the other to her.

In the letter, my younger brother said that he had given up the invitation from a domestic university and had already set out to study at the Rose Kross Art Academy in the UK. This college is very good, the tuition fee is free, and even the air ticket is provided. He will come back in three years. Don’t worry about him, he will be very good. At the end of the letter, he said: "You will always be my only sister, and I will share everything with you, including happiness."

She held the letter paper and was cold all over.

She still doesn't know what her brother wrote in her father's letter. She only knows that after her brother left without saying goodbye, he became older and weaker, and never fisted at her again. She often didn't say a word for many days. Sometimes she would look at her face and make a daze for a while, and then sigh and go to drink...
To be continued...