Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Xia Qingyi was rather absentminded in class that day. Or to be exact, her absent-mindedness was more obvious that day as compared to how she acted usually. She did not even hear her classmates talking to her as she merely kept her head down to scribble and doodle all over her paper.

  She did not have many friends. They were just classmates who sat with her in class. Unknowingly, she did not seem to like to chat with them. Though, it might have been that they did not seem to have many common topics to talk about.

  They would sit together and discuss about which celebrity was more handsome excitedly, but she had no idea who the celebrity they were talking about was. They would discuss which brand had nicer clothings, but she had even less knowledge about clothes than about celebrities. To her, it was fine as long as the clothes could be worn. They would always click their tongues and dismiss her opinions by saying that normal people like them could never compare to people like her who were pretty and had a nice figure.

  After a while, Xia Qingyi talked less and less. She could tell that they seemed to hold some sort of hostility against her.

  It did not matter if she did not know where this hostility originated from.

  She felt this deep sense of unfamiliarity whenever she saw them holding hands and jumping around happily on the streets. Her old life was probably not like this, she thought. If not, it would have not been so unfamiliar to her.

  The funny thing, however, was that she did not even know how her past was like.

  A strong sense of helplessness always swamped her whenever her thoughts went in this direction.

  After school, Xia Qingyi turned and sighed after bidding farewell to her classmates. She had no classes in the afternoon. She thought about what she should do and where she should go.

  She would have decided without a thought to go home and watch the television while eating snacks if it was the usual. But the situation that day was a little special and she did not want to go back that early.

  Just as she was still contemplating on what to do, her mobile phone rang in her bag. She picked it up to see that it was Zhang Yang calling.

  “Hello?” Xia Qingyi said.

  “Are you in a better mood now?” Zhang Yang asked gleefully.

  With his words, Xia Qingyi was reminded of what had happened the day before. Her heart dropped once more. “I’m feeling okay, I guess. What’s wrong?”


  “Why are you like that? Can’t I talk to you without a reason?” Zhang Yang asked.

  “No.” Xia Qingyi replied immediately.

  That made Zhang Yang unhappy. “Hey hey…… Why are you acting so rudely?!” He added hurriedly, “Okay, okay. Do you have classes later?”


  “No.”


  “That’s nice. Let me treat you to a meal then. Didn’t I say I wanted to thank you for that case yesterday? I have some other things to ask you as well.”


  Xia Qingyi had easily guessed that Zhang Yang would come looking for her once more for the case. She wanted to reject his offer, but had suddenly realized that she would have a reason to not go back so early if she went to get a meal with him.

  As a result, she took back the words that she was about to say as she replied, “Okay.”


  Zhang Yang was a little surprised that she had agreed to the meal so easily, though he did not think too much about it. He merely told her the place and said that he would rush over in a while.

  It was an hour later that the two finally met again.

  “Let me show you something.” Zhang Yang took out a photo the moment he had saw her.

  “What is this?” Xia Qingyi took the photo to take a look at it.

  “It’s a photo of the murderer. It was taken outside during the police interrogation.” Zhang Yang said as he looked at her, “He looks completely decent. I was still afraid that I had arrested the wrong person if it wasn’t for the fact that he had revealed himself by saying the wrong things when he was worked up.”


  Xia Qingyi glanced at the photo before returning the photo, “There’s nothing wrong. It is him.”


  Zhang Yang was confused, “Why are you so sure? You haven’t even met him in person.”


  Xia Qingyi smirked, “No matter how normally a person can act, their eyes will always reveal their secret.”


  Zhang Yang took the photo and looked at it closely again. The photo was merely a normal one that was taken when the murderer was in interrogation. He could not tell any difference. “But I don’t see any abnormalities?”


  Xia Qingyi smirked once more, “You will naturally learn how to read their eyes once you’ve met enough people who are like this.”


  “Have you met these type of people many times before?” Zhang Yang was puzzled once more. Xia Qingyi had been too mysterious from their first meeting until now.

  I have met too many people like them.

  The words in Xia Qingyi’s mind almost rolled off her tongue, though she managed to stop herself almost immediately.

  Why would she say something like this?

  It seemed as if she had said this sentence before. She could even almost see the sarcastic expression on her face when she had said it.