Su Ya, hearing this, turned her head to look at the people around her.
However, upon seeing this, everyone hastily took a step back, widening the distance from Su Ya, and their gazes involuntarily shifted away from her.
They just wanted to watch the commotion from the sidelines and had no intention of getting involved in this affair. The matter didn't concern them, so they didn't care; that was what most of them thought.
Of course, there was one person on the bus who didn't think this way, and that was Chen Feng.
The reason Chen Feng had stayed quiet was that he felt something was odd about this incident, and it didn't seem as simple as it appeared on the surface.
The middle-aged woman had sounded too certain when she claimed her phone was on Su Ya, not the least bit doubtful. It was as if she was one hundred percent sure, which was indeed strange.
If a normal person lost something, even if they suspected someone was the thief, they would still just be suspicious. How could they be so certain?
This was indeed dubious.
So Chen Feng decided to hold off and continue watching how things unfolded.
Su Ya looked at the dodging crowd with a flash of despair and helplessness in her eyes.
"What now? Have you got anything else to say? Hurry up and let me search you!" Seeing that no one was willing to vouch for Su Ya, the middle-aged woman hooked the corner of her mouth into a smug smile, then turned to Su Ya and said with a sneer.
"I..." Su Ya hesitated upon hearing this.
Honestly, she was resistant to being searched, yet she couldn't stand the way everyone looked at her as if she were a thief.
In order to prove her innocence, Su Ya resolved to let the middle-aged woman search her.
With that thought, Su Ya looked directly at the middle-aged woman and said, "Fine, search me, but if you don't find your phone, you must tell everyone that I'm not a thief!"
"Of course, no problem!" The middle-aged woman nodded and, without further ado, stretched out her right hand swiftly toward the messenger bag slung over Su Ya's shoulder.
Seeing this, Su Ya didn't refuse, letting the middle-aged woman open the zipper of her bag and reach inside.
At this moment, nearly all the eyes on the bus, including Chen Feng's, were focused on Su Ya's messenger bag.
For some reason, as soon as the middle-aged woman's hand delved into Su Ya's bag, Chen Feng suddenly had a bad feeling—an inkling that something was about to happen, faint though it was, but he knew it was significant.
And sure enough, hardly three seconds after the middle-aged woman's hand had entered Su Ya's bag, her face lit up with joy. She swiftly withdrew her hand from the bag, and in her grasp was a white touchscreen phone.
"My phone, this is my phone!" The middle-aged woman excitedly raised the white phone for all to see, shouting at the top of her lungs.
Taken aback by this, the crowd then turned their heads to look at Su Ya, and their gazes became decidedly malicious at that moment.
Clearly, with the evidence at hand, it was now fully confirmed that Su Ya was the thief.
Seeing the unfamiliar phone being pulled out from her bag by the middle-aged woman, Su Ya too was taken aback. She quickly began to explain, "I don't recognize this phone at all, and I have no idea how it got into my bag. Please, you must believe me!"
But no one believed Su Ya. Within moments, almost all the passengers on the bus began to accuse and even curse at her, each word becoming more offensive.
A few passengers even shouted loudly that Su Ya should be taken straight to the police station.
"I'm not a thief, I'm really not!"
Su Ya was deeply distressed. Even the usually strong-willed her couldn't help but shed tears under such immense humiliation.
Tear after tear rolled down her unadorned, delicate face like pearls slipping from a snapped string, their pitiable and aggrieved appearance truly heart-wrenching.
However, the passengers were not going to sympathize with Su Ya simply because of this, not when she had already been branded a thief.
Gradually, the voices of accusation and abuse in the bus grew louder.
Seeing this, the middle-aged woman's mouth curved in a slight smirk, then she turned her head toward Su Ya and said in a stern voice, "Young lady, look, the eyes of the public are sharp. Now the evidence is conclusive. If you keep making excuses, Auntie is really going to get angry. Then I'll have to send you straight to the police station!"
"I..." Su Ya's teeth gently bit her tender lip, frightened into promptly closing her mouth.
The middle-aged woman, seeing that her words had intimidated Su Ya, revealed a hint of triumph in her eyes. She then looked at Su Ya and said with a beaming smile, "Young lady, don't worry. Auntie isn't the unreasonable type. You're so young, how could I bear to send you to the police station?
How about this, I'll agree to settle this matter privately. You compensate Auntie with five hundred yuan for my mental distress, and we'll call it even. How does that sound? Auntie is being quite fair, right?"
As soon as the middle-aged woman said this, Su Ya's face instantly turned deathly pale.
Not to mention that she hadn't stolen anything, even if she had, she couldn't afford the compensation.
After all, she was just a student, and her family wasn't particularly well-off. How could she possibly fork out five hundred yuan so easily?
But if she didn't pay, she would be sent to the police station, and everyone would then know she was a thief.
At that moment, Su Ya was completely desperate and helplessly looked around at the other passengers, hoping they would help to speak kindly on her behalf, at the very least to negotiate the amount down a bit.
However, the passengers in the bus didn't feel anything inappropriate about the situation.
On the contrary, they thought the middle-aged woman was quite merciful. She not only planned not to send Su Ya to the police station but also agreed to settle privately for only five hundred yuan. They thought her incredibly kindhearted.
For a time, the passengers were all giving thumbs up to the middle-aged woman, praising her without exception.
This made the smug look on the middle-aged woman's face even more pronounced. Su Ya, seeing this, felt even more despair and helplessness.
All of this was observed by Chen Feng from a short distance away.
Chen Feng had been quietly assessing everything all along.
When he initially saw the middle-aged woman pulling out a mobile phone from Su Ya's backpack, Chen Feng also had his doubts.
However, as soon as the middle-aged woman demanded that Su Ya compensate her with five hundred yuan to settle the matter privately, the clouds of suspicion in Chen Feng's mind dissipated.
He was now almost certain that there was something fishy about this middle-aged woman!
Chen Feng stared intently at the middle-aged woman for a moment, finally resting his gaze on the white handbag she was holding in her left hand.
And then, at that moment, something miraculous happened.
A streak of purple light flashed across Chen Feng's eyes, and in the next instant, he reactivated his superpower of X-ray vision. His gaze pierced right through the exterior of the white handbag, allowing him to see the contents inside.
Before Chen Feng could even register his surprise at the reactivation of his X-ray eyes, he was immediately transfixed.
Because inside the white handbag of the middle-aged woman, there were six white touchscreen mobile phones, all identical to the one previously pulled from Su Ya's backpack.
Amongst these many phones, there were also stacks and stacks of banknotes, each stack around five hundred yuan, and some eight hundred and a thousand.
Seeing these items, and combining them with previous suspicions, everything suddenly clicked for Chen Feng.