The shop assistant was self-righteous and said accusingly, “No outsider has been in the store since then except you. If you didn’t steal it, who did?”
Liang Yin was beside herself with anger! She had always been of the view that thieves were like street rats. Anyone would be furious if they were treated as thieves for no reason! She trembled with anger, but tried her best to maintain her composure. She kept her poise and asked, “Do you have any evidence then? Without evidence, this is slander!”
“We’ll do a body search and find out!” said the shop assistant.
“Body search!?” When Liang Yin heard this, she laughed in anger. “Do you know the law?! What right do you have to search me? You’re not the police. What right do you have to carry out a body search on me?”
When she said this, the shop assistant felt that she was objecting because she was guilty!
“Feeling guilty, are you?! The mention of a body search scares you, doesn’t it?”
“What’s there to be scared of?! I didn’t steal, but you don’t have the right to search me! Besides, you have surveillance cameras, don’t you?! All you have to do is look at the surveillance footage!”
“The surveillance system belongs to the mall. We have no right to access it without police approval.” After a pause, the staff continued, “Let me give you a piece of advice. You’d better return what you stole immediately. Otherwise, if we call the police and they’re able to prove that you’ve stolen, you’ll have a criminal record. Understand?”
“…”
Liang Yin shook with anger. She felt humiliated!
She maintained firmly, “Anyway, I didn’t take it, and you have no right to detain me! Go ahead and call the police!”
Having said this, she started walking out.
Seeing that she was about to leave, the service staff was even more certain that she was guilty. It seemed she wanted to leave quickly and transfer the stolen goods out of the venue, so she immediately stopped Liang Yin.
“Someone, help! There’s a thief!” one of the shop assistants shouted. The other shop assistants at the counter happened to be idle. When they heard the shout, they immediately gathered around.
Soon a small crowd had formed at the Bulgari counter. Some of them were shoppers passing by. Some were the shop assistants from the neighboring counters. As soon as they heard that someone had stolen something, they immediately rushed over to watch the commotion.
In the presence of this crowd, Liang Yin looked around and saw many people glaring at her and pointing at her. Her pride and dignity started to erode under the looks of disgust that these people cast on her!
Tears welled up in her eyes! She was a headstrong person and never shed tears easily. However, to be treated as a thief and surrounded by so many people made her feel terribly shamed!
Even though she felt angry and humiliated, she straightened her back and wiped her tears away fiercely. She said in an icy tone, “Please call the police now! I’m not afraid as I didn’t do anything wrong. It doesn’t make a difference even if the police came!”
“Alright! You’re stubborn, aren’t you! Since you suggest calling the police and aren’t afraid of making a fool of yourself, what are we afraid of?! Anyway, if we lose something, we’ll definitely call the police. Just be prepared for a criminal record!”
The shop assistant went to the side and made the call. The other staff members looked at each other, impatience written all over their faces.
If she had stolen something, couldn’t she simply return it?
She had been caught, what more did she want?’
Although the store manager had observed all this and quite despised the girl, she nevertheless told Liang Yin patiently, “There’s still a chance now. We don’t want to escalate things unnecessarily. We’ll give you face and hope that you’ll give us some face too. If something doesn’t belong to you, you’d have to live with your guilty conscience to keep it, right? If you return it now, we’ll overlook this incident!”
