Muchuan and Xiang Wan

This surprised Xiang Wan somewhat.

 Why wasn’t this something related to her?

 Hence, she took a look at Bai Muchuan.

 He looked over as well.

 The two of them exchanged glances and continued to watch the video.

 In the video, Ye Lun gave an account of all the things that Cui Ming did.

 Things that Cui Ming did to him, as well as others…

 He talked about multiple cases, from the 720 case to the 121 case.

 Soon, the video showed footage of Xiang Wan, from when Cui Ming had installed a micro spy camera on the door of her rented apartment.

 The school that she had gone to, her rented apartment, and even those days where she and Fang Yuanyuan stayed at Cheng Zheng’s apartment in Jin City, Cui Ming had attempted to install another micro spy camera but in the end, it ended in failure as Xiang Wan accidentally saw a shadow when Fang Yuanyuan did a video chat with her.

 Ye Lun also gave a detailed account of why Cui Ming did those crimes.

 In the video, Ye Lun was not a criminal but more like an actor.

 “The people whom Cui Ming hated the most were the bus driver and tour guide in that natural disaster 19 years ago. Even though they were already dead, Cui Ming was still full of hatred which extended to their children. He lost his only daughter, and he wouldn’t be able to take it when the children of the people he hated were living a good life…

 “However, Cui Ming’s capability back then couldn’t allow him to do anything to the Cheng Family in the Capital. Hence, naturally, his focus would be Xiang Wan.

 “Cui Ming was no longer satisfied in killing these people off directly. He was seeking a new kind of thrill. He wanted to try out a more meaningful way of seeking revenge on Xiang Wan… Just like how he had groomed and controlled me since young, he tried to make life difficult for her. It could be very devastating to a young child’s mental health…

 “Xiang Wan was ostracized and ignored in school. Her classmates mocked her or ignored her… She had thought that she was being treated this way as she was from a poor family and that she was not as sociable enough. In actual fact, these were just small tricks that Cui Ming played. It was very easy as Cui Ming only needed to reward the kids with money to create rumors and so forth to make life difficult for Xiang Wan. Furthermore, the parents wouldn’t even know about all of these…

 “Nonetheless, Xiang Wan didn’t grow up to become the nasty or mean girl that he had expected. On the contrary, she even got into college…

 At that time, the incident at the Special School had been widely reported by the media. Cui Ming was very concerned and excited so he began to upgrade the level of mental torture to Xiang Wan. Please take a look at this footage.”

 Xiang Wan felt her heart at her mouth.

 The footage was taken a long time ago. The video quality was low and the picture quality was somewhat blurry.

 However, when the scene showed a background, Xiang Wan couldn’t stop feeling nervous and restless. Her blood seemed to become cold at that moment…

 In the footage, Xiang Wan was wearing a white dress and the length of her long hair reached her waist. She seemed like a pure little fairy.

 That day was her birthday and she had specially bought this dress and put on some light makeup. She looked especially energetic that day.

 She was alone. Nobody celebrated her birthday with her.

 She was at the Capital and she had no friends or relatives with her.

 Fang Yuanyuan called her up that day to wish her happy birthday. Her youngest aunt also transferred her a sum of 300 yuan into her bank as a birthday gift.

 Her mom might have been too busy and forgotten about her birthday.

 Xiang Wan wanted to go buy a small cake to celebrate her own birthday.

 However, before she could go anywhere, she received a call from her class monitor that she had to go to school right now, to the office of the Dean of Academic Affairs.

 Xiang Wan didn’t know what happened but she went there nonetheless.

 The footage was now changed to the Dean’s office…

 Xiang Wan knocked on the door and entered the office. She didn’t expect that she would come across a disgusting scene. The Dean, who was usually well-dressed and looked like a gentleman, was violating a female student’s modesty. The girl’s blouse was pushed all the way up to her shoulders, practically her upper half of the body was exposed. Her skirt was also pushed up to her waist. She had been pushed to the corner of the desk. She seemed pitiful and there were tears on her face.

 That was so shocking that Xiang Wan let out a scream uncontrollably.

 The Dean was a little flustered. “Who asked you to come in?” He yelled at her.

 

At that moment, Xiang Wan’s mind was completely blank. “But you’re the one…” she stuttered a little, “who called me here?”

 The Dean noticed her pretty little face and squinted his eyes at her. “What’s your name?”

 “Xiang Wan.” Her reply was simply a reflex.

 “Lock the door. Come here.”

 Xiang Wan shook her head, took a step back and looked at him in a daze… and the girl who was trembling in fear.

 She clasped her hands together. She was asking for Xiang Wan’s help.

 Xiang Wan’s legs were as if rooted to the spot, she was unable to move.

 The Dean strode over and locked the door. “Why did I forget to lock the door? Well, want to play together with us?”

 Xiang Wan was frightened. Her body started to quiver like a sieve.

The Dean of Academic Affairs was a very tall and strong man. He was like a mountain when he stood before her. There was also an imposing aura about him.

 Xiang Wan was terrified.

 When she heard the sound of the lock, she immediately screamed. “I’ll call the police!”

 The Dean was taken aback for a moment. “Call the police? Call the police then. Let everyone come and see for themselves… Tch, you’re wearing a new dress and you even put on your lipstick… Who are you going to seduce?”

 He reached out his hand, wanting to put an arm around her.

“Let me tell you…” Xiang Wan quickly warned, “I’m here with my classmates. She’s just outside. If she doesn’t see me, she’s going to come here… I will call the police, I definitely will!”

 It was evident that she was not as weak as the other girl in the office.

 The Dean seemed a little uneasy after she yelled at him.

 Finally, the evil hormones lost the battle and he regained his wits.

 He pointed at the door. “Get out of here now!”

 Xiang Wan saw that the girl was pleading with her, using her eyes. For a moment, she didn’t know if she should just walk out of there alone—

 At that time, she was too young.

 She was ignorant and had never seen anything like this. Her face was all red and she pointed at the girl. “She… do you want to leave with me?” Xiang Wan stammered and asked the girl.

 To her, she had mustered a lot of courage by saying this sentence.

 She didn’t run away but she asked that.

 The girl nodded her head heavily.

 As she nodded, she was also dressing up herself. When the Dean shouted at them again to scram, the two of them quickly left the office.

 The girl was obviously an unwilling party. However, she didn’t thank Xiang Wan after leaving the office. She just ran away and didn’t even want to look back.

 She was worried that Xiang Wan would remember her face.

 Xiang Wan more or less could understand that.

 In a society that was filled with malice toward women. Whether it was the girl or Xiang Wan back then, they wouldn’t be able to bear with such humiliation and embarrassment…

 Xiang Wan didn’t know the girl’s name, as well as which faculty she was from…

 She was dejected and confused but she couldn’t do anything. She didn’t know what she could do.

 That night, Xiang Wan had nightmares. She thought a lot about everything and life.

 However, this incident didn’t stop here—

 On the second day, something was lost from the Dean’s office.

 According to the Dean, he lost a camera that cost more than 10,000 yuan.

 He claimed that before Xiang Wan went to his office, the camera was still on the table. After she left, no other student entered his office but the camera was gone.

 Xiang Wan became the only suspect.

 Of course, the Dean wouldn’t call the police. Instead, he used the most insidious way to deal with a young female student. He would summon her time and again to make her admit to stealing his camera. He even interrogated her with other lecturers and counsellors, trying to make her confess something that she had never done. He even told her that as long as she could return the camera to him, she would be treated as turning over a new leaf and everything would be back to normal.

 Xiang Wan was heavily pressured and stressed out under such treatment.

 Before all these apathetic looking lecturers and counsellors, she told of what actually happened that day…

 However, what was waiting for her was not justice.

 Rather, each and every one of these people looked on at her as though they were hearing some entertainment scandal.

 The Dean then accused her of not admitting the theft, refusal to return him the camera and even tried to pin a crime on him. He asked Xiang Wan to get the girl whom he humiliated to step out and be a witness for her…

 At that time, Xiang Wan really hoped that the girl would step out for her.

 This was because, in the entire college, only this girl and the Dean knew exactly why she had become a ‘thief’.

 She posted in the school forums and looked for her ‘witness’ around the campus.

 The girl, however, never showed up.

 Xiang Wan could only wait and search near the female dormitory, day after day.

 Finally, she saw a somewhat familiar looking face.

 She ran over to her joyously but the girl walked quickly away.

 “I don’t know you. Are you sick or something?”

 Sick?

 Who’s the one that’s sick?

 Xiang Wan couldn’t find anything to defend herself. Under the immense pressure from her classmates, schoolmates and lecturers, she had no choice but to drop out of college.

 At that time, Xiang Wan had also requested to check the surveillance camera. But she was told that the surveillance camera was spoilt and there was no surveillance camera inside the Dean’s office at all. She had never expected that she could get to see that scene again after many years later.

 It was complete.

 And clear enough.

 Presumably, this thing was used by Cui Ming to threaten the Dean.

 For a student who had not seen the world, the impact of ridicule, apathy and isolation could be devastating.

 After that episode, she went back to Jin City and stayed in a tiny apartment all day. Besides looking at novels and watching dramas, she couldn’t find any meaning in life. She couldn’t find something that could heal the wounds all the pain had caused her.

 She didn’t understand why.

 Why were there people who were so cold to others?

 Why was it that she didn’t do anything wrong, but yet she seemed to have offended the entire world?

 Why did these young people use that kind of condescending look on their classmate, schoolmate…

 

The Xiang Wan then didn’t know about the evil in human nature.

 She didn’t know about love in human nature either.

 Once, she even suspected that she was sick, that she must have misunderstood something that caused her to be spurned by society.

 She was no different from a pitiful person who was abandoned in the dark abyss. Nobody understood her.

 Whenever she faced her mom who sold their house so as to send her to college in the Capital, she found herself unable to stand back up again…

 Later on, she came across the novel – The Grey List.

 This was the book that made her want to write a murder mystery novel one day.

 Since then, she remembered an author by the nickname of Second Young Master Mu.

 And she remembered a phrase inside the novel.

 “It doesn’t matter if you’re hurt all over. Get back on your feet, work hard again and you’ll hear beautiful sounds.”

 …