Chapter 161 - 159: The Course of Events

Chapter 161: Chapter 159: The Course of Events

"A search of Xiao Xia’s phone and computer shows that in the past week, she posted thirty-three videos about a user with the ID Shi Rutang. The content all accused Shi Rutang of having a messy private life, cheating on her partner, being a homewrecker, getting plastic surgery, and so on."

"It appears someone contacted Xiao Xia and paid her to post this content."

Su Miaoyi looked at the transaction records. It was a significant sum of money.

"With every post, Xiao Xia would add a tag saying she had photo evidence. In the comments, she’d promise to ’drop the photos in the next post,’ but the next video would just repeat the same claim."

"She also hired people to leave comments like, ’I DMed the original poster and saw the pics,’ ’It’s super juicy,’ and ’Shi Rutang is really ugly in person.’"

"This is all evidence of her hiring paid commenters," Qi Feng said. "Ten yuan per comment."

"Based on these chats, we can conclude that this was a deliberate campaign to spread misinformation and instigate online harassment."

"What about the person who contacted Xiao Xia? Can you trace them?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Someone from the tech department replied, "Not yet. The chat software they used has strong encryption, so it’s going to take some time."

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded. "Make it a priority."

"Understood."

"Tell me about Shi Rutang," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Since Xiao Xia had posted over thirty videos about her in just one week, they also had to investigate Shi Rutang.

"ID is Shi Rutang, real name Shi Xiaoru, female, twenty-seven years old. She’s been a dance streamer on this platform for five years."

"We tried contacting her using the phone number and address we found, but her phone was turned off. We couldn’t reach her."

"We then went to her address but didn’t find her. We contacted her family, and they said she’d gone on a trip to Dian City. They mentioned she’d been in a bad mood lately because strangers kept calling her, so she told them she wouldn’t be in touch for a while before turning off her phone."

"We found ticket purchase information confirming she did go to Dian City."

"However, the entrance to Shi Xiaoru’s apartment was a mess."

Su Miaoyi looked at the screen.

The apartment door on the screen was covered in graffiti. Words like ’WHORE,’ ’HOMECWRECKER,’ and ’GO DIE’ had been scrawled on it.

It was also splattered with some kind of unknown black substance.

It was filthy and chaotic.

You could even describe it as horrifying.

"Didn’t anyone call the police about this?" Chu Xingrou asked.

"Shi Xiaoru rents the apartment, so the landlord was the one who reported it. Even after the police were called, people kept showing up. They would just loiter at her door or downstairs without doing anything further," Qi Feng said. "The landlord hasn’t cleaned it up yet."

Chu Xingrou frowned.

’Have they all lost their minds?’

’What are they trying to accomplish?!’

’Camping out at someone’s front door!’

"We did some digging," Qi Feng continued. "This whole thing with Shi Xiaoru started here."

He played a video.

It was a clip from a livestream.

A male streamer with the ID Five Silvers.

Half a month ago, the short-video platform hosted an event and invited a number of influencers.

Five Silvers and Shi Rutang both attended.

The clip showed Five Silvers mistaking Shi Rutang for a friend he knew. He was chasing after her, repeatedly calling out to her.

Shi Rutang didn’t respond.

So Five Silvers caught up and tapped her on the shoulder.

Then, Five Silvers imitated the expression Shi Rutang made when she turned around and saw him.

After his impression, he laughed and joked, "It was like she was saying, ’Dude, who are you? Stay away from me.’"

After saying that, he burst out laughing.

At the same time, a laugh track played.

Su Miaoyi watched the video but didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it.

Other than the exaggerated imitation of her expression, she couldn’t see anything else.

The male streamer’s tone was clearly joking.

The scrolling comments below were also lighthearted, full of ’Hahaha...’

But starting that night, the comments under Shi Xiaoru’s videos began to change.

Qi Feng pulled up the comments from Shi Xiaoru’s videos.

Su Miaoyi’s brow furrowed as she read them.

The gist of the comment section could be summarized like this.

Five Silvers’ fans were saying: "So what if you have a lot of fans? Why are you so arrogant? Just a streamer putting on airs. You have no manners, showing a disgusted face to a fellow creator. Who do you think you are! You’re trash, a plastic surgery freak who just posts thirst traps for your sugar daddies."

Then Shi Rutang’s fans were retorting: "Isn’t it normal to look surprised when a strange man suddenly startles you? Where in the expression your streamer imitated was there any disgust? Did he personally say she looked disgusted? Why are you all so desperate to read into things?"

Anyway, the two sides argued fiercely.

Gradually, it escalated into attacks on each other’s favorite streamer.

After that, Qi Feng played another livestream clip.

It was from the following night, showing Five Silvers’ livestream clarification.

He said that he had no malicious intent when he imitated her expression the previous night and wasn’t trying to start a flame war. He just thought it was funny and wanted to share it on his stream, never expecting it to blow up like this.

He apologized to Shi Rutang and to her fans.

Su Miaoyi thought that would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t.

Because they had been attacking each other’s favorite streamers, both sides had said some very nasty things, dredging up past scandals and airing dirty laundry.

Since Five Silvers had apologized, even on behalf of his fans, his fanbase demanded that Shi Rutang also go live and apologize.

But Shi Rutang didn’t go live, nor did she post an apology video.

After two days, there was still no response from Shi Rutang.

Five Silvers’ fans continued to flood the comments on Shi Rutang’s videos, demanding an apology.

Then Five Silvers went live again.

He told his fans to stop, saying it wasn’t good for either side.

He said that she was a veteran in the industry anyway, with a huge fanbase and lots of brand deals. She was a busy person and probably hadn’t even noticed any of this.

He asked his fans to let the matter drop and not mention it again.

But things didn’t stop.

Shi Rutang was still getting harassed.

Then, she finally went live.

She claimed that Five Silvers had been harassing her at the offline event, and that it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity like he’d said.

Therefore, she wouldn’t apologize.

Both sides stuck to their stories, and there was no clear evidence for either claim.

The arguments grew more and more intense, gradually escalating to the current situation.

"If both sides were arguing and neither had any proof, how did it end with Shi Rutang being cornered at her own home, while nothing happened to Five Silvers? He’s been streaming normally and has even gained a lot of fans," Su Miaoyi asked, confused.

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

After a while, Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Give me the file on Five Silvers."

"Five Silvers, real name Wu Liang, male, twenty-one years old, from Xiang City. He came to Jinghai three years ago, signed with an agency a year ago, and became a streamer known for his good looks. He hasn’t streamed in three days and gave no reason. Neither his fans nor his manager knows why," Qi Feng reported. "We’ve already sent people to his residence to check on the situation."

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at Yan Cheng.

Yan Cheng was just about to speak.

Zhuang Yanzheng’s phone rang.

He glanced at it, answered the call, and said with a frown, "Understood. We’re on our way."

Everyone looked at him.

Zhuang Yanzheng leaned back in his seat, sighing with a frown. "Wu Liang was found dead at his residence."

...