Chapter 174 - 172: Meeting Shi Xiaoru

Chapter 174: Chapter 172: Meeting Shi Xiaoru

"When did you go to Dian City?"

In the interrogation room, Su Miaoyi asked Shi Xiaoru some questions.

"Here’s my plane ticket." Shi Xiaoru showed her the booking information.

Zhuang Yanzheng also took a look.

"Were you in Dian City this whole time?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

"Yes." After replying, Shi Xiaoru looked at the two of them. A moment later, it dawned on her that they suspected she had returned from Dian City to commit the crime.

So she started scrolling through her phone again. "These are all the photos I took in Dian City. They were all taken with the original camera, no editing. The album has the location and the time they were taken."

Shi Xiaoru scrolled through the album.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng both watched.

Aside from the day she arrived in Dian City and today, Shi Xiaoru had taken a ton of pictures every single day in between.

There were so many photos each day, you could scroll and scroll and never reach the end.

Most were photos of herself, with a few landscape shots.

There were photos for every single day.

And they did indeed have timestamps and location data.

Looking at the album full of photos, Su Miaoyi’s first thought was, ’This doesn’t look like she was on vacation. It’s more like she just went to work in a different place.’

’For someone like me who hates taking pictures, just looking at all of this is exhausting.’

"Also, my payment locations." Worried she was a suspect, Shi Xiaoru kept looking for evidence to prove she had been in Dian City the whole time. "The money I spent on meals, shopping, and the hotel—it’s all here. You can check all of it."

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng went over her expenses, transaction by transaction.

"Oh, right," Shi Xiaoru added. "I rented a car after I got to Dian City. This is the rental information, and this is the payment. The car has a dashcam with a trip recorder, which can also prove I was in Dian City the whole time."

"Okay," Su Miaoyi said. "We understand."

Shi Xiaoru continued, "I was furious, I really was. When they Photoshopped my picture onto a funeral portrait, cursed my parents and family, and ambushed me at my door, I really did want to take them down with me, to drag them to their deaths."

"But... that was just a thought. I’d never dare. I have parents to support and a whole team to provide for. If something really happened to me, wouldn’t my team be left to starve?"

"And I have so many fans who defend me. They like and support me so much. I can’t let something happen to me and make them worry."

"Doing something illegal, something that would hurt myself... those are things that would only sadden my loved ones and gladden my enemies. I can’t do that."

Su Miaoyi watched her.

She could sense that Shi Xiaoru truly cherished the people around her—her loved ones and her fans.

"What’s the story with you and Wu Liang?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

"A while ago, our platform had an offline event. Wu Liang initially said he wanted to pursue me." Shi Xiaoru frowned. "To be honest, I didn’t know him. I’d never even come across him on the platform, so I had no idea who he was. To me, he was a complete stranger. Why would I ever agree?"

"Besides, I have no intention of dating right now, so I turned him down," Shi Xiaoru said. "But then, a few other guys came over and said they wanted to pursue me too."

"I felt like something was off. Later, my assistant told me that Wu Liang knew those guys. I was actually pretty pissed."

"Their behavior was completely disrespectful. So when they tried to talk to me later, I just ignored them."

"Then, after the event ended, on the night we were preparing to return to Jinghai, Wu Liang got drunk and started getting handsy with me. He was saying things like I should go to his room and sleep with him, so I slapped him."

Shi Xiaoru sighed as she spoke. "As a result, Wu Liang started making things up about me online. At first, he just directed his fans to leave those kinds of comments under my videos."

"At the time, I wanted to go online and expose Wu Liang for harassing me. But... on second thought, if I did that, he would definitely lose his job. He might have had to face a huge penalty for breach of contract, so I didn’t say anything at first."

Neither Su Miaoyi nor Zhuang Yanzheng spoke, just listened to her story.

"You know what they say about pitying a total scumbag—you’re just asking to be struck by lightning," Shi Xiaoru said, a little angry. "Well, here’s my punishment. I guess I had it coming. By the time I tried to speak up later, no one believed me. I didn’t have any proof, so I just gave my team a break to regroup for a while. I really couldn’t solve this problem, so I was planning to let my team members be the face of our content while I moved behind the scenes."

"Anyway, I’m getting older, so I figured I should give the younger generation more opportunities and spend more time with my parents. Who knew something like this would happen."

Thinking about it now, Shi Xiaoru was a little scared.

"Do you know Xiao Xia and Luo Min?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Shi Xiaoru shook her head. "No. The police in Dian City mentioned them to me, but I don’t know them. Three people died, right? I was so nervous. After they contacted me and said someone had died, I was so scared that I couldn’t really hear everything they were telling me."

"Yes," Zhuang Yanzheng confirmed.

Shi Xiaoru frowned. "Does all the evidence point to me?"

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng exchanged a glance.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Su Miaoyi took out a photo of Zhu Xuan. "Do you know her?"

When Shi Xiaoru saw Zhu Xuan’s photo, she first nodded, then looked shocked and nervous. "Did something happen to her too? What’s wrong? Weren’t there three people? Was she also... murdered?"

"No," Su Miaoyi said. "What is your relationship with her?"

"We were college classmates and roommates. We were very close," Shi Xiaoru said.

"When was the last time you contacted her?"

Shi Xiaoru thought for a moment, then took out her phone again to scroll through her chat history. "The Lantern Festival. She sent me a holiday greeting, and we chatted a bit."

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her chat history again.

It matched the records on Zhu Xuan’s phone.

"What kind of person was Zhu Xuan, in your memory?" Su Miaoyi asked.

Shi Xiaoru didn’t know what had happened, but her expression suddenly turned grim. She had a bad feeling something terrible had occurred.

She was silent for a moment before speaking. "I... She... She’s a good person. Very smart, a quick learner. She just wasn’t very talkative and was often by herself. Back in college, I injured my foot and couldn’t get around easily. Our dorm was an old building with no elevator. For over a month, she carried me on her back up and down the stairs."

"She was really strong, carrying me back and forth up and down four flights of stairs every day. We became very close after that. Later, I found out she was all alone, with no family left. So I’d always buy an extra portion of everything for her—food, drinks, clothes. During school breaks, I’d have her come home with me."

"When did you injure your foot?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

"My freshman year, not long after school started," Shi Xiaoru said. "I used to always complain about how I managed to fall and hurt my foot right after military training ended."

Su Miaoyi took notes.

Zhu Xuan had learned martial arts during the period after she left the island and before she started college.

"After graduation, we kept in touch frequently for a few years and would meet up occasionally. But later on, we both got busy, and we only contacted each other on holidays."

"But in my heart, I’ve always remembered her and always thought of her as a good friend. We always remember each other’s birthdays and send gifts."

...