Chapter 17: Longest Night

The situation escalated too quickly, and the news spread rapidly anyway. Having just finished giving her statement, Xiang Qingxi saw the push notification immediately, and the class group chat had already exploded.

Clutching her phone, Xiang Qingxi ran over and grabbed He Jueyun, asking anxiously, “What is going on with Wang Dongyan? What should she do now? The school must have asked leading questions. There’s no way she did those things! Is she in danger?”

He Jueyun softened his tone, reassuring her, “It’s fine. She recorded the full video. Once it’s edited, she’ll post it to clear things up.”

“But…” Xiang Qingxi said.

He Jueyun cut her off. “This way, we can prove the school was instigating school bullying and driving students to suicide. We will also investigate the accounts doxxing her to see if we can uncover the paid internet trolls behind them. Once the truth is out, the public will have a terrible impression of First High School’s leadership. The focus will shift from sexual assault to driving someone to suicide.”

Xiang Qingxi gradually calmed down at his words, but her chest still felt tight, a lingering sense of dread refusing to dissipate. “Is she really going to be okay? Everyone is looking for her right now.”

“She’ll be fine. The school doesn’t know you and Xu Manyan have already gone to the police, nor do they know Zhou Nansong left behind definitive evidence. They think they’re pulling the rug out from under us, but they’re actually exposing their own weaknesses. It’s a terrible move on their part, so don’t worry,” He Jueyun said. “I just contacted Wang Dongyan. She’s editing the video right now, and she sounds quite stable. Everything is under her control. She’s very capable.”

Xiang Qingxi nodded, her tone downcast. “She’s being attacked like this all because of us.”

“So, don’t let her down,” He Jueyun said. “Protect yourselves, and bring those people down. We are here with you.”

“Mm…” Xiang Qingxi’s eyes welled with tears. “Thank you.”

He Jueyun patted her shoulder and had his colleagues escort the girls home, instructing them to stay with them tonight to ensure their emotional stability. At the same time, he arranged for the rest of his team to keep a close eye on the suspects involved in the case. Once they gathered enough solid evidence and got the warrants approved, they would make the official arrests.

He Jueyun returned to his seat and closely monitored the situation online. They had already contacted the cyber police to filter out the obviously abnormal accounts while blocking the spread of malicious information.

Sometimes, watching a public outcry unfold while knowing the truth is a helpless and infuriating experience.

The situation was escalating rapidly, showing just how anxious the puppet masters behind the scenes were.

The people pulling the strings behind the scenes were likely staring at their glowing screens right now, celebrating wildly. Meanwhile, a massive wave of passionate netizens, provoked by the paid trolls, was busy “upholding justice.”

A massive wave of netizens flooded Wang Dongyan’s account, leaving abusive comments. Even Wang Dongyan’s mother’s workplace was affected.

The company’s complaint hotline was flooded, seriously disrupting their normal operations, and some extremists even went to the office to vandalize the place. For safety reasons, Ms. Wang was forced to take a leave of absence and go home.

She refused the police’s offer of protection, only begging them to dispatch officers to find Wang Dongyan first.

Looking at the hateful comments from the netizens attacking her, Ms. Wang was utterly bewildered. Why would people who were usually gentle and polite suddenly become so cruel? The thought of Wang Dongyan filled her with terror. She repeated the conversation she had with Wang Dongyan before she left over and over to the police, vouching for her daughter’s character.

She deeply regretted letting her daughter leave like that. She felt that if Wang Dongyan hadn’t been driven to a dead end, she would never have gone to confront the school leadership alone. If only she had talked to her daughter properly back then, Wang Dongyan wouldn’t have taken such a self-destructive path, and things wouldn’t have reached this irreversible point.

She had thought she could smooth out her daughter’s sharp edges to help her adapt to society, but in doing so, she had become a knife herself, carving a piece of flesh right out of her daughter’s heart.

The more she thought about it, the more consumed by regret she became. In the end, she clung to a female officer and wept bitterly. “Did you hear her voice? She was in such a bad state. What if she does something foolish? Please find her quickly. I don’t even know where she went. If those people find her first, will they beat her to death? I beg you, please go find her!”

The police could only comfort her, telling her to stop looking at the online comments, while using their official account to appeal to the public to remain calm and refrain from cyberbullying.

But such efforts were clearly drops in the bucket.

As night fell, the situation did not die down. Instead, it gained even more traction as it spread further. This was largely due to Wang Dongyan’s sudden appearance online. She posted a few sporadic updates on her account in response to the situation.

“Stop attacking me, and don’t bother my mom. The school is really lying! Why don’t you believe me?”

“I didn’t extort the school! They did this on purpose!”

“Do you have to drive me to death to be satisfied? What do you even know?”

Netizens never expected her to actually show her face. And instead of apologizing, she was trying to shift the blame. This was like pouring oil on a fire. It sent the self-righteous mob into a frenzy, and they flooded her comments with extreme remarks like “just go die,” “kill yourself to apologize,” and “you deserve to die.”

Her entire comment section turned into a toxic cesspool.

Around ten o’clock that night, a well-known local media outlet released a video interview with students from First High School conducted that afternoon, pushing the controversy to a new climax.

“Do you know Wang Dongyan?” the reporter asked.

A boy with a pixelated face on screen replied, “Yeah, I know her. Everyone in school knows her.”

Another boy next to him chimed in, “Wasn’t she just called up on stage to read a public apology a couple of days ago?”

“What do you think of her?” the reporter asked.

The two grinned. “Incredibly arrogant!” “She’s something else!”

“I heard that a girl in her dorm jumped off the building and committed suicide because of her,” the reporter pressed. “Is that true?”

The boy replied, “Right. That’s what everyone is saying.”

Reporter: “Was it direct physical violence?”

The boy: “I don’t know. Everyone says there was, so there probably was.”

Reporter: “Was there any other behavior?”

“I think they scared her,” the boy said. “Playing ghost or something, scaring her to the point of a nervous breakdown. That senior already had depression, and she committed suicide after it flared up.”

Reporter: “Did her roommates and the teachers in her class know about this?”

“They probably did, right? I heard her roommates were the ones who exposed it because they thought she went too far.”

“Everyone is saying she deserved it. The seniors were actually pretty happy, shouting about it all day today.”

“No one expected her to be so disgusting, even going so far as to blackmail the school leadership. It’s like she’s gone crazy.”

Reporter: “What are your thoughts on this?”

“I just hope she can take responsibility for herself.”

“She totally got what she deserved!”

“It’s just… the cost of committing a crime is too low.”

After this news broadcast, public opinion online became completely one-sided. The rational netizens who had previously been criticizing the doxxing and calling for it to stop immediately were drowned out and silenced.

“No need to show proof this time, right?”

“Even people from her own school are saying this, what else is there to argue?”

“Disgusting! Go die! You deserve to die!”

“If you said you’re going to commit suicide, you’d better do it. Don’t back out now. We’re waiting for you, little sister Wang Dongyan~”

“You bleeding hearts should go experience being bullied to death at school before you speak up.”

The Sanyao netizens were nearly doubled over by this wild sequence of events.

“I can’t even bring myself to say ‘what a fucking idiot’.”

“This scene is just beautiful.”

“When I watched them say ‘the cost of committing a crime is too low,’ I actually felt the exact same way.”

“Sigh, although sometimes I wish we could use public opinion to punish criminals who maliciously escape legal sanctions, it really is a double-edged sword. The backlash is too strong, and if it hits the wrong target, the collateral damage is devastating.”

“Can we redirect the damage directly onto the school leadership? Netizens who can’t aim their fire are completely useless!”

“I can finally look at my parents with that disappointed ‘why can’t you do better’ face. This must be their dark history.”

Not long after, Wang Dongyan’s account updated again.

“It’s all fake! Why are you all lying! You’re just sensationalizing to get attention, do you dare to take responsibility for what you said!”

It had the distinct vibe of a naive high school student.

The netizens jeered in the comments below, showing her their ugliest sides.

This was destined to be a sleepless night.

·

Xiang Qingxi made several calls to He Jueyun, saying that they couldn’t contact Wang Dongyan, and she and Xu Manyan were on the verge of tears from anxiety.

They even asked if they should step forward directly to dispel the rumors for Wang Dongyan, fearing she would be pushed too far by the netizens and actually choose to end her life.

While He Jueyun comforted them, he also sensed that something was off. After hanging up the phone, he kept recalling Qiong Cang’s expression before she left.

The calm, indifferent look in her eyes when she raised her head made He Jueyun very uneasy. Like a movie scene, it kept rewinding and replaying in his mind.

He Jueyun swallowed hard and continued to call and text Qiong Cang.

He Jueyun: Hey, where on earth are you?

He Jueyun: Call me back, I’m really worried. Didn’t we agree? We’re clearing this game together?

He Jueyun: I’ve already tracked your phone.

He Jueyun: Really not going to answer? Wang Dongyan!

He Jueyun: Qiong Cang! Qiong Cang!!

Extremely frustrated, He Jueyun ran a hand through his hair.

The technical department had already located the phone. After sending people to check, they found that Qiong Cang had left her phone in an internet cafe, and she was nowhere to be found.

No matter how slow He Jueyun was, he understood Qiong Cang’s plan now. Her Suicide Progress must have reached its limit, which was why she was taking these measures.

He couldn’t help but grit his teeth in frustration: That lying cheat, she’s really something!

He Jueyun immediately expanded the search party, requested backup, and began a city-wide search.

However, with Qiong Cang’s intelligence, when she wanted to hide, no one could find her.

Early morning. The first ray of sunlight pierced the sky, and early risers began their morning jogs along the streets.

An officer rushed in and said to He Jueyun, “Boss! We just got a report from the local precinct. A citizen called the police saying they just saw a girl jump off the bridge on the west side of the city!”

He Jueyun’s head buzzed. His nerves, which had been tense all night, were stretched to a new limit. He stared hard at the officer and said grimly, “What did you say?”

“The fire department has already gone to help with the rescue. Passersby are also helping with first aid. It’s not confirmed if the person who jumped is Wang Dongyan, the officers over there are currently verifying her identity.”

He Jueyun rushed furiously toward the door, but another officer shouted, “Boss, Boss! Quick, look at this video! Seriously, Boss! Look at this first!”

He Jueyun froze mid-step. Taking a deep breath, he turned back anyway.

The video was indeed filmed and posted by Qiong Cang.