Chapter 216
Chapter 216
When we got to the shop, I was still distracted, my mind filled with that video from earlier.
It wasn’t because I was some pervert. It was the laughter of those three little bastards in the video that filled me with disgust.
They were already capable of such ugly behavior at such a young age. What would they become when they grew up?
Bad seeds like that shouldn’t be allowed to grow up at all.
Two of them were already dead anyway. What difference did it make if Ding Ruoning killed two or three?
Still, I was curious about who had sent me that video.
I had called the number back earlier, only to find it was no longer in service.
It was a virtual number generated by software.
Before long, Seventh Master arrived as well.
After Meng Yifan heard about what had happened that night, he criticized me a little in front of Seventh Master.
Of course, he was putting on a show for Seventh Master, trying to calm his anger.
I quickly apologized to Seventh Master again, saying I was wrong and that I would never act recklessly again.
“Since it’s already happened, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Meng Yifan said, trying to smooth things over. “Besides, someone like that is dead, so what? There’s nothing to feel sorry about. We just need to protect the last one tonight.”
Seventh Master said, “I’m afraid tonight won’t be the last one. This Ding Ruoning is very rational. She only kills the children, not their families. She wants to use this method to make those children’s families suffer for the rest of their lives.”
“A ghost with resentment that powerful, yet still so rational, is extremely difficult to deal with.”
“And given how obvious her desire for revenge is, there’s no way she’ll stop after killing the three main culprits. Those three were only the main culprits who assaulted her daughter, not the main culprits who drove her daughter to her death.”
In other words, there were also those keyboard warriors.
“Then everyone should be careful tonight,” Meng Yifan said. “Let’s put in some effort, keep our spirits up, and perform Exorcism on her. Then everything will be settled once and for all.”
Song Xiaotian glanced at him. “You think this is some competition? ‘Put in some effort, keep our spirits up’?”
“I found some more information.”
“The person who first started steering public opinion online and smearing Sun Jiayu was actually Jiang Xiaoyu’s father, Jiang Nan.”
“This Jiang Nan runs self-media marketing accounts. Stirring up public opinion and fabricating rumors are his specialties. He was the one who exposed Sun Jiayu’s family situation and her photos. He was also the one who bought internet trolls to spread the claim that Sun Jiayu had bad character.”
“A person like that would smear the victim without hesitation just to protect his son.”
Song Xiaotian took out a stack of documents and handed them to us. He had actually made several copies of the same document, clearly wanting all of us to see the fine deeds the Jiang family had done.
“Also, Jiang Xiaoyu’s father, Jiang Nan, wasn’t the only one who started pushing the narrative online. Afterward, Jiang Nan contacted the parents of the other two families. Together, they manipulated public opinion online, trying to divert attention, shift the focus, and throw all the dirty water onto Sun Jiayu.”
“Is that something human beings do?!”
I looked through the documents and saw that the IP addresses behind many of the comments were exactly the same. Among them, three IP addresses appeared most frequently, and those three IP addresses corresponded to the places where the three families lived.
Holy shit.
I had thought those three families refusing to apologize to the victim was already as low as they could go.
Turns out they didn’t just have no bottom line. They had no humanity, no character at all.
They had actually turned around and smeared the victim. In other words, the people who drove Sun Jiayu to her death were also these three families. They weren’t the only ones, but they were absolutely the main culprits.
After Seventh Master finished reading, his brows were tightly furrowed, and he said nothing.
Meng Yifan sighed and tried to talk Song Xiaotian down. “This is what happens when the legal system isn’t perfect. There’s nothing we can do. We’re not the police. We can’t stick our noses into everything.”
Song Xiaotian picked up his teacup and was about to go out for more water. When he reached the door, he shot Meng Yifan another glare. “Go to hell!”
…
That day, we went to work as usual.
Even after dark, the shop still hadn’t closed.
It was very late when Seventh Master finally called and told us to drive to a hotel.
It was already ten at night. Logically, we should have been heading to Jiang Xiaoyu’s apartment complex, so I asked Seventh Master why he wanted us to go to a hotel instead. He wouldn’t say. He just told us to get there first.
Clearly, he was guarding against us.
Before getting into the car, I pulled Song Xiaotian aside and asked him if he was the one who had sent me that video this morning.
“Video? What video?” He looked completely confused, though his eyes kept darting away.
The moment I saw that reaction, I knew he had sent it.
Out of all of us, aside from Anning, he was the most worked up about this.
And that video hadn’t circulated online. Only Song Xiaotian would have had a way to get his hands on it.
“Keep pretending. Go on,” I said. “You think I won’t know it was you just because you won’t admit it? I could cast a divination and find out whether you sent it or not.”
Song Xiaotian immediately tensed up. “Then you… then go ahead. You haven’t even done it, and you’re already accusing me. When you talk, you need evidence. Otherwise, I can sue you for defamation.”
“Fine. If it wasn’t you, then it wasn’t you. I was just asking.”
I didn’t press him any further.
That video was one hundred percent sent by Song Xiaotian. But he was afraid of ghosts, and he didn’t understand the occult. I was the only one who knew how to sabotage things, so he sent the video to me, hoping to stir up my disgust toward those three people.
Without a doubt, he had succeeded.
The guy was pretty devious.
About half an hour later, we arrived at the hotel.
Seventh Master was waiting for us downstairs. Standing beside him was a young man in his thirties.
The man had sharp eyes and a calm, steady bearing. He clearly wasn’t an ordinary person either.
As soon as we got out of the car, Seventh Master brought him over.
“Let me introduce you. This is Zhang Bo. He’s a Yin and Yang practitioner, in the same line of work as me.”
Seventh Master continued, “The Jiang family invited him here to protect Jiang Xiaoyu. Good timing, really. More hands make lighter work. Tonight, we have to catch Ding Ruoning, persuade her to reincarnate, and stop her from killing any more people.”
We greeted Zhang Bo and got acquainted.
I asked Seventh Master, “How did the Jiang family know Ding Ruoning had become a ghost and come back for revenge? Who told them?”
Seventh Master said, “These three families are all in the same boat. Now that two children are dead, Jiang Xiaoyu’s father, Jiang Nan, was bound to be paying attention. Jiang Nan is very clever. After he heard how those two children died, he went and hired Zhang Bo.”
“And he deliberately brought Jiang Xiaoyu to a hotel for protection because there are more people here. It’s safer than staying at home.”
Zhang Bo nodded. “Seventh Master has already told me the details. This sort of thing is indeed hard to stomach, but I hope everyone can understand that a Ghost has to go where it belongs. If it keeps killing, it’ll definitely lose itself in the bloodlust. If innocent people get caught up in it then, that would be bad.”
“So we just need to do our duty. This is for Ding Ruoning’s own good, too. If she keeps killing, she really won’t be able to reincarnate.”
None of us said anything else. We nodded and followed Seventh Master and Zhang Bo into the hotel.