Chapter 167

Chapter 167

The eight of them arrived at the final temporal space.

Quite a few dorm room doors along the corridor were open, and people were poking their heads out to look around.

The corridor was both quiet and noisy.

Noisy because of the sounds of arguing drifting over. Quiet because, aside from the argument, there seemed to be no other sound at all.

And the argument seemed to be coming from Dormitory 6103.

The eight of them hurried toward 6103.

At that moment, the door to Dormitory 6103 was wide open.

Wang Yueyue and Shen Hong were standing together. Shen Hong’s eyes were red as she shouted at Zhao Yingguo, “Zhao Yingguo, why did you take my things?”

“I didn’t.” Zhao Yingguo’s eyes were red too.

“You’re still trying to deny it? It was clearly in your drawer!” Shen Hong raised her hand and opened her palm, holding the item out in front of Zhao Yingguo.

Zhao Yingguo seemed deeply wronged, and there was a sob in her voice. “I really don’t know. I didn’t take your things. I didn’t.”

“You’ve gone too far, Zhao Yingguo!” Shen Hong also began to cry. “This was the last birthday gift my grandmother ever gave me. Not only did you take it, you deliberately broke it! If you had a problem with me, you could’ve just said so. You could’ve come at me directly. Why did you have to break my bracelet?”

Zhao Yingguo shook her head and said, “Honghong, I really didn’t take it. It wasn’t me. I don’t know why it was in my drawer either. I…”

“If you didn’t take it, then who did? Are you trying to say it was Yueyue or Li Xiting? That they stole my bracelet on purpose, broke it, and tossed it into your drawer to frame you?” Shen Hong demanded.

Zhao Yingguo’s face went pale. “I… I didn’t.”

“It wasn’t this person, it wasn’t that person-what, was it a ghost, then?” Shen Hong’s eyes were red with anger.

Wang Yueyue stood to the side, comforting Shen Hong. When she looked at Zhao Yingguo, there was suspicion in her eyes as well, but in the end, she said nothing.

As for Li Xiting…

She had been sitting in her seat the entire time, watching everything unfold with cold eyes. Feeling that the timing was about right, she finally stood and spoke as if trying to smooth things over. “Yingguo isn’t that kind of person. Maybe she accidentally broke your bracelet, and because she was afraid you’d be upset, she secretly hid it.”

“Li Xiting, don’t make excuses for her!” Shen Hong grew even angrier.

Li Xiting seemed a little conflicted. She sighed and said, “We’re all roommates. There’s no need to make things so ugly.”

“Who wants to share a room with a thief?” Shen Hong blurted out.

Qin Nan and the others watched the scene, understanding the truth better than anyone.

Zhao Yingguo had not stolen the item at all. It was Li Xiting. Li Xiting had deliberately orchestrated all of this, first putting Zhao Yingguo in a difficult position within the dorm.

This person really was…

Qin Nan shook his head.

The argument went on for a long time. However long they argued, Qin Nan and the others stood there watching.

In the end, Zhao Yingguo refused to admit it, but the item had been found in her drawer. Shen Hong, along with the others, all concluded that something was wrong with Zhao Yingguo.

Of course, not everyone immediately believed Zhao Yingguo was a thief. Some also thought that perhaps Zhao Yingguo had accidentally broken someone else’s bracelet and, not knowing how to explain herself in the moment, had ended up creating this impossible situation.

But from this moment on, the impression others had of Zhao Yingguo had begun to shift, little by little, from good to bad.

After seeing what had happened across six temporal spaces, everyone now had a general understanding in their minds.

On September 21, 2011, Li Xiting had developed the intention to destroy Zhao Yingguo and had begun planning it.

On November 23, 2011, Li Xiting framed Zhao Yingguo, causing everyone’s impression of Zhao Yingguo to turn from good to bad.
January 13, 2013: the dormitory supervisor began approaching Zhao Yingguo.

June 8, 2013: Li Xiting returned the Hair Ribbon to Zhao Yingguo. The significance was unclear.

December 3, 2013: Li Xiting successfully turned everyone against Zhao Yingguo, and her roommates moved out of the dorm room.

February 27, 2014: Zhao Yingguo died. The plan was complete.

That was the meaning behind those six points in time.

However, things were far from that simple.

They had seen everything Zhao Yingguo had suffered in the Surveillance footage, so Li Xiting’s methods against Zhao Yingguo had definitely not been limited to what happened inside the dormitory.

Everything Li Xiting had done to Zhao Yingguo in the dorm had only isolated Zhao Yingguo and left her without friends. At the very least, Zhao Yingguo had still been able to live normally, even if she was a little lonely. What Li Xiting did at other times was what had truly destroyed Zhao Yingguo.

The group returned to their original time and space.

“The situation is pretty clear now. Li Xiting was the one pulling the strings behind everything, but Zhao Yingguo’s revenge didn’t include Li Xiting,” Qin Nan said.

Mu Xin followed Qin Nan’s train of thought and continued, “Not only that. Before, we thought Li Xiting was the one helping Zhao Yingguo. Looking at it now, the person helping Zhao Yingguo was probably someone else.” After saying that, before anyone could refute her, Mu Xin shook her head on her own.

“No. Since Li Xiting had appeared in front of Zhao Yingguo, there’s no reason Zhao Yingguo would leave Li Xiting out when she went looking for revenge. Since she didn’t attack Li Xiting, then in Zhao Yingguo’s mind, Li Xiting must have been innocent. Which means…” Mu Xin’s expression turned ugly.

Qin Weiyi voiced her guess for her.

“Li Xiting fooled Zhao Yingguo. She didn’t just orchestrate everything from behind the scenes. She also helped Zhao Yingguo carry out her so-called revenge,” Qin Weiyi said.

So their initial guess had been right after all. It really had been Li Xiting who helped Zhao Yingguo take all those people down.

But-

“Li Xiting targeting Zhao Yingguo, slandering her, destroying her-I mean, it’s outrageous, but I can barely accept it. But then she also had Zhao Yingguo kill so many people? What… What the hell was she trying to do? Wasn’t she afraid of dragging herself into it?” Yellow Hair demanded.

Yellow Hair was not the only one who could not understand it. No one else could either.

“Have you ever considered that the people who died might have… shown malice toward Li Xiting before as well?” Qin Nan offered a possibility.

The others froze slightly.

Jian Fan was the first to respond. “Mm.”

“You agree too, right?” Qin Nan smiled, then continued, “Li Xiting didn’t just want to destroy Zhao Yingguo. She hated those other people too. So she gathered all of them together. Once everyone who knew the truth was dead, Li Xiting wouldn’t be affected at all. But there’s one thing I don’t understand.”

Jian Fan turned his head and met Qin Nan’s gaze. “There was someone else involved.”

“Huh?” Yellow Hair was shocked, and Lin Junruo froze as well.

Besides Li Xiting, who else was there?

Qin Nan nodded and said, “The final day’s entry in the Diary, the Metal Box, and this last video-none of them could have been left by Li Xiting. She had no reason to do any of that. For her, if everyone died at that moment, then it was completely over. She would only want the matter to disappear even more thoroughly. Also, Zhao Yingguo said she would come back. On that point, the person helping her absolutely couldn’t have been Li Xiting.”

Li Xiting could not possibly want Zhao Yingguo to come back.

Then who else was hiding behind this matter?