Chapter 17
Things fermented too quickly, but the news spread quickly. Xiang Qingxi, who had finished giving her statement, also saw the push message immediately, and the class group exploded.
Xiang Qingxi ran over with her cell phone, grabbed He Jueyun and asked urgently: "What's going on with Dongyan? What should she do now? The school must be leading these questions. It's impossible for her to do these things! Wouldn’t she be in danger!”
He Jueyun slowed down his tone and reassured her: "It's okay. She recorded the full version of the video and will send it out for clarification after processing."
Xiang Qingxi: "But..."
He Jueyun interrupted her: "In this way, it can be proved that the school is guiding campus violence and promoting student suicide. We will also investigate those accounts that are secretly doxxing to see if we can dig out the water army behind them. After the incident is clarified, the public will have a bad impression of the leaders of No. 1 Middle School, and the focus will no longer be on sexual assault, but on forced suicide."
Xiang Qingxi gradually calmed down in his voice, but her heart still felt tight, and a feeling of fear lingered: "Is it really okay? Everyone is looking for her now."
"It's okay. The school doesn't know that you and Xu Manyan have called the police, nor do they know that Zhou Nansong has left clear evidence. They thought they were cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron*, but in fact, they exposed their own weaknesses. This move is a bad one, don't worry." He Jueyun said, "I just contacted Wang Dongyan, she is editing the video, and her mood sounds quite stable. Everything is under her control. She has a lot of ideas."
*釜底抽薪: means to remove the firewood from the bottom of the pot so that it cannot heat up; it is a metaphor for solving the problem fundamentally
Xiang Qingxi nodded when she heard this, and said in a low tone: "She is being scolded now, all because of us."
"So, you must not let her down." He Jueyun said, "Protect yourself and pull that group of people down. We are here too."
"Well..." Xiang Qingxi said with wet eyes, "Thank you."
He Jueyun patted her shoulder and asked his colleagues to escort these few girls home. He would accompany them tonight to ensure that their emotions would not fluctuate too much. At the same time, other team members were arranged to monitor several people involved in the case. After valid evidence was collected and documents were approved, the arrests would be officially made.
He Jueyun returned to his seat and paid close attention to the developments online. They have contacted the Internet Police to screen out obviously abnormal accounts and block relevant harmful information.
Sometimes, witnessing a public opinion storm soberly was a helpless and indignant matter.
Things were developing rapidly, which showed that the people behind the scenes were in a hurry.
Those people who were standing behind and adding fuel to the flames should be enjoying themselves while looking at the glowing screen. And a large number of passionate netizens, stimulated by trolls, were busy seeking justice.
A large number of netizens flooded into Wang Dongyan's account and left insulting messages against her. Even Wang Dongyan’s mother’s workplace was affected.
Complaint calls from the work unit seriously affected their normal work, and some radicals took advantage of the chaos to go to the company to smash and destroy things. For safety reasons, Ms. Wang was forced to take leave and go home to rest.
She rejected the police's protection arrangements and only asked them to allocate manpower to find Wang Dongyan first.
Ms. Wang looked at the netizens who were attacking her with hatred and was puzzled. Why did people who were usually gentle and polite suddenly become so cruel? When she thought of Wang Dongyan, she became even more frightened. She told the police over and over again the conversation she had had before Wang Dongyan left, assuring them of her daughter's character.
She had begun to deeply regret letting her daughter go. She felt that if Wang Dongyan hadn't been desperate, she would not have gone to confront the school leaders alone. If only she could have had a good conversation with her daughter, Wang Dongyan would not have adopted such a moth-like approach, and things would not have progressed to such an irreversible point.
She thought she could smooth off her daughter's edges and help her adapt smoothly to this society, so she became a knife and cut off a piece of flesh in her daughter's heart.
The more she thought about it, the more regretful she became. In the end, she hugged the female police officer and cried bitterly: "Did you hear her voice? Is she in a very bad mood and thinking about doing something dangerous? Find her quickly, I don’t know where she has gone now. If others see her first, will she be beaten to death by them? I beg you, go find her quickly!"
The police could only comfort her and ask her to stop reading online comments. At the same time, they used their official account to call on citizens to stay calm and strictly prohibit online violence.
Such power was obviously very small.
At night, the situation not only did not calm down, but also caused greater influence in the secondary spread. A large part of this was due to Wang Dongyan's sudden appearance. She posted several messages intermittently on her account in response to the incident.
"Stop scolding me, and don't bother my mother. The school is really lying! Why don't you believe me!"
"I didn't blackmail the school, they did it on purpose!"
"Are you going to force people to death? What do you know?"
Netizens never expected that she would dare to show up, not to apologize but to shirk responsibility. This move was like adding fuel to the fire, making a group of "just people" even more excited, shouting extreme words such as "go die quickly", "suicide to apologize", and "death is not a pity".
The entire account comment area became a mess.
Around ten o'clock in the evening, a well-known local media company released a video of an interview with a student from No. 1 Middle School this afternoon, pushing the incident to a new climax.
The reporter asked: "Do you know Wang Dongyan?"
A boy with a mosaic in the camera said: "I know her. Everyone in the school knows her."
Another boy next to him interjected: "Didn't she get called to the stage for a public review two days ago?"
Reporter: "What do you think of her?"
The two of them laughed and said: "Cunning and arrogant!", "Awesome!"
The reporter asked again: "Did I hear that a girl in her dormitory committed suicide by jumping off the building because of her? Is this true?"
The boy replied: "Yes. Everyone says so."
Reporter: "Is it a direct act of violence?"
Boy: "I don't know. They all said there is, so it should be there."
Reporter: "Is there any other behavior?"
"It seemed to scare her." The boy said, "She pretended to be a ghost or something, which scared her to the point of neurasthenia*. That senior sister had depression, and she committed suicide after she became ill."
*description from Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a condition that is characterized especially by physical and mental exhaustion usually with accompanying symptoms (such as headache and irritability), is of unknown cause but is often associated with depression or emotional stress, and is sometimes considered similar to or identical with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Reporter: "Do her roommates and teachers in her class know about this?"
"They should know, right? I heard that it was their roommate who broke the news. I think she went too far."
"Everyone is scolding that she deserved it. The senior students are quite happy. They are all shouting there today."
"No one thought she would be so disgusting and would go to blackmail the school leaders. It felt like she was crazy."
Reporter: "Do you have any thoughts on this?"
"Let's just hope she can take responsibility for herself."
"She deserves it at all!"
"Just... the cost of crime is too low."
After this news was broadcast, online public opinion showed a completely one-sided trend. The sane netizens who were still scolding the wrongness of doxxing people immediately stopped and could not speak.
"You don't have to prove yourself this time, right?"
"Even the people on campus say this, so what else is there to quibble about?"
"Stink! Go to hell! You deserve to die!"
"If you say you will commit suicide, you must do it. But don't not go again. I'll be waiting for you, little sister Wang Dongyan~"
"Mother, please go and experience what it feels like to be beaten to death by school violence before you speak out."
Sanyao netizens were almost overwhelmed by this wave of outrageous manipulations.
"It’s so fucking retarded that I can't even say a word."
"This image is wonderful."
"When I saw them saying that the cost of crime was too low, I felt the same feeling in my heart."
"Sigh, although sometimes I hope to use public opinion to punish criminals who maliciously escape legal punishment, but it is really a double-edged sword. The backlash effect is too strong, and it will be very painful if it injures people accidentally."
"Can the injury be directly transferred to the school leaders? The netizens whose fire misses the right target are doing it in vain!"
"I can finally look at my parents with an expression of hatred. This must be their dark history."
Not long after, Wang Dongyan’s account was updated again.
"It's all false! Why are you all lying! You are trying to attract attention by sensationalizing others. Do you dare to take responsibility for what you have said!"
She has the temperament of a simple high school student.
Netizens burst into laughter below, showing all their ugly faces to her.
It was bound to be a sleepless night.
·
Xiang Qingxi called He Jueyun several times, saying that they couldn't contact Wang Dongyan, and that she and Xu Manyan were about to cry over there.
They even asked whether they should directly stand up to refute the rumors for Wang Dongyan, fearing that she would be so stimulated by netizens that she would commit suicide.
While He Jueyun comforted them, he also vaguely sensed something was wrong. After hanging up the phone, he kept thinking about Qiong Cang’s expression before she left.
The calm look in the other person's eyes when he raised his head made He Jueyun very uneasy. Just like a movie scene, he kept rewinding and replaying it.
He Jueyun swallowed hard and continued to call Qiong Cang and send text messages.
He Jueyun: Hello, where are you?
He Jueyun: Call me back. I'm worried about you. Didn't you agree? We’ll clear the level together?
He Jueyun: I have already located your mobile phone.
He Jueyun: You really won’t say anything? Wang Dongyan!
He Jueyun: Qiong Cang! Qiong Cang!!
He Jueyun was irritated and pulled out his hair.
Comrades from the technical department had determined the location of the mobile phone. After sending people to verify it, they found that Qiong Cang had left the mobile phone in an Internet cafe, and the person had disappeared.
No matter how dull He Jueyun was, he still understood Qiong Cang's plan. Her suicide bar must have been full, so she took such measures.
He couldn't help but grit his teeth: That liar who deceives without blinking an eye, really capable ah!
He Jueyun immediately expanded his manpower, applied for support, and conducted a city-wide search.
However, with the IQ of Qiong Cang, when she wanted to hide, no one could find her.
Early morning. The first ray of sunlight pierced the sky, and early risers began to go for morning jogs on the streets.
A police officer rushed in and said to He Jueyun: "Boss! I received a report from the branch that a citizen called the police. They just saw a girl jumping off the bridge in the west of the city!"
He Jueyun's head buzzed, and his energy, which had been tense all night, was stretched to a new level. He looked hard at the person who came, and said sadly: "What did you say?"
"The firefighters have gone over to help with the rescue. People on the roadside are also helping with first aid. I'm not sure if the person who jumped into the water is Wang Dongyan. The comrades over there are confirming their identity."
He Jueyun rushed to the door angrily, and another comrade shouted: "Boss, boss! Come and watch this video! Boss, really! Watch this first!"
He Jueyun paused in mid-air, took a deep breath, and turned around.
The video was shot and released by Qiong Cang.
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To edit this, I have to read it several times, and every time is still as rage-inducing as the last... The author is really good at manipulating emotions T^T
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