Muchuan and Xiang Wan - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: A Shocking Reason

Fang Yuanyuan was also worried about her.

“D*rn, did you think that I’m a deity? By just pinching my fingers, I will know who is the culprit?”

Xiang Wan pursed her lips. “Can’t you check the ip address from the forum backend?”

Fang Yuanyuan: “I don’t have the rights to do that. But I’m trying the contact the administrator to delete the thread first…”

“No need.” Although Xiang Wan was having a headache, she replied very fast. “There’s no need to delete. Obviously, someone is out to get me. That person can simply repost again after getting deleted. Even banning the account would not help, as another account could be created to post it. So don’t bother.”

Fang Yuanyuan paused for a while. “But if we don’t delete…”

“It’s fine, we can’t control the mouths of others.”

“Sis, did you know who did that already?”

Xiang Wan frowned, and after thinking for a while, she quickly replied with a “No”.

Actually, she did have some suspicions. From the angle of the photos, the one who took these shots were definitely someone from the campus. Moreover, the post was created in the forum of Wen Quan Book Treasury, so just from this alone, she could conclude this was done by one of her classmates and the most highly suspicious were the two female authors who came from the same website as her.

However, Xiang Wan was a kind person with a sense of propriety.

If she was unable to provide some form of evidence, she would not tell someone about it.

After contemplating for a while, she said, “I’m not bothered with what the others say. Just leave them be. But if they don’t know when to stop and create a huge fuss over it, I’ll sue them for defamation no matter who that person is.”

Fang Yuanyuan understood what she meant. “Cool, by not deleting the thread, you’re actually thinking of leaving behind evidence right?”

“… Am I such a bad person?”

“Yes, sis, I feel that you’ve become evil?”

Is this called evil?

Someone was slandering her, and no matter what she say to defend herself, she would not able to come out clean of that matter. What could she do?

She would not mind if this was just kept trivial and that her job and life would not be affected. If things got out of hand, she would have to use the law to protect herself.

“You’re sly!” Fang Yuanyuan concluded when the next moment, she was as though suddenly enlightened as she thought of the root of the problem.

She was truly smart.

Xiang Wan snorted and deliberately teased her, “Make a guess?”

Without waiting for Fang Yuanyuan’s reply, Xiang Wan received a phone call.

The one who called her was Detective Bai.

Xiang Wan’s heart started to beat furiously and she felt flustered.

What exactly happened when he sent her back yesterday?

Her brain really hurt!

She rubbed her forehead and picked up the phone slowly. “Hello?”

Bai Muchuan’s voice sounded a little somber, “You’re up? Are you alright?”

“I’m good. What’s up?”

She responded without much emotion. Subconsciously, she was imitating Bai Muchuan’s past attitude toward her.

Bai Muchuan grunted coldly due to her indifferent response.

“So I can’t look for you if there’s nothing going on?”

“You’re right,” Xiang Wan answered mercilessly, “Detective Bai, I still have lessons to attend.”

“Alright,” he said, “I won’t tell you about what happened to Huang He then. Goodbye.”

Huang He? Sh*t!

Xiang Wan immediately surrendered, “Wait! I’m wrong, please feel free to call me as and when you like! Detective Bai, I want to know what happened.”

That was quite a change. She apologized in just an instant.

“Hurhur!” Bai Muchuan laughed, then kept quiet.

Xiang Wan could not help but hurry him. “Say it please? What exactly happened?”

A while later, his voice was heard from the other end of phone. “He did not get suspended.”

“What?” If he did not get suspended, why did he deceive Fang Yuanyuan?

“He’s being detained.”

Bai Muchuan’s words came like a heavy hammer that hit her heart. She was so shocked that she was lost for a moment, and she changed to hold her mobile phone from her right to her left. Her right hand took the mouse to open Fang Yuanyuan’s chat history via QQ web in her laptop.

At this moment, Fang Yuanyuan was still chatting with her.

Although words would not show her emotions, in comparison with the two days when Huang He just left her, Fang Yuanyuan’s emotions were, no doubt, much better now.

Xiang Wan could not help furrowing her brows. “What’s the relationship between him and the case? Why did they detain him?”

Bai Muchuan: “Serious official malfeasance that caused a death.”

“…”

For a police officer to be charged with that offence was terrible.

Once that was confirmed, it would leave a mark forever.

Xiang Wan felt that her brain was buzzing. She thought of Huang He’s honest smile and the first impression she had of him—a warm and friendly police officer.

How could a police officer like him be treated like this?

She gasped, “Will he… be sentenced to jail?”

“His case is currently in the stage of investigation and prosecution. Commissioner Wang is also concerned about his future, so this is not made public. There aren’t many who knew about this, so do keep it a secret.”

Secret? Xiang Wan looked at Fang Yuanyuan’s profile picture at the laptop screen.

“Not even to Fang Yuanyuan…?”

“If Huang He did not tell her, then don’t. Let’s respect his wishes.”

Bai Muchuan paused for a moment before he continued, “I’m responsible for his plight. If I didn’t treat them drinks, Huang He would not have gotten into such a state. At least, he won’t be charged for drinking while carrying out his duty. Things would have been much simpler. So with regards to this matter, I won’t just sit by and let it happen.”

“How are you going to help him?”

Xiang Wan felt her heart getting cold.

That feeling of panic and unease of being unable to take control of the situation took over her again. “I remember you told me not to get involved in this matter, that I can’t even write about the case in my story…”

“But you still went ahead.” Bai Muchuan laughed in a low tone. “You’ve become a donkey.”

“… Do you have a way to help Detective Huang?”

Bai Muchuan laughed. “If I, Bai Muchuan, are unable to help him, who else would be able to help him?”

To be able to say such confident words was certainly Detective Bai’s style. However, Xiang Wan felt that things were not as simple as that.

After all, he was now in the capital and the case took place in Jin City. The issue of jurisdiction was not something that just a few words could overcome.

This phone call had lasted more than 10 minutes. The two of them only talked about others, and not one of the two brought up the topic about last night.

That was tacit understanding.

Inexplicable tacit understanding.

When they reached the end of the conversation, Bai Muchuan asked a question out of the blue instead of hanging up the phone.

“Nothing happened to you, right?” he couldn’t help asking.

Was he asking about what happened after she was drunk?

In actual fact, Xiang Wan wanted to ask him if, after he used her room card and put her to bed, why had he stayed at her dorm for an hour.

But she found it too shameful to ask about it.

Secondly, if she asked, he would definitely suspect why she would know about that and might think she was pretending to be drunk, which would require another round of explanation.

And she would get really awkward.

“It’s fine,” Xiang Wan propped her forehead and said in all earnesty, “with regards to Detective Huang, besides you, there’s really no one else who could help him.”

Bai Muchuan agreed. “Be rest assured, I’ll protect my men!”

… Your men.

… Is Huang He still your subordinate?

Xiang Wan felt like rebutting him about his sense of territory. However, on second thought, such domineering character of his was advantageous to helping Huang He, so she gave up rebutting him. Instead, she even tried to motivate him enthusiastically.

“Good luck! You can definitely do it!”

Bai Muchuan stayed silent for two seconds before he smiled.

“Of course I can do ‘it’!”

Urgh! Somehow this doesn’t really sound right?

Old driver!

Xiang Wan felt annoyed and amused at the same time. She said as she scratched her head, “Okay, okay, you can do it. That’s it, I need to go write my story now. I didn’t update yesterday and my consistent update is now gone with the wind!”

Actually, Xiang Wan had never managed to update consistently for more than one month without any interruption.

Not sure why, but there would definitely be occasions that make her fail to update consistently every month. Every failure to update always caught her off guard.

Hm, I must update today.

She closed the forum post to let herself calm down.

“Xiang Wan, Xiang Wan? What are you doing?”

Messages from QQ came again!

They were from Fang Yuanyuan.

Xiang Wan had not replied for some time and she got impatient.

She sent over a picture with some words: “If you’re not talking, then you must be humping!”

Xiang Wan looked at her profile picture, not saying a word. She was hesitating.

So, Huang He had his reasons to sent Fang Yuanyuan those messages.

He knew he was in trouble and didn’t want his beloved girlfriend to suffer with him. That was why he used such a harsh method to break up with her.

He would rather have her hate him and forget about him, than have her waiting for him and suffer with him.

Fang Yuanyuan did not pick the wrong man.

But it was a pity…

Xiang Wan’s head started to ache again.

If Fang Yuanyuan were to know Huang He was being held at the detention center, would she be devastated?

She didn’t dare to gamble.

Moreover, Bai Muchuan had said to keep it a secret.

Xiang Wan used one minute to convince herself, then typed a reply to Fang Yuanyuan.

“I was on the phone earlier, I’m sorry. And you’re actually right, that the man in the photo is Bai Muchuan. However, there isn’t anything going on between us…”

“You’re in such a hurry to deny it. Have I ever said anything about something going on between you two?”

“…”

Xiang Wan looked at the time located at the lower right corner of the laptop screen.

“My Lord Editor, I can’t chat now, I need to write my story.”

“What a bummer!” Fang Yuanyuan was disappointed, then suddenly remarked, “Oh right, did you know? Cheng Zheng went to our youngest aunt’s place again.”

Eh?

Xiang Wan narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Our youngest aunt has a lot of rice at home?”

“It’s real strange this time!” commented Fang Yuanyuan. “The last time our youngest aunt invited him was because she wanted you two to come in contact more often. If this is about matchmaking, why did he make the trip when you’re not in Jin City? However, I did not know if youngest aunt had invited him over or he paid her a visit by himself.”

“You don’t have to tell me about this. Lord Editor, if I get distracted again, I’m not going to continue writing my story.”

It was a fact that Xiang Wan did not want to listen to that.

Sometimes, she would show her cold side too.

She was only interested in people she cared about. The rest of them had nothing to do with her.

“Sis, I’m not feeling too well today.”

She did not want to continue chatting, but Fang Yuanyuan sent another message and called her “Sis” pitifully.

“I… missed him terribly today.”

“And?” Xiang Wan sat quietly as she looked at Fang Yuanyuan’s messages.

“Today’s his birthday. Back then, we had already made plans for today, to do a lot of things together. I even prepared his birthday present some time back. I had wanted to give him a surprise… Hah, sis, why did people change so fast? His mobile phone is always switched off. I still couldn’t get ahold of him.”

Xiang Wan looked at these words, and she could sense her emotions. It was as if she could see Fang Yuanyuan’s teary eyes.

“Don’t be sad, Yuanyuan. Maybe he will come to look for you.”

She had used the word “maybe”, as she was not sure of that, either.

But Fang Yuanyuan hated that word “maybe”.

“Why are you talking like him? Do you believe his words too? Actually, when he said that, I already know that he would not look for me ever again. He wanted a break up, but he used words that sound more poetic and artistic to convey his thoughts, that’s all…”

She was speechless at her cousin’s behavior.

After thinking for a while, she decided to clear Huang He’s name.

“Yuanyuan, Detective Huang is not someone like that. Yesterday, I met that Senior of mine, Zhan Se. You still remember she’s a criminal psychologist and a very good one as well, right? She helped to analyze this matter, and she told me that Detective Huang must have his difficulties for doing so.”

“His difficulties? What kind of difficulties? Hurhur!”

“Senior told me that from the psychological perspective, the strength of a passionate lover’s heart can shake the mountain and level the sea. Unless it was something that they could not defy, they would not give up their lover easily. Hence, although we don’t know why Detective Huang did that, you must believe in him.”

In order to make her words more credible, she had used Zhan Se’s name.

However, Fang Yuanyuan knew her too well. She immediately detected her abnormality.

“Xiang Wan, why are you on his side today?”

“Me? I didn’t?”

“Could it be that you know something that I don’t?”

Xiang Wan was slightly surprised.

D*rn! Women are really too sensitive!

“Of course not! Look, I can’t talk to you anymore. I really need to write my story now. Don’t disturb me, my Lord Editor!”

She denied flatly.

And ended the chat in a panic.

She was not sure if Fang Yuanyuan continued to press on any further, she would be able to keep the secret.

…

Fang Yuanyuan did not send anymore messages.

Of course, Xiang Wan would not know that on the other side of the screen, Fang Yuanyuan was lying on her desk in tears.

…

Xiang Wan ordered a take-out delivery, stayed inside her dorm, and wrote her story for the day.

Recently, she had been writing 3,000 words daily.

Generally, she could finish writing that amount in three hours. But that day, she took almost one whole day to do it, finishing the chapter at five o’clock in the evening.

She held on although she was not at her best form—it was totally an agony prolonged.

She thought she could take that malicious thread in stride, but she was only human. She was not able to totally ignore it, and she couldn’t quite let it go of that someone hiding in the shadow was slandering her.

Zi Tan, Du Landuo.

These two names kept appearing inside her head.

Which one of them did that to her?

Or maybe the two of them did that to her?

Or… could it be someone else?

Xiang Wan did not want to jump to conclusions.

After she uploaded the chapter for the day, she clicked on the link of the forum thread slowly.