ATCF Ch 24 Part 4 – The Black-Bellied Eldest Brother (IV)

When the chat was restored, the police suddenly looked helpless, “The person you mentioned is also a minor?” They asked Shen Mian.

After a brief period of silence, Shen Mian spoke honestly, “He’s not yet reached the age, but he will soon.”

The police sighed, “Even if he is already an adult, we unfortunately cannot build a case against him. The messages he sent you can only be taken as hints at best, not even a direct suggestion.”

From the chat record, it appeared that Shen Mian took the initiative to send messages to this upperclassman named Jiang Zhou, who responded with vague words that did not constitute a criminal offense. In short, this person never actually said anything to suggest Shen Mian commit suicide, but instead, he simply insinuated she staged a fake suicide attempt to blackmail another girl emotionally.

Shen Mian lowered her head silently. From the beginning, she was well aware that the chat was far too weak to convict Jiang Zhou legally. Her intention was never to sue or make a report, but to restore the chat records and use them to show the world what kind of person the real Jiang Zhou was.

So why did she choose to visit the police station instead of a repair shop? Well, it’s because she had recently read a news article about a girl who had gone to a repair shop to get her phone fixed, only to have the shop owner secretly copy her data and use her personal photos to blackmail her.

For this reason, Shen Mian decided to ask the help from the police instead, which was the safest way in her situation.

Seeing Shen Mian bowed head, the police thought she was upset because the person who had suggested her fake suicide couldn’t be legally held responsible. “Although his actions don’t amount to a criminal offense, it’s clear that this person has severe problems. You already removed his contact details, so there’s no need to add them back.” They tried to comfort her.

Shen Mian nodded weakly, “Thank you… then, can I take these chat records with me?”

The police were slightly taken aback, but they nodded and said: “Of course. You’d better talk to your parents about this. Don’t carry everything alone, understand?”

Although Shen Mian caused a classmate to stumble during an important exam, the police felt that she had already faced enough consequences and did not need further repercussions. In comparison, this upperclassman called Jiang Zhou was clearly the despicable one.

In the end, Shen Mian left the police station with the restored chat record safely stored in her phone, but she decided to wait for a little before uploading the proof to the class group.

Following yesterday’s events, Teacher He had already admonished several anonymous chat participants in the group and prohibited further anonymous chatting.

But Shen Mian didn’t mind it. Once the chat record was publicized, anonymous or not, everyone would immediately know who actually sent it out.

She chose to send the message at night because Teacher He would have already been asleep by then, providing the students with the opportunity to speak freely without a teacher’s moderation. Otherwise, there was a risk that her message would be deemed controversial by Teacher He and was deleted as soon as she sent it!

Shen Mian returned to the cram school with a lot on her mind and in no mood to study. Once the class ended and she returned home in the evening, she waited impatiently until the clock hit 11 and started typing the message with renewed energy.

To allow quick retrieval of the key information, Shen Mian only released a few selected screenshots.

In addition to the specific conversation where Jiang Zhou hinted at her staging a fake suicide attempt, there were also several others where he requested her to monitor Jiang Li and prevent Jiang Ruo from being bullied.

After skimming through the screenshot, it was clear how Jiang Zhou detests Jiang Li, so much that he resorted to using such a scheme to cause trouble for her.

The effect of Shen Mian’s messages did not appear immediately. Because of last night’s events, Teacher He issued a warning, reminding the students that the high school entrance examination was less than a month away. She also forbade them from staying up late and posting anything that had nothing to do with school, let alone using anonymity to gossip in the class group.

As a result, everyone was very cautious now. Instead of replying to Shen Mian’s messages, they opened smaller, private group chats with close friends and moved the conversation there.

…

When Director Li got up to use the bathroom, he unlocked his phone out of reflex and saw new messages in the group chat, so he clicked on it and took a look.

Oh, it turned out to be Shen Mian again! It looked like he had done it right when he persuaded her parents to take her out of school.

Director Li went to bed early last night and wasn’t aware of the commotion in the group. It wasn’t until Teacher He issued the warning today that he caught up with the latest gossip.

Tonight, Shen Mian started another gossip again, but no students dared to respond, probably because the anonymous feature had been turned off by Teacher He!

But… when Teacher He turned off the anonymous feature today, she also added him to the group and made him an administrator, which meant…

Unable to contain his curiosity, Director Li sneakily opened the admin control and re-enabled the anonymous feature. Anyway, as an educator, it was better to be more lenient than overly strict. Forbidding the kids from speaking anonymously wouldn’t stop them from talking, because they would simply move their conversation to other group chats that were outside the control of the teachers.

Having a perfect excuse in hand, Director Li waited contentedly. However, three minutes passed, and still, no one in the group spoke.

After hesitating for a moment, Director Li typed a message and sent it anonymously.

[Are these screenshots real?]

Meanwhile, Tong Yi was also looking at the group after seeing Shen Mian’s messages. Seeing that everyone was silent, he was about to reply when an anonymous message suddenly popped out.

Tong Yi raised his eyebrows slightly. If he remembered correctly, Teacher He should have disabled anonymous chatting this morning…

After thinking for a moment, Tong Yi opened the menu to view the list of the group members. As expected, he found an extra Hades Li listed as the group administrator.

So it turned out that the feared Hades Li also had this childish side in secret?

But anyone with working eyes could see at a glance who had modified the setting, no?

But in the next second, Tong Yi saw someone sent another anonymous message, wondering if there was a bug in the app.

It didn’t take long for others to echo the sentiment, believing it must be a bug since Teacher He had just disabled the anonymous feature this morning. There was no way she would have restored it so soon!

The corner of Tong Yi’s mouth twitched.

Okay, it seemed that he was thinking too highly of them!

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Author’s Note:

Tong Yi: I need to make my appearance, or else you guys will forget me!

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