After leaving the school, Zhou Qing looked as if she had finally put down a heavy burden. She no longer walked with her head down, and even her voice became louder.
“Susu-jie, it really wasn’t me. I didn’t do those things. I don’t know why Wang Shanming has that kind of video!”
Although Su Muzhi didn’t want to believe that Zhou Qing would do such things, all the evidence was right in front of her. It would be dishonest to say she had no doubts at all.
“Zhou Qing, let me ask you one last time. Are you absolutely sure you never harmed small animals?”
She looked directly into Zhou Qing’s eyes and asked seriously.
Zhou Qing nodded firmly.
Only then did Su Muzhi relax slightly. She exhaled and said softly:
“Alright. I believe you. I’ll help you find the truth. Now tell me—why was a weasel in your dormitory?”
Zhou Qing hesitated for a moment. After mentally confirming it had nothing to do with those people, she finally shook her head.
After receiving the answer, Su Muzhi nodded.
“Alright. Your sister said she’s not comfortable letting you stay alone at home. You’ll stay with me in the staff dorm for now.”
Not long after she finished speaking, an off-road vehicle covered in mud stopped in front of them.
The driver window slowly rolled down, revealing Chen Zhiye with a cigarette in his mouth. He looked around.
“Why didn’t you wait for me at the school gate? This place isn’t easy to find.”
After watching Zhou Qing get into the back seat, Su Muzhi sat in the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt while explaining:
“If I told the teacher I worked at an animal rescue station here, she’d probably think I was trying to cover something up. So I couldn’t let her see.”
Chen Zhiye laughed.
“What, are you actually trying to cover something up?”
Su Muzhi shot him a glare. After half a month of working together, they were already very familiar with each other.
“Don’t talk nonsense. We didn’t do anything wrong. Why would we cover anything up?”
Chen Zhiye drove quickly. First, he dropped Su Muzhi and Zhou Qing back at the rescue station. Then he rode his nearly falling-apart electric scooter to the veterinary clinic with the unconscious weasel.
Zhou Qing looked around in surprise. Although they had cleared most of the weeds over the past half month, the rescue station still felt desolate.
“Come on, I’ll take you to the dorm.”
Su Muzhi walked ahead on her own, but Zhou Qing didn’t move. Tears filled her eyes again and dropped onto the cracked concrete floor.
“Susu-jie… I didn’t know you were living so badly. I even caused you trouble. I’m sorry.”
This caught Su Muzhi off guard. It wasn’t that bad, was it?
“Y-you don’t need to cry. I really don’t have it that bad!”
Blackie suddenly flew out from somewhere and landed on her shoulder.
【Susu, what’s up with this girl you brought back? Is her brain malfunctioning?】
【We’re an animal rescue station. Her condition should be sent to a hospital, not here! We can’t handle this!】
Between Zhou Qing’s crying and Blackie’s nonstop complaining, Su Muzhi felt overwhelmed.
After finally getting Zhou Qing settled in the dorm, her sister Zhou Yu called.
Su Muzhi answered the phone helplessly, briefly explained the situation, and spent another half hour convincing her that she was really doing fine.
By the time she hung up, Chen Zhiye had already returned, but she still hadn’t started analyzing the video sent by Zhou Qing’s teacher.
“Old Huang said the weasel has internal organ damage. It’s been delayed too long—he’s not sure if it’ll wake up.”
Chen Zhiye looked around the office. Seeing no sign of Zhou Qing, he finally said it.
Su Muzhi nodded, increasingly uneasy. Time was running out. If they didn’t find the truth before the school made its decision, Zhou Qing would really be expelled.
“Is there any way to make it wake up faster?”
“Why are you so focused on whether the weasel wakes up? Even if it does, it can’t tell the truth. You should focus on the videos first.”
Chen Zhiye didn’t understand her insistence.
“I tried watching it before, but the cat’s screams were too much. I couldn’t finish it. I’ll try again.”
“That makes sense,” she added.
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. You still need to do the livestream today. Go stream first.”
She shoved the livestream phone into his hands and pushed him out.
She watched the videos repeatedly on her computer, but the screams made it impossible to stay calm. Eventually she leaned back in her chair, exhausted.
She didn’t even notice when Chen Zhiye came back in.
“Still haven’t found anything?”
She nearly fell out of her chair in shock.
“You already wore out one chair. Don’t break this one too.”
She glared at him.
“Am I that heavy?”
“Let me see.”
He pulled over a chair and sat down, replaying the video. One segment caught his attention, and he replayed it repeatedly.
“Is there a problem here?” she asked.
“Yeah. Look—there’s a gap between Zhou Qing’s head and the background. Send me the video. I’ll run a code comparison.”
He quickly wrote a program to compare video frame encoding noise.
“The facial region and background fingerprint don’t match. This video is face-swapped.”
After confirming the result, she immediately prepared to send it to the teacher—but Chen Zhiye stopped her.
“Wait. The other two videos are real; only this one is fake. You should ask for the full truth first.”
Her hand paused over the keyboard.
“Xiao Qing isn’t in the right state. I don’t dare confront her directly. And I suspect someone in her class is bullying her.”
“I can see that. Don’t rush—solve problems one by one.”
He didn’t have a sister, so he could only offer clumsy reassurance.
Su Muzhi carried two bowls of instant noodles into the dorm. Zhou Qing was sitting curled up on the bed, motionless.
She hid her concern.
“Xiao Qing, come eat something. Just bear with it today. Tomorrow we’re releasing some animals, and the station manager is treating everyone to a good meal.”