Chapter 337: Chapter 337: The First Time Feeling Unfree
Sang Ning felt that everything was too coincidental. She had just made a breakthrough in her investigation, and then, right on its heels, Chu Tian and Li Sulan retracted their lawsuit. Could it be that something shady had happened?
Sang Youming and Hu Zhi continued running their streaming account after returning home. During their stint in the police station, they managed to stir up another wave of attention.
By now, they understood the game—haters drove traffic. The more scolded they got, the larger the audience grew. They couldn’t let this free hype go to waste.
While no one was accusing them of being human traffickers anymore, the live stream chat was filled with barrage after barrage of messages seeking justice for Chu Xi.
[You know exactly what you did to Chu Xi. Even if you’re not human traffickers, you’re still monstrous abusers.]
[What goes around comes around. You’ll get what’s coming to you.]
[Fresh out of the station, and you’re already milking followers for cash? Have you no shame?]
Sang Youming and Hu Zhi didn’t get angry at the hate comments. Instead, they greeted them with smiling faces.
"Dear fans, we’re truly sorry to have troubled you with our recent unpleasantness. As compensation, starting today, I’ll be giving away handcrafted items made during my live streams through random prize draws for free."
"I’ll also pick one lucky viewer each day and send them my homemade stir-fry meat sauce. Hope you lovely fans won’t mind."
Neither Sang Youming nor Hu Zhi mentioned the past incidents, nor did they attempt to defend themselves. They maintained a sunny disposition, treating all negative remarks with calm and optimism.
Though the viewers kept up their harsh words, they couldn’t resist the allure of freebies. When the prize draw segment began, they were quick to participate, even as they continued throwing insults.
Throughout the live stream, some viewers persisted in demanding forced apologies to Chu Xi, but Sang Youming and Hu Zhi offered no response.
When the stream ended, Sang Ning casually asked, "Dad, Mom, why didn’t you defend yourselves? You never abused Chu Xi."
Hu Zhi let out a long sigh. "The truth doesn’t matter anymore. Clearing things up with words is easy, but we don’t want to embarrass Chu Xi. If she has even an ounce of gratitude for us raising her, she might come forward and clear things up herself."
Sang Youming nodded in agreement, clearly sharing Hu Zhi’s sentiments.
Sang Ning chose not to press further and turned her focus back to her phone.
"Xiao Ning, what’s got you glued to your phone all day? Take a break," Hu Zhi said with concern.
"Nothing, I’m just browsing videos." Sang Ning casually replied, keeping her head down, eyes fixed on her screen.
She had spent money on surveillance footage and lucked out finding a retired elderly couple living on the apartment floor diagonally across from Doctor Zhou’s building, where private cameras were installed.
The elderly man had a brush with danger before, nearly hit by a glass cup hurled from Doctor Zhou’s building while walking by.
He knocked on doors, questioning neighbors to find out who threw the cup, but no one confessed.
After that, objects continued to be thrown from the building at night several times, one incident fatally injuring a stray cat.
The elderly man, driven by a sense of justice, spent a fortune installing full-HD dynamic surveillance cameras to catch the culprit.
Ever since the cameras were installed, however, incidents of thrown objects had ceased from the building across the way.
The camera’s operation remained ongoing 24 hours a day, just in case.
Sang Ning intended to review surveillance footage from the two days surrounding Doctor Zhou’s incident to see if any clues would surface.
The footage didn’t cover the ground level, only capturing the floor-level views from the opposing building. Setting her search time directly to the day of the accident, Sang Ning prepared to watch carefully.
While scanning through the footage, her phone displayed a pop-up: a WeChat friend request.
[It’s me, Chu Xi. Please! Please! You have to accept my friend request.]
Chu Xi had never used such an imploring tone with her before. Suspecting the account was fake, Sang Ning clicked in to take a look. To her surprise, it was indeed Chu Xi’s usual WeChat profile picture.
Sang Ning grew curious about what Chu Xi wanted, accepted the request, and patiently waited for her to send a message.
The friend request had barely been approved when a message came through immediately. It seemed copied and pasted in advance.
[Sang Ning, Dad and Mom say there’s been a little misunderstanding between you. They’d like to invite you for a meal to clear things up.]
Who knew the sun could rise from the west? Responding with mild sarcasm, Sang Ning typed back: [Which Dad and Mom are you talking about? Also, I’m busy.]
This time, Chu Xi went silent with text messages, only to send over a voice note shortly after.
When Sang Ning hit play, the sound almost made her fling her phone away.
[It’s my current Mom and Dad. Sang Ning, please please, I’m begging you~]
Chu Xi’s usual nasty demeanor was abruptly replaced with a high-pitched, syrupy tone, dripping with flattery.
Sang Ning felt waves of goosebumps tearing through her skin and couldn’t help sending a voice message back: "Speak properly!"
After being scolded, Chu Xi’s subsequent voice message returned to normal: [Sang Ning, I’m begging you. As long as you agree to have a meal with us, I’ll agree to one request from you. No matter what it is, I’ll do it.]
Oh? Now Sang Ning was intrigued—could this be something Chu Tian and Li Sulan coaxed Chu Xi into orchestrating?
For Chu Xi to swallow her pride and beg like this, was she under some kind of pressure?
[I’ll agree on one condition: put your promise in writing, sign and fingerprint it, then send me a photo of it.] Sang Ning casually replied with another voice message, not really expecting Chu Xi to comply.
Surprisingly, a few minutes later, the agreement showed up: [Sang Ning, I’ve followed through on my promise to you. Don’t break your word now.]
This time, Sang Ning opted for a text reply instead of audio: [You agreed so quickly; aren’t you afraid I’ll have you do something like murder or arson?]
[If that happens, it’ll be your instigation. When I’m questioned and write my statement, I’ll make sure to name you.] Chu Xi snapped back.
She didn’t disclose the truth to Sang Ning. While she didn’t like her, she trusted Sang Ning’s character enough to believe she wouldn’t demand anything too extreme.
[Deal.] Sang Ning’s reply carried faint sarcasm.
On the other end, Chu Xi raised her phone to show Chu Tian: "Dad, Sang Ning agreed. Is this good enough?"
"You’ve done very well, Xiao Xi. Great job," Chu Tian smiled approvingly. "Now, finalize the time with Sang Ning, and we’re good to go."
Chu Xi pressed her lips downward subtly, careful to suppress any sign of dissatisfaction, faithfully following Chu Tian’s instructions to confirm the place and time of the meeting with Sang Ning.
Once Chu Tian left her room, Chu Xi relaxed her pretense, staring blankly at the room’s furnishing.
It was her first time realizing that being someone’s daughter could feel so restrictive.