Chapter 3

Our teacher flared up at once. She stepped between me and the officers and glared at the younger man.

“Liu Feng is cooperating with your investigation. He has every right to make a reasonable request!

“Who are your parents? Tell me their names. Perhaps I know them!”

She wasn’t tall, but to me she stood taller than anyone except Mom.

The older officer hurried to smooth things over with a smile.

“Your student is only a suspect. Once we’ve investigated, we can clear him.”

“Clear him of what? It was settled yesterday! Are you trying to turn the truth on its head?”

The officer’s face fell. His hand moved toward his cuffs.

“Are you sure you want to obstruct an officer?”

“I’m not obstructing you. I’m stopping you from abusing your power!”

Before things could escalate, I spoke.

“I’ve said I’ll cooperate. I’m only making a reasonable request. Why are you so determined to refuse?

“Liu Ruyan confronted me yesterday. We explained everything. The whole class can testify!

“Yet you keep insisting I’m a suspect without any grounds. Do you and she… know each other?”

I was a young student. If I said something “inappropriate,” it could be dismissed as youthful impulsiveness.

My classmates began murmuring. A few of the bolder ones spoke up.

“That’s right! We can testify!”

Seeing things slip out of control, Liu Ruyan burst into loud sobs.

“Miss! I’m the victim! The police are here. Why are you still taking his side?

“I found the courage to tell everyone I’d been molested.

“You’re a woman too. Would you joke about your own chastity?

“Is that something anyone would joke about?”

Her words immediately stirred sympathy.

Several students gathered outside nodded.

In a small county like ours, most people were far less open-minded than people in big cities.

Liu Ruyan had always seemed like a well-behaved girl.

Now that she was putting her reputation on the line, many instinctively believed her.

“Maybe… Liu Feng really did it?”

“He’s the top student and got guaranteed admission. That’s a lot of pressure. Maybe he wanted to let off steam by molesting someone. It’s possible.”

“Heh. Maybe he watched too much porn and couldn’t think about anything else.”

“But then how do you explain her confronting him yesterday?”

“You’re a girl. Would you joke about your chastity?”

The questions rang in my ears, bringing back memories of being framed.

In my previous life, Liu Ruyan had cried exactly like this.

Most people had decided I was guilty without hearing my side.

I’d shouted myself hoarse trying to explain.

The replies had left me frozen.

“No woman would joke about her own chastity, would she?”

“She’s not crazy. Why would she frame you out of nowhere? She’d hurt herself almost as much as you!”

“Oh my God. There’s a rapist in our class!”

The spectators’ contemptuous, mocking eyes had cut into me like blades, through flesh and into my heart and lungs.

My heart had almost stopped.

My limbs had gone cold. Pale and powerless, I’d panicked while the police handcuffed me and took me away in broad daylight.

Like a criminal paraded through the streets in ancient times, I had been watched, pointed at and discussed by the entire school.

Not this time.

Now I was strangely calm.

Triumph flickered across Liu Ruyan’s face as she saw classmates taking her side.

“You disgusting molester! You’ll pay for this. Prison and compensation—you won’t escape either!”

Compensation?

So there it was at last.

In my previous life, after I’d been detained, she had demanded three hundred thousand yuan.

Where could my family have found that kind of money?

That demand had been the final straw that drove Mom to use her death to prove my innocence.

I looked at Liu Ruyan, hating her enough to tear her apart, and asked coldly:

“You wouldn’t gamble with your chastity. Do you think I would?

“I’ve earned guaranteed admission to an elite university. Would I gamble with my future?”

“Who knows why you did it?” she sneered. “You did, that’s all!”

“Then who knows whether you’re framing me out of jealousy? I can say it too: you framed me, that’s all.”

I pressed her.

“Can you produce any evidence that what you’re saying is true?”

I would never fall into the trap of having to prove my innocence again.

If she wanted to accuse me, let her prove it.

Already guilty at heart, she grew more flustered.

“I’m a girl! Nothing matters more to a girl than her chastity. What would I gain by framing you?”

I sneered.

“Maybe the real attacker threatened you into giving a false statement.

“Or maybe you discovered how powerful his family is and decided you could live with what he’d done—perhaps even use it to marry up. You want me blamed so the case can be closed.

“I’m the unlucky scapegoat you chose!

“Or perhaps you want to extort a huge compensation payment from me too.”

Only Liu Ruyan and I knew that every word was true.

Her face reddened as I exposed her thoughts.

“You’re slandering me!”

I spread my hands.

“Then show me proof that I’m slandering you.

“If you can call me a criminal without evidence, I can say you’re framing me without evidence.

“By your logic, aren’t you falsely accusing me too?”

She couldn’t produce any.

Her whole plan was to send me to prison as a scapegoat and get the case closed.

My composure began to influence the people around us.

“Could Liu Feng be right? Is she framing him?”

“But who would joke about her own chastity?”

“He got into Peking. He wouldn’t gamble with his future either.”

The two sides argued, neither yielding.

It was infinitely better than my previous life.

At least public opinion wasn’t entirely against me.

Speechless, Liu Ruyan could only weep and sniffle.

I turned back to the officers.

“Some people know perfectly well what happened. If anyone tries to abuse their power and frame me, I don’t think my school and teachers will stand by.

“Let’s go. I’ll give my statement.”

My remarks weren’t intended to prove my innocence to the police.

Those two might well be connected to the thug’s family.

But I couldn’t let the spectators, ignorant of the truth, blindly side with Liu Ruyan.

She hadn’t caused my tragedy alone.

The onlookers had played no small part.

At that passionate age, they would charge headlong into battle for whatever they believed was “justice.”

My stammering and clumsy explanations had looked like guilt.

Liu Ruyan’s crocodile tears had looked like proof of terrible suffering.

So, defending their so-called justice, they’d posted my “crimes” online.

Public outrage had exploded and made me everyone’s target.

If I let her keep accusing me, naively trusting that an innocent man had nothing to fear and doing nothing…

The online abuse of my previous life would happen again.

My approach worked.

Seeing me stand upright and speak with conviction, classmates began whispering:

“I don’t think he did it. I’ve never seen a guilty student talk that confidently.”

“She keeps saying he committed a crime, but she hasn’t shown any evidence. And doesn’t she look a little guilty herself?”

“But a girl wouldn’t joke about her chastity.”

“Most people wouldn’t. What if she isn’t most people? There’s always a bad apple. Some shameless people will trade their reputation for money. It means nothing to them. And before anyone labels me—open brackets—I said some people, not just women. Close brackets!”

Some girls still sided with Liu Ruyan, but after arguing with the people nearby, they fell silent.

They no longer dared declare me guilty with certainty.

I listened to a few remarks and felt a little relief.

The school was where the public outcry began. I had it under control for now.

Liu Ruyan, on the other hand, was grinding her teeth. She could barely keep up the fake tears.

She’d brought the police in with such fanfare to make framing me easier.

Instead, her own reputation was quietly slipping.

I stepped toward the officers.

“You wanted my cooperation, didn’t you? Shall we?”

“Officer, you’d better handle this fairly! Otherwise I’ll expose you!”

“Yeah! I’ll livestream it and keep everyone updated!”

At the back of the crowd, fearless classmates who thought themselves champions of justice stepped aside to let us through.

“That’s right! We want the truth!”

Amid the uproar, the two officers lost their earlier arrogance.

The principal and head of academic affairs hurried over after hearing the news.

Both demanded a fair investigation and said the school would follow the case closely.

In my previous life, I’d been taken away so quickly that the school hadn’t had time to act before the story exploded and began trending.

Under pressure, it had chosen to make the problem disappear.

I had been the sacrifice for the greater good.

This time, everything seemed different.

Head held high, I walked to the police car like a general returning in triumph.

Before getting in, I turned and waved to the crowd.

“I’ll be back! Wait for me to clear my name and return victorious!”

Cheers and whoops broke out behind me.

The two officers and Liu Ruyan looked thunderous.

At the station, I saw the blond thug chatting happily with an older officer.

I would have recognized him even if he’d been burned to ashes.

Chen Dong.

The man who had assaulted Liu Ruyan.

Hearing us, he turned and gave me a mocking look.

“Oh, you’ve found the criminal?”

I couldn’t be bothered with him.

He pushed further.

“What’s wrong, criminal? Too guilty to talk?”

I glanced at him.

“The criminal’s barking.”

He exploded and jabbed a finger at my face.

“Say that again. I dare you!”

Ignoring him, I addressed the older officer beside him.

“Does he run this station?”

The officer’s expression changed. He coughed.

“Mr. Chen Dong, watch your language.”

Chen Dong shut his mouth with an awkward, resentful glare.

They took me into an interrogation room.

In my previous life, I’d been on the verge of tears, frightened and constantly steered by their insinuations.

This time, I refused to answer their damaging, leading questions directly.

I stuck to my account of the previous day.

One point mattered:

I hadn’t seen anything.

I hadn’t even entered the alley where it happened.

I was innocent.

They questioned me for an hour and still couldn’t find a way to discredit my account.

Because what I said was what had happened in this life.

Liu Ruyan’s performance the day before, accusing me of refusing to help, supported it.

The facts were that clear.

But the two officers questioning me were plainly dissatisfied.

One lost patience and slammed the table.

“Liu Feng, I suggest you tell us the truth and confess. Stop being stubborn! Once we find evidence, your sentence will be harsher. Do you understand?

“Confess now and we can consider it a voluntary surrender. We might even arrange a settlement. Pay a little compensation, and it could all go away!”

Ha.

Threats followed by reassurance. They wanted to coax a confession out of me first.

Liu Ruyan had reported the assault yesterday. A case had formally been opened.

An open case had to be solved.

Sooner or later, the investigation would reach Chen Dong.

But the Chen family were the wealthiest, most powerful people in the county.

They weren’t going to watch him go to prison.

That made me, someone connected to the incident, the perfect scapegoat.

Buying Liu Ruyan wasn’t difficult.

Buying a few corrupt insiders might not be impossible either.

But I wasn’t the boy who had been caught completely unprepared in my previous life.

Through countless moments of regret, I had rehearsed what to say and how to respond if I faced injustice again.

Faced with the same attempt to trick a confession out of me, I only smiled faintly.

“I’m innocent. Why should I confess?”