Night Fire Lingering

Chapter 218 Bearing the Infamy of Killing Father and Mother

The Imperial University is full of talented people, and that very night Jiang Xing asked a classmate from the School of Information Technology for help in finding that text message.

As she expected, she couldn't trace the source at all, because the text message came from a virtual account on the overseas dark web.

However, when Jiang Xing and Ying Kaian had just gotten together, Ying Kaian had sent her similar anonymous messages to show off his skills.

Jiang Xing felt a chill run through his body, his mind was a jumbled mess, yet his nerves were incredibly clear, leaving him in a state of disarray.

She stared intently at the text message, reading it repeatedly, and finally concluded that even if she took the message to the police station, it wouldn't do anything to Ying Kai'an.

Firstly, current technology cannot verify through the dark web that the person who sent the text message was Ying Kaian.

Secondly, even if it is confirmed that the text message was sent by Ying Kaian, you did not expose any evidence of threats or instigation in this text message. At most, it can be considered that Ying Kaian 'went crazy'.

The important thing is that everyone saw it: Jiang's mother committed suicide, and before her suicide, all the words pointed to Jiang Xing.

If Wen Yan hadn't arranged for people to immediately block all the news, and if Jiang's mother's dying words had been leaked, Jiang Xing would probably have been slandered and branded with the infamy of killing his father and mother.

-

"Senior, are you alright?"

As soon as Wen Yan entered the classroom, she saw that Jiang Xing seemed absent-minded and looked haggard. She whispered, "Why don't you take a break for a while before you start working at Gu Yanci's company?"

The other classmates only knew that Jiang Xing had broken up with his girlfriend some time ago, but they didn't know that Jiang Xing's parents had passed away. They thought it was because of the breakup.

Jiang Xing smiled gratefully, "I'm fine. I'm here today to hand over my work to the professor."

However, Professor Zhong, who is usually amiable, looked unusually unwell today. As soon as he entered the room, he turned his gaze to Wen Yan and Nan Zhiyi.

"I've received the data analysis reports from Wen Yan and Nan Zhiyi." Professor Zhong slammed a thick stack of documents onto the podium with a 'thud,' "But—"

His gaze was sharp: "I don't know why, but the content of these two documents overlaps by a staggering 95%!"

Wen Yan's expression changed drastically as she looked at Nan Zhiyi in disbelief.

Nan Zhiyi looked at her in shock, stammering, "I... Teacher, I... we didn't work together..."

If there's no collaboration, doesn't that mean one person plagiarized?

Having worked in academia for many years, Jiang Xing had heard and witnessed numerous instances of plagiarism. He immediately started from the front row and asked, "Professor, may I take a look?"

Professor Zhong was exceptionally tolerant of his prized student, Jiang Xing, and nodded in approval.

Jiang Xing quickly flipped through the two documents, his expression growing increasingly grim, and he subtly shook his head at Wen Yan.

Wen Yan's heart skipped a beat.

"Their analytical approaches are the same, their assumptions are the same, and even their literature reviews are in the same direction. Even twin sisters don't have this much tacit understanding. You two, tell me, what's going on?"

The phrase "close sisters" here feels like an invisible irony.

Professor Zhong gave her a cold look: "Wen Yan, come and take a good look for yourself!"

Upon seeing the contents, the curiosity in Wen Yan's eyes gradually turned into shock.

The content that Nan Zhiyi submitted was almost exactly the same as her first version!

In a flash, Wen Yan remembered the documents she had left in Gu Yanci's office. She and Gu Jinzhi had gone shopping, and when they returned, they found the documents seemed to have been moved. And that was precisely the time Daniel had come to talk to Gu Yanci about work!

"Teacher, I did complete this report independently!" Wen Yan assured him.

Professor Zhong retorted sarcastically, "But Nan Zhiyi handed it to me two days earlier than you."

The person who submits the results first can't be the one who plagiarized, right?

The classroom erupted in an uproar.

Everyone knows that Wen Yan once presented evidence of academic fraud to Mingzhu and even the entire college, but now, she herself is the academic plagiarist!

Although no one said it outright, their eyes clearly showed that they suspected Wen Yan!

"Yan, you—" Nan Zhiyi's face turned ugly. She opened her mouth, but after several seconds, she forced a smile and changed her words to defend Wen Yan, "Maybe we really are telepathically connected..."

Wen Yan was disgusted.

"Wen Yan, Nan Zhiyi, I'm giving you one day. Come back tomorrow and explain yourself clearly, or you'll both get a demerit!" Professor Zhong left the classroom angrily.

Jiang Xing squeezed Wen Yan's hand reassuringly.

"Yan, I—"

"Your dad went to see Gu Yanci that day, and you went too, right?" Wen Yan interrupted Nan Zhiyi.

“Yes, I originally wanted to talk to you, but Mr. Gu wouldn’t allow it…” Nan Zhiyi seemed not to understand why Wen Yan asked this question.

Wen Yan had no intention of wasting words with Nan Zhiyi. She gave Nan Zhiyi a cold look, picked up her bag, and left the classroom.

Saying more is pointless and will only disgust yourself!

“In academia, whoever submits their work first isn’t necessarily the owner. We’ve all seen plenty of dirty tricks and shady dealings, whether it’s plagiarism or misappropriation. Nan Zhiyi, you can think of any evidence you can use to prove your innocence.” Jiang Xing finished speaking and chased after Wen Yan out.

The students in the classroom initially favored Nan Zhiyi, but after Jiang Xing's words, they suddenly realized that there were indeed precedents where the one who submitted the work first was the plagiarist, however, such cases were extremely rare.

Nan Zhi noticed that none of her classmates came to ask about her situation or comfort her, and she pursed her lips.

Jiang Xing was Professor Zhong's favorite and most outstanding student. One word from Professor Zhong was worth ten words from others... Yet, Jiang Xing chose Wen Yan!

-

As soon as Wen Yan stepped out, she called Zhou Qi, wanting to see the surveillance footage from Gu Yanci's office.

However, they were told that there was no such thing.

Wen Yan felt a little annoyed and tightened her grip on her phone.

"Yan Yan, compile all the work records and give them to Professor Zhong. I'll take care of the rest," Jiang Xing reassured her. "Don't worry."

"Okay." Wen Yan didn't stand on ceremony with Jiang Xing; the important thing now was to gather the evidence.

Wen Yan didn't drive today; Gu Yanci arranged for a driver to pick her up.

After seeing Wen Yan off, Jiang Xing went to the bank.

Upon checking, it turned out that the card Lou Qi had given her contained twice the amount of money!

Jiang Xing immediately felt that this card was a hot potato, so he immediately called Lou Qi.

The other party did not answer.

They called back a few minutes later.

"I was just in a meeting," Lou Qi said succinctly.

Although Lou Qi was the main negotiator in the kidnapping of Jiang's father, Jiang Xing and Lou Qi did not spend much time together.

At first, Jiang Xing intentionally avoided Lou Qi, treating him with polite formalities and refusing to engage in any conversation that was even slightly ambiguous.

Later, after Jiang's father had an accident, Jiang Xing and Lou Qi flew abroad together, but Zhou Qi also accompanied them. During those few days in a foreign country, all necessary communication was through Zhou Qi, and Jiang Xing basically had no interaction with Lou Qi.

The most common way people say to Lou Qi is polite but distant: "Thank you, Lou Shao."

"Young Master Lou, the card you gave me has more money in it," Jiang Xing said.

Before this, Lou Qi had never found the words "Lou Shao" so jarring.