Chapter 8: Reporting to the Police and Watching the Drama Unfold
The next morning, the photos, chat logs, and IP address information that Lin Yi had gathered were all laid out on a desk at the police station.
The officer who received Lin Yi was a young woman, serious and professional throughout. She listened without interruption as Lin Yi, mixing curses with his account, explained the situation. She meticulously took notes and asked a few very responsible questions to clarify the details. Once everything was clear, she printed out the report, had Lin Yi confirm its accuracy, sign it, and leave his contact information. She then saw him out, informing him that they would notify him whether a case would be opened after they had investigated the facts.
After seeing the man off, the young woman, who had maintained a stern expression, picked up her recording pen and the newly printed documents. She read through them again, her expression shifting several times. She really didn’t know how to describe her current mood.
Another young female colleague next to her saw her staring blankly at the folder in the doorway, glanced at the not-yet-distant figure of Lin Yi, and joked as if she’d had a revelation, “What’s wrong? Did our Officer Liu get flustered by a handsome man filing a report?”
Liu Yi nodded, letting out a long sigh. “I was definitely flustered.”
Now it was her colleague’s turn to be confused. She waved a hand in front of Liu Yi’s eyes and asked, exasperated, “What on earth is going on? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
Liu Yi looked at her colleague, wanting to speak but hesitating, and sighed again.
Her current expression was nothing! Heaven knows how she managed to keep a straight face while listening to the whole story!
She had just stumbled upon a huge piece of entertainment industry gossip! And, most, most, most importantly—she recognized the person in that gossip, the one who was supposedly a married actress!
That was her favorite author!!!!
If she hadn’t gone to her author’s book signing on New Year’s Day and thoroughly scrutinized the rarely-seen author from every possible angle, she probably would have mistaken the blurry photo for some celebrity too!
Her favorite author, such a low-key person, had been dragged into a scandalous affair between a female celebrity and a rich tycoon. What was all this about?!
Liu Yi felt a surge of righteous indignation and wanted to slam the table. She took several deep breaths to calm her frustration and resentment, then couldn’t help but start to worry. Could her favorite author have been scammed?
That rich tycoon looked decent enough from the back, but there were too many well-dressed scoundrels these days. A guy like this, who was seen with a female celebrity on one hand and having a “secret rendezvous” with her author on the other, didn’t seem reliable at all.
Although this rich tycoon had sent someone to report the crime, claiming the other party was trying to fabricate facts and sow confusion for the purpose of extortion, it was a fact that he had been photographed with the celebrity surnamed Song. Who knew what their actual relationship was—that celebrity had recently been exposed for engaging in sex-for-money transactions with several wealthy men and was even suspected of being used as a bribe by a now-jailed tycoon. The thought of it made her shudder.
This wouldn’t do. She had to remind her favorite author later! Although, as a police officer, she couldn’t violate regulations and disclose details of a case, it didn’t stop her from reminding her author to be wary of scams. Especially since her author was one of the involved parties!
Her mind made up, Liu Yi slowly breathed a sigh of relief. Her author was smart enough; she was just a bit lazy and might not pay attention to such things. If she gave her a proper reminder, her author would surely get the key point.
Her female colleague watched as Liu Yi frowned, bit her lip, and sighed. She patted her amusingly. “What big case is it? Look at how worried you are. Should we go find Team Lead Cheng?”
“Right, I need to report this to Team Lead Cheng!”
As a newly inducted criminal police officer, Liu Yi certainly didn’t dare to keep a criminal case of this magnitude to herself. After composing herself slightly, she went upstairs with her colleague, folder in hand, found her team leader’s office, and reported the matter as objectively as she could.
The female colleague who had come upstairs with Liu Yi was also amazed after hearing the story. She blinked, processing it for a long moment, before turning to her team leader. “Team Lead Cheng, do we still need to investigate this?”
The man called “Team Lead Cheng” was in his thirties, tall and well-built, but with a very gentle face and a slight paunch. He had just finished reading the materials Liu Yi handed him and was now preparing to make tea with his thermos, counting goji berries as he replied with certainty, “Investigate it! Why not? This case is not small. A thirteen-million-yuan extortion case, the chain of evidence is complete, they even have the IP address of the sender. Who cares if it’s the entertainment industry or not? Someone came to report a crime properly, so we have to investigate. Not investigating would be a dereliction of our duty!”
“Well, I’m just a bit surprised. It’s not unheard of for entertainment paparazzi to demand money for photos; it’s probably become a common practice in their circle. This is the first time I’ve seen someone come directly to report it.”
Another male police officer who was already in the office discussing a case with the team leader calmly interjected, “The boss is clearly an outsider. Paparazzi usually wouldn’t cross this line—it might not even be entertainment industry gossip.”
“That’s a real possibility! There could be an element of malicious slander from a competitor.” Reminded by her colleague, Liu Yi now saw the light. She pointed to the photos on the desk and began to analyze rationally, “The man in the photo is a company boss—I just took a note, their company seems to be in pig farming and pork processing, and it sounds like a pretty big operation. The person who came to report it today is the general manager of their group’s marketing and public relations department. He said the blackmail email was sent to his inbox. It just so happens their company is preparing to go public, so the other party is using these photos to threaten them. The informant said he couldn’t say much about the specifics of the IPO due to commercial confidentiality. Oh, right—”
At this point, Liu Yi suddenly remembered an important piece of information. She slapped her forehead in annoyance. “The informant just said that the other party threatened them, demanding the money today, or they would expose and spread rumors online! I told him to record any calls and screen-record any messages—should we set up a wiretap?”
“We should!” Team Lead Cheng, who hadn’t finished counting his goji berries, got anxious and poured them back into the container. He waved at Liu Yi. “Hurry up and call him back! That way, if any messages or calls do come in, we can follow the trail!”
And so, having driven less than two kilometers from the police station, Lin Yi received a call from Liu Yi. When he heard he needed to return to the station to wait for the fraudster’s call, he immediately agreed. His attitude was exceptionally good, his voice even softened a few decibels, afraid of giving the impression that he was annoyed. He thanked Liu Yi while looking for a place to turn around and head back.
It was only after hanging up that Lin Yi frowned and sighed with melancholy—he wasn’t actually good at dealing with the police, especially a young woman. He had to be on his best behavior when speaking.
Who knew that after arriving at the police station, he would wait for half a day with no activity at all. As noon approached, Lin Yi couldn’t sit still any longer. He was about to ask someone if he could leave first, but just as he got up, his phone chimed with a notification—a new email. The content was very brief, just a screenshot from Weibo, along with a vaguely meaningful sentence: A small appetizer, the main course will be served at three in the afternoon.
Hearing the sound and seeing Lin Yi’s reaction, Team Lead Cheng, who had been leisurely sipping his tea, shot up from his chair. He gestured for Liu Yi and the others to get to work while signaling Lin Yi to open the website and check Weibo.
A look revealed that the suspected fraudster’s Weibo post had been up for less than half an hour, but the clicks and shares were skyrocketing. The content was simple, just one sentence: Spotted a certain female celebrity with a young man while street-snapping. The actress seems to be in good spirits, apparently unaffected by public opinion. Just watching the drama unfold. It was accompanied by several blurry pictures—a man and a woman together. The man’s back was to the camera, but the woman was unmistakably the recently “famous” actress, Song Jie.
Song Jie had already been a big name in the entertainment industry, and her public image had always been good. But the recent scandal had completely shattered the public’s perception of her. The buzz from the previous scandal hadn’t even died down when a few more photos of her entering and exiting a high-end club with a male companion were thrown online. The comments section instantly exploded. People began to speculate if this was the next boss to fall victim—Song Jie had initially been exposed for being the mistress of a married tycoon, even having his child. The whistleblower was none other than the tycoon’s wife. The two sides had engaged in a huge public feud, and just as netizens were enjoying the drama, the tycoon was taken in for “a cup of tea” and was still in custody. Now, with these new photos, netizens had more drama to follow.
Before he had even read a third of the comments, Lin Yi was so angry he wanted to roll up his sleeves. He almost forgot he was still in the police station, a curse already on the tip of his tongue. But a glare from Liu Yi beside him made him swallow it back down.
“Don’t get angry, don’t get angry, it’s just an online rumor, not worth getting worked up over…” Team Lead Cheng was incredibly calm. Holding his thermos in one hand, he patted Lin Yi’s shoulder with the other, signaling him to sit down. He then instructed Liu Yi and the others, “Hurry up, don’t dawdle! Trace the sender’s IP from the email, and contact the platform to see if you can find out who posted the photos and where they were posted from.”
The group acknowledged and quickly got to work.
But the internet was too vast. Finding someone with so few leads was obviously not something that could be done in two or three hours. So, before the group could even trace the source, the other party had already lost patience and started “leaking” information online in a flood.
This time, the photos were much clearer. Song Jie’s face was perfectly visible, along with a side profile of a man.
Lin Yi had anticipated this “bad news.” He was hesitating, trying to compose himself to call his boss and explain the situation. But before he could, he glanced at the newly refreshed news on his phone and shot up from his chair. He let out a reflexive “Damn!” fully expressing his anger, and stood up to rush out. Even Liu Yi’s glares were useless this time.
Helpless, Liu Yi had no choice but to grab him. At the same time, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes inwardly. What was this? The boss was indecent, and his manager was just as unstable! She didn’t even know what kind of—What the hell! What’s going on? They released a photo of my favorite author too?!
Liu Yi stared at Lin Yi’s phone screen, took a deep breath, and felt a surge of anger rush through her. Her fingers, gripping Lin Yi’s arm, tightened unconsciously. What kind of grudge was this? These paparazzi had no public decency! Why did the drama between a female celebrity and some young tycoon who came out of nowhere have to drag her favorite author into it? Who did her author ever offend?!
Lin Yi winced in pain from the grip, feeling wronged amidst his frustration and anger. He turned his head and was immediately unsettled. What was going on? Not only was this girl grabbing him with a death grip, but her eyes looked like they were about to catch fire. He hadn’t even done anything!
Cheng Xiao Xiao, who was still going about her daily work routine, was completely unaware that she had been unluckily “implicated” by Lu Xiao Shan and was about to become the topic of gossip for countless drama-loving netizens, until—she glanced at the messages in her fan group.
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