Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Internal reference reports?” Bai Jiancheng looked up with a nod. “That sounds about right. I don’t want to hear anything you’re not supposed to tell me.”

“How could that be?” Bai Yueran waved her hand cheerfully. “I would never do anything against military discipline. Routine reports are internal reference reports, so any government officials with appropriate clearance can read them.”

Bai Jiancheng was deeply impressed and very satisfied with his daughter. “Yueran, your future is not limited as merely the Director of Legal Affairs for the Special Operations Forces. You know that, so you must be self-sufficient and guard your reputation well.”

“I’ll remember that.” Bai Yueran’s smile faded, and she grew more stern. “See if this case can be used.”

Bai Jianchen looked at Bai Yueran’s phone again, scanning over the news article with a frown. “What nonsense. A threesome? Are you sure this article can—?”

“Of course. This was reported in the local German media, so it’s not something that has to be kept confidential. But no one is really picking up on this article, whether in Germany or in the Huaxia Empire.” Bai Yueran sighed softly. “It’s probably because this female exchange student didn’t come from a powerful family.”

Because the girl came from a regular family, there was no subsequent media value, and the media outlets had a keener nose than dogs—hence, a certain group among the media was labeled as the “paparazzi.”

Bai Jiancheng read the unassuming article again then decided, “Ok, have someone follow up on this article, and there won’t be a need for us to make a fuss over it.”

As long as the article was reposted in is entirety, experienced media outlets would naturally know how to garner attention. It was only one article, and all they needed was for its popularity to surpass the Tan Guiren case.

******

At the end of June, all the universities in the Huaxia Empire were entering final exam season. As a first-year Master’s student, although Gu Nianzhi’s professional exams were in the form of essays, her elective courses were still normal exams. Luckily, she had a photographic memory, so exams were never a challenge for her. However, she had taken too many courses, so she still had to study late into the night in her dorm. Despite being an excellent student, she still needed to invest a certain amount of time and effort.

Gu Nianzhi felt that she had shed a cocoon by the time she finished the last exam for her elective courses. She hadn’t felt so stressed out in many years now. By taking nine elective courses and three professional courses in one semester, she’d finally caught up with her fellow students in the same year, who had already been in school for two semesters.

Carrying her backpack out of the exam room, she giggled to Ma Qiqi. “Qiqi, where do you want to go for dinner tonight? It’s my treat!”

Ma Qiqi had also just finished her last exam, too, and was checking Weibo and WeChat on her phone. As a social media enthusiast, she had a hard time not going online every day. However, because of final exams, she’d forced herself to refrain from checking her phone for three days now and was feeling serious withdrawal. She had finished her last exam today and couldn’t wait to get her “social daily” on the phone.

Gu Nianzhi saw her eyes widen and her tiny mouth gape slightly. Her fair face was visibly flushed as if she had seen a news article and was so shocked that she couldn’t stop gasping.

“What is it? What did you read?” Gu Nianzhi leaned over to see.

Ma Qiqi passed the phone to her and covered her face to whisper, “Hurry up and read it! Oh my God! The exchange students are so open nowadays!”

“Open?” Gu Nianzhi was perplexed and looked down to read the top trending headline on Weibo: Fatal Threesome! Young Female Exchange Student Perishes Abroad!

Gu Nianzhi was stunned. The article sounded just like a bad tabloid!

“Are you on fake Weibo?” Gu Nianzhi half-smiled at Ma Qiqi and said sarcastically, “The high-class and high-income bourgeoisie on Weibo would really have such a trashy article rank number one?”

“Humph! You don’t know, eh? This article has all the elements of going viral!” Ma Qiqi had suddenly become an experienced analyst on Weibo trends. “Look. Young female exchange student, threesome, perished abroad! How can the bourgeoisie not be shocked?!”

Gu Nianzhi snickered. “I don’t understand how you Weibo net idols can say this has elements of a viral news article when it’s obviously a trashy tabloid piece. Can’t you just admit that you’re a commoner?”

“If I’m a commoner, then what are you?” Ma Qiqi pinched Gu Nianzhi’s tiny face. “Are you a refined person?”

“I’m also a commoner.” Gu Nianzhi giggled. “I love the world of commoners and common things!”

She pinched Ma Qiqi back, and they joked together and read the article as they walked back to the dorm.

“See? This is what the local German prosecutor said: The Huaxia female exchange student was having a threesome with this German couple, but they took it too far and she died…” Ma Qiqi shook her head with a sigh. “How desperate was she…?”

Gu Nianzhi noticed something strange. “What did you say? What prosecutor? He really said that?”

“Right.” Ma Qiqi read the original article to her, “See, that’s what the article said. The German couple who turned themselves in admitted it was a threesome…”

“Humph!” Gu Nianzhi was instantly enraged. “This is just fake news! How can a German prosecutor say such a thing to the public?! They are just bullying the deceased female student. She can’t even defend herself!”

Ma Qiqi also stiffened, her mind considering what Gu Nianzhi was saying as her smile faded. She replied with a frown, “Right. I was just thinking about how it was weird, and now that you’ve said it, I finally understand what’s strange about it.”

“Right? We are both law students, so we should know that the accused’s testimony cannot be used as conclusive evidence. The prosecutor also can’t disclose those words as the actuality of the case. This is a serious violation of the dignity of the deceased and also the spirit of the law. I really don’t want to believe that Germans who have always been known for their rigor would do such a thing.” Gu Nianzhi shook her head sadly and asked Ma Qiqi, “Do you have the original source of the article?”

She saw that the article had been posted by a German news outlet and translated. Gu Nianzhi wanted to see if the original German article said the same thing because domestic reposts of foreign articles weren’t always translated accurately.

Ma Qiqi looked it up. “I don’t understand German, but it must be from this newspaper. It’s a newspaper from the city where the case occurred.”

Gu Nianzhi took a look and memorized the Chinese translation of the name of the newspaper, then used her phone to translate it back into German to look up the original German article. She really did find the unassuming German article in the local newspaper’s website and saw that the local police’s website also reposted it. Using translation software on the article, she found that it was practically the same as the Weibo translation.

According to the prosecutor representing the local police, the female exchange student’s classmates reported that she had been missing for two days, and when the police searched for her, they found her corpse in a forest behind an abandoned building. She had numerous injuries and was also disfigured. The police had only been investigating for a few days when a German couple turned themselves in and claimed that the Huaxia female exchange student had willingly had a threesome with them but had unfortunately died…

Gu Nianzhi was stunned. “Qiqi, I still think something’s not right. How can the German prosecutor repeat the accused’s one-sided claims to the media?! He really had the guts to say that? Does he want to lose his job?”

This was serious misconduct and completed overturned Gu Nianzhi’s impression of Germans as “rigorous.”

Ma Qiqi shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he assumed it’s the truth?”

“Ha!” Gu Nianzhi sneered and put away her phone to sigh. “He’s a prosecutor. How could he not know that the truth should be judged in court during a trial? This case hasn’t been tried, nor sentence passed. How can he dare to say such misleading things to the media?! I hope that this girl’s parents will sue this German prosecutor when they read this article! Also, the local police station and this newspaper—how can they boldly post such slander against the deceased’s reputation? It’s misleading news.”

“Not only are they boldly posting it, but it also became the top trending Weibo post.” Ma Qiqi pitied this innocent female exchange student who had lost her life. “How horrible.”

Gu Nianzhi thought about the incident timeline and pouted. “This is obviously torture and murder. How can it be fabricated into a fatal threesome? To hell with it! They will face karma for saying such cold-blooded things!”

“Right. The article says her body was found under trees in a forest and that she was covered in injuries and disfigured. Oh my God! What kind of threesome would go to such an extent? She was obviously tortured and murdered.” Ma Qiqi also considered it and grew indignant. “I’m going to comment! We can’t let unscrupulous media make money off the deceased!” She began typing furiously on Weibo.

Gu Nianzhi completely agreed with her and became passionate, too. She used her own Weibo account to express support for Ma Qiqi’s comments.