She still looked very sick, and her ashen face didn’t have the least bit of color. She frowned as though my presence disgusted her.  

In previous cases, people would thank me as if I were their father when I helped them solve their problems. But now, I felt like an eyesore. This was the first time it had happened to me; I was so embarrassed that I didn’t know what to say.

Zhuang Ning slowly walked past me. “Don’t you know that a man standing in front of the female dorm is really eye-catching? The security guards will come to arrest you if you don’t leave soon.”

I smiled at her. “There’s something I haven’t figured out yet.”

“Do you think you can figure it out right here?” Zhuang Ning’s voice sounded disdainful. “Your curiosity will bring about your doom.”

I lowered my voice. “If you say so... I’ll just become more curious. Do you know about the rumors being spread before Li Xiaoling committed suicide?” 

“Which rumor?” Zhuang Ning furrowed her eyebrows. “There were many rumors about her. Which one are you referring to?”

There were many of them? 

She was an introverted

 girl who didn’t like socializing. Just how much did she have to endure to end her life by hanging herself and cutting her wrists? I suddenly felt deep regret for Li 

Xiaoling’s

 passing.

“About the BMW car…”

Zhuang Ning sneered before I could finish. “Oh that. It’s a rumor Tang Shuangshuang deliberately fabricated to harm Li Xiaoling. Since Li Xiaoling’s academic record was much better than hers, Tang Shuangshuang was afraid that she would snatch the top student spot. That’s Tang Shuangshuang’s specialty, stepping on others to get what she wants. That’s why I told you to ask Tang Shuangshuang if you wanted to know more about Li Xiaoling when we first met. No one understands Li Xiaoling better than her.”

“Fabricated?” I couldn’t believe it. 

She fabricated such an outrageous rumor? 

Zhuang Ning could see the shock in my eyes. She sighed and continued with a calm tone, “It’s what humans do. Sometimes, they won’t hesitate to harm others for their own benefit. On that day, Tang Shuangshuang and Wang Nan accidentally saw Li Xiaoling when she came back to school. Wang Nan didn’t like Li Xiaoling; she despised her and thought that she was a weirdo. Her jealousy hit the roof when they saw her getting out of a BMW car. She said, ‘Female students these days don’t know shame. They are willing to do anything to get in some rich men’s fancy cars.’ 

“When Tang Shuangshuang heard that, she knew it was a great chance to tarnish Li Xiaoling’s name. If she could do that, the top student spot would belong to her. She used her phone to take some photos, and based on Wang Nan’s comment, she fabricated many stories, including Li Xiaoling being some old man’s mistress and how low she had fallen. She even implied that Li Xiaoling had borne some old man’s child. Such an explosive topic would catch a lot of attention. As such, people started to spread the rumor. Soon, half of Wuhan University believed that Li Xiaoling was someone’s mistress.”

“What about the BMW car? Where did it come from?”

Zhuang Ning shook her head. “Actually, that car’s owner was Li 

Xiaoling’s

 father.”

I nodded.

“Since Li Xiaoling didn’t like to socialize with others, she didn’t have a single friend to confide in when something so terrible was happening to her. Every day, people laughed at her. In the end, she…” Zhuang Ning stopped there. She bit her lower lip.

Then she added, “Tang Shuangshuang and her mouth are the culprits; she's the one that caused all of this. When it was found that her lips had been sewed, I was happy!”

Finally, I understood the whole story. Although nobody had actually taken action, they had used rumors to push Li Xiaoling to commit suicide. Just how deep were her despair and hatred when she decided to put on a red dress and kill herself to become an evil soul to take revenge later?

Tang Shuangshuang had been the first one to spread the rumors. That was why she was the first one who got her lips sewed shut. After 

Shiso’s

 lips were sewed, all the people that had mocked her or spread those rumors had been dealt with. I guessed things would stop here.

Zhuang Ning and I remained silent for a while, as we reflected on the matter. A moment later, someone ran toward us. I lifted my head and saw a girl with a ponytail; she was originally heading to the dormitory, but she made a turn when she saw Zhuang Ning.

“Zhuang Ning, big news! Big news!” 

“What big news? Why does our Wuhan University have this much hot news?” Zhuang Ning didn’t sound interested in it. 

The other girl ignored her attitude and said mysteriously, “You haven’t heard, I suppose. Your roommate, Tang Shuangshuang, just committed suicide in the hospital. She also used stockings, and her death was pretty similar to Li Xiaoling’s. What do you think? It counts as hot news, doesn’t it?”

Zhuang Ning’s face paled. She asked in fright, “You… Who told you this?”

The girl wore a content face and replied with a bit of smugness, “I went to the school’s office to send a report a moment ago, and I happened to overhear two professors discussing this. Our school had sent an instructor to pay a visit to Tang Shuangshuang at the hospital. When he opened the door to her room… Haha, that instructor wet himself. Wanna know his name?”

Zhuang Ning was flustered, and she shot me a glance. I bowed my head to ponder…

Did Tang Shuangshuang do this because she went crazy, or was it Li Xiaoling’s resentful energy that affected her? 

If it was Li Xiaoling… 

Has her resentful energy already reached a level where she can kill with ease? Is sewing their lips no longer enough? Is that why she wants to make them hang themselves like she did? 

It seemed that I would need to stop her. 

The girl who had passed by to share the news was still talking, but Zhuang Ning no longer reacted. As such, she pouted her lips, feeling discontent. “Hey, are you listening to me? I just told you a bunch of things, and you didn’t even blink. All right, I’m going to tell the others.” Then, she headed for the staircase.

After the girl left, I asked Zhuang Ning, “Who’s the second victim of the lip-sewing incidents in your university? Was it also a roommate of yours?”