Two minutes later, Lin Shuyue washed her hands and walked back to the three who were chatting animatedly.

Zhou Bingrong had learned from Ah Hao that Lin Shuyue was very good at playing games. As soon as Lin Shuyue approached, he asked her to confirm this. After getting confirmation, Zhou Bingrong enthusiastically invited Lin Shuyue to go to an internet cafe for a game.

Lin Shuyue didn’t have any work in the afternoon. Her reports had been coming out one after another during this period, and each one had received a good response. The newspaper office had a strict rule that each reporter had to submit four reports per week, with interns submitting half that amount.

Lin Shuyue was still an intern, and she had already exceeded her quota. For the next half month, she could relax.

So, she happily agreed to Zhou Bingrong’s request.

On the way to the internet cafe, Lin Shuyue walked side by side with Zeng Xiaoyi. She said softly to Zeng Xiaoyi, “My older sister is running a fast-food business. She’s looking to hire someone to cut and wash vegetables and pack meals.”

“I told her about your situation. She said she’ll provide room and board and pay you six hundred yuan a month.”

Zeng Xiaoyi’s eyes welled up with tears, and she nodded, her voice choked with emotion. These past few days, she, Xu Shuhao, and Zhou Bingrong have been to many places. Apart from factories where the pay was higher, the wages in other places were very low, and except for factories, no one offered room and board.

Zeng Xiaoyi didn’t want to work in a factory. She was currently scared of and repulsed by adult men. There were many men in factories, and although the pay was higher, she didn’t want to go there.

Among all the people in the world, there weren’t many she could trust. Ah Hao and Zhou Bingrong counted as two, and Lin Shuyue, who had exposed the evil deeds of the internet addiction school, was another.

Zeng Xiaoyi and the others had inquired about jobs as restaurant servers. The highest monthly salary they could find was only four hundred yuan.

The salary Lin Shuyue mentioned was much higher than the market price.

Lin Shuyue looked at Zeng Xiaoyi, who was choked up and couldn’t speak, and couldn’t reconcile her with the cold, beautiful woman who appeared at the beginning of that future newspaper article.

She reached out and patted Zeng Xiaoyi’s shoulder. “Work hard, and after summer vacation, you can go to school. You can apply for student loans now.”

Zeng Xiaoyi could only nod repeatedly. Lin Shuyue took out a tissue from her bag and wiped away her tears. “Don’t cry. You won’t be pretty if you cry.”

For some reason, this sentence hit Zeng Xiaoyi’s funny bone, and she burst out laughing. She took the tissue from Lin Shuyue’s hand and wiped her tears haphazardly.

As they stepped onto the curb to quickly enter the internet cafe, Zeng Xiaoyi whispered to Lin Shuyue, “Sister Yue, do you really think I’m pretty? My parents say I look indecent.”

Zeng Xiaoyi was beautiful, but neither her parents nor her relatives and friends praised her. Especially her parents and close relatives, who said she looked too alluring and not like a respectable person.

It was as if, in their eyes, being beautiful was a sin. Because she was beautiful, she wasn’t even allowed to wear skirts from a young age.

Having been told this by them since she was little, Zeng Xiaoyi also felt that she wasn’t good-looking, that she wasn’t dignified.

Lin Shuyue had grown up being praised by her parents and relatives.

But she empathized with Zeng Xiaoyi’s words. Even in her previous life, didn’t older people and some perverts look at beautiful girls with prejudice?

When Lin Shuyue was surfing the internet, she would confront such perverts who made these kinds of comments every time she saw them.

She touched Zeng Xiaoyi’s hair. “Beauty isn’t a sin. Don’t listen to those people who say that to you. If you hear such comments again, just consider them jealous. After all, beauty is a scarce resource, and it’s not easy to be born beautiful.”

Zeng Xiaoyi stood there in a daze. This was the first time she had heard such a statement in her life. It felt strange, but it also felt particularly true.

Lin Shuyue put her arm around her shoulder and gently led her into the internet cafe.

Ah Hao was a regular at the internet cafe, and everyone in every internet cafe on this street knew him. After he was sent to the internet addiction school, everyone gathered to discuss him, but no one was truly malicious. Even if they talked about him behind his back, they wouldn’t ask him about it directly.

Ah Hao ignored their curious gazes, bought four cards, found four adjacent computers, and then skillfully turned them on and entered the card numbers.

When Lin Shuyue and Zeng Xiaoyi came in, he had already opened the game interface for Lin Shuyue.

They logged into the game, found a room, and the four of them started playing as a team.

It was Zeng Xiaoyi’s first time playing a game. She was very serious. At first, she stumbled around, but soon she was playing quite skillfully.

The four of them played from one o’clock to four o’clock in the afternoon. With Lin Shuyue leading them, they never lost a single game.

Eventually, winning became boring, so they started playing against each other in pairs. Lin Shuyue teamed up with Zeng Xiaoyi, and Ah Hao teamed up with Zhou Bingrong. Every match ended with Lin Shuyue and Zeng Xiaoyi’s overwhelming victory.

At five o’clock, they logged off and went to Ah Hao’s house. Zeng Xiaoyi will be going back with Lin Shuyue today. There was a spare room in Lin Shuyue’s house that could be cleaned up for Zeng Xiaoyi to live in.

When Lin Shuyue brought her back, Lou Fengqin had already cleaned the room. It was clean, tidy, and bright.

Moreover, only Lin Shuyue and her mother and sister lived in this house. Luo Zhengjun would come over but never stayed overnight.

It was almost exclusively a female residence, which gave Zeng Xiaoyi a great sense of security.

She put down her few belongings and came out to help Lou Fengqin with chores. At this time, Lin Shuxing and Luo Zhengjun had already gone out to sell lunch boxes. Lin Shuyue and Zeng Xiaoyi only had some finishing touches to do.

Zeng Xiaoyi insisted on doing all the washing and cleaning. Seeing that there was no work left for her, Lou Fengqin went out to buy a watermelon.

In the evening, Lin Shuxing and Luo Zhengjun returned. After the family ate watermelon, Luo Zhengjun left.

The next day, Lin Shuyue got up early. Today was the public trial for the Suishan sisters’ murder case. All the media in the city would be there, and the Pengcheng Metro Daily was no exception. Director Zhao directly gave this opportunity to Lin Shuyue and Li Weisheng.

The intention behind sending two reporters was clear: whoever could get the headline for this report would win through fair competition.

Lin Shuyue didn’t think much of it. After all, she was a writer, and what mattered was her skill with words.

But Li Mingfang was clearly indignant about it. “Who in Pengcheng doesn’t know that you’re the one who brought Duan Taoyong back? Isn’t Director Zhao arranging for Li Weisheng to go just like letting him steal your credit?”

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one who thought so. Lin Shuyue picked up her water cup and took a sip. When she put it down, she glanced at Li Weisheng, who was sitting quietly at his workstation with a not-so-good expression.

Lin Shuyue felt that this older colleague was truly the embodiment of someone who was both clueless and perpetually unhappy!

It had been over a month since she transmigrated, and she had never seen this guy happy once!

Lin Shuyue rubbed Li Mingfang’s chubby little face. “There’s someone even more unhappy than me sitting over there! Don’t be angry, don’t be angry.”

Li Mingfang rolled her eyes at Li Weisheng. “What does he have to be unhappy about? He’s not the one having his credit stolen.”

Just as Li Mingfang finished speaking, the head of the art department called her over, and she hurried off to work.

Director Zhao also came out of his office. “Xiao Li, Xiao Lin. Let’s go.”

Lin Shuyue and Li Weisheng stood up at the same time and followed Director Zhao towards the elevator together.

During working hours, the three of them occupied the entire elevator.

Lin Shuyue stood in one corner, watching Director Zhao and Li Weisheng chatting enthusiastically.

Li Weisheng secretly glanced at her several times, but Lin Shuyue pretended not to notice.

When they arrived at the court, it was already nine-thirty. There was still an hour before the trial, but a large crowd had already gathered at the entrance of the court.

Most of them were reporters from various newspapers carrying cameras with large lenses. A small portion were relatives of the victim sisters, and some were members of the public who were concerned about the case and came to observe the proceedings.

At ten o’clock, everyone started heading towards the courtroom. Lin Shuyue walked quickly and took a seat in the front row of the audience. Just as she sat down, Li Weisheng sat down beside her.

He called Lin Shuyue’s name. Lin Shuyue turned her head to look. Li Weisheng had never seen Lin Shuyue’s face from such a close distance before. When Lin Shuyue looked at him, he reacted as if he had been burned and immediately looked away, forgetting what he was about to say.

Seeing that he wasn’t speaking, Lin Shuyue ignored him.

Soon, the observer seats were filled.

At ten-twenty, the judge, clerk, and others entered the courtroom. The parents of the victim sisters took their seats in the plaintiff’s section.

At ten-thirty, the clerk announced the court rules, and the trial officially began.

Throughout the entire one-hour trial, Duan Taoyong confessed to his crime of murder. He admitted to all the charges brought against him by the prosecutor.

At the end of the trial, he was sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately.

The parents of the victim sisters in the plaintiff’s section burst into tears upon hearing the verdict.

As he was being led away by the bailiffs, his gaze fell on the observer seats. None of his family, relatives, or friends had come, including his parents who had always doted on him.

His gaze landed on Lin Shuyue, and he stared intently at her.

Lin Shuyue met his gaze, her face expressionless.

The bailiffs urged Duan Taoyong to hurry up.

The audience in the observer seats left one after another.

Many reporters swarmed to surround the parents of the victim sisters. In just one short month, they seemed to have aged ten years, especially the mother, whose temples had turned white.

They expressed great satisfaction with Duan Taoyong’s sentence, but no matter how satisfied they were, their two daughters would never return.

Lin Shuyue waited until the crowd interviewing them had dispersed before stepping forward. “May I take a picture of you?”

The mother of the victim sisters recognized Lin Shuyue. They knew Lin Shuyue was the one who had captured Duan Taoyong. They had met Lin Shuyue before, but during this time, they had been immersed in the grief of losing their daughters and hadn’t had a chance to thank her.

Since they had met her now, they had been planning to come up and thank Lin Shuyue anyway.

“Okay, you can take the picture.” The parents of the victim sisters stood supporting each other. Lin Shuyue moved back a bit and raised her camera.

After taking the photo, the mother of the victim sisters thanked Lin Shuyue and then said, “We’ve decided to go back to our hometown and farm the land. We originally came out to work in the city to give our children a better future. If we had known this would happen, we would have stayed in our hometown. That way, they would still be fine.”

As she said this, the mother of the victim sisters blinked her dry eyes. She had cried too much in the past month and couldn’t cry anymore even if she wanted to.

The father of the victim sisters didn’t say a word. But as they were leaving, he said to Lin Shuyue, “Girl, I know you’re a reporter. When you write your report, can you please add a sentence? If there are daughters at home, you must protect them well. You must teach them that when their parents are not home, they must close the doors and windows. Don’t open the door for anyone who knocks, even if it’s someone they know.”

Seeing Lin Shuyue nod, the couple left. They got into the van that their relatives had come in.

Only after the van drove away did Lin Shuyue notice that the trunk was full of luggage bags. Clearly, they didn’t plan to stay in their Pengcheng residence.

Lin Shuyue watched them leave. Director Zhao had disappeared somewhere. He hadn’t even gone to the trial, so it was no surprise that he was nowhere to be seen now.

Li Weisheng stood not far away, waiting for him. He hadn’t stepped forward when the media was surrounding the parents of the victim sisters to take photos and interview them, and he hadn’t followed Lin Shuyue when she went up.

He hadn’t even taken his camera out of his bag.

Lin Shuyue could roughly guess what he was thinking. He saw that this case was originally being reported by Lin Shuyue, and he wouldn’t and didn’t bother to get involved.

Lin Shuyue sighed with emotion. Li Mingfang had said that Li Weisheng was arrogant. Now it seemed that while he was indeed arrogant, he was a person with principles and a bottom line.

Putting aside his personality, people with principles and a bottom line always made a good impression.

The two of them returned to the newspaper office together. There was another stack of letters on Lin Shuyue’s desk. Lin Shuyue sat down and looked through them. Then, she saw a letter postmarked from Taijiang Prison.

Lin Shuyue was a bit surprised. She had received many letters these days, from all over the country, but this was the first one from a prison.

With this curiosity, Lin Shuyue opened the letter. Before she could even read it, her mentor, Huang Qiang, came over, still looking sleepy. He immediately noticed the return address and sender on one of the envelopes.

He casually said, “Oh, so many years have passed, and he still hasn’t given up. It’s been a long time since we heard from him. I thought he had resigned himself to his fate.”

Lin Shuyue looked up at Huang Qiang. “Mentor, have you also received letters from him?”

Huang Qiang had a strong impression of the letter from Taijiang Prison. “I have. In fact, I should say that all the reporters in Pengcheng have received letters from him.”

“I received his letter ten years ago. He wrote to me saying that he didn’t kill his wife and that he was falsely accused. But I investigated it, and the facts of him killing his wife were clear. His so-called being wronged was just sophistry.”

“He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve back then, but he didn’t accept the verdict. He has been insisting on appealing all these years. Now ten years have passed, and he hasn’t been executed yet. We all say that the reason he keeps claiming he’s innocent and keeps appealing is definitely to save his own life.”

Huang Qiang finished speaking and left. Lin Shuyue opened the letter in her hand and continued reading.

According to Huang Qiang, this wife-killer named Zheng Zhongfu had written to him ten years ago and had already been sentenced to death at that time.

According to the “Law on Criminal Procedure,” there are corresponding regulations for criminal cases. For cases with a death sentence, the normal procedure is a first trial, a second trial, a death penalty review, and the issuance of an execution order to carry out the death penalty. If the defendant does not accept the verdict, they can appeal once.

But since his death sentence hadn’t been carried out even after ten years, it meant that some kind of reversal evidence must have appeared during his appeal, which is why he was still alive.

But even with the appearance of reversal evidence, he was still in prison.

Lin Shuyue was now extremely curious about this case.

[Ding! Keyword triggered, limited-time mission: The wife-killer who has never confessed is activated, time limit: 7 days.]

[Please ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and the innocent are exonerated within the specified time.]