The first thing Xu Tingyu did after waking up was to turn on her phone and check the comment section, hoping to find some useful clues from it.
This wasn't the first time she had used the power of public opinion to look for Xie Shu. But this time, she was looking for the process with the answer in mind, so it was more explosive and caught people's attention more quickly.
However, it seemed that the focus was now on Xie Zhen, which made her frown involuntarily.
Xie Zhen's college classmates hadn't come forward, most likely out of fear of the Qi Group. After all, Xie Zhen's death was related to the Qi Group back then. If one wanted to expose something, they had to weigh whether they dared to go against the Qi Group.
So those who really knew the inside story wouldn't easily show up and cause trouble for themselves. If someone did come out, they surely didn't know the inside story.
Sure enough, after she had read many comments, finally one of Xie Zhen's college classmates came out to respond.
"Xie Zhen was my classmate in college. He was a very cheerful and sunny guy. But we weren't really familiar with each other because he was always taking part - time jobs except for attending classes."
"So he didn't participate in many group activities in our class. At first, some of us were a bit opinionated about him, thinking he was unsociable."
"Later, when we learned about his family situation, we felt sorry for him. We tried to arrange group activities according to his schedule, and he did participate a few times."
"After his sophomore year, he got a good job opportunity, so he spent even less time on campus, and we saw each other less often."
"I heard that in his junior year, because his younger sister was coming to join him, he rented an apartment off - campus and moved out of the dormitory."
"When we graduated from college, he didn't choose to pursue postgraduate studies but instead chose to work. I heard he was doing quite well in a startup company."
"The last news I got about him was the news of his death in a car accident. We all felt quite sorry for him."
"As for his two younger sisters, I only saw Xie Yu from afar once. At that time, she wasn't famous yet, and her dressing was rather simple. She was quite different from how she is now."
...
This person was most likely really one of Xie Zhen's college classmates. They knew each other but weren't close. The person didn't say anything inappropriate, but some fans of Xie Yu seized on the word "simple" and started attacking him.
"What do you mean by simple? You just want to say she was a hick back then, right? Come on, that was so many years ago. Of course, it seems out - of - date now."
"Exactly. She's a beautiful dancing girl, and you describe her as simple. If you have the guts, show us a photo of yourself. What do you look like?"
...
At first, the owner of this account tried to explain that he didn't mean that. But later, probably because there were too many fans coming, and he couldn't keep up with the responses, he simply canceled his account.
After that, even fewer college classmates came out to expose anything.
As for Xie Shu, there wasn't a single useful piece of information. Just as Xu Tingyu and the others had learned, the news of Xie Shu's death seemed to be top - secret. No one knew about it.
Even those people who had hung out with Xie Shu abroad had remained silent. It was unclear whether they had long forgotten about Xie Shu or had nothing to say.
In short, when Xu Tingyu turned off her phone, she hadn't found any useful information.
Chen Yan was also following the progress of the matter. When they returned to New York, they discussed it.
"The more this happens, the more strange it seems. Don't you think? It's as if someone has issued a gag order about the matters of their siblings."
"With Xie Shu's flamboyant personality, she should have known many people like herself. Don't these people want to ride on the wave of popularity now?"
"Her so - called friend who came out to expose something doesn't seem to be really looking for her. I think the chat records she released are just a few."
Chen Yan held his phone, frowned, and began to analyze.
Xu Tingyu said, "Because Xie Shu really didn't have any friends."
She had previously spent a great deal of effort investigating Xie Shu, almost looking into everything from her birth to her final disappearance.
Xie Shu was the youngest child in the family, but because she wasn't the son her parents had hoped for, she was neglected by her parents.
As she grew older, she became aware of beauty and ugliness. Amid the ridicule of others, she fell into appearance anxiety. She had made a fuss at home more than once and even suspected that she wasn't her parents' biological child.
Otherwise, why was she the ugliest among the three children in the family, while her older brother, a boy, was the most good - looking?
At first, her family members comforted her, saying that she was their child and just hadn't grown into her looks yet. But after she made a fuss so many times, her family members began to get impatient.
Since she couldn't get comfort at home, her temper got worse and worse. Usually at school, if someone took an extra look at her, she would think they were gossiping about her.
Even when she walked on the street with Xie Yu, if someone greeted Xie Yu but not her, she would get angry. But the thing was, people greeted Xie Yu because they were Xie Yu's classmates.
Over time, everyone knew that the youngest daughter of the Xie family was a bit crazy and hard to deal with, so naturally no one wanted to be her friend.
There was some inferiority in her personality, and this inferiority gave rise to extreme pride. Or rather, she used bravado to cover up her inferiority.
When she saw Xie Yu enter the entertainment industry and receive so much attention, she was extremely envious. Then, taking advantage of Qi Shifeng's guilt towards Xie Zhen, she got a lot of money, had plastic surgery, and then entered the entertainment industry.
After the plastic surgery, her pride reached its peak. She considered herself to have joined the ranks of beautiful women, so she was very rude to those around her.
Sometimes, after she got a good role through the Qi Group or Xu Tingyu. Instead of feeling guilty about using connections, she would lead the bullying of the small actors without a background in the crew. Even many staff members said that she was more difficult to deal with than many big - name stars.
Over the years, she had offended everyone. How could she still have friends? It was already good that those people didn't come out to scold her.
"Is it possible that the car accidents of the three Xie siblings were really just coincidences?" Chen Yan pondered for a moment and guessed again.
After all, the three accidents had happened several years apart and there was no pattern. All three of them had had accidents while driving on their own, and there were reasons for each.
Xie Zhen had made a mistake out of panic because there were "pursuers" behind him. That was normal. And Xie Yu's car's brakes had malfunctioned at that time, and she had also been a bit distracted. As for Xie Shu, she was drunk but still insisted on driving herself.
"I don't know either. This explanation does make sense, but it still feels a bit strange." Xu Tingyu had used the word "strange" more than once to describe it.
It was really strange. But what was even stranger was that as soon as they landed in New York and took out their phones, they found that the trending topics were gone.
Chen Yan didn't believe it and searched for them, only to find that they had been deleted completely.
"No way. I spent a lot of money on promotion. They just delete it like that? Who did this?"