CSGM - Chapter 38
Chapter 38: A Single Oversight
Chu Xi mulled it over for a long moment, then raised an eyebrow.
"What time did you go out?"
"Between 9:30... and 9:40. After I finished my work for the production team, I went out for a walk."
"What were you wearing?"
"Huh? My clothes? Just the one I wore yesterday... the work uniform the director gave me, a black T-shirt."
"Where did you go?"
"Nowhere in particular... I just wandered around the hotel... no destination. I was just walking around, not paying attention to the street signs..."
"Oh-" Chu Xi circled around to stand in front of him, her gaze dropping to him. "Then what did you see? You were out for so long, not even back by eleven. You must have seen some beautiful sights, right?"
The staffer swallowed, subconsciously glancing to his left to avoid her eyes.
His heart began to beat faster involuntarily. A faint smile played on Chu Xi's lips, like a hunter who had cornered their prey.
This situation... was making him extremely uncomfortable.
The staffer quickly said, "Uh... there's a pond nearby, surrounded by trees. All sorts of different trees, very beautiful... I'd never seen anything like them back home. I saw how lush they were and stopped to look for a while. Time... just slipped away."
Chu Xi immediately asked, "What about photos?"
The staffer froze. "What photos?"
"You were admiring the scenery for that long and didn't take a single picture?"
The staffer hesitated.
"Well, Teacher Chu, I don't like taking pictures."
He looked at Chu Xi and said reluctantly, "Teacher Chu, I didn't do anything. You can't treat me like a suspect just based on a few questions. If there's nothing else, I need to get back to work."
Chu Xi patted his shoulder and sat down in the chair beside him.
Her expression as she looked at the staffer suddenly turned to one of disdain, and she shook her head as if he were a lost cause.
"Why would you think I'm suspecting you, instead of just being kind? Considering we work on the same crew and you've put in some hard work, I just gave you so many chances to come clean. You didn't take them."
She let out a cold laugh, as if mocking him for his foolishness.
"You secretly filmed me and Ren Zhi. Ren Zhi might not press charges, but I will. It's not like I have a busy schedule. I have all the time in the world. Do you have any idea what laws you've broken?"
"Teacher Chu, you can't just assume..."
"For acts of voyeurism, secret filming, eavesdropping, and disseminating the private information of others, you have violated Article 42 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law. And by fabricating and distorting facts to damage another person's reputation, you have violated Article 1025 of the Civil Code. If I sue you right now, it's an open-and-shut case."
Chu Xi's unwavering voice cut off his weak denial.
"You sent the photos you risked everything to take to someone else. He reaps all the rewards-the traffic, the money-while you get a criminal record and get sent to labor reform. Tell me... what on earth is going on in that brain of yours?"
The staffer's expression turned to panic, and he avoided her gaze even more.
He turned his head away, tugging at his jacket, and mumbled hesitantly, "You can't just make things up. You... you don't have any proof..."
"Have you ever heard of Locard's exchange principle?"
Chu Xi sat in the chair opposite him, the picture of confidence. She crossed her arms and watched him with a faint smile.
"Let me be so kind as to explain. During the commission of a crime, the perpetrator exists as a physical entity. Therefore, while committing the act, they will inevitably come into contact with and exchange matter with various other physical entities. This material exchange is symbiotic with the criminal act; it is a law that operates independent of human will."
"-In other words, the wind leaves a sound, a migrating goose leaves a trace. There is no such thing as a crime that doesn't leave behind evidence, no matter how careful you are."
Her voice grew deeper, like a finely woven net closing in on its prey.
The undisputable coldness and contempt on her face left the staffer staring at her, utterly speechless.
Chu Xi brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead and said slowly, "Before you decided to film Ren Zhi, you had already cased the surrounding surveillance cameras. Your years of experience as a paparazzo made it easy for you to find the blind spots. You took your hidden camera, skirted the surveillance network's field of view, and crouched in the patch of grass directly opposite the floor-to-ceiling window of Ren Zhi's room. It's just a clump of weeds, without so much as a 'No Public Urination' sign. No one would ever install a camera there."
"You were crouched in an area with no surveillance coverage. You've got some nerve. You even dared to poke your head out occasionally to see if anyone was passing by. And sure enough, that night, there was no one there but you. You held your camera steady, thinking you'd get away with it all."
Midway through her account, Chu Xi clicked her tongue twice, as if she were reading a poorly written story someone had jotted down.
When she finished, her expression was blank, her voice cold and distant as she continued, "But do you remember what I told you just now? Locard's exchange principle."
Chu Xi lifted her chin slightly, eyeing him from the side.
"It's a pity, but you overlooked one thing."
The moment he heard that, the staffer's heart gave a violent lurch in his chest. His eyes were tense, desperately waiting for what Chu Xi would say next.
"You failed to notice that to the right of the patch of grass where you were hiding, there was a PVC display board from the local community office. The sign read: 'Highlights from Last Month's New Era Civilization Practice Activities and This Month's Planned Events.' Heh... it's true there were no cameras on the grass, but there was a camera on the hotel's exterior wall, one that covered the entire area where the community board was placed to protect public property."
Chu Xi pinched her index finger and thumb together, staring at her fingertips before making a sharp grabbing motion in the air-
"The moment you poked your head out, you missed it. The glass cover on that display board captured your reflection."
The air seemed to grow heavy.
The staffer's pupils dilated.
"The... the display board...?" he stammered, half dazed with panic.
How could he not have noticed that?! That would expose him!
Chu Xi gave a light smile and pulled her phone from her pocket.
"And we have last night's bright moon to thank. If the moon hadn't been directly overhead, you might have actually gotten away with it. I already have the footage the hotel sent me saved on my phone. If I hand it directly to the police, you'll be the one taking the fall." She pointed at the staffer, her sharp gaze piercing his.
"But Zhang Xiaoyan was the one who posted on Weibo, and I don't want to let him off the hook either. So, you decide. Do I report you, or do you work with me to identify Zhang Xiaoyan? I don't like it when two parties fight only for a third to reap the benefits."
The staffer suddenly lunged forward and grabbed her wrist! He pinned her phone down with his other hand, calling out her name repeatedly.
"Teacher Chu! Teacher Chu, I just wanted to make some extra cash! I never meant to damage your reputation! I'm just a working stiff! I had no idea Zhang Xiaoyan would post the footage I sent him so quickly... I didn't know! The Weibo post had nothing to do with me!"
He was panicking, his defenses completely shattered. He never imagined that after all his careful planning, a single oversight-a mere reflection-would be his undoing!
He'd been working on the crew for days; he knew Chu Xi was smart, exceptionally so, but he never expected her powers of deduction to be so meticulous. She had caught him with the tiniest of clues!
He was well and truly afraid of Chu Xi now. Nothing could get past her.
But this time, Zhang Xiaoyan was the one who benefited most from the secret footage of Ren Zhi and Chu Xi. Why should he be the one to take the fall? If anyone should be held responsible, it should be Zhang Xiaoyan! He was the one who said all those things!
"Teacher Chu, I'm willing to help you identify Zhang Xiaoyan. It's true that I sent him the footage, but I was only selling it for money. I never thought it would be posted to slander your and Teacher Ren's reputations." The staffer knew this was his chance to come clean.
Chu Xi thought for a few seconds, then asked, "So, how much footage of Ren Zhi did you get?"
"I was recording from the moment Teacher Ren got back to her room..." the staffer admitted honestly.
Chu Xi's hand twitched. The staffer was still pressing down on her phone. She glanced down at it. "Let go."
"Teacher Chu, you should just go after Zhang Xiaoyan. I'm not a professional paparazzo, I'm really not..." He had no intention of going to jail for his actions.
The staffer looked at Chu Xi helplessly, his face a mask of desperation.
Chu Xi let out an amused "heh."
"Send me all the video files you recorded of Ren Zhi's room from the night before last-the complete, original footage. Do that, and I'll drop the matter."
The staffer nodded, agreeing profusely. "Okay, okay, okay, Teacher Chu! I'll send it to you right away! All of it!"
After saying that, he looked at Chu Xi cautiously. "So... are you going to report Zhang Xiaoyan?"
"No. I don't have time for that."
"Then that surveillance footage... you won't..."
The staffer wanted to say, don't give it to anyone else.
Chu Xi smiled and slipped her phone back into her pocket, then floored him with a single question.
"You actually believed all that?"
The staffer: "...Huh??"
Chu Xi stood up and looked down at him with a grin. "There was nothing to the right of that patch of grass. No PVC display board, and certainly no 'Highlights from the New Era Civilization Practice Activities.' I made it all up. It was just my imagination. I didn't actually have any evidence."
"But I do now." She pulled a recording pen from her pocket and twirled it deftly between her fingers. "Your verbal confession is all right here. Don't worry. Just send me the footage from the other night, and I'll let bygones be bygones."
She put the recorder away. As she left the break room, her light voice carried another laugh, as if she found it amusing that the staffer had actually believed her story about the display board, the moonlight, and the reflection.
After she was gone, it took the staffer a long moment to come to his senses. He clutched his head with both hands. "Aaaah!" he cried out in regret, slapping his own head in frustration.
As Chu Xi walked out the door, she ran into the director, who, full of curiosity, had been eavesdropping at the door the entire time.
The moment she emerged, the director gave her a complicated look.
Chu Xi glanced at him. "What is it? The guy's been dealt with. He's a paparazzo. You can decide what to do with him." All she wanted was the video file, anyway.
The director watched her for a moment, then slowly gave her a thumbs-up.
"You are one... hell of a bluffer."
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