Chapter 53: Yixun ③

Su Yu’s proposal undoubtedly provided a brand-new approach.

In fact, Gu Yao had been pondering in her heart since the afternoon on how to expose this matter while maximizing its impact. However, after all, she was not a professional PR team, and her experience in this field was pitifully scarce. All she could do was register a Weibo account, write down the whole matter exactly as it happened, and wait for people to repost it.

Doing it this way had two major drawbacks. First, the credibility was low, and it was very easily dismissed by people as a rumor, just glancing at it and scrolling past. Second, the influence was too low; if the follower count was not high, practically no one would see it.

Now, Su Yu’s proposal happened to solve the first problem of credibility.

Therefore, Gu Yao hurriedly took out her mobile phone to search the internet, but regretfully, there was no relevant information online, not even any negative news about Xiao Mingsheng.

This felt somewhat unusual. Even the most popular stars generally had some negative press, let alone someone of poor character like Xiao Mingsheng. Thus, there was only one possible answer: he must have been regularly paying money to have these search entries deleted.

This person was much more cunning than imagined, and defeating him was not going to be easy. At the same time, this also precisely proved that he was acting with a guilty conscience.

He was not an idol star who needed to maintain a pristine public persona; why else would he do these useless things? Was it for a good reputation? Or was it to cover up the things he had done in the past?

After the few of them discussed for a while longer, Su Yu stood up to take his leave. Gu Yao walked him downstairs and then returned upstairs to continue accompanying Yi Xun.

The two of them lay in bed together for a while, chatting and talking about interesting anecdotes from their childhood, and both burst into laughter. Yi Xun’s face was flushed, and the corners of her eyes welled up with tears from laughing. She looked much more relaxed overall. Gu Yao turned her head to look at her condition, becoming even more convinced that her choice to come and keep her company was the right one.

Perhaps because of the medication, Yi Xun soon drifted off to sleep. Gu Yao tucked the blanket securely around her, then took out her phone and walked out to send a WeChat message to Su Yu, turning all the notification sounds to silent for fear of waking Yi Xun.

A reply came back very quickly, and thick, deep concern could be read between the lines: "Are you cold? Do you have enough blankets and everything?"

"It's alright. Yi Xun has spare bedding," Gu Yao replied with a smile.

Su Yu then said, "Just leave the specific matters to me to handle. You only need to have Yi Xun write down the exact details of what happened back then, as clearly and concisely as possible. Wait until I tell you the right timing, and then you can post it. As for Xiao Mingsheng's side, I will have people keep an eye on him so he can't spend money to delete the posts."

These words of his undoubtedly gave Gu Yao a reassuring anchor. Previously, she had been constantly worried that if the matter failed, it would deal an even greater blow to Yi Xun. Now, however, she had no such concerns at all, because she had Su Yu acting as her strong backing.

Waking up early the next morning for work, Gu Yao hesitated a bit before leaving, looking at Yi Xun with unspoken words, worried that she might have another accident.

Sensing her thoughts, Yi Xun reached out to hold her hand, smiled, and said, "It's fine. You should know me. Since I gave up on suicide last time, I will definitely live a good life from now on. Besides, didn't I take my medicine properly?"

Only then did Gu Yao nod: "You must answer my phone call, though. I might call at any time."

As it turned out, in the afternoon, Yi Xun took the initiative to call her.

After Gu Yao answered, Yi Xun said, "I think I remembered a victim. She was a young girl who joined the company around the same time as me. She applied for an assistant position, and after working for just a few days, she suddenly resigned. Earlier on, I even saw her crying secretly in the restroom. She was quite a cheerful girl, and when we chatted, she never mentioned having any difficulties in life. Now that I think about it, it must have had something to do with Xiao Mingsheng."

This was a very important clue, so Gu Yao hurriedly asked, "Then do you know what this girl's name is?"

Yi Xun looked somewhat dazed: "It's been quite a long time, I've forgotten. Her surname should be Zhou, but I don't remember her given name."

In the vast sea of humanity, without knowing her name and without a photograph, where was one supposed to find this person?

The matter fell into a deadlock once again, and several days passed in the same state. Fortunately, Yi Xun took her medicine every day and had Gu Yao's company, so her condition improved a lot.

On this day, Gu Yao went out for a meal with Su Yu and incidentally called Gu Shisheng out as well. This kid had already started processing his paperwork to go abroad these past few days, and his entire person was depressed to the extreme.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Gu Shisheng had not yet arrived, so Gu Yao chatted with Su Yu for a bit about Yi Xun's situation. Looking up again, a sneaky figure appeared at the entrance of the private dining room.

Gu Yao frowned: "What are you doing? Come in."

Only then did Gu Shisheng walk in slowly, his expression somewhat strange: "What happened to Yi Xun?"

Gu Yao glanced at him: "Call her Sister Yi Xun. She even used to lead you around to play when you were little. You have no manners."

Gu Shisheng pursed his lips, lowered his head, and stopped talking, looking heavily preoccupied. Gu Yao simply assumed he was brooding over going abroad and didn't pay much attention to it; this kind of matter was something only he could resolve himself, and it was impossible for her to run to their mother and plead on his behalf.

After this meal, Gu Shisheng hardly showed up, and no one knew what he was busy with. Gu Yao was also extremely busy on her end, spending extra time accompanying Yi Xun while also preparing for the Weibo exposure. She organized the course of events from back then, wrote several versions of the draft, but remained unsatisfied each time, only to scrap them and start over.

When Gu Shisheng came to find her, it happened to be the end of the workday in the afternoon. The young man stood against the flow of the crowd at the hospital entrance, looking much more mature. His sun-tanned skin had lightened a bit, and his handsome face appeared somewhat cold.

Gu Yao walked over and scanned him up and down: "What is this? Running over here to act all cool?"

She was as dismissive of her younger brother as ever.

Gu Shisheng did not speak, maintaining his cool demeanor as he silently followed behind his sister. After getting into the car, he finally spoke up: "I found that woman with the surname Zhou."

Hearing him drop this so abruptly, Gu Yao didn't react for a second, then blinked after a few seconds: "The woman with the surname Zhou? How do you know about this?"

"Outside the private room that day, I heard you guys talking," Gu Shisheng replied, then tightly closed his mouth again.

"Then how on earth did you track down this woman's whereabouts?" Gu Yao raised an eyebrow.

"When I used to sing at bars, someone handed me a business card, saying that if I wanted to release a record, I could go to the company to find him. That person is a senior executive at Xiao Mingsheng's company. I went to find him a few days ago, pretending that I wanted to sign a contract, and went inside to scout for information."

Gu Shisheng was only willing to reveal this much. When Gu Yao wanted to ask in more detail, she thought better of it and gave up, afraid that Gu Shisheng would find her annoying and develop a rebellious attitude, which would make things even harder to handle.

She was such a clever person; connecting all the previous events, she had long since seen that Gu Shisheng's feelings for Yi Xun were somewhat extraordinary.

But so what? She had always detested prejudices like social status and age gaps; as long as two people had a connection and truly loved each other, that was all that mattered.

If the two of them really ended up together in the end, she would only choose to offer her blessings. At the same time, however, Gu Yao was terribly afraid that this reckless punk Gu Shisheng didn't understand matters of the heart and would end up breaking Yi Xun's heart, causing her to wrestle with this dilemma once again.

Right now, though, the top priority was to find that woman surnamed Zhou, and ask her about what happened when she served as Xiao Mingsheng's assistant back then—it was bound to yield some useful information.

According to Gu Shisheng's description, this woman was named Zhou Yiren, and she was currently running a milk tea shop. The shop was located outside a middle school, the business was quite good, and she was already married with a child, leading a family life that could be considered happy and fulfilling.

Gu Yao went over on a Saturday when the students happened to be on holiday, making the milk tea shop appear somewhat deserted. A woman in her thirties was making milk tea behind the counter, with a little girl of about five years old clinging to her leg, pitifully begging her mother for a cup of juice sitting on the counter.

Her mother bent down, looking somewhat stern: "No, drinking too much sweet stuff is bad for your health."

Seeing Gu Yao approach, she straightened up: "What would you like to drink?"

Gu Yao casually chose a cup of red bean milk tea, and while waiting, she briefly sized up the woman. She realized that she should be someone with a gentle personality, looking soft and delicate—the exact same type as Yi Xun. Following this deduction, Xiao Mingsheng likely preferred targeting this kind of girl.

When the milk tea was ready, Zhou Yiren brought the cup over. Gu Yao politely stood up and invited her: "Would it be alright to sit down and talk for a bit?"

Zhou Yiren became somewhat guarded: "What... person are you?"

Gu Yao directly pulled out a photograph of her together with Yi Xun to show her: "Do you recognize this person? She is my friend."

Zhou Yiren looked at it for a long time before she finally formed a slight impression: "Her name is... Yi Xun, right? She sang very well. I always thought she would become a very famous singer, but I haven't heard any news about her all these years."

With this as an entry point, the two of them chatted quite smoothly for a few moments. Afterward, Zhou Yiren settled her daughter aside to play with toys and finally sat down: "What business do you have finding me? Yi Xun and I only exchanged a few words; we weren't very close."

Gu Yao took a sip of her milk tea, and then recounted the entire matter as tactfully as possible, adding a slight mention at the end that if she too was a victim, she hoped she could anonymously come forward online to testify.

However, the woman opposite her instantly tensed up, her face chilling all at once as she stood straight up and pointed toward the door, telling her to leave.

Gu Yao had actually anticipated this outcome, so she stood up unhurriedly and walked out holding her milk tea. At that moment, the little girl trotted over on bouncing steps, raised her small face, and asked, "Is auntie leaving?"

Looking extremely adorable, Gu Yao squatted down to hold her small hand, looked back at Zhou Yiren who was standing in place with a gloomy expression, and said in a gentle tone: "Years from now, your daughter will also grow up. I hope that the society at that time will be a relatively safe environment for women, and that requires our generation to work together starting right now. Don't you agree?"