After speaking, Ke Beichen tugged Mu Side forward. "Director Chen, Mu Side and I are here to turn ourselves in!"
Director Chen massaged his aching temples. "The mess online… was your doing?"
"Yes… but not entirely!" Ke Beichen glanced toward Dong Anlan and Shu Lanzhou. "This all started when I discovered that someone had installed screen-spy software on Shu Lanzhou's computer yesterday!"
"Come in, all of you." Director Chen ushered them into the office. "Professor Mu, are you coming in too, or...?"
"I still have class, so I'll take my leave." Mu Yanning had only come to support Shu Lanzhou in case Han Weicheng caused trouble. Now that he was gone, there was no need for her to stay.
"This is a small matter. I trust my students to handle it themselves—and I hope, Director Chen, that you'll trust their word as well."
Director Chen felt another wave of headache. This matter involved two professors and came right on the heels of Professor Mu's passing. What a mess.
Half an hour later, after laying out all the relevant evidence and explaining everything in detail, the group left Director Chen's office.
Shu Lanzhou turned to Mu Side and Ke Beichen.
"Senior Mu, Senior Ke—thank you both, truly. If it weren't for you, who knows how long this would've dragged on."
If it had continued much longer, people might have forgotten the plagiarism incident altogether. Even if it resurfaced privately, they'd likely assume she was the one who had plagiarized Lin Muyao.
After all, Lin Muyao had always been adept at twisting black into white.
But things were different now. The fake accounts had been traced, and both the plagiarism and the slander clearly benefited Lin Muyao.
If she wanted to prove her innocence, she'd have no choice but to let the investigation proceed.
No matter how well Lin Muyao had prepared, they now had two crucial pieces of evidence—the botnet campaign and the screen-spy software—plus Shu Lanzhou's original paper draft.
Even if they couldn't tie it directly to Lin Muyao, at least they could completely clear Shu Lanzhou's name. No one would be able to use these incidents against her again.
It cut off her worries at the root.
"I didn't do it entirely for you," Mu Side said coldly. "I just didn't want any stain on my team. Since this happened online, it had to be thoroughly investigated."
Shu Lanzhou nodded earnestly. "Understood. I'll never tarnish the team's name or the professor's reputation."
"Hah. Then you don't need to thank me either. I was just helping Ah-De," Ke Beichen said, waving her off. "Besides, it was Anlan who asked me to look into it yesterday. It was nothing—don't think too much of it."
The casual mention of "Anlan" stunned Dong Anlan for a second, but before she could react, He Sixin had already pulled the two boys away.
"Alright, stop overthinking it. Director Chen is a fair person, and with our evidence, this should get resolved soon enough."
"No need to keep thanking each other. We're a team now. We face problems together."
"Lanzhou, you don't have class now, do you? Come back to the lab with me?"
Dong Anlan waved at them. "I'll skip for now. I've got class soon—I'll drop by again in the afternoon."
The group parted ways, and Mu Side and Shu Lanzhou headed toward the lab with He Sixin, while Ke Beichen turned to catch up with Dong Anlan.
Not far away, Luo Jialin had already traced the origin of the fake accounts and rounded up the people involved. He was leading them to the student affairs office.
As he walked into the building, he glanced back—
On one side, Ke Beichen and Dong Anlan were walking to the classroom building, chatting and laughing. On the other, Shu Lanzhou followed Mu Side and He Sixin to the laboratory.
Seeing Dong Anlan's bright smile, Luo Jialin frowned.
So two-faced. Confessing her love to me one day, then cozying up to another guy the next. Shameless. Good thing I didn't say yes!
And those two heading to the lab weren't much better—one was a loser who couldn't beat him, and the other was a bumpkin clinging to Mu Side just to stay in the team.
She studied some obscure niche subject—where did they get the confidence to challenge his team? Absolutely laughable.
Luo Jialin scoffed and shoved the culprits up the stairs.
Meanwhile, back in the lab, Lin Muyao was pacing anxiously.
She had finally gotten rid of Fang Ruoshi and Du Yifan, sneaking off to the bathroom to call the people who had helped her with the smear campaign.
Thankfully, she'd taken precautions—she hadn't used her regular phone and had disguised her voice when making those calls.
Now all she needed to do was use the same method to ensure those people kept quiet and denied being paid. Then she'd be in the clear.
As for the plagiarism, no one could tie that to her either. She had thoroughly wiped her tracks on her computer.
But those hired posters had cost her nearly 500,000 yuan! That was two months' worth of living expenses—infuriating!
She'd definitely get that money back from Shu Lanzhou eventually!
That poor thing probably didn't even have 100,000 yuan for the whole semester.
That afternoon, Mu Side got a call from the student affairs office.
"Director Chen said the investigation's concluded. But…" Mu Side looked at Shu Lanzhou. "It looks like they couldn't tie anything to Lin Muyao. The plagiarism case will probably be dropped."
Shu Lanzhou had expected as much. Lin Muyao wasn't stupid—she'd never leave behind evidence.
If she had, Shu Lanzhou wouldn't have spent her last life watching Lin Muyao steal her research and papers without ever catching her.
As for the spyware, it would likely be traced to some anonymous hacker. Unless she went to the police, there'd be no way to find the person behind it.
But who would report something like this over a basic term paper? That'd just get the whole school riled up. Even the university might label her as immature.
Elite schools had reputations to maintain.
"It's fine," Shu Lanzhou said, shaking her head. "Just make it public that my computer was compromised. Let people know my paper was leaked and that someone spread nasty rumors about me online. That's enough."
Mu Side nodded. "So you expected there'd be no real resolution? You stirred things up just so no one could use these incidents against you again?"
"Now that we've exposed the paid trolls and proven the malware attack, no one can exploit either issue going forward?"
"Exactly." Shu Lanzhou nodded. "If I want to join Professor Mu's team, I have to come in clean—no baggage."
"Besides, I also just wanted to disgust Lin Muyao a bit. Whether they catch her or not, once the virus on my laptop becomes public, she won't be able to wash her hands of suspicion."
"People are complicated. Even if suspicion doesn't matter now, that doesn't mean it won't matter later. If similar things keep happening, one day, people will remember what happened today."
Mu Side's eyes darkened slightly as he met her gaze. "How do you know similar things will happen again?"
"Didn't you ever hear the saying, a dog can't stop eating shit?" Shu Lanzhou smiled calmly and turned to focus on her work.
Watching her walk away, the usually stern Mu Side's lips curved into a faint smile.
What a clever girl. How could anyone not like her?
Shu Lanzhou was recalling what she'd learned about Lin Muyao in her past life.
Lin Muyao had never been truly skilled. She climbed her way up by stepping on others.
She dressed impeccably every day, floated between different men, manipulated their pity, and used them to help her ascend.
In her last life, Shu Lanzhou had been the perfect fool—Lin Muyao's stepping stone, helping her reach even higher connections.
But this time, Shu Lanzhou was watching. She wanted to see exactly what Lin Muyao would do next.