Chapter 100: Alt Account

It was Li Bite who was chasing Hua Deping to demand an explanation; the two were fighting fiercely.

Hearing Qi Fei say he wanted to question him, Hua Deping was about to protest, but Qi Fei showed him the Photoshopped photo of Hong Mei, and Hua Deping was speechless for a moment.

Li Bite became even more agitated: "This was your doing?!" As he said this, he almost started a fight in the detention center again.

"I posted it, so what?" Hua Deping's attitude was quite tough at first. "The Lan Die thing was a coincidence, and the photo I made was clearly Hong Mei, not Lan Die. This should prove something, right?"

Qi Fei showed him the photo of Hong Mei's crime scene, which finally softened Hua Deping's arrogant attitude: "This... this is different... the photo I posted of Hong Mei didn't have wounds on her face..." Because the content of the photo was too bloody, Hua Deping's words were tough, but his voice was already trembling.

"How do you explain this arrangement?"

"I didn't kill Hong Mei, believe me! I was on set that night and didn't go anywhere! Didn't you ask me this right after Hong Mei died?! Who on earth is framing me?!" Hua Deping said hysterically.

Qi Fei continued to speak. While he said this, he knew in his heart that Hua Deping was right. Up until now, all the suspects they found who had a motive for murder, except for Liu Yi, had been ruled out because they had clear alibis. The filming schedule of this crew made Qi Fei vaguely feel that something was wrong. He then said to Hua Deping: "We'll talk about the time issue later. I ask you, why did you post these photos in Hong Mei's hater circle?"

Upon hearing this, Hua Deping's previously tough attitude immediately became hesitant: "Don't misunderstand, I have no opinion of Hong Mei, I wouldn't kill her."

"No opinion, yet you curse her like that?"

"That was to generate heat for the show. 'Black-red' is still red. You don't know how much pressure a producer is under! And didn't that Liu Yi do the same thing? Go ask around, how much of Hong Mei's heat came from 'black-red'? She didn't care at all. Hong Mei was a very realistic person; she knew very well in her heart that the reason those shows hired her was because there would be controversy every time she performed. If the word-of-mouth wasn't good, haters would still curse her onto the trending topics. How many shows had their viewership contributed by curious netizens who saw the black trending topics?" Hua Deping said with justification.

"You said someone imitated you and committed murder with the black photos. Do you have any suspects?" Qi Fei continued to ask.

"Uh, every time I posted, one account would definitely repost, but I don't know who this person is. Anyway, he seemed very interested in the photos I posted. Before Hong Mei was killed, he suddenly sent me a private message. He said, 'I have an audition in this city, this might be my major breakthrough.' I feel very familiar with this sentence. I don't know where I've seen it, but I always feel very uncomfortable hearing it. If you can find me, you can definitely find this person." Hua Deping said.

"Does this sentence mean he is also an actor?" Qi Fei asked.

Hua Deping shook his head: "No, I remember someone saying this sentence, but I can't remember where."

When the interrogation ended, Qi Fei specifically walked to the observation room next door and almost bumped into Liu Tong. A lot of water spilled out of the thermos in Liu Tong's hand.

"What's the situation? In such a rush to see me?" Liu Tong said, wiping the water off himself.

"Is Zhong Kui not here today?" Qi Fei asked.

"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that?"

"Captain Liu, I don't have time to joke with you. I need to find Zhong Kui for help!" Qi Fei didn't know why he was so anxious.

"Is it related to Hua Deping?" Liu Tong also became serious, knowing that Qi Fei had some thoughts.

"Hua Deping said he had heard that private message somewhere. I need Zhong Kui to help Hua Deping remember this kind of vague memory," Qi Fei said immediately.

Liu Tong heard this, pointed outside, and said: "It's snowing heavily outside. Zhong Kui won't appear recently."

Qi Fei had heard Liu Tong's words a long time ago. He vaguely remembered that when he went to Sanwu Town and waited for Zhong Kui at the Huang Daxian Temple, the people in town told him that Zhong Kui would not appear on snowy days.

Ever since investigating Zhong Xiaoyu's case, hearing this sentence again, Qi Fei suddenly had a different realization. It was snowing heavily in Baicheng when her whole family was killed.

It seems she has returned to Zizai Shan.

Qi Fei remembered that time he went to Zizai Shan to find her; it was also a snowy day. Although Zhong Kui always said that Zhong Xiaoyu had erased this part of her pain, if there were no pain, why would she hide away alone every time it snowed?

Thinking of this, Qi Fei was filled with regret. She must have been very uncomfortable at that time, and he had even lost his temper at her.

"I'm here to hand in my homework!" Wu Shanqiu's words interrupted Qi Fei's thoughts. "Hua Deping was right, there really is an account reposting the photos Hua Deping uploaded. And this account is very strange. He never interacts with other people in the hater circle, only reposts black materials and black photos about Hong Mei, and even likes his own posts. It's really strange."

"Did you find out whose account it is?" Qi Fei asked.

"This person hasn't updated since Hong Mei died. We checked and it's not a real-name registration. We are looking for it through other channels."

Just as they were talking, Wu Shanqiu received a call and almost dropped her phone.

"Why are you being so careless?" Qi Fei said.

"This is a major discovery!" Wu Shanqiu couldn't hide her excitement.

"What's wrong?"

"We tracked down who is using this account. This person is too unexpected!" Wu Shanqiu didn't wait for Qi Fei to ask and impatiently answered herself: "It's Lan Die. Our technical staff found that another account associated with this account has real-name registration information, showing it's Lan Die. They have already cracked the phone Lan Die used before she died, confirming that this account was indeed logged in by her."

"Lan Die?" Qi Fei was indeed surprised. "So her attitude of 'letting things pass' was a disguise?"

"Sigh, Brother Fei, your intuition was right. It seems Lan Die never let go of her hatred for Hong Mei, using an alt account to spy in Hong Mei's hater circle," Wu Shanqiu said.

"But there's one thing I don't understand. Besides venting her anger, is there any other reason she reposted those secondary creation photos by Hua Deping?"

"Shanqiu, I think what's more suspicious in this matter is that on the night Lan Die died, the entire set, currently known to have three people who knew the set design for the scene Lan Die was going to film, was once used to display the death of 'Xian Yao.' Lan Die was one of them, but that night, she didn't raise any objections at all. This matter is too suspicious." ===== CHAPTER 101 =====