The Frail Guide Who Devoured an Entire Pollution Zone

Chapter 155: Chapter 155: The Missing Witness

After hearing about Xu Qingsui’s alleged ”deeds,” the crowd of onlookers became righteously indignant and began shouting at the top of their lungs.

The women in the crowd were particularly incensed, reacting as if their own boyfriends had been stolen. They looked like they wanted to march right up and run Xu Qingsui out of the 27th District.

Faced with Liang Xiaoxiao’s smug expression and the crowd’s fury, Xu Qingsui’s face was an emotionless, cold mask.

When the noise died down slightly, Xu Qingsui finally spoke in a cold voice. ”Is there anything else? If you’re finished, then it’s my turn to speak.”

Everyone present was stunned. They couldn’t believe that even now, Xu Qingsui could stand there facing them all and speak so calmly.

Liang Xiaoxiao froze for a second, then immediately tilted her chin up defiantly. ”Still trying to make excuses? Nothing can ever wash away the things you’ve done.”

The corner of Xu Qingsui’s mouth lifted into a cold sneer.

”I don’t need to make excuses, and I certainly don’t need to ’wash’ anything away. I only have one question: can you provide any evidence for the things you just said?”

”If you’re just making baseless claims, anyone with an ounce of sense should think twice before believing you.”

Xu Qingsui wasn’t in a hurry to explain herself. She wanted to see who was really pulling Liang Xiaoxiao’s strings.

She had thought about it for a long time without coming up with an answer. Her only option was to force Liang Xiaoxiao to reveal her source.

As Xu Qingsui spoke, all eyes in the crowd shifted to Liang Xiaoxiao.

They were angry, yes, but Xu Qingsui had a point. Where was the proof?

And since this was a scandal involving a man and a woman, many were eager to see the evidence, hoping for even juicier details.

Liang Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded. ’Are there really people like this?’ she thought. ’I give her a chance to save face and she throws it back, demanding evidence?’

Convinced that what she knew was the absolute truth, she could only see Xu Qingsui’s behavior as utterly shameless.

Since Xu Qingsui had asked for it, she would gladly oblige.

Liang Xiaoxiao laughed in exasperation and nodded. ”Fine. You probably think I can’t produce any evidence. In that case, I’ll leave you utterly speechless. Let’s see how you’ll talk your way out of it then.”

”Everyone saw it! I was trying to let her save a little face, but she didn’t want it. So don’t blame me for what comes next.”

Liang Xiaoxiao addressed the onlookers, her voice carrying as if she were making a grand proclamation.

”I learned all of this from someone from Zone 9. She’s my witness, and I can have her come over right now.”

Hearing that there was a witness, the crowd’s last lingering doubts vanished.

In an instant, all eyes were back on Xu Qingsui, filled with contempt.

The vicious glares seemed to want to strip her bare, to give her death by a thousand cuts.

A slight smile played on Xu Qingsui’s lips. ’I’d love to get a good look at this witness,’ she thought. ’Let’s see who followed me all the way to the 27th District just to spread gossip.’

Shen Yan issued a new order, but his eyes never left his phone screen.

It was so absorbing that the staff member who came to give a report couldn’t help but sneak glances at the screen.

They were curious what could possibly have their normally work-focused boss so captivated that he couldn’t put it down, even during work hours.

After hearing the stories about Xu Qingsui, Shen Yan’s brow furrowed.

There was no denying that if what Liang Xiaoxiao said was true, then Xu Qingsui’s character was indeed questionable.

But he still trusted his gut, which told him Xu Qingsui wasn’t capable of something like that.

Besides, Liang Xiaoxiao claimed she had also been deceived by Xu Qingsui, but only he knew the truth: he was the one with ulterior motives.

Xu Qingsui, on the other hand, had only agreed to play along with his act to reject Liang Xiaoxiao at his own insistence.

So, for all these reasons, he didn’t believe a word Liang Xiaoxiao was saying.

When he heard she had a witness, Shen Yan perked up. He wanted to see this witness, too.

He had a vague feeling there was more to the story.

There were probably kernels of truth in the accusations, but they had been twisted into something ugly and distorted.

After she finished speaking, Liang Xiaoxiao scanned the crowd, as if searching for someone.

But after a full scan, an awkward expression crossed her face. The person she was looking for clearly wasn’t there.

Xu Qingsui, who had been watching her every move, guessed what was happening.

She wasn’t surprised. ’After spinning so many lies, how could that person dare to show their face here?’

’Besides, it’s definitely someone I know. If they showed up and I saw them, the whole charade would be over.’

Liang Xiaoxiao gave an embarrassed laugh, immediately pulling out her phone and dialing the witness’s number.

The phone rang and rang without an answer, and her stomach clenched.

Everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to produce the witness. If she couldn’t get them here, she’d be the one in trouble.

When the ringing finally stopped and the call went to voicemail, Liang Xiaoxiao’s heart sank.

Xu Qingsui sneered and made a ”go on” gesture with her hand. ”Why don’t you try calling a few more times? Maybe they were just busy and missed it!”

Feeling the sting of Xu Qingsui’s mockery, Liang Xiaoxiao shot her a venomous glare and hastily redialed.

But the monotonous ringing hammered at her nerves, winding the tension in her mind tighter and tighter.

A sense of unease began to creep in, but when she felt Xu Qingsui’s mocking gaze on her, a nameless rage started to boil up inside.

To bolster her courage, she said coldly, ”Don’t you get smug. I heard everything with my own ears, so it can’t be fake. There are plenty of reasons why the call isn’t going through.”

”Maybe she stepped out without her phone. Or it could be a signal issue. Communications are spotty these days anyway. Not every safe zone has managed to set up a signal tower, and even then, the range is limited to the zone itself. Bad reception is common.”

Xu Qingsui shrugged nonchalantly. ”It’s fine. Take your time. Keep calling until you get through. If that doesn’t work, I’ll even go with you to find this person.”

”But let me give you one last piece of advice. The things you ’know’ are just things you heard from someone else. How can you be so sure they’re true?”

”If you want to play the hero and dish out justice, you’d better get your facts straight first. Otherwise, you might just be shooting yourself in the foot.”

Already frantic because she couldn’t reach her witness, Liang Xiaoxiao was in no mood to listen to a word Xu Qingsui said.

Ignoring Xu Qingsui’s warning, she kept dialing, one call after another.

After a while, the onlookers started to grow impatient.

Just as murmurs of doubt began to ripple through the crowd, on Liang Xiaoxiao’s thirty-fourth attempt, the call finally connected.

”Where are you? Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

”I just stepped out for a bit and didn’t have my phone on me. What’s up, Xiao Xiao?”

”I’m with Xu Qingsui. I’m confronting her right now. You need to come over and back me up.”

The line went silent. Just as Liang Xiaoxiao was about to lose her temper, the voice spoke again.

”Xiao Xiao, just drop it. We can’t win against her.”