SFTD -Chapter 127 Campus Gunfire (Part 8)

“Shut up!”

Zhou Hai’s face turned ashen with anger. Although Charlotte had a Chinese face, her way of thinking and values were fundamentally American. He knew that would take time to change—but Lu Xi was standing right behind Charlotte, and the laptop in her hands nearly slipped from shock.

Charlotte shot Zhou Hai a glare.

“Don’t shout at me. You’re just my temporary guardian, not my father or brother. I was only trying to remind you out of kindness. Hmph, I’m going back to the U.S. tomorrow!”

With that, Charlotte turned and walked toward the bedroom, throwing a pillow at Zhou Hai as she left. Lu Xi patted Charlotte on the shoulder to comfort her, then smiled and walked over to Zhou Hai with her laptop.

“I found that post!”

Those words immediately pulled Zhou Hai out of his awkward moment. He leaned in with Lu Xi to look at the screen.

Sure enough, it was a wildly popular thread on Dongnan University’s forum, already with over a hundred thousand likes.

The title read— “Exclusive Private Nude Photos of the Campus Belle of Dongnan University.”

The title was indeed extremely provocative. Clicking it revealed a photo of a woman from behind, wearing only a bikini.

Her long black hair draped casually over her shoulders, partially covering the bikini straps, giving the illusion that she might not be wearing anything at all—suggestive and ambiguous.

She stood on her toes like a ballerina, her legs slim and smooth. She was undeniably beautiful, but from just the back, it was impossible to identify her.

However, in the following photos, her face became visible. In one shot, she held purple-red flower petals in her hands as they slowly fell around her. Her legs were crossed in front of her chest, carefully angled to cover her private areas. From an artistic perspective, the photos were elegant—but undeniably bold and modern.

Just as Zhou Hai was about to scroll further, he suddenly noticed something: the girl’s right little finger bent inward in an extremely unusual way. After closer inspection, there appeared to be a thin surgical scar that hadn’t been edited out.

“This is the victim Lin Jiajia.”

Lu Xi froze. “Huh? No, this says it’s from Sun Jingya’s post!”

Zhou Hai was startled. He quickly scrolled through all the images again.

There were seven or eight photos in total—professional studio-quality edits. The threatening comments below the post were chilling, suggesting the girl must have been terrified.

Zhou Hai fell into deep thought.

Who could have obtained these photos?

A hacker.

For someone skilled in computers and software, obtaining them would be effortless.

He scrolled further down. The comment section was full of chaotic posts—mostly male students asking, “Who is she?”

Opinions varied widely. Some said it was Sun Jingya, others insisted it was Lin Jiajia. There was insult, defamation, and slander—Zhou Hai could hardly believe such words could come from students.

Eventually, a few student council members issued a clarification: these were private photos of Sun Jingya taken during an external shoot, but they had been stolen and leaked by an unknown party. They urged everyone not to spread rumors or attack the girl.

Sun Jingya!

Zhou Hai froze. He pointed at the student council’s clarification post.

“You’re saying you knew who this was because of this statement? Can it be trusted?”

Lu Xi looked confused.

“Of course it’s trustworthy! It was posted by the student council officially. You can see the admin badge—it can’t be faked!”

Zhou Hai stared at the red administrator tag, his expression growing serious. Then he immediately called the lab.

A man answered after a moment.

“This is Zhou Hai from the forensic team, Group Two.”

“Hello, Dr. Zhou! What can I do for you?”

Zhou Hai glanced at the clock—it was already past eleven.

“Sorry for calling so late. I need a lab comparison. Please run a DNA test comparing the two blood samples from the deceased and the injured person, against the samples collected from the victim’s parents. Report the results to me as soon as they’re ready.”

The technician repeated the instructions. After Zhou Hai confirmed, the man said:

“Understood, Dr. Zhou. It may take a bit longer since it’s two DNA comparisons, but we can have the results before 8 a.m. tomorrow.”

Zhou Hai hung up.

“Teacher Lu Xi, I don’t know how to thank you. You’ve already done far beyond what you should have today for Charlotte—and you just helped me tremendously as well. Thank you.”

Lu Xi smiled and shook her head. Her dimples appeared on her cheeks. That smile seemed almost magical, and for a brief moment Zhou Hai felt an impulse to reach out and touch them—but he quickly suppressed the thought and looked away.

“You’re too polite, Dr. Zhou. Meeting you and Charlotte has made this boring winter break quite interesting. Being a forensic doctor sounds like such a cool profession!”

“Alright, it’s getting late. I need to rest too. Charlotte and I still have plans tomorrow, so we’ll leave you alone.”

Zhou Hai forced a small smile.

“Alright… Charlotte…”

“I’ll talk to her tomorrow. This isn’t the U.S. She just needs time to adapt.”

Watching Lu Xi leave, Zhou Hai finally let out a long breath. He returned to his room, took a shower, and reviewed the entire day’s events. It seemed everything started from the hospital’s initial identification of the two identities. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Eventually, he drifted into sleep.

—

Morning of January 29

Zhou Hai arrived early at the forensic center and went straight to the third-floor lab.

“You’re here? Wait a moment!”

The familiar voice from last night came again. Zhou Hai stepped back slightly.

A man with a face full of acne opened the door and looked surprised.

“Dr. Zhou, you’re here this early?”

Zhou Hai nodded apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait until eight o’clock. Are the results out?”

The technician waved his hand.

“No problem, the results just came out. I’ll get them for you.”

He slipped on his slippers, rushed inside, and returned with two reports.

Zhou Hai took them and walked toward the office downstairs.

He opened the first report.

The deceased’s blood sample did not match the parents of Lin Jiajia—no biological relationship.

Without pausing, he opened the second report.

The surviving girl’s blood sample did match the parents—she was their biological daughter.

Zhou Hai closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He hadn’t expected to make such a serious mistake. How could he have blindly trusted the hospital’s identification? The entire investigation needed to be adjusted.

He took out his phone and called Captain Liu. The call was answered after just three rings.

“Dr. Zhou, this early?”

“Captain Liu, there’s a problem…”

Thirty minutes later, Captain Liu and Chu Menghan arrived at Zhou Hai’s office.

After reading the DNA report carefully, Captain Liu said: “So the deceased is Sun Jingya, and the one in the hospital is actually Sun Jiajia.”

He paused for a few seconds.

“How did you figure it out?”

Zhou Hai explained the online post Lu Xi had shown him, as well as the injury on the girl’s finger in the photos.

“When I performed the autopsy, I found a fracture in the middle phalanx of the right little finger on the deceased. Since this matched the girl in the photos identified as Sun Jingya, I asked the lab to run a DNA test overnight. Also, I heard from Chu Menghan that Mr. Lin had rosea on his neck. In the photos Dr. He sent me of the injured person last night, I also saw the same rash on her arm. Since this is a hereditary immune condition, it further confirmed my suspicion.”

Captain Liu looked at Chu Menghan.

“Contact the parents of Sun Jingya and Lin Jiajia and ask them to come to the hospital. Dr. Zhou will come with me. This must be handled properly.”

Chu Menghan blocked Zhou Hai.

“I’ll go instead. This isn’t Dr. Zhou’s responsibility. When we arrived at the hospital, the patient already had a name tag on the bed. It was the hospital that mixed them up—why should we bear the responsibility?”

Captain Liu gave her a sideways glance.

“With your temper? Forget it. Can you handle hearing harsh words from both families? If this blows up further, it’ll be impossible to fix. Let’s go—if there’s responsibility, I’ll take it.”