Chapter 46 - 45: The Battlefield of Two Girls

Bai Yun’s hand, touching that object, actually started trembling slightly.

Grandma Qin’s eyes flashed a sharp gleam, and she spoke lightly, “Bai Yun, take it out and let’s have a look. If it isn’t what we think, Grandma will personally apologize to you. Otherwise, if you leave like this, you will never clear your name.”

Bai Yun’s heart thudded loudly, as if it would jump out of her chest at any moment.

She bit her teeth tightly, looking at Grandma Qin’s incisive gaze, then turned her pleading eyes towards Shen Manru.

Unfortunately, Shen Manru was also staring at her, eyes filled with suspicion.

“Bai Yun, Grandma is right. Since you’ve already filed a report, if you walk out like this, it will always be unclear. Let everyone have a look,” Qin Xuan said in a low voice, which carried barely restrained anger and a sense of oppression.

Bai Yun, holding onto her last hope, slowly took out the object from her pocket.

Qin Xuan’s eyes narrowed, and he exclaimed in shock, “Silent Night Cicada.”

He quickly walked up to Bai Yun and, facing the stunned Bai Yun, reached out his hand.@@novelbin@@

Bai Yun, in a daze, handed the Silent Night Cicada to Qin Xuan.

Qin Xuan took it, saw that it wasn’t damaged, and looked at Bai Yun with an ashen face and tightly knitted brows. “Bai Yun, can you tell me why this Silent Night Cicada is in your pocket?”

Indeed, why was it in her pocket?

Bai Yun’s mind buzzed loudly, and for a moment, it even went blank.

She stood in the center of the living room, looking around. Shen Manru appeared utterly incredulous, Qin Xiaoyu was covering her mouth in shock, Grandma Qin’s gaze was as sharp as a sword, and the two police officers were looking at her keenly.

At this moment, Bai Yun felt both humiliated and helpless.

Her last glance fell on Gu Qiaoqiao.

Gu Qiaoqiao still stood beside the scattered items, with an erect stature, a chilly gleam in her eyes, and a mocking smile on her lips.

All of a sudden, as if coming back to her senses, Bai Yun yelled at Gu Qiaoqiao, “It must be Gu Qiaoqiao, she definitely sneaked the Silent Night Cicada into my pocket, she stole it, not me!”

“Bai Yun, our country’s law values physical evidence and testimony, and you have both,” Gu Qiaoqiao said with a meaningful glance at Qin Xuan and Shen Manru. “Even if some want to blatantly lie, the two officers are still here.”

Qin Xuan and Shen Manru turned pale, obviously understanding her point.

They used to find Gu Qiaoqiao embarrassing, but today they felt utterly disgraced in front of her.

They didn’t even dare meet Gu Qiaoqiao’s gaze and hastily averted their eyes.

“It’s not me, really not me. If it were me, how could I expose you to Aunt Shen and the others? If it were me, I wouldn’t brazenly keep the item in my pocket. I would have hidden it long ago so you couldn’t find it. Aunt Shen, this doesn’t make sense at all,” Bai Yun desperately explained to everyone in the room.

Gu Qiaoqiao truly admired Bai Yun’s ability to remain composed in crisis, coming up with so many explanations in the blink of an eye.

If it were some other girl, she would have been scared stiff by now.

“Bai Yun, this matter is very simple. If I were still as timid and weak as before, your scheme today would have truly succeeded.”

“They say that a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. After all these years, I’ve gained a year, and I’ve suffered so much from you; it’s time I learned something.”

“So, not only did I vehemently deny it, but I also helped you report it, and I saw the abnormality in your pocket,”

“If I hadn’t mentioned it, who would have known about the Silent Night Cicada in your pocket? You were confident, thinking no one would notice. Once you framed me, you’d just walk out of the Qin Family’s front door with the Silent Night Cicada.”

“After making a round outside, you’d then appear as a hero to the Qin Family. At that time, not only would the Qin Family give you a large sum of money, but they would also regard you as a benefactor, so you’ve extorted money and sold favors, Bai Yun, does that seem reasonable to you?”

Gu Qiaoqiao’s voice was clear and forceful, logical and coherent, her eyes shimmering with a different kind of gleam, even causing a brief pause in the room.

Bai Yun’s face turned pale, her eyes wide with fury, she barked in a frenzied low growl, “Gu Qiaoqiao, you are slandering me. I have never thought like that, nor would I ever do so. Although the Bai Family isn’t wealthy, we lack nothing. Being neighbors with the Qin Family for decades, how could I extort money from them? Your accusation is absurd.”

“If you’re so affluent, why haven’t you returned my eight hundred yuan?” Gu Qiaoqiao pressed fiercely.

At this moment, the Qin Family’s living room had become a battlefield between the two girls.

Grandma Qin used her stern gaze to signal Qin Xuan and Shen Manru not to interject.

Now that the police had entered the Qin residence, the fig leaf had already been torn away. Whether or not it was embarrassing had long ceased to matter.

When Shen Manru heard Gu Qiaoqiao’s words, she hesitated. Hadn’t Bai Yun said that Gu Qiaoqiao had squandered all her own money?

How could she have lent eight hundred to Bai Yun?

“When did I ever borrow money from you?” Bai Yun exclaimed in shock, vehemently denying it.

She wouldn’t admit it without a written agreement and no witnesses.

“It was last October, you and I went to the bank together to withdraw it, the withdrawal date is on the passbook. Though there’s no written agreement, you won’t admit it, but I dare swear on the lives of my family members, do you dare to swear on the lives of your family members?” Gu Qiaoqiao asked coldly.

Bai Yun looked at Gu Qiaoqiao with a new perspective, and in that moment, she had to admit that Gu Qiaoqiao was no longer the foolish, timid farm girl.

Would she dare to swear?

Even though she didn’t believe in spirits, could she risk her family members’ lives with an oath?

Even if she did take an oath, there was another significant issue waiting for her.

It was as if thousands of venomous snakes were gnawing at Bai Yun’s heart, her malign gaze like the flicker of a snake’s tongue.

As if ready to tear Gu Qiaoqiao to shreds.

Though her mind was a mess, she was still trying to figure out how that thing got into her pocket.

If she took it or not, she knew best herself.

Seeing the slight smile on Gu Qiaoqiao’s lips, she seemed to have an epiphany and screamed, “Gu Qiaoqiao, it was you, it was definitely you, wasn’t it?”

“What have I done?” Gu Qiaoqiao asked with a laugh.

“It was you who stuffed the Silent Night Cicada into my pocket, right?” Bai Yun’s expression turned fierce, gone was her usual gentleness.

“Bai Yun, you really are stubborn as a dying duck. If I stuffed something into your pocket, would you not know? Besides, today I wasn’t even close enough to touch you—I was at least five or six steps away from you. Everyone present saw that, right…”

Everyone’s eyes then turned to Bai Yun’s jeans; girls love to look sharp, and their pants are usually tight-fitting.

To stuff something into the pocket of tight jeans would require some effort, let alone from five steps away by Gu Qiaoqiao.