Chapter 44: A Sudden Change of Face

After ending the call, Yan Xue took a moment to compose herself, processing the information she had just heard and the complicated feelings swirling within her. Kang Ge, also busy with his work, noticed her staring blankly after the call and paused to look at her.

"What's wrong? You look like you've been hit with some kind of mental shock," he teased.

"I have. If you were the one who made that call and heard what Bai Yueni did back in high school, you’d probably be reacting the same way." Yan Xue felt that what she had just learned far exceeded her previous imagination. "We know about Bai Yueni’s family background, her appearance, her education—all in all, she wasn't exceptional, just an average person. I never expected her to be such a monster in high school!"

"Her classmates said there was a girl named Tong Jingfei in their class. She wasn't very pretty and didn't have great grades, but she loved writing. Because she wrote a better essay than Bai Yueni during a school competition, the teacher replaced Bai Yueni—who was the presumed winner—with Tong Jingfei to represent the school at the city-level semifinals."

"It wasn't even a major competition; the prize was just having your photo and ranking published in the local newspaper, and the winning essay might get reprinted. Just for that, Bai Yueni, who always prided herself on being a talented beauty, lost her composure. She started targeting Tong Jingfei at every turn and humiliating her about her looks in front of the whole class."

"The classmate couldn't remember the specific things said, only that they were incredibly cruel. Since Bai Yueni was a popular girl with a reputation in the class and even the grade, others followed her lead and mocked Tong Jingfei just to curry favor with her."

"Eventually, Tong Jingfei couldn't take the constant daily ridicule and humiliation. One day, she had a mental breakdown, ran out of the classroom crying, and never returned. After her withdrawal paperwork was processed, word got out that she had attempted to slit her wrists after being pushed to the brink. Fortunately, her family found her in time to save her. Fearing for her safety, her parents gave in to everything she wanted and withdrew her from school permanently."

"Actually, this isn't surprising at all. It’s quite normal. Bai Yueni targeted Tong Jingfei because she was spoiled; she felt that anything she wanted or liked had to be hers. So, when the honor she coveted went to someone inferior to her, it felt like an insult to the Bai Yueni of that time."

"As for Tong Jingfei, are you wondering why she didn't fight back, or why, after such a blow, she didn't complain to the teachers or the school to demand justice?"

Yan Xue nodded. Because her parents were soft-spoken and mild-mannered, she had developed a sharper edge to her personality. She was the type to resolve issues on the spot rather than let them fester. This temperament had the benefit of making others think twice before crossing her. Because of this, she couldn't understand why Tong Jingfei and her family chose to remain silent about Bai Yueni’s actions, which seemed completely unreasonable and unacceptable.

"You can't project yourself into this situation and measure what would be 'reasonable' for her to do," Kang Ge seemed to have guessed where Yan Xue’s misunderstanding lay. "Your situation is different from Tong Jingfei's back then, so the circumstances you face are different too."

"Think about it: no matter how popular Bai Yueni was, how could she lead an entire class to either bully Tong Jingfei or stand by in silence? Beyond Bai Yueni’s charisma, it also had to do with the role Tong Jingfei had been cast in all along."

"You mean she was the designated punching bag?"

"Exactly. If Tong Jingfei had been an ordinary student, even if she wasn't as flashy as Bai Yueni, people would have thought Bai Yueni was being a bully if she ostracized her over an essay competition. But what if Tong Jingfei wasn't even considered an 'ordinary' student, but rather someone who was always the target of mockery and ridicule?"

"If Cinderella steals the spotlight from the princess, people find it inspiring. But what if the person who stole the spotlight was the princess’s ugly, dim-witted sister? The princess would feel insulted, and everyone else would find it hard to accept."

"That explains Bai Yueni’s behavior and the others' bullying, but what about the reactions of Tong Jingfei and her family?"

"Well, why do you think an 'ugly duckling' who had always been invisible and never dared to stand out would suddenly defy the pressure from Bai Yueni’s clique and accept the teacher’s arrangement to try and win honor through writing?"

"I get it now!" Yan Xue realized. "Tong Jingfei wasn't content with being the class clown. She hoped to amaze others with her talent and make up for her lack of physical beauty?"

"I think that’s the most likely scenario," Kang Ge nodded. "Even the most cowardly person, if they can't fight back, will never be content with being a passive victim forever. If there is a chance to turn the tide and change their situation, they will want to grab it."

"Clearly, Tong Jingfei wanted to seize that chance. She did, and the result was good—her essay won an award, and she brought honor to herself, the school, and her class. This result surely gave her a huge boost of confidence and made her hope for a way out of her situation stronger than ever."

"It’s just a pity that what actually awaited her was Bai Yueni’s intensified, vengeful mockery and insults. Others didn't see her differently because of her achievement; instead, they treated her like a circus clown. The success she thought would be her salvation became a weapon for others to mock and humiliate her. That kind of letdown is enough to make anyone fall into despair."

Yan Xue was stunned. She hadn't thought of that angle. Because she had been a pretty girl her whole life, she had never had to face the pressure or pain of appearance-based discrimination. She had never experienced the despair of having one's last straw of hope snatched away.

"Now that you put it that way, I understand. That Tong Jingfei chose to attempt suicide shows just how desperate she was. In that situation, the more she fought back, the more she would just invite more gossip and ridicule. She truly couldn't take any more."

"Her family probably wasn't afraid to demand justice; it’s just that in that state, nothing mattered more than their child's safety. So, to avoid triggering her further, they chose to withdraw her silently. It’s understandable."

Having cleared this up, Yan Xue was surprised. "I didn't realize you had such strong empathy!"

Kang Ge smiled, sighed softly, and waved for her to look at his computer screen. "Take a look at what I found. This is the record of Tong Jingfei’s—or should I say, Tong Jingyun’s—first ID photo in the system, and this is the photo from when she recently updated it. Do you see the difference?"

Yan Xue looked at the two ID photos and was shocked by the disparity. If these weren't records of the same person at different times, she would have assumed they were two completely different people.

When she had confirmed "Tong Jingyun's" identity, she had seen the latest household registration photo but hadn't checked the old records. The latest photo matched the woman seen in surveillance footage and law enforcement bodycam footage, but the photo from when she was sixteen or seventeen looked like an entirely different face.

The girl in the old photo looked young, but she fit none of the descriptors for a blooming youth. She had a chubby, round face, a dull complexion, and traces of acne that made her skin look red and swollen. Her eyebrows were sparse, her eyes small, and her eyelids puffy.

Looking at the new ID photo, the face was significantly smaller. The jawline, which was invisible before, was now sharp and pointed. Her skin was much fairer, and the acne was gone. Not only that, her eyebrows had become soft, willow-leaf shapes, her eyes had transformed from heavy, puffy lids to deep-set European-style double eyelids, and her once round, small nose had become delicate and straight.

"Did she have plastic surgery?" Yan Xue could only make this guess.

"I'm no expert, but based on my own judgment, I agree with you," Kang Ge nodded, then pulled up another person's household registration information. "Look, I found the other Tong Jingyun."

"Let me guess, the other Tong Jingyun is the cousin of the one we're investigating?" Yan Xue covered her eyes with one hand to show she wasn't peeking.

"Exactly. This is the real version, the one who never changed her name. This Tong Jingyun dropped out of school just a few days into high school because she didn't want to study and went out to work. The time when Tong Jingfei changed her name to Tong Jingyun is exactly when the real Tong Jingyun’s school records were reinstated. Isn't that a coincidence?" Kang Ge laughed.

"If we look at the timeline..." Yan Xue sorted it out. "After being crushed by Bai Yueni, Tong Jingfei was traumatized, dropped out, and then, after half a year, she took her cousin's name and returned to school using her cousin's records!"

"She couldn't have achieved such a drastic change in appearance in just half a year, could she? Why didn't she just transfer to a different place instead of dropping out and then returning under a relative's identity?"

"Maybe when she dropped out, her mental state was so fragile that she couldn't handle starting a new life in a new environment right away. She must have gone through a very painful period before she finally managed to hold it together."

"But this makes the modus operandi more logical. I think Tong Jingfei probably went to the masquerade ball genuinely intending to have fun, which is why her makeup looked so meticulous in the initial surveillance footage."

"Then, she unexpectedly ran into Bai Yueni. The old hatreds must have come rushing back, so she used the methods she had rehearsed in her mind countless times to kill Bai Yueni on the spot, using whatever was at hand."

"It's just a shame that several years have passed. It won't be easy to figure out what she did during those six months."

"As long as we know that the 'Tong Jingyun' who attended the masquerade is the same Tong Jingfei who was bullied by Bai Yueni, we’ll eventually get her to tell us what she went through," Kang Ge snapped his fingers. "Remember the fingerprints found at the scene from someone who has already passed away? Did that person have any connection to Tong Jingfei? Does Tong Jingfei have a hobby of making or collecting fingerprint molds? Once we answer these, many key links will fall into place!"

"Yes! Let's start now!" Yan Xue rolled up her sleeves, then couldn't help but sigh. "I feel like our direction is absolutely correct now! But if the final conclusion is the same as our initial theory—that Bai Yueni was killed as a scapegoat for Lin Zhen—the motive is straightforward enough."

"But looking at it from this new angle, whether it's the killer's motive or why Bai Yueni met such a fate, I really don't know how to feel about it!"

"The world isn't black and white, is it?" Kang Ge was more philosophical. "There are as many layers to human nature as there are colors in the world. Standing at a crossroads or at the bottom of life, the decision of which direction to take is what matters. Save your sentiments for after the case is closed. Let’s get a handle on Tong Jingfei’s past and her connection to the owner of those fingerprints; the rest will be easy to manage!"