“I didn’t put it there.”
Su Yanxi’s voice was barely audible.
The phone was still ringing inside the paper bag.
No one turned it off for her.
And no one believed her.
The HR manager glanced at the IT staff member.
“Don’t touch the phone yet.”
She immediately took out her own phone and called the police.
Su Yanxi stood where she was.
The tears on her face had not yet dried.
“Someone must have put the phone in there while I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Didn’t you just say it had been in the drawer the whole time?” Chen Jiawei asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you said the phone had gone missing.”
“I really couldn’t find it.”
“And now it’s in your own paper bag.”
Su Yanxi hurriedly shook her head.
“The paper bag was under the chair. Anyone could have touched it.”
Her gaze turned toward Xu Zhiqing again.
This time, she did not say the name outright.
But everyone knew whom she suspected.
Xu Zhiqing met her gaze calmly.
“You’d better think carefully before you speak.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Then stop staring at me.”
Su Yanxi bit her lip.
“You were the only one who left your seat just now.”
“I went to the break room to take a call.”
“But no one can prove you didn’t come back in between.”
Xu Zhiqing took out her phone.
“The call started at 5:12 and ended at 5:19. There are security cameras in the hallway outside the break room. They can confirm when I went in and when I came out.”
Su Yanxi’s expression stiffened slightly.
“It could have happened before that.”
“You handled that paper bag just a few minutes ago,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“When you were looking for a charging cable, you took your jacket out of it.”
A coworker beside them suddenly raised her head.
“I saw that,” she said.
She seemed to regret speaking the moment the words left her mouth.
But it was too late to take them back.
“Yanxi did go through the paper bag just now. She even asked me if I had a Type-C charging cable.”
Another coworker added quietly, “I saw it too.”
Su Yanxi’s face turned even paler.
“The phone might not have been in there yet.”
“It was less than ten minutes from when you went through the bag to when the phone was found.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at her.
“I was in the break room the entire ten minutes.”
The office fell silent again.
Su Yanxi’s explanation had been completely shut down.
Unable to keep pinning the phone on Xu Zhiqing, she could only turn to Chen Jiawei.
“I really don’t know why it was in there.”
“Wait for the police to arrive,” Chen Jiawei said wearily.
“If you didn’t put it there, they’ll find out.”
Su Yanxi’s shoulders trembled faintly.
This time, her tears brought her no sympathy.
Twenty minutes later, two police officers arrived at the company.
The HR manager gave them a complete account of the secret photography, anonymous report, stolen phone, and tracking process.
The IT department also provided its preliminary records.
The officers first photographed where the phone had been found, then questioned everyone present.
When it was Su Yanxi’s turn, she repeatedly insisted that she had not sent the email and did not know why the phone had appeared in the paper bag.
“Is this your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Did you use it today?”
“This afternoon.”
“When was the last time you used it?”
“A little after four.”
“What did you use it for?”
“I logged into my cloud album to confirm that the photo wasn’t in it.”
The officer glanced at the notes.
“So the phone was still in your hand then.”
“Yes.”
“Where did you put it afterward?”
“In the drawer of my desk.”
“Was the drawer locked?”
“No.”
“Who knows the passcode to this phone?”
Su Yanxi paused.
“Only me.”
“What about fingerprint or facial recognition?”
“Both are enabled.”
“Has anyone else registered their fingerprint?”
“No.”
The officer lowered his head and made a note.
“Do you consent to unlocking the phone now so we can check the files and activity records?”
Su Yanxi did not answer immediately.
Everyone looked at her.
A few seconds later, she clenched her hands.
“There’s a lot of private information on it.”
“We’ll only conduct a preliminary review of content related to this case.”
“But the photos, conversations, and accounts are all my private information.”
“You can refuse.”
The officer’s tone remained calm.
“Any further action will be handled through the formal process as the case requires.”
Su Yanxi’s face grew even paler.
Refusing would be tantamount to admitting she was afraid to let them look.
Agreeing, however, might expose even more.
She looked around.
No one spoke up for her.
“Can I operate it myself?”
“Yes.”
The officer put on gloves and placed the phone on the desk.
Su Yanxi entered the passcode.
The instant the screen unlocked, a row of notifications popped up.
Cloud album.
File manager.
Two messaging apps.
And a new email with no sender displayed.
Su Yanxi immediately swiped upward, trying to dismiss the notifications.
The officer stopped her.
“Don’t perform any other actions yet.”
Her hand froze above the screen.
“I just wanted to put away my private messages.”
“From this point on, follow our instructions.”
The officer first asked her to open the photo album.
The Recently Deleted folder was empty.
There was no photo of B07 in the regular albums either.
Next, they checked the cloud sync records.
Automatic syncing was indeed currently turned off.
But the last sync time was not four that afternoon, when Su Yanxi had provided the screenshot.
It was 1:17 a.m. today.
The HR manager immediately asked, “Didn’t you say this afternoon that automatic syncing had never been enabled on this phone?”
“I don’t know.”
“The system clearly shows the last sync time.”
“It might have been a scheduled task from an earlier setting.”
The IT staff member shook his head.
“Syncing doesn’t schedule itself. If this record appears, it means the device connected to the cloud account at that time.”
“Then maybe I turned it on by accident.”
“Were you using the phone at 1:17 a.m.?” the officer asked.
Su Yanxi pressed her lips together.
“I don’t remember.”
“This afternoon, you said the phone was usually kept at the company.”
“Sometimes I take it home.”
“Did you take it home yesterday?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
Her answers began to grow muddled.
“I’ve had a lot going on lately. I really can’t remember clearly.”
“The phone’s location records can confirm that,” the officer said.
“Open device activity.”
Su Yanxi’s finger stopped on the screen.
“Do we really have to check that?”
“You claim the account may have been hacked, and you also claim someone moved your phone. The location and login records can help us rule things out.”
“But it will show places I’ve been.”
“We’re only checking the relevant times.”
She had no reason to refuse again.
Once the device activity page opened, the IT staff member quickly found the location records from the previous night.
The phone had left the company at 7:22 p.m.
At 7:40, it entered the area around a subway station.
At 8:15, it arrived in a residential neighborhood.
It did not return to the company until 9:00 the next morning.
The officer looked at her.
“Is that where you live?”
“Yes.”
“So you took the phone home last night.”
Su Yanxi answered quietly, “Yes.”
“At 1:17 a.m., the device connected to your cloud album from inside your home.”
“It could have connected automatically.”
“You just said syncing wasn’t enabled.”
“I don’t know why it connected!” Su Yanxi suddenly became agitated.
“Just because the phone was at my home doesn’t mean I was the one using it. Someone else could have touched it while I was showering or sleeping.”
“Who do you live with?” the officer asked.
Her voice vanished at once.
“I live alone.”
The surroundings fell silent for several seconds.
Chen Jiawei closed his eyes briefly.
Even he seemed unsure how he could explain this for her anymore.
The officer continued questioning her.
“Did anyone come to your home last night?”
“No.”
“Does anyone else have a key?”
“Possibly the landlord.”
“The landlord entered your home at 1:17 in the morning, unlocked your phone, enabled cloud syncing, and then put the phone back?”
The officer was not being sarcastic.
He was simply repeating the possibility she had raised objectively.
That was precisely why Su Yanxi’s explanation sounded even more absurd.
She shook her head frantically.
“I didn’t say it was the landlord.”
“Then whom do you suspect?”
“I don’t know.”
“The phone only has your fingerprint and facial recognition registered, and you’re the only one who knows the passcode. Syncing was enabled on a device located in the home where you live alone, yet you claim someone else may have operated it.”
The officer looked at her.
“Ms. Su, giving inaccurate statements will only make this harder to clarify.”
“I’m not lying,” Su Yanxi said through her tears.
“I really don’t remember turning on syncing. Even if I enabled it by accident, that doesn’t mean I sent the anonymous email.”
“No one said the email was necessarily sent from this phone.”
Xu Zhiqing suddenly spoke.
Everyone turned toward her.
She pointed above the phone’s screen.
“When it was unlocked just now, there was a new anonymous email notification.”
Su Yanxi’s expression froze.
The officer looked at the notification bar.
The email was still at the top.
The sender’s name was a meaningless string of English letters.
The subject contained only four words.
“Don’t Open It.”
“What is this?” the officer asked.
“I don’t know.”
Su Yanxi reached out instinctively.
The officer immediately moved the phone away.
“Don’t touch it.”
“That’s a private email sent to me!”
“Do you know the sender?”
“No.”
“Then it may be related to the case.”
After obtaining her consent, the officer opened the email.
There was no text inside.
Only an image attachment.
The image showed the first floor of the company building.
It had been taken from across the street.
In the center of the photo, Su Yanxi stood at the entrance.
The photo had been taken at 12:08 p.m. today.
There was only one sentence beneath the image.
“Say one more word, and the next one will be from five years ago.”
The office fell into instant, deathly silence.
Su Yanxi stared at the sentence.
For the first time, the fear on her face did not look acted.
“I don’t know who sent this.”
She was breathing rapidly.
“It really wasn’t me.”
Xu Zhiqing stared at the email.
Five years ago.
Those three words stabbed like a needle into a place she had thought healed long ago.
The anonymous sender knew about the past between her, Su Yanxi, and Zhou Yuheng.
And they knew what had happened five years ago.
This was no longer just about B07 being leaked.
From the very beginning, the sender had been coming after all of them.
“Do you know what they mean by ‘the next one’?” Xu Zhiqing asked.
Su Yanxi immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“The email explicitly mentions five years ago.”
“So what? A lot of people know we used to know each other.”
“But not everyone knows there are photos from five years ago.”
Su Yanxi’s pupils contracted slightly.
Xu Zhiqing did not miss it.
“I never said what happened five years ago had anything to do with photos.”
She looked at Su Yanxi.
“Why did you immediately think of photos?”
“It says so in the email!”
“It only says the next one will be from five years ago.”
“The next one would obviously be a picture!”
“It could also mean the next email.”
Su Yanxi opened and closed her mouth.
For a moment, she could not find another explanation.
The officer immediately recorded the exchange.
“What happened five years ago?”
“A private dispute,” Su Yanxi answered first.
“It has nothing to do with this.”
“Someone is using what happened five years ago to threaten you. That means it may be related to the case.”
The officer turned to Xu Zhiqing.
“Are you willing to explain?”
Xu Zhiqing was silent for a moment.
Five years ago, after a gathering, Su Yanxi had cried and said that Xu Zhiqing had pushed her down.
No one at the scene had witnessed what happened.
There was only one photo of Su Yanxi lying injured at the foot of the stairs, her arm hurt.
The angle had deliberately avoided the top of the staircase.
Everyone believed Xu Zhiqing had pushed Su Yanxi down out of jealousy.
Zhou Yuheng had believed it too.
No one knew that Xu Zhiqing had been the one who reached out and caught Su Yanxi.
And no one believed that Su Yanxi had missed a step herself, then dragged Xu Zhiqing down with her.
Xu Zhiqing had simply been less seriously injured.
So she became the perpetrator.
“Five years ago, she and I had an argument,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“Afterward, someone photographed her injured at the foot of the stairs, and everyone assumed I had pushed her.”
“They didn’t assume it,” Su Yanxi immediately argued. “You did push me.”
“Do you have the full video?”
“No.”
“Did anyone witness it?”
“You were holding my hand!”
“I was pulling you up.”
“You were obviously trying to push me down.”
Their voices overlapped.
It was as if the unfinished argument from five years ago had returned before everyone’s eyes.
The officer raised a hand to stop them.
“Was the incident reported to the police?”
“No.”
“Were the photos saved?”
Su Yanxi did not answer.
Xu Zhiqing looked at her.
“Who took that photo?”
Five years ago, she had asked countless times.
Everyone had given a different answer.
Some said it was a classmate from the gathering.
Some said it was a passerby.
In the end, the photo had spread through everyone’s social circles, yet no one ever admitted to being the original photographer.
Su Yanxi lowered her head.
“I don’t know.”
“The photo was first sent from your account.”
“Someone else sent it to me.”
“Who?”
“I forgot.”
Forgot again.
Whenever she was asked about something truly important, she forgot.
The officer glanced at the old phone on the desk.
“If the photo from five years ago is still on this phone, we’ll need to check that as well.”
“No.”
Su Yanxi refused immediately.
“That’s a completely different matter.”
“You just received a threatening email related to five years ago.”
“It could just be someone deliberately trying to scare me.”
“Which is why it needs to be checked.”
“I don’t consent.”
Her attitude was even more forceful than before.
“If you’re investigating B07, then investigate B07. You can’t dig through all my old private photos just because of an email from an unknown source.”
Her argument was not entirely unreasonable.
The officer did not force her to look.
“We’ll preserve the email data for now and handle the matter according to procedure.”
“Give me back my phone.”
“Not at the moment.”
“Why not?”
“The phone involves the company’s data leak as well as the theft report you made. We need to determine whether it must be retained as evidence.”
“But I’ve found the phone. I’m not pressing charges for the theft.”
The officer looked at her.
“You can withdraw the theft report, but whether the data leak is pursued isn’t for you alone to decide.”
Su Yanxi was utterly silenced.
Just then, the old phone vibrated again.
It was not an email.
It was a cloud album notification.
“Your memories have been organized.”
Below the notification was a small, automatically generated cover thumbnail.
The image was tiny.
Yet Xu Zhiqing recognized the people in it at a glance.
Her younger self stood on the stairs five years ago.
Su Yanxi stood in front of her.
Both their arms were reaching toward each other.
This was not the injury photo that had circulated back then.
It showed what happened before the fall.
Someone at the landing had taken a series of photos capturing the entire sequence.
Su Yanxi suddenly lunged for the desk.
“Turn it off!”
The officer immediately stopped her.
The phone was knocked toward the edge of the desk.
The memory album on the screen opened automatically.
The first photo showed the two of them arguing on the stairs.
The second showed Su Yanxi stepping on a decorative ribbon scattered across the floor.
The third showed her losing her balance and falling backward.
The fourth showed Xu Zhiqing grabbing her wrist.
The fifth showed both of them tumbling down the stairs together.
The entire sequence was crystal clear.
No one had pushed her.
Xu Zhiqing had been trying to save her all along.
At the bottom of the album, the photo source was displayed.
“Imported from this device’s hidden folder.”
The creation date was exactly five years ago.
And the hidden folder had only two words in its name.
“Backup.”
Xu Zhiqing stared at the sequence of photos.
For the first time in five years, she saw the complete truth.
And for the first time, she learned that Su Yanxi had always been holding the evidence that could prove her innocence.
She had not been unaware of the truth.
She had simply chosen to hide it.
For five whole years.