Chapter 480: Catching the Culprits
Wei Zhiqian was not so sure that everyone standing next to Tan Mo was genuinely there to support her.
What if someone saw that he had come and was curious to get the dirt on them, thus, in the spur of the moment, they saw an opportunity and pretended to be loyal to her?
Wei Zhiqian was observing to see if anyone seemed guilty.
That way he could screen out a portion of the people.
It was a pity that Qin Mufeng was not there.
He had a great eye for catching little tics on people’s expressions.
Wei Zhiqian was no expert in this respect, so he was not as sharp.
However, while Wei Zhiqian had been monitoring them, he was also listening in on their conversations.
Many people in the crowd were murmuring between each other. Ordinary people would not have heard the chatter clearly, but Wei Zhiqian heard everything.
Wei Zhiqian said to Ying Siyuan and the other students on the research teams of the three professors, “Guys, help me gather a few people.”
Ying Siyuan and the others froze for a moment. Could Wei Zhiqian have already found the suspects so quickly?
Their time was running out as people were already leaving in pairs or groups of three.
Ying Siyuan and the others could not risk wasting more time and nodded hurriedly. “Okay.”
“In the first row across from us, the boy with the black short sleeves, the girl wearing a floral top and blue shorts, and the guy with a khaki NY baseball cap on the far right of the first row…”
“The second row on the right, the guy wearing a purple basketball jersey with the number five on it. The boy with the short-sleeved plaid shirt and gold-rimmed square glasses standing in the middle. And in the middle of the third row, the guy in a white T-shirt with curly hair.”
Wei Zhiqian could not see any further beyond those two rows of people.
The further behind they stood, the more they were hidden among the crowd. With the rest barely revealing their heads, it was hard for him to tell who else seemed guilty.
Meanwhile, some people had already started walking away.
Whether or not there were any culprits among those who left, he was unsure.
Ying Siyuan was worried that the people pointed out by Wei Zhiqian would leave, so they quickly grabbed ahold of them.
Suddenly taken by surprise, the suspects pushed and struggled. “What are you doing?”
Wei Zhiqian had many people on his side.
But there were only six suspects.
As for Wei Zhiqian, with those from the three laboratories combined, he had a total of 29 people helping him.
On average, they had five people dealing with one suspect, and the remaining group of four dealt with the other one.
They had more than enough hands.
Even as the suspects pushed and shoved in the crowd, it was useless. In the end, they were still dragged over to them.
“What are you doing?” A young man who was captured against his will was manhandled by three people at the same time while the other two kept their eyes on him to prevent him from escaping.
It caused quite the scene.
“Don’t you know that fighting is not allowed on campus?”
“What the hell are you doing?” The only girl among the six suspects turned pale with fright and cried out in a sobbing voice.
“The few of you are the ones I’ve managed to pin down so far who are guilty of slandering Tan Mo in the forum,” Wei Zhiqian said coldly.
The crowd burst out in an uproar.
Some of those who were ready to go stopped in their tracks, and others who had already walked away from the crowd suddenly returned.
On the contrary, some people quickened their pace.
Wei Zhiqian snorted coldly, “There are people trying to get away! Catch as many of them as you can!”
Up until now, Wei Zhiqian had not noticed anything strange among those from the research teams and the people who initially stood up for Tan Mo.
The moment Wei Zhiqian said to catch those who quickened their pace, the people who stood by Tan Mo dashed forward to stop those trying to escape.
Not one of them managed to escape. They were all caught and dragged back.
Seven people tried to escape.
Including the previous six they had caught, there were now 13 suspects.
And among these seven, there were two who were girls.
Tan Mo had considered the possibility of some being female.
Since ancient times, there had been many women who tried to drag other women down.
Now there were only 13 people, and three of them were women.
Even this was only a small portion of the people compared to the number of comments under the post.
“What are you trying to do? We’re students at Beijing University! What’s an outsider like you trying to act all high and mighty here?” a guy shouted.
“Who gave you the right to keep us captive without jurisdiction?” another guy who was caught yelled.
“What proof do you have to arrest us? How dare you suspect us of defamation with no evidence!”
“Besides, voicing opinions on the Internet is our human right. We can say whatever we want as long as we don’t violate any laws. Who are you to stop anyone?”
“Hearing you say that must mean you’ve written something pretty nasty in the forum,” Wei Zhiqian imparted coldly.
Ying Siyuan turned to Wei Zhiqian and said, “Posting in the school forum now requires people to be logged in through the system with their real names. Unless they bought an alternate account, tracking them would be relatively easy.”
Wei Zhiqian nodded and said to the suspects being detained, “Freedom of speech does not mean we can say whatever we please. If that were true, then our society would be unconstrained and in chaos.”
“Reposting more than 500 rumors on Weibo is considered illegal,” someone said. “Although the school forum does not have a repost function, the number of page views of a post is displayed. The number of likes in your comments is also displayed. Even if the numbers are insufficient to be legally considered a crime, it still meets the criteria of violating the school’s policy.”
At that moment, President Mu personally made an appearance with a bodyguard, a bunch of teachers, and administration staff in tow.
Among them, Professor Gu, Professor Yue, and Professor Tang, who rarely participated in other affairs except for classes, had come along too.
None of the students had anticipated that this incident would alarm so many people and end up becoming such a massive battle.
Everyone suddenly stopped dead in their tracks and called out in respect, “Principal Mu.”
“Principal Mu!”
The principal had brought all these people here to meet with Tan Mo. He was surprised when he stumbled upon such a scene.
“What’s going on here?” Principal Mu asked.
Wei Zhiqian explained, “I’ve clarified the situation regarding the slandering post toward Tan Mo. However, we still need to get to the bottom of this and sniff out the thread starter and all the malicious commenters. Both the thread starter and those who are guilty of defamation have violated Beijing University’s school policy and should be rightfully penalized. We can’t allow Tan Mo to be innocently slandered either.”
Principal Mu nodded in agreement. “The school is investigating the issue. The technical team is extracting the comments as we speak. To post on the forum, one must pass real-name authentication. My colleagues in the technical department are currently going through their profiles.”
The moment the crowd heard this, people started to get nervous.
“As for the person who uploaded the post, the technical department found out that it was done via a purchased account, so it may take a little bit longer to find the culprit,” Principal Mu said.
Seeing as Principal Mu took this seriously and had acted quickly upon it…
Wei Zhiqian suddenly seemed a lot more at ease.
“And these people are…” Principal Mu noticed 13 students were being surrounded and heavily guarded by a group of students.
“They are part of the people guilty of slandering under the post,” Wei Zhiqian said. “Since the system requires real-name authentication, how about we cross-check and see if they really are the culprits?”
Having heard that real-name authentication could be easily traced, none of them let out a single squeak.
Even the guy who was proudly asking for evidence a moment ago stayed silent.
It was careless of them.
They had thought it was just a few harmless snide remarks on a forum.
It never occurred to them that it would become such a huge scandal.
Principal Mu nodded. Then, a discipline teacher said, “Everyone, please cooperate with our investigation.”
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