Sang Ning had been about to step forward and ask around about the former principal. At the very least, she wanted to get a sense of the man’s character before meeting him.

But Gu Yezhou had already gone ahead.

That perpetually icy expression of his melted like snow in spring, a faint smile appearing as he asked the elderly men nearby,

“Hello, may I ask if Principal Liu lives here?”

The former principal of Xiangyun Kindergarten’s surname was Liu.

Sang Ning already had the address and room number.

Over WeChat, Principal Liu had seemed remarkably easygoing. The moment she identified herself, he’d sent over his address without hesitation.

Absolutely zero anti-scam awareness.

“Oh, Old Liu? He’s upstairs. Said someone was coming to see him and told us old folks to head out first. That someone you?”

The old men sized Gu Yezhou up from head to toe.

The moment they noticed his elegant bearing and naturally aristocratic air, their eyes practically lit up.

“Young man, are you married?”

“Got a girlfriend?”

“What’re you looking for Old Liu for? He doesn’t have any family here.”

“Yeah, his only relatives are a bunch of poor leeches. His son’s an ungrateful bastard who never visits him. What business do you have with him?”

As long as Gu Yezhou stood there, the old men would happily chatter away, each adding another detail about Principal Liu.

“Ungrateful son? So his son doesn’t live in Yancheng anymore?”

“Of course not,” one of the old men scoffed.

“That brat practically scammed all of Old Liu’s retirement savings away. Now the old man survives by freeloading meals off us every day.”

“Exactly. And you came empty-handed too—not even a basket of fruit.”

“Pretty face, stingy wallet.”

“Let’s go already. For all we know, he’s in league with that worthless son. Why bother talking so much?”

After grumbling a few more lines, the elderly men began leaving.

As they passed Sang Ning, however, they gave her a few extra glances.

“Another cop showed up. Can this retirement home even stay open at this rate?”

Sang Ning had sharp ears and immediately caught onto that.

“Grandpa,” she called sweetly, “could you tell me why the police came here before?”

Pretty, soft-spoken, and holding warm milk tea in her hands, Sang Ning naturally made people lower their guard.

She’d originally bought the drinks for her coworkers.

But now she realized that if they stayed too long at the retirement home, the tea would be cold by the time they got back anyway.

Since it was still warm, she simply handed them out to the old men instead.

Five cups—one for each.

One old man carefully tucked his into his coat pocket instead.

“My granddaughter’s coming over for dinner tonight. Perfect timing—I’ll save this for her.”

Having accepted her kindness, the old men naturally became much more willing to talk.

“Oh, it wasn’t anything major. A bunch of old folks around here kept getting scammed out of money, so the police came by to spread anti-fraud awareness.”

“Right. The old lady next door got tricked out of a ton of money by some middle-aged guy just a few days ago.”

“In my opinion, she deserved it. At her age, she oughta look in a mirror first. What kind of man would actually fall for her?”

“Now hold on,” another old man objected proudly.

“A gorgeous young girl called me hubby online just the other day. Beautiful too.”

Sang Ning immediately stepped closer.

“Can I see her picture?”

“Sure. She’s a livestreamer.”

The old man’s hair was entirely white, yet he wore nothing but a thin tracksuit in the middle of winter.

He didn’t seem remotely afraid of the cold.

Sang Ning looked at the cracked phone in his hand.

Despite the shattered screen, she could still clearly see the livestreamer’s messages flirting with him.

The moment she saw the ID, her brain froze.

“Sensen? This is the streamer you were talking about?”

Taking the phone, she tapped into Sensen’s profile page.

The face on the account was no longer hers.

Instead, it had been swapped for another pretty girl’s face.

Because Sensen had later cooperated with authorities and made up for his wrongdoing, all his previous offenses had apparently been treated leniently.

He’d only been fined twenty thousand yuan or so?

Sang Ning didn’t know the exact details.

She’d never had time to sue Yang Tao herself. All she’d demanded was that he publicly clarify he’d been using her face.

And the first video pinned to his homepage was exactly that clarification.

Only…

He’d used yet another pretty face to explain why he’d previously livestreamed using hers.

Yang Tao was still walking the same crooked path.

Sang Ning’s expression darkened as she handed the phone back.

“Grandpa, ignore private messages from livestreamers. No matter what they say, don’t believe them.”

“Especially if they ask you to transfer money or order food for them. Absolutely not. Understand?”

The old man nodded vaguely.

Then he stared at her face for a long moment, eyes widening in realization.

“Wait a second… aren’t you the woman Sensen used to impersonate?”

“So you’re actually a police officer! No wonder his apology video looked so weird.”

A headache immediately formed behind Sang Ning’s eyes.

Turning to the other elderly men, she said earnestly,

“Did you all hear that? With modern AI technology, scammers can not only use someone else’s face—they can even fake the faces of your own family members to steal your money.”

“So never trust every word they say.”

Without realizing it, Sang Ning had somehow transformed into an anti-fraud spokesperson, lecturing the old men with complete sincerity.

She was so focused she didn’t even notice Gu Yezhou had already gone upstairs to see Principal Liu.

Only after painstakingly educating the group did she finally hurry upstairs herself.

The last remaining cup of milk tea in her hand was offered to Principal Liu.

“Thank you very much, but I don’t drink milk tea.”

The elderly principal returned it politely.

Sang Ning simply placed it on the nearby table and stood quietly to the side.

At that moment, Gu Yezhou looked completely different from his usual cold, intimidating self.

He spoke to Principal Liu like family—every sentence casual and warm, like ordinary conversation.

“Teacher Chen truly was a tragedy. Honestly, I always believed her. Even after all these years, this matter still feels like a thorn in my heart.”

Principal Liu clutched at his chest painfully.

“Teacher Chen’s death was suspicious. The day she resigned, she told me she planned to raise the child herself.”

“Even if she had to become a single mother, she was willing to accept it.”

Gu Yezhou frowned slightly.

“Did she ever tell you who the child’s father was?”

According to the current principal, the baby belonged to Dong Ruiyang.

But according to Teacher Yu, the father was Dong Yunzhou.

“Yeah. She said it was Dong Ruiyang’s.”

Principal Liu’s face filled with regret.

“But that man was a complete bastard! Back then, I don’t know what I was thinking, hiring those brothers as security guards.”

“It’s all my fault. If I’d fired Dong Ruiyang earlier… maybe… maybe Teacher Chen wouldn’t have ended up like that.”

“I failed her…”

Covering his face, Principal Liu quietly wept.

Gu Yezhou asked,

“I heard Teacher Chen and Teacher Yu were close as well. And that Teacher Yu nearly got fired back then. Is that true?”

If Principal Liu was telling the truth…

Then every single teacher at Xiangyun Kindergarten had lied.

At this point, all four people involved had entirely different versions of the story.

Either time had distorted everyone’s memories…

Or they were all deliberately hiding something.

“Yes.”

Principal Liu nodded.

“He was already too old to be working at the kindergarten. He didn’t have much affinity with children either. Honestly, a lot of the kids cried whenever he put on a stern face.”

“I saw it myself. That’s why I wanted him to find work elsewhere.”

Gu Yezhou’s brows furrowed.

“So it wasn’t because of the rumors involving Teacher Yu and Teacher Chen?”