Chapter 11

I laughed at Luciano's words.

This guy would make a terrible storyteller - what a waste of his eloquence.

In just a few sentences, he had already convicted me of a crime.

He spoke about completely fabricated things as if they were absolute facts!

If I wasn't the person involved, just hearing his slanderous accusations, I would probably wonder if I really was stalking.

Hearing Luciano's words, the two police officers' gazes toward me turned scrutinizing.

"Were you really stalking this young lady?" the police officer asked as he came to my side.

I said: "Isn't there a saying now - whoever makes the accusation must provide the evidence?"

"Since he's the one who called the police, and he's the one accusing me of stalking, naturally he should provide evidence of my stalking. How could I possibly need to prove my innocence?"

The two officers hadn't expected me to say this and were both momentarily stunned.

However, they knew I had a point.

According to procedure, indeed the accuser must provide evidence, not the accused proving their innocence.

If the accused had to prove their innocence, then regardless of whether the evidence was sufficient, people would still be suspicious.

As the saying goes, once suspicion is established, guilt is established.

This guilt comes not from judgment, but from the accuser's imagination.

How could I fall for Luciano's trap?

"He's right. Sir, since you reported him for stalking your girlfriend, do you have evidence to prove he was stalking?"

The two officers were quite rational and began questioning Luciano.

Luciano said unhappily: "Officers, you should know how big Pacifica City is."

"My girlfriend and I came to change phone numbers today and just happened to run into this guy here."

"Moreover, this guy was eavesdropping on my conversation with my girlfriend from behind the door - clearly something suspicious."

"If it's not suspicious, what else could it be besides stalking?"

The two officers were amused.

They had thought Luciano actually had evidence of stalking.

They didn't expect just baseless suspicions and speculation.

"First, while Pacifica City is big, there aren't many phone stores."

"In this day and age, running into someone at a phone store is perfectly normal - how do you know he wasn't also here to change his number or phone?"

"Second, if you're reporting stalking, you need concrete evidence of him stalking your girlfriend, like surveillance video footage."

"Do you have any of this? Without concrete evidence, with just speculation - the phone stores in Pacifica City aren't open just for you, why can't others be here?"

"Moreover, what's suspicious about him hiding behind the door? As you said, he's your girlfriend's ex. Not wanting to run into your girlfriend to avoid awkwardness is a perfectly normal motivation."

"Are you saying that wanting to avoid awkwardness is also criminal motivation to you?"

The officer said with a wry smile.

Hearing the officer's words, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Luciano had really shot himself in the foot.

He thought calling the police would take me down, but didn't expect these two officers to be so reasonable.

They didn't believe Luciano's words at all, and even analyzed the real reason I was hiding behind the door.

Honestly, I was quite grateful to these two officers.

At this point, hearing the officers' reasoning, Luciano was naturally unwilling to accept it, saying darkly:

"Officers, he really was stalking - you have to believe me!"

"If you don't believe me, who will be responsible when something happens to my girlfriend?"

I sneered: "Nothing will happen to your girlfriend unless you harm her! Luciano, these two officers have already explained everything clearly - you still want to throw dirt on me?"

"You say I'm stalking - first you can't produce evidence of stalking, second you can't produce evidence of ill intent. You can't produce any evidence at all, so you can only make wild accusations."

"Are you a dog? Being in the same place as your girlfriend means stalking? I'm still living in the same world as your girlfriend - does that mean my purpose in life is to kill her?"

"How can you be so delusional? If you have paranoid delusions, go see a doctor!"

Here I paused, then changed tack and continued:

"Besides, if you can't provide evidence of stalking, that's fine - I can provide evidence that I wasn't stalking."

Then I called over the store clerk who had sold me the phone.

"You should remember when I came to the phone store, right?"

The clerk nodded and said: "Yes, you arrived over half an hour before them."

I continued: "Then you also remember why I was behind your store's warehouse?"

The clerk smiled and said: "Of course I remember, you were borrowing the bathroom."

I shrugged, staring at the two officers, and said:

"Officers, you've heard it - I arrived at the phone store before both of them. The reason I was behind the door was because I was using the store's bathroom."

"There was nothing wrong with my actions, much less criminal. How could this possibly be called stalking?"

"This guy is jealous that I used to date his girlfriend, so he wants to take revenge through this kind of low-class slander."

"But what this lunatic doesn't know is that even slander needs evidence! Slander without evidence is just a mad dog's random bite!"

Here I turned my gaze to Luciano and continued:

"Luciano, how do you plan to bite me?"

Luciano was so angry as he trembled.

Clearly, Luciano hadn't expected I could produce evidence to refute him - evidence a thousand times more substantial than his, that would hold up even in court.

My counterattack not only foiled his slanderous revenge plot but also made him a laughingstock in public.

At this point, many store employees were looking at Luciano, full of mockery.

They were whispering among themselves, seemingly mocking how Luciano had been countered and defeated by me.

"Officers, since I've cleared things up, I'll be leaving now."

"However, this guy slandered me right in front of you two officers - I hope you'll at least give him a stern lecture."

"To prevent him from turning small mistakes into big ones and harming more people in the future."

I said. Then I left the phone store.

Sure enough, the two officers began sternly lecturing Luciano, saying:

"Sir, we hope you understand that police and legal tools are for maintaining social order, upholding justice, and maintaining the nation's basic moral order - not for you to use for revenge against others."

"If you don't like that gentleman having had a relationship with your girlfriend, defeat him emotionally - make your girlfriend love you more than she loved him. Don't use these low-level tactics to take revenge through slander."

"This behavior of yours - at best it's jealousy and pettiness, at worst it's criminal."

"Fortunately that gentleman didn't pursue the matter with you, otherwise you wouldn't be getting off with just a lecture."

"He could sue you in court anytime, make you apologize on social media, publicly humiliate you."

"We hope you'll reflect on this and learn from this incident."

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