Chapter 156: Looking for a Scapegoat

Almost the moment she saw her, everything became clear.

Su Ni, right?

However, being cornered in a hotel by the police was a first for Shen Zhaoxi.

The trouble started because someone in the film crew shooting in Nanjiang last night had been injured.

An actor's safety harness had snapped, and it had been deliberately tampered with, causing the accident.

Consequently, the crew had called the police. But after questioning everyone on the set, they found no suspicious individuals.

In other words, their suspicions turned toward outsiders who were not part of the crew.

And as it happened, Shen Zhaoxi had been present at the crew's hotel yesterday.

Furthermore, she looked quite suspicious.

Su Ni looked at Shen Zhaoxi with a guarded gaze and said, "It's her. She was lurking around the hotel yesterday afternoon, following me."

"At first, I thought she was an obsessive fan. Somehow my schedule leaked, and she chased me all the way to the production set."

"I let it go, but I never expected that she would actually... actually attempt to sneak into our crew and harm people."

According to her version of events, the suspicion naturally fell onto Shen Zhaoxi, this "suspicious" obsessive fan.

If Shen Zhaoxi really was an obsessive fan, that would be one thing.

If not, what was she doing here?

And why was she following Su Ni in the hotel yesterday afternoon?

During the investigation by the Nanjiang police, Su Ni wore an expression of fierce certainty, as if she had just caught the culprit red-handed. She stated firmly, "I suspect it was her. She took advantage of the fact that our crew finished work yesterday and had night scenes to reshoot later, and sneaked in."

"Then, when nobody from the production team was paying attention, she secretly tampered with our props, causing one of our crew members to get hurt."

Su Ni's accusation pointed directly at Shen Zhaoxi.

The Nanjiang police also decided to take her in for questioning to thoroughly investigate the matter.

The Nanjiang police asked Shen Zhaoxi, "Do you know her?"

They were referring to Su Ni.

Shen Zhaoxi glanced at the chestnut-haired woman and said coldly, "No."

The Nanjiang police asked again, "Then since you don't know her, why were you following her?"

Shen Zhaoxi raised her eyes and looked at the person standing before her, making solemn oaths and pointing fingers at her. "Why on earth do you assume I was following her?"

"Then what were you doing?" Su Ni pressed on aggressively.

"If you weren't following me, then you must have planned this beforehand..."

"When you sneaked into the hotel yesterday, you just happened to run into me."

"Officer, my manager and my assistant were both present at the time and saw her. They can vouch for it!"

Shen Zhaoxi's gaze chilled slightly.

What was she doing?

Naturally, she could not say.

However, this woman kept insisting that she was the one who sabotaged the crew behind the scenes.

Just because they happened to cross paths in the hotel hallway yesterday?

That felt altogether too deliberate.

They hadn't seen anything with their own eyes.

How could this woman dare to assert so confidently that she was the evildoer?

There was only one logical explanation.

The lady doth protest too much.

She was looking for a scapegoat.

Combined with the testimony of Su Ni's manager and staff members who claimed to have bumped into Shen Zhaoxi in the hotel that afternoon, Shen Zhaoxi became the only person involved with a potential motive and suspicious behavior.

And Shen Zhaoxi's silence only served to convince the Nanjiang police officers even further that Su Ni was telling the truth.

"Miss, I will ask you one last time: what were you doing in the hotel yesterday afternoon?" the Nanjiang police demanded.

"Must I report my every move to you?" Shen Zhaoxi raised an eyebrow, her gaze cool and tinged with complexity.

She swept her eyes over the Nanjiang police officers, then shifted her gaze back to Su Ni, who was accusing her from not far away.

Before this, Shen Zhaoxi had never laid eyes on her.

The only reason Su Ni was accusing her was because they had happened to cross paths in the hotel yesterday, making Shen Zhaoxi look suspicious.

It seemed Su Ni was simply trying to pin the crime on her.

"Miss, please cooperate with us!" the Nanjiang police officer said sternly, frowning as he glared at her.

Shen Zhaoxi replied, "Firstly, I am a resident of this hotel. Therefore, contrary to what this lady claims, our meeting yesterday afternoon was not me following her; it was purely a coincidence."

"Secondly, I don't even know her name, nor who she is. Where does she get the audacity to assume I am her obsessive fan?"

"Does she think she's better-looking than me?"

Hearing this, the Nanjiang police officers' expressions darkened.

Su Ni gasped, "You—?"

"Furthermore, since I am staying at this hotel, where I go and what I do are entirely my own freedom."

"An accident happened on your production set, yet without a shred of evidence, you come charging over here with a crowd of people to drag me away for interrogation."

"Just based on her unsubstantiated words?"

Shen Zhaoxi spoke coldly, stepping forward with an icy gaze fixed on Su Ni.

"Or did you see with your own eyes that I broke into your production area and intentionally destroyed your props?"

Su Ni's brows furrowed.

She had thought that the girl she ran into at the hotel yesterday afternoon was just some timid little thing who wouldn't say a word.

She never expected her to be so sharp-tongued and articulate, stripping away all suspicion from herself in just a few words.

This meant that while Su Ni could accuse her of being suspicious, Shen Zhaoxi could equally argue that encountering Su Ni at the hotel was merely a coincidence, as neither side had proof.

"Since you didn't see it with your own eyes, what right do you have to suspect me just because of such a coincidence?"

Besides, an accident had occurred on set, and the police were obligated to investigate everyone.

Shen Zhaoxi refused to explain what she was doing in the hotel yesterday afternoon.

If Shen Zhaoxi was under suspicion, could everyone else truly be considered entirely innocent?

Just then, another police officer hurried over and shook his head at the team leader.

"Captain, we checked. The surveillance footage for that time slot yesterday afternoon was completely wiped."

In other words, from the moment Shen Zhaoxi appeared and was spotted by Su Ni, her subsequent whereabouts and actions vanished entirely from the hotel's security footage.

This was highly abnormal.

"Miss, do you have anything else to say for yourself?"

By now, the police had locked their focus firmly onto Shen Zhaoxi.

After all, the entire hotel's surveillance footage for that timeframe had been erased.

Only Shen Zhaoxi had appeared and been witnessed by someone.

And after that, all the footage was gone.

Under the circumstances, Shen Zhaoxi undeniably bore the heaviest suspicion.

"Please cooperate with our investigation!"

If Shen Zhaoxi stubbornly refused to explain what she was doing in the hotel yesterday afternoon and failed to clear herself of suspicion, they would have no choice but to take her away by force.

It wasn't an arbitrary arrest.

She simply refused to explain her presence at the scene.

Moreover, the police had already questioned everyone else on the crew.

The culprit remained unidentified, and evidence was still being gathered.

Consequently, Su Ni's statement served as the primary testimony for now. With everything else unknown, they had no choice but to take the most suspicious person back first for a thorough interrogation.

Yet, how could Shen Zhaoxi explain herself?

Should she tell them that a top-secret counter-terrorism operation had taken place there yesterday afternoon, and the hotel's surveillance system had been placed under military control?

However, Shen Zhaoxi's silence was interpreted by the police as stubborn non-cooperation.

The Nanjiang police declared, "Since you cannot give a clear explanation, you will have to come with us to the Nanjiang police station and explain it there!"

With that, they reached for their handcuffs, preparing to take Shen Zhaoxi away.

By this time, due to the accident on set—where an actress's safety rope had snapped and was suspected of having been deliberately severed—and the police's fruitless search for suspects among the crew, Shen Zhaoxi, the unknown outsider who had appeared at the hotel yesterday and caused the surveillance to go dark, had officially become the prime criminal suspect.

They had every legal right to take her into custody.

Outside the resort, police cars had arrived, drawing a crowd of about half the film crew to watch.

Many people were whispering among themselves.

"Did you hear? The person responsible for the accident on set and the injury of our crew member has been found."

"Ah? Who is it?"

"I never imagined anyone could be so vicious as to want to hurt our Feifei."

Voices buzzed back and forth as everyone gossiped, though they were restricted to watching from outside the perimeter.

They still didn't know the exact details.

They only knew that the Nanjiang police had locked onto a suspect and were about to take them away.

"What's going on? So much commotion this early in the morning..."

Jiang Buyan was still lingering on the periphery of the gossip.

He and Lu Yunzhou had just returned to find the outside of the hotel surrounded by people, with rumors flying that the culprit behind the crew's accident had been caught.

As they walked inward, they encountered the police cordon tape.

"Let me see who it is."

Curious, Jiang Buyan craned his neck to look forward. Suddenly, his expression shifted, and his voice turned anxious.

"Isn't that... Miss Shen?"

Hearing this, the man beside Jiang Buyan raised his head.

Normally, he cared nothing for such trivial matters.

Upon hearing Shen Zhaoxi's name, however, he frowned, and his eyes grew cold.

Lu Yunzhou had woken up early.

Worried that the young lady might be a picky eater, he had gone out to find a reputable breakfast spot nearby to get her some food.

He had not expected to return to this scene.

Lu Yunzhou's gaze darkened. He shoved the bag of breakfast into Jiang Buyan's hands and strode forward.

"Hey? Who are you? You can't just barge in here—"

The hotel was cordoned off by the police, forcing onlookers to stay outside.

Yet faced with a man suddenly trying to push his way through, the Nanjiang police officers narrowed their eyes and moved quickly to block him.

While Shen Zhaoxi was still locked in a standoff with them, she suddenly heard a burst of hurried footsteps outside, followed by the sound of hotel security and police officers trying to stop someone.

She raised her head.

The next second, she saw that tall, straight figure stride into the hotel lobby.

Lu Yunzhou walked toward her with an icy expression, brushing past the people attempting to intercept him.

"Sir, who are you?"

"Do not interfere with official police business."

"Sir?..."

Lu Yunzhou walked up, his gaze freezing as it swept over the police officers who were preparing to slap handcuffs on the young lady and take her away.

"Why use handcuffs?" Lu Yunzhou asked coldly. Catching sight of the young woman's pale face, his mood plummeted to the absolute abyss.

The Nanjiang police officer replied, "Based on allegations, this young woman is suspected of intentional assault."

"We have the right to take her in for questioning!"

Yet the man's eyes concealed a chilling frost as he looked down at the police.

"You claim she is suspected of harming someone—where is the evidence?"

An arrest required evidence.

They couldn't just drag someone away with zero proof.

Besides, seeing the handcuffs in the officer's hand and someone pressing down on her shoulder as if to forcibly cuff and drag the young lady away made Lu Yunzhou's expression grow darker still.