Chapter 81: The Truth

Chapter 81: The Truth

Everyone at the banquet stood frozen in place, then whispered among themselves. Li Shanshan's face looked worse than shit.

"So a nanny was insisting on accusing Gu Sai—turns out it was the thief yelling 'stop, thief!'"

"I knew our baby Gu Sai was innocent! A hero willing to risk his life to save others—how could he be a bad person?!"

"Even if the necklace wasn't taken by Gu Sai this time, it's still true that he stole things as a kid and was sent back, right?"

"Is that person's brain made of crap? Since he was framed this time, maybe he was framed last time too!"

Chen Wang pretended to look surprised: "So it was you who stole it. Now that the evidence is conclusive, Li Wencheng, call the cops."

Li Wencheng: "Alright."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi shrieked: "It wasn't me! How could it be me? I didn't take it! Someone must have put this necklace in my pocket! Miss, you know me—you have to speak up for me!"

Chen Wang latched onto Zhou Yi's key words: "You mean Li Shanshan knows? In other words, you two always knew where this necklace was?"

Everyone's gaze instantly shifted from Zhou Yi to Li Shanshan, whose face had turned pale.

The live stream camera zoomed right in on her, and the comments exploded: "Holy shit?! So Li Shanshan set this whole thing up?"

"She staged the whole thing to frame someone else? What kind of evil princess is she?"

"Where are the people who were cursing Gu Sai earlier? Come out and apologize!"

"This plot twist is crazy—Li Shanshan, get out here and explain yourself!"

Li Shanshan was almost scared shitless by Zhou Yi's wailing. She rushed over, forcing a smile: "Zhou Yi, what are you saying? Are you losing your mind?"

She dug her nails into Zhou Yi's arm, nearly breaking the skin, her eyes full of warning and menace.

Zhou Yi winced in pain, looked at Li Shanshan's twisted face, then met the contemptuous, probing gazes of the surrounding guests. She shuddered, realizing she'd screwed up in her panic and might be totally done for.

Li Shanshan forced herself to keep it together. She couldn't let them call the cops—if Zhou Yi got taken away, she'd definitely spill everything. She couldn't let this blow out of proportion.

With that thought, Li Shanshan forced a look of remorse and grievance, turned to the crowd and the camera, and looked like she was about to cry: "I'm sorry everyone had to see such an embarrassing mess. I just remembered... I felt the necklace was too heavy and inconvenient for dancing, so I quietly took it off and asked Zhou Yi to hold onto it for me temporarily. Then... then I got so caught up in dancing that I forgot all about it, and it caused such a huge misunderstanding!"

She quickly walked over to Gu Sai, tears falling on cue, looking all pitiful and sincere as she apologized: "Gu Sai, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. It's all my fault—my memory's so bad, I made everyone misunderstand you. Can you forgive me? I didn't mean it..."

As she spoke, she even tried to grab Gu Sai's hand, but Chen Wang stepped in and blocked her.

Chen Wang looked down at her, his eyes completely devoid of sympathy—only cold mockery.

"Forgot? Li Shanshan, what a conveniently bad memory you have. You just happened to forget to tell your parents, forgot to tell anyone here at all, but you specifically remembered to silently allow or even guide Zhou Yi to pin the blame on Gu Sai after the necklace went missing? You think that story would fool a three-year-old?"

Gu Sai's hand clenched at his side as he confronted Zhou Yi: "Even if Miss Shanshan forgot, how could you forget as well? After she said the necklace was missing, why didn't you remind her? Instead, you insisted I took it?"

Zhou Yi couldn't say a word, head down, not daring to look at anyone.

Li Shanshan hadn't expected her story to have such huge holes. She bit her lip hard and looked at her parents for help.

But Li Wencheng stepped in front of her and walked over, his expression complicated, with a hint of pain: "Shanshan, at this point, are you still going to lie? To frame Gu Sai, you'd do something like this—I'm so disappointed in you."

Mr. and Mrs. Li's faces were extremely grim. They weren't stupid; at this point, how could they not see what was really going on?

Mrs. Li wanted to smooth things over to protect her daughter, but Mr. Li stopped her with one look.

The live stream was still on—if they showed any more favoritism, the Li family would lose all face!

The live stream comments were uniformly mocking: "Heh, that explanation is so weak. Are you stupid, or do you think I'm stupid?"

"'Forgot'—the best joke of the year."

"So she was targeting Gu Sai from the start. Shameless and hypocritical, absolutely disgusting!"

"Gu Sai got screwed over for nothing. From this, you can infer that what happened when he was a kid was probably a frame-up too."

"The Li family's parenting is truly something else."

Li Shanshan tugged at Li Wencheng's sleeve, crying: "Brother, let me explain..."

"Explain what?" Chen Wang curled his lips into a cold, sharp smile. "Li Shanshan, haven't you acted out this little play of yours enough?"

Li Shanshan panicked, shaking her head repeatedly: "No, I didn't..."

Chen Wang said: "It seems you won't admit it unless I produce some evidence."

With that, he snapped his fingers, and the staff immediately turned on the big screen, which froze on the exact moment Li Shanshan had hugged Gu Sai earlier.

"Don't forget, this is my family's hotel. To be safe, I had a few extra cameras installed—and they came in handy, didn't they?"

Chen Wang gestured for the staff to play the footage. Everyone stared at the screen. What the live stream hadn't captured was all recorded by the cameras.

There, Li Shanshan, after handing out the cake, took advantage of the camera crew filming the band, quickly removed her necklace and handed it to a young man, whispering something in his ear. The man nodded, slowly approached Gu Sai, and while he wasn't paying attention, slipped the necklace into Gu Sai's pocket, then left.

The whole process was smooth and quick—the frame-up was completed in less than ten seconds.

But neither the man nor Li Shanshan had expected that Gu Sai would quickly notice the necklace's presence. He frowned slightly, reached into his pocket, and froze.

"Wow, our Gu Sai is amazing! Good thing he noticed—if it were me, I'd be dead for sure!"

"Oh my god, how did he notice?"

Only Gu Sai knew the answer to that question.

Because it was his butt that told him. His waist told his butt. His waist was shy and didn't say much—it only relayed messages through his butt.

It said something in his right pocket was rubbing against it, uncomfortable.

At first, his butt thought Chen Wang had put his hand there again to take advantage. But when Gu Sai reached into his pocket, it turned out to be a diamond necklace.

Gu Sai immediately told Chen Wang about it. Chen Wang coldly glanced at Li Shanshan, took the necklace, and said: "Leave it to me."