Superstar Assistant [GL] - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Zhou Tiantian felt like she had turned the entire hotel room upside down, yet she still couldn’t find the savings card. She even wondered if she had left the card somewhere else, but she clearly remembered putting it safely into her wallet. Now the wallet was there, all her things were present, but only the card was missing.

She didn’t know how to explain this to Li Ziyu, as she had never lost such a large amount of money before, and she wasn’t sure if Li Ziyu would believe her.

While her thoughts were anxious and chaotic because of the lost card, her roommate returned and asked her confusedly, “Tiantian, what’s wrong? You seem troubled.”

Zhou Tiantian sighed and said in distress, “I lost the bank card Li Ziyu gave me.”

The roommate looked at her in panic and said, “Is it the savings card with the living expenses?”

Zhou Tiantian nodded, running her hand through her hair. A shallow furrow wrinkled her smooth forehead. Then she stood up and said to her roommate, “I need to go to Ziyu’s room first and ask her to call the bank to freeze the card.”

The roommate quickly showed concern, “Don’t rush to go. If she finds out about this, it will be your fault no matter what. Even if it’s found later, she will keep it in mind and judge you as a careless person. Let’s search again. What if we find it?”

Zhou Tiantian said, “I’ve already searched. I’ve searched every corner of the room, but I just can’t find the bank card.”

The roommate started looking for the bank card while talking, “Let’s search again. Sometimes when you’re flustered, you can’t accurately and quickly find what you’re looking for. You might overlook it.”

Seeing that her roommate also started helping her look for the bank card, Zhou Tiantian began searching again herself. A few minutes later, the roommate stood by the head of the bed, holding a bank card, and said to her, “Here it is. Did you accidentally drop the card when you put your wallet on the bedside table a few days ago? You didn’t realize it because you’ve been paying with WeChat these days.”

Zhou Tiantian seemed to remember searching that spot several times just now, but she hadn’t seen the bank card. Now that the card was found, she finally felt some relief and carefully put the bank card back into her wallet.

The next morning, Zhou Tiantian brought breakfast to Li Ziyu. Li Ziyu glanced at her a few times while eating. Zhou Tiantian felt Li Ziyu’s gaze and turned to ask her, “Ziyu, why are you looking at me so strangely this morning? Is the breakfast not good?”

Li Ziyu rested her chin on her hand, her deep-set eyes slightly narrowed, “Didn’t you notice anything strange?”

Zhou Tiantian was confused, “What’s strange?”

Li Ziyu handed her phone to her. Zhou Tiantian took the phone and saw the withdrawal notification on the text message interface. Her pupils instantly widened, “I didn’t withdraw this!”

Li Ziyu’s expression remained calm, and a gentle smile played on her lips. The smile was not cold or sarcastic, but carried the same warmth as usual, “Of course, I know it wasn’t you. Otherwise, why would I show you this message instead of calling the police directly?”

But her words couldn’t calm Zhou Tiantian’s racing heart. After all, Zhou Tiantian had been responsible for keeping this card, and she felt she was to blame. She immediately recalled the incident of losing the card last night and quickly said to Li Ziyu, “It’s my roommate. My card was missing last night, and I couldn’t find it. I was just about to find you to report the loss, but my roommate came back and helped me look for the card. I clearly searched the bedside table and didn’t see the bank card, but she found the bank card there.”

A trace of shrewdness flashed in Li Ziyu’s eyes, “You mentioned earlier that your roommate borrowed 3,000 yuan from you, right? Did you withdraw the money in front of her?”

Zhou Tiantian’s mind went blank, and she nodded to Li Ziyu, “Yes. She said it would be less troublesome if she just watched how much I withdrew so we wouldn’t have to count it later. Did she see the password at that time?”

Because this card was given to Zhou Tiantian by Li Ziyu for daily living expenses and various other expenditures, the password was not complicated.

Then Li Ziyu asked Zhou Tiantian, “Do you have any other conflicts with Chong Ying?” Li Ziyu’s mouth carried a faint smile at this point.

Zhou Tiantian shook her head. Li Ziyu continued, “If there are no conflicts, why would she do such a thing?”

Zhou Tiantian was slightly stunned, feeling many things rushing through her mind. Then, she looked at Li Ziyu in surprise and said, “Did Teacher Chong ask her to buy the equipment?”

Li Ziyu gave a cold smile, “I used to think she was a smart, sensible, and considerate girl. Now it seems I was extremely foolish.”

Zhou Tiantian also understood that Chong Ying was behind this. Seeing Li Ziyu being increasingly kind to her, Chong Ying became jealous and devised this scheme.

After breakfast, Li Ziyu told Zhou Tiantian not to see her off to the set; she would go by herself.

When she arrived on the set, Chong Ying indeed found that Li Ziyu came alone. A hint of pleasure flashed in her eyes, and she quickly walked up to Li Ziyu and asked curiously, “Where is your assistant? Doesn’t she come to the set with you every morning?”

Li Ziyu frowned slightly, “Something came up, so I didn’t ask her to come with me.”

Chong Ying quickly asked, “What happened? Tell me about it, and see if I can help you.”

Li Ziyu said, “It’s nothing major, but a large sum of money was suddenly withdrawn from a bank card I gave her last night.”

Chong Ying frowned slightly, “Are you saying…” Then her eyes widened, looking at Li Ziyu with utter disbelief, her voice suddenly getting louder due to surprise, “Your assistant stole your money!”

As soon as she said this, several staff members around them instantly turned their heads to look at Li Ziyu and Chong Ying.

Li Ziyu frowned even more tightly. She knew Chong Ying deliberately raised her voice to inform the people on the set. She explained, “It’s not certain that she took my money yet.”

Chong Ying sneered, taking Li Ziyu’s arm in a very intimate gesture, “You are just too kind, Ziyu. The card was with her. If she didn’t take the money, who did? Did she tell you the money was lost?”

Li Ziyu recalled Zhou Tiantian’s unsuspecting appearance this morning and shook her head, telling Chong Ying, “She didn’t mention it. I received the withdrawal notification on my phone.”

Chong Ying slightly narrowed her eyes: “She must have pretended not to know first, and then when she was about to withdraw money, she would pretend to be surprised that the money was missing. By the time you start an investigation, so much time would have passed that it might be difficult to find any evidence.”

As the two were talking, the production coordinator came over to call them for the shoot, and Li Ziyu stopped bringing up the matter.

At noon, Zhou Tiantian brought Li Ziyu’s meal as usual. Chong Ying saw no significant change between Zhou Tiantian and Li Ziyu, her eyes darkened further, and she slowly walked away.

Li Ziyu, on the other hand, kept looking at her phone. Zhou Tiantian, while eating, said to her, “Ziyu, don’t look at your phone while eating. You won’t have enough time to eat later.”

Li Ziyu smiled slightly and said to Zhou Tiantian, “It’s here, as expected. I knew she wouldn’t give up so easily.”

Zhou Tiantian leaned over to look at Li Ziyu’s phone and saw a news article pushed on the Weibo interface: “New Rising Star Li Ziyu’s Assistant Steals, Li Ziyu Suffers Huge Loss.”

Li Ziyu was not very famous online right now, or she wouldn’t have only 1.5 million followers, but this news still became popular for one reason: an assistant stealing a celebrity’s money. Netizens rarely saw such news and were very interested. They first learned about Li Ziyu, and then started condemning the assistant.

By the time Li Ziyu and Zhou Tiantian finished their meal, netizens had already swarmed Zhou Tiantian’s Weibo to condemn her and support Li Ziyu in reporting the incident to the police.

In a corner of the set, Chong Ying said to Zhou Tiantian’s roommate, “Are you sure there are no issues?”

The roommate said, “No, Teacher Chong, don’t worry. I carefully avoided all surveillance cameras along the way. Even if there are cameras, the netizens won’t recognize me. They will only think I am Zhou Tiantian.”

Indeed, the next moment, netizens dug up some surveillance footage. The figure on the road heading to the bank late at night was clearly wearing the exact same clothes Zhou Tiantian wore a few days ago.

Li Ziyu wasn’t very famous. The organized fan support event for this drama had already passed, so this photo couldn’t have been taken during a fan event. It was taken a few days ago, but Li Ziyu and Zhou Tiantian clearly remembered that no fans visited the set recently. So, who took this photo? Why was the money lost, and Zhou Tiantian wore the exact same clothes as in the photo taken that day?

After Zhou Tiantian finished cleaning up the meal leftovers, she disappeared from the set again.

During the shoot, Chong Ying talked to Li Ziyu again about the online news. By this time, Zhou Tiantian’s Weibo was completely overwhelmed, and even the fans who had come over from Li Ziyu’s Weibo started cursing Zhou Tiantian.

“We thought you were a good assistant, but who knew you were only after Ziyu’s money!”

“Call the police! This person is disgusting. Keeping her around is simply unbearable.”

“Damn it, this two-faced scumbag! Get the police to take her away quickly!”

“Are there any experts who can find this person’s information? I want to confront her in person!”

“Scumbag, get into prison! Let the country teach you how to be a person!”

“I found some information on Li Ziyu’s assistant, Zhou Tiantian. She only has a high school diploma. Before becoming Li Ziyu’s assistant, she was an employee of a housekeeping company, cleaning houses for others! No wonder she has no morals!”

This whole farce didn’t attract too much attention from the rest of the crew, as everyone in the entertainment industry knows that many celebrity-related news stories happen every day. This time it was only an assistant, so why would they spend too much time focusing on it?

However, the director privately asked Li Ziyu, “What exactly is going on with your assistant? The last time you came to see me with her, she didn’t look like someone who would steal money.”

Li Ziyu looked at the director and said, “There is indeed more to this story.”

The director nodded to Li Ziyu and said, “If there’s anything you need help with, just ask.”

As the matter gradually escalated, Li Ziyu’s fans began to demand an explanation from Zhou Tiantian, urging her not to remain silent, and some even went to Li Ziyu’s Weibo to inquire about the authenticity of the matter.

Zhou Tiantian’s roommate watched as the anger of Li Ziyu’s fans slowly built up, and a faint smile played on her lips. Not only did she get over 80,000 yuan last night, but she would also have subsequent income after Zhou Tiantian was fired.

The triumphant look in her eyes and the joy on her lips were impossible to conceal. Until she turned a corner and saw Zhou Tiantian, she was slightly stunned, feeling a sense of guilt for some unknown reason.

“As long as Li Ziyu doesn’t know about this, you don’t have to be afraid of Zhou Tiantian. She’s been a weakling since childhood.” Chong Ying had privately investigated Zhou Tiantian. The roommate recalled Chong Ying’s words, and her heart finally settled down.

She slowly calmed her emotions, but at this moment, she wasn’t even willing to feign her usual enthusiasm. Looking down at Zhou Tiantian with contempt, she said, “What are you standing here for? Are you blocking my way?”

Zhou Tiantian’s soft facial features and appearance hadn’t changed much, but her eyes flickered with a strong resolve that was completely different from her usual gentle demeanor, “I know you took the money from the card.”

The roommate pretended to be confused: “What money? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You took my bank card last night, right?” Anger slowly accumulated in Zhou Tiantian’s eyes, “You wanted to frame me and make Ziyu think I stole her money, didn’t you? But you should know that I didn’t leave the hotel last night, so I couldn’t have taken the money. But you came back very late last night.”

“So what if I came back late? That doesn’t prove that I took your card and withdrew the money.” The roommate said with a careless sneer, “Don’t forget that netizens have already found the surveillance footage of you going to withdraw the money last night. That’s clearly you!”

Zhou Tiantian became even angrier, “That was you! You wore my clothes to withdraw the money!”

“Do you have any proof?” The roommate felt increasingly delighted seeing Zhou Tiantian so angry, as Zhou Tiantian’s anger at this moment showed that she had no solution to the matter except getting angry, which was her only way to express the injustice of being framed. And the roommate knew that this kind of Zhou Tiantian had absolutely no power to fight back.

Indeed, when Zhou Tiantian heard the word “proof,” she froze, then clenched her teeth even tighter in anger.

The roommate smiled even more happily, “So, you have no proof. Even if you know I took the money, what can you do?”

Seeing Zhou Tiantian’s eyes slowly turning red, the roommate sighed softly and said to Zhou Tiantian, “I’m doing this for your own good. You should know that the entertainment industry isn’t a place where you can succeed just by ordering takeout. This circle is very complicated. People like you are not suitable to stay in this circle. What I’m doing now, although it will make you leave this circle, you will thank me later, because if you continue to stay, you will die a much more miserable death!”

But Zhou Tiantian’s roommate noticed that after hearing these words, Zhou Tiantian didn’t become angrier. Instead, her expression gradually calmed down. She suddenly had a bad premonition.

After putting away the last trace of anger and grievance, Zhou Tiantian looked at her roommate. Her voice was still soft and gentle as usual, yet it subtly carried a hint of determination, “Of course, I know the entertainment industry is a very complicated place, so I came prepared.”

As she spoke, Zhou Tiantian picked up her phone, and the roommate saw that the phone screen was displaying the recording status. The roommate hadn’t expected Zhou Tiantian to do this. She thought Zhou Tiantian was truly a weak commoner who hadn’t seen much of the world. Li Ziyu even bought her the phone as a gift!

The next moment, the roommate lunged at Zhou Tiantian, trying to snatch the phone from her hand. Zhou Tiantian dodged her and quickly sent the recording to Li Ziyu, then held the phone out to her roommate. A smile played on her lips, but the roommate felt the smile was completely devoid of warmth, “Do you want my phone? Take it. Stealing over 80,000 yuan and now robbing a phone will likely increase your sentence.”

The roommate stopped in her tracks. She realized she had been too careless, or perhaps the sudden large sum of money had blinded her heart, making her too complacent and forget to be wary of Zhou Tiantian.

Then, Zhou Tiantian, who had been playing the role of a harmless sheep, turned and walked away.

Her roommate gradually started to panic. She knew that if this incident was truly exposed, she would never be able to work in the entertainment industry again, and there was one thing that terrified her even more: when Chong Ying found out that she had messed up the job…

So, when Chong Ying returned to the hotel, she found Zhou Tiantian’s roommate waiting at her room door. Chong Ying didn’t say anything and walked past her roommate. She turned to the roommate, who followed her in, and said, “What are you doing here? Are you afraid people won’t know we have a connection?”

The roommate tried to smile, but she couldn’t manage it.

Chong Ying looked at her feigned composure, and a sudden sense of foreboding rose in her heart.

Chong Ying immediately opened the door, pulled the roommate into the room, and closed the door. Although her voice was soft, it was full of anger: “Don’t tell me you messed up the job!”

The roommate’s voice trembled, “Teacher Chong, she found out!”

Chong Ying sneered: “So what? When you returned the bank card to her last night, weren’t you already prepared for her to find out? But there were no surveillance cameras along the way. Even if there were, you disguised yourself as her. What proof does she have that you did this? Just deny it to the end!”

The roommate said, “She recorded it.” The roommate then told Chong Ying everything that had just happened.

Chong Ying angrily gritted her teeth, “You truly are a useless idiot who can’t achieve anything but ruins everything! No wonder you can only be a set manager in the crew!”

The roommate’s face darkened, but she knew she couldn’t fight back against Chong Ying.

“You must deny it!” Chong Ying looked at her and said, “Didn’t I tell you to put the money in her bag? Did you put it in?”

The roommate trembled slightly. Chong Ying immediately raged, “Did you embezzle the 80,000 yuan yourself? You need to know, if you took that 80,000 yuan, it’s theft! It’s okay if there’s no proof, but if there is, you will go to jail!”

“Teacher Chong, save me!” The roommate suddenly knelt down, hugging Chong Ying’s legs, “I’ll go back and put the money in Zhou Tiantian’s bag right away! I will deny taking the money until my death! She has the recording, but I can say I was provoked by her into saying something sarcastic, and it doesn’t count!”

Chong Ying slowly relaxed, “Just follow my instructions. I will handle Li Ziyu. But if you don’t listen to me, you will ultimately bear all the responsibility yourself.”

After that, Chong Ying slowly squatted down, took out the phone from the roommate’s pocket, and looked at her coldly, “Also, don’t try to play games with me, or I’ll make sure you can never get out!”

Chong Ying then deleted the recording from the roommate’s phone, threw the phone beside her, and shouted sternly, “Get out!”

The roommate hadn’t expected her trick to be discovered and wanted to beg for mercy, but Chong Ying immediately drove her out of the room again.

When Chong Ying heard movement outside the door again, she opened the door and saw Li Ziyu about to open her door to return to her room.

Chong Ying closed her own room door, followed Li Ziyu, and walked into Li Ziyu’s room while speaking, “Ziyu, how are you going to deal with the news of your assistant stealing your money?”

Li Ziyu turned to look at Chong Ying, her eyes carrying a hint of coldness, “All this time, I thought you were a kind-hearted girl. I didn’t expect you to be so malicious.”

Chong Ying’s smile instantly froze on her face, “Ziyu, what do you mean by that?”

Li Ziyu lowered her eyes and smiled. Her eyelashes were thick and curled, like two brushes covering her eyes, “What do I mean?” She raised her head to look at Chong Ying, a sneer on her lips, “I should be asking you what you mean! Why did you ask someone to withdraw money from my card and frame Zhou Tiantian? How did she offend you?”

Chong Ying put on the performance of her life at this moment. She didn’t even realize she could express her innocence with such superb acting skills, “I didn’t! Ziyu, you’re wronging me! Who told you that?”

Li Ziyu slowly approached Chong Ying, cornering her, and looked at her coldly, “I don’t need anyone to tell me. I know this was your doing. I, Li Ziyu, have lived for 21 years and have never let anyone bully me. Ever since Zhou Tiantian met me in high school, no one has dared to bully her. We’ve been classmates for two years, and you still don’t know me well enough? Did you really think I would be blind and let you manipulate me after you did something like this?”

At this moment, only one thought ran through Chong Ying’s mind: deny everything. As long as she denied it, no one would know she was involved.

Just then, a knock sounded on the door. Li Ziyu moved away from Chong Ying slightly and opened the door. When she saw Zhou Tiantian, her gaze clearly softened a little, “How did things go?”

Zhou Tiantian said, “The money is in my bag now, but my roommate put it in. I secretly borrowed a DV camera to record it. The evidence is conclusive now, proving that she stole the money.”

As soon Tiantian finished speaking, the sound of a police car siren rang out from downstairs.

In Zhou Tiantian’s room, the roommate sat trembling on the bed, feeling that things wouldn’t end so simply. She had already started to regret it—regretting that she had been blinded by greed and listened to Chong Ying’s words to frame Zhou Tiantian. She should have realized that theft is a crime!

When the police siren sounded from downstairs, the tension in Zhou Tiantian’s roommate snapped, and her entire mental state was on the verge of collapse.

No, those people must not be here to arrest her. They must be here for something else. Maybe it’s just an ambulance, and someone in the hotel is sick and needs to be taken away!

Besides, Zhou Tiantian has no proof, and Chong Ying will definitely protect her. She must not panic, and she must not rush.

However, the next moment, the door was knocked on. She tried to pretend that no one was in the room, but the police broke down the door, entered the room, and arrested her directly!

“Let me go! It wasn’t me! I didn’t steal the money! The money is in her bag!” She struggled, refusing to comply, and she hadn’t expected that she would actually end up on the path of crime! It was clearly just office politics!

At this moment, Zhou Tiantian slowly walked into the room, took the very discreet DV camera from the corner, and handed it to the police, “The video inside should be evidence of her putting the stolen money back into my bag.”

The police took the DV and nodded to Zhou Tiantian, “We need you to come back to the police station with us to assist with the investigation.”

Zhou Tiantian quickly said softly, “Okay, I will cooperate fully.”

Seeing that she was about to be taken away, the roommate quickly apologized to Zhou Tiantian, “Tiantian, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it! I beg you, save me! I don’t want to go to jail! I’m begging you, please let me go!”

Zhou Tiantian looked at her pitiful appearance now, but she remembered how smug the roommate had been earlier. But was she really that pitiful? If Zhou Tiantian hadn’t shown mercy, would she have been taken away today? All of this was her own doing.

The roommate was led out of the door. Realizing that Zhou Tiantian definitely wasn’t going to let her off, she blurted out, “Officers, you’ve got the wrong person! It wasn’t me who wanted to steal the money! It wasn’t my idea! It was someone else who told me to do this! It wasn’t my intention! I was also threatened!”

The police officer who came here hadn’t expected the matter to unfold this way. He asked sternly, “Who instructed you to do this?”

At this point, the roommate’s eyes suddenly fixed on a corner, looking at Chong Ying, who was about to slip away, and said, “It was her! She instigated me to do this! It was Chong Ying! She was jealous of Zhou Tiantian and wanted to mess with her, so she made me withdraw the money and frame Zhou Tiantian!”

When Chong Ying found out that the police had entered the hotel, she was very worried. But she also knew she couldn’t run away, so she came down to see how the roommate would handle it. If the roommate didn’t expose her, Chong Ying might have tried to bail her out and use that as leverage to ensure she never exposed her. If the roommate exposed her on the spot, Chong Ying would immediately contact her lawyer and the backer behind her.

So, when she saw the police walking towards her, she quickly called her backer, only to find that her backer hung up on her. How could she not realize that those people wouldn’t truly care about her? She was just a small-time celebrity. If the backer wanted someone like her, there were countless others in the entertainment industry willing to take her place.

When she saw her backer hang up the phone, she knew she was finished this time. She immediately turned to Li Ziyu and pleaded, “Ziyu, save me! Ziyu, I didn’t do this! She’s framing me! Save me! Aren’t we classmates? Aren’t we good friends? Don’t you like me?”

Li Ziyu scoffed softly, “I did like you before, but now, I just feel like I was so blind back then to fall for someone like you!”

Chong Ying gritted her teeth, looking at Li Ziyu, “How can you be so changeable? If it weren’t because you stopped liking me, why would I…” She realized she had almost revealed the truth and immediately stopped the words she hadn’t finished.

While the two were talking, a police officer walked up to her and said, “Ms. Chong, we need you to come with us to assist with the investigation.”

Chong Ying said, “Do you have a warrant for my arrest?”

The police officer paused slightly. Chong Ying continued, “Since you don’t have a warrant for my arrest, arresting me now is illegal and infringes on my rights. If you force me to leave, I can sue you.”

The police officer frowned slightly. An arrest indeed requires a warrant. There was a warrant for Zhou Tiantian’s roommate, but not for Chong Ying. When Zhou Tiantian reported the crime, she hadn’t mentioned Chong Ying’s involvement, so they only prepared the warrant for the roommate.

Although Chong Ying escaped for the moment, she only bought herself some time to strategize. It didn’t mean she could truly escape justice.

At the same time, reporters already got the news and posted online: “Li Ziyu’s Assistant Theft Case Revealed to be Planned by Chong Ying! The Reason: Jealousy that Li Ziyu Treats the Assistant Better than Her!?”

The exclamation marks and question marks indicated that even the marketing accounts were somewhat disbelieving that Chong Ying would do such a thing, as the action was quite foolish for her.

When netizens saw this news, they first sought the truth, then apologized to Zhou Tiantian, and finally focused their outrage on Chong Ying.

“Chong Ying’s intelligence must be the lowest point in the entertainment industry. Did she think that asking someone else to steal and frame Zhou Tiantian wouldn’t be a crime? Such an act can constitute the crime of false accusation! If the circumstances are serious, she will still be sentenced to prison.”

“I never liked Chong Ying. I always felt she was too pretentious, and every time she filmed a drama, it looked like a music video. She always tried to find her most beautiful angle and didn’t consider the cinematography for the drama at all. Someone like her doesn’t even deserve to be a celebrity. Now she’s even planning a theft and framing Ziyu’s assistant! Truly a malicious woman!”

“Is she trying to stir up controversy to gain popularity? She was virtually unheard of before this. But someone like this should be kicked out of the entertainment industry and locked up. Someone needs to teach her how to behave!”

More fans sincerely apologized on Zhou Tiantian’s Weibo.

“My face is burning today, but I’m actually happy about being wrong. I should have firmly believed that the person behind the account was a good person and shouldn’t have wrongly accused her. Besides, Ziyu and Tiantian didn’t say a word on Weibo about this matter from beginning to end. I really overthought things! Little Tiantian, please don’t be angry. We will always trust you from now on!”