Chapter 150

“Had I known she was coming, I would’ve asked her to bring the inhibitor. That would’ve been so much faster!”

“She said you called her.”

Zhong Ning was stunned. She pulled out her phone and checked the call log—sure enough, there was a one-minute record, and judging by the time, it was right during her heat.

“I don’t know either. Maybe I called her in a daze? I have no memory of it.”

“You two really are close.” There was no teasing in Fu Nanshuang’s voice when she said this—just a touch of emotion. “I didn’t think I’d ever witness pure love again.”

Zhong Ning felt a little embarrassed. “It’s not that dramatic.”

She changed the subject and asked, “Did you find anything?”

“No. There’s not much surveillance on the cruise. Only a few cameras in the hallways, and even those don’t fully cover the area. A lot of places are blind spots. We checked the food from the kitchen—nothing unusual.” Fu Nanshuang spoke in a low voice, “And besides, we’re out at sea. If someone really had incriminating evidence, they could’ve just tossed it overboard—no one would ever find it.”

“For now, we can only investigate slowly. Did you see anyone suspicious yesterday?”

“…Would Zhong Zinuan count?” Zhong Ning said. “She’s the only one I met alone yesterday. It felt like she was trying to soften up and make peace with me? But her worldview is kind of skewed, I really can’t agree with it, let alone feel sympathy.”

She briefly summarized the conversation between the two of them, and ended with, “After talking to her, I came back here and just hung around. Then I started feeling really hot and uncomfortable—it was like my heat started earlier than expected, so I left right away. You know the rest.”

“I wasn’t suspicious of her at first, but now I think there’s an eighty percent chance she’s behind this.” Fu Nanshuang’s gaze sharpened. “You were the first to notice something was wrong. When you left, everyone else was still fine. I got your call and went to look for you, and things still seemed normal at that point.”

“It wasn’t until after I brought you back and returned that everything started going haywire.”

She asked quickly, “Did you come into contact with anything? Did Zhong Zinuan give you anything?”

Zhong Ning shook her head. “No, she didn’t give me anything explicitly. We met near the bow of the ship, just inside from the board game room. I’ll take you there—maybe we can find something.”

Fu Nanshuang brought someone with detection equipment, and the three of them went to the spot where the two had met earlier. As expected, it was a surveillance blind spot. The moment they scanned the area, the readings shot up—something was definitely wrong.

On the carpet, they even found traces left by dried inducer residue.

“It has to be her. Is she insane?” Fu Nanshuang was in disbelief. “Half the people here are from within the circle. Is she not afraid of being held accountable by the others?”

“Guess she’s just throwing in the towel now that she can’t be the heir.”

Zhong Ning looked at the readings on the instrument. “So, does this count as evidence?”

Fu Nanshuang furrowed her brows tightly. “Strictly speaking, no. We’re still just speculating. There’s no solid proof that she set you up.”

Zhong Ning: “So we’re just going to let her get away with it?”

“I’ll first ask the others if they’re willing to report it to the police and let them investigate,” Fu Nanshuang said, biting her teeth in frustration. “But most likely they won’t. The impact is too negative. Everyone cares about their reputation, and since nothing really happened, they’ll probably just choose to suppress it and handle it privately.”

“Zhong Zinuan isn’t an idiot either. She’d definitely clean up after herself thoroughly—you won’t find a single clue.”

She spread her hands. “And actually, we can’t even be a hundred percent sure it was her. What if someone else had a grudge? That’s not out of the question. After all, using dirty tricks isn’t exclusive to her.”

With a face full of gloom, she added, “This is so damn unlucky. I haven’t hosted an outing in eight hundred years, and the moment I do, something like this happens! My reputation’s going to be completely ruined. No, I have to find out who’s behind this!”

Fu Nanshuang stormed off, clearly hoping to find a new lead.

Zhong Ning thought for a moment, then went to the kitchen and rummaged around. She found a few eggs, cracked them into the pan and fried them, did the same with some ham, sliced up lettuce and tomatoes, layered them into slices of toast, and made an ultra-simple sandwich. She also heated up some milk and carried everything back to the room.

Although her cooking skills were mediocre, she could at least manage something like this.

When she returned, Xie Shiqing was already awake, exuding a cold aura. She was holding a phone, and upon hearing Zhong Ning’s voice, she lowered her tone and said, “Settle it as soon as possible.”

Then she hung up.

Zhong Ning gave a small “Hey”: “Did I interrupt you?”

“No. It was still about the same matter. They were just calling to report the progress.”

Xie Shiqing sniffed lightly. “I think I smell milk.”

“The chef’s off duty. I can’t cook much, so I just heated some milk and made you a sandwich.”

Zhong Ning walked over to the bedside and handed her the breakfast, then recounted what had just happened.

Xie Shiqing took a bite of the sandwich. “I’ll have my people help.” As she spoke, she quickly sent out several messages on her phone.

In her heart, she also leaned toward the idea that Zhong Zinuan was responsible, and directly instructed her people to investigate her first.

She had already gotten the guest list as soon as she heard Zhong Ning would be coming aboard the cruise, and had privately run a background check on everyone—not in depth, mostly just to know who they were and what they did.

Even without digging deeper, Zhong Zinuan was still the most suspicious.

She didn’t plan to leave the cruise now and would stay on board. Her subordinates, all top-tier professionals—practically elite private investigators—arrived quickly and immediately began a thorough, inch-by-inch search.

When people heard they were sent by Xie Shiqing, several members of the circle visibly relaxed and promised full cooperation.

Those who didn’t know her identity could roughly guess from others’ reactions that she must be someone significant.

Xie Shiqing found Zhong Zinuan truly annoying. This woman was the same in both lifetimes. She hadn’t made a move yet simply because she didn’t want to alert the enemy prematurely.

Zhong Zinuan was just the appetizer. The Zhong family behind Zhong Lin was the main course.

Now that she had lost her status as heir, she was nothing within the Zhong family anymore—just about time to deal with her.

Before she kept hopping around like a flea, endlessly irritating everyone.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep