Chapter 1

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"You're fired!"

The fat man in a suit standing in front of Xiao Ruiyi had an angry look in his eyes, pointing at him. A short young man was standing behind the fat man looked on gleefully with a smirk on his face.

Xiao Ruiyi did not know what was going on. He had been going about his work as normal, washing piles of dirty dishes with food still on most of them. This goes to show that the food in the hotel that he worked in was average at best. The food that was served to the employees was even worse. The food was for internal consumption, so it was made casually and in a big batch all at once. It didn't matter if it was over cooked or undercooked. The employees could choose to eat it or not, but most ate it anyways as it was free and there was no time for them to go buy takeout as their breaks were not even that long.

Xiao Ruiyi had just gone out to take out the trash. As he was coming back, he could hear the kitchen assistants whispering and some were even pointing at him. Their gazes were obvious as they looked him up and down. When he looked over in confusion, they would look away as of it had not been them who had been staring at him just a second ago.

Amidst all the looks and the pointing, Xiao Ruiyi went back to his station. Before he could even get back to work, a chubby man in a black suit, who was the general manager of the hotel, came sauntering over and declared that he had been fired. A shorter man came up to stand behind the manager and it was obvious that he was very happy, almost bursting with joy.

Xiao Ruiyi knitted his brows. "What are you talking about? Why am I suddenly being fired?"

"Stop pretending to be innocent! If you did something bad, then you naturally have to face the consequences." The shorter man couldn't hold back anymore and quickly accused him of a crime. His voice was loud, as if he couldn't wait for everyone to know what he had supposedly done.

Xiao Ruiyi stared at him and frowned. This man, Zhou Weizi, had never liked him. If that was all, then that was fine with him. He was here to make money, not friends. Whether or not others liked him had nothing to do with him, but the issue was that Zhou Weizi would always try to find ways to get him in trouble. 

Xiao Ruiyi rarely interacted with other people and mostly kept to himself, so there was no way he could've done anything to offend anyone, but this Zhou Weizi had always disliked him. The troubles that he gave him were not few, but Xiao Ruiyi just ignored him and focused on his own work. Obviously, Zhou Weizi was prepared this time.

Zhou Weizi's face was starting to redden from all his excitement. "If you insist on pretending, then I can help you remember. Last night, someone had stolen two thousand dollars from the general manager's office last night. You were one of the last people to use the locker room and the manager's office is right next to the locker room. So if it wasn't you, then who else could it be? You're the only one who is poor and desperate enough to steal so much money!"

Xiao Ruiyi looked at them in disbelief. He had never done something like that and he would never do so. Even if he was poor, he was not desperate enough to steal money. Doing something like that would go against his conscience and it would also jeopardize his employment if it were ever found out. There was no way he would ever do that and risk it.

"That's all your assumptions. Just because I was in locker room at a late hour doesn't mean it must've been me. I would never do something like that. Besides, do you have any evidence that it was me?" When Xiao Ruiyi asked this, he looked straight at the manager, wanting an answer.

The manager, Chen Guizhu, immediately glared at him and roared, "Of course, there are two witnesses! Though the surveillance camera in my office had not been working for the last few days and was only fixed this morning, Zhou Weizi and Xu Jian both saw you sneak into my office last night. If it was only one person, you could say that they were lying, but two people? Why would they work together to frame you?" 

Chen Guizhu was so angry that his eyes were practically spitting out fire. That two thousand dollars was nothing to the hotel, but it was still money that had been stolen. He knew that Xiao Ruiyi did not have a lot of money, but why would he do something like this? He didn't think that he would be this kind of person!

Xiao Ruiyi truly did not know what to say. There was no evidence that he didn't do it, and it was his word against the "two witnesses". He knew in his heart that he was not that kind of person, but looking around the room at the spectators, it was clear that no one believed him. He didn't understand why Xu Jian would work together with Zhou Weizi to get him in trouble. He wasn't close to Zhou Weizi either, so why? As Xiao Ruiyi's gaze landed on Xu Jian, who immediately looked away, not meeting his eyes.

"You say that they saw me, but both of them usually leave much earlier than me, so how could they have been there to witness my so-called 'theft'?" The sarcasm in Xiao Ruiyi's voice was apparent. When they heard this question, everyone in the room started whispering in low voices.

"That's true, we all leave earlier than Xiao Ruiyi. How could they have seen it?"

"But why would they lie?"

"Who is telling the truth?"

Hearing the doubt in their voices, Zhou Weizi glared at Xiao Ruiyi and said, "Why would we lie? We came back to get something we forgot and happened to see it. We're not the ones who did something wrong. Xu Jian, you say something!" Zhou Weizi called out Xu Jian, resulting in everyone looking towards him.

Xu Jian flinched under the gaze of so many people. He seemed to be uncomfortable with so many people staring at him. He looked at Zhou Weizi, who gave him a look, and finally opened his mouth after a long time. "Yes, we s-saw Xiao Ruiyi c-coming out of the office last night." After saying that, he quickly glanced at Xiao Ruiyi and then looked away.

Zhou Weizi immediately looked over at Xiao Ruiyi with a triumphant smirk on his face. He lifted an eyebrow, as if asking him if he had anything else to say.

Chen Guizhu gave a sigh. "Enough, there's nothing else to say. There's a camera in the corner of the hallway that leads to the locker room and my office. I have already checked it. After Xiao Ruiyi went to the locker room yesterday, Xu Jian, followed by Zhou Weizi, went in that same direction a little while after him. The three of you left in that same order. The culprit was someone out of the three of you and two of you said that you saw that it was the third person. So unless you can prove that you didn't do it, Xiao Ruiyi, I can only let you go."

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