"Is this... a vice raid?"
Xiao He asked with some surprise.
The scene before him very much resembled such a situation.
Xiao He had encountered police surprise inspections before, but that was a very long time ago.
Back then, he was still in elementary school. Once, while traveling to Y Province with his parents, the police knocked on their door for questioning and inspection around four or five in the morning.
At the time, Xiao He didn't quite understand what they were doing and even thought the officers were rather strange. He and his parents were just out traveling; they didn't look like bad people at all. He later learned it was because "business" was rampant and rampant back then, with various methods to evade inspections emerging endlessly. To reduce and combat such illegal and criminal activities, the police had no choice but to conduct surprise inspections at irregular intervals.
It's just that after so long, this was the first time Xiao He encountered the police carrying out such a serious, large-scale inspection operation at a hotel.
After all, normally speaking, the probability of encountering "businesspeople" is higher when inspecting small inns or ordinary homestays. Their location was a regular chain hotel, where many major production crews in the vicinity were staying. The occupants were either actors and artists or production crew staff. For the police to come here for investigation meant all parties involved were under immense pressure.
Generally speaking, they wouldn't choose to conduct surprise inspections here.
Right at this moment, Xiao Chen, who had already finished his inspection, came jogging over from the other side.
Seeing Xiao He, he immediately leaned close to Xiao He's ear and whispered an explanation, "It's still because of the previous production crew matter."
Xiao He was taken aback for a moment, then pressed, "The Wang Shaoqi thing from 'Cangyue Calamity'?"
"Yeah, right. I heard after Wang Shaoqi was arrested, he spilled a lot of stuff. So the police will strengthen control and monitoring in this area during this period." Xiao Chen curled his lip, "This time, they are specifically focusing on inspecting people from the 'Cangyue Calamity' crew, as well as several other production crew personnel implicated by Wang Shaoqi."
So it wasn't a blanket inspection of everyone.
But as someone innocently dragged into this, it was truly too vexing.
This Wang Shaoqi was simply like a bomb exploding in a latrine.
Xiao He felt both speechless and puzzled, "How do you know this?"
"Oh, when I came up just now, the manager was explaining it to others, and I happened to hear it."
Xiao Chen pointed backward with his hand. Xiao He indeed saw a middle-aged man in a hotel uniform. At that moment, the man was leading hotel staff with carts, apologizing to other guests who had heard the commotion and had their sleep disturbed, offering them sleep-aid essential oils and steam eye masks.
Although he was trying hard to greet everyone with a smiling face, every disturbed guest had an unpleasant expression, and their tone when speaking to the manager wasn't very good either.
Nighttime was supposed to be a time of peace and quiet, but here, everywhere was filled with everyone's complaints and grievances.
There was no helping it. They didn't dare directly criticize the police, so they could only redirect their firepower onto the hotel.
Xiao He let out a long sigh.
Fortunately, he was currently staying with the people from the 'Record of Chasing the Wind' crew. Although the 'Cangyue Calamity' crew was in the same hotel, they were on a different floor, far away from Xiao He. And the scene over there was definitely even more chaotic right now.
Just thinking about the other crews implicated by Wang Shaoqi being woken up by the police for inspections in the middle of the night, Xiao He didn't even dare imagine how bad the reputation of their 'Cangyue Calamity' would be tomorrow.
After all, when you think about it, it was 'Cangyue Calamity' that hired Wang Shaoqi as the second male lead. As a result, Wang Shaoqi gathered a crowd in the hotel, leading to the police now strengthening control and conducting surprise inspections, causing everyone to sleep poorly and be in a bad mood.
And it also forced the police officers to work overtime, laboriously conducting inspections one by one in the middle of the night, all while facing the guests' black looks.
"From now on, when we go out, say we're from the 'Record of Chasing the Wind' crew."
Xiao He whispered to Xiao Chen, his expression unprecedentedly serious.
It was hilarious. Xiao He had never felt such a high sense of belonging to any production crew before.
Even though the director of 'Record of Chasing the Wind' constantly had his eye on the investment in Xiao He's pocket, and even though the female lead Yuan Sitong had poor professional skills and was the king of tardiness, Xiao He was willing to calmly accept such a crew.
—Rather than a crew that constantly hid landmines, felt like it could explode at any moment and get you splattered with filth, and was difficult to shake off for a while.
This time, Xiao Chen didn't ask anything either. He instantly understood Xiao He's meaning and nodded vigorously in strong agreement, "Right, Brother Xiao. From now on, when we go to the 'Cangyue Calamity' crew, we should keep a lower profile too. Finish filming early, wrap up early. I feel the air over at 'Record of Chasing the Wind' is even fresher."
They absolutely must not get entangled with that crew again.
Xiao He said, "Right—but I have to say one thing. 'Record of Chasing the Wind' is currently still filming on the mountain. The air there really is fresher."
Xiao Chen: ...
Just as Xiao He and Xiao Chen were discussing which crew had "fresher air," the police officer checking documents nearby suddenly froze, walked out of the room, and looked up toward the other end of the corridor.
Xiao He noticed the communication device in the officer's ear suddenly started flashing.
"Something's happening on the seventh floor, something's happening on the seventh floor. Someone come help, someone—"
The officer shoved the documents in his hand back to Xiao He and then strode quickly toward the elevator.
Several other officers who had come along also hurriedly ran toward the upper floors.
"What happened? What happened?"
The corridor had been filled with complaints and grievances, but Yuan Sitong, a few rooms away from Xiao He, suddenly rushed out of her room and screamed, "Holy crap, a huge scoop! The police caught someone again in the vice raid!"
Instantly, the few people who had been dragged into the document checks stopped sleeping. Their eyelids were no longer drooping. Their previously hunched backs suddenly straightened.
"Where? Where? Which crew? It couldn't be again—"
An actor excitedly chimed in, but just as he was about to utter the name of the 'Cangyue Calamity' crew, he abruptly met Xiao He's gaze and immediately swallowed his words back.
Clearly, he remembered Xiao He was also an actor from the 'Cangyue Calamity' crew.
Xiao He: ... There's really no need to protect his face. Actually, he was quite disdainful of it too, thank you very much.
"Let's go, let's go, hurry up and take a look!"
Yuan Sitong, however, couldn't wait any longer. She immediately started "calling friends and summoning companions," preparing to go upstairs to investigate the situation.
To be honest, Xiao He didn't even know she hadn't been sleeping and had been secretly paying attention to the situation outside, especially since the police hadn't knocked on her door.
Xiao He's crew was currently staying on the fifth floor, not too far from upstairs. You could get there by taking the stairs. With such a big commotion tonight, many of the more well-informed young people, who were all night owls anyway, lost their sleepiness as soon as they received the news. They simply followed along, rushing out of their rooms to watch the drama unfold for others.
Among them were male artists with messy bedhead, wearing loose pajamas and slippers on their feet. The female artists were slightly more reserved, wearing masks when bare-faced, with jackets wrapped over their pajamas, and also wearing slippers on their feet.
The whole group squeezed toward the upstairs, trying to catch any news.
Xiao He looked up at the ceiling, utterly speechless.
So no one was actually sleeping?
At this hour, you all got up to munch on melon seeds?
Weren't you just complaining about the noise next door disturbing your rest?!
How come in the blink of an eye, you've all run out?!