"Is this... a crackdown on prostitution?"
Xiao He asked, somewhat surprised.
The scene before me looks very much like this situation.
Xiao He had encountered police raids before, but that was a long time ago.
At that time, he was still in elementary school. Once, he went on a trip to Y province with his parents. At four or five in the morning, the police knocked on the door to question and check him.
At the time, Xiao He didn't quite understand what they were doing, and even thought his uncles were quite strange. He and his parents were out having fun, and they didn't seem like bad people at all. Later, he learned that it was because "business" was rampant at that time, and all kinds of ways to evade inspections were emerging. In order to reduce and combat such illegal and criminal activities, the police could only conduct surprise inspections from time to time.
This was the first time in so long that Xiao He had encountered such a serious and large-scale police inspection operation at a hotel.
After all, normally, when inspecting small hotels or ordinary guesthouses, the probability of encountering "businessmen" is relatively high. However, this is a regular chain hotel, and many large film crews in the vicinity stay here. The guests are either actors or crew members. When the police come here to investigate, all parties are under tremendous pressure.
Generally speaking, they wouldn't choose to conduct a surprise inspection here.
Just then, Xiao Chen, who had already finished her examination, jogged over from the other side.
Upon seeing Xiao He, he immediately leaned close to Xiao He's ear and whispered an explanation: "It's still because of what happened on the set before."
Xiao He was taken aback for a moment, then pressed for details: "What about Wang Shaoqi in 'Cangyue Jie'?"
"Yes, I heard that after Wang Shaoqi was arrested, he vomited up a lot of stuff, so the police will be tightening control over this area during this period." Xiao Chen pursed his lips. "This time, they are focusing their inspections on the crew of 'Cang Yue Jie' and several other crew members who were implicated by Wang Shaoqi."
Therefore, it is not a matter of checking everyone indiscriminately.
But being an innocent bystander caught up in it is truly awful.
One Wang Shaoqi is like a bomb blowing up a latrine.
Xiao He was both speechless and puzzled: "How did you know?"
"Oh, I overheard the manager explaining it to the others when we came up here."
Xiao Chen pointed behind him, and Xiao He indeed saw a middle-aged man in a hotel uniform. At that moment, the man was leading a group of hotel staff members to apologize to each guest and offer them sleep-aid essential oils and steam eye masks to those who had been disturbed by the noise.
Despite his efforts to greet them with a smile, the guests who were disturbed all looked unhappy and spoke to the manager in a rather unfriendly tone.
Nighttime should be a quiet and peaceful time, but this place is filled with the sounds of people groaning and lamenting.
There was nothing they could do; they didn't dare to directly criticize the police, so they could only shift their focus to the hotel.
Xiao He sighed deeply.
Fortunately, he is currently staying with the crew of "The Legend of Chasing the Wind," while the crew of "The Calamity of the Moon" is on a different floor, far away from Xiao He, although they are in the same hotel. The scene on the other side must be even noisier right now.
Thinking about the other film crews implicated by Wang Shaoqi, who were woken up by the police in the middle of the night for inspections, Xiao He didn't dare to imagine how bad the reputation of their film "Cang Yue Jie" would be tomorrow.
After all, it was "Cang Yue Jie" that cast Wang Shaoqi as the second male lead, but Wang Shaoqi gathered a crowd in a hotel, which led to the police strengthening control and conducting surprise inspections, causing everyone to lose sleep and feel bad.
This even forced the police to work overtime late at night, checking each person one by one, while also having to deal with the stern faces of the guests.
"From now on, when we go out, we'll say we're from the crew of 'The Legend of Chasing the Wind'."
Xiao He whispered to Xiao Chen, his expression more serious than ever before.
LOL, Xiao He has never felt such a strong sense of belonging to any film crew before.
Even though the director of "The Legend of Chasing the Wind" was always eyeing the investment in his pocket, and even though the female lead, Yuan Sitong, was a tardy actress with poor professional skills, Xiao He was still willing to accept such a production team.
—Instead of a production crew where there are always ticking time bombs, where you feel like you could explode at any moment and get covered in shit, and you won't be able to get rid of it anytime soon.
This time, Xiao Chen didn't ask anything, but immediately understood what Xiao He meant and nodded frantically in agreement: "That's right, Brother Xiao, when we go to the 'Cang Yue Jie' set in the future, let's keep a low profile and finish filming as soon as possible. I think the air here at 'Zhu Feng Lu' is fresher."
Make sure you don't get involved with the film crew over there anymore.
Xiao He: "Yes—but I have to say something, the filming of The Wind Chaser is still in the mountains, where the air is indeed fresher."
Xiao Chen: ......
Just as Xiao He and Xiao Chen were discussing which film set had "better air quality," the police officer checking identification suddenly froze, walked out of the room, and looked up at the other side of the corridor.
Xiao He noticed that the communicator next to the police officer's ear suddenly started flashing.
"Something's wrong on the seventh floor! Something's wrong on the seventh floor! Someone come quick, someone come quick—"
The officer shoved the identification back into Xiao He's hand and then strode toward the elevator.
The other officers who had followed also quickly ran upstairs.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"
The hallway was still filled with groans and lamentations when Yuan Sitong, who lived a few rooms away from Xiao He, suddenly rushed out of her room and screamed, "Holy crap! The police have caught them in another prostitution raid!"
Immediately, the people whose documents were being checked stopped sleeping, their eyelids stopped drooping, and their previously hunched backs straightened up.
"Where? Where? Which film crew? Could it be another one—"
An actor excitedly chimed in, but just as he was about to mention the name of the "Cangyue Tribulation" production team, he suddenly met Xiao He's gaze and swallowed his words back.
Clearly, he remembered that Xiao He was also an actor in the "Cangyue Tribulation" drama crew.
Xiao He: ...There's no need to save face for him. Actually, he's quite disgusted too. Thank you.
"Let's go, let's go take a look!"
Yuan Sitong, however, couldn't wait any longer and immediately called her friends to go upstairs to find out what was going on.
To be honest, Xiao He had no idea that she hadn't slept and had been secretly watching the situation outside, since the police hadn't knocked on her door.
Xiao He and his crew are currently staying on the fifth floor, which isn't too far from the upper floors; they can get there by walking up the stairs. With such a commotion tonight, many well-informed young people, who are all night owls, were wide awake as soon as they received the news and decided to join in, running out of their rooms to see what was going on.
Among them were male celebrities with messy hair, wearing loose pajamas and slippers, while female celebrities were a bit more reserved. ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ When they were without makeup, they would wear a mask, a jacket over their pajamas, and slippers.
The group squeezed upstairs, trying to find out some news.
Xiao He looked up at the sky, speechless.
So, nobody slept?
It's so late, are you all up and eating melon seeds?
Weren't you just complaining that the noise from next door was disturbing your rest?!
How did they all suddenly appear?!
