Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

"The staff won’t be watching the live monitoring room all day. That’s why they didn’t notice that Ding Ruyun had already gone there so early." The staff explained.

"Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Contestants are allowed to arrive early to check to ensure there won’t be any accidents during their competition. This has happened before." The staff added.

This statement blocked all the unspoken doubts.

Ding Ruyun was not feeling well at this point.

She never expected that the organizers would start filming so early!

However, that’s not all.

In the contestant area, there was already significant suspicion towards Ding Ruyun.

Xue Jieyu exclaimed, "I remember, Ding Ruyun came to the backstage dressing room with less than half an hour to the competition start, right? Didn’t she say at the time that she was late because of traffic? She even said she was lucky not to be late!"

Reminded by Xue Jieyu, others also recalled.

Ding Ruyun had indeed said that earlier.

"Yeah, I remember it too. She arrived in a hurry and said there was traffic. Turns out she was here early, hiding somewhere for so long before popping out and telling us she had just arrived." A contestant who had been eliminated said.

"Why would she lie? She must have wanted to tamper with something, so she lied out of guilt to rid herself of suspicion." Someone else said.

"Then why didn’t she sabotage the ingredients when she went to the ingredients room early?" Someone asked.

"Isn’t there a segment where all contestants check the ingredients together? At that time, if any issues are found, the organizers can remedy them in time. She had to wait until we all inspected the ingredients and confirmed they were fine before sabotaging them. That way, Ye Fei, who had checked everything, wouldn’t suspect anything amidst so many people, thinking her ingredients couldn’t be tampered with." Another contestant explained.

He continued, "When the actual competition starts, and we all go to the ingredients room, if Ye Fei then finds her ingredients have been sabotaged, it would be too late to remedy. Even if the organizers have spare ingredients, getting new ones takes time, right?"

"In this way, Ye Fei’s actual cooking start time would be much later than ours. Just like this time with Chen Zhengping, cooking was rushed, many seasonings couldn’t be added in time, compared to Ding Ruyun, who was fully prepared, Ye Fei would lose." He continued.

Someone else nodded, "Exactly, and Ye Fei’s dish this time is extremely complex. It inherently requires more time; she needs to make full use of every minute she has and can’t waste a second. If Ding Ruyun really succeeds, Ye Fei might lose this match today." Another person expressed.

Even without seeing the follow-up video, contestants had already concluded it was Ding Ruyun’s doing.

Because Ding Ruyun lied from the beginning.

Why lie?

Wasn’t it because she felt guilty?

If she had done nothing wrong, why lie?

As for the audience, they were less informed than the contestants. They didn’t know about the incident that happened before the competition.

After this section of the video finished playing, the staff said, "Next, I’ll jump to the footage right before the competition starts, when the contestants follow the staff to the ingredients room to check their own ingredients."

After saying this, the staff shifted the video to the time before the competition began.

The video still showed an empty ingredients room.

After about ten seconds, the door to the ingredients room opened.

The screen then showed the staff entering first.

Afterwards, a crowd of contestants followed in one after another.

Because Ding Ruyun was currently the main suspect.

Everyone, including the audience, focused their attention on Ding Ruyun.

There were several camera angles in the ingredients room.

The staff displayed multiple camera angles simultaneously on split screens.

The audience spontaneously grouped up with those seated nearby.

Several people formed a small group, taking responsibility for one section of the split screen.

Finally, many people noticed something amiss.

"Here!" Someone shouted.

As this voice sounded, the staff also pressed pause.

The screen was marked in red, then the footage was zoomed in frame by frame.

Finally, the footage was enlarged so everyone could clearly see Ding Ruyun’s hand movement.

In the footage, Ding Ruyun’s hand was reaching into Ye Fei’s ingredient box.

Continuing to zoom in, Ding Ruyun’s hand was in the spot containing the glass bowl of shark fin.

"It’s her!" The audience shouted in astonishment.

"She still won’t admit it! Thought the camera wouldn’t capture her with someone blocking." The audience discussed.

They failed to consider who was involved.

This was Ye Fei personally pointing out Ding Ruyun.

Zhao Gushen, seeing the feedback from the live broadcast in the ingredients room on the big screen on-site, immediately contacted Lu Chenghong.

Lu Chenghong instantly issued a stern command to the staff.

Go frame by frame!

Make sure to identify whoever did it for me!

Lu Chenghong, however, was somewhat worried. What if Ye Fei’s accusation was wrong?

Ye Fei personally said she would withdraw from the competition if her accusation was erroneous.

If Ye Fei is implicated into withdrawing, isn’t that a pity?

So, Lu Chenghong shared his concerns with Zhao Gushen.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Gushen showed no concern.

"Since my Xiao Fei dared to say such a thing, she must have the confidence it was Ding Ruyun’s doing." Zhao Gushen said confidently.

The way he proudly said "my Xiao Fei" made Lu Chenghong want to turn around and leave, ignoring him.

"So just let people investigate, it’s bound to be Ding Ruyun." Zhao Gushen said.

Since Zhao Gushen said that, Lu Chenghong said nothing more.

He called on people to continue investigating.

No matter who did it, report the truth.

If it wasn’t Ding Ruyun, then it’s a matter between Ye Fei and Ding Ruyun.

The priority was to ensure that such contestants who use despicable means are not allowed to continue in the competition.

The result was exactly as Zhao Gushen and Ye Fei had asserted.

It indeed was Ding Ruyun!

"It wasn’t me!" Even now, Ding Ruyun refused to admit it, loudly exclaiming, "I just accidentally touched it, it wasn’t me!"

The staff said, "But my colleagues and I, totaling 10 people, each reviewed it. Throughout, only you were ’accidental’; everyone else examined their own ingredient boxes without going near others’. Even if someone passed by, they kept their distance to avoid suspicion, careful not to touch or even get close to other ingredient boxes. They feared unnecessary misunderstandings and were all very cautious."