Chapter 499: Chapter 499: It’s Not Me (2 chapters combined into one)

“The staff won’t be watching the live broadcast monitoring room all day. That’s why they didn’t notice that Iris Doone had already been there so early.” the staff explained.

“Of course, this doesn’t necessarily indicate any problems. It’s permissible for contestants to come early to check their materials to avoid any accidents during the competition. It has happened before.” the staff added.

These words blocked all unspoken suspicions.

At this point, Iris Doone was not doing well.

She never thought that the organizers would turn on the cameras so early!

However, that wasn’t the worst part.

In the contestant area, there was already significant suspicion directed at Iris Doone.

Yellen Brooks exclaimed, “I remember that Iris Doone went to the backstage makeup room only half an hour before the competition began, right? At that time, she said that she was late because she was stuck in traffic, didn’t she? She was thankful that she’d arrived on time!”

Reminded by Yellen Brooks, the other contestants also recalled it.

Before, Iris Doone had indeed said so.

“Yeah, I remember she rushed over and said she was stuck in traffic. It turns out she had arrived early, but we don’t know where she hid and came out so late, telling us she’d just arrived.” said an eliminated contestant.

“Why did she lie? She definitely wanted to do something underhanded, so she felt guilty and lied to escape suspicion.” someone else said.

“Since she had already gone to the food storage room early, why didn’t she destroy the materials then?” someone asked.

“Isn’t there a step where all the contestants check the ingredients together? Rectifying any problems found then would still be in time. But it was only after we had all checked the ingredients and found them okay that she took the opportunity to sabotage. At that time, even Cindy had finished checking, and naturally, she wouldn’t think there were so many people around that her ingredients could still be destroyed.” another contestant said.

He continued, “By the time the competition really started, and we all went to the food storage room to get ingredients, and then Cindy found her ingredients had been sabotaged, even rectifying the issue would be too late. Even if the organizers had more ingredients and she went to get new ones, wouldn’t that take time?”

“In this way, the time that Cindy would take to start actually cooking would be much later than ours. Just like what happened to Joseph Tanner this time, his cuisine was undercooked and many seasonings weren’t prepared in time, so compared to the fully prepared Iris Doone, Cindy would lose this time.” someone else added.

Another person nodded, “That’s right, and Cindy’s cuisine this time is extremely complicated. She originally needed a lot of time and had to make full use of every minute and second, and couldn’t afford to waste any. If Iris Doone had actually succeeded, Cindy might have lost today.”

Even without watching the rest of the video, the contestants had already determined that Iris Doone had done it.

Because Iris Doone had lied from the beginning.

Why did she lie?

Wasn’t it because she felt guilty?

If nothing had happened, why would she lie?

The audience didn’t know as much as the contestants and didn’t realize that there had been such an incident before the competition.

After this section of the video was played, the staff said, “Next, I will jump the time forward to before the competition when the contestants followed the staff to the food storage room to check their materials, and the records of that time.”

After that, the staff jumped the video to before the competition began.

The video still showed an empty food storage room.

After about ten seconds, the door of the food storage room was opened.

The staff who entered first appeared in the video.

Then, numerous contestants followed one by one.

Because Iris Doone was the prime suspect now.

Everyone, including the audience, focused on Iris Doone.

There were several cameras in the food storage room.

The staff split the screen to show the footage from several angles simultaneously.

Audience members voluntarily cooperated with others sitting nearby.

Several people formed a group, each responsible for one video angle.

Eventually, many people noticed something wrong.

“Here!” someone shouted.

As the voice sounded, the staff paused the video.

A red mark appeared on the screen, and then the video was enlarged frame by frame.

Finally, the video was enlarged to show Iris Doone’s hand movement clearly.

In the video, Iris Doone’s hand was reaching into Cindy’s ingredients compartment.

As the video continued to enlarge, it could be seen that Iris Doone’s hand was reaching directly for the glass bowl containing the shark fin.

“It’s her!” the audience exclaimed.

“She still won’t admit it! She thought the camera wouldn’t be able to film her because someone was blocking her.” the audience commented.

But they didn’t realize whose misfortune this was.

This was Iris Doone, who was accused by Cindy herself.

Adrian Zhekova contacted Billy Houston right away after seeing the live footage from the food storage room on the big screen at the scene.

Billy Houston immediately gave the staff a strict order.

Frame by frame, you must find the person responsible!

Billy Houston was a little worried: what if Cindy had accused the wrong person?

Cindy herself had said that if she was wrong, she would withdraw from the competition.

If this incident caused her to withdraw, how regrettable would it be.

So, Billy Houston told Adrian Zhekova about his worries.

But surprisingly, Adrian Zhekova didn’t worry at all.

“If my Cindy dares to say so, she must have the confidence that it was Iris Doone.” Adrian Zhekova said confidently.

When he said “my Cindy,” his extremely smug expression made Billy Houston want to turn around and leave, not wanting to deal with him.

“So you just have someone check it out, and it’s bound to be Iris Doone who did it.” Adrian Zhekova said.

Since Adrian Zhekova said so, Billy Houston stopped talking.

He continued to have the staff investigate.

No matter who was found, they would report the truth.

If it wasn’t Iris Doone, it would be between Cindy and Iris Doone.

First and foremost, they had to ensure that the major competition could not tolerate the existence of contestants who used underhanded tactics.

In the end, it was just as Adrian Zhekova and Cindy said.

It was really Iris Doone!

“It wasn’t me!” Even now, Iris Doone still refused to admit it, shouting, “I just accidentally touched it, it wasn’t me!”

The staff said, “But my colleagues and I, a total of 10 people, have reviewed the video again and again. You were the only one who ‘accidentally’ did this, while the others just checked their own ingredient compartments and none of them went to others’ compartments. Even when passing by, they deliberately kept their distance and didn’t even come close, let alone touch or approach other people’s compartments. They were all extremely cautious to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.”