The woman, upon hearing this, was severely startled and quickly shut her mouth.
Zhan Kaiyang glanced at the staff responsible for the search and reminded them again.
"You missed someone in the check."
Zhan Bei scoffed disdainfully and said with a sarcastic tone,
"It seems she probably holds no position at the institute, simply forgotten by everyone!"
Zhan Nan also showed a mocking smile and added,
"That must be it. Otherwise, after checking everyone else and not her, she must have been forgotten to the ends of the earth."
Zhan Nanqing, seated beside Qiao Jing, rolled her eyes speechlessly upon hearing Zhan Nan and Zhan Bei’s deliberately loud comments.
"How did these three get in here?"
Talking about Qiao Jing being forgotten due to a lack of status at the institute? What an international joke!
If Professor Qiao doesn’t hold status at the institute, then who does?
The only reason they didn’t search Qiao Jing was that she couldn’t possibly have stolen the research findings and documents—those were originally hers.
The staff looked at Zhan Kaiyang and the others with puzzled expressions, none of them speaking up.
When Zhan Kaiyang saw everyone’s reactions, he paused, feeling that something was amiss.
Why had nobody searched Qiao Jing’s bag?!
Unable to wait any longer, he spoke up to remind them,
"Search Qiao Jing’s bag. Everyone here has been searched except for her."
The staff looked at each other, but no one moved.
Their brains weren’t sick—searching Professor Qiao’s bag?
If it were Professor Qiao taking the documents, it would be taking back what was hers. How could it be stealing?
Qiao Jing noticed that Zhan Kaiyang was incessantly trying to draw everyone’s attention to her, seemingly convinced that she had stolen the documents.
She lightly raised her eyebrows and slowly curved her lips into a smile.
"No need to search. I’ll check myself."
Since Zhan Kaiyang was so eager for the staff to search her, the documents were likely in her bag.
Qiao Jing opened the bag she had brought with her and, sure enough, found the documents inside.
Without a word, she took them out and handed them to Xu Hongzu.
She had already guessed Zhan Kaiyang’s intention—it was nothing more than an attempt to pin the theft of important files on her and get her expelled.
No wonder Zhan Kaiyang had brought Zhan Nan and Zhan Bei to the banquet at this time—they wanted to watch her get publicly expelled.
However, unfortunately for them, she had no intention of expelling herself.
Zhan Kaiyang internally cursed ’idiot’ when he saw Qiao Jing voluntarily taking out the documents from her bag.
But this was exactly the kind of stupidity he needed—perfect for his plans!
Seeing a good opportunity, Zhan Kaiyang quickly spoke up,
"So, it was you who stole the documents! Well done, Qiao Jing, I never imagined you’d be bold enough to steal from Professor Qiao’s Research Institute!"
This time, he refused to believe he couldn’t teach Qiao Jing a lesson!
Zhan Nan and Zhan Bei immediately started to stir up trouble from the sidelines.
"After committing such an act, aren’t you going to expel her?"
"For such a theft, expulsion is the least of it—you could simply call the police and have her arrested, right?"
The staff all looked at Zhan Kaiyang and the others with strange expressions, inwardly snickering,
Although these three people didn’t know that Qiao Jing was Professor Qiao, wasn’t saying this to their internal staff the same as not saying anything at all?
And who had the authority to fire Professor Qiao, anyway? Professor Qiao firing them would be more like it!
Zhan Kaiyang found it increasingly strange as all the staff remained unmoved, standing in their original positions.
"Such an important matter, and you don’t inform Professor Qiao so she can fire Qiao Jing?"
The staff still ignored Zhan Kaiyang, their anxieties eased once they learned the documents were in Qiao Jing’s hands.
Zhan Nan and Zhan Bei also found it odd and began to discuss, deliberately raising their voices.
"No way! You won’t get fired even for stealing documents?"
"What are you staff thinking? Such an important matter as stolen documents, and yet you stand there like logs, not moving an inch?"
Zhan Kaiyang snorted coldly and cursed angrily.
"Since you all won’t act, then I’ll make the call myself and get Qiao Jing arrested. To think she’d dare to steal from Professor Qiao, I see that Qiao Jing really wants to reach for the sky!"
Qiao Jing threw a casual glance at Zhan Kaiyang and his group before looking away, her gaze landing on a staff member who had previously communicated with Zhan Kaiyang.
She wasn’t bothered by Zhan Kaiyang’s attempt to frame her; what she cared about was finding out who had managed to sneak the documents out.
The staff member began to tremble uncontrollably when meeting Qiao Jing’s gaze, swallowing nervously as sweat increasingly drenched his back.
Meanwhile, Zhan Kaiyang, busy with his plans to call the police, failed to notice the staff member’s distress.
Just as he was about to make the call to have Qiao Jing arrested, he saw the staff member suddenly kneel on the ground, right in front of Qiao Jing and Xu Hongzu.
When his knees hit the floor, they made a "thud!"
The staff member, now sweating profusely, trembled all over.
He began to speak with a quivering voice:
"The documents... It was me who took them secretly... I was wrong! I was deceived by some high-ranking person’s lies, stole the documents, and then put them in Professor Qiao’s—"
Before he could finish, he realized he was about to slip up and quickly corrected himself:
"—placed them in Miss Qiao’s bag, trying to set her up! Professor Xu, I won’t dare again, please forgive me."
If he had known that the person Zhan Kaiyang intended to frame was Professor Qiao, not even ten times the guts would make him dare to!
And Zhan Kaiyang had even told him that he just wanted to set up an ordinary staff member, damn it!
Was Professor Qiao an ordinary staff member?!
If he didn’t admit his mistake now, the consequences would be unimaginable!
Seeing this scene, Zhan Kaiyang and the others were stunned.
Zhan Nan, watching the staff member kneeling on the ground, whispered in criticism:
"What on earth is this guy doing? Why would he suddenly confess? Damn it, he’s here to screw up my plan!"
Zhan Bei joined in the criticism:
"Grandpa, who did you hire to help out?!"
Zhan Kaiyang furrowed his brows, confused as he looked at the staff member.
What’s going on? Why did he suddenly confess? He was so close to successfully getting Qiao Jing thrown out of the research institute!
As he thought this, the image of Zhan Yuanshan telling him that Qiao Jing was Professor Qiao suddenly flashed through his mind.
Zhan Kaiyang’s frown deepened. Could it really be as his brother said, that Qiao Jing was Professor Qiao?
Otherwise, why wouldn’t anyone search Qiao Jing’s bag, and why would the staff member readily admit to this incident?
No, that’s impossible! How could Qiao Jing be Professor Qiao? She was just a country bumpkin from the sticks!
He was sure this was all just a play acted out by the staff member to confuse him, orchestrated by his brother!
At this thought, Zhan Kaiyang snorted coldly.
"You really think I’m that easily fooled?"