Chapter 51

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Attention

Apart from his fellow competitors, Huo Cheng also received attention from many journalists. With his outstanding looks, he was already a favourite of the cameramen, and now, riding high halfway through the competition, he had almost all of the media personnel present gathered around him.

After the competitors’ arrows had been shot, the judges began the task of tallying the total score, while the journalists simply could not wait to start interviewing Huo Cheng.

It suddenly dawned on Tian Yu that all the shots of him being interviewed in the morning might be overshadowed by Huo Cheng. 🙂 Thank goodness he washed his hair before he left home!

Finally, the total score was announced. Huo Cheng, unsurprisingly, took first place, with Blue T-shirt taking second place by a wide margin. Blue T-shirt’s entire body looked deflated, no longer in the same high spirits as he had been before the race.

After a twenty-minute break, the second round was held. All competitors shot another thirty-six arrows and were ranked according to their cumulative scores.

Huo Cheng performed as well in the second round as he had in the first. Blue T-shirt, on the other hand, did worse.

Tian Yu looked on gleefully, chanting, “He’s nervous he’s nervous he’s nervous.”

If only he could see the expression on Chen Jingming’s face right now, he would have no regrets!

After both rounds, Huo Cheng’s lead pulled even further away from the other entrants. Following this, the match-ups for the elimination rounds were announced. The first round of eliminations would take place the next day, at the same venue: Starlight Farm.

♥

As the day came to an end, Tian Yu wanted to let everyone know that he would be treating them to a meal to celebrate, but he couldn’t get a word in edgeways, as the journalists were still gathered around Huo Cheng. There hadn’t been so many journalists in the morning, he was sure of it. 🙂

“You guys go back first,” Shen Wanying told him. “ I’ll wait for Huo Cheng here.”

“Alright.” Tian Yu didn’t want to stay any longer as there was no place for him here. He left with the other participating club members, while Shen Wanying stayed. Huo Cheng looked in her direction and refused all further interviews, saying something before walking away.

One reporter complained, “He says too little, it feels like we’re doing all the talking!”

“Do you need him to talk? Just use a picture of him and you’ll attract attention,” another noted.

That was a good point.

♥

Huo Cheng handed his bow to the driver and asked him to take it back to the car for him, then turned to Shen Wanying. “Do you want to eat lunch here? You said you wanted to fly a kite last time, so we can do that for a while this afternoon.”

“Sure.”

He walked with her towards the restaurant, where there were farmhouse stir-fries and a western buffet. Everything smelled delicious. The two of them discussed what to eat later as walked back to the Starlight Farm’s hotel.

In the lobby, the manager who had helped Huo Cheng claim the oil painting last time was there. He recognised Huo Cheng and greeted him when he saw him coming. “Huo Cheng, I didn’t expect you to be so good at archery. I saw you competing over there just now.”

Huo Cheng also remembered him. He inclined his head. “Hello.”

The manager smiled and said, “I didn’t expect a high school student to be so proficient. You’re coming back tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.”

“By the way, didn’t you ask me about the oil painting last time?” He turned to the woman standing beside him and introduced her. “This is Director Xu, she’s been working here for years. Why not ask her, she might know.”

Huo Cheng hesitated for a moment, looking at the formally-dressed woman. Director Xu asked, “Was it you who claimed that oil painting last time? I heard it was your mother who painted it?”

“Mm.”

“Ah … I still remember that incident. It was quite a big deal at the time,” She told him. “Let’s talk about it in the office.”

Huo Cheng looked at Shen Wanying, who nodded and followed him.

Director Xu poured them both a glass of water and sat down in her office chair. “I remember your mother was accompanied by a man the time she was here.”

Huo Cheng’s eye twitched ever so slightly, “A man? Was it my father?”

Director Xu smiled uncomfortably and hesitated. “We don’t ask questions regarding our guests, but then another man came here looking for your mother, and even got into a fight with the guest who accompanied her. We almost called the police.”

It actually wasn’t uncommon for such things to happen at the hotel. But the reason Director Xu still remembered the incident was because it involved City A’s prestigious Huo family. Gossip about rich families always tended to be more easily remembered.

She felt like she shouldn’t talk to a child about these things. And besides, they couldn’t confirm any of the rumours that had come out of the incident. Except, now that Huo Cheng had come into the picture, it seemed to confirm that the matter was indeed related to the Huo family.

She left out a lot, only giving the two students a general picture of what had happened at the time. But despite her subtlety, Huo Cheng and Shen Wanying pieced together what had happened after some deliberation. They were not stupid, after all.

Whether the man who had come with Huo Cheng’s mother was Huo Cheng’s father or not, it remained undeniable that there had been a third party involved.

The question was, did that mean Huo Cheng’s mother had been cheating at the time?

♥

T/N: Oh, holy heck, okay Chestnut just drop the bomb on us like that, won’t you? Jesus Christ. Although, with all the wink-wink-nudge-nudge-hint-hint that’s been happening, she might just turn around and hit us with something completely unexpected. And again, now that the tension has been cranked the heck up, let us know if you’d like advance chapters, will you? I’m speeding on to the next one~

P.S: Thank you Bright Eyes for lending a speedy hand with this chapter

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