Jiang Jinran tilted her head with a devil-may-care air, a smile touching the corners of her eyes. "Shi Hui, don't tell me you deliberately lost your fake so you could swindle me out of my real one?"
Shi Hui's eyes widened at those words.
It felt as though countless insects were wriggling through her innards. She was sick to her stomach.
"Shut up!"
Unable to contain this nauseating fury, Shi Hui shouted in exasperation.
But all Shi Hui could do now was rage impotently.
This handkerchief did look like a fake, just as Jiang Jinran had said...
She did not even have room to argue.
Disgust, anger...
Shi Hui clenched her fists, truly wishing the world would end in the next second. At this very moment, she felt utterly humiliated.
Meanwhile, on Weibo.
Someone had leaked the news that the police had closed the case, and the Hope Cup topic page immediately saw another round of discussion.
[The police just left.]
[Case closed?]
[The thing with those two from Imperial Star, right?]
[As expected of Imperial Star. Such a storm of blood and gore.]
[I still haven't figured out this melon. Can you stop talking in riddles? What actually happened?]
[Riddlers, get lost. What happened at Imperial Star?]
[I managed to find out a little.]
[The actress playing Xiao Shu was falsely accused of stealing. The police cleared her name after they arrived. She didn't steal anything. The actress playing the female lead wrongfully accused her.]
[Bro, you're a saint. Now I get it.]
[Xiao Shu, my poor Xiao Shu. You've been wronged.]
[After all that, who exactly is the actress playing Xiao Shu? Does she have Weibo?]
[Xiao Shu's real name is Jiang Jinran. Couldn't find her Weibo.]
[I'm so glad Xiao Shu didn't steal anything. I really like her, but stealing is a huge deal-breaker for me. I'd have had to stop liking her.]
[Jiang Jinran. What an evocative name.]
Central Theater.
After the backstage farce ended, all the performances onstage finally drew to a close as well.
After deliberating, the judges would decide all the awards for this year's Hope Cup.
The deliberations would not take very long.
So before long, all the Hope Cup contestants gathered onstage.
Jiang Jinran stood in a corner of the stage beside Imperial Star's group.
Spotlights illuminated the entire stage.
With a microphone in one hand and a list in the other, Jiang Chuji began announcing the final award winners.
Naturally, the Imperial Star students still hoped to win an award.
But everything Jiang Jinran had done had made their hopes of winning slim.
Now, all they could do was hope while comforting themselves-
With an unexpected incident like that, it would be normal even if they won nothing.
Jiang Chuji announced one award after another, but Imperial Star's name never came up.
Watching the teams around her win awards one after another, Shi Hui bit her lip, her expression ugly.
The others hung their heads, looking as though they wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Only Jiang Jinran remained expressionless. She stood in the corner, quietly watching Jiang Chuji and listening to him speak in utter boredom.
At last, all the group awards had been announced-
Nothing for Imperial Star.
At that moment, everyone's hearts finally died.
They had no awards! Not a single one!
All those days of effort had gone to waste!
At that moment, everyone hated Jiang Jinran even more-
That bitch who had ruined everything!
"Next are the individual awards." Jiang Chuji's pleasant voice echoed through the venue. The ceremony was not over yet; the individual awards still had to be announced.
Shi Hui had already given up hope of winning an individual award.
If she did not even have a chance at a group award, an individual award, with its stricter requirements, was even further beyond her reach.
Jiang Chuji announced the names of the best lead actor and actress and the best supporting actor and actress. All were contestants from outside Imperial Star.
Shi Hui and the classmates around her stood onstage with numb expressions.
Although they had long expected this outcome, when it actually happened, it was still somewhat hard to bear.
The teenage boys and girls felt dejected and resentful, gritting their teeth.
"Finally, the Best Style Award." Jiang Chuji's voice continued to ring in everyone's ears. Although it was pleasant and deeply magnetic, the Imperial Star students only wished he would hurry up and finish. The handsome man at the judges' table glanced at the list, a deep glimmer flashing through his liquid eyes-
"The Best Style Award goes to Jiang Jinran from Imperial Star Academy!"
His words were met first with an eerie silence.
Then enthusiastic applause broke out.
Not a single Imperial Star student clapped, because-
Their eyes had all widened in astonishment, their faces full of disbelief.
Why?!
They had been shut out of the awards, yet Jiang Jinran had won one!
The Best Style Award was no consolation prize. At each Hope Cup, only someone whose performance was memorable, who generated plenty of buzz, and who left a good impression on the audience could receive it.
It was something of a popularity award in disguise.
Now Jiang Jinran had claimed this award, becoming the only person from Imperial Star to win anything!
How ironic!
What clowns they were!
For Shi Hui and the others, this was an even greater blow than failing to win an award just now!
Shock, resentment, and twisted expressions appeared undisguised in their eyes. If they had not been in such a setting, they would have dearly loved to settle the score with Jiang Jinran.
The host invited Jiang Jinran to center stage, and the award presenter handed her a small golden statuette.
Holding it, Jiang Jinran could not help giving it a few extra looks.
She wondered whether this trophy was actually solid gold.
The old men and women at the judges' table began offering their assessments of her, saying she had a real talent for acting and so on.
Jiang Jinran felt she was pretty talented at lots of things. Hehe...
"Miss Jiang, do you have an acceptance speech?" The host held the microphone to Jiang Jinran's mouth and asked with a smile.
Jiang Jinran's eyes rolled briefly before she spoke unhurriedly. "I think I'm a particularly fitting choice for this award."
Everyone froze at those words.
About two seconds later, applause and cheers rose from the audience, almost like they were egging her on.
Jiang Chuji's eyes curved slightly as he watched Jiang Jinran onstage with interest.
A few quiet glimmers danced in the man's beautiful, glasslike eyes. As though meeting Jiang Jinran for the first time, he studied his younger sister with an appraising gaze.
You seem to have become quite different, Jiang Jinran.
At that moment, however, Jiang Jinran, standing at center stage, directed her gaze straight ahead, toward an iron push switch less than a meter away.
This was the master lighting switch at center stage that the mysterious person had mentioned on the iron plate.
According to that person's wishes-
He wanted her to press this switch, and then all the lights in the venue would go out, and then-
What would happen?
Jiang Jinran's intuition told her that something bad would most likely happen.
So she could not do as instructed.
But the switch was right before her eyes, like some magical lure. Jiang Jinran found it hard not to focus on it.