Chapter 243 The First Place is Undeserved
"How can these three people bully a girl like that? Look how aggressive they are - I bet they've done this kind of thing plenty of times before."
"I didn't hear what they were saying clearly. Let's not jump to conclusions."
"I'm curious too - what exactly did they say? Who's right and who's wrong? In this situation, if someone's really being bullied, there should be someone to stand up for them. I'm going over to check it out!"
So one person took the lead, and several others followed.
"Hey, what are you doing? This is a public place. How can you gang up on a weak girl like this? This is bullying."
"Tell us, why are you targeting this girl? You should know she won first place in the preliminaries. If she gets a good ranking in the finals too, she should have a bright future ahead. You shouldn't treat her like this - you could be ruining a talented person!"
The speaker was a reporter Bianca had invited, so naturally he was taking Bianca's side.
Many people nodded in agreement, echoing the reporter's words. "Yeah, and doing this in front of so many people - it's disrespectful to the organizers. Too arrogant! We're all watching!"
Even Emily got dragged into it.
Some people recognized Emily as the second place winner from the preliminaries and couldn't help getting suspicious.
"Can't compete fairly, so you resort to bullying? No wonder you only got second place while she got first."
"She's the second place winner? Pretty face, second place isn't bad either, but she can't stand someone else being first, so she got people to help her bully them. That's too much. I'm starting to doubt that second place was even real."
The person defending Bianca was another plant Bianca had brought in.
Since everyone didn't know the truth, they had already misunderstood Emily.
Her defending Bianca now didn't seem out of place.
Bianca put on a show of speaking up: "Thank you all for speaking up for me. Emily has some misunderstandings about me. Plus, she used to pick through trash and suffered a lot, so naturally she feels upset about me having learned more and done better than her.
She's my sister. As her older sister, no matter how wrong she is, I won't hold it against her. Please everyone, stop targeting her. Let's give the organizers some face - the final results haven't even been announced yet!"
Bianca's words sounded so magnanimous that everyone's impression of her improved even more.
They looked at Emily with even more contempt, clearly the scales had tipped further toward Bianca.
Emily laughed lightly and spoke up: "Following the crowd blindly - I guess that describes everyone who just spoke, doesn't it? You didn't even hear what we were saying, so how can you decide that we were bullying her? Or are some of you in cahoots with Bianca?"
"Emily, if you want to target me, target me, but don't drag innocent people into this. And stop talking nonsense. I'm just here to compete today. How could I possibly know the reporters here to cover the competition? They were invited by the organizers."
At this, Emily laughed out loud. "Who said there were reporters among them? You just gave yourself away! And..."
Emily scanned the other onlookers. "Someone just questioned that I could only settle for second place, so I got angry and embarrassed. But what if I said that this Bianca's first place doesn't deserve the name?"
"Emily, if you're going to say that, you need evidence. Even if you don't like me, even if you question me privately, I can let it go. But if you anger the Green family behind the organizers because of this and affect the Johnson Group, don't blame the family for being disgusted with you."
Bianca's expression darkened. Looking pained, she warned urgently.
Hearing Bianca mention the Johnson Group...
People who had found both Emily and Bianca somewhat familiar but couldn't quite place them were now reminded and suddenly recognized their identities.
"You're Bianca, and Emily - the one who was cut off and kicked out by the Johnson family, right?"
Everyone looked at Emily with some distaste.
To be disliked by your whole family, you must be no good.
Byron knew what these people were thinking and immediately spoke up: "That's because the Johnson family was blind. Some of you must know that Chase apologized to... Emily, and mentioned that Bianca took credit for Emily's work, making Emily suffer unfairly."
Bianca's eyes reddened as she hurriedly explained: "I didn't! Chase never mentioned my name. Byron, I accepted that Emily took you from me, but now you're helping her bully me - I'm really hurt. And Emily, I've already shown everyone my work, so why are you still questioning me? Show me your evidence!"
Bianca dared to say this because she was certain Emily had no evidence.
But Emily's smile grew more sinister: "Who says I don't have evidence? You modified the design from my draft, thinking I couldn't prove it was my work. But your skills weren't good enough, and you were too clever for your own good - you made some changes that turned what should have been a first-place work into second-rate."
By now, quite a crowd had gathered.
After hearing Emily's words, many people had the same thought - more gossip!
So many people stretched their ears, wanting to hear everything clearly.
Bianca had already prepared for Emily to recognize that the work came from her draft design. She wasn't panicking.
"I don't understand what you're talking about, Emily. Since you say you have evidence, show it if you can!"
Bianca felt Emily was just bluffing, so she calmly met Emily's gaze as she spoke.
Emily had to admire Bianca's acting skills.
This was worthy of a best actress award.
Emily couldn't help but clap: "Evidence? Of course I'll give it, but not now!"
Meeting Emily's confident gaze, Bianca felt inexplicably panicked.
Could she really have some evidence that Bianca didn't know about?
But Bianca reminded herself not to panic.
Maybe Emily was just trying to trick her.
Just then, the host took the stage and spoke again: "Break time is over. Please return to your seats. The final results are in, and we'll now announce them."
The host's words interrupted the standoff between Bianca and Emily.
Though the spectators felt a bit disappointed, they figured that listening to the results might lead to more developments between the two.
So everyone obediently returned to their seats to hear the results.
Everyone's attention was more focused and intense than ever.
Before Bianca left, Emily deliberately whispered in her ear: "Guess what - using my work, can you still win the gold award in the finals? I'm certain you can't! Trash."
Emily's last word - it wasn't clear if she was calling Bianca trash, or her work.
"You..."
Bianca was furious and wanted to curse, but the host's gaze had already turned toward her, seemingly reminding her to get in position quickly.
No matter how unwilling she was, she had to go back.
But she thought stubbornly to herself - when she won the championship later, wouldn't that be the perfect way to humiliate Emily?