Chapter 233: Encountering Finn Again
Amelia was delighted and gave him a light kiss on the lips.
"Thank you so much! This isn't easy to pull off."
Everyone knew that the Flame Key Culinary Showdown was officially a cooking competition, but in reality, it was Goldenvale's high society paving the way for their daughters.
So the first requirement to enter this competition was that you had to be a woman.
This had been the rule for decades.
For Samuel to help Byron enter the competition, he had to register Byron under a female identity.
He had to forge a female identity for Byron and also bribe the judges and the families of other contestants, just in case Byron's male identity got exposed.
He had to grease palms from top to bottom.
She knew full well how complicated this was.
Samuel gripped her hand tightly and said, "No matter how difficult, as long as it's for you, I don't find it troublesome. I'm really happy that when something comes up, I'm the first person you think of. Whenever you run into any trouble in the future, think of me first. I'm happy to do these things for you."
Amelia's eyes got a bit teary—she was touched.
She nodded and said, "Okay, as long as you don't mind the trouble, I'll come to you for even small things like buying toothpaste and toothbrushes."
Samuel kissed the tip of her nose, then kissed the engagement ring on her middle finger.
"I'd be more than happy to."
...
Once everything was settled, Amelia called Byron to tell him everything was arranged and he just needed to show up for the competition.
—Earlier, Byron had said he came up with a stupid idea to please Faith's grandfather, Octavius Monroe: cross-dress as a woman, enter the Flame Key Culinary Showdown, and win back something Octavius had pawned years ago.
That item was the first-place prize.
Byron usually cooked some dishes, and with two culinary giants like Amelia and Faith around him all the time, plus Amelia personally teaching him now, he'd learned pretty much everything.
Though compared to Faith and Amelia, he still wasn't as good as them, it was enough for a competition.
Everything was ready, just waiting for that day to come.
The day before, Amelia set aside the entire day to make a human skin mask for Byron.
Unlike the one she'd made for Isaac before, this one was more detailed and could last longer without breaking.
After all, it would be on TV—even though it was just Goldenvale's local station, they couldn't let viewers notice anything off.
Actually, Amelia had suggested to Byron that she could enter the competition instead, win the prize, then let Byron buy it from her, and then Byron could give it to Octavius.
But Byron was the kind of person who wouldn't change his mind once he'd decided. He felt that only by competing and winning the prize himself would it be sincere.
Amelia had to let him do it his way.
She just hoped all this effort would actually work.
If it worked, then the extra effort would be worth it.
Amelia genuinely hoped Faith and Byron's relationship would go smoothly and that they wouldn't face hardships.
She'd been through the rain herself, so she wanted to shield others from it as much as possible.
In the blink of an eye, competition day arrived.
Nothing had happened in the meantime—everything was calm.
So calm that Amelia felt uneasy instead.
So she sent Louis to personally keep an eye on Francis.
Louis was very careful in his work and especially good at tailing people, but he didn't find anything suspicious. He only reported one thing.
"He's been getting close to the owner of that newly built high-tech building. They might be working together."
Amelia made note of it and had Byron investigate.
Sure enough, they found out that Francis had invested in that building partway through.
But Amelia couldn't figure out what was special about that building.
Still, she took an extra precaution and had Charles get close to the building's owner.
The owner had serious neck problems, and Charles treated him, relieving a lot of his pain. The two started seeing each other regularly because of this.
But they still didn't discover anything special about the building.
"I hope I'm just overthinking it," Amelia said to Samuel.
Samuel replied, "If something makes you uncomfortable, then there's definitely a problem—we just haven't found it yet. Don't worry, I'll figure out a way to get someone working inside."
He acted quickly and arranged for two people to work as janitors in the building.
The building was already completed and happened to be hiring janitors.
They investigated the building inside and out.
This day was the day of the competition.
Amelia told Faith about Byron entering the Flame Key Culinary Showdown.
Faith was shocked.
"Has he lost his mind? Have you lost yours too? How can a man enter a women's cooking competition?"
"I made a mask for him."
"He really doesn't need to do this. If word gets out, how embarrassing would that be for him?"
Cross-dressing to enter a women's cooking competition—that took a lot of determination.
Most men wouldn't be willing to do something like this.
Faith was touched, but also annoyed that Byron didn't discuss this with her.
But Amelia quickly soothed her.
"He's doing this to show his sincerity. When someone asks if you want something, they're not really trying to give it to you. But Byron doing it this way—not asking you, just going directly to get it for you—that's someone who really wants to give you this thing."
Faith understood.
"But can his cooking skills win the championship?"
Amelia smiled. "What do you think I've been doing, leaving early and coming home late all this time?"
"You've been teaching him to cook?"
"Yes!"
"He's really lucky to have you teach him personally. I don't care—you have to teach me a few more tricks later too."
While the two women were chatting privately, Byron called.
Amelia was going to accompany him to the competition, in case there were any problems with the mask so she could help fix them right away.
"I'm heading out then. Remember to tell your grandfather to watch this competition."
Although it was Goldenvale's local TV station, the show could be found online too.
Faith said okay.
Two hours later, Amelia and Byron appeared together at Goldenvale's TV station.
They walked in holding their number cards.
Amelia was there as Byron's assistant, by his side.
But just then, she saw Finn.
Amelia was slightly surprised.
Finn also looked up at that moment and glanced at her.
Amelia quickly looked away.
Given their current relationship, it was best to act like strangers.
Pretending they didn't know each other was best, to avoid exposing each other's ugly sides in public.
She didn't like arguing with people in public—she found it ugly.
But she didn't expect Finn to walk straight toward her.
Byron instinctively moved to stand in front of Amelia, but she subtly pulled him back and gave him a warning look.
—Byron was supposed to be a woman right now.
And in Byron's current identity, he wouldn't know about her relationship with Finn.
Byron was a bit worried about her, but ultimately did as she said and stepped back.
"Amelia," he called her.
Amelia's heart suddenly ached.
Not because of Finn, but because of some past memories.
Those memories forgotten through hypnosis seemed to slowly emerge with this call of "Amelia."
Amelia used all her willpower to look at Finn calmly, rather than with hatred or disgust.
"What can I do for you, Mr. O'Connor?"
Finn's expression stiffened.
His hands under his suit sleeves suddenly clenched.
It shouldn't be like this between them.
He felt endless rage breaking free from his chest, almost strangling him.
"Can we talk privately?" he said. "Just five minutes."
"I don't think that's necessary. We're about to go in. Next time I'll bring my fiancé along to have dinner with Mr. O'Connor."
With that, she walked away directly.
Finn almost couldn't control the urge to chase after her.
His assistant reminded him, "Douglas is waiting for you."
Only then did he come to his senses. He didn't chase after her and walked in the other direction instead.
He discussed some business with the TV station director Douglas Campbell, then casually asked, "I saw a lot of people coming in, saying something about a competition. What kind of competition?"
Douglas really wanted to build a good relationship with Finn and was worried about not having topics to chat about, so he quickly brought up the Flame Key Culinary Showdown.
"This is a Goldenvale tradition—we hold it every year. Last year's champion was the Sullivan family's daughter. Who knows who'll win this year. If you're interested, I can arrange for you to be a judge."
Douglas was just making conversation.
After all, Finn was a busy man.
But unexpectedly, Finn agreed.
"I happen to be free today. I'd like to see what it's all about."
Douglas was shocked, then overjoyed.
"I'll arrange it right away. Having you as a judge would be an honor for this year's contestants."
"Good."
...
On the other side.
Amelia didn't know about this yet.
She was doing Byron's makeup. Byron's new name was "Faye Monroe"—he'd chosen it himself and insisted on it.
But just then, a familiar voice rang out.
"Amelia? It really is you!"
Amelia recognized the voice and turned around with a smile.
It was Maeve.
"What are you doing here?" Amelia asked.
"I should be asking you that—what are you doing here?" Maeve said while looking Byron over.
She and Amelia had grown closer recently, but she'd never met Byron—or rather, should be called Faye.
She just felt that this Faye person had a delicate, pretty face, but was really quite tall.
Like a man.
"I'm here with my friend for the competition," Amelia explained. "The first-place prize is really important to my friend."
Maeve nodded and said, "If I'd known you were competing, I would've told the organizers in advance to just give you the championship!"
Amelia quickly made a shushing gesture.
"Don't let anyone hear that."
"Don't worry, there's no one outside. I saw your name on the staff list and thought it might be someone with the same name, so I came in to check."
Amelia nodded and had Byron greet Maeve.
"Ms. Sullivan, hello." A deep male voice.
Maeve was greatly surprised.
Amelia quietly explained the situation.
Maeve breathed a sigh of relief, then said Amelia was amazing.
"I thought human skin masks only existed on TV."
Amelia smiled without explaining further.
This thing indeed only existed on TV in this world, but in some of the other worlds she'd traveled to for system tasks, it was quite common.
She'd learned the technique from there.
"What are you doing here?" Amelia asked her.
Maeve said, "I'm last year's champion, here to present awards and be a judge. Don't worry, this competition is very casual. I'll definitely give him a high score!"
She was so direct about it that both Amelia and Byron laughed.
And soon, the competition began.