The Day of the Competition

Qin Si was no different.

He was rendered speechless.

He didn’t bother to argue with them. He looked back at his phone and saw a private message from Tang Ning.

[Tang Ning: Young Master Qin, I heard Miss Jiang acknowledged a very powerful godmother. The Jiang family is preparing a filiation banquet. I’m worried that this matter is directed at Miss Qiao. Please help me tell Master Wang.]

Jiang Xianrou wanted to acknowledge a godmother?

Qin Si was a little stunned. He didn’t understand what Jiang Xianrou was up to again.

He shared Tang Ning’s thoughts.

Their first reaction was that Jiang Xianrou was targeting Qiao Nian.

He pondered for a moment without batting an eyelid. He first replied to Tang Ning’s message and asked her not to tell anyone. Then, he sent a screenshot of the WeChat message to Ye Wangchuan.

…

The next day.

On the day of the software competition.

The weather was clear around the city. The sky was as blue as a sheet. A few thin white clouds floated slowly in the wind, as if they had been melted by the sun.

Qiao Nian arrived at the competition venue at nine.

She left after greeting Ye Wangchuan and the others.

Qin Si and the others went to the audience stands.

Qiao Nian, Liang Conglin, and Du Mingwei went backstage to make preparations.

Every contestant from each country had their own lounge. Qiao Nian also had her own lounge.

Her lounge wasn’t large. Apart from a sofa, it contained only a dressing table for makeup and a water dispenser.

Du Mingwei came looking for her not long after Qiao Nian arrived at the lounge, saying that he wanted to introduce her to the International IT Association.

She temporarily left her things in the lounge, picked up her phone, and went out with the baseball cap.

…

A slender figure appeared backstage not long after she left.

After Qiao Chen communicated with the staff, they let her in.

She walked along the backstage corridor and searched room by room for Qiao Nian.

Finally, she saw Qiao Nian’s name pasted on the door of the second last room backstage.

Qiao Nian from Qing University.

Qiao Chen stood at the door and at the tightly-stitched name tag on the door. The words “Qing University” deeply hurt her eyes.

She lowered her lashes and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. After a few seconds of hesitation, she reached up and knocked.

“Knock knock.”

No one answered on her first knock.

Qiao Chen’s face turned pale, and her watery eyes couldn’t hide her humiliation.

She took a deep breath and raised her wrist to knock again.

She learned this time. She called out weakly, “Sister, are you there? It’s me.”

Qiao Chen knocked hard on the door. Firstly, she felt aggrieved. Secondly, she was afraid that Qiao Nian would continue to pretend to be deaf and ignore her.

To her surprise, she knocked hard and the lounge door creaked open in front of her.

Qiao Chen didn’t react for a moment.

It took her a moment to realize Qiao Nian hadn’t closed the door properly.

She didn’t know what was going on inside. After taking a deep breath, Qiao Chen opened the door and walked in.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

Qiao Chen walked in and realized that the lounge was empty.

Her voice trailed off. Unexpectedly, Qiao Nian wasn’t inside.

Qiao Chen had specially come over to talk to Qiao Nian about letting her off the hook, but her efforts were in vain.

Just as she was about to turn around and leave, she suddenly caught sight of Qiao Nian’s black backpack on the dressing table.