Xia Xiaolan had no idea she had been forcibly assigned a new friend.

Her freshly minted friend Miss Song Minglan, full of enthusiasm, had delegated the task of dealing with Li Yong and Project Li to the eager-to-please Han Jin.

Song Minglan felt it beneath her dignity to personally deal with two international students!

Xia Xiaolan also didn’t know she had been predetermined to make the shortlist for the “C·W Architecture Design Competition.”

As long as she hadn’t “copied” someone else’s work, they would ensure she made the list.

If Miss Xia hadn’t made the shortlist, Mr. Harold’s investment in this competition with Cornell’s School of Architecture would have been meaningless… Thank heavens, Miss Xia had genuine ability and didn’t make Wilson Hotel’s staff work too hard.

This shortlisting was genuinely selected by the judges, rather than being forcibly inserted into the list at the end.

The shortlisted works would be displayed – if they were too poor, people would question the competition’s credibility.

Cornell’s School of Architecture absolutely wouldn’t allow such a situation. If the school couldn’t maintain control over the judging standards, they would reject such cooperation regardless of Wilson Hotel’s sponsorship amount.

The Architecture School was happy to motivate students but wouldn’t gamble with its reputation.

More bluntly put, while Wilson Hotel’s money was welcome, it would be underestimating a top American university’s integrity to think they would compromise for such a donation – the money could do many things, but this amount wasn’t nearly enough!

God bless, Miss Xia could make the shortlist on her own, without Wilson Hotel needing to intervene with the school’s judges.

Harold’s subordinates still hoped Xia Xiaolan could win an award.

If Boss could personally present the grand prize to Miss Xia, he would surely be very pleased.

The staff had subtly mentioned that the finals were different from the shortlist. Among the five final judges, besides the school’s three judges, two were invited from architectural firms through the hotel’s connections. If Harold wanted Xia Xiaolan to win, the finals would be easier to manipulate than the shortlist.

Just by securing the two firm judges and one school judge, a 3:2 bias would be enough to get Miss Xia any ranking.

But when the staff thoughtfully made this suggestion, the Boss seemed displeased.

That look in his eyes – the staff couldn’t interpret it.

Butler Allen rescued this poor soul, taking him aside to explain:

“To award Miss Xia through cheating would insult her abilities. Do you think Mr. Harold would do such a thing?”

Ha!

Wouldn’t he?

If not, why arrange this competition? The hotel management majors were manageable, and the architecture school could be handled, but their organic food base cooperation with the Agriculture School – the person in charge was going crazy dealing with cow manure!

The staff couldn’t understand what game the Boss was playing – using tactics while maintaining respect.

If Mr. Harold wouldn’t do such things, then their colleague dealing with manure was truly pitiful.

Though unable to understand the Boss’s bottom line, Butler Allen was his most trusted person – following his advice was never wrong.

There were 20 shortlisted works.

Even if Miss Xia couldn’t get the top three, there were still 10 merit awards.

As long as she beat seven competitors, even last place in the merit awards would get her on stage.

Though it seemed odd for Boss to present merit awards, it wasn’t unacceptable.

Xia Xiaolan knew nothing about either the forced friendship or the guaranteed shortlisting.

No one questioned the “C·W Architecture Design Competition” shortlist’s fairness because Professor McCarthy was among the architecture school’s judges!

Try to bribe Professor McCarthy?

The professor wasn’t short of money.

Besides his salary from the architecture school, his main income came from textbook royalties.

The professor occasionally had other part-time income too.

One good thing about capitalist America – excellence in any field was reflected in personal income!

When the shortlist was announced, the architecture school’s faculty and students noticed the strong showing from lower-year students.

Just from the second year, there was an exchange student in Xia’s group.

The mixed-year group with Jonathan and Heidi.

Ning Xue’s solo entry.

The lower-year architecture students were impressive now!

“They even made bets!”

“Shit, who should I bet on?”

Even losers like Richard, Daisy, and Lyle made the shortlist?

Let the exchange students lead the way.

So Xia Xiaolan’s ability couldn’t be underestimated – who could be sure she would lose to Jonathan?

Jonathan’s performance in this competition was unclear though – if he were truly strong, he wouldn’t need to team up with upper-year students, as it wouldn’t highlight his personal ability.

“Don’t focus only on Xia and Jonathan. I know Xia is beautiful and attracts attention, but you’re overlooking Ning, who’s also from China – she made the shortlist competing alone!”

Put that way, this Ning was quite low-key normally but showed her strength when it counted.

Both Xia Xiaolan and Ning Xue came from a university in China.

“Which university was it? Their architecture program seems quite good…”

“Ahhhh! YES! We made it, Richard, we made it!”

Daisy ran over, high-fiving Richard.

“Of course we’d make it, we knew all along.”

Lyle sucked in his stomach.

If they couldn’t make the shortlist with that design, they wouldn’t be competing with architecture students but with architectural firms!

Though thinking this, Lyle couldn’t help grinning.

Daisy and Richard high-fived, then jumped to hug Lyle.

Watching a couple walking side by side from the lawn, Daisy’s just-quieted screams began bubbling up again.

How unfair, they were filming another romance movie at school.

This was Daisy’s third time seeing Zhou Cheng, and she still had to admire how handsome he was!

Handsome!

Even with Xia Xiaolan standing right beside him, people still tried to give Zhou Cheng their contact information.

Of course, Zhou Cheng, being a boyfriend with strong survival instincts, immediately handed over these contacts to Xia Xiaolan to handle. Despite such direct rejection, some girls remained confident enough to challenge Xia Xiaolan’s charm.

In China, many young women liked Zhou Cheng, though they expressed it more subtly. Tong Lili’s visit to his home was considered quite bold, while older women and sisters-in-law were more open, joking around with Zhou Cheng… In America, American girls didn’t care about restraint. The entire 80s was an era of American youth getting high – high on drugs, high on pop music, and American girls even higher.

If they liked someone, they’d ask them out directly – who needed love letters?

If they liked what they saw, they could go straight to bed!

The invitations Zhou Cheng received on Cornell’s campus were somewhat more subtle, but not by much.

Xia Xiaolan thought, your Eastern Apollo is still a virgin, what’s the point of asking him out? Those contact details were given in vain.

“We made the shortlist, right?”

Getting Daisy’s confirmation, Xia Xiaolan linked arms with Zhou Cheng, “Will you accompany me to receive the award?”