While Xia Xiaolan stood holding her trophy, thanking the school and teachers for their guidance, where was Wang Guangping?

He certainly wasn’t at the competition venue.

He had already broken protocol by using his thick skin to join Zhan Aiqun in treating the judges and TV station staff to dinner. Government organizations had their own rules. Take this English competition – preparations began last April when Wang Guangping was still undergoing reform through labor at the farm. By the time he returned, the project had already been internally discussed and arranged. Wang Guangping hadn’t participated in either the early preparations or final implementation, and the organization couldn’t possibly insert him midway.

This matter belonged to another Deputy Director’s jurisdiction. Wang Guangping interfering during the finals was breaking protocol.

Even if his son Wang Jianhua wanted to use connections, Wang Guangping should have pressured the responsible Deputy Director rather than bypassing him to approach the judges—of course, whether that Deputy Director would help was another matter entirely.

Zhan Aiqun’s position wasn’t as high as his, so Wang Guangping could disregard her opinions and take charge.

But showing up at the competition venue would have been too much, so Wang Guangping had someone else deliver the message—a young colleague from the Higher Education Department who was purely running errands today.

It was only natural for Director Wang to be concerned about the competition results since someone from his family was participating.

This eager young colleague was an ambitious go-getter. As soon as the rankings were announced, he slipped away to report to Director Wang, pedaling his bicycle so fast he was out of breath when he reached Wang Guangping.

“Di-Director…”

Wang Guangping showed a kind face. “Little Gao, no need to rush. Take your time, have some water first.”

The water on the desk was still warm, in a new teacup, clearly prepared specially for Little Gao.

Little Gao’s eyes grew moist—the leader was so considerate!

Little Gao wasn’t foolish enough to drink the water before speaking. After catching his breath, his face filled with genuine smiles: “Director, I have good news! That student Xia Xiaolan you asked about performed excellently in the finals and won first place with a special prize! She was truly outstanding!”

Someone in the office had gossiped that Director Wang’s son had gotten engaged while still in university, and his fiancée was also a university student.

Could it be this Xia Xiaolan?

Director Wang was truly blessed then—his daughter-in-law was both beautiful and intelligent. Little Gao felt he must have poor karma; if he had been born as Director Wang’s son, he could have found such a perfect match!

Wang Guangping thought he had misheard.

“Say that again?”

Seeing how happy the leader was, probably unable to believe the news.

Little Gao’s voice was honey-sweet: “Even when the judges changed the questions suddenly, it didn’t affect Xia Xiaolan’s performance. She scored 98.2 points in oral English, the highest among today’s twenty contestants. She won first place and the special prize. That British expert Katherine liked her and invited her on the spot to study in England in the future…”

If Wang Guangping weren’t so composed, he might have smashed his teacup right there.

Yet Little Gao, this simpleton, couldn’t read the leader’s displeasure and detailed Xia Xiaolan’s performance meticulously. He explained how Contestant No. 1 had the highest score initially, but when No. 17 Xia Xiaolan performed, she set a new record. Contestant No. 19 made quite a splash too but couldn’t overshadow Xia Xiaolan, settling for second place with 98 points.

Little Gao was quite talented, delivering his monologue smoothly. Wang Guangping waited for him to finish before showing a smile:

“She’s just the younger generation from a friend’s family, I was merely asking out of concern… Little Gao, you’ve worked hard today. Don’t mention this to your colleagues; it wouldn’t look good in the office.”

Hearing the leader’s praise for “working hard” made Little Gao’s heart pound like a drum.

“I understand. I won’t disturb you further, I need to get back to work.”

He still had to cycle back. He hoped his colleagues hadn’t noticed his brief absence. Little Gao never did drink that warm tea on the desk. After he closed the office door, Wang Guangping slammed the teacup down hard.

This was a completely unexpected outcome.

The judges had indeed shown displeasure and suspicion toward Xia Xiaolan—changing questions suddenly proved that. They suspected her of cheating.

Wang Guangping had wanted to confirm this cheating; he’d even prepared backup plans.

Any small mistake by Xia Xiaolan during the competition could have been magnified.

Yet Xia Xiaolan had gone against the current, using the judges’ question change to perform even better, securing first place?!

This result was completely unacceptable to Wang Guangping.

He had considered it beneath his dignity to deal with a student, thinking it would seem petty.

But he had been too idle lately.

Since the Hong Kong businessman Du Zhaohui’s donation incident, his superior had been giving Wang Guangping the cold shoulder, assigning many tasks to others. Having already wasted several years, Wang Guangping particularly valued power and couldn’t tolerate such neglect.

Xia Xiaolan’s competition cheating was step one; step two was using this to strike at the Deputy Director responsible for the competition.

These interlocking tactics—now the first link had been unexpectedly broken by Xia Xiaolan winning the special prize. How could Wang Guangping not be furious!

“Everyone with the surname Xia clashes with the Wang family…”

Meanwhile, at the competition venue, amid the celebrations…

Xia Xiaolan was surrounded by people on stage, with too many wanting to speak with her. Many eliminated contestants below the stage wanted to learn how she practiced her oral English.

In this celebratory atmosphere, Zhan Aiqun pulled Guan Huie aside for a private word.

Guan Huie was truly unprepared.

Who could have guessed that a Deputy Director of his standing would do such a thing?

“Wang… this is disgusting.”

Zhan Aiqun strongly agreed: “Isn’t it revolting? Yet we can’t catch him red-handed. I remember the daughter-in-law Ran Shuyu brought to the social gathering last time was Xiaolan’s cousin. Wang Guangping could easily claim he was just showing concern for a family relative, that he meant simple care, and that the judges and TV station staff misunderstood his intentions!”

Bah, who wanted to be relatives of the Wang family? Even that cousin—Xiaolan refused to acknowledge her!

Guan Huie’s chest heaved. Behind that brilliant oral English performance had lurked such underhanded murderous intent.

She had sat below the stage, completely unaware of the pressure Xia Xiaolan faced. It had always been like this—Xia Xiaolan facing life’s trials alone, relatives becoming enemies, and such scheming must have caught Xia Xiaolan off guard many times before.

Guan Huie suddenly felt a surge of shared indignation.

“We can’t let this matter rest. What a shameless dog!”

Zhan Aiqun held her back. “Don’t leave yet, let’s discuss this properly. I see Xiaolan is a girl with her ideas; we should ask her opinion too. But don’t tell your mother-in-law about this, no need to worry the elderly.”

Grandmother Zhou stood behind Zhan Aiqun with a dark face:

“I heard everything!”

Grandmother Zhou didn’t care why Wang Guangping did this. When young people had conflicts and showed animosity toward each other, the Zhou family wouldn’t interfere.

But using power to bully the young—where was his shame?!

“Don’t look for Xiaolan yet. We need to talk to your department leadership about this first.”