78: I just don't want to talk

Everyone's movements froze at this moment.

President Qian’s chubby face, which had pushed Feng Rui away, still held a fawning smile that hadn’t faded, now stiffened into a comical mask.

President Li of Tianqing’s offer, which he had just matched, still echoed in the hallway, and his hand, reaching to adjust his glasses, also paused mid-air.

The group of company representatives behind them all had their mouths agape, like ducks whose necks had been squeezed.

Failed?

These two words, like a demonic sound, echoed madly in their minds.

Click!

Click! Click!

In the dead silence, the only sound was the frantic clicking of the reporters' camera shutters.

The flashbulbs illuminated faces twisted by extreme shock, making them appear ghastly pale.

Brother Wang's cameraman was the quickest to react.

He abruptly shifted his lens from the bigwigs to Lin Yao's parents inside the room.

Father Lin’s faint hope and bewilderment, which had just risen due to those sky-high bids, completely shattered upon hearing Mother Su’s words.

He felt as if his spine had been removed; his recently straightened back slumped once more, and he leaned against the doorframe, unable to utter a single word.

Mother Lin, on the other hand, covered her mouth with her hand.

But the uncontrollable, heart-wrenching sobs still leaked out little by little through her fingers.

She looked at her daughter, whose head was buried in her knees, her shoulders trembling slightly.

In the crowd of reporters, Brother Wang and the bespectacled reporter exchanged glances, both seeing extreme excitement in the other’s expression.

This was what they wanted!

A fallen genius! Shattered hope!

A tragic script of falling from the clouds into hell!

This was a hundred times more thrilling than any sky-high signing!

“Damn it!”

President Qian of Baicheng finally reacted from his petrified state.

His plump face, at a visible speed, turned from stiff to ashen, and finally swelled to a liver-red color.

He grabbed Mother Su by her collar, practically lifting her up.

“What did you say?!”

“Say it again, you bastard!”

“Who failed?!”

His voice was no longer fawning, but a beast-like roar.

One hundred and sixty million!

He had just shouted one hundred and sixty million!

Now, you tell me that this “gem” he was prepared to buy for one hundred and sixty million is a failure?

President Li of Tianqing’s face was also so grim it looked like it could drip water.

He stared intently at the desperate reactions of Lin Yao's parents, then looked at the motionless girl on the sofa.

It’s over.

They were tricked!

All of them were tricked!

“Feng Rui!”

President Li suddenly turned his head, looking at the only man in the crowd who still maintained his composure.

Feng Rui still stood there, his face even bearing that gentle smile.

He didn’t look at the furious President Qian, nor did he pay attention to the questioning President Li.

His attention, from beginning to end, was focused inside the room.

It was on the young man in the corner, who, from start to finish, seemed like an outsider.

Lin Yu.

At this moment, Lin Yu was also looking at him.

Their gazes met for a moment in the air.

“Brother-in-law! Quick, control him! He’s going to hit someone!”

Mother Su, held by President Qian, was terrified out of her wits and desperately called for Father Lin’s help.

Father Lin was distraught and didn't hear her at all.

“Everyone! Everyone! Calm down! Everyone, calm down for a moment!”

Seeing this, reporter Brother Wang immediately pushed his way forward with his microphone, playing the role of a peacemaker.

“President Qian! President Li! You are all prominent figures, don’t be impulsive!”

“The situation isn’t clear yet!”

While persuading, he didn't forget to hold the microphone to Mother Su’s mouth.

“Sister, don’t be afraid. Can you explain in detail? Miss Lin Yao... how exactly did she fail? Was there some fatal flaw in the final step of the fusion?”

His question was very well-phrased.

It gave the eyewitness a “reasonable” explanation, and also pushed the climax of the tragic story of “the fall of a genius” to its peak.

Mother Su seized the opportunity, quickly broke free from President Qian’s hand, and hid behind the reporter, gasping for air.

She looked at the room full of important figures, at their cannibalistic expressions, and her heart also panicked.

But since things had come to this, she could only brace herself and continue.

“I... I don’t know either!”

“When we came back, Yao Yao kept crying, and she wouldn’t say anything when we asked her!”

She pointed at Mother Lin, as if looking for a witness.

“She simply couldn’t be happy! Isn’t it obvious that something went wrong?!”

These words were reasonable.

Coupled with the heart-wrenching reactions of Father Lin and Mother Lin, it almost put the lid on the coffin of “failed awakening.”

President Qian’s body swayed, almost unable to stand steady.

President Li closed his eyes, seemingly unable to bear watching this farce any longer.

The other company representatives either cursed loudly, pounded their chests and stamped their feet, or had already started contacting their companies to report this “blunder.”

The entire hallway had completely turned into a huge joke.

The reporters’ cameras captured everything.

They recorded the entire process of these top Linzhou bigwigs, from fanaticism to daze, then to anger and despair.

This would be the most significant stroke in their careers.

Just as this farce, woven from misunderstanding, greed, and foolishness, was about to reach its climax.

The girl who had kept her head down moved.

Lin Yao slowly raised her head.

Her face still bore fresh tear stains.

Her beautiful eyes were somewhat red and swollen from crying.

But inside them, there was no despair or pain as everyone had imagined.

Only a pure, bewildered, confused look.

She looked at her mother, then at the frenzied bigwigs and reporters.

Finally, her gaze fell upon Mother Su, who was still chattering away, smugly proud of her “discovery.”

“Auntie Su.”

Her voice was not loud, carrying a slight hoarseness from crying.

But in the midst of the noise, it clearly reached everyone’s ears.

All the commotion ceased abruptly.

Everyone’s attention once again focused on her.

Lin Yao sniffled and asked softly, in an almost innocent tone.

“What are you talking about?”

“What failure?”

She tilted her head, as if truly unable to understand.

“I didn’t fail.”

“I just… I just felt a little nauseous and didn’t want to talk, that’s all.”

Lin Yao’s almost innocent rhetorical question was like a bucket of ice water poured over the heads of all the fervent people in the entire seventh-floor hallway.

Didn’t fail?

Just felt nauseous?

What kind of answer is that?

President Qian of Baicheng, President Li of Tianqing, and all the company representatives who had just been engaged in a bloody battle, were all stunned.

Reporter Brother Wang’s fawning smile stiffened into a comical mask.

The cameraman behind him subconsciously aimed his lens squarely at Lin Yao’s tear-stained face, which was full of confusion.

This… the script isn’t right!

Isn’t it supposed to be a drama of a fallen genius and a grieving family?