"Hylan? Didn’t expect you to be here." A tall, slender girl walked over, smiling as she held out her hand, saying, "Just washing my hands."
Audrey Sutton shifted slightly to make room, but the girl directly pushed Audrey Sutton aside and said to Vanessa Sterling, "You didn’t co to last year’s annual eting. I thought you wouldn’t co this ti either."
Vanessa Sterling only gave a slight smile without explaining.
Not sure if she wasn’t very familiar with the girl or if she was just naturally reticent.
The girl finished washing her hands, flicked the water from her hands, and whether intentionally or not, so water splashed onto Audrey Sutton’s face.
Audrey Sutton frowned slightly, watching the girl leave the RV.
She raised her sleeve to wipe the water off her face, whispering to Vanessa Sterling, "Who is she?"
"Winterlight."
Audrey Sutton suddenly rembered. Before she was blessed by her mysterious wealthy patron, Winterlight had always occupied the top spot on the rewards leaderboard.
"Are you close to her?"
Vanessa Sterling shook her head, "We haven’t really interacted, but the authors I’m familiar with don’t really like her. They say she likes to twist truths behind people’s backs. All smiles in front, but a different story behind."
Audrey Sutton nodded thoughtfully, suddenly feeling that the water earlier was probably not accidentally splashed on her face.
The lunch table was long, covered with fruits, skewers, and various drinks.
After busying themselves, everyone found a seat and sat around, n on one side, won on the other.
The boss who organized the event spoke up, "Let’s eat while briefly introducing ourselves. Our website has gained quite a few major authors over the past year."
Everyone’s introductions were simple, just ntioning where they were from, their real nas, and pen nas.
Audrey Sutton realized she had heard most of these nas before; they were mostly veteran figures in the comic scene.
After each introduction, there would be applause, with the familiar ones cheering and shouting.
As Audrey Sutton was attending for the first ti, she felt a bit shy when introducing herself, "Hello everyone, I’m Audrey Sutton. Please take care of , seniors."
Soone took the lead in applauding, but the claps were noticeably sparse and scattered.
From her peripheral vision, Audrey Sutton could see about half of the female authors deliberately pretending to chat and not really listening to her, including Winterlight.
A male author sitting across from Audrey Sutton joked, "Indeed, as stunning as peach and plum blossoms."
Everyone understood this joke, bursting into laughter, while Audrey Sutton felt shy, her face slightly red as she sat back down.
Another male author cut in, "Whether peach or plum or flower or grass, none of that matters, as our Audrey got married young."
Most of the authors were very friendly, except for Winterlight’s little circle of five or six sisters who were clearly targeting Audrey Sutton.
While eating, they made sarcastic jokes about Audrey Sutton’s husband, saying how envious they were of her having such a good husband who could easily bring fa—not so subtly implying Audrey Sutton lacked talent.
Audrey Sutton pretended not to understand, taking it as if they were praising her husband, opting not to argue.
After finishing the necessary work, everyone went about their own activities after lunch: walking, admiring flowers, and engaging in romance.
Hibiscus Lake was vast; to properly explore it would take a week. There are flowers to admire all year round.
Audrey Sutton, Laura Yates, and Vanessa Sterling tead up, taking selfies with the lotus flowers on the lake using a selfie stick.
Vanessa Sterling rarely smiled, clearly more relaxed with Miles Sterling not around.
Winterlight and a few girls were sitting on benches by the lake, watching Audrey Sutton taking photos and mockingly said, "See, that’s why she’s popular. She knows how to butter up Master Hylan and cozy up to Luna."
"I’ve suspected for a while now that her leaderboard position was rigged by herself, just taking advantage of a family with so money."
"Not only does her family have money, but her husband is even wealthier. A reward of thousands probably equates to just a al for them."
"And the whole Starfield and Celestine incident recently, I suspect she deliberately hyped it up just to promote her works."
"This young girl looks quite innocent, who knew she was this cunning."
Winterlight sneered, "Know a person, know their face, but not their heart. Without so scheming, could one beco famous with just one book?"
...
The purpose of Audrey Sutton taking these photos was to share them with Shane Warner.
She focused solely on sending them out, not caring if Shane Warner had replied to her yet.
By dinnerti, Shane Warner finally called her, "What are you doing?"
Audrey Sutton spat out the chicken bone in her mouth, walked away a bit before saying into the phone, "Eating, what about you?"
"Sa here. Is it fun there?"
Audrey Sutton nodded, even though he couldn’t see it through the phone, "It’s really beautiful here. If you have the ti, definitely co and check it out. You won’t regret it!"
Shane Warner’s tone carried a light smile as he asked, "Getting along well with your colleagues?"
Audrey Sutton hesitated. Although she could clearly feel being excluded, she didn’t think it necessary to inform Shane Warner and exaggeratedly said, "My second sister-in-law is here! Who would dare bully !"
Winterlight excluded her, but Audrey Sutton had no intention of pleasing Winterlight. She was here just for fun, not to network; how others viewed her was their business, as she wasn’t lacking in friends anyway.
"Where are you staying tonight?"
"Tent."
"Not scared?"
"...With so many people around, what is there to be afraid of?"
She heard him chuckle softly on the other end of the line, then said, "Take care of General, and take care of yourself. I should be back by tomorrow afternoon."
"Are you coming?" Audrey Sutton’s eyes instantly brightened.
"Do you want to co or not?"
Audrey Sutton pouted, pretending to be indifferent, "It’s up to you, if you want to co, then co."
There was a few seconds’ silence on the other end, then she heard him say, "Well, I..."
Almost simultaneously with his voice, Audrey Sutton said, "...I think General misses you a lot."
She could feel Shane Warner chuckling even through the phone, "Alright then, I kind of miss it too. I’ll hang up now, we’ll talk tomorrow."
After hanging up the phone with him, Audrey Sutton felt all her worries disappear.
They played poker for a while in the evening, then returned to their tents to rest.
The tent to Audrey Sutton’s left was Vanessa Sterling, and the one on her right was Laura Yates. Inside the tent, she had General with her, and there were plenty of people around, so she didn’t feel scared.
She woke up early and hadn’t rested during the day, so she quickly fell asleep curled up in her blanket.
In the middle of the night, she heard two barks from General, half-awake she pulled General close, petting its head and soothing it, worried it might disrupt others with its noise.
When Audrey Sutton woke up the next morning, she discovered that her tent had been slashed with two long cuts.
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