The assistant wasn’t badly hurt. After getting his injuries treated, he went back to the hotel with Clent Winter.
Nora Scott went to check on Clent Winter.
Looking him over and seeing all four limbs intact, Nora relaxed and asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I’m fine."
Clent Winter nodded.
Nora asked a few simple questions. Once she confird his answers were exactly the sa as what the people from Biel Hall had said, she instructed, "Get a good rest tonight. We still have to record the show tomorrow."
"Nora!"
Clent Winter hurriedly stopped her.
"What?" Nora looked at him suspiciously.
"This whole thing..." He paused, scratched his head, pressed his lips together in thought, then cautiously asked, "It’s not as simple as them just lashing out at society and robbing people, is it?"
Nora gave him a look-over.
"I could tell they were coming for . The people who saved checked over first thing to see if I was hurt, and soone even called my na." Clent Winter listed off all the suspicious points, then voiced the conclusion he’d co to, "Are they your people?"
"Yeah."
Seeing he was already suspicious, Nora stopped trying to cover it up.
Anyway, this wasn’t the first ti Clent had run into sothing like this—last ti he got straight-up kidnapped and almost ended up dead. This ti was better; backup arrived in ti and he was still safe and sound.
"Then... does it have to do with my mom?" Clent asked again.
Nora pondered a few seconds, then answered vaguely, "A little."
"...If it’s only a little, then they were really coming for ."
Nora raised an eyebrow.
?
The kid looked simple and carefree, but in reality he was pretty smart and sharp.
However, Clent didn’t continue analyzing it. He just solemnly promised Nora, "Don’t worry, Nora. I’ll be extra careful and try my best not to let anything happen to ."
"No need to be that cautious," Nora said. "Protecting just you is no problem."
Clent blinked. "What about my assistant..."
"If he dies on the job, we’ll just replace him."
Nora waved a hand and turned to leave.
"Nora!" Clent was stunned.
Nora stopped, let out a laugh, and looked back at him with a smile in her eyes. "I’ll have them look out for your assistant’s safety."
"..." Clent let out a breath of relief and broke into a grin. "Thanks, Nora!"
"..."
What an idiot—he’d almost been killed and he was still grinning like that.
*
Nora’s people were stationed inside and outside the hotel. They were there to protect Clent at first, but they also helped her block the paparazzi, so inside the hotel Nora could move around freely without worrying about being secretly photographed by paparazzi or fans.
She was even sharing a room with Pedro Langley.
Absolutely no attempt at keeping appearances.
"When are you going back?" Once they were in the room, Nora glanced at Pedro, who was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window reading a magazine.
"I’m not busy," Pedro casually handed her a cup of warm milk, "I’ll wait for you today, then we’ll go back together."
"Okay."
Nora took the warm milk and sipped it.
"How’s Clent?" Pedro asked.
Nora told him about Clent’s reaction from start to finish.
After listening, Pedro narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why is Robert Durant targeting that mother and son?"
Nora hadn’t had ti to tell Pedro about this yet.
She sat down next to him, cradled the milk in her hands, and, sounding casual, started telling Pedro that story.
More than twenty years ago, after Evelyn Winter was expelled from her sect by Antonio Easton, she stayed in the northwest for a while.
That was where she t Robert Durant’s older brother, Fernando Durant.
The two of them had similar interests, and feelings grew over ti. But Fernando was the heir back then, and the family wanted him to marry for alliance, so of course they wouldn’t allow him and Evelyn Winter to be together. They tried all sorts of ways to interfere between them. Later, Fernando eloped with Evelyn and they went to Sand Delta, living a hidden life under assud identities, never expecting the Durant Family to still track them down.
The Durant Family kept it quiet and instead colluded with a local bandit gang, hoping to work with them and use Evelyn to force Fernando into submission.
Nobody expected that despicable bastard Robert Durant to lay a deadly hand on his own brother just to inherit the family fortune.
In the end, Fernando died protecting Evelyn Winter.
Evelyn Winter was all alone, with no one to turn to, and she would’ve fallen victim to them as well. But just then, her brother from her hotown ca to visit, saved her life, and brought her back to Fenton City.
Evelyn was heartbroken and had wanted to die, but then she discovered she was pregnant.
Her brother persuaded her to give birth to the child, and that was how Clent Winter ca into the world.
All along, Robert Durant never knew Evelyn was pregnant, so after she returned to Fenton City, he stopped causing her trouble. It wasn’t until not long ago, when Evelyn showed up in Sand Delta and was discovered by Robert Durant, that he realized she had a son, and that the boy was most likely Fernando Durant’s. Robert Durant was afraid Clent would co back and fight for the inheritance; keeping Clent around would only spell disaster, so he decided to nip the problem in the bud.
"..."
Pedro Langley finished listening and furrowed his brows.
Robert Durant’s actions could truly be described as lawless, completely at odds with the education he’d received.
Sothing occurred to him, and Pedro Langley asked, "The people you deal with in the Martial World are all like this?"
Nora Scott was stunned for a mont.
"Have you morized the Criminal Law?" Pedro Langley asked again.
"..." Seeing how serious he was being, Nora almost wanted to laugh. "Speaking of which, do you rember White? The one they call ’Big White’ in the comics circle."
Pedro Langley nodded. "Mm, your idol."
"..." Nora’s mouth twitched; she paused, then continued, "She really did morize the Criminal Law. In order to safely play around the edge of the law, she specifically chose the law departnt in college."
Pedro Langley: "..." You really know the weirdest people.
He silently complained in his head. Afraid Nora would drag out more strange people to press him down with, he switched the topic back to business. "Staying in a passive position, just protecting Clent, isn’t your style."
"With Master Sliver’s identity exposed, Robert Durant will co for sooner or later," Nora said. "When that happens, I’ll settle everything in one go."
Pedro Langley’s brows knitted even tighter.
"Relax, I’m not going to throw myself into danger." Nora arched a brow. "Besides, the entire Northwest is my turf."
"..."
Pedro Langley didn’t respond.
If he didn’t see the Durant Family collapse with his own eyes, he wouldn’t believe Nora’s assurances.
Luckily, ever since the fake antique incident was resolved, he hadn’t called Butler Loxley and Jack Carter back; he’d had them stay in Anchel the whole ti. When Nora headed to Anchel after the New Year, with the two of them there, he’d at least feel a bit more at ease.
*
The recording of City Secret was grueling. The next day, before dawn had even broken, Nora and the others were woken up by the production team, washed up, and continued with the next part of filming.
The production team had heard about Clent being attacked last night.
They were actually a pretty conscientious program team, so they assigned more bodyguards to protect the guests and also changed several locations, in case a similar incident happened again during recording.
Clent and Nora continued filming the show with peace of mind.
By late morning, the groups of guests had basically finished the carving step, and the production team asked each group to record a short video. The the had to be promoting New Year paintings—including a plug for one of the New Year painting investnt partners. The official account would post them online to collect likes; by four in the afternoon, the group with the most likes would win.
The guests completed their videos one by one.
At ten o’clock, the official account uploaded the four groups’ videos.
Each group fild separately, but in the video of the group Annabelle Pinto was in, the background featured Nora and Clent.
—And it was exactly this background that unexpectedly sparked a heated debate online.
#NoraScott’sTraditionalCulturePersonaCollapses#
#NoraScottThrowsWoodenNewYearPainting#
Similar topics instantly swept the trending list and shot up at high speed, exploding not long after.
The reason was that in Annabelle Pinto’s group video, Nora, face cold, tossed aside a Wooden New Year Painting. When Clent saw this, he hurried over to pick it up, handling it gingerly. Their starkly different reactions to the Wooden New Year Painting ford a clear contrast.
And because of Nora’s deeds over the past year, in the public’s mind, Nora had long since beco synonymous with "traditional culture."
Wood carving, puppets, martial arts, chanical Techniques...
It was precisely because of all the things Nora had done tied to these elents that she’d accumulated so much popularity. But now, her behavior caught in the background of this video completely overturned everyone’s impression of her, leaving them utterly shocked.
[On cara she’s all about promoting traditional culture, then she turns around and literally throws it away. And this is soone who can be an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage? What a joke.]
[There’s nothing wrong with the video she fild herself. But her behavior in the background is a whole other story. I didn’t expect soone who seems so straightforward to have two faces.]
[Thank goodness for Annabelle Pinto, or no one would’ve seen Nora Scott’s true colors!]
[Fuck, on one hand she leeches off traditional culture for clout and profit; on the other, she looks down on it and tosses it around like trash?!]
[I don’t see a shred of respect from Nora Scott for traditional culture!]
[After watching the video, I’m done with Nora. Isn’t Annabelle Pinto’s acting good? Isn’t her face gorgeous? Isn’t her martial arts impressive? Why would I stan Nora Scott, who has zero rits in comparison when it cos to how she conducts herself?]
...
The online discussion about this kept snowballing, and it was almost entirely attacks directed at Nora.
The program team was focused on filming, and by the ti they found out, it was already too late.
The video from Annabelle Pinto’s group had already passed a million likes, and all the major marketing accounts had reposted it; they didn’t even have ti to delete it!
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