The Unveiling of Secret Queen

Chapter 835: Still Waiting for a Joke

"Auntie, I’m back."

"Back?"

Lately, Ghania Quinlan had been showing a lot of promise, so Ivy Wilmar’s demeanor toward her had softened considerably. Upon her return, Ivy immediately stood up and stopped discussing the Hoffman Family matter with Myles Sullivan. She warmly walked over and urged the servant to prepare a late-night snack for Ghania.

Now accustomed to life at the Sullivan family home, Ghania decidedly acted like a semi-hostess. She shook her head, declined Ivy’s kindness, and, dragging her suitcase, said wearily, "No thank you, Auntie. I ate something on the airplane, I’m not hungry now. I want to go up and wash up; I still have an arrangement to work on, and my teacher is waiting for me to submit the assignment."

During this time, Master Steven had mentioned more than once that he hoped she would produce a new arrangement.

Preferably in the style of the arrangement with which she had won the award.

Ghania had tried her utmost to write something similar, but that arrangement was firstly not a conventional piano piece; it was adapted from a Konghou piece. Not to mention, she had only written the foundation; the truly shining parts of the piece were all added by Nathalie Quinlan later—it didn’t have much to do with her!

Now to ask her to come up with something similar was akin to asking for her life!

While she dared not show any weakness in front of Master Steven, she dragged out the time as much as possible, and during this period, she racked her brains and pondered over the new arrangement whenever she had free time in her room. Though she wrote quite a few new pieces, each one was mediocre at best and she herself was not satisfied, let alone showing them to her teacher who had high expectations for her new compositions.

Thus, this period was both joyous and painful for Ghania.

The joy came from gradually making a name for herself in the Sullivan Family and Beijing through her efforts. The pain stemmed from the matter of the new compositions, which hung over her like a dark cloud, disturbing even her sleep.

She handed her suitcase to a servant of the Sullivan Family and asked them to take it upstairs. As she ascended, she passed by the living room and saw the TV projecting news, passionately discussing the upcoming college entrance exams...

As Ghania passed by, she paused for a second and then continued upstairs.

College entrance exams.

Speaking of which, it seemed that Nathalie Quinlan was going to participate in this year’s exams.

Her eyes flashed and she curled her lips disdainfully. Honestly, she could never understand what was going through Nathalie’s mind. She was already top in the mock exams, yet she still wanted to participate in the college entrance exams. What for?

Just to bring glory to the school?

If it were her, she definitely would not do such a thing.

By not participating in the college entrance exams, she could retain the honor of being top in the mocks. If she failed the college entrance exams, that would truly become a joke!

Being first was not that easy to achieve.

Moreover, the college entrance exam differed from the mock exams; it was a national examination. Climbing to the top on a national level was not easy.

Did Nathalie really think she would always be as lucky as during the mock exams, scoring perfect marks?

The mocking curve of Ghania’s lips grew as she listened to the news report about the college entrance exams below. She hid the thick irony in her eyes, appearing gentle, slightly lifted her chin, and slowly touched the handrail as she went upstairs...

After all, it wasn’t her who would be the laughing stock. If Nathalie failed the college entrance exams, she would certainly enjoy watching the drama.

Such an event was exactly what she hoped for.

*

The next day was the national college entrance exam.

Early that morning, Audrick Zachmann had gotten up.

Accompanying him in rising early were Alfred Garland and Amadeus Yancey.

When he got up, the table was already laid with steaming breakfast, and a set of car keys thrown beside it, clearly indicating who had gone out early to buy it.