The Unveiling of Secret Queen

Chapter 877: Returning the Favor with a Tooth for a Tooth

Celine Tucker smiled briefly, not hiding her family’s situation: "Your grandfather and your dad found plenty of people, made numerous phone calls, yet hardly anyone agreed to come. Next Wednesday’s promotion banquet is doomed to be a joke. As you can guess, she’s just an ordinary girl from McKinney, with no background or connections—who would bother to spend their time on this dinner? Only your grandpa thinks she can be lifted high by the Beijing circle, just like you."

"...If they are willing to lose face begging people, let them do it, but you shouldn’t come back."

Caryn Zachmann had no intention of going back anyway; otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked for an excuse to leave home early. Hearing what Celine had said, all she wanted to do was laugh, a derisive snort escaping her, her chin slightly tucked, her demeanor proud: "I’m not purposefully avoiding going back. I’m tied up here, working on an important medical experiment with my teacher, and even if I were to go back, I’d have to wait until Thursday."

"Grandpa didn’t mention me? Like asking me to see if I could talk to Mr. Vinson and the others, to get them to come to the dinner?"

Caryn glanced at Adelle Wafford and others bustling in the laboratory and whispered: "Actually, if Grandpa had asked me, I could talk to Mr. Vinson and the others. As long as I speak up, Mr. Vinson wouldn’t fail to give me that much ’face’..."

What she said casually was actually belittling Nathalie Quinlan: "But since Grandpa didn’t mention it, I can’t very well appear too eager to help, or they might think I’m desperate to throw myself at them."

She wasn’t going back; after all, she had wanted Mr. Norton as her teacher, and Nathalie got to him first, not leaving her any dignity.

This time she could legitimately claim to be ’too busy’, to coldly watch from the sidelines and repay Nathalie with the same coin!

She wanted to see how Nathalie’s promotion banquet would go on without her stepping in to ask Sadam Vinson and the others to come!

*

In the blink of an eye, it was Wednesday.

Nathalie Quinlan set out early in the morning with Amadeus Yancey and the others from McKinney, booked in first class, an eight o’clock flight, three hours of flight time, arriving in Beijing at half-past ten.

Due to his unique status, Audrick Zachmann didn’t dare to travel with them; his agent had booked him on a five o’clock plane, landing in Beijing at nine.

For an eight o’clock flight, she would typically need to wake up at seven, but with no need to queue for security, Nathalie arrived at the airport forty minutes in advance, drowsy and yawning non-stop. She wore a duckbill cap today, her figure huddled in an oversized blue and white checked sweater, with the brim of the hat pressing down her delicate jawline, hiding her eyes.

Even so, she still drew frequent glances from people along the way with her powerful presence.

After the security check, while waiting for the plane, Nathalie found a seat, half-closed her eyes, crossed her legs and took out her phone to play, concealing the irritation in her eyes.

She had just started a game when a message from Sadam Vinson came through.

[Nathalie, this early?]

Nathalie’s long fingers rested on the phone’s screen, she leaned back, staring at his message, a mischievous and casual smile playing on her lips.

She typed a reply to him on her phone.

[QN: Aren’t you up just as early.]

Sadam Vinson was a chatterbox, always the type to bloom in the sunlight—never give him the slightest glance, because if you do, he could chat with you for two or three hours without repeating himself!

Nathalie had just sent her message when it showed as read on the other end, with an indication that the other party was typing...

In less than a second, the new message from him came back.

[It’s different for me; big brother didn’t sleep all night, you’re the one who got up early~]

His tone was pretty irritating.