When An Xin entered her room, she heard another shriek.


    It was Twinkleing out of the washroom.


    “Xin! My face!” Twinkle cried loudly.


    “Show me?” An Xin said as she walked ahead.


    “No. No. Don’t look at my face. It’s ugly, ” Twinkle cried as she did not let An Xin remove the towel from her face. However, An Xin pulled the towel and was shocked by seeing boils on Twinkle’s face that were starting to form.


    “Let me call the doctor, “An Xin said as she tried to go out of the room but Twinkle held her hand and shook her head while crying.


    “There is no benefit, ” Twinkle whimpered as she fell to her knees. “Even if you call the doctor, it won’t go away. It’s not a pimple but a boil. It will take days to go away. Xin, I lost thepetition before it even began.” She hugged An Xin’s legs and cried. “It hurts. It hurts so much. My dreams…my dream of bing a star… I can hear the sound of my shattering dream of winning the contest.”_.


    “Xinyi, ” An Xin called her by her name. “Don’t give up. Your face is not the reason why you are here. What you need to win the contest is not the exterior beauty but the inner beauty. Your stars won’t guide you to your aim, your confidence will.”


    Twinkle didn’t reply as she only cried hugging An Xin’s legs. After crying for an hour, she agreed to let the doctor see her face. The doctor announced that her face was in direct contact with a bacteria that caused direct infection on her face. He applied medicine on the girl’s face but even he knew that the boil would take days before disappearing and not to forget the scar that would leave.


    That night An Xin couldn’t sleep because she was afraid that if she closed her eyes even for a second, something bad would happen to her too.


    The next morning came and no girl went to the breakfast table and ended up ordering to their rooms. Twinkle was having one meltdown after another each time she would see her face in the mirror and seeing her friend being so sad, An Xin didn’t have the mood to eat breakfast either.


    Her mood improved a bit when her mom called herter. However, when she recalled how they all had to go out to attend the expert talk where the former beauty queens would share their experience about how they performed in thest round.


    Everyone was looking at everyone with suspicion in their eyes. She felt that it wasn’t a good feeling to be always wary of each other all the time.


    Later, the doctor called Twinkle toe and see him in his office while she went with her friend. Her friend was finding it hard to stop her meltdown. Since Twinkle had been nothing but warm and friendly to her, An Xin decided to be kind to her too.


    While Twinkle was inside the doctor’s room and thetter was applying medicine on the former’s face, An Xin decided to stroll in the lobby to pass the time. She was holding her phone by its edge and swirling it in the air. As she moved her phone, it slipped from her hold and fell far away.


    “It must be broken, ” An Xin inwardly cried. As she leaned down to pick up her phone that was ced near the door of the staff room that was off limits to contestants, she heard a whisper. She couldn’t hear what the person from inside was exactly talking about but she heard some words.


    “Yes…. The questions…. given….”


    “Transfer the money…”


    “She… win the contest….”


    “Ask her to prepare answers to all the questions given to her and she will win thest round.”


    Thest line that was clear to hear made An Xin stunned. She agreed that she was a dumb girl. But she wasn’t that dumb to understand what was going on. The person inside had sold the question to a contestant that was going to be asked tomorrow.


    How could they do this?


    This contest was supposed to be free and fair.


    “Yes, I will meet youter. I’m in the staff room. I hacked into Judge’s personalputers to find the questions. My fee will be heavy too. Yeah, I will meet you outside the hotel gate.”


    An Xin picked up her phone and ran from there. However, the person inside heard her footsteps.


    “Who is out?” The person shouted and An Xin ran as fast as could and entered the doctor’s cabin where Twinkle was about to leave for her room.


    “Why are you gasping for air?”Twinkle asked with furrowed brows.


    “It’s too hot out, “An Xin said as she fanned her hand.


    “But the air conditioner is on, “The doctor suddenly said.


    “I came from out, that’s why I am feeling hot. I will be fine after sitting here for a few minutes, “An Xin said with an embarrassed smile. Her heart was loudly beating against her ribcage. Although she was smiling, her legs had weakened all of a sudden. It was as if she could stand up and take a step.


    “Are you sure you are fine?” The doctor said as he looked at her pale face.


    An Xin nodded her head. “Xinyi, did you bring your phone with you? My phone fell on the ground. I need to call my mom to inform her that my phone is not working or she will get worried.”


    Twinkle nodded her head and passed her phone to An Xin.


    An Xin knew that she wasn’t strong enough to take down ghsi viin but someone else was.


    Her mom, her superwoman. All she had to do was inform her mom what she heard and An Qinyan would handle everything else.


    ____


    A/N: After the end of this arc, we will be taking a mini leap. It could be a leap of three months or six months.


    BTW, our privilege unlocks is so less that it’s giving me stress if we can even fullfil Win-win target or not.