Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As soon as Samantha saw camera lenses and microphones pointed at her, she realized they were reporters and immediately raised her eyebrows slightly.

Could those reporters have been notified by Lychee TV to come over and interview the person who got first place in the first round of the competition?

That thought had just appeared in her mind when a reporter snapped pictures of her while asking, “Mrs. Barker, I heard that you lost a bet with one of the contestants. Are you now going to bark here at the entrance to Lychee TV station?”

Samantha’s lips twitched.

That turned out to be the reason…

Jade had notified those reporters in advance to come over. Their purpose was to get some pictures of her embarrassing antics and put them on the news.

She raised her eyes, looked at the reporter, then smiled and nodded. “There will be barking alright!”

The reporters’ eyes all lit up as soon as she said those words.

Samantha paused for a few seconds before slowly saying, “But I won’t be the one doing the barking. It’s Jade!”

The reporters were dumbfounded and started wondering what was going on.

Samantha saw, from the corner of her eye, that Jade had put on some sunglasses and was planning on slipping away quietly. She looked at her directly and raised her voice slightly, “Hello there, Ms. Plunkett! Time to honor the bet, don’t you think?”

Everyone looked at Jade as her body stiffened all of a sudden.

Those contestants who had been friendly with her silently kept their distance for fear of embarrassing themselves.

Elsie enjoyed seeing such public spectacles, more so when Jade was about to look like a fool. Fearing that Jade would run away, Else immediately stepped forward and stood in front of her, mocking her loudly, “What’s the matter, Jade? Are you going back on your bet just because you lost? I wonder who it was that made such a big hoo-ha about being a sore loser earlier? Are you a sore loser right now?”

Jade’s eyes reddened and she gritted her teeth while staring at Elsie. Unfortunately, she had made the bet publicly in front of her fellow contestants, and there was no way for her to deny its existence nor refute her words!

The reporters have been waiting at the entrance for a while now and there were increasingly more people watching. Even if Jade did not want to lose her dignity that way, she knew in her heart that petty people like Samantha and Elsie would never let it go. The more she put off doing it, the more onlookers would start to gather, and it might even alarm the higher-ups in the station! Should that happen, they would not have a good impression of her anymore and she would end up getting more embarrassed!

Jade clenched her hands tightly as she spat out her words from between her teeth. “Who said I’m a sore loser? I always honor my bets!”

She closed her eyes, opened her mouth, then raised her head and let out three soft barks, “Woof, woof, woof!”

With that done, she glared at Samantha resentfully and asked coldly, “That should do it, right?”

Samantha did not respond as the taxi she called had just arrived. She walked to the side of the car, bent down slightly, then got in.

Elsie had already used her cell phone to take a video of Jade’s barking. She smiled gleefully and said, “I didn’t expect you to sound just like a real dog when you barked. You have quite the talent for acting! Why don’t you consider changing careers and going into the entertainment industry? The next award-winning actress might be you!”

“You!” Jade reddened in anger. Had it not been for the people watching her, she would have come forward and ripped Elsie’s mouth apart!

The reporters did not look too happy and were staring angrily at Jade. One of them said bluntly, “Well isn’t this a waste of our time? I turned away a headline-grabbing photoshoot just for this charade of yours. Don’t call me again for this sort of ‘news’ next time!”

The reporters each got into the car and left.

The other contestants left one by one, along with the onlookers. Jade was the only one who stood frozen on the spot. Her face turned ashen, and the more she thought about it, the angrier and more aggrieved she became. Her eyes turned red too.

Jade had never been humiliated like that ever since she became popular! No one had ever done that to her!

A tissue was then handed to her, followed by a soft voice. “Are you okay?”

Jade looked up tearfully at the woman in front of her.

There was a distressed and apologetic look in Harmony’s big beautiful eyes. She helped Jade to wipe away those tears before Jade even took the tissue. Harmony then said, “I’m sorry that you were humiliated because of me.”

Everyone felt ashamed of Jade and did not want to approach her at all, so it was a huge surprise that Harmony would come to comfort her.

She did not view Harmony kindly in the beginning because she viewed Harmony as a threat to her. After all, Harmony was an attractive, capable, and charismatic woman. It never crossed Jade’s mind that Harmony would be such a good person.

The entire incident had nothing to do with Harmony, yet Harmony was kind enough to come forth and apologize to her.

Jade said anxiously, “Why are you apologizing to me? Samantha’s the one who’s at fault here. We’re all fellow contestants, but she went through with embarrassing me in public! I’m telling you she won’t stop at that!”

Harmony lamented softly, “I think we should just be the best version of ourselves, Jade. There’s no need to go against Samantha. You know that her status is a bit special compared to us and the one who’ll have to suffer in the end is you. Just do your best. It doesn’t matter what the result is as long as you’ve given it your all and have a clear conscience.”

Jade listened to those words and felt that something was not quite right. She frowned and distanced herself a little before a glow flashed across her eyes. “Are you saying that Samantha really did rely on her identity as Mrs. Barker to influence the score?”

There was a fleeting expression of panic in Harmony’s eyes and she denied it at once. “That’s not what I meant at all. What I’m trying to say is that we should all get along with each other and just focus on competing.”

Jade wanted to say something but Harmony’s car had already arrived. She spoke first and said, “Alright, don’t get so hung up on it. I’m leaving now. See you next time.”

The car drove off quickly after she got in.

Jade stood in the same place and watched as the car disappeared from sight. Her eyes narrowed little by little and she seemed to be in deep thought.

…

That night.

Samantha came out of the shower and sat in front of the dressing table. As she wiped her hair dry, she went through her unread messages on WeTalk.

Rochelle was one of the first to congratulate her on winning first place in the first round. She even gave her 5,200 bucks as a reward.

Best friends were forever!

There were also other congratulatory messages from her other friends.

Lychee TV’s official account seemed to have announced the results of the first round on Waybo, which was why everyone knew about it.

Unfortunately, she did not see any messages from Timothy…

Samantha suppressed the little bit of disappointment in her heart. She moved her finger and clicked on Waybo where she saw more than 999 unread messages in her private message area.

At the same time, she has gained nearly one million fans already.

Did everyone send her their congratulations? Did her popularity soar just because she won the first round?

Samantha clicked on a random private message and her eyes widened when she saw the message..