Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

‘Honorable.’

Timothy’s judgement had always been accurate, so if he could hold Selby in high regard, then it was certain that Selby was a respectable individual.

“Alright then, thank you husband!” Samantha said as she got up unhesitatingly from Timothy’s lap. She then turned all her attention to the pile of questionnaires without even giving Timothy any attention at all.

Timothy was a little irked by that and raised his eyebrows. “Are you going to burn your bridges now?”

“No, of course not! You’ll always be the number one person in my heart!” Samantha responded without even turning around.

“How heartless!” Timothy squeezed her waist with his big palms. “I took the trouble of coming home today but your mind is only focused on work right now.”

Samantha’s waist was more sensitive than other parts of her body so she tried to avoid his hand a couple of times, but to no avail. Her only recourse was to turn around, look at him, and hold his face in both hands to give him a kiss on the lips. “I’m sorry I have to let you down tonight. I’ll spend some time with you once I finish this, okay?”

The man’s long fingers pinched her cheek.

He seemed to have been bewitched by her peachy, pitiful-looking eyes and nodded just like that. He even said thoughtfully, “Don’t stay up too late.”

“Yes, Sir.” Samantha playfully gave him a military salute.

Timothy released his grip on Samantha and got up. He rubbed the top of her head with his big palm before raising his feet to leave the study.

Samantha sat back down on the swivel chair and continued with her work.

…

The next day, Selby’s itinerary for the day was shared in her work chat group. He was scheduled to attend a conference in a five-star hotel. It was going to be his only public event in recent times and anyone who wanted to interview him would have to seize this opportunity.

Samantha, Harmony, and the two other anchors went to the venue in the company car, but they went their separate ways after arriving because they were all each other’s competitor.

Whatever happened after that would hinge on their own ability.

The conference would end in 15 minutes and reporters were already gathering at the door to the conference room. It was reminiscent of the scene in the university a day ago.

There were two reasons why Samantha did not go up and try to squeeze in: firstly, she might not even be able to insert herself among the tightly-packed crowd, and secondly, she might not be able to get the chance to ask her questions because there were simply too many people.

It would be better to take a wait-and-see approach before deciding upon her next move.

Time passed by quickly and the door to the conference room opened slowly.

The reporters rushed towards the door in a frenzied state and the entire place was flooded with people as soon as Selby walked out.

Microphones and cameras were all shoved into his face as the reporters soon fired off a barrage of questions.

One of them asked, “Professor Cornell, have you no plans to sue your student after she made such a serious sexual assault accusation to tarnish your name?”

A second asked, “Professor Cornell, your reputation has been greatly damaged, but all you did was make a superficial statement to deny it. Is your guilty conscience making you afraid to sue the student?”

Another reporter questioned, “The student continues to expose even more information on Waybo, saying that she would sue you if you don’t own up to her accusations. Do you have anything to say about that?”

Selby’s face was immensely ugly. He raised his hand to block his face slightly and opened his lips to speak in a somewhat angry tone, “Get out of the way.”

The reporters were never going to let him leave without getting an answer and became even more confrontational in their line of questioning. “Professor Cornell, you’ve refused to talk about this matter all this while, which suggests that the assault did actually happen. Is that really the case?”

Selby’s expression was filled with rage when he heard that. He looked directly at the reporter who asked that question and grabbed the man’s collar while raising his fist. “Why don’t you repeat what you said!”

The reporter was completely unperturbed and appeared to want to provoke him too. He grinned and said on purpose, “We uphold freedom of speech, Professor Cornell. These are all guesses on our part. You ought to explain yourself if you didn’t do it, because your silence is further confirmation that you did indeed commit such an act!”

“Shut your mouth!” Selby’s face reddened with anger as his breathing quickened. Even the base of his eyes had turned scarlet.

Samantha frowned when she saw everything.

The situation could not be allowed to go on like that…

Her eyeballs rolled inside her eye sockets. She decisively turned around and dashed toward the corridor.

After half a minute, the alarm bell in the hotel rang sharply.

The reporters all went blank for a moment and finally realized that something was off. After exchanging a few glances at each other, they turned around and ran out.

The scene became rather chaotic.

Many of the reporters rammed against Selby as they ran out. He was so angry that he could not find his footing and almost fell after staggering forward.

A hand suddenly grabbed his wrist out of nowhere and led him forward.

He was led in the same direction as the crowd for a short distance before immediately being whisked away to another small path. After continuing to run forward for about 50 meters, he finally stopped after seeing that there was no one else following him.

Selby looked up to see a delicate and sweet-looking face.

Samantha made eye contact with him and smiled. “It’s safe here, Professor Cornell.”

Selby’s gaze shifted downward and he caught sight of the badge hanging around her neck. ‘Anchor: Lychee TV’. A sneer appeared on his face when he saw that. “How am I safe when you’re here to pry information from me too? Don’t assume I’ll answer your questions just because you helped me like this.”

After a pause, he seemed to have gotten really angry and added coldly, “Just drop it. I won’t answer any questions from the likes of you. Sensationalism is what you’re after. You’re not the kind who makes any attempt to seek the truth!”

Samantha did not take offense to Selby’s petulant attitude at all and spoke in as calmly a tone as possible, “Professor Cornell, I admit that I came here today because I wanted to get the truth from you, but that’s not the reason I decided to help you earlier.”

“I just… I’ve also experienced false accusations like this before. I was condemned by reporters too. I only helped you because I couldn’t stomach the way they acted towards you. More importantly, there are people who say that you’re a good person and I believe them. That’s the only reason I helped you.”

“I never intended to use this as an excuse to have you return the favor.”

“Heh.” Selby did not believe it at all. “As if I’d believe you.”

He was already on the verge of physical and mental collapse after being harassed by those persistent reporters for a couple of days now. He would never believe any words that came out of their mouths.

Samantha did not try to explain herself and simply said, “This hotel has a backdoor that you can use to escape. You’ll reach it if you walk a little further down from here. Goodbye.”

As soon as Samantha said that, she turned around and left without waiting any longer.

Selby froze on the spot. Samantha said she would leave and that was exactly what she did. He watched as her figure disappeared gradually from sight. Samantha never came back even though he waited for several minutes with a slight confused look in his eyes.

Samantha left the hotel and drove back to Lychee TV.

Harmony had already returned by the time Samantha went to her work station. She glanced at Samantha and smiled oddly at her.

Samantha was wondering what that was all about when she saw Carl walking out of his office.. He had an angry look on his face as he said, “Samantha, my office, now!”