Without a doubt, Sheng Jiaoyang’s team was the clear winner for this team challenge.

Yi Meiling’s team was at the bottom. In her group, the contestant with the worst overall performance got eliminated and had to go.

Now there were only eight contestants left.

Of course, Sheng Jiaoyang, who got the most invites, still dominated the first spot for overall performance. There was no best photo this round. Only she had immunity.

To be honest, immunity didn’t mean much for contestants of her calibre. But, with immunity, they could be more relaxed in the next round. That was perhaps the only advantage.

In the afternoon, people who didn’t get any invites could only go back to the supermodel house and wait. Those with invites went to go get photos taken for the poster ads. After all, as models who went to the stores for interviews, they weren’t just doing it for the show.

Sheng Jiaoyang had to go to three different stores for her photos. Naturally, she had the heaviest workload, and had to try on many outfits. Sometimes, she even had to change her whole look to match the clothes. Of course, she couldn’t spend that much time getting a makeover. Mostly, she just wore a wig and changed her makeup.

When she returned to the supermodel house, everyone had already gone to their respective rooms to rest.

Surprisingly, the production crew didn’t come to wake them up the next day. They even very kindly gave them a day off. Also, everyone was given a cellphone sponsored by a mobile company that they could use during the competition.

“Ah. I can finally rest!”

While everyone was browsing weibo or checking in with their friends’ on their phones, Sheng Jiaoyang left with only a small backpack.

Wang Wei went to find Sheng Jiaoyang to add her as a mutual friend. As she searched through the different rooms, she still couldn’t spot her.

“Huh, she left this early? Where’d she go?” Wang Wei muttered to herself.

After leaving the supermodel house, Sheng Jiaoyang hitched a ride to the downtown area. Then, she hailed a taxi.

When she got to Mei Niu’s neighbourhood, she was stopped at the front gate. She had no choice but to put her name down in the security office and ask the guard to call the landline in Mei Niu’s home.

The guard told the person who picked up the phone that someone was here for Lina. The woman replied that Lina wasn’t home.

“Is she in Paris?” Sheng Jiaoyang couldn’t help but interrupt. She recognized the voice of the housekeeper that had Mei Niu hired.

“Yes,” the housekeeper responded.

Sheng Jiaoyang wasn’t willing to give up. “Can you please contact her for me and tell her to call me back?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m not authorised to do that.”

Disappointed, Sheng Jiaoyang walked out of the security office and got back into the waiting taxi. She rolled down the window and looked into the neighbourhood. Unexpectedly, a familiar car slowly pulled out of the driveway.

She didn’t realise whose car it was at first. When she did, the car had already left the neighbourhood.

Through the half open window she only saw half of the man’s face.

Lin Yan?!

Sheng Jiaoyang’s eyes widened. She put her hand on the door handle and was just about to open it when she suddenly heard the driver ask, “Ma’am, where are you going now?”

The hand she had wrapped around the door handle trembled. She pulled it back and heard herself say, “Follow that car!” Her voice was on the edge of hysteria.

“Okay. Buckle up.” The driver started the engine and followed the car that had just left the neighbourhood.

Sheng Jiaoyang put her hand over her chest. She could feel her heart racing. Her emotions were a tangled mess.

In the past, whenever she saw Lin Yan she wouldn’t have stayed out of sight and secretly followed him. She’d always approached him openly and found every excuse she could to get him to talk to her.

But, she couldn’t do that now. She wasn’t Sheng Jiaoyang anymore, at least not on the surface. No one knew that she was still alive, and that she’d assumed a different identity.

Was he a little sad when he heard about what had happened to her…?

A whirly mess of intrusive thoughts occupied her head while she kept her eyes on the car in front of her.

They followed him all the way to the front door of a horse ranch.

Lin Yan got out of the car with his bodyguard at his side. Then, a brunette woman with blue eyes dressed in a jockey costume ran out of the ranch. She went straight for Lin Yan and put her arms around him with great eagerness.

“Darling, what took you so long?” The woman’s sweet voice reached Sheng Jiaoyang’s ears.

The corner of Sheng Jiaoyang’s mouth twitched. She didn’t know what to feel.

“Ma’am, is that your boyfriend?” asked the driver after throwing a glance at her through the rearview mirror.

Sheng Jiaoyang felt a lump in her throat. “No, he isn’t. Please drive.”

“Where to?”

“Somewhere near the Tiber river. You can park anywhere.” Sheng Jiaoyang leaned against the seat. She closed her eyes, her face blank.

The driver started the car without a word.

As Lin Yan walked towards the horse ranch he suddenly stopped as if feeling something, and turned to look at the leaving car.

“The passenger was a girl with silver hair. Asian. She followed us to this place before leaving,” the bodyguard whispered from the side, updating him on the situation.

“What’s the matter, darling?” the woman asked when she realised he’d stopped walking.

“Nothing.” Lin Yan gently shrugged the woman’s hand off his elbow.

The woman frowned. She was going to take Lin Yan’s arm again, but was discouraged by his cold look.

When the taxi stopped, the driver said to Sheng Jiaoyang, “There are still many wonderful things in the world. You should stop dwelling on what happened earlier.”

A woman wanted to go to the riverside after seeing a man acting close with another woman. What else was he supposed to think?

The driver obviously thought that Sheng Jiaoyang was going to take her own life.

Sheng Jiaoyang thanked him and got off the car after paying.

She wandered aimlessly. Once she reached the riverside of the Tiber river, she stared into the distance. Every bridge above the river was beautiful in its own way.

The driver’s words came to her mind: There were still many wonderful things in the world. You should stop dwelling on what happened earlier.

A smile blossomed on her face.

There was nothing to dwell on. Sheng Jiaoyang would never be the kind of person who’d seek death for a man. If she was, she wouldn’t have left this place. For someone like her, giving up was never an option before she got what she aimed for, unless it was something she didn’t want anymore.

She was still reluctant to give up. During the years of pining over Lin Yan, she’d never made her feelings clear, and in the end, she never got a clear response. This could push her into making a decision to give up on the emotional investment she’d made over all those years. Now, he belonged to someone else and would never reciprocate her feelings. For that, she did feel a little remorseful.

There were many wonderful things in the world, and many things she had yet to do. There was no reason for her to waste all her energy agonising over something that would never come to fruition.

Noticing a flash in the corner of her eyes, Sheng Jiaoyang turned her head. She could see a man wearing a cap and a surgical mask pointing an SLR camera at her.