The Pampering CEO: Don't Mess With My Secretly-Married Sweet Wife
Chapter 163 Voices Of Doubt

The result of the voting was announced at 12 o'clock on the first night.

First place had accumulated 1.93 million votes, which was 500 thousand votes ahead of second place. And the winner of the night was Susan.

"I won first place?" Susan questioned, bewilderment written all over her face.

This was something completely out of her expectation. Mr. Reed had heavily criticized her work, so she was almost certain that she would finish dead last. She never expected that she would get first place on the first day.

Glancing over at the result, Julian said nonchalantly," Well, it seems that they have good taste."

'Just like me,' he finished his sentence inwardly.

Susan was still in shock. She found it difficult to accept the truth that she could garner so many votes in one night and that she was far ahead of other competitors.

'How is that possible?' She wondered inwardly. As she racked her brain searching for an explanation, an idea suddenly popped up in her mind. She turned her head towards Julian and said in an unsure voice, "Julian... Please tell me you have nothing to do with this."

After all, given Julian's resources and connections, it was a piece of cake for him to gather 20 million votes, let alone two million votes.

Looking at Susan's questioning gaze, Julian raised his brow and asked, "Why are you denying yourself of your achievement? You don't believe in your own abilities?"

"It's not that I don't believe in my own abilities, it's just that... I was quite confident at first, but Mr. Reed

seems to have some doubts about me..." Susan said hesitantly.

Truth be told, she would not feel as bad if it were other designers, or even if Sheldon, who was a master himself, rated her work. She would never take their comments to her heart no matter how harsh their remarks were.

However, it was Mr. Reed who evaluated her design. He was the most reputable designer in the design industry. He had a good eye for talent, and his opinions were all very spot-on.

'If he said I'm not good... then maybe I'm really not good enough..."

"Mr. Reed is not a god, so there's bound to be some occasions where he would bark up the wrong tree. Besides, your ability is recognized in Lanyard and your works are highly rated by our clients. There are s o many people who recognized your effort, so why do you have to doubt yourself just because Mr. Reed

doesn't approve of you?" Julian said.

Susan looked at Julian and then sighed, "When did you become like an old man who loves to give advice, Julian?"

Julian's brows twitched at her remark. Just when he was about to say something again, Susan quickly went forward and soothed him.

Thanks to the brief interlude, Susan had calmed down a little now. She figured that since she did not commit any misdeed and all of the votes were given to her voluntarily, she just had to accept it. Susan still had the upper hand until the third day.

On the third day, the second place made a comeback and gained a whopping 3 million votes in one day on the last day. In the end, it overshot Susan's votes and replaced her.

"So, I got second place in the end," Susan said. She was a little disappointed, but that was all she felt. After all, only ten of them could enter the finalist round, so she was content with what she had landed the spot.

On the second day, Susan received a notification from the judges. On that night, they would announce the top 10 finalists and the final round would be held at the same time as well to decide the champion. "We have to go to Central Stadium for the final round? I wonder how they're going to assess us this time," Chance said.

He was the last of the ten finalists who made it into the final round.

"I've no idea," Susan shook her head.

"Susie, Lanyard Construction is the largest investor in this competition. Mr. Shaw sure knows something. Maybe you should go and ask him for some lowdowns," a voice interjected.

"Yeah. You should go and ask Mr. Shaw so that you and Chance can get a better result."

Susan was stunned for a moment. Then, she said, "I don't think so. It's not fair to the others."

"Susie, there's no need to hide it from us. We all know that you got such a good result this time because of Mr. Shaw. Although you don't have to worry about yourself anymore since you're in second place, you have to help Chance. If he makes it into the top 3, it would boost Lanyard's reputation as well," another person added.

Susan frowned. "What are you talking about? I didn't ask for Julian's help, and I didn't cheat to get the votes."

The crowd fell silent. After a short while, all of them waved their hands and said, "Alright, alright. We believe you."

Be that as it may, Susan could feel that they were just brushing her off. She could see that all of them were unconvinced. She turned around to look at Chance, but he refused to meet her gaze. Apparently, he did not believe her either.

"Susie, we know that you got your votes fair and square, but it wouldn't take much effort to get some information from Mr. Shaw."

"Yeah, I agree."

Setting her jaw tight, Susan replied, "I'm sorry. But I think we all should have a fair competition. I won't ask Julian."

"It's okay guys. I'm fine with whatever I have now. Don't bother Susie anymore," Chance spoke up, helping Susan dismiss the situation.

Even though the crowd had dispersed, Susan still felt a little uncomfortable inside her heart.

She achieved success through her own efforts. She did not take any shortcuts, nor did she ask for Julian's help. She could not fathom why all of them would think that she would seek help from Julian just because she was his wife.

Now that everyone in the company who had full faith in her, including Chance, assumed that Julian was the one pulling strings, she dared not to think how people outside would talk about her.

She took a deep breath and chased all the dark thoughts out of her brain. No matter what happened, she had nothing to fear because she had a clear conscience.

However, there was something in this world that one could not entirely steer clear of.

In the afternoon, somebody tagged her in the group chat and sent her a link.

"Susie, take a look at this. You have to act fast before it goes out of control."

Susan opened the link and her brows furrowed.

The post had nothing but only an audio clip and a screenshot.

The audio clip was about the comments Mr. Reed gave to her while he was reviewing her work, while the screenshot showed the result of her votes.

Words were not needed anymore as Susan could feel the hostility from the post.

"Oh my God, how can a work with such a poor evaluation from Mr. Reed get such a high number of votes? Is everybody blind?"

"I already said Susan's work is bland and dull. I didn't like it from the first moment I saw it. It seems like Mr. Reed has the same opinion as me."

"I wonder how such a poor design got second place. Could it be that there's a shady deal behind this?"

Voices of doubt came in a throng.

After a short while, someone pointed, "You don't know? Susan is Julian Shaw's wife. He is the CEO of Lanyard Construction, and Lanyard Construction is the biggest investor this time... So, it's pretty self- evident, right?"

"I knew it. There's no way that everyone could be blind. By the way, with the Straws' resources, they can easily buy tens of millions of votes, let alone 10 million votes."

"How can they allow something like this to happen? What are the judges doing? This is such a shame for our country."

"Yeah, right. She didn't work hard for it, yet she got second place. Her design is like a piece of sh*t."

Susan's face went pale. Someone beside her comforted, "Don't worry too much, Susie. They don't have any evidence, so they can't do anything to you."

However, she did not feel better. After all, judging by her colleague's words, it was apparent to her that everyone still thought it was Julian who helped her buy those votes.