Chapter 661 The First ‘National Goddess’
“What’s going on with Mr. Jack?” Winona confusedly asked Elise as they walked together.
It was Winona’s first time witnessing Jack flying into a rage in person.
“He was in a bad mood,” Elise calmly responded.
“Why was he in a bad mood?” Winona continued to ask.
Exasperated, Elise gently smacked her on the forehead and replied, “Because of your stupidity!”
“How is it my fault now?” Winona rubbed her head with a confused look on her face.
Elise merely shook her head and didn’t bother explaining. After all, Winona wouldn’t get it.
Winona sighed in response. However, when she remembered her unfinished cake, she put Jack
Cakes from Jack were unique. Every one of them was delicious in a different way. To be honest, she frequently dreamed of Jack bringing them more cake. Finally, she could have some today.
Meanwhile, the moment Jack exited the small white building, he pulled out his phone and called Ronald.
“I need you to look into a trainee for me, Ronald. His name’s Craig Baker,”
“A trainee? Are you going to recruit a newbie?” asked Ronald.
“Just investigate him already.” Jack then hung up.
“What happened? Why’s he so angry?” Ronald muttered.
——
…
While Johnny was busy reading through his documents at his desk, Melody went through their accounts at the smaller desk beside him in the Smith Co.’s General Manager’s office.
Meanwhile, Alexander was sprawled out across the couch in the area designated for guests.
Sometime later, Johnny took off his spectacles and gently massaged his tired eyes before throwing an exhausted look at his boss.
“Your presence in the room while playing on your phone greatly reduces Melody’s and my productivity, Mr. Griffith,” said Johnny.
Alexander only glanced at him before re-focusing on his phone screen. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but are you trying to kick your superior out?”
Johnny pursed his lips but offered no denial.
“If there are no further orders, please head home and spend the day with your wife.” Melody was a blunt woman and decided to frankly voice out her displeasure. “You laze about while we’re working our butts off. Such a sight would easily make your workers go on a strike.”
“You guys are professionals. So none of you would do such a thing,” said Alexander. Still, he moved to sit up straight on the couch. However, his eyes remained trained on his phone as he kept scrolling. “Johnny, did you not make an official announcement when you ordered the staff to vote? People are now wondering if my wife bought these votes.”
“Noted. I’ll have the PR department work on it,” Johnny replied with a sigh.
“Good, good.” Alexander nodded in satisfaction. Then, he reported every mean-spirited top comment that had accused his wife.
A few moments later, he abruptly stood up and walked out of the door toward the meeting room as if he was suddenly reminded of something. Before he left the room, he called out to the other two, “We’ll have a meeting in half an hour in the big meeting room.”
“What’s he on about?” Melody asked Johnny.
“Maybe there’s another new voting link?” Johnny guessed with a shrug.
Although Melody didn’t respond, her facial expression stated her agreement with that guess.
What wouldn’t Mr. Griffith do for his wife?
By the time the meeting started, there was an all-out war on the internet about the votes for ‘National Goddess’.
The people who started the war were the fans of Tiana and other contestants. However, as the employees at Smith Co. voted en-masse during work hours, votes for Elise increased so dramatically in an instant that she immediately became second place. Such an extreme improvement had severely displeased the fans of those who had been displaced from their rankings.
And so, many people made numerous mean-spirited comments about Elise on Twitter. In fact, people began tagging the Twitter account of the ‘National Goddess’, asking them to investigate Elise’s votes.
Joey had been keeping a close eye on the situation online. She had no plans to interfere at first, but when Tiana’s fans’ insulting remarks went overboard, she flew into a rage. So, out of nowhere, all of Elise’s fans began to join in the mass voting.
“They’re accusing us of vote brigading, so let us show them just how strong H’s fans really are when we actually vote en-masse!”
Hence, just as vote brigading in the competition became a trending topic, the number of votes for Elise skyrocketed once more. Now, even random people began pressuring the competition organizers.
Finally, after over ten minutes of extensive monitoring, the ‘National Goddess’ organizers put up a post stating, “After investigation, we have found all claims of irregularities in Miss Elise Sinclair’s votes to be untrue. Thank you for your interest.”
In the meantime, Elise had surpassed Tiana and was at the top of the leaderboard.
That further infuriated the fans, and it even made the organizers begin to suspect there was some rigging involved in the competition.
Just then, the official Twitter account of Smith Co. posted an announcement that stated, “The company’s employees and their respective families have all voted for Elise Sinclair. We congratulate Miss Elise in advance for becoming the National Goddess.”
In order to ensure Alexander was satisfied with the post, Johnny also asked the PR Department to be bold and extravagant with the post. Hence, when the PR department posted the statement, it was trending.
Furthermore, Smith Co. was a company so immense that nearly a third of the adults in Cittadel were employed there.
As soon as the post started trending, all objections vanished into thin air.
Then, Joey used her official international fan account and also posted an announcement saying, “Currently, over 22 million fans have voted in the competition.”
Now, no one dared to question the validity of Elise’s votes.
When the voting closed, Elise had at least double the number of votes Tiana had, and she successfully became the first ‘National Goddess’.
When Alexander read the voting results while standing outside the meeting room, he grinned in satisfaction.
By the time Brendan and Jack rushed over to Alexander, they noticed that he had a lovestruck look on his face.
“Thinking about Elise again?” asked Brendan as he walked over to rest an arm around Alexander’s shoulders.
To that, Alexander only smiled and did not speak a word of objection. Then, he turned to Jack and commented, “You came fast.”
“It’s rare for you to call for a meeting. I wouldn’t dare to be late. But why here? Where’s Danny? How can he arrive later than me?” Jack was full of questions.
“Since he can’t keep a secret, I thought it best we don’t let him know,” Alexander said with a raised eyebrow.
When they heard his statement, Brendan and Jack exchanged a look that conveyed their agreement.
Danny, who was nowhere near the room or did not know about the meeting, would definitely be upset by the lack of faith from his own brother, no less!
“Oh, just spit it out. What can we help you with?” Brendan asked.
Alexander leaned against the railing as he watched as people bustled about in the office. Then, after a few long moments, he finally said, “Everything you see here is mine. I am Kenneth Bailey.”
The other two looked at each other in obvious shock.
“Are you saying it’s a disguise?” Jack was the first to react due to his acting experience in historical drama.
“You can kind of call it that,” Alexander said with a wave of his hand.
That admission rendered Jack speechless, and he had to take a deep breath just to calm himself since it was rather terrifying to see what people consider a myth come to life.
Brendan, on the other hand, was as cool as a cucumber. He had always known Alex was hiding a secret. As such, he had been mentally prepared and did not find this new information strange.
