“It’s impossible.” Shaking her head, Emily went on to snatch the painting from Janet and examined the stamp.
Judging from her expression, something dawned upon everyone in an instant.
Everyone was gawking at Janet in shock because they just realized the eighteen-year-old young girl was really Master Nato…
Staring at Emily who was rooted to the spot, Janet stepped forward and seized the painting back. She narrowed her eyes to form a crafty expression and remarked wryly, “You shouldn’t be too shocked to see that because after all…” Janet first waved the stamp in her hand in front of Emily before she continued, “it’ll be even harder for you to digest this.”
At the sight of that stamp in her hand, everyone was left nonplussed. Some of them were so shocked that their lips were quivering as they stuttered, “Did she go out just now to take that stamp?”
“Is it possible that the stamp is just a replica?”
“That’s not possible because that stamp was carved from a piece of heliotrope stone and there’s no way you can find two pieces of heliotrope stones that look exactly the same.”
“Wow…”
It was hard for everyone to recover from the shock even after a long while because they couldn’t associate the young girl with Master Nato.
They couldn’t resist but capture the moment with their phone; it was as though they just couldn’t wait to show everyone in the world the staggering sight they had just witnessed.
When Emily noticed that everyone was aiming the cameras at herself, she covered her face with her hands miserably.
Megan, who was looking sullen, glared at Emily furiously and muttered, “Emily, how could you do that?”
Megan was so frustrated with Emily that she just sighed before storming out of the ballroom.
After Emily’s shady deed was exposed to the public, she simply found it too embarrassing to remain there.
Looking bleak, Brian followed Megan out.
The impact of the sudden change of events was felt most significantly by Old Mr. Collins because the young girl whom he had been looking down upon turned out to be the legendary Master Nato, whose talent in painting was insurmountable by him even after a whole lifetime of hard work.
He felt the most awful when he recalled the multiple occasions he made degrading remarks about Master Nato.
At that juncture, he wanted to kneel down in front of her and beg for her to be his teacher but then again, he was held back by fear and he dared not even look into her eyes.
Janet then strode toward him at a slow pace and put on a smirk. “What did you say before? Did you say that you wanted me to be your apprentice?” she confronted him in a menacing tone.
Avoiding her gaze, Old Mr. Collins held his head low and bowed slightly while he muttered humbly, “Of course I’m not good enough to be your teacher and I wasn’t being careful with my words before. I, Steven Collins, apologize if anything I said happened to have offended you!”
“I don’t want to listen to any of your excuses. Even if I win this contest, I’m still too good to be your apprentice.”
“Yes, yes! Of course you are!” Old Mr. Collins answered frantically with his head held low.
Janet walked down the stage and approached Jade. “How’s my performance? I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”
Jade was grinning so widely that her face was crumpled together thinking that she might never be able to forget what had happened for the rest of her life. Feeling touched and still in shock, Jade nodded at her vigorously in approval and beamed, “There’s no way you could embarrass me.”
Chloe, who was unable to take her eyes off Janet, was stuck in a trance.
When Shirley noticed the admiration on Chloe’s face, she rolled her eyes at her and snapped, “Can you at least behave yourself? There’s no point for you to stare at her in that way. Let’s go and stop staring at her already.” Shirley then led her away angrily.
Shirley thought it embarrassing that Chloe ended up being third place in the contest because it just showed that she couldn’t even prevail over Emily.
As for Janet, she first exchanged a glance with Jade before leaving the ballroom.
Only Mr. Collins as well as the guests who had yet to register the shocking truth were left behind.
Gazing at Janet’s slender figure, an overwhelming admiration washed over Old Mr. Collins.
In his mind, he had always pictured Master Nato to be an elderly woman and never in his wildest dreams did he think that she could be a girl at only eighteen.
There was no way he could accept that.
…
When Janet and Jade arrived at the lounge backstage, Megan and Emily were there.
Emily was seen holding her head low as if she was ready to receive a scolding from Jade.
