Chapter 662 The Next QH
“Does Elise know about this?” Brendan asked, voicing the only question in his mind.
Alexander shook his head. “I wanted to see how you’ll react first.”
“First, it’s Elise who has a secret identity. Now, you’re revealing yourself as some other man. Just what are you two doing?” Jack sighed. Why couldn’t life be simpler?
Speaking of identities, Jack had found out who Craig Baker was. That man was just some uneducated fool. No one knew how he fooled Winona into liking him. He was enjoying life in the laps of several wealthy women while ensuring Winona kept working for him. It was rather impressive just how much of a scoundrel he was.
“I remember how furious you were when you found out about Elise’s alter-ego,” Brendan said, analyzing the situation from a neutral standpoint.
“That is the issue.” Even Alexander knew he was faced with a situation that he could hardly escape unscathed.
“If I were Elise, I’d divorce you right now,” said Melody as she walked over, heels clacking from a distance.
Alexander glanced at her but said nothing when he heard that.
Melody was the only woman in his think tank. That meant her train of thought was the most similar to Elise’s, which made it the scariest to him.
Johnny was astonished at how glum Alexander looked. Never once had he so much as frowned when dealing with challenging projects. Now, this handsome black-haired man was a wretched ball of nerves because of Elise.
“I think you can try and talk your way out of this by appealing to logic,” suggested Johnny.
“You think women can be reasoned with?” Jack dramatically protested.
“Who said women can’t be reasoned with?” Melody became unhappy when she heard Jack’s comment.
She was a pragmatic and logical woman. Anyway, Alexander was in the wrong. Not only did he hide his identity, but he also used the name Kenneth Bailey to test Elise. That was a wrong move in so many ways.
Even if he were her boss, she would not be helping him.
“So, appealing to logic means I’ll lose Elise?” Alexander tiredly asked.
The room went silent since that might actually happen.
Alexander let out a long sigh as he planted his hands firmly on his hips. Then, as his eyes flickered around the place, he spotted Clement standing not far away.
For some reason, Alexander decided to raise his voice and asked Clement, “What do you think?”
When Clement heard that, it was as if he was a robot that someone had just turned on. “I don’t know, Mr. Griffith,” he innocently replied with a blank face.
Alexander looked back down at the floor after he heard that.
Truthfully, Clement wasn’t good at anything but being a bodyguard. At this point, Alexander was panicking and searching for solutions from, frankly, terrible sources.
“Forget it,” Alexander said as he waved his hand. “You guys can go. Let me think about this alone.”
Everyone scattered immediately.
Clement had also planned on leaving, but he had only just turned away when he decided to turn back around and walk over to Alexander. “Sir, try being sincere,” he earnestly said.
“Sincere?” Alexander was confused.
“Yes.” Clement nodded. “While I didn’t like Mrs. Griffith in the beginning, these few months have told me that she truly loves you and wishes the best for you. So, I’ve accepted her. The key is to let her know that, just like her, you care for her more than you care for yourself.”
Clement bowed and left after he gave Alexander his opinion.
Alexander just stood there for a long while, utterly lost in his thoughts.
——
……
After a few days of imitating QH’s calligraphy, Tiana finally grasped some semblance of their style.
As she stared at the study room full of practice paper, she began to subconsciously brainwash herself into thinking that the handwriting found on those papers was hers.
Beautiful penmanship flowed as smoothly as a river with decisive strokes etched into it.
After hunting down the best-looking piece, she took a photo of it and sent it to Cody Carlson, her Calligraphy Association teacher.
Then, just as she was about to call for the servants to clean up the room, her phone screen lit up.
It was a call from Cody.
Tiana cautiously answered the call, and she raised the phone up to her ear to hear Cody say in an excited voice, “Did you write that, Tiana?”
She nodded with a shy smile on her face as she bit down on her lip and replied, “Yes. I’ve been working on my penmanship for days. I wanted to see what you thought, Mr. Carlson.”
When Cody first saw the photo, he couldn’t help but zoom in to admire every single stroke in the picture.
Her penmanship looked somewhat similar to QH’s displays in the Calligraphy Association Museum, but hers was more graceful.
If he didn’t know for a fact that the only two surviving works of QH were being stored in the museum, he would’ve thought this was a picture of QH’s work!
Even though it had only been two weeks, Tiana had improved dramatically. It seemed like he had underestimated his student.
“Your penmanship is amazing. Not even I, your teacher, could’ve done so well.” Cody’s voice grew softer as he slowly calmed down. “Truly, you are very talented and better than your teachers. Tiana, you might be as accomplished as QH in the future.”
“Do you think I stand a chance of making the finals in the Calligraphy Contest?” she asked with sparkling eyes.
“Haha,” Cody guffawed. “Of course. You won’t just make the finals. In fact, your handwriting is better than many of the A-grade members in the association. Instead of just talking, why don’t you write a few more lines for me to look at?”
When Tiana heard that, she panicked.
After a few long moments, she finally thought up an excuse. “Mr. Carlson, I’m still not finished with the other characters and words. I’ll have to work on them before I can show you anything. Otherwise, there won’t be anything nice, and any more pictures of my penmanship would be for nothing. Right?”
“True,” Cody said, nodding. “You have always been a self-aware child. But, since you have a plan, continue at your own pace. Once you get the hang of a few of these words, the rest will come easily to you. I believe you can do it.”
“Yeah…” This time, Tiana didn’t respond as confidently as before.
After hanging up, she frowned at the three examples of calligraphy she had bought.
The total number of words found in these three examples was less than twenty, yet they cost her over three million.
Hence, it would cost her a lot of money to buy all known works of QH to use as references. However, if she wanted to stand out in the Calligraphy Contest, she had to do this.
She would need to consider this carefully.
Just as she was in deep thought, her phone chimed with a new message that read, “Do you need my help, Miss Tiana?”
When she took a closer look at the message, she realized there was no number listed for the sender.
Who was behind this strange message?
There was a high chance someone sent it to the wrong number.
She deleted the message straight away as she thought of that.
To give the contest more publicity, she then posted the photo she took on Twitter with the caption, “There are a lot of skilled participants in the Calligraphy Contest. I hope I can get a good score.”
As soon as Tiana posted the photo, her image began to garner widespread attention.
Most of the Calligraphy Association members liked and commented favorably on the post.
The moment Julius saw the post, he instantly shared it with Elise. “Boss, this is likely that woman’s goal.”
When she clicked on the link, she found comments calling Tiana the next QH. Although her face was as calm and aloof as usual, there was a glint of derision in her eyes.
Tiana had quite a lot of titles—SQ’s student and the next QH.
Then, Alexander walked into the room with a glass of warm water. When he handed it to her, he glanced over her shoulder at her phone. “Her penmanship looks like yours,” he commented.
“You’ve seen my calligraphy?” Elise tilted her head at him.
“Aren’t the pieces hanging in your grandparents’ place yours?” he shot back with a calm smile.
“True,” she said with an embarrassed smile. “Those were written when I was a kid fooling around, but they insisted on hanging them up. So, they’re more of an embarrassing memory…”
