Chapter 162: Chapter 156: Department Belle Sinclair’s Overwhelming Victory

As Aurora Sinclair walked out of the lounge, she glanced back. “What’s going to happen to them?”

“What do you want to happen to them?”

Aurora shook her head. “I don’t really care about what they said…”

“But I care.” Alvin’s steps came to a sudden halt. He looked into her eyes and said earnestly, “No one is allowed to insult you.”

Aurora froze for a moment.

CRACK—

It was a clear, crisp sound.

It was as if the thick layer of ice deep in her heart had cracked open. A stream of warmth slipped through the fissure, melting the frost and warming her very core.

Aurora’s eyes flickered, and she turned to look straight ahead.

“Alright.”

She strode forward.

But her hand was still gripped tightly in his…

Alvin was nearly yanked off his feet.

“…”

’This girl is surprisingly strong.’

“Morgan, was I just throwing your weight around?”

Alvin smiled, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of hair from the corner of her mouth behind her ear.

“And so what if you were? As long as I’m around, you can throw my weight around all you want.”

“…”

Aurora began to walk even faster.

***

After the Gordon family received the call, their family head, Donovan Gordon, was so frightened he had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital.

By the time Harold Gordon and Sheryl Warren arrived, the pair had already been locked in the lounge for five or six hours.

Lillian Gordon had cried her eyes swollen like walnuts, while Jack Warren had a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth and looked completely dejected.

Her heart aching, Sheryl Warren rushed over to hug her daughter, screaming furiously, “You treat human lives as if they’re worthless—”

But Alexander Grant’s gaze was cold. He sneered, “If we treated lives as worthless, you wouldn’t be seeing them with all their limbs intact…”

Terrified by his words, Sheryl Warren immediately fell silent, clutching her daughter tightly.

Alexander Grant turned to look at Harold Gordon, who hadn’t said a word the entire time.

“Young Lord Morgan is willing to let this matter go, but you’d better watch your mouths. If he hears you say a single bad word about Aurora Sinclair again, the Gordon and Warren families will cease to exist…”

The emotionless voice sent a cold shiver down the spines of the four people in the room.

“Oh, right. Young Lord Morgan wanted me to inform Donovan Gordon that Sue Quinn has told us everything…”

The color drained from Harold Gordon’s face, and sheer panic seized his heart.

Sue Quinn knew all of the Gordon Family’s secrets, including what happened with the Sinclair Family all those years ago.

「The next day.」

From his hospital bed, Donovan Gordon convened a family meeting. Citing his illness, he stepped down from his position and appointed his son, Harold Gordon, as the new Family Head.

Harold Gordon’s first act upon taking power was to withdraw the Gordon Family’s businesses from Kingsford and retreat to their hometown of Ashford.

His second was to transfer several of their most valuable storefronts and properties in Kingsford to the Sinclair Family at a low price as a gesture of apology.

Janet Sinclair joyfully accepted it all. She even threw a “farewell ceremony” for the Gordon Family, which made Donovan Gordon so furious he nearly died from anger.

***

“Family Head, the Gordon Family has announced their withdrawal from Kingsford. It seems to be related to the Young Master of the Morgan Family.”

Upon receiving the news, Reina Guthrie’s confidant immediately went to find him in the study.

Reina Guthrie was in the middle of copying a painting. When he heard the news, the ink brush in his hand faltered, and the tail of the lifelike hen he was painting bled across the paper.

Reina Guthrie frowned and crumpled the entire painting into a ball. “Aurora Sinclair has already joined the association, so it’s of no great consequence.”

“But the Sinclair Family has acquired a significant number of the Gordon Family’s businesses. They’ll surely be even more loyal to the Morgan Family now, which will make it harder for us to win Aurora Sinclair over to our side.”

Reina Guthrie washed his hands, ambled over to the sofa, and lit a cigarette. “That boy, Jensen Guthrie, has a decent foundation in art, but his knowledge of history isn’t solid enough.”

“You mean to say…”

“Have him spend some more time in the archaeology department.”

“Understood!”

Before the semester officially began, Wayne Sterling of the archaeology department received a call from the vice dean. Jensen Guthrie from the Academy of Arts had applied to declare archaeology as his second major.

He looked at the dozens of application forms in his hands and pinched the bridge of his nose, a headache already forming.

Most of the applicants were scions of the Great Families. Now, with the addition of the Guthrie Family, students from six of the Seven Great Families of Kingsford had applied.

***

On a Friday, the semester at Arcadian University officially began.

Dressed in a stylish tracksuit and carrying a backpack, Aurora Sinclair arrived at the university’s main athletic field.

The opening ceremony was scheduled for the morning, starting at eight.

The male students from the archaeology department were stationed at the four entrances to the field, ready to greet their new classmates.

Because Aurora Sinclair had become famous, the freshmen of the Academy of History had voted her as their new “Department Belle” on the campus forums.

Her popularity was on par with Eve Lowell’s.

The boys in the archaeology department had already been bombarded with questions from guys in other majors about whether Aurora Sinclair was single.

Their guard went up instantly.

’They hadn’t even found girlfriends for the single guys within their own ranks! How could they let a wolf from another department snatch her away?’

To protect their one and only class, department, and academy belle, they secretly made a pact: they would absolutely not let Aurora Sinclair be left alone on campus. They had to guard their department’s only girl at all times.

But their plans were no match for the shameless persistence of others. All along the way, boys from other departments kept running up to introduce themselves and shove gifts into Aurora’s arms. The presents ranged from large bouquets of roses to small candies and snacks—anything a girl might like was pressed upon her.

Eventually, they didn’t even spare the archaeology boys standing next to her. After introducing themselves, they would just thrust their gifts into the arms of the nearest guy, muttering that it was for Sinclair.

And that wasn’t all. The chairs reserved for the archaeology freshmen were also covered in flowers and gifts, each with a small card bearing well-wishes along with the sender’s name and contact information.

As the teaching assistant, Hannah was so delighted her eyes curved into crescents. Holding a massive bag, she spotted Aurora and said directly, “Aurora, I’ll hold on to all this for you.”

Aurora nodded.

Hannah had the archaeology boys help her collect the items from the chairs and put them in the bag.

The archaeology department’s seats were near the front, almost right beside the main stage. The professors from other academies seated before the stage joked with Erin Archer, “Your department belle seems to have attracted all of our finest young men.”

Erin Archer smiled and played along, “Well, at least I won’t have to worry about low enrollment in my electives this semester.”

Benjamin Morgan, sitting next to Chester Greene, sighed helplessly. ’If his master were to see this,’ he thought, ’all those boys from the College of Physics who sent gifts would probably fail their final exams.’

***

The opening ceremony dragged on for three or four hours before finally ending. Danny Archer glanced at his phone and asked, “Aurora, what do you like to eat? I heard the food at Cafeteria Three is amazing. Let’s go eat there!”

But Aurora held up her phone and said, “My brother’s taking me out to eat.”

Two or three minutes later, Zeke Quincy came running over with a backpack on, several other boys trailing behind him.

Their intentions were clear at a glance. The archaeology boys’ sense of crisis flared up. “Aurora, where are you guys going to eat?”

Zeke Quincy looked at these guys helplessly and said bluntly, “I don’t have enough money to treat all of you.”

“I’ll treat you all.”

“Don’t worry, it’s on me.”

They had been looking for an excuse to get closer to her anyway.

A crowd of boys surrounded Aurora as they walked off, making her look even more popular than Eve Lowell, who was on the other side of the field.

Inevitably, a busybody wrote a post on the campus forum comparing the two.

[FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: BATTLE OF THE TWO FRESHMAN DEPARTMENT BELLES! SINCLAIR WINS BY A LANDSLIDE!]

This, of course, infuriated Eve Lowell. Several young ladies from the Great Families who were friendly with her rushed to leave comments on the post to curry her favor.

[Don’t just compare any random person to our Eve. There’s a little something called being in a class of your own.]

A number of photos of Eve Lowell were posted below the comment, mostly showing her winning awards in various competitions for martial arts, piano, and public speaking. The crucial one, however, was the last photo: a large group shot.

It was a photo of children, with Eve Lowell standing next to the boy in the center. The boy’s eyes, however, had been carefully obscured, so no one could recognize him.

A surname was written beneath each person.

White, Huang, Lockwood, Liu, Guthrie, Quincy…

Beneath the boy in the center was the name: [Morgan].

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep