"Fine. Forget it!" The man called Ted, cast a sideways glance at the black Emperor car not too far away. He caught a glimpse of the man standing in front of them and a sudden chill went down his spine. Tiny beads of sweat breaking out of his hands and face indicated his earnest wish to retreat.
However, a tall, lanky figure from one of the men standing behind him persisted. He gave Ted a pat on the back and whispered, "We can't just let her go. If that woman calls the police, it's all over!"
Just as the four bandits were hesitating, about seven or eight cars pulled over right in front of them. In an instant, more than a dozen bodyguards, all dressed in black, burst out of the cars, guns fully locked and loaded.
The man in charge ran over to Matthew, while his subordinates followed and bowed his head before him. "Mr. Huo, I apologize to you on behalf of my men for being late."
Glancing at the four bandits, Matthew ordered in a cold voice, "These guys have made the big mistake of scaring my wife. I want you to get rid of them all!"
"Yes! Mr. Huo!"
Matthew then guided Erica, who kept looking back, into the Emperor car.
On the way, Erica repeated the same question a few times. "What are you going to do with them?"
Matthew didn't answer her at first. After his patience had run out, he finally answered, "That's none of my concern."
"What do you mean, it's none of your concern? You're the one who gave the order!"
He looked at her with indifference and said, "I'm not getting my hands dirty. What happens to them has nothing to do with me."
Erica sighed in defeat. It seemed pointless to go around in circles on the matter.
When they returned to the villa, Erica suddenly remembered what had happened in the bedroom just now. She blushed and clutched at the corners of her dress, seemingly ashamed. "I want to sleep in the dormitory tonight." She was quite shaken up by him. She was so out of it at the time that he almost succeeded in doing what he wanted to do.
"There's no need to avoid me. I'm going on a business trip tomorrow. I won't be back until next week. Go upstairs and get some sleep!" Matthew wanted to tell her about his trip, but he didn't have the chance to tell her as they had ended up getting into an argument.
"What?" 'Why is it so sudden?'
Ignoring her this time, Matthew turned around and went upstairs with an extremely cold attitude.
Just as Matthew had said, they slept as usual that night, and he disappeared the next morning.
Soon, it was time to hand in her coursework. Since Matthew didn't allow her to take pictures of him and Erica didn't have any other friends in Y City, she decided to ask Hyatt to be her model.
It took her just a few minutes to finish the photography side of things, but she spent a good few hours editing them on Photoshop.
Erica retouched the photos for three hours before sending them to her monitor's e-mail address with satisfaction.
In the afternoon class, the professor selected ten outstanding works and showed them on the big screen, two of which were the pictures of Hyatt taken by Erica.
However, the signature under the photos was not Erica's, but someone else's name.
Before the final analysis of the outstanding works, Professor Feng looked at more than one hundred students from the stage and said, "These pictures on the screen are excellent pieces of work, but before appreciating them, I have to criticize a few students among you. The first one is Tommy Wang. This student handed in a very perfunctory photo of character, and he didn't even know how to find the right angle."
With a single click, the professor showed Tommy Wang's work on the screen. His model was a male classmate and indeed, the picture showed no impressive techniques of photography at all.
After criticizing several students in succession, Professor Feng's eyes fell on Erica. "The last one is a student with the surname Li. For her assignment, this person submitted photos of the superstar, Aaron, conducting some kind of business. Not only has this student completely disregarded the standards of our esteemed establishment: her teachers and classmates, to be very honest, but she is also in violation of the law for using Aaron Gao's picture without his consent. Having considered the fact that this was her first mistake, I won't hold her legally accountable for her actions, but I hope that this student will respect this chance. Don't make such a mistake again in the future!"
The professor then opened a folder, containing high resolution photos of Aaron which was taken when he was advertising milk for a company.
The professor was a well-known photographer in Y City. He knew well about Erica's background, but as a teacher, he had to be responsible for her. Since he didn't want her to face any trouble, he deliberately kept her first name a secret, mentioning only her last.
Erica, however, wasn't one to go down without a fight!
Just as the professor was about to move on to the next work, she stood up from her seat and yelled, "Please wait, Professor Feng!"
Everyone's eyes fell on Erica. Everyone heard the girl's next words, loud and clear. "This is not my work. The third and eighth pictures on the big screen are the ones I've handed in."
Countless whispers filled the classroom, as all the students exchanged rude remarks about Erica for handing in Aaron Gao's photos.
"So the professor was actually talking about Erica Li. How could she do that?"
"She is the wife of a CEO. Do you think she comes here for studies? She is just here to experience the ordinary life."
"I pity Mr. Huo for having to be married to such a troublemaker!"
"How shameful!"
Professor Feng hesitated for a moment and clicked the page of the PPT that showed the top ten works.
Then he enlarged the third photo. This time, Erica saw clearly that the signature at the bottom right corner of the work was Kaitlyn Dong.
'Kaitlyn Dong?' Erica searched this person in her memory. 'Oh, it's her!' She recalled the name belonging to a girl who slept in the bunk bed below hers.
The one who accidentally used her cleanser! Erica had no idea that they were in the same department until now.
She looked around and saw Kaitlyn stand up from her seat at the back. "Professor Feng, Erica is talking nonsense. This is clearly my work!"
Erica's face went red the moment she heard Kaitlyn and she screamed, "Your work? Excuse me, do you have any evidence to prove that this is indeed your work? Who is the person in the photo?"
Kaitlyn glanced at the boy next to her and said, "The man in the picture is my boyfriend. He can testify for me!"
The boy sitting next to her had the same hairstyle as Hyatt. Aside from very minor differences, even the clothes he was wearing were the same color as the clothes Hyatt had worn when Erica had photographed him that day.
As Erica had retouched the pictures a lot, it was hard to tell whether it was Hyatt or Kaitlyn's boyfriend in them.
Professor Feng's face darkened. "Erica Li, please sit down first. I want to see you in my office after class!"
But Erica wouldn't give in. She continued to ask Kaitlyn, "Where did you take the photos? What kind of lens did you use? Who can testify?"
Kaitlyn answered her questions smoothly, "Well, if you have to know. It was taken on the Archaic Street near the school. I can tell you the house number, it's No. 88. No one has lived in that small yard for a long time, so I filtered the photo into the retro film style. I used the new universal zoom lens T14 produced by Blue Sky Technology."
Everything Kaitlyn had said was true, word by word. Indeed, Erica and Hyatt had taken the photos at the exact same address Kaitlyn had mentioned.
After all, Hyatt's generally shy and meek disposition wouldn't allow him to be a model in public. As such, Erica had to find a quiet place for him to shoot. Therefore, she chose an abandoned courtyard.
Erica remained unfazed. "Can you show us the original pictures?"
"Of course! And what about you? Since you're claiming that it's your work. Why don't you show yours to everyone?" Kaitlyn looked at Erica with eagerness as she picked up her camera.
Erica responded immediately by opening her camera directory and finding the album.
However, when Erica scrolled through her camera, she was stunned, as though struck by lightning.
All the photos of Hyatt in her camera were gone!