16 Chapter 16: Meeting Young Master Lin

The W Hotel Auditorium was enormous, Su Ning guessed it was about 10 times as large as that of Chang Yue School's. The seats were also red plush velvet and extremely comfortable. Noting that there is still 30 minutes before the start of the contest, Su Ning excused herself to go for a bathroom break. Only, she got lost as usual. 'Aiiii, in my last life and even in this one. Why is my sense of direction so bad?' she muttered inwardly. 'I should've let MiaoMiao or QingQing accompany me.'

Just when she was about ready to ask someone for directions, Su Ning noticed a person clad in all black holding a box and sprinting out of a room. The person turned at the corner then ran out past the exit doors. Thinking it a bit odd, she decided to check out what was in that corner area. 'What the?! There's only a trash can here though.' Peering into the round metal can, she noticed that a box had been thrown in. 'He ran out like he was having diarrhea to throw away a box?' Su Ning thought in confusion.

When she turned to look around, she saw the restrooms located across from her. She was suddenly reminded of her urgent need to pee so she went to resolve that first. When she started walking back to the auditorium, she passed by the same room from earlier and noted that the door was ajar. Inside were a group of people talking in raised voices. "Missing?!" "What do you mean it had gone missing?!" "How is the young master supposed to perform?!" "How could you lose such an important thing?!" "Are you going to take responsibility for this?!" "There's less than 20 minutes left before the program starts!"

At this moment, Su Ning somehow felt that she was hearing something that she was not supposed to. At the same time, something clicked in her mind. 'Could it be...they are looking for that black box?' she pondered. She thought of alerting the individuals about what she had witnessed but she didn't want to cast suspicion on herself as well. So she decided to head back to the corner trash can and fish out the box first. 'They might think I'm a kid talking nonsense if I just talk about a black clothed man. Better to come bringing proof.' she decided. 'I'm so glad I brought my backpack with the alcohol wipes and bottle of hand sanitizer. To think I will be a sanitation worker at my age. Aiiiish.'

After finally grabbing the black velvet box from the trash, she opened the lid to see a pair of very expensive looking white gloves. Deciding it's best not to touch the gloves lest it gets sullied by her fingerprints, she quickly headed back to the room. Su Ning softly knocked on the slightly open door which was quickly pulled back by a tall imposing figure. "What do you want?" the man asked impatiently. "Excuse me. I think you might be looking for this?" Su Ning held out the velvet box. Another man in the room looked wide eyed at her, "Yes! Where did you get that?" Before Su Ning responded she noticed two other people in the room. One was a young lady in tears standing with her head bowed down. Another was a pale extremely good looking young boy with brown black hair and light brown almond shaped eyes. He had been looking at the lady with an indifferent expression before turning to glance at Su Ning. He had on a smile that was not a smile on his face. "Uhm.. I was on my way to the bathroom when I saw someone run out of this room and drop this box in the trash before leaving through the exit." Su Ning tried to explain as succinctly as she could.

The imposing man had closed the door behind Su Ning and was now grabbing her shoulders . Su Ning cannot help wincing from the pressure. 'Why are you using so much pressure on a child?!' she thought furiously. The other man who had previously asked her about the box now looked at her suspiciously. "You are saying you saw a thief throw the box in the garbage bin. So you decided to pick up the box and return it to the room?" he asked. Su Ning didn't particularly appreciate his tone. She was being eyed with suspicion when she went out of her way to help so her expression changed to one of slight annoyance.

"Well, no of course not. I found the restroom across from the corner trash bin and went to pee as I had planned. On my way back, I heard loud voices from this room talking about something that had gone missing. Knowing that I had just seen someone suspicious running from here, I thought it was best to check out the trash can first. I doubt you 'fine' adults would've believed me if I just came in telling you that story without bringing some proof." Su Ning responded dryly. "When I opened the box, I saw inside a pair of expensive looking gloves so I closed it and immediately brought it to the room." 'All this commotion for a pair of gloves? Could it be…mysophobia?' Su Ning wondered as she looked at the elegantly dressed boy across from her.

The man took the box from Su Ning and motioned the tall man to release her shoulders. Su Ning then started rummaging through her backpack, "Here take these too. I made sure not to touch the inside of the box but you'd probably feel better after using these." an irked Su Ning continued. The pretty looking boy and the man looked at the items in Su Ning's hands: hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes. The man took them with an embarrassed look on his face. "That… thank you." Su Ning disliked how she was treated and felt the people in the room were rather rude so she just responded offhandedly "Yeah. Don't treat a kid like a criminal next time." Su Ning shot a disinterested look at the boy in the chair and said. "Good luck." Then she left the room without a word not bothering with introductions. 'Ah, it's always a bad experience entangling with rich people.' Su Ning thought as she finally headed towards the auditorium.

In the dressing room, Lin JinYan quietly laughed at his assistant who was left thoroughly speechless by the young girl. The theft of the gloves was likely a ploy orchestrated by his older brother to prevent him from performing on stage. Few people knew of Lin JinYan's mysophobia. Aside from his close relatives, he doesn't like being touched by others and vice versa. That's why his family had the dressing room deep cleaned prior to his use. Oddly enough, he did not feel disgusted when he heard the girl say that she grabbed the box from the trash bin. Her flushed face from running about looked particularly pretty. He found her sharp words to his assistant funny and interesting. 'Ah, I wonder if she is a relative of a contestant?' thought Lin JinYan.

"Young Master Lin, the box has been cleaned. The gloves do not appear to have been tampered with." said Assistant Mu. The young lad nodded as he began to put on his gloves. "Look into the girl and make sure she is rewarded." He glanced towards the frightened woman before he turned to leave. In a cold voice he said "Deal with that." "Yes, Young Master Lin" answered assistant Mu.