Fatal blow

Ernest, who pretended to be fine despite his restlessness, returned to the room. Hugo burst into laughter, feeling extremely pleased. The hearty laughter echoed in the stairwell, causing Ernest, who was already standing in the room, to tense up and become even more irritable.

Hugo stood up, patted his pants, grabbed the garbage, and went downstairs to dispose of it without a care in the world. Just as Ernest had said earlier, he should learn to discern the underlying meaning behind media discourse. Is praise genuine? Is condemnation genuine? Just like this incident, it was obvious that the media kept discussing it solely for attention-seeking purposes, and most of the discussions were fake. Hugo knew he hadn't played any tricks, and that was what mattered most.

Therefore, Hugo had no reason to fear the media. On the contrary, they would wait at his doorstep just to secure firsthand news. From a different perspective, they were begging him, and it would be even more absurd for him to hide away.

When Hugo reached the ground floor, the swarm of paparazzi immediately rushed towards him. His first instinct was to turn and run away, as the memories of the nightmares from the past period were still deeply ingrained. However, Hugo made an effort to suppress his fear and threw away the garbage. Then, facing the siege of the paparazzi, Hugo silently repeated to himself, "These are just a bunch of crows." His mood indeed calmed down a bit, and as soon as he left the encirclement of the paparazzi, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

Looking at the group of clueless crows behind him, Hugo knew that at least this was the beginning. He stopped in front of Ernest's room, hesitated for a moment, and then shouted, "Ernest, thank you!" After waiting for a while and not receiving any response, Hugo didn't mind. With lighter steps, he returned to the third floor.

Upon opening the room door, Hugo saw Alex sitting on the sofa reading a script. Recently, Alex had taken on a cameo role, which made him very excited and motivated. "Hey, Alex, do you know who Ernest on the second floor really is?"

"What do you mean?" Alex raised his head, looking at Hugo in confusion. "He is Ernest."

"No, I mean, what did he do before? You know, anyone needs funds to sustain basic living expenses. Welfare can't support him living here." As far as Hugo knew, Ernest lived on his own, unlike the three of them who shared the rent.

Only then did Alex understand. "Oh, I'm not sure. He was already here when I moved in, and I haven't had any interaction with him." Alex shrugged, unable to offer any help. "Why? Why are you suddenly so curious about him?"

"No, it's nothing. We just had a conversation earlier, and I just feel..." Hugo thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Never mind, it's nothing. I just feel like he's full of wisdom."

Alex couldn't help but laugh. "I think you're the only one brave enough to have a conversation with him." Thinking about Ernest's terrible temper, Hugo agreed, and Alex added, "But living for so many years and experiencing so much, there will always be the gifts of time, right?"

"So, what did you say to Ernest just now? When I went downstairs, I saw you two sitting on the steps having a smooth conversation," Joseph's voice came from the direction of the dining room.

Hugo turned his head and saw Joseph and Karl sitting in the dining room, with Charlize quickly disappearing into the kitchen. Hugo caught a glimpse of Charlize's figure but didn't think much of it. He thought she was just organizing the cabinets again. However, when he shifted his gaze back, he noticed that Joseph and Karl's peripheral vision was constantly drawn towards Charlize, showing signs of nervousness and unease. This made Hugo instinctively turn his head towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Hugo, what did Ernest say? How did he come up with... um, the idea of talking to you?" Joseph quickly interrupted Hugo's actions, trying to divert his attention.

As Joseph had hoped, Hugo turned his head towards Joseph, but he also sensed the tension and hastiness in Joseph's words. This made Hugo pause for a moment while lifting the coffee cup, furrowing his brow slightly as he looked at Joseph.

Although Hugo and Joseph couldn't be considered lifelong close friends, they had been getting along for a year now. At first, Hugo couldn't help but mock Joseph's serious and cautious personality, but now he understood Joseph's character of being tough on the outside but soft-hearted. Hugo quickly noticed that something was off with Joseph. "Joe, do you know you just hiccuped twice in a row?" Joseph would hiccup when he was overly nervous, but it wasn't very noticeable. He was able to hide it well, and only those who were truly familiar with him would notice.

Joseph's gaze nervously avoided Hugo's gaze.

Hugo instantly turned his head towards the kitchen. Charlize had turned around and was awkwardly adjusting her sleeves, then she pretended to be calm and smiled at Hugo. Hugo looked at Charlize with a slight frown, his amber eyes fixed firmly on her face.

Charlize tried hard to appear composed, but she quickly failed. She awkwardly averted her gaze diagonally upwards, a typical gesture of evasion when she didn't want to reveal her true emotions. She avoided eye contact to prevent her inner feelings from being exposed.

Hugo swept his gaze over Charlize, Karl, and Joseph one by one. "So, are you planning to tell me yourselves, or should I personally investigate? I know Charlize hid something in the cabinet." Charlize had OCD, and yet she had just haphazardly thrown a bunch of things into the cabinet, clearly indicating that something was amiss. Alex also approached at this moment, and Hugo sensed someone behind him. He immediately turned his head to look, "Do you have a part in this too?"

Alex smiled awkwardly and walked to the side of the dining table, shrugging helplessly at Joseph and the others. "I told you Hugo would find out." Then Alex felt the gentle yet impossible-to-ignore gaze from Hugo. Although Hugo's eyes didn't show any seriousness or sharp emotions, Alex couldn't meet his gaze at all. "Heh heh, just didn't expect it to be so soon." Alex laughed dryly a few times, speaking with a sense of indifference.

Charlize chose to give up. She loosened her tense shoulders and said, "Okay." Defeated, she walked to the kitchen and took out a newspaper from the cabinet.

"Charlize!" Joseph said with a worried expression, hesitating to speak.

Charlize held the newspaper in her hands and said, "Joe, Hugo is not a child. He will have to face this matter himself. It's impossible for us to replace him." Charlize also wore a concerned expression as she looked at Joseph. Sitting in the middle, Carl sighed and said, "Joe, Charlize is right. Hugo deserves to know about this."

Faced with this result, Joseph looked at Hugo with a mixture of helplessness and confusion but ultimately nodded in resignation.

"What?" Hugo was completely confused. He noticed the newspaper in Charlize's hand, which turned out to be the San Francisco Chronicle. "Is there more news?" Hugo thought about the turmoil in the newspapers over the past week and then connected it to his recent desolation. He figured that his friends must be worried about him.

Hugo took the newspaper and smiled, saying, "Don't worry, I've come to terms with it. Joe has exhausted all his connections during this time, and the situation isn't that bad, right? At least there's not a complete condemnation of me, and I can see quite a few articles speaking up for me." Hugo tried to lighten the mood, but his four friends still wore serious expressions.

Karl looked around and said to Hugo, "It's on the sixth page."

Hugo lowered his head and opened the newspaper, flipping to the sixth page, but he didn't see any news about himself. The bold letters spelling "Hugo Lancaster" had become familiar to him recently, but it wasn't there. Hugo was about to ask what was going on when his gaze fell on the top left corner of the newspaper. His expression froze on his face, and his body remained motionless.

The headline read, "Uma Thurman Joins Forces with Sydney Pollack?" Hugo's gaze moved down, quickly reading a short article. The news stated, "Breakthrough in "The Firm" Casting Stalled, Uma likely to team up with Sydney as the female lead in this new film." At the end of the article, it also mentioned that Brad Pitt was currently the most likely candidate for the male lead, and negotiations had entered the contract stage. If successful, the combination of Brad and Uma would undoubtedly add a lot of brilliance to this epic masterpiece.

From any perspective, this was an ordinary news article, not comparable to the recent high-profile controversies. Therefore, it didn't occupy much space in the newspaper. But this small piece of information became the most important message in this issue of the San Francisco Chronicle.

No wonder everyone was worried about Hugo seeing this news. This article was not just about Uma becoming the female lead in "The Firm", but it connected all the clues together.

It didn't matter if it started from New Year's Eve or when "The Firm" invitation was interfered with. It was a trap with interconnected links. The invitation to "The Fugitive" caused Joseph and Arnold to have a conversation in the corner. Even if Hugo didn't go over, there would have been other ways to make him go, such as Uma. Hugo vaguely remembered that Uma had mentioned Joseph, which reminded Hugo that he should find Joseph. Then Arnold left, Anthony appeared, and coincidentally, Arnold scheduled the audition for the next morning at 10 o'clock, knowing that Anthony's press conference was scheduled for 9:30. Even if Hugo didn't arrive late for the audition for "The Fugitive", Arnold would have had sufficient reason to reject him. After that, the rumors of the high-profile controversy put Hugo in a terrible situation.

If Hugo hadn't taken the initiative to sabotage the plan, it would have been a never-ending abyss awaiting him. And to conclude this whole plot, Uma's "betrayal" would undoubtedly make Hugo fall into a far more terrifying and worse situation than a year ago.

Tracey was probably now eagerly awaiting the spectacular sight of Hugo's collapse.