It was best if Alarieka could hold on a bit longer. Don’t let it end up that he wasn’t done having fun yet, but Alarieka gave up first.

Patrick sneered, “Alarieka, as you wish, I won’t let you go.”

Alarieka didn’t move her eyes or brows at all.

She had already seen way too much of Patrick’s tricks in her last life.

Even if she lived this life all over again, she would still go through it all.

It’s just that who she was in this life was totally different from who she was in her last life; she wasn’t someone people could just walk all over anymore.

Alarieka put away her phone and said with a light laugh, “Whatever, I just wanted to see what would happen if you were so devoted to Roschelle.”

After saying that, she turned and left without looking at Patrick’s darkening face.

The moment she left, Alarieka told Paloma her guess and asked Paloma to check the surveillance of Skylar during the competition.

As expected, in less than an hour, the organizers found out exactly how Skylar secretly sabotaged the piano during the competition.

It was a sure thing that Skylar had cheated. Half an hour later, Skylar was kicked out of the competition for breaking the rules and trying to mess with the other contestants.

Chapter 183

The organizers acted fast. Alarieka sat in the room and saw that Sammy’s post on social media had already been taken down, and even Sammy’s account had already been banned.

But just doing it so directly really did make a lot of netizens and onlookers unhappy.

The official account of the McIntosh Piano Competition also came out right away to clarify: “For this competition, the judges scored based on fairness and justice. The results were double-checked by the organizers and there was no ‘bribery‘ or ‘backdoor deals‘ like what was said online.”

About some rumors spread by certain netizens online, the organizers already asked their lawyers to collect evidence. Everyone, please stop spreading rumors. If anyone kept doing it, the organizers would definitely use legal means to protect the rights of the competition, the judges, and the contestants.

Please follow the laws and regulations, don’t spread rumors or slander, and help keep the online environment safe.

Below the post were also the rankings of each contestant in the preliminary round, as well as the list of those who made it to the semifinals.

This kind of clarification and rumor refuting did stop some people from making malicious guesses, but it didn’t completely get rid of the rumors.

Especially, Sammy opened a new account again and posted something new. The words were even harsher and ruder, and he bluntly said that the organizers were two-faced. He called himself a poor contestant who could be given low scores and had no background, and said he needed everyone’s support and help.

289 Vipers

Alarieka sat on the edge of the bed, absentmindedly swiping her phone with her finger.

After Sammy posted the second message, the whole thing got even more attention. People online talked and guessed even more, and related topics even made it to the trending list. The buzz was hard to ignore.

Alarieka’s name was mentioned a lot in the comments.

In contrast to her was the name Roschelle.

Roschelle lived up to expectations and got first place in the McIntosh Piano Competition. Her fans happily promoted her under all kinds of posts, using all sorts of glowing words to describe Roschelle.

At the same time, Roschelle’s fans didn’t forget to throw in some sarcastic comments.

“Rose was just pretty and outstanding, congrats to Rose for getting first place in the preliminaries, and also congrats to some unknown high school student for getting an awesome sixty-fourth place!”

“Rose’s first place slump was obvious, Alarieka’s sixty-fourth place had a promising future. Hilarious.”

“Well, Alarieka might not even be able to keep the sixty-fourth place, and someone’s backdoor tricks couldn’t stay hidden.”

Alarieka looked at those posts and comments, and didn’t really feel much up or down.

Although the McIntosh Piano Competition was indeed one of the more valuable competitions in the field, not many people paid attention to it either worldwide or nationwide.

The speed at which Sammy-related topics hit the trending list was

totally abnormal, obviously someone was pushing it behind the scenes.

Sammy didn’t have what it took, so it was someone else.

Alarieka saw it and calmly put down the phone.

She had to get ready for the next round and didn’t have time to deal with it, so she could only leave it to the organizers to handle, and she totally trusted the organizers’ ability to take care of it.

Alarieka dropped her phone, flopped into bed, and slept like everything was fine.