Mr. Yates’s question left Benny stunned.
’How am I supposed to answer that?’
’Admit it?’
’If Mr. Yates finds out I really conspired with Joel Jennings to slander a contestant, and that I let things get this out of hand...’
’He’d probably cut all ties with .’
’And because of the ss I made, he’ll have a hard ti explaining things to the event organizers.’
’This way, I’d have completely burned a bridge with Mr. Yates, a contact I worked so hard to make.’
’But what if I don’t admit it?’
’Judging by the current situation, there’s no way to keep this under wraps.’
’Mr. Yates is in charge of this competition and works for CZ Group. How could he possibly be soone you can just fool or trick?’
’Once he finds out I’m lying, I’ll have offended him even more deeply, and my career in this industry will be completely over.’
’Either way, I’ve already offended Mr. Yates. I might as well just tell him the truth.’
’If I show the right attitude and beg for his forgiveness, maybe there’s still a chance to turn things around.’
With this in mind, Benny finally spoke, his words coming out with difficulty.
"Mr. Yates, about this... it’s actually like this..."
"Like what?" Mr. Yates asked, gritting his teeth.
Hearing the tone of Mr. Yates’s voice and thinking about the consequences of telling him the truth...
Benny lost his nerve. He just couldn’t bring himself to say it.
He started stamring just like his assistant had, unable to co up with a coherent explanation.
Mr. Yates already knew exactly what had happened.
It only made him more furious, and he couldn’t stop himself from roaring at him.
"What are you stamring about?"
"Don’t you know this has blown up online? It’s about to top the trending charts!"
Benny, in fact, had only just realized how big of a deal this had beco.
He couldn’t understand it. The incident had just happened, so how had it already blown up and started trending?
Before he agreed to do this, he never imagined it would develop this way.
It was spiraling completely out of his control.
Before agreeing to this, he had thought about how he’d t Mr. Yates a couple of tis, and their conversations about collaborating had been quite pleasant.
He figured that even if things didn’t go smoothly, or were even exposed, Mr. Yates would do him a favor and help smooth things over.
But now the situation had blown up to this extent; it was a full-blown scandal.
Even if Mr. Yates wanted to use his connections to fix this for him, it probably wouldn’t be that easy anymore.
If he had known things would get this out of hand, he probably wouldn’t have agreed to help him in the first place.
Now, his only hope was that Mr. Yates, for the sake of the few als they’d shared, would protect him, forgive him, and help them resolve this situation.
"It’s just, Mr. Yates, um..."
"I suggest you think very carefully about the consequences before you answer my question," Mr. Yates cut him off.
"Don’t give any of that useless nonsense. I want the truth. Otherwise, how am I supposed to fix this?"
"Do you have any idea that the top brass at the group already knows about this?"
"Because of this, I just got an earful from my superiors for a full five minutes."
Hearing this, Benny imdiately started bowing and scraping, apologizing profusely.
"I’m so sorry, Mr. Yates, I’m so sorry... It’s my fault. You got dragged into this and chewed out because of ."
Mr. Yates was so furious he was about to have a stroke.
"You’re a veteran in the design world! You were the very first judge I selected."
"What’s your standing and status in the industry? And what kind of trash is that Joel Jennings?"
"Are you out of your mind? Did you get kicked in the head by a donkey or sothing?"
"Teaming up with scum like that to slander such a talented contestant."
"What were you trying to gain? What was your goal? What was the point of doing this?"
"You’re a veteran in this industry, and you dared to do sothing like this? Did you even once think about the consequences if you were found out?"
"Do you have any idea that you’re ruining my event, humiliating , and challenging the authority of CZ Group?"
"You only dared to do this because you thought you could count on the fact that we’ve t a few tis."
"But you still haven’t told a single word of truth! How am I supposed to protect you?"
Mr. Yates’s tirade left Benny utterly speechless.
At this point, he was thoroughly disgusted with Benny.
Because after this incident, he had just been viciously chewed out by soone from headquarters.
After all, he was the one who had arranged everything for the competition.
That included all the judges, whom he had hand-picked.
And now, a judge he’d appointed was suspected of conspiring with one contestant to slander another...
And the slandered contestant happened to be the most outstanding, eye-catching, and promising one of them all.
When sothing like this happened, he, as the person in charge, was naturally unable to shirk responsibility.
Moreover, from what he’d heard from headquarters, they had no intention of just sweeping this under the rug.
Not only that, but headquarters was operating under the assumption that Claire rcer had been frad.
For such a brilliant contestant to be slandered ant they would have to let her publicly clear her na.
That was why he kept pressing Benny, asking if he had conspired with Joel Jennings to slander Claire rcer.
As long as Benny admitted it, the matter would be simple to resolve.
But Benny had no idea that Mr. Yates had no intention of protecting him. On the contrary, he despised him.
So, of course, he didn’t realize that Mr. Yates was just trying to get him to confess.
The way things had developed was completely unexpected, and it had caught him completely off guard.
Furthermore, this was a live broadcast. Everything was happening right under the audience’s noses.
With so many eyes glued to him, there was no room for him to even think about ergency PR.
Now, he could only pin his hopes on Mr. Yates. After all, Mr. Yates was well-connected and had CZ Group backing him.
And so, he had no choice but to confess everything to Mr. Yates about his conspiracy with Joel Jennings to slander Claire rcer.
The more Mr. Yates listened, the angrier he beca. He couldn’t believe he had actually invited such a cancer of the industry to be a judge.
All because he had invited this industry parasite to be a judge.
It had gotten him chewed out by his superiors at headquarters for a full five minutes—a tongue-lashing so severe he couldn’t even lift his head.
He had recorded his entire conversation with Benny.
But now wasn’t the ti to release the recording.
He would wait until after Claire rcer used her so-called "evidence" to prove her innocence, and then he would release the recording.
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