Chapter 795
Chapter 795
When Sylvia heard the host announce that contestants had to play two pieces, she knew Mrs. Ritter
would try something sneaky with them. And sure enough, she was right. Mrs. Ritter switched the order
of the two pieces and planned to blame it on the staff or whoever arranged them in that order.
Sylvia was angry and so were others who noticed what happened. If Jenna played the first piece now,
she would make a mistake and get zero points for it. Sylvia stared at Jenna intensely, hoping she
wouldn't mess up.
It was like being a model on a runway and having to improvise when things go wrong.
Mrs. Ritter sat smugly in her seat below, thinking no one could anticipate such an error happening
during this world-class competition! Jenna wouldn't be able to react quickly enough and would play
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 as planned.
Ashlyn joined her mother's side looking pleased with herself but whispered quietly into Mrs. Ritter's ear
"Mom, how did you even keep this from me?"
"If you knew about it, what good would that do? The best way to defeat your enemy is by striking hard."
Mrs. Ritter replied patting Ashlyn's hand reassuringly, "Don't worry, my dear; you're going to win."
But just as they were both feeling smug about their plan, something unexpected happened on stage:
instead of being shocked or confused by what happened earlier, Jenna remained calm and placed her
hands gracefully onto black-and-white keys before playing Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
flawlessly!
She had figured out their plan! She reacted quickly without playing Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
No 1 as expected!
The coordination between her onstage performance with those offstage musicians was seamless!
Mrs. Ritter felt like someone had punched her heart hard - how could this be possible? How could
Jenna have been so quick-witted? Had she reached such an incredible level of proficiency with these
two pieces including understanding piano comprehension?
Ashlyn's face turned pale "How is this even possible?"
In this situation, Jenna was able to react perfectly? Handle it flawlessly? She thought that if she
encountered such a situation herself, she would have panicked long ago.
Mr. Guzman was originally somewhat maliciously happy about the situation and contributed to it.
However, he did not expect that Jenna's talent was so good that she could perfectly resolve this crisis.
His eyes were gloomy with a hint of resentment - why did such a good talent have to be entangled with
Sylvia? Her talent was much better than the disciple he had planned to accept.
When Sylvia heard the sound of the piano music, her heart slowly settled down.
She sat back down and relaxed her expression on her face. Franklin quietly glanced at her with deep
eyes filled with doubt, "What just happened?"
She looked strange.
Sylvia hooked her lips and said, "I'll tell you guys after Jenna finishes performing."
Brayden also felt very strange - Jenna's expression just now was also very weird.
What happened exactly?
These laypeople couldn't tell what had happened but Sylvia immediately knew what had occurred.
After Jenna smoothly played all of the pieces, Mr. Guzman's face turned extremely unpleasant.
This talented player had made him think about other plans in his mind.
Clare and Louis both noticed the variation in the beginning of the piece since each judge held a list of
songs each contestant would play beforehand.
Louis smiled slightly as admiration flashed through his eyes: "Indeed my student has trained an
excellent player." He gave high marks directly without hesitation
Clare already had great favor towards Sylvia; now she praised without reservation. "Very impressive!
Excellent improvisation skills and great playing! Almost perfect!" He gave high marks too
The other judges naturally understood what kind of crisis Jenna faced just now. Seeing how perfectly
she resolved it they all praised endlessly giving high scores too
Finally, only Mr. Guzman remained sitting there. His face looked terrible.
The host smiled and asked, "Mr. Guzman, do you have anything you want to say to contestant Jenna?"
This is actually urging Mr. Guzman to hurry up and score because once he finished scoring who will
become champion will be revealed immediately
However, Mr. Guzman's eyes flashed with a hint of menace as he stared coldly at Jenna. He gripped
the microphone and said, "Miss Shepherd's performance was stunning, and it has made me appreciate
her talent. As you all know, I don't have any disciples, so... I have a question for Miss Shepherd."
Mr. Guzman's words immediately caused a stir.
Mrs. Ritter clenched her teeth in anger as she heard the underlying meaning in Mr. Guzman's words.
Is Mr. Guzman trying to...
No, this can't be happening!
She had worked so hard and spent so much money to secure a place for Ashlyn as his disciple. With
him as her mentor, Ashlyn would have a strong support system and expand her network.
Was all her effort and investment going to go to waste?
Ashlyn grew anxious and said, "Mom, what does Mr. Guzman mean?"
Could it be that he no longer sees any value in her?
"Let's wait and see," Mrs. Ritter replied coldly.
In the center of the stage stood a young girl in a vibrant qipao, her expression calm. "Mr. Guzman,
please ask your question," she said.
A shadow appeared in Mr. Guzman's eyes, but he quickly composed himself and spoke in the tone of a
benevolent elder, "I really admire your talent and ability on the piano. I would like to take you as my
disciple. Will you be willing to be my student?"
His words caused a commotion!
The audience below erupted in excitement.
"Oh my gosh! Didn't they say that Ashlyn was going to be his disciple? Wasn't that the rumor going
around?"
"Last night at the banquet, Ashlyn was always by his side."
"Yeah, at the banquet last night, Ashlyn and Clare got closer, and he even scolded her."
The Ritter family, mother and daughter, turned pale with anger, and tears welled up in Ashlyn's eyes.
This was a tremendous humiliation for her.
"How could he do this? He agreed to take me as his disciple, and now he's going back on his word.
Didn't he have conflicts with Louis' faction?"
Mrs. Ritter clenched her fingers tightly. "He wants to provoke Jenna and Sylvia publicly. If Jenna is
willing to stand with him, he will share everything he has to offer. That's what he means!"
All eyes were fixed on Jenna, and almost everyone was waiting for her answer. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Not just Mr. Guzman, but everyone.
Countless pairs of eyes were locked onto the young girl on the stage.
Jenna smiled faintly and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Guzman, but Sylvia is the one who taught me the piano.
She is my mentor."
A hard slap landed on Mr. Guzman's face, leaving a cold mark.
"Sylvia!"
It was that damn Sylvia again!
Louis and his apprentice were like a pair of beasts. His fierce gaze swept over Louis, who looked back
at him with a smirk.
"Sorry about that, this is my apprentice's apprentice," Louis said nonchalantly but with a hint of
humiliation.
Apprentice's apprentice!
Another hard slap landed on Mr. Guzman's face.
The competitor he wanted to take as his own apprentice turned out to be Sylvia's apprentice.
Louis had no shame; how could he be so shameless?
Meanwhile, the Ritter mother and daughter sitting in the audience watched in horror as they witnessed
this scene unfold before them.
Mr. Guzman wanted Jenna as his apprentice, but she refused him! They had tried so hard to curry
favor with the bigwigs only to be snubbed by others. It was like being dealt a heavy blow for Mrs. Ritter.
Her face burned hotly from pain; her heart felt like it would suffocate from either anger or jealousy – she
didn't know which one it was anymore. All she knew was that if she stayed here any longer, she would
go insane.
She rushed out of the venue like crazy while Ashlyn followed closely behind her.
Only Allie remained there coldly staring at everything happening on stage.
Jenna won first place in the Graley Piano Competition piano competition where many domestic media
outlets reported on it immediately and sent news flying back home like snowflakes.
The rumors surrounding Brayden and Jenna were long gone replaced by positive comments such as
"bringing glory to our country," "rising star in music industry," "future of piano world" - all aimed directly
at Jenna.
Mrs. Wright downloaded Twitter because of their story and couldn't stop smiling when seeing headlines
about Jenna winning first place. "Jenna is really talented; Cody, come see."
"It's great indeed. Mr. Guzman even wanted her as his own student yet she still refused." Cody also
came over to look at news reports but couldn't help showing some amusement when he saw what
happened next.
Vita just walked out of her room when hearing the couple praising Jenna and feeling somewhat
uncomfortable inside: What's so special about playing piano? What's so impressive?
Jealousy mixed with bitterness filled Vita's heart yet not showing up on her face pretending instead an
earnest expression. "Miss Shepherd is amazing; I truly admire her."
Mrs. Wright beamed with pride. "Of course, before Jenna left for the competition, the wife of the head of
the organization department came to me and tried to set her up with their son from the publicity
department. I didn't want to interfere with her competition so I didn't tell her about it. It all depended on
Jenna's decision. If she agreed, then I would reply to them after the competition was over... but as it
turned out, her love relationship with Brayden ended up going public instead."
"The son from the publicity department is not bad-looking either, but he still can't compare to Brayden
even though Brayden isn't that great himself. What kind of taste does Jenna have? She fell for
Brayden," Cody said while shaking his head in disbelief.