At this moment, Gu Anran was unaware that her carefully designed entry for the competition had already been taken by Lin Xinrou.
When Ye Lichuan saw Gu Anran's distressed and uneasy expression towards Gu Xiaotian, his own heart ached inexplicably. He went forward, hugged Gu Anran, and gently patted her shoulder to help her relax.
Seeing that Gu Xiaotian was almost out of breath from Gu Anran's hug, Ye Lichuan jokingly said to Gu Anran, "Look, Gu Xiaotian is almost out of breath from your hug. Aren't you going to let him go?"
After hearing Ye Lichuan's words, Gu Anran belatedly loosened her grip on Gu Xiaotian. However, Ye Lichuan's hand hadn't left Gu Anran's shoulder since then.
Although she let go of Gu Xiaotian, she still asked him with concern if he felt unwell anywhere. She then knelt down to carefully examine Gu Xiaotian's body, afraid that he might have bumped or bruised himself without her noticing.
Gu Xiaotian reassured Gu Anran that he was fine, and to put his mother at ease, he even jumped around a few times on purpose.
After a thorough examination, she confirmed that Gu Xiaotian was unharmed except for a few scrapes on his arm, which put her mind at ease.
Seeing Gu Anran's expression gradually relax from a furrowed brow of worry, Ye Lichuan's mood improved as well.
This time, Ye Lichuan hugged Gu Anran tightly, secretly vowing that he would never let the mother and daughter suffer even the slightest grievance. Gu Anran felt Ye Lichuan's grip on her tighten.
At this moment, Gu Xiaotian was staring at the two of them with his big eyes, feeling like a 2000-watt light bulb, which was particularly glaring at this time, so he ran to the warehouse to play by himself.
When Gu Anran saw Gu Xiaotian walk away, she was about to follow him, but Ye Lichuan was still holding her tightly, so she could only gently pat the hands that were holding her.
After Ye Lichuan realized what was happening, he let go of her hand, his eyes still holding an unfathomable look that Gu Anran couldn't understand.
Seeing that Ye Lichuan had let go of her, Gu Anran didn't linger and walked towards the direction where Gu Xiaotian was.
At the same time, Ye Lichuan followed.
Gu Anran saw Gu Xiaotian amusing himself with a tree branch, then her eyes shifted to Gu Xiaotian's injured arm. She felt guilty, thinking that if it weren't for her fault, Gu Xiaotian wouldn't have gotten hurt.
She touched Gu Xiaotian's head with remorse and said, "I'm sorry, baby. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
When Gu Xiaotian heard his mother apologize to him, he stopped what he was doing, stared at Gu Anran with his big round eyes, and said seriously, "You are the best mom to me, and I am proud to be your son."
"Mom, don't blame yourself. I'm really fine. Go back to the competition," Gu Xiaotian said to Gu Anran with a grin.
If Gu Xiaotian hadn't brought it up, Gu Anran would have completely forgotten about the competition. After getting ready, Ye Lichuan drove them back to the competition venue.
By the time they arrived at the competition venue, the semi-finals had already ended, and they saw the judges announcing the results.
Gu Anran was about to leave the competition venue when she heard the judges announce that the first place winner of the semi-finals was her stepsister, Lin Xinrou.
Gu Anran was surprised to hear that Lin Xinrou had won first place in the competition. Just as she was about to turn around to check again, she saw her carefully crafted work on the exhibition stand and thought she was seeing things, so she checked again.
That's right, the work that won first place on the exhibition stand was indeed his own work.
Gu Anran firmly believed that she had not handed over the work to anyone before leaving. Just as she was wondering about this, she glanced at the name next to the work. When she saw the name, she froze on the spot.
Because the name on the business card wasn't her own, but Lin Xinrou's.
My mind went blank for a moment. Then, thinking about everything that had happened today, it dawned on me that the video I received before the competition was sent to me by Lin Xinrou, and that Gu Xiaotian was also kidnapped by Lin Xinrou.
Gu Anran squatted on the ground, vigorously rubbing her hair with her hands. Her hair felt as if it wasn't her own, and she didn't feel the slightest pain.
Seeing Gu Anran vigorously rubbing her hair, Ye Lichuan was afraid that she would rub her scalp until it bled, so he quickly stopped her from continuing to rub her hair.
Seeing Gu Anran's reaction, Ye Lichuan could roughly guess what had happened.
As expected, Lin Xinrou will stop at nothing to win an award. Five years ago, in order to get her work exhibited, she threatened Gu Anran to sleep with an old man. Now, she is doing the same thing to win an award.
It's one thing for Lin Xinrou to have harmed me, and Gu Anran could let those things slide, but she absolutely cannot tolerate the fact that Lin Xinrou has threatened Gu Xiaotian.
As expected, a dog can't change its nature of eating shit.
In order to protect her work, Gu Anran had to find a way to do something.
Because she had been squatting on the ground for too long, she almost fell when she suddenly stood up. Ye Lichuan quickly caught her and let go of her hand after she regained her senses.
Gu Anran angrily went to complain to the organizer, but before she could even enter the organizer's office, she was stopped by the assistant who was waiting outside, who said that she could not enter the organizer's office without an appointment.
Suppressing her anger, Gu Anran retorted, "Do we need an appointment to even enter an office now?" The assistant, not expecting Gu Anran to ask such a question, was momentarily speechless.
After Gu Anran entered the organizer's office, she angrily said, "Lin Xinrou's work was stolen from her, she should not have won first place," and demanded that the organizer disqualify Lin Xinrou from the competition.
Furthermore, he showed the organizers all the tools he used when creating his work and the photos he took of the finished product, but they refused to believe him no matter what he said.
In fact, all the organizers had been bribed by Lin Xinrou. They were all in the same boat as Lin Xinrou, and none of them were good people.
No matter how Gu Anran explained, she was the only one talking the whole time; none of the organizers listened to her, as if she were invisible.
One person got annoyed by Gu Anran's nagging and falsely accused her of stealing Lin Xinrou's entry. Feeling guilty, she came to confront them.
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