Chapter 950: Chapter 638: Nora Scott’s Traditional Persona Shattered

The assistant wasn’t badly hurt. After getting his injuries treated, he went back to the hotel with Clement Winter.

Nora Scott went to check on Clement Winter.

Looking him over and seeing all four limbs intact, Nora relaxed and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I’m fine."

Clement Winter nodded.

Nora asked a few simple questions. Once she confirmed his answers were exactly the same as what the people from Biel Hall had said, she instructed, "Get a good rest tonight. We still have to record the show tomorrow."

"Nora!"

Clement Winter hurriedly stopped her.

"What?" Nora looked at him suspiciously.

"This whole thing..." He paused, scratched his head, pressed his lips together in thought, then cautiously asked, "It’s not as simple as them just lashing out at society and robbing people, is it?"

Nora gave him a look-over.

"I could tell they were coming for me. The people who saved me checked me over first thing to see if I was hurt, and someone even called my name." Clement Winter listed off all the suspicious points, then voiced the conclusion he’d come to, "Are they your people?"

"Yeah."

Seeing he was already suspicious, Nora stopped trying to cover it up.

Anyway, this wasn’t the first time Clement had run into something like this—last time he got straight-up kidnapped and almost ended up dead. This time was better; backup arrived in time and he was still safe and sound.

"Then... does it have to do with my mom?" Clement asked again.

Nora pondered a few seconds, then answered vaguely, "A little."

"...If it’s only a little, then they were really coming for me."

Nora raised an eyebrow.

?

The kid looked simple and carefree, but in reality he was pretty smart and sharp.

However, Clement didn’t continue analyzing it. He just solemnly promised Nora, "Don’t worry, Nora. I’ll be extra careful and try my best not to let anything happen to me."

"No need to be that cautious," Nora said. "Protecting just you is no problem."

Clement blinked. "What about my assistant..."

"If he dies on the job, we’ll just replace him."

Nora waved a hand and turned to leave.

"Nora!" Clement was stunned.

Nora stopped, let out a laugh, and looked back at him with a smile in her eyes. "I’ll have them look out for your assistant’s safety."

"..." Clement let out a breath of relief and broke into a grin. "Thanks, Nora!"

"..."

What an idiot—he’d almost been killed and he was still grinning like that.

*

Nora’s people were stationed inside and outside the hotel. They were there to protect Clement at first, but they also helped her block the paparazzi, so inside the hotel Nora could move around freely without worrying about being secretly photographed by paparazzi or fans.

She was even sharing a room with Pedro Langley.

Absolutely no attempt at keeping appearances.

"When are you going back?" Once they were in the room, Nora glanced at Pedro, who was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window reading a magazine.

"I’m not busy," Pedro casually handed her a cup of warm milk, "I’ll wait for you today, then we’ll go back together." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Okay."

Nora took the warm milk and sipped it.

"How’s Clement?" Pedro asked.

Nora told him about Clement’s reaction from start to finish.

After listening, Pedro narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why is Robert Durant targeting that mother and son?"

Nora hadn’t had time to tell Pedro about this yet.

She sat down next to him, cradled the milk in her hands, and, sounding casual, started telling Pedro that story.

More than twenty years ago, after Evelyn Winter was expelled from her sect by Antonio Easton, she stayed in the northwest for a while.

That was where she met Robert Durant’s older brother, Fernando Durant.

The two of them had similar interests, and feelings grew over time. But Fernando was the heir back then, and the family wanted him to marry for alliance, so of course they wouldn’t allow him and Evelyn Winter to be together. They tried all sorts of ways to interfere between them. Later, Fernando eloped with Evelyn and they went to Sand Delta, living a hidden life under assumed identities, never expecting the Durant Family to still track them down.

The Durant Family kept it quiet and instead colluded with a local bandit gang, hoping to work with them and use Evelyn to force Fernando into submission.

Nobody expected that despicable bastard Robert Durant to lay a deadly hand on his own brother just to inherit the family fortune.

In the end, Fernando died protecting Evelyn Winter.

Evelyn Winter was all alone, with no one to turn to, and she would’ve fallen victim to them as well. But just then, her brother from her hometown came to visit, saved her life, and brought her back to Fenton City.

Evelyn was heartbroken and had wanted to die, but then she discovered she was pregnant.

Her brother persuaded her to give birth to the child, and that was how Clement Winter came into the world.

All along, Robert Durant never knew Evelyn was pregnant, so after she returned to Fenton City, he stopped causing her trouble. It wasn’t until not long ago, when Evelyn showed up in Sand Delta and was discovered by Robert Durant, that he realized she had a son, and that the boy was most likely Fernando Durant’s. Robert Durant was afraid Clement would come back and fight for the inheritance; keeping Clement around would only spell disaster, so he decided to nip the problem in the bud.

"..."

Pedro Langley finished listening and furrowed his brows.

Robert Durant’s actions could truly be described as lawless, completely at odds with the education he’d received.

Something occurred to him, and Pedro Langley asked, "The people you deal with in the Martial World are all like this?"

Nora Scott was stunned for a moment.

"Have you memorized the Criminal Law?" Pedro Langley asked again.

"..." Seeing how serious he was being, Nora almost wanted to laugh. "Speaking of which, do you remember White? The one they call ’Big White’ in the comics circle."

Pedro Langley nodded. "Mm, your idol."

"..." Nora’s mouth twitched; she paused, then continued, "She really did memorize the Criminal Law. In order to safely play around the edge of the law, she specifically chose the law department in college."

Pedro Langley: "..." You really know the weirdest people.

He silently complained in his head. Afraid Nora would drag out more strange people to press him down with, he switched the topic back to business. "Staying in a passive position, just protecting Clement, isn’t your style."

"With Master Sliver’s identity exposed, Robert Durant will come for me sooner or later," Nora said. "When that happens, I’ll settle everything in one go."

Pedro Langley’s brows knitted even tighter.

"Relax, I’m not going to throw myself into danger." Nora arched a brow. "Besides, the entire Northwest is my turf."

"..."

Pedro Langley didn’t respond.

If he didn’t see the Durant Family collapse with his own eyes, he wouldn’t believe Nora’s assurances.

Luckily, ever since the fake antique incident was resolved, he hadn’t called Butler Loxley and Jack Carter back; he’d had them stay in Anchel the whole time. When Nora headed to Anchel after the New Year, with the two of them there, he’d at least feel a bit more at ease.

*

The recording of City Secret was grueling. The next day, before dawn had even broken, Nora and the others were woken up by the production team, washed up, and continued with the next part of filming.

The production team had heard about Clement being attacked last night.

They were actually a pretty conscientious program team, so they assigned more bodyguards to protect the guests and also changed several locations, in case a similar incident happened again during recording.

Clement and Nora continued filming the show with peace of mind.

By late morning, the groups of guests had basically finished the carving step, and the production team asked each group to record a short video. The theme had to be promoting New Year paintings—including a plug for one of the New Year painting investment partners. The official account would post them online to collect likes; by four in the afternoon, the group with the most likes would win.

The guests completed their videos one by one.

At ten o’clock, the official account uploaded the four groups’ videos.

Each group filmed separately, but in the video of the group Annabelle Pinto was in, the background featured Nora and Clement.

—And it was exactly this background that unexpectedly sparked a heated debate online.

#NoraScott’sTraditionalCulturePersonaCollapses#

#NoraScottThrowsWoodenNewYearPainting#

Similar topics instantly swept the trending list and shot up at high speed, exploding not long after.

The reason was that in Annabelle Pinto’s group video, Nora, face cold, tossed aside a Wooden New Year Painting. When Clement saw this, he hurried over to pick it up, handling it gingerly. Their starkly different reactions to the Wooden New Year Painting formed a clear contrast.

And because of Nora’s deeds over the past year, in the public’s mind, Nora had long since become synonymous with "traditional culture."

Wood carving, puppets, martial arts, Mechanical Techniques...

It was precisely because of all the things Nora had done tied to these elements that she’d accumulated so much popularity. But now, her behavior caught in the background of this video completely overturned everyone’s impression of her, leaving them utterly shocked.

[On camera she’s all about promoting traditional culture, then she turns around and literally throws it away. And this is someone who can be an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage? What a joke.]

[There’s nothing wrong with the video she filmed herself. But her behavior in the background is a whole other story. I didn’t expect someone who seems so straightforward to have two faces.]

[Thank goodness for Annabelle Pinto, or no one would’ve seen Nora Scott’s true colors!]

[Fuck, on one hand she leeches off traditional culture for clout and profit; on the other, she looks down on it and tosses it around like trash?!]

[I don’t see a shred of respect from Nora Scott for traditional culture!]

[After watching the video, I’m done with Nora. Isn’t Annabelle Pinto’s acting good? Isn’t her face gorgeous? Isn’t her martial arts impressive? Why would I stan Nora Scott, who has zero merits in comparison when it comes to how she conducts herself?]

...

The online discussion about this kept snowballing, and it was almost entirely attacks directed at Nora.

The program team was focused on filming, and by the time they found out, it was already too late.

The video from Annabelle Pinto’s group had already passed a million likes, and all the major marketing accounts had reposted it; they didn’t even have time to delete it!