Chapter Forty-Three: Embracing Both

"Yi Yan, will they be able to find this place?" The speaker was a young woman with a half-bun hairstyle.

Sitting opposite her, Zhuo Yi Yan picked up her juice glass, took a sip, and smiled without speaking.

"In this unfamiliar foreign country, with just a map, I'm really worried they won't be able to find it..."

"Screech—" The sound of screeching brakes interrupted the woman.

The two women, leisurely sitting under the parasol, turned their heads together. They saw an SUV parked on the roadside not far away. An Italian boy wearing a printed black t-shirt and ripped jeans jumped out and went to open the back door.

A girl with a bob haircut got out next, thanking the Italian boy repeatedly: "Thank you! Thank you!..."

The boy smiled, his deep features so captivating that Wang Wei almost forgot someone else was getting out.

"This girl is very clever; she even found a car," the woman sitting under the parasol exclaimed in surprise.

Zhuo Yiyan shook his head slightly, "It's not her."

After spending so many days together, he understood Wang Wei. She was a lively, carefree, and somewhat scatterbrained girl, and he was already quite surprised that she had made it this far.

Sure enough, as soon as Wang Wei left, a girl with short, silver-gray hair got out of the car.

Even the woman who was a guest for the first time recognized her with that distinctive short hair. She had done her research beforehand and knew that this girl was a popular contestant with a huge online following and strong abilities.

"Huh, she can speak Italian?!" The female guest was quite surprised to see the girl who got out of the car conversing with the Italian man in the local language.

Zhuo Yiyan was also somewhat surprised. Xu Jiaojiao really managed to surprise him time and time again, making him want to continue observing her and anticipating what surprises she would bring next.

Seeing the group approaching, the two stood up from their chairs.

"Teacher Zhuo, we're the first ones here!" Wang Wei immediately said to Zhuo Yiyan, as if taking credit. Then, noticing the beautiful woman beside her, she exclaimed excitedly, "Yan Xiaoxuan, wow, even the goddess is here!"

Yan Xiaoxuan is a recently popular Victoria's Secret supermodel, with a great figure and beautiful face. Her fame skyrocketed after participating in a brain-teasing TV program; now anyone who follows entertainment news knows her.

"You two are amazing!" Yan Xiaoxuan praised with a smile.

Wang Wei waved her hands repeatedly, "I just followed Jiaojiao; I'm not the amazing one."

Zhuo Yiyan looked at the boy standing next to Sheng Jiaoyang and said to her, "Jiaojiao, aren't you going to introduce this gentleman next to you?"

Sheng Jiaoyang said casually, "His name is Henry; we met him on the way."

"Thanks to this handsome guy, otherwise we would have had to walk so much further!" Wang Wei added.

Zhuo Yiyan extended his hand to Henry, chatted briefly in English, and knowing he wanted to observe the recording of the supermodel program, welcomed him.

"Teacher Zhuo, we're the first to arrive, is there any reward?" After Zhuo Yiyan finished chatting with the handsome foreign man, Wang Wei couldn't help but ask.

Zhuo Yiyan smiled, pointed to the small shop next door, and said, "We've prepared Italian breakfast. Since you arrived within half an hour, you have the right to choose your breakfast."

"Great! I haven't had breakfast yet. Handsome, have you had breakfast?" Wang Wei turned to ask Henry, but the latter looked at her blankly, clearly not understanding. She realized what he meant and quickly asked Sheng Jiaoyang to translate.

Sheng Jiaoyang looked at the infatuated Wang Wei with amusement, then turned to invite Henry to have breakfast together.

Henry smiled and nodded, giving an "OK" that everyone could understand. He even winked at Wang Wei, who was looking at him expectantly.

Wang Wei's eyes widened slightly, feeling dizzy from the electric shock. It was Sheng Jiaoyang who pulled her into the small shop.

After the group entered the shop, Yan Xiaoxuan and Zhuo Yiyan sat down again.

"I wonder if the others will also come by car?" Yan Xiaoxuan looked in the direction the contestants had come from.

"Probably not, we'll probably have to wait for half an hour." Looking back on the two seasons of the show, only Xu Jiaojiao was an anomaly. The others, in unfamiliar territory and unable to speak the language, were even afraid to ask for directions, let alone flag down a car without money.

"I remember Xu Jiaojiao isn't even eighteen yet, right?"

"Yes." Zhuo Yiyan nodded.

Yan Xiaoxuan shook her head with a sigh: "The younger generation is really pushing the older generation aside! We older generation are almost being swept away. How come kids these days are so amazing!"

"You talk like you're so old." Zhuo Yiyan chuckled.

"When I was seventeen, I didn't even know what I was doing. Seeing them makes me feel old."

"You can't compare like that." Especially not with Xu Jiaojiao, otherwise everyone will be swept away.

When Luo Yi and the others arrived at their destination, drenched in sweat, half an hour had passed.

They glanced around and saw only the production crew and two people chatting leisurely under a parasol.

"Wow, is that Yan Xiaoxuan?"

"We saw her in person!" "

She seems even more elegant in person."

Amidst the chatter about Yan Xiaoxuan, another voice suddenly broke in. "Haha, Xu Jiaojiao left before us, but we got here even faster!"

The others laughed. Since the elimination rounds began, Xu Jiaojiao had been like a cheat code, putting immense pressure on them.

The round of 30 to 15 is another story.

In the round of 15 to 13, Xu Jiaojiao's group suffered a crushing defeat in the group stage, eliminating two contestants. However, this didn't affect Xu Jiaojiao's performance at all; she won the Best

Photo award and was exempted from another round. In the round of 13 to 11, Qi Hua withdrew, and Xu Jiaojiao was also affected, losing points and failing to win the Best Photo award. The group, now with only two members, lost the group stage again, but she had an exemption, so Huang Linying was eliminated in this round. Because of Qi Hua's withdrawal, Huang Linying was also eliminated, leaving only 11 contestants. No further eliminations were made, and Wang Wei, who was at the bottom of the overall ranking, escaped elimination.

In the round of 11 to 9, the individual competition took place. Without her teammates' burdens, Xu Jiaojiao was like a tiger unleashed. Although she didn't win the Best Photo award, her victory in the individual competition pushed Luo Yi out of the top spot on the overall ranking. Wang Wei, whom she also helped, achieved good results in the individual competition and escaped elimination again.

It's fair to say that when one person achieves success, even their relatives and friends benefit. Wang Wei's ability to persevere this far is undeniably a stroke of luck.

Xu Jiaojiao, on the other hand, has relied entirely on her own abilities, which is why everyone feels so much pressure. Who among the participants doesn't want to win? With such a formidable opponent, no one can sleep soundly. Now,

seeing the incredibly talented Xu Jiaojiao get lost is bound to make them unhappy.

"Teacher Zhuo, Xu Jiaojiao and Wang Wei left without waiting for us. We don't know where they are now. Should you contact the cameraman who's been filming them?" one contestant preemptively asked, not wanting Zhuo Yiyan to mistakenly believe they had abandoned Xu Jiaojiao. After all, deliberately isolating someone is a bad impression.

Zhuo Yiyan and Yan Xiaoxuan exchanged glances. Zhuo Yiyan, with a strange expression, said, "They've probably already finished breakfast."

"Huh?" Everyone was confused.

Yan Xiaoxuan chuckled, pointed to the small shop behind them, and said, "They arrived half an hour ago and are having breakfast inside!"

"..." The contestants.

How did they manage that?

They arrived half an hour ago—did they grow superhuman legs?

When everyone pushed open the door and stepped into the surprisingly spacious little shop, the contestants were dazzled by what they saw.

A short-haired girl was confidently taking selfies, one arm around each of them. Her left arm was around a bob-haired girl pouting and acting cute, while her right arm was around a handsome guy taking pictures with his phone.

And he was a strikingly handsome guy with deep-set features from a foreign land!