Later, Catherine found out, at the freshmen party, Pearl was told to come to the dean's office and got disciplined. But it was a formality. Pearl was a scheming girl with a good family background. She didn't make major mistakes. Besides, Taylor Inwood would recruit designers at her college every year and sponsored the artist's individual show, which alone gave her privilege.

The most popular topic at Kings College was who would win the contest of Miss Most Gorgeous. Some students started the online vote of Miss Gorgeous, which drew the attention of the whole school.

​​

Pearl Johnson won the contest three years ago. She was a freshman and beat the previous Miss Gorgeous in less than a month. Pearl was never voted out. So Pearl kept the honor three years in a row.

Every year, there would be freshmen checking out Pearl. She was gorgeous. Girls who assumed they were pretty and tried to defeat Pearl lost miserably.

But this year was different. Catherine's dancing video went viral on the forum. It called voters attention. In less than half an hour, there were over tens of thousands of views. There were so many comments. Catherine's vote started to zone in with Pearl's.

"Catherine, you're a worthy component of Pearl for Miss Gorgeous, do you know that?"

"What?"

Catherine was trying to get inspired by needlework these days. She was buried her head in it when Pearl called her name. And she almost pricked her finger.

"So many have voted for you."

"What are you talking about?"

Catherine dropped her handwork and got over there. Ethel turned the screen so she could see her picture.

"When did they take my picture? When was it posted?"

It was a photo of Catherine holding a book. Her hair was long and lustrous on her shoulders. She wore shirts, jeans, and sneakers while looking ahead of her with a crystal look.

She was bathed in gold sunshine with crystal and fair skin. It was glazing.

"Where did they take the photo? They captured your soul. You look so pretty, and I'm moved."

"Stop teasing me." She said out of embarrassment. She's not at ease when someone praises her so much.

"They must take it when I wasn't looking. Either of us took it."

"From the book, Catherine was holding the building in the background, and the sunshine, the picture was taken in the morning. And I don't think it was taken long ago."

"What? Have you read too much drama?"

Ethel laughed out, "I happened to notice you wore the white sneakers with red lines. It was last Thursday when we had a calculus class."

Catherine frowned, "No matter which day they took it, posting my picture without my permission is an invasion of my privacy. Besides, whoever took my photo never asked for my permission."

Catherine was furious that they crossed the line.

"Catherine, are you mixing the point?"

"What?"

"It's not about who took your photo. It's about online voting. See, you're a few votes behind Pearl."

"Whose idea is it to have such a boring and idiotic vote?"

"But it's the hottest topic on campus. They're all talking about who will win the next Miss Gorgeous, you or Pearl Johnson."

"Didn't Pearl keep the title for three years? Of course, she will win."

"That's before you. Things are different now."

"Wait, isn't that Sophia."

Catherine was surprised to see Sophia's name in the vote.

"This is the first time I saw her name."

Sophia didn't wear any makeup. Her clothes were clean and plain. She had a ponytail, and her look was indifferent. Instead of getting stuffy, she looked mature and complicated.

Sophia was a girl of stories.

"Do you know any good hackers? Un-post it."

"But why?"

"No reason."

Catherine wasn't interested in it. One was born with their looks. They couldn't choose. Catherine didn't care if she was voted Miss Gorgeous.

It was meaningless and would make Catherine the center of gossip, causing her trouble.

Catherine didn't want attention to be drawn to Sophia. She had enough on her plate. What if they knew about her family and started attacking her? Sophia would break down.

"But I don't know any hackers," Ethel said.

"Me neither."

Catherine rubbed her temple and called Sophia.

Sophia acted calmly. She has known about it. She said she didn't care as long as she wasn't affected. She also asked Catherine not to worry too much.

Catherine was relieved. She thought they wouldn't go so far as to dig up the dirt for a vote. But if they dared to do so, Catherine would make them regret forever being born.

There were ten candidates for the Miss Gorgeous pageant. There were Pearl, Iris, Catherine, Sophia, and Madison. The other five were from the department of foreign languages, Chinese, management, and economy. But they were all freshmen.

The saying goes as the more wit, the less courage. Young girls had almost nothing to lose and were fearless. The hottest topic was the contest between Catherine and Pearl. Their votes were so close that others had no odds of winning.

Catherine couldn't care less. She kept doing her needlework.

Her other three friends were checking the voting updates staring at the computer screen. They also left supportive comments in the comment section.

"What do you think will happen if the post was hacked?" asked Catherine.

"What? I think it's fine. You have so much to show off. Pearl is good-looking too. But she seems like a scheming girl. I don't like her." Ethel said.

Cecil nodded, "I agree. Catherine is more beautiful. She's so innocent and pure."

Catherine thought otherwise.

"Hey, why is there a surge in Pearl's votes? She's leaping Catherine. It's so bad that I can only vote one time, or I would vote for Catherine thousands of times."

"The voters might be hired."

"Is this how Pearl won the last pageants? That's cheating."

Catherine looked up at Ethel and said, "But she is good-looking."

Or Vivian Blair would not like her and want her to be Sean's wife, her daughter-in-law.