On stage.
The person in charge frowned and said, "There is a live recording here, Lin Li. It clearly shows that you modified your answers."
"Someone tampered with the content displayed on the screen from my computer and cleared my computer records. Please send someone to investigate this," Lin Li replied, his eyes dark and heavy.
This time, he was determined to expose Lin Xuan's cheating.
"Alright," the person in charge nodded.
If he refused, it would only make them appear guilty.
"Lin Li, you can choose who to bring in for the investigation," the person in charge added, to avoid any accusations of them bribing the investigators.
Lin Li quickly contacted an institution.
They arrived promptly.
After examining the computer and the screen content, they announced, "The records show that the content was deleted at 2:10 PM. Additionally, the live feed was consistently connected to the computer, with no interruptions or switching of the live feed."
In other words, Lin Li's answers were indeed invalid.
Lin Li felt his limbs turn cold.
He was certain he hadn't deleted anything! Nor had he input any code that would clear his answers.
Now, all the evidence pointed to him being at fault.
What on earth was going on?
The person in charge was not surprised by the result.
Their security system couldn't possibly be hacked, and he had already had the computer thoroughly checked multiple times beforehand. There was no way Lin Li's claims could be true.
"Lin Li, do you have any further questions?" the person in charge asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," Lin Li replied, his heart filled with frustration.
The person in charge smiled and turned to face the audience with the microphone.
"Now that the matter is clear, the results of the competition are fair and just, with no falsification—"
Before he could finish, Jiang Shuqin shouted, "I have a question!"
"Madam, please go ahead," the person in charge said.
"I suspect Lin Xuan knew the competition questions and answers in advance," Jiang Shuqin declared.
The person in charge frowned.
"Lin Xuan is my son. I know him better than anyone. If Lin Li couldn't finish the questions, there's no way Lin Xuan could have completed them," Jiang Shuqin said coldly.
If she could prove that Lin Xuan had cheated, it would cast doubt on the reliability of the competition and validate her belief that Lin Li's results had been tampered with.
She wanted justice for Lin Li.
"The Lin family," Su Hua chuckled softly.
They should be grateful they were still around to amuse Lin Xuan.
Jiang Qing frowned and asked, "Ms. Su, do you think Lin Xuan might not actually be the Lin family's son?"
Their attitude toward Lin Xuan was baffling.
They treated him more like an enemy than family.
"Lin Xuan is their biological son," Su Hua replied, lowering her gaze.
"Ms. Su, how can you be so sure?" Jiang Qing asked, curious.
"I had the butler arrange a paternity test between Lin Xuan and the Lin family," Su Hua answered.
"What?" Jiang Qing was momentarily stunned. "When did this happen?"
"Over two years ago," Su Hua said, slowly twisting the ring on her right middle finger—a ring Lin Xuan had personally placed there.
Two years ago, Lin Xuan had tried everything to leave her. Every time they met, he had never shown her a single kind expression.
Yet, he would turn around and fawn over the Lin family.
It drove her mad with jealousy.
She wanted to drive everyone away from Lin Xuan, so she had the butler arrange a paternity test between him and the Lin family.
The results confirmed that he was indeed their son.
Jiang Qing was astonished.
Ms. Su had investigated this so long ago.
Of course, given how much Ms. Su cared for Lin Xuan, it made sense that she would have checked.
The audience in the seats below began murmuring among themselves.
"Lin Li's results being valid doesn't mean Lin Xuan's are," someone said.
"I also think Lin Xuan cheated. While other contestants took two hours to barely reach the eighth question, he finished all the questions in less than thirty minutes and got a perfect score. That's impossible."
"He's just a college student. I don't believe he's that much of a prodigy."
"If even an officially organized competition can be rigged, it's a disgrace to all of us."
Xue Wenbo, hearing Jiang Shuqin's words, was displeased. "The last three questions were set by me and Qian Hong. Are you implying that we were involved in the cheating as well?"
Lin Chang had been sitting quietly in his seat, not stopping Jiang Shuqin from questioning Lin Xuan's results.
The son he had always valued, Lin Li, had scored zero, while Lin Xuan, whom he had disowned, had achieved a perfect score and was being hailed as a genius.
This was a slap in the face for him.
If the truth could be uncovered, so be it.
But when Lin Chang saw Xue Wenbo step forward, he grew uneasy. Xue Wenbo and Qian Hong had extensive connections, and they might even become Lin Li's mentors in the future.
He couldn't afford to offend them.
Lin Chang stood up and smiled. "Professor Xue, my wife isn't accusing you of helping Lin Xuan cheat. She's concerned that after you submitted the questions to the competition organizers, someone within their team might have leaked them to Lin Xuan in advance."
"Is that so?" Xue Wenbo sneered.
"Professor Xue," Lin Chang said politely, "Lin Xuan is our son, but we don't want anything to undermine the fairness of the competition."
"Lin Xuan's perfect score is simply unbelievable. Even if we hadn't raised the issue, others would have doubts. Don't you think it's better to prove that he truly earned that score?"
"Lin Xuan is your son?" Xue Wenbo asked, his expression skeptical.
Would biological parents really distrust their own child?
"He is our son, but he has cut ties with our family," Lin Chang sighed. "It's a shame. We failed to raise him properly."
Xue Wenbo recalled a piece of gossip he had heard from his niece.
It was about Starlight Group publicly announcing on all platforms that they had severed ties with Lin Xuan.
That must have been about Lin Chang and Lin Xuan.
It matched the rumors.
"If you've cut ties with him, then stop calling him your son," Xue Wenbo said coldly.
"Also, Lin Li, who also participated in the competition, is your son, isn't he? Are you questioning the fairness of this competition just for Lin Li's sake?"
"If you're doing this for your other beloved son, stop pretending to be impartial."
"It makes you come across as hypocritical."
Xue Wenbo laid bare Lin Chang's intentions for all to see.
Lin Chang's face stiffened.
The audience looked at him with strange expressions.
Qian Hong grew anxious.
If Xue Wenbo was defending Lin Xuan like this, wouldn't that earn him a lot of favor with Lin Xuan?
No.
What if Lin Xuan chose Xue Wenbo as his mentor? That wouldn't do.
Qian Hong also stepped forward.
"Mr. Gao," Qian Hong asked, "could I meet with Lin Xuan?"
"Of course," the person in charge agreed and had Lin Xuan brought out to meet Qian Hong.