After Divorce I Married a Tycoon-Chapter 176: Grim and Sinister

Meanwhile, the women in the audience couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

"Oh my god, is this wedding dress not the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?"

"It’s so, so... gorgeous."

"Will I ever be able to wear a wedding dress like this to marry my Prince Charming in my lifetime?"

"Probably not. A wedding dress this exquisite and perfect probably won’t be mass-produced, right?"

"It’s truly beautiful. Every single detail is handled just right."

"Can you believe this wedding dress was actually designed by a contestant, not a veteran designer?"

"Claire Mercer has really made me see her in a new light. She’s the true definition of beauty and talent."

"..."

Listening to all the praise, Adrian Sutton straightened his back.

The pride and joy on his face were practically overflowing.

He knew his Claire wouldn’t disappoint everyone.

Even he, a man who knew nothing about design, thought the wedding dress was truly beautiful.

Mrs. Rowan also wore a look of amazement.

Then her expression quickly changed to one of regret.

"Why did I have to get married so early?"

Silas Rowan’s face darkened when he heard that.

"Mom, what kind of thing is that to say?"

If she hadn’t gotten married so early, how would he even be here now?

’Listening to my dear mother’s tone...’

’Is she regretting having a son like me?’

Mrs. Rowan shot him a look. "When I married your father, I didn’t get to wear such a beautiful wedding dress."

"If I had gotten married a little later, I could have worn a wedding dress designed by Claire."

Silas Rowan put his hand to his forehead. "Mom, is that ’a little later’? Your son is already twenty-seven."

"Besides, for a second I thought you were saying you were fed up with me."

Mrs. Rowan glanced at him again without any courtesy and said irritably, "I am fed up with you."

"When are you finally going to get married? When will you let my daughter-in-law wear such a beautiful wedding dress?"

’How did the topic get back to me again?’

Silas Rowan felt a headache coming on.

She could even turn watching a competition into nagging him about marriage. He heaved a deep sigh.

He decided to push Adrian Sutton into the line of fire to shield him from his dear mother’s barrage.

"Your darling nephew hasn’t even had Claire wear a wedding dress yet, so what’s my rush?"

Mrs. Rowan retorted angrily, "He’s at least gotten a marriage certificate. What about you?"

"You don’t even have a woman in your life. Is it that no one is interested in you, or are you so high and mighty that you look down on everyone else?"

"I think the young lady from the Peyton Family is quite nice. Why won’t you make a move?"

Silas Rowan glanced at Roxanne Peyton, who was sitting beside him, out of the corner of his eye.

Then he leaned in close to Mrs. Rowan’s ear and said, "It’s precisely because she’s a good person that I can’t just casually waste her time."

"A loveless marriage is a tomb. Forcing two people together would just be mutual torment."

"You understand that principle, don’t you?"

"Don’t give me that nonsense." Mrs. Rowan was stubborn and refused to be swayed by his excuses.

"If you can’t bring home a girlfriend, then just get married. I’ll pick the candidate."

At these words, Silas Rowan’s face went pale with fright. "Mom, you’re kidding, right?"

Mrs. Rowan shot him a sidelong glance. "Do I look like I’m kidding?"

"Do you think I enjoy nagging you? It’s just that your grandparents and your maternal grandparents are all pressing the issue."

"You’re getting pressure from just one person—me—and you look like you’re about to fall apart. But what about me?"

"I have to bear the pressure from all four of them! Do you have any idea how much misery you’ve put me through?"

"Anyway, I’m done with it. I’m giving you three months."

"If you still haven’t found a girlfriend in three months, I’m arranging your marriage myself."

Silas Rowan looked like he was about to cry. "Mom, don’t be rash."

"I don’t want to hear any more of your nonsense. Just focus on the competition..."

After saying that, Mrs. Rowan turned her head toward the stage and ignored Silas Rowan.

Silas was utterly miserable.

He truly hadn’t expected to get chewed out by his own mother just for watching a competition.

And to be given a final ultimatum, no less.

He blamed his sister, too, for whipping out a wedding dress right from the get-go.

’His dear mother couldn’t stand the sight of such things right now.’

The moment she saw a wedding dress, she would think of marriage.

And the moment she thought of marriage, she would think of how her son still wasn’t married...

Her giving him a three-month deadline to find a girlfriend today was clearly because this wedding dress had set her off.

Three months. Where was he supposed to find a girlfriend in three months to report back with?

But if he couldn’t find one, he would be forced into an arranged marriage.

"This is all your wife’s fault! Why on earth did she have to design a wedding dress?"

Silas Rowan leaned past Mrs. Rowan and spoke to Adrian Sutton, his voice full of resentment.

Adrian Sutton, who had witnessed the entire marriage lecture, almost failed to keep the forced smile on his face.

Hearing Silas Rowan’s aggressive accusation against his Claire, he immediately whispered to Mrs. Rowan:

"Auntie, Silas is blaming Claire."

Hearing this, Mrs. Rowan slapped Silas Rowan on the shoulder.

"How dare you blame your sister?"

Silas Rowan: "..."

’Forget it. Anything I say right now will be wrong. It’ll just make my dear mother even more worked up.’

’I should just watch the competition,’ he thought, even though he could barely focus on it.

He even wanted to leave right then and there.

Because he was terrified the next contestant’s outfit would be another wedding dress or something similar.

But as fate would have it, Silas Rowan’s greatest fear came true.

After Stella Thorne finished showcasing the wedding dress designed by Claire Mercer, the other contestants took the stage one by one.

Unsurprisingly, most of the contestants who followed had also designed wedding gowns.

However, none of them could inspire the same level of awe and shock as the one designed by Claire Mercer.

They didn’t bring amazement or shock, but they did bring Silas Rowan pain.

Because his dear mother never stopped rolling her eyes at him.

If looks could kill, he would have died ten million times in the last half hour.

The first round of presentations ended quickly, and then it was time to announce the scores.

Because the four contestants with the lowest total scores were to be eliminated, everyone was very nervous.

The organizers were also adept at building suspense, heightening the tension for both the live audience and the viewers at home.

They didn’t announce the scores in order from first to last. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Instead, they randomly revealed a contestant’s score without revealing their name or rank.

The first score revealed was 1287 points.

There were six authoritative judges from the design world, and each judge could award up to 100 points.

Since this was a professional design competition, the judges’ scores were more important.

The live audience consisted of one thousand people, and each person’s vote was worth one point.

Compared to the maximum possible score of 1600, 1287 was actually a decent score.

Everyone was curious about which contestant had received this score, and the curiosity of every single audience member was piqued.

But since it was a live broadcast, the host didn’t drag it out for too long.

The name of the contestant with that score was quickly announced.

"That would be contestant number 29, Joel Jennings, the only male contestant to make it to the finals."

When Joel Jennings learned that this was his score, he didn’t know whether to smile or not.

He didn’t know if his score was considered high or low.

And since the other contestants’ scores hadn’t been announced yet, he had no idea how they had fared.

His score was the first to be announced, which made him the most anxious of all.

Soon, the system randomly pulled up another contestant’s score: 1290 points.

When this score appeared, Joel Jennings’s smile vanished completely.

Only two scores had been announced, but this one was actually a few points higher than his.

His heart was in his throat, and he couldn’t calm down at all.

He felt a sense of hostility toward every contestant who scored higher than him.

He was arrogant and felt that he should be number one, with the highest score.

But this Chloe Lawton just had to score a few points higher than him. It was infuriating.

Joel Jennings sat in his seat with a dark, gloomy expression on his face, looking somewhat sinister and terrifying.