Our Love Story: Hard to Guard Against the Sudden Love Strike-Chapter 453 - 431: Interviewed

The interview was arranged in the ministry’s conference room specifically designated for media visits.

Sienna Thornton had not been interviewed by state media before and thought it would be like when she appeared on the program "Lawyer Says," where makeup artists and stylists would come to spruce up her appearance.

However, the state media interview was simple, with just a microphone, a seemingly professional yet plainly dressed reporter, and a few crew members.

Fortunately, the makeup Sienna applied that morning was formal enough, her attire was appropriate, and her hairstyle was a neat Korean ponytail parted to one side. She tidied her hair a bit in the restroom and then proceeded to the interview.

Besides her, a negotiation representative from the WTO Affairs Department also participated in the interview. The representative introduced the negotiation scenes as a spokesperson, while Sienna explained the case’s nature and significance from a legal perspective, sharing successful experiences for other legal elites to reference.

After the first round of interviews, the remaining segment was a personal interview with Sienna Thornton.

Aside from answering questions from the reporter about her personal preparation and involvement in the case, she hardly mentioned how efficiently she worked over the past six months; instead, she talked more about the collective honor and the hard work of all members of the Treaty and Law Department for this case and the country’s trade interests.

Some interview reporters were clearly interested in her personal experiences, but Sienna remained tight-lipped, only briefly introducing that after graduating from Harvard Law School, she has been engaged in foreign-related legal work and will continue to do so for life.

After two days of interviews, Sienna was already exhausted and had no energy left to visit Melinda Linton’s as planned on Saturday. She slept at home for a whole day and night and only got up on Saturday evening, thinking of going downstairs with Simon Forrester to the mall for something to eat and a movie to relax when she suddenly received a call from Melinda Linton.

Over the phone, Melinda sounded excited, "Annie! You were on TV! Your dad and I just saw you on the seven o’clock news!"

Sienna was stunned for a moment and asked, "What news?"

"The seven o’clock news!..."

Before Melinda could finish, Quentin Thorne’s voice came through, his tone not as excited as Melinda’s, more restrained, but still full of pride and happiness: "Annie, the seven o’clock news just reported on your case and even mentioned the President’s attention and commendation towards your work!"

Sienna was so surprised that the President knew about this matter that her phone almost fell out of her hand.

She quickly hung up the phone, took off the sneakers she had just put on, rushed to the living room to grab Simon Forrester’s tablet, and started searching for tonight’s seven o’clock news.

Simon followed her and sat down next to her.

With her understanding of the seven o’clock news, Sienna fast-forwarded the video to around fifteen minutes and finally saw the negotiation representative’s footage at a little over eighteen minutes.

She knew that after the representative spoke, it would be her turn.

She waited and waited, and finally, around nineteen minutes, she saw herself on camera.

On screen, she was smiling and looked very gentle and beautiful.

She was wearing a well-tailored maroon woolen suit, and the black turtleneck underneath complemented the maroon coat, making her complexion look fair and rosy, appearing both healthy and radiant. The white pearl necklace was particularly eye-catching, matched with her outfit, making her look elegant, sophisticated, and refined.

She solemnly and clearly summarized the case in front of the camera: "In the WTO anti-dumping law, the issue of non-market economy status has not been well resolved, and the ambiguity of the rules gives many countries a large space for abuse in anti-dumping investigations... We have reason to believe that as we gain a deeper understanding of WTO rules, we will make more use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism to secure more benefits for our country..."

She never knew that her voice, when played on TV, sounded so pleasant.

If she didn’t know those contents were her speech, she might have thought it was some voice-over artist with an especially pleasant voice talking on TV.

She was simply amazed by herself, turned to grab Simon Forrester’s arm, and excitedly said, "Did they optimize my voice?"

Simon laughed, "I don’t think so. It sounds just like you now."

"Oh my god!" Sienna pointed at herself, "Does my voice sound that good?"

Simon looked at her, suddenly grinned mischievously, leaned close to her ear, and whispered something that made her face instantly turn red, shyly pushing him away: "You’re being improper! Say it again and I’ll make you do planks!"

Simon didn’t tease her anymore, leaned back against the sofa, and watched the news with her.

The host read out the President’s praise for the perfect negotiation via a voice-over, and the camera then cut to some factory departments making fasteners.

In the unmanned workshop, the fully automated production line was manufacturing and delivering fasteners in an orderly manner, and the topic naturally transitioned to industrial automation development.

Sienna rewound the video and watched her part again, repeatedly watching it two or three times before turning off the tablet.

She clearly remembered that, in the footage where she appeared, at the bottom third of the screen, it read - Ministry of Commerce, Treaty and Law Department, Deputy Director of Legal Section 2 | Sienna Thorne.

Seeing her name appear on official news gave her a peculiar feeling, hard to describe. It felt a bit proud yet uneasy.

Perhaps used to the freedom of her past name unbound to anyone, she’s now a bit worried that the surname "Thorne" might bring some unfavorable rumors. As she appeared in the media more, gaining recognition, those rumors might become new troubles.

She started to regret impulsively changing her surname for the family genealogy, thinking perhaps retaining the surname "Thornton" wouldn’t have been bad either...

At this moment, her expression was a delightful mix of joy, pride, surprise, and some hesitation...

Simon Forrester laughed, picked up the remote on the table, pretended it was a microphone, and moved it in front of her: "Director Thorne, what would you like to say about being on the seven o’clock news?"

Director Thorne: "Just... feels quite refreshing..."

Reporter Forrester: "Do you want to be on the news again?"

Director Thorne initially looked like she would nod but then suddenly shook her head: "Not anymore."

Reporter Forrester: "May I ask why?"

Director Thorne, full of self-adoration: "Too good-looking, afraid of trending."

It was meant to be a joke, but it turned out to be prophetic.

Overnight, Sienna Thornton trended again. Initially, it was just the tenth place, but by the next evening, it climbed to third place, poised to surpass the hottest entertainment stars of the moment.