Tan Dongbang’s expression suddenly changed. In an instant, he resumed his triumphant expression and nodded politely at General Ji and Huo Shaoheng.
General Ji and Huo Shaoheng both nodded back. They didn’t appear displeased at all.
Tan Dongbang sighed in relief and warned himself to stay calm. He couldn’t panic and shoot himself in the foot.
Cai Songyin saw that Huo Shaoheng had arrived, so she quickly pushed Tan Guiren and pouted in Huo Shaoheng’s direction. She whispered, “You see, it looks like he actually broke up with that little orphan girl…”
Tan Guiren turned around to take a glance, but her face immediately flushed red when Huo Shaoheng’s eyes seemed to look in her direction. She cast her eyes down and whispered, “Mommy, don’t talk about Miss Gu like that. Although Miss Gu doesn’t have a mom or dad, she… She is very impressive herself.”
When she recalled how Gu Nianzhi had let her Daddy and Mommy off by not suing them, Tan Guiren’s impression of her became fairly positive. Also, Gu Nianzhi had already broken up with Huo Shaoheng, so Tan Guiren didn’t have any negative feelings towards her at all. On the contrary, she actually sympathized with her quite a bit.
Tan Guiren had grown up with her parents’ love, so she was much luckier than Gu Nianzhi, who had grown up depending on others. When a person felt that they were lucky while others were less fortunate, they would be much more forgiving towards people and situations.
Cai Songyin gently patted Tan Guiren’s head. “Little Darling, you’re too good and kindhearted. Are there no bad people in your eyes?”
Tan Guiren considered it carefully before replying, “There actually are.”
“Oh? Who does our Little Darling think is a bad person?!” Cai Songyin was both curious and amused. “What kind of person would be considered bad in our Little Darling’s eyes?”
Tan Guiren was silent for a while before replying quietly, “The people who kidnapped me in New York.” She couldn’t help but shiver when she recalled the days of not being able to see the sun.
Cai Songyin’s smile gradually faded away. She squeezed Tan Guiren’s hand with pity and whispered quietly to her, “Little Darling, don’t think about it anymore. No one else in the world knows about what happened to you in New York. Anyone who knew about it doesn’t exist in this world anymore.”
Tan Guiren was shocked. “Oh? But don’t Major General Huo and his personnel know? They personally rescued me!”
Cai Songyin was shocked into silence. Casting her eyes downwards, she snorted derisively. “That’s not the same. He merely brought personnel to rescue you, so he doesn’t know what happened during the month you were kidnapped.”
Cai Songyin paused, then inched closer to Tan Guiren’s ear and said in a voice so quiet that they were the only ones to hear it, “Mommy wasn’t able to discuss this earlier, but you must remember that even though you were kidnapped for a month, no one touched you. You’re still a virgin, got that?”
Cai Songyin was concerned about agitating Tan Guiren, so she had always avoided this subject, but now she had no choice but to talk to her about it. They wouldn’t be able to avoid this once Tan Guiren was married.
Tan Guiren was about to reply, “I am one, to begin with!” but Cai Songyin continued, “It’s fine if you’ve lost your virginity. Mommy knows a very amazing doctor who can perform hymenoplasty. She can help repair you perfectly and even perform tightening surgery. When you get married, your husband is guaranteed to not feel any difference.”
Tan Guiren’s face immediately flushed scarlet. She grimaced at Cai Songyin and said, “Mommy, so you were worried about that? I’m telling you, I’m actually still a virgin. Although I was kidnapped for a month, one of the kidnappers was fairly kind to me.”
Cai Songyin didn’t dare to believe her own ears. “What?! You’re actually still…?!” In her eyes, her daughter was beautiful and voluptuous. The kidnappers must have been blind if they hadn’t touched her.
Most people believed that kidnapped women couldn’t escape rape unless they were especially ugly. Even if there were the occasional lucky ones, it was usually because they were rescued in the nick of time. So regardless if a woman was actually assaulted or not, some people believed she was already impure.
Tan Guiren obviously didn’t understand how those people perceived this situation, so she replied stubbornly, “I really didn’t. I’m still a virgin. We can go to the hospital and check tomorrow if you don’t believe me.”
Cai Songyin finally believed her then. She was absolutely overjoyed and grabbed Tan Guiren’s hand to say, “Our Little Darling is so lucky! You must have good fortune if you escaped a bad fate! You’ll certainly marry well! Huo Shaoheng may be blind, but other people aren’t!”
Tan Guiren shyly hung her head, but her heart was still feeling a bit lost. Was that true? Would she really have the fortune and opportunity to marry someone better than Major General Huo?
As the mother and daughter whispered to each other with their heads close together, they didn’t notice the small beads of sweat seeping out of Tan Dongbang’s forehead. Tan Dongbang had used a handkerchief to wipe several times already, but he sweat continuously, and his heart hammered hard—as if something was about to happen.
He originally thought that he would still be able to turn the tide and emerge victorious this time, but when he saw that Huo Shaoheng had actually returned safely, he suddenly didn’t feel so certain anymore.
Soon, it was 8 p.m. It was time. The conference hall quieted down. Several cameras were pointed at the speaker’s podium as they waited for Speaker Long to announce the results of the election.
The results of the Huaxia Empire’s interim general elections were not only live-streamed throughout the entire nation, but they would also be broadcast on many major television networks from abroad.
Speaker Long wore a navy tuxedo with a small bow tie as he energetically walked up to the podium. He held two envelopes in his hand and began by nodding to everyone present.
“Ladies and gentlemen, television audiences, hello. Today we will be unveiling the results of our Huaxia Empire’s interim general elections. I want to thank all our personnel for all the energy and hard work they have exerted for this interim general election.
“The results of this election were actually ready two days ago. But because we discovered there were certain areas of fraudulent activity, we conducted many recounts in order to guarantee the accuracy in the counting of votes.”
As soon as he said this, everyone began to chatter. Election fraud?! The Speaker of the Senate was admitting there had been election fraud! So who was the one guilty of committing fraud?!
Everyone’s eyes were on Bai Jiancheng and Tan Dongbang. During this last interim general election, these were the only two men who were eligible to receive votes. Bai Jiangcheng’s expression remained unchanged. Calm and steadfast, he was obviously a very reliable person who had weathered great storms in the past.
However, this wasn’t the case for Tan Dongbang. Although he tried hard to maintain a smile on his face, it was incredibly rigid. Through the HD cameras, everyone could see his forehead glisten with grease and tiny beads of sweat seeping through.
This was quite interesting.
On the podium, Speaker Long’s eyes also paused on Tan Dongbang and Bai Jiancheng’s faces. He looked down to take out the results of the first election from the envelope. Speaker Long said into the microphone, “Because there was an appearance of fraudulent activity in the second round of elections, we also became suspicious of the results from the first round. In both elections, the initial curves of the number of votes were exactly the same. Because of this, we recounted the results of the first election.”
Everyone was instantly in an uproar. It turned out that the results of the interim general election had been delayed by two days because the votes of the first election from a few months ago had also been recounted! Huo Shaoheng and General Ji knew about this a long time ago, but this was the first time the public had learned of it.
At that moment, the Huaxia television networks and internet instantly exploded. Countless people were scrolling through topics with #whatonearthhappenedduringthefirstelection.
Tan Dongbang’s heart felt incredibly weak, so weak he was about to float up in the air. This couldn’t be?! The first time… How could they know about it?!
Even Cai Songyin was shocked. She quickly glanced at Tan Dongbang and saw that he was looking her way as well. The husband and wife pair quickly looked away like nothing had happened, but they were making their own calculations in their hearts.
Tan Dongbang thought about how Cai Songiyn had told him an expert had helped them with the first election, so they were certain to win it. This expert personally reached out to him during the second election, yet the results didn’t count anymore?
Cai Songyin was thinking about how Hong Kangquan had guaranteed that Tan Dongbang was certain to be elected. He had an expert assisting them, so had this expert also been exposed along with Hong Kangquan’s arrest?
During the second round of elections, Cai Songyin had no idea that “the expert” had personally contacted Tan Dongbang. She had no hope for the second election at all, so she didn’t understand why Tan Dongbang was so confident.
Speaker Long began to read the results of the first election. “According to the election laws, the elected prime minister must win more than half of the votes and also win more than half the provinces. We have a total of 34 provinces in the Huaxia Empire, which means the elected prime minister must win at least 18 provinces and then win more than half the individual votes.
“As we all know, there were a total of 97,563,421 votes cast in the last election. Tan Dongbang won in 18 provinces and won a total of 48,782,021 votes. He defeated the runner up, Bai Jiancheng, by only 2,021 votes and was elected Prime Minister of the Huaxia Empire.
“But in the recount, we found that there were problems with the vote count in two provinces. Votes that obviously belonged to Mr. Bai Jiancheng were counted as votes for Mr. Tan Dongbang. This resulted in a rather large error.
“After recounting the votes, the results of the first general election were as follows: a total of 97,563,421 votes were cast. Mr. Bai Jiancheng won a total of 18 provinces and won a total of 48,782,021 votes. He defeated Mr. Tan Dongbang by only 2,021 votes, so Mr. Bai Jiancheng should have been the rightfully elected Prime Minister of the Huaxia Empire in the last election.”
Tan Dongbang’s rage and anxiety rose as he heard this, so he couldn’t help but interrupt. “Speaker Long, what do you mean by this? The first election happened so long ago, and now you’re saying there was an issue with the vote count? Who can prove whether there was a problem with the votes, or if you people changed the results of the vote?!” Tan Dongbang’s accusations received support from much of the audience who didn’t know the truth.
It was true that Speaker Long had only announced the results of the recount and made the one statement that “votes belonging to Mr. Bai Jiancheng were recorded as votes for Mr. Tan Dongbang.” This did not convince the masses.
Speaker Long stood at the podium in silence and merely looked at Tan Dongbang quietly. The entire conference hall became dead silent. Even the faint buzzing from the central air conditioning system seemed to have disappeared.
