Wrong Flirt, Right Trouble: His Uncle Pulls Me Close

Thea Sherwood was even more shocked, her mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.

’Ivy Sherwood is Iris?’

’How can that be? It’s absolutely impossible!’

"How could she possibly be Iris? Everyone knows Iris is a genius Perfumer who has remained a mystery for years. Don’t think you can just find some random person to impersonate him just because he’s never shown his face."

Even now, Thea Sherwood still didn’t believe it. Or rather, she refused to believe it.

She had always been jealous of Ivy Sherwood’s perfumery skills. Just a few formulas she casually took from Ivy had been enough to make her an internet celebrity with countless online fans.

And a perfume she had casually picked from Ivy’s collection had won her third place in the Perfumer Competition. Very few people were capable of such a feat.

The truth was, Iris was also Thea Sherwood’s idol. Thea loved the perfumes Iris created, so how could she possibly accept that Iris was Ivy Sherwood?

"Why would I lie to you? While Iris has never appeared under her real name, we can see everyone’s information on the backend of the Perfumer Competition website. If you don’t believe me, you can look at the admin panel."

As he spoke, Mr. Sam logged into the admin panel of the official Perfumer Competition website with his administrator credentials. All the data on the backend was clearly visible, including the registration information and photos of the entrants.

There, Ivy Sherwood’s photo was perfectly clear, and her name was listed right after "Iris."

Mr. Sam said, "She’s been entering the competition since she was fifteen. I’m one of the organizers; how could I not know? She has won first place in the Perfumer Competition every year. Her skill is undeniable. But you people, you can’t stand to see someone else succeed, insisting she only got this contract through connections. From beginning to end, this was all thanks to her own hard work!"

After Mr. Sam’s speech, Thea Sherwood was so shocked she was rendered speechless.

’Iris is Ivy Sherwood. Ivy Sherwood is Iris.’

’If that’s really true, then Ivy Sherwood completely deserved to get this project.’

"This is impossible! Absolutely impossible! If it was really you, then why didn’t you say so sooner?" Thea Sherwood still refused to accept the facts, even with all the evidence laid out right in front of her.

The others who had come with Thea Sherwood also felt their faces burning with shame. They had to admit their skills were inferior.

"I’m not you. I’m not that vain, nor would I run around telling everyone, ’I’m Iris, the first-place winner of the Perfumer Competition.’ I was just being low-key. That doesn’t mean I dropped off the face of the earth."

Thea Sherwood’s face stiffened. She was precisely the type of person to tell everyone she met about her award. When she won third place, she had practically wanted to announce it to the whole world, even posting on social media to prove her "strength."

Of course, her strength was a sham, stolen from Ivy Sherwood, but that was beside the point.

"It’s rigged! This must be rigged! I demand an investigation! There’s no way you won first place!"

Ivy had been winning first place for years. Wasn’t it a bit late for Thea Sherwood to be raising doubts now?

Ivy sneered. "I agree with you. Maybe it *is* rigged. Perhaps someone who won an award did so by bribing the judges or stealing another’s perfume formulas. We should definitely investigate that thoroughly."

At Ivy’s words, Thea Sherwood’s face grew even paler.

She had been too agitated and had, in her haste, shot herself in the foot. She *had* used Ivy’s formula. If they launched an investigation and Ivy said something, she would be finished.

Besides, she really had asked Charlie Rhodes to bribe the judges for her. Even though she ended up not needing it after getting Ivy’s formula, if that were discovered during the investigation, she wouldn’t be able to explain her way out of it.

Hearing Ivy’s words, Mr. Sam sensed she knew something. He trusted her, so he nodded in agreement. "Since someone is questioning the fairness and integrity of our competition, we absolutely should investigate it thoroughly."

"No, no! Don’t investigate! No one is questioning anything! I’m not questioning it!" But it was too late. Thea Sherwood had already offended Mr. Sam; there was no way she could escape this unscathed.

Mr. Sam had already assigned people to the investigation. The farce was just about over.

Finally, the partner company brought out Ivy’s project proposal. When the representatives from the other companies saw it, they were struck silent. The proposal was simply perfect, leagues better than anything they had submitted.

Now, they were utterly and completely convinced of their defeat.

One by one, they began to apologize to Ivy Sherwood. "We only came because Thea Sherwood told us something unfair had happened. She bought our plane tickets and covered all our travel and lodging."

Though she had been crushingly defeated, Thea Sherwood still wasn’t ready to give up. She walked over and grabbed the arm of the man sitting at the head of the table. "Believe me, there’s something wrong with this Ivy Sherwood! She isn’t this capable! She’s not Iris! You’ve all been deceived!"

However, the man shoved Thea Sherwood away, walked to the end of the conference table, and stopped beside a young man. "Boss."

The young man looked to be under thirty, with distinctly Western features, a high-bridged nose, naturally blond hair, and strikingly light-colored eyes.

He waved a hand, and the man who had been at the head of the table understood instantly, ordering his men to throw Thea Sherwood out.

Everyone else knew the boss was present and had assumed it was the man at the head of the table. After all, in Calypsos, the most important person sits in the center. Who could have guessed that the youngest person, sitting at the far end of the table, was the real boss—and the brother of Elandra’s Princess, no less?

He then rose and walked over to stand before Ivy Sherwood.

Westerners tended to be tall, and he was a good half-head taller than her.

He extended a hand, his intrigued gaze falling upon Ivy’s face. "That was certainly entertaining. My name is Ayrester. Welcome to the company. Here’s to a pleasant collaboration, Iris."

Ivy returned the handshake. "A pleasure, Mr. Ayrester."

Ayrester had deliberately allowed people like Thea Sherwood to come up, wanting to see what kind of scene they would cause.

He had always been unconventional, insisting on choosing partners based on merit alone. He despised nepotism, largely because no matter what he accomplished, people would fawn over him and sing his praises on account of his sister, something he truly hated.

His own abilities were always overlooked, so he hoped to see more truly capable people be discovered and recognized.

When he was first selecting a partner, he had simply thought the proposal from Iris was very creative and their perfume was excellent. It was still a small company, but its surprisingly rapid growth so soon after its founding had impressed him. That was why he had chosen Iris.

He never expected the owner to have a secret identity, one that even a man like Mr. Sam, who rarely befriended anyone, would praise so highly.

’The mysterious Iris,’ he thought. ’How interesting.’