Surprisingly enough, Cheryl ended up listening to gossip about herself in the end!

She grinned and said, “Um, I’ll go first.”

“… Okay,” Zac replied.

Even after walking a distance away, Cheryl could still hear Mrs. Stannard nagging at Zac. “Young man, you are already in your twenties. It’s about time you find a girlfriend. It can’t possibly be that you’ve never had a girlfriend before because you’re into men instead, right?”

Cheryl: “??”

Did she just hear something she shouldn’t have?

She quickly sped up, lest she ended up being silenced by the captain.

Well, just kidding.

He wouldn’t actually kill her, of course. However, if he made her life difficult in the future, things would certainly become very troublesome.

As her mom said, one must always cut off any potential source of trouble!

It was only after Zac watched the kid speed up and escape that he finally came back to his senses. “Huh? What did you just say?”

Mrs. Stannard: “???”

—

Cheryl had a good night’s sleep that evening.

When she woke up the next day, the butler drove her to a nearby helicopter base, where she returned to New York for training via helicopter.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

All five shots hit the bullseye in succession.

Satisfied, Cheryl lowered the gun. Her coach then came over. “Good, it seems that you haven’t been slacking.”

But after saying that, he couldn’t help but start nagging at her. “Cheryl, you carry the national team’s hope of victory. We are counting on you for our gold medal this year. Can’t you join that game club later? What’s so good about games anyway? Can it win you anything? You should stay here to continue training instead. You…”

Cheryl couldn’t help but interrupt. “Coach, what am I even supposed to work on if I stay here to train?”

The coach suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Ever since Cheryl joined the national team, she had consistently hit the bullseye every time. It was indeed true that there was nothing she could improve anymore!

After all, how would he know that Justin was the one who had taught Cheryl her shooting skills?

However, she was not allowed to skip her monthly training. This was the furthest the coach would relent.

Cheryl had agreed to it as well.

After all, she did have to practice a bit every month to prevent her skills from becoming rusty.

It was currently June. Once the Olympics rolled about in August, she would be competing for Team America!

When she thought of how neither of her brothers was involved in such activities, Cheryl couldn’t help but smile.

After a whole afternoon of training, she finally found her groove.

Then, she went straight home in the evening.

As soon as she stepped through the door, she spotted Justin sitting on the sofa and staring at the door. At the sight of her, the man got up. In a low but gentle and cheerful voice, he said, “You’re back.”

“Uh-huh!” Cheryl skipped over and asked, “Where’s Mom, Dad?”

Justin replied, “Why are you looking for your mom the moment you return…? She’s already asleep.”

… I knew it! Cheryl thought.

Her mother’s terrible habit of excessive sleeping still hadn’t changed, despite so many years going by. She fell asleep all the time without any warning.

This was due to her mother’s physical constitution, though.

She was about to go upstairs when Justin said, “The kitchen has prepared your favorite chicken soup. New clothes and dresses from the current season have also been brought upstairs.”

After speaking, he looked at Cheryl disdainfully and said, “Girls should dress up more!”

Cheryl: “…”

Since she was a child, it was actually her father who had dressed her like a little princess all along.

She had indeed loved princess dresses when she was a child, but now… She wore whatever she found convenient, of course.

On the other hand, though, her father didn’t have similar expectations of her mother. Even if her mother wore a sack, he would still compliment her in it, even if he didn’t really mean it. Yet he now had so many expectations when it came to her?

She pouted and said, “Alright, alright!”

Then, she went upstairs.

Before she entered her room, she glanced behind at her father to find that he had quietly walked over to the master bedroom. He opened the door gently and then tiptoed in.

Despite so many years going by, Justin didn’t show any signs of aging at all, and even Nora could pass off as her sister when they stood next to each other.

It was as though they weren’t affected by the passage of time at all.

Cheryl shook her head and entered her room.

The home was the most comfortable after all. When she woke up the next day, she went to visit Mia.

Mia looked as gentle as ever. She was clearly younger than Cheryl, yet her thoughtfulness made her seem as though she was the older one instead.

The two had lunch together. In the afternoon, Cheryl went to the training ground for practice again. Then, in the evening, she took the helicopter back to San Francisco.

The next day, she went back to the club and started training with everyone again.

In the blink of an eye, another week had passed.

One day, everyone in the club sobered up. Even Zac looked serious and on guard.

A curious Cheryl asked, “What’s going on?”

While no one was looking, Lionel secretly replied, “The boss is coming over tonight!”

Cheryl: “?”

The boss? Uncle Chester?

While she was thinking, Lionel grumbled, “The boss loves playing games, but he’s unfortunately not very good at it. Even so, every time he comes over, he makes us play with him. He’s terrible at it, but he just loves playing it so much! He also has a bad temper. He disses us every time he loses… He has a real knack for insults, too. Do you know what he said when we asked him where he learned to diss others like that?”

An earnest and well-behaved Cheryl asked, “What did he say?”

Lionel answered, “He said that he learned it from his team leader and that he has already been showing us mercy!”

“…”

The corners of Cheryl’s lips spasmed, and she thought back to how vicious she had been in the past.

However, she had tried to restrain her temper a little the past month. Besides, she only threw insults at others because they were dumb, but her teammates were some of the best players in the game.

They cooperated well with one another in-game. Come to think of it, she hadn’t blasted anyone at all this month—because they had won all the matches!

Cheryl coughed.

Lionel went on. “Also, you know what, the boss’ background is no joke!”

“What?”

Cheryl was surprised.

Did Uncle Chesty have other identities that she was unaware of? Did he have secret identities too?!

While she was wondering, Lionel said, “He is a part of the Hunts in New York!”

Cheryl: “????”

“Uh-huh? What about it?”

“What do you mean ‘what about it’? The Hunts in New York! We’re talking about the wealthiest family in America! Even the Smiths are a tad less powerful than them. This is why the boss is so bad-tempered. The sight of him scares us! When he gets here, you’d better not rush up to him in front…”

God C was the club’s favorite person.

Lionel wouldn’t want her to be scolded by the boss, of course!

Every time the boss came over, he would always scold all of them at least a little. Even Captain Zac wasn’t spared. On top of that, he always scolded him for the same things.

“Can’t you smile?”

“How are you going to lead the team when you talk so little? This is so worrying!”

When he thought of this, Lionel couldn’t help but look at Cheryl.

Would the boss take pity on a cute little girl like her?

While he was thinking about it, he heard a voice coming from the door. “Boss is here!”

Then, a beaming Chester walked in.

As soon as he entered, his eyes locked onto Cheryl and he exclaimed, “Leader!”