Chapter 972: Chapter 975

Everyone else was coupled up, with wives and husbands walking hand-in-hand, but only the two of them were singles. After Sophia lost her memory, she encountered them as a gay couple from the first time she met Stanley. She naturally accepted this to be a fact, and she never found it to be odd—she even thought that they looked good together! Everyone else had always treated Sean as a girl; they all assumed he was Stanley’s little girlfriend. None of them seem bothered by the fact that Sean and Stanley always stuck together all the time.

“Do you want some seeds, Aunt Sophia?” Stanley asked.

“I still have a lot of biscuits with me,” she replied.

“Do you want some, Master Sam?” Stanley didn’t seem to realize the subtle change in everyone’s gazes as he continued to offer the melon seeds that he hadn’t finished to everyone in the room.

“Stanley, Sean, Sarah, let’s have a meeting later. I have some important stuff to tell you guys,” Sophia said out of nowhere. Although no one knew what she was about to tell them, they all nodded after seeing the serious expression on her face.

After chit-chatting for a while longer, all of them left the room backstage. Joel left for work while Maddie stayed back to deal with the aftermath of the event. On the other hand, Sophia and Michael left the hall along with Sarah and Harry. They expected most of the news reporters to have left by then, but they were surprised to be stopped by a huge flock of reporters the moment they stepped out of the building.

Being the first winner of the ‘Light of Cethos’ award in more than 10 years, Michael was the biggest winner of the entire ceremony, and a large number of reporters therefore wanted to hear his thoughts and reflections—or at least, that was what Sophia expected the reporters to have asked. Instead, their questions only grew odder and odder.

“Mr. Taylor Murray, what are your thoughts on the claims of you using others to gain fame? Your journey in the industry has been smooth-sailing ever since your initial debut; could this be due to your relationship with the Fletchers?” one asked.

“Mr. Taylor Murray, why did you choose to use the ‘Dragon Eye’ imitation in public?” another asked.

Sophia found their questions to be extremely odd. What is with this talk about the Dragon Eye imitation?

Using others to gain fame? Why would they ask about that?! She couldn’t be bothered to reply to them, and Michael didn’t want to say a single word at all, so they got the security to block all of the reporters away. All Michael wanted to do then was to rush back to give Carmen a big hug.

Once they got into the car and left, Sophia finally found the time to pull her phone out and check the current news. The livestream for ‘Light of Cethos’ had garnered more views than the New Year livestream, and the Internet was flooded with all the comments and discussions. A number of trending posts regarding ‘Light of Cethos’ appeared on Sophia’s main page, and she glanced through them to see that they were mostly good reviews. The ‘Light of Cethos’ event was too huge of a deal; ghostwriting companies would have to re-evaluate their own capabilities if they were to consider fabricating any issues online. Despite all this, there was still a negative post on Michael that had surfaced. Sophia tapped on it to find that someone had secretly filmed and posted a video of Michael taking his phone out.

Michael’s phone appeared to be special in the video; it was a Dragon Eye phone, but not one that was being sold on the market.

‘Hmm… it must be an imitation!’

‘I can’t believe an Academy Award winner like him uses a fake!’

‘He must be really poor to have done this.’

‘He just lost his lifeline, after all. Perhaps they only gave him this ‘Light of Cethos’ award because of who his grandfather is.’

‘The award is nothing more than an empty title; he doesn’t even get prize money for it. It’s almost as if he didn’t get it at all. He’s still an outdated male actor; he’s fading out in the industry, and all he can do now is spend his grandfather’s money.’

Sophia felt increasingly confused as she went through the comments. Why can a handphone spark so much interest?! What is this talk about it being an imitation?! How could my gift to him be a fake?!

…

The people from Maddie’s department seized the opportunity to ride this trend by gathering all of Michael’s achievements and uploading them onto a website. They shared it on their official page and successfully created a hot discussion online. As Sophia went through the website, she was surprised to see the number of things that Michael had done throughout the years. Many of the movies he were in made it into the global box office’s top 100 movies list; he fought the ethnic discrimination against Cethosian actors and actresses; he did a good deal of charity without announcing it to the public; he even had a number of activities during the year that he ‘died’! School of Hope branches were set up across the world, along with orphanages that helped the children.

‘Taylor Murray’s Charity Fund has been operating with a low profile. Now, they have supported over a 100 schools on a national and global level, and the number is still increasing. One of them is ‘Sophia’s School of Hope’, which already has more than 50 branches…’ Sophia’s gaze lit up the moment she saw her own name. She put her phone down before turning to the man beside her. I can’t believe he’s donated to so many schools just for me.

Michael was doing some work on his laptop when he felt Sophia’s gaze burning into him. “Hmm?” he mumbled as he looked up at her. “It’s nothing. Don’t mind me…” Sophia quickly muttered. Michael reached over to plant a gentle kiss on her red lips. She then shifted her gaze toward his laptop only to see that he had been looking at the same post that Maddie’s department had uploaded online. “Tsk, I can’t believe Maddie dug out so much information,” he uttered. She even counted the number of Schools of Hope that I donated to throughout the years. She’s a hardcore fan of mine indeed, huh.

As Michael went through the news, he noticed that most of the pictures published were of him at the Schools of Hope that he had donated to. He wrapped his arms around Sophia’s waist as he explained himself. “I have been using both you and Carmen’s names to donate to these schools throughout the years. I thought it’d be good to perform as many charitable acts as I could; I donated funds to help with their construction fees, to build disaster relief schools, and so on. I was trying to accumulate virtues for Carmen in hopes that she would grow up healthy and safe, but I guess the accumulated virtues saved you as well.”

“You silly!” Sophia burst into laughter. Michael chuckled along with her before he pointed at one of the photos of a child laughing in one of the schools. “Look at these kids. I thought of you when I saw them.

You were just like them back then; you all wanted to get into a good school to change your lives through your own hard work and effort. Unfortunately, things aren’t always that easy, and they might not even get the chance to complete their studies…”

Sophia no longer had any memories of that dark period in her life. However, now that she had Michael in her life, she didn’t need anything more…

…

The car stopped in front of the Crimson House Restaurant. A large group of people were already gathered there, as they all waited for the ‘Light of Cethos’ to buy them a meal. Cooper brought Carmen over, while Linus and Alice were invited to the meal as well.

“Daddy!” Carmen cried.

“Ah, my darling!” Michael took Carmen over from Cooper. Carmen had given him the biggest surprise that day—she nearly made an old man like him break into tears of joy in front of a public audience.

Cooper no longer seemed as cold and aloof as he was before, and he even smiled during the meal. He probably felt a little proud as a father-in-law since his son-in-law had just won an award. Michael was pleased to see the change in Cooper, and the both of them sat beside one another as they talked about Carmen’s debut during the meal.

They concluded that it was impossible for Carmen to place all of her focus on preparing for her debut.

She could take a single project each year at most, but she had to spend the remainder of her time on her studies.

To Cooper, Carmen was like a substitute for Sophia. He wanted to use the same methods that he had employed with training Linus and Alice to train Carmen, so that both Sophia and Carmen could go against the family head. Carmen was a smart girl; she knew how to use her resources and funds even at such a young age. She was clearly an intellectual, and Cooper believed in her abilities—acting would be nothing more than a side job for her.

After filtering through the options, Cooper finally chose a magical fairy tale film for her. Her schedule was especially packed since she also had to appear on ‘Where Are We Going, Dad?’ at the same time.

Everyone was equally busy that year, Sophia included. She gathered the other 3 founders of Plum Technology into a private room to host a formal and serious meeting. She had a huge announcement to make…