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Chapter 61 — The Studio Gets Smashed

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Lately, she’d been so busy with the competition that she had no time at all to spare for the studio. Xiaomei and Wendy were running themselves ragged, and if Sisi could come back now, things would definitely get better.
After Sisi’s father’s surgery, she returned to the studio.
Today, Claire Xu finally had some free time and came by the studio to see her.
“Shengsheng, are you saying Yancy Shaw is actually the third young master of the Shen family in Ancheng?” Claire Xu stared at her in disbelief. “That’s some major news!”
Lauren Shaw nodded, and told her about what had happened at the charity gala. Claire Xu nearly burst out laughing.
“Yvonne Sung’s mom is something else. Shooting her mouth off like that and still dreaming of you becoming their daughter-in-law?”
Lauren Shaw shrugged helplessly. Yvonne Sung and his mother were two of a kind—if they can’t have something, they’d rather destroy it.
After chatting for a bit, Lauren Shaw turned the conversation to Claire Xu and Henry Mills.
Claire Xu’s expression grew awkward. “Why are you bringing him up all of a sudden?”
“Just curious. How’s it going between you two?” Lauren Shaw could already guess a thing or two just by watching her expression.
“It’s… alright, I suppose.”
Lauren Shaw teased, “What, you’re not calling him a sleazebag anymore?”
Claire Xu mumbled, “He doesn’t seem quite as sleazy as I originally thought.”
Lauren Shaw nodded knowingly. “Seems like you owe me that meal sooner than expected.”
“Oh, stop it. Don’t go reading too much into things. I was just chatting with his sister—she’s really nice, so I figured he can’t be all that bad either.”
Lauren Shaw decided not to call her out on her true feelings.
As the two chatted, several men suddenly appeared at the door.
Lauren Shaw eyed them carefully. They all looked fierce, like she owed them money or something.
“Who’s the boss here?” A tattooed man with arms covered in ink bellowed.
Lauren Shaw met his gaze, unafraid. “That’d be me. What do you want?”
The group of thugs glared at her menacingly.
The tattooed man sized her up. “What do we want? Hmph, do you even know who you’ve pissed off?”
Lauren Shaw was baffled. She’d just been minding her own business at home—who could she possibly have offended?
Claire Xu pulled her behind, staring the men down warily. “Who did she offend?”
They were just here on someone else’s orders, sent to cause a scene today—they didn’t actually know who had supposedly been offended.
The tattooed man sneered, ignoring Claire Xu’s question, and barked an order to his crew: “Smash it up.”
At that, the thugs started wrecking the studio. Xiaomei and Wendy bolted in terror to call the police, while Lauren Shaw and Claire Xu were trapped inside.
In no time, the place was in ruins.
“What do you think you’re doing?! It’s broad daylight! Have you never heard of the law?” Henry Mills barged in right then, spotting Lauren Shaw and Claire Xu huddled in the corner. Seeing they weren’t hurt, he exhaled in relief.
Thank goodness they were only smashing up furniture—they hadn’t tried to hurt anyone.
The tattooed thug scoffed when Henry Mills burst in. “Better stay out of this, or you’ll get smashed too.”
Henry Mills looked them over with a mocking smile. “You’ll smash me? Go ahead, I’d love to see you try!”
The thugs had no real intention of actually hurting anyone—they just wanted to scare the women. But Henry Mills’s arrival made them feel their authority was challenged.
The tattooed man signaled his men.
Several of them immediately moved to surround Henry Mills.
Seeing the situation about to get violent, Lauren Shaw spoke up. “Don’t hurt anyone. You’re here because of me, aren’t you? Go ahead and wreck things if you must, but if you hurt someone, you’ll have a lot more to answer for.”
She kept her cool, staring them down. By now, almost everything in the studio was trashed. All she cared about was making sure no one got hurt.
Hearing her words, some of the thugs hesitated.
But one of them suddenly kicked Henry Mills in the stomach.
That pushed Henry Mills over the edge; he grabbed a chair and swung it at them.
The thugs retaliated, fists and feet flying.
Henry Mills knew how to box, so he wasn’t a pushover in a fight. Still, with Lauren Shaw and Claire Xu there, he worried the thugs might hurt them.
Seeing things get out of hand, the tattooed man pulled a knife from his pocket and slashed at Henry Mills.
“Look out!” Lauren Shaw shouted.
Henry Mills realized what was happening a second too late.
The knife grazed his abdomen.
The tattooed man hadn’t intended to actually injure anyone; he was so shocked he dropped the knife instantly and bolted for the door.
But by now, the police had arrived and blocked their escape.
Henry Mills slumped into Claire Xu’s arms, clutching his stomach.
Claire Xu burst out crying, pulling at his shirt to check the wound.
Henry Mills resisted, pressing his hands hard to his stomach. “I… I’m not gonna make it. Could you… could you promise me one thing?”
Lauren Shaw didn’t approach. Instead, she picked up the knife and inspected it. Hmm… no blood. He was probably fine.
She looked at Henry Mills, who was now lying in Claire Xu’s arms, barely clinging to life. Tsk, his acting was top notch.
Claire Xu, completely fooled, believed he was really injured. Tears kept streaming down her cheeks.
“Alright, whatever it is, I promise you. Just say it.”
“Really?” Henry Mills could barely contain his excitement.
That gave Claire Xu pause—he looked a bit too healthy for a dying man. She immediately caught on.
Her hand slid stealthily to his wounded abdomen and pinched hard.
“Ow!” Henry Mills yelped, jumping up from the pain.
“Go on, keep acting!” Claire Xu wiped away her tears. Damn him, making her cry over nothing.
Henry Mills clutched his side where she’d pinched him.
Truth was, the thug hadn’t actually hurt him. Henry Mills had dodged the knife at the last second, fast enough to fool everyone—including the thug, who thought he’d landed a hit.
“Wow, you didn’t hold back! Pinched me with all you had!”
Claire Xu snorted coldly. “Serves you right for faking it.”
Just then, a police officer came in, asking who had called.
Xiaomei was standing by the door, still shaking. She raised her hand, “It was me.”
The police rounded up all the thugs and took them to the station. Lauren Shaw and Claire Xu went along to give statements.
The tattooed man, convinced he’d just stabbed Henry Mills, was so shaken he could barely talk.
When questioned, the thugs spilled everything.
“Someone hired us—offered a hundred grand to smash up the place.”
Claire Xu sneered, “A hundred grand? Do you have any idea how much damage you did? That won’t even come close to covering it.”
“We really didn’t know. The woman just said smash things, don’t hurt anyone, and there’d be no trouble.”
A bunch of clueless thugs, playing tough but totally out of their depth.
Lauren Shaw replied coldly, “Pay up.”
It was a real thrill for them to smash things—now it’d ache to cough up compensation.
After tallying the studio’s losses, Lauren Shaw announced, “Everything adds up to over six hundred thousand. So, how are you going to pay for it?”
The tattooed man almost broke down in tears. “It was that woman who told us to do it! She’s the one who should pay.”
“And who exactly is this woman?” That was what Lauren Shaw really wanted to know—the mastermind pulling the strings was the most despicable of all.
She hadn’t offended that many people lately, and she had a pretty good idea who was behind it. But there was no solid proof—at least not yet.