Chapter 202: Chapter 202: Mrs. Lynch’s Mockery
Jillian Lynch listened to Mrs. Lynch’s words, a look of confusion flickered in her eyes, then her eyes suddenly brightened.
She gently nodded to Mrs. Lynch, and the two walked towards Ashley Shaw.
Rosalind Lynch inadvertently looked up and saw the mother and daughter heading towards Ashley Shaw and Elder Prescott, her brows immediately furrowed.
"Mom, Jillian, what are you doing?"
These two just can’t let her have some peace!
They really are more trouble than they’re worth.
If it weren’t for the fact that her father despised her now, she really wouldn’t want to bother with them.
However, after Rosalind Lynch asked out loud, Mrs. Lynch just glanced over and quickly turned her head back, then continued towards Ashley Shaw with Jillian Lynch.
Rosalind Lynch frowned and couldn’t help but stand up too, quickly following the two from behind.
She whispered in a voice only the three of them could hear, "Mom, can you stop messing around? Wasn’t the scene you caused just now embarrassing enough?"
Mrs. Lynch’s face fell with displeasure.
"What are you saying? I’m doing all this for you, aren’t I? If that Ashley Shaw hadn’t stolen Warren Prescott, how would you..."
"Enough, this is my own business, don’t interfere. Let’s go back to the coffee table and sit down. We’ll leave right after dinner."
"Why leave? Why sit? I’m just bored, and your sister is good at Go, so I’m taking her over to watch them play. Any problem with that? You, child... why are you siding with outsiders now?"
"I..."
"Alright, don’t worry about it. Mom won’t act foolish like before, rest assured."
Rosalind Lynch thought there was nothing wrong with watching them play Go for a while, so she let them go.
But just in case, she followed them as well.
It’s good to be there, in case mom does something stupid, she can stop her in time.
...
Meanwhile, Ashley Shaw and Elder Prescott had already reached the middle of the Go game.
Ashley Shaw knew Elder Prescott had recently been studying a newly acquired Go book and was eager to beat her once.
So from the moment she sat down, Ashley Shaw had already planned to let Elder Prescott win.
But making sure Elder Prescott doesn’t realize she’s letting him win is also a skill.
If it’s too obvious, Elder Prescott would see through it immediately and feel that beating her is meaningless.
But if she only let him win by a few steps, Elder Prescott might not be able to actually win against her.
As she racked her brains on how to "lose without a trace," Elder Prescott suddenly placed a piece in a certain spot.
Ashley Shaw instantly recognized it as a trap.
This piece was an attempt to lure the enemy in deeper.
Ordinarily, Ashley Shaw would never fall into this trap, but today... Elder Prescott unhesitatingly stood by her side, which moved her greatly.
Plus, she would soon be leaving this place, and might not have time to play Go with Elder Prescott again for a while.
So today, she had to lose this game, let the old man be happy.
Ashley Shaw picked up her white piece and, after some thought, walked into Elder Prescott’s trap using a roundabout strategy.
Yet the move she made was also skillful.
While Elder Prescott’s trap was intended to make her place her piece above and to the left of his, Ashley Shaw placed it below and to the right, taking a detour.
This turned Elder Prescott’s "smooth" victory into a somewhat "difficult" win.
When the last piece was placed, Elder Prescott stood up excitedly from the grand chair, his voice trembling, "I won!"
Ashley Shaw also breathed a long sigh of relief in her heart.
It seems Elder Prescott didn’t notice she let him win, wonderful.
"Congratulations, Elder Prescott." Ashley Shaw smiled with a curve of her lips, "Your Go skills have improved so rapidly lately, I’m not your match at all now."
"No, no," Elder Prescott waved his hand repeatedly, "It’s just good luck on my part."
Yet his happiness was visible.
Ashley Shaw was also happy for him.
However, in the next instant, Mrs. Lynch’s voice sounded from behind.
"Oh—"
The three of them instinctively looked in the direction of the voice.
Only to see that the Lynch mother and daughters had somehow come over as well.
Mrs. Lynch said, "Ashley’s Go skills aren’t bad, but alas, she still lost to the old man. You probably haven’t been learning Go for long, have you?"
When Rosalind Lynch heard her own mother’s words, she instinctively wanted to pull her mother’s sleeve.
But before she could touch her mom, she suddenly remembered the recent game.
Elder Prescott’s trap was too obvious; the fact that Ashley Shaw didn’t see such a simple trap and jumped right in showed her Go skills were indeed quite ordinary, like a beginner who hadn’t been studying for long.
So considering this, her mother’s words didn’t seem problematic.
Thinking of this, Rosalind Lynch finally withdrew her hand.
She hated Ashley Shaw bitterly, and her mother taunting Ashley Shaw made her happy.
Besides, with Warren Prescott not around, she wasn’t afraid of Ashley Shaw getting upset.
Ashley Shaw, still seated, heard Mrs. Lynch’s obviously dismissive tone, her fine eyebrows slightly furrowed, but she quickly regained a composed expression.
"Yes, Elder Prescott’s Go skills are becoming more and more formidable, I admit defeat."
Elder Prescott’s good mood turned cloudy after seeing Mrs. Lynch, becoming half as good.
He couldn’t help but explain for Ashley Shaw, "Ashley was just not in good form today, I’ve never beaten her before."
But how could Mrs. Lynch believe that?
She also played Go, so she had seen the trap earlier.
But even someone like her, who knew just the basics, could see it, yet Ashley Shaw did not, which was enough to show that Ashley Shaw was simply not skilled.
Or perhaps, she had actually studied for a long time but had no talent in this area.
Thus, Mrs. Lynch assumed Elder Prescott was just giving Ashley Shaw a way out.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Lynch displayed a smug expression and said, "It’s alright, Go is about talent and effort. If you’re not good at it, you can learn slowly. Like our Jillian, she’s been studying for several years. Though she has no talent, she’s very diligent. Just recently, she won a national middle school Go championship."
"Jillian is that amazing?" Elder Prescott looked at Jillian Lynch in surprise.
Ashley Shaw also looked sideways, and seeing Jillian Lynch’s young face, she felt a complex emotion.
If she viewed her as a former rival, it felt like an adult bullying a child.
Moreover, she no longer had the same feelings for Warren Prescott as before. Not just to Jillian Lynch, she also felt no animosity from a romantic rival towards Rosalind Lynch.
The entanglement with Rosalind was due to Rosalind continuously causing her trouble in this life, not because of past matters.
Speaking of which, in the previous life, she was the "cuckoo in the nest," taking the place of the missing Rosalind Lynch.
But it was impossible for her to be entirely at peace with Jillian Lynch either.
She didn’t believe Jillian Lynch’s past with Warren Prescott was entirely clean; that necklace explained everything.
She could only do her best to forget everything from the past, viewing Jillian Lynch as a stranger.