From Trash to Treasure: The Sinclair Family's Beloved Genius

The first episode of *Genius* drew a great deal of attention.

Online opinions were mixed, but the show was recommended by millions, scoring as high as 8.7 on a popular review site. And as time went on, the score continued to climb.

In short, *Genius* had gone viral.

And the person at the center of it all was Chloe Sinclair.

Chloe Sinclair, however, took the advice of her online fans to heart. Every morning at seven, she would post a selfie or other photos from her daily life right on schedule. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

At first, Chloe Sinclair wasn’t used to it, and abusive comments would occasionally pop up.

But what was touching was that some fans would immediately report the hate comments when they saw them. Some, worried she might take it to heart, even sent her private messages telling her not to let the online trolls get to her.

Of course, Chloe Sinclair wasn’t bothered. In fact, she felt quite lucky.

Chloe Sinclair had followed many people from the production team, and they had followed her back. Since Gabriel Sinclair had reposted a post from the official *Genius* account, the production team had followed him as well, out of courtesy.

A host of other contestants had also followed Gabriel Sinclair.

The only person who hadn’t followed him back was Chloe Sinclair.

Gabriel had even called her specifically to rush her, telling her to hurry up and follow him online.

Chloe Sinclair immediately figured out Gabriel’s little scheme and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Still, not wanting to hurt his feelings, she immediately went online and followed him.

Gabriel, seizing the opportunity, followed her back the instant she did.

The production team was stunned. The contestants were dumbfounded. The netizens were utterly bewildered.

[Why did our Gabriel follow Chloe Sinclair?]

[I mean, our girl is great and all, but being followed by a superstar is... so dangerous.]

[@Gabriel Sinclair, did you accidentally follow her? Was it a misclick?]

[To the person above, there’s no way it was a misclick. If it was, he would’ve unfollowed immediately. See? He has no intention of unfollowing her.]

[Then why...?]

[If I’m not mistaken, it must be a case of a slacker admiring a straight-A student.]

[Yes, yes, that makes perfect sense! Our boy decided to get serious about his studies this month. Didn’t he just post a picture of a *Quantum Physics* textbook yesterday?]

The replies below were full of mocking laughter:

[Come on, you guys. He’s probably just trying to build up a new image.]

[As much as I’d love to support that image, our boy’s college entrance exam score was literally 250...]

Seeing his own fans mocking him in the comments, Gabriel felt a mix of anger and indignation.

He looked at his agent with pleading eyes, a hint of defiance in his voice. "So I can’t be a top student?"

His agent rolled his eyes at him. "And how do you plan on doing that? With your college entrance exam score of 250?"

Gabriel immediately shut his mouth, but his eyes still smoldered with defiance.

An outsider would have thought he was about to pick a fight.

"It’s a good thing the fans didn’t dig any deeper this time. If this started trending, it would be difficult for us to manage."

The agent’s expression turned serious. "Gabriel, you’re my boss, so you can be impulsive. But I’m also your agent, and I need to remind you again: if you really want to go public with your relationship with Miss Sinclair, you first need to get your anti-fans under control. Second, you need to be powerful enough to protect your sister. Understand?"

The color drained from Gabriel’s face, and his expression darkened.

After a long moment, he reverted to his usual devil-may-care attitude, slumping bonelessly onto the sofa.

"I know."

’I have too many anti-fans. If I get caught up in some huge scandal, Chloe would probably be the first one to get dragged into it.’

"By the way, did you find out who was feeding information to those marketing accounts?"

At this, the agent shook his head. "I’ve already contacted the marketing accounts that were running counter-publicity for Miss Sinclair, but they’re tight-lipped. I couldn’t get anything out of them."

Recently, any negative story about Chloe Sinclair would be discovered and neutralized almost instantly.

At first, Gabriel thought his father and older brother were behind it, but he eventually realized the methods didn’t match their style at all. That’s why he’d asked his agent to look into it.

He never expected it would be a dead end.

Gabriel fell into deep thought. After a moment, he shifted his position, resting his chin in his palm as he mulled things over distractedly.

"Forget it. Don’t look into it anymore. Whoever it is, they’re helping our Chloe."

The agent looked like he wanted to say something, but seeing Gabriel’s nonchalant expression, he decided against it.

—

「Kennet First High School」

The college entrance exams were just a few days away.

After the physical check-ups came the stressful first and second mock exams.

Chloe Sinclair was fully prepared. In her spare time, she even helped her classmates review the key topics.

On the second mock exam, three-quarters of the students in Class 7 scored above the cutoff for first-tier universities, and not a single student fell below the cutoff for second-tier universities.

Kyle Stern’s eyes turned red with emotion as he looked over his class’s results.

For the remaining time, he didn’t plan any more lectures, instead leaving the students to study on their own.

Chloe Sinclair now had plenty of free time, which she spent reading by herself in a corner.

After class, Summer Beckett glanced over curiously. When he saw the title on the cover of Chloe’s book, his eyes went wide with shock.

"High-temperature... high-temperature superconductivity?"

’What in the world is that?’

’The term sounds vaguely familiar... and really advanced.’

Summer Beckett swallowed hard. "You can understand that?"

Chloe Sinclair replied, "Why would I be reading it if I couldn’t understand it?"

"..."

He was silent for a moment. He had to admit, she had a point.

Summer Beckett was left speechless, his gaze filled with nothing but admiration for her.

[BEEP—]

[Congratulations, Host. Reputation Value +60]

[Current Reputation Value: 3060]

Chloe was puzzled, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

’What was that about?’ she asked quickly.

[*Genius*, the show you’re on, is getting a great response online. A lot of people have started paying attention to you!]

But not everyone’s attention translates into reputation value.

The primary requirement is that the person must truly and completely admire the Host.

It’s similar to what people online would call a diehard fan.

Chloe Sinclair understood. Her gaze shifted to Summer Beckett.

Seeing Chloe looking at him, Summer immediately straightened his back, smoothed out his school uniform, and coughed twice into his hand.

Chloe’s expression grew complicated. ’Eight,’ she asked, ’those sixty reputation points... they didn’t come from Summer Beckett, did they?’

[They did.]

Chloe’s lip twitched. She hadn’t expected him to contribute so much reputation value all by himself.

[According to system data, Summer Beckett is currently the sixth-highest contributor to your reputation value.]

"..."

’Who are the top five?’

[I’m afraid this system cannot answer that question.]

Annoyed, Chloe decided she didn’t want to talk to Eight anymore and promptly muted its voice in her head.

Meanwhile, Summer Beckett found it a little strange that Chloe had been quiet for so long.

’She always seems to be zoning out in her seat,’ he thought. ’Sometimes for the entire day.’

’Maybe this is what the world of a study god is like?’

’It’s only natural that a slacker like me wouldn’t get it.’

"What were you just thinking about?"

A smile touched Chloe’s lips. "I was just thinking that you can be pretty cute sometimes."