The messages from the past two days had been asking how he had gotten into a conflict with Kawashima Haruhiro, wondering if he would be in trouble now that things had blown up, and offering help. But the messages that came in after five o'clock this afternoon were uniformly congratulatory!
Clearly, they had also been following the competition.
Not only because Zhao Yuan was one of the competitors, but because the duel had escalated to the level of a battle of traditions—a clash between nations.
Zhao Yuan thought for a moment, then composed a message to send as a group reply to all the concerned classmates, teachers, and friends. He first thanked them for their congratulations, then briefly explained that his phone had been confiscated during the competition and he had only just gotten it back. That was why he hadn't seen any of their earlier calls or messages and was replying late, so he hoped they wouldn't mind.
