Chapter 51 Design Competition Results
Good thing it wasn't Joanna.
It was a girl with thick eyebrows and big eyes, not particularly tall, but she looked young.
Chris breathed a sigh of relief.
Cynthia said with a smile, "See, Chris, I told you Joanna was lying to us."
"It's not the first time she's pretended to be someone else." Chris's eyes flashed with displeasure. Last time, Joanna deliberately wore the same clothes as Dr. J to stop him from finding a doctor for his grandfather. Joanna had really changed—she was becoming more and more unlikable!
The award ceremony continued. After deliberately building up the suspense, the host paused again. "Alright, I know everyone's excited, but our judges need time to select the winning piece. The audience also has voting rights, and you can vote through..."
While the host was explaining, Chris and Cynthia became focused. They knew their opportunity had come.
They knew there would be a deliberate gap in the ceremony to build suspense.
The two dropped their voting devices and quietly followed Linda as she headed backstage.
Cynthia brushed her hair back and took the initiative to call out, "Mrs. Stone! I'm Cynthia, Design Director at Cooper Corporation and William's student. Could you spare me a moment?"
Linda stopped, very interested.
Backstage was normally off-limits, but hearing this was the person who had plagiarized Joanna's work, Linda decided not to send her away.
Linda crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. "Go ahead."
Cynthia could tell that Linda's face showed curiosity, not dislike!
Thinking William's name had worked, she immediately smiled and handed over her design. "Our submitted work got mixed up by a new intern before. This is our real submission. But since the deadline has passed, we wanted to deliver it in person so you could see it. We've prepared not just the sketches but also the actual dress, and we can have the model change into it anytime."
Linda frowned and glanced at the design. While it met the standards for the preliminary round, it was far from award-worthy. After a few looks, she lost interest. "If your company were to entrust the competition submission to a newcomer, then you clearly don't care about the results. If that's the case, what's the point of making another trip to deliver your work?"
Cynthia had been trying to shift the blame onto someone else, but didn't expect Linda to catch her out.
Starting to sweat, she quickly said, "We really do care! We actually pulled an all-nighter working on this piece. When it came time to submit, we were exhausted and let someone new handle it, and she accidentally mixed things up. But we've learned from this mistake. Please take a look at my design—it's definitely just as good as anything else on that stage!"
Cynthia was very confident about this.
After all, her mentor William had praised her several times as a talented student who would definitely create excellent work in the future.
Linda raised an eyebrow. Seeing Chris enter behind them, her expression cooled a bit. She recognized this person—Joanna's husband.
Cynthia eagerly made introductions. "Mrs. Stone, if you don't believe me, you can ask my boss, Mr. Cooper!"
Chris had fallen behind and didn't hear what Cynthia said, but he trusted that Cynthia wouldn't harm the company, so he just nodded. "What she said is true, I can vouch for it."
Linda narrowed her eyes and suddenly smiled, taking Cynthia's work. "Alright, this piece does have potential. Where's your dress? I'll have the model change into it right now and have the host add it to the program."
Both Cynthia and Chris were immediately delighted.
They had succeeded!
With the work recognized by the organizers, they could clear their name of plagiarism and recover some of their losses!
Meanwhile, Joanna had finally finished surgery. Exhausted, she could finally go home and rest.
On the way, she opened the livestream and caught the second half.
The host teased the audience. "We actually have one more piece that hasn't been shown yet. Let's all take a look together!"
Then they had the model come out wearing the sample dress.
Cynthia's new design was a strapless bubble dress with delicate rhinestones on the shoulder straps and a layered skirt that made the model's legs look very long.
As soon as it appeared, it caught many people's attention.
Cynthia sat up straight in the audience, lips curved upward, very pleased with herself.
The host glanced at the audience and said with a smile, "Alright, this piece won't be part of the voting. The judges will directly announce whether they select this work."
Seven judges, with Linda sitting in the center.
Chris was certain they would win an award.
Among the first three judges, no one selected this piece.
Soon it was Linda's turn to choose. She glanced in Cynthia's direction and, without hesitation, made the same choice as the first three.
Chris's face immediately darkened.
The remaining judges also didn't select their work.
Y's piece passed unanimously and became the winning design.
The enthusiastic applause had nothing to do with Cynthia and Chris. They couldn't sit still, so they got up and left.
"I don't understand—if Linda didn't like our work, why did she give us the chance to go on stage?" Cynthia was upset the whole way, unable to believe she had still lost.
She had shown this piece to William, and he said it was very well executed and her best work!
Chris was irritated inside and didn't want to respond to Cynthia at all, keeping his eyes closed the whole way to the airport.
Having finished watching the livestream, Joanna received a call from her teacher. "So, do you understand your design abilities now? Most of the audience votes went to you, too. Right after the livestream ended, I got calls from several manufacturers wanting to sponsor your winning dress."
Linda seemed to be complaining that Joanna had caused her trouble, but she was actually very proud inside.
Joanna heard the satisfaction in Linda's voice and said with a smile, "I've never underestimated my abilities. After all, you're my teacher."
Linda smiled and asked, "You saw that piece that was inserted, right? Cynthia and the others stopped me backstage and submitted such a hastily completed work. If I didn't want her to see the difference between her work and yours, I wouldn't have wanted to dirty the runway with such a piece."
Joanna had seen that work, but didn't expect it to be Cynthia's remake.
She was somewhat surprised. "Why didn't you just refuse?"
Linda sighed. "William called me and asked for a favor. Besides, isn't publicly humiliating her work a good way to strike back?"
Joanna knew that Linda actually wanted to get revenge for her and let off some steam.
Having met Cynthia backstage, Linda must have also seen Chris.
At the end of the day, Linda was actually angry that she had wasted three years on such a man.
Joanna felt guilty inside.