Chapter 30 This Was Clearly Not Crafted by You

Ava initially thought those words were just a hallucination. She thought, ‘How can someone like Ethan carry himself so humbly?’

She had always wanted to create a perfume that she was truly satisfied with but always felt like something was missing.

It wasn't until yesterday when she smelled that familiar musky scent on Ethan that she finally broke through her thinking barrier, resulting in the perfume she held in her hand today, which was already sufficient to make her smoothly enter the finals.

Not only that, she was full of inspiration. Overnight, she managed to concoct three more perfumes that she was even more satisfied with.

Arriving at the Prosperity Group's semifinal venue, Ava submitted her formula and samples to the organizers before stepping onto the stage.

In the semifinal, the perfumers needed to bring their works onto the stage and tell their stories. To her disgust, Tasha was standing next to her again.

"Ava, you're destined to lose today," Tasha sneered disdainfully in her ear.

Ava ignored her, suddenly fixing her gaze on a corner below the stage.

She thought, ‘Ethan is here!’

At this moment, he was sitting in the far corner, his deep eyes looking at her from a distance, appearing as leisurely as a newly awakened lion, exuding an air of disdain for the world.

The host announced, "Today, the first perfumer to enter the finals is…"

Tasha immediately straightened up and took a step forward. Tyrone had already arranged everything. She was determined to win today's competition.

But the next moment, the voice of the person in charge echoed throughout the venue. "The first perfumer is Ava Smith!"

"Impossible!" Tasha exclaimed, rushing forward and snatching the microphone from the person in charge's hand, pointing at Ava and shouting, "I object! Her formula is plagiarized!"

The scene immediately fell into chaos. The person in charge looked at her seriously. "Miss Cross, you have to take responsibility for what you say."

Tasha sneered, "Of course, because the formula she copied is mine!"

Ava looked at her amusedly. "Tasha, you claim that my formula is copied from yours. Do you have any evidence?"

Tasha said, "Of course."

"Okay, since you have evidence, let's publicly discuss our concoctions and let everyone judge." Ava looked at her.

Tasha's face turned pale for a moment, and she hurriedly argued, "That won't do. If I speak out, it'll be a breach of confidentiality for perfumers, which is a great disrespect."

Ava asked, "Since Miss Cross is so unwilling, I suspect you're framing me. Moreover, this is just a semifinal. Even if we reveal the formulas, we still have our own patent rights. If others use them, it's still plagiarism. Or... is it that this wasn't personally crafted by you at all?"

"You! Who says it wasn't?" Tasha couldn't argue her way out and quickly shifted her focus, revealing a generous and gentle smile. "Alright, then please have the staff publicly announce our formulas, and everyone will know."

"No need." Ava suddenly spoke up.

Tasha's eyes lit up, thinking that Ava was admitting defeat.

But then Ava continued, "I know my own formulations very well. My perfume is called 'Morning After the Rain.' Its top notes are..."

Facing the audience, Ava fluently and unreservedly revealed her formula and detailed explanations of the effects of each fragrance.

Tasha's face grew increasingly worse. She had no idea that this despicable woman had managed to come up with so many tricks behind her back, and she began to sweat nervously.

The assessors nodded one after another. "Miss Smith's formula is indeed similar to Miss Cross's, but several key fragrances are different, elevating the entire perfume to another level, with profound implications."

Tasha looked coldly at her. "So you think I'm the one who plagiarized?"

The judge hesitated when he saw her gaze, then smiled and said, "Of course, Miss Cross's perfume is also well-crafted. Both of you will enter the finals."

Ava could tell at a glance that those people had been bribed.

But she wasn't worried. She didn't believe that a big company like Prosperity Group would tolerate a talentless plagiarist like Tasha in the finals.