Chapter 137 Stunning Design
In the waiting area, what had been relatively restrained whispers had long since turned into blatant pointing and gossiping.
Several designers who prided themselves on having some seniority deliberately walked past Cecilia. Among them was a woman with exaggerated winged eyeliner, Tatum, who intentionally raised her voice.
"Some people are really something. We stay up all night working on our designs, while she just needs to say a few words, chat with investors, and she can easily advance."
A man named Vance snorted and chimed in, "With a pretty face, you can get everything, right? This world is so unfair to people like us who only know how to work hard."
Their gazes fell boldly on Cecilia, their undisguised jealousy and contempt almost tangible.
Cecilia finally lifted her eyelids and calmly met their provocation.
Her posture didn't change at all, still distant and indifferent.
"People with no independent judgment, who just treat so-called online public opinion as gospel truth," Cecilia spoke, her words clear and cutting through the surrounding noise, "are the ones who attribute others' success entirely to luck and looks."
Her comeback contained no profanity, yet it precisely hit their sore spot.
Their faces turned extremely ugly, left speechless by her retort.
"As for whether I'm standing here because of my pretty face or my hard work," Cecilia looked away and closed her eyes again to rest, leaving one final remark, "just wait and see the final designs and competition results, won't that make everything crystal clear?"
The entire waiting area fell into an eerie silence, and no one dared to challenge her face-to-face anymore.
But the undercurrent of malice in the air grew even stronger.
That afternoon, the results of the first elimination round were finally to be announced on the main stage.
All contestants took their seats according to their numbers, while the huge electronic screen displayed real-time comments from the online livestream.
[Go Isadora! The championship is definitely yours!]
[Number 108 get out of the design world! Damn bitch who joins competitions by selling her body!]
[What is the organizer doing? Why haven't they disqualified her yet? This kind of person is a disgrace to the industry!]
Vicious comments flooded the screen, forming a stark contrast to the adoration for Isadora.
Host Quinton walked onto the stage with his cue cards, and the atmosphere instantly became extremely tense.
"After difficult deliberation by our panel of judges, the outstanding works most favored by the judges in the first round have been selected!"
"Now, let's appreciate the first piece together!"
On the big screen, a design was clearly displayed.
It was a gown inspired by "melting glaciers," with the hem using crushed diamonds and crystals to simulate the texture of cracking ice. The design was gorgeous and full of commercial appeal.
In the bottom right corner, the designer's name was clearly marked: Isadora.
Warm applause erupted throughout the venue.
"A very beautiful design! Ms. Penrose truly deserves her reputation from the international haute couture scene, perfectly combining the environmental theme with commercial aesthetics!"
A younger judge on the panel gave high praise.
The comment stream immediately surged.
[So beautiful! This is what a master's design looks like!]
[She's definitely the champion! Is there even any need to compete?]
[Isadora is amazing! Making those who only know how to get ahead by selling their bodies look bad!]
Isadora sat in the first row of the contestants' section, listening to the surrounding praise and the adoration on screen, her tense nerves finally relaxing.
She gracefully nodded slightly toward the camera, enjoying this glory that belonged to the victor.
Then her gaze casually drifted toward the back corner, to that Amelia who had been unusually quiet from start to finish, a cold victorious smile playing on her lips.
Amelia, do you see?
This is the difference between us.
Quinton also praised this work profusely: "Thank you Ms. Penrose for bringing us such wonderful creativity! Now, what kind of surprise will the next piece bring us?"
As he finished speaking, the big screen switched.
The next work instantly occupied everyone's entire field of vision.
If Isadora's work was gorgeous jewelry, then the image now on screen was a piece of amber from ancient times, containing stars within it.
It was shocking, silent, yet possessed a magnificent power that could make time itself stand still.
The entire venue fell into a deathly silence the moment the image appeared.
The applause stopped abruptly.
Even the comment stream showed an eerie pause, as if everyone had been grabbed by the throat.
On the design, that broken chip half-buried in the fossil layer carried a heartbreaking tragic beauty. The deconstructed and reconstructed circuit patterns meandered into a sorrowful epitaph, as if silently telling the entire history of a civilization's journey from prosperity to extinction.
It transcended simple beauty or ugliness, reaching a philosophical, fateful grand vision.
The smile on Isadora's face completely froze.
Her proud "melting glacier" instantly became shallow, vulgar, and utterly defeated before this small chip.
It was as if she had carefully carved an exquisite ice sculpture, while her opponent had simply brought an entire mountain of eternal ice.
They weren't even in the same league for comparison.
"This is it!"
From the judges' panel, the highly respected Sidney stood up excitedly, his body trembling slightly with excitement.
"This is the true 'Relic of Tomorrow'!"
He didn't spare any praise, his voice full of the wild joy of discovering a treasure.
"It doesn't stop at depicting specific things from our era, but grasps the most core essence! Storage and forgetting!"
"We desperately record everything, yet we also forget everything the fastest! This line 'storage is its instinct, forgetting is its destiny' is simply, simply the finishing touch! No, it gives the entire work a soul!"
Another judge also nodded, unable to suppress the admiration in their voice: "Using the remains of technology to write nature's epitaph. This concept, this vision, has completely exceeded the scope of a design competition. It's a work of art!"
Everyone was stunned by this earth-shattering reversal.
The previous comments shouting "Isadora is the champion" were replaced by screens full of "Shit."
[What is this drawing? Why don't I understand it, but I'm deeply moved?]
[That's a chip! The chip's patterns are drawn as the veins of fossilized plants! Amazing!]
[Isadora's work was instantly outshone!]
[I'm so curious! Whose work is this?]
Isadora stared at the screen, her blood seemingly frozen throughout her body.
Whose work is this? Who could design something like this?
No, this is impossible!
It must be a coincidence! That person got lucky and happened to guess the theme in advance, so they were prepared!
The atmosphere in the venue changed from dead silence to irrepressible buzzing discussion, everyone completely conquered by this work that appeared out of nowhere.
Quinton was also so shocked by this huge contrast that it took him several seconds to find his voice again. He excitedly raised his microphone.
"It seems the judges have given this work unparalleled praise! So now, the question everyone is most curious about must be..."
His gaze turned to the big screen, his voice rising to its peak.
"This design that has amazed the entire venue—which talented designer created it?"