Chapter 604 Mistaken
Martin was so beside himself with rage that he crumpled the lesson plan in his arms. This Elise girl doesn’t behave like a student at all! Not only did she get in through the back door, but she openly mixes with several guys and gets into a complicated relationship with Kenneth afterward.
And now, she’s presented us with a husband! Just how many more men does she have around her?! On top of being unfriendly toward her classmates and disrespectful of her teachers, she keeps making trouble. What order is there to speak of if the world is full of students like her?! This is bad; I can’t wait another month. I’ve got to find a way to bring the monthly tests forward to get rid of Elise—that rotten apple—as soon as possible!
…
Meanwhile, Elise took a drink from the almond milk that Alexander had prepared beforehand in the car before it occurred to her to ask, “What brings you to the school today? Didn’t you have something to do last night? Why get up so early?”
Alexander replied, “Joey said you’d be flying to Landred City today, so she had me drive you to the airport and see you off since she feared she might not have time for that.”
“Joey?” Elise was surprised. “How did she learn that I’d be going to Landred City?”
“Mr. Fassbender told her that, I guess,” replied Alexander.
“What about you, then?” Elise diverted the subject. She asked with some anticipation, “Wanna go to Landred City with me?” After all, Alexis was originally a surprise she had prepared for Alexander, though the latter was still unaware of it even now.
To her disappointment, though, Alexander replied apologetically, “It’s true that I’ll be going to Landred City, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to go with you. I have to fly to Riverdale before that to take care of something else.”
“It’s okay. Business before pleasure, right?” Well, it’s better for him to find it out on his own. The brand is there and isn’t gonna disappear, anyway, she thought to herself.
Alexander left after driving Elise to the airport.
An hour later, Elise’s flight touched down at the airport, and Tom came personally to pick her up as they headed straight from the airport to the venue for the jewelry design competition.
…
The annual jewelry design competition was an unprecedentedly spectacular event, and the venue was overflowing with crowds that extended everywhere from the entrance to the centermost part of the conference hall. Designers who would otherwise have seemed aloof and unapproachable in magazines now came to life, becoming living advertisements as they moved actively around their respective works.
Frostine and Tina waited for Tom and Elise to arrive before the four of them stepped into the conference hall together. As soon as they entered, Tina started taking deep breaths. She mumbled to herself, “Can we set the world on fire on such a grand occasion?”
Tom gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Relax. We should believe in Miss Murray’s skills.”
Upon hearing this, Frostine pursed her lips and looked away impassively.
“I do believe in Frostine, of course, but today’s really gonna be a contest among the best designers in the field. See the woman dressed in fur who has just gone over there?” Tina jutted her chin toward the person ahead of them on the left. “That’s Fiona Shepherd, the winner of last year’s jewelry design competition. All her designs in the past year have been featured on Diamond Weekly’s covers.”
“Diamond Weekly, you say? That’s just a third-rate magazine published by some self-proclaimed media outlet to draw public attention. I can get you featured on their covers if you like,” Tom joked.
Tina responded by giving him a dirty look.
The pair had a jolly time exchanging glances with one another, making Frostine seem all the more lonely by comparison.
Back when the four of them were still at the entrance, Elise had noticed that Frostine looked low-spirited like a zombie. She thought about it for a moment, but just as she was about to speak to Frostine, the latter’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she anxiously shifted her gaze in a particular direction as if to search for something. “Are you alright?” Elise asked.
Frostine’s brows furrowed. After a long time, she said hesitantly, “I-I think I just saw Clemence go over there…”
“What? Clemence is here?!” Elise instinctively followed Frostine’s gaze, only to see no sign of the woman. Well, it’s not like I’ve held out much hope for that, anyway. How could someone who had gone missing for several years possibly show up all of a sudden? Still, the unexpected little episode made her somewhat disappointed.
In fact, it was justifiable for Clemence to be present at such an occasion. On the surface, Clemence was the wife of a physics professor and a meek and virtuous full-time housewife, but in reality, she was a uniquely gifted jewelry designer with an extraordinary passion for jewelry design.
Frostine was soon discouraged. “I was mistaken. I only sensed that she was nearby, and I hadn’t felt like this for a long time. Perhaps I was just imagining things.” With that, the light that had just kindled in her eyes at last dimmed all at once.
Elise put her arm around Frostine’s shoulders, gently patting the latter to comfort her.
Meanwhile, the emcee was urging the contestants to have their entries in the competition put on proper display as soon as possible.
Although anyone who had produced a work of their own was, in principle, welcome to participate in the competition for the sake of promoting diversity, in reality, there was a bias toward more well-known designers, which was shown in the form of where their works were being put on display. The works of renowned designers were displayed in visible locations, whereas little-known designers could only draw lots to choose from the rest of the available locations. In reality, though, it made little difference whether they had drawn lots or not, as no one would go to the secluded corners.
As Tina stood at their booth looking at the works of renowned designers in the distance, she had a feeling that there was an insurmountable gap between them and these designers that they had no hope of closing. “We sure got ‘lucky’ drawing this spot. As long as we manage to make a name for ourselves, the location of the booth doesn’t matter—is that the mindset I’m supposed to have right now?”
“Alright, let’s not give up all hope just yet. Why don’t we go see if there’s any strong competitors?” suggested Elise.
Tom and Tina had no objection to it, but Frostine was uninterested. “I’ll pass. Someone’s got to keep watch over the booth, anyway.”
Elise didn’t force her to join them either. “Suit yourself. You’re the one who designed the products, anyway, so no one understands them better than you do,” she said, before leaving with Tom and Tina right away.
The jewelry design competition’s rules weren’t complicated. Participants would exhibit their works during the first half of the competition in order to get qualified to participate in the second half of the competition. Finally, the best design would be selected by the judges. In other words, the exhibition in the morning was an open audition, where each admission ticket counted as a vote; only ten entries that received the highest votes by twelve noon would be able to enter the second half of the competition.
Apart from the professional designer judges, most of the votes ended up going directly to the more well-known designers. By judging from the onlooking crowd surrounding each of the entries, one could basically estimate the number of votes received by all entries in less than half an hour into the first half of the competition. Essentially, the most popular entries were all the works of relatively well-known designers, whereas the newcomers had few people around their display booths, resulting in a clear boundary between the well-known designers and the rest.
The display booth featuring the work with the highest votes was surrounded by crowds of spectators. Gasps of admiration broke out from the crowd one after another, making Elise’s heart itch. “Come on, let’s go and see what kind of design it is!” She picked her feet up and headed in that direction.
“Hold on a minute, Miss Sinclair!” Tom stopped her. “That’s Fiona’s work. She’s signed up with the Saunders Family, so she’s our rival now.”
“So what if we’re rivals?” Elise was amused. “Since they could plagiarize our works, why can’t we learn from them?”
Tom was struck dumb with astonishment. Wouldn’t that be outright shameless?
It wasn’t easy to get into the circle of jewelers. Some pompous money worshippers aside, most jewelers had high principles and thus had nothing but disdain for copycats and knockoffs, which was why Tom had never thought of giving the Saunderses a taste of their own medicine, even though Saunders Corporation had previously driven Shaw’s Jewelry Co. to the verge of bankruptcy by despicable means. In his heart of hearts, he felt he couldn’t sink to Saunders Corporation’s level.
