The day of the Huang Corporation's annual event finally arrived. Under Chen Mu and Lin Que's attentive and protective supervision, the girls and Susu's product arrived safely to the event. They made sure to not let anyone else touch the product and would have at least one person guarding the changing room just in case of any mysterious accidents.
Karen got there right on time with her model as she planned a surprised for the audience and judges. Upon entering the event hall, she spotted Chen Mu standing by an empty table with his arms crossed. He seemed to be waiting for someone.
She looked around and didn't see Susu anywhere. When she saw this as an opportunity to talk to him, she smiled and smoothed out the wrinkles to her deep V collar dress with mini circle patterns all over it. The model followed closely behind her and struggled to keep up in the five-inch heels that Karen forced her to wear.
"Well, hello, Chen Mu. It's a coincidence to see you here." Karen stopped a few steps away from him. He continued looking at his watch and ignored her existence. If his behavior wasn't obvious enough, his attitude sure gave her a straight up rejection.
She awkwardly stood there with her lips twitching, "How could you people be so rude? It was just a simple greeting." Her loud voice alarmed many other people who were getting their models ready for the event.
Chen Mu smiled and walked past her, "You're finally here. I was getting worried for a second."
Hearing his gentle voice, people's eyes followed him and saw that the previous mute acted sweetly in front of Susu. People started to nod after understanding what was going on and resumed their preparations. Others were distracted by Karen's ugly expression, but continued peeking from where they were standing because they thought she looked like a joke.
Karen pointed at Susu and walked towards her. Before she could reach Susu, Chen Mu blocked her with his body, "you can speak from a reasonable distance. Get any closer and you can say goodbye to the design industry."
Karen bit her lips as she retracted her arm, "Why the hell are you here?"
"And why the hell can't I be here? Hmm?" Susu waved the invitation card in Karen's face.
"You... Just you wait for your vulgar design to lose to mine. Nobody can beat my design today." Karen folded her arms and smirked at Susu as she showed off her model.
"Oh, that's nice. We'll see about that. Now, excuse me. We don't have time to watch your little entertainment. The show is about to begin." She ignored Karen's provocative words and walked off to her own table.
Lily whispered, "Why did you let her off so easily? I would have drowned her with my spit!"
"Because her happy times are not going to last any longer once the contest begins. Let her feel the joy now, so she can watch it all crush down later." Susu replied and started doing touch ups to Lily's makeup.
The lights dimmed and stage lights focused to the center of the stage as Zhi Hei made the opening speech, "Welcome to Huang Corporation's Annual Designing Event! I am the CEO of the company, Huang Zhi Hei. Firstly, I would like to thank all the judges and contestants for joining us here tonight. And secondly, I would like to say that for all of you who are standing here today, whether you end up receiving any of the top three places or not, you should be very proud of yourself. With this said, good luck and let's begin."
Since pamphlets were distributed to contestants and the judges were all well-known, the judges requested to skip introductions and get straight up to the designs.
The lights brightened up like the excited chatters that echoed all over the room. Judges began to walk around the room and each contestant had two to three minutes to describe their work to them.
Being a professional, each judge knew what they were looking for in each design; uniqueness. The theme of this contest is Nature. As easy as this theme sounded, it was actually one of the most difficult because many people would end up creating something similar.
The judges shook their head many times as they scanned around the room; failing to find one that extinguishes itself from the crowd. The challenge with the nature theme is the overrated designs such as reusing flowers, animals, and whatever ideas that people have already seen in the past. This was why the design industry needed more creativity.
One of the judges grew impatient as he heard the twentieth contestant talk about plants and whatever. He grunted in major disappointment and gave a harsh critique, "The design industry lacks originality. What makes your product differ from all the others, hmm? If we are choosing someone as the winner tonight, that person will never be a copy cat."
In fact, this contestant had mashed up a few designs together, and the judge caught plagiarism by first sight. The contestant felt pale after seeing her name getting crossed out on the scoring list. When other judges took a closer look, they followed and crossed her name out.
After an hour of giving low scores to designs, only a few were barely passable by mark.
Only Susu and Karen were left, and the judges didn't hold high hopes for them. Between these two girls, the judges wanted to look at Susu's design first, but was stopped by Professor Luo Xia.
"I heard that Yin, Karen was a student at Paris Institute of Design where I teach. Shall we take a look at her design first? Let's see how impressive her final product is."
The judges nodded and walked a bit further down to Karen's design. Only Zhi Hei, Chen Mu, Lin Que, Susu and Lily caught that vexatious smirk on his face as Professor Luo Xia walked towards Karen's design with his head lifted up proudly.
Instant applauds spread in the room from the judges as they observed the beautiful petal like layered dress and the accessories that were made from the simplest materials. "As expected from a student who previously attended the famous Paris Academy for Design! Such an Original design!"
Karen's smile grew wider as she heard the judge's description of her work. She didn't even say a word and already, she received so many compliments. The gradient colored petals hinted water droplets on some areas of the dress. From a distance, the dress looked like a lively blossoming rose, fresh from the wilderness as the gradient colors faded in and out. The earrings looked like rose thorns and necklace had a simple tree branch design.
The judges were extremely impressed by her design, but when they saw the out of place looking heels, they frowned sightly. "Miss. Yin, May I ask why you chose this pair of heels to combine with this elegant outfit?" The judge asked politely as wished to hear her explanation for her unique combination.
Karen stood up straight and answered, "These heels were designed by me to match with the lively flowery dress. I believe that they matched perfectly and would bring nature out from the wild. With the heels, it makes the dress stand out even more."
The judges excused themselves for a second and discussed from a distance about her response.
"How could she say that with such confidence? That dress is indeed extremely elegant, but those heels make the rose look like it is about to wither. If she responded with something related to protecting the wild or preserving beauty then it would still be barely passable." One of the judges shook his head as he scribbled comments under the scoring box.
Another judge checked off the scoring chart as he commented, "The accessories and detailed dress is indeed something very charming and catching. The heels... on the other hand, lack originality and even pulls the entire design down with it. It's looks more like an incomplete puzzle and someone forcibly made a random puzzle piece fit in."
Professor Luo Xia chuckled, "Shall we move on to Yin, Susu's design?" When he said her surname, he purposely raised his voice by a tad to hint to the judges of an obvious connection between them.
"Yin... are they sisters?" The judges questioned, but shrugged and continued with the event. They gathered in front of Susu's table and felt anticipated to see her design.
Susu greeted the judges politely and introduced her work, "before I reveal my product, I want to express my ideas fully. I've focused on my design based on the recent news of Australia's fire. With the fierce flames killing different animals, I used a variety of colors and representation for the dying animals out there. The main idea for my designs has always concentrated on one idea, in which, this design today is for the hope of saving the wilderness."
Lily walked out from behind the room separator that they had brought. Slowly, she stepped out elegantly and spread her loose designed trimmed layers repeatedly as she walked. The fiery red flames depicted the serious needs for assistance and alertness. The silver crafts that were designed with simple shapes around her waist line and reached the top part of the dress represented the dying wilderness.
When the thin trimmed layers were spread and layered back on top one another, it felt like they were watching a mini film of wild fire with animals flying and running away. The small drips of silver that highlighted parts of the dress moved as Lily waved the layers and spun around in slow motion.
The design was too intriguing that the judges were rendered speechless with their lips parted in surprise. Lily's right hand had a golden branch designed bracelet that connected to the white ring on her middle finger. Her hairstyle was done in a half updo with two golden tree branches hairpins holding it up.
Likewise, the dress was filled with different gradient colors of red and sometimes blue compared to Karen's design. The top half of Susu's design was a sleeveless one where it transitions from a starry night sky down to the flaming nature below. Everything looked perfect and fitting.
When Lily finished showing off the dress, the judges continued to stare and forgot to even score. Professor Luo Xia was the first to break the silence as he asked, "why did you choose to design that tree branch ring connected bracelet? Isn't it a little too simple?"
Susu smiled and adjusted Lily's arm position, "Because my design was lacking this last piece to make it complete. With this, my design is fully presentable."
Lily's arm slanted upwards across the dress with the ring reaching the starry night sky, specifically filling in an empty space between the twinkling star design. Once again, it took the judges breath away. The golden tree branch bracelet reflected on the silver drips and curvy shapes; similar to the rays of sunlight that presented hope and a brighter future.
Areas of the dress glimmered with golden hints of color; bringing calmness against the flames. While the judges focused on Lily, Chen Mu backed away to give special instructions to the staff to adjust the angle of the lightings. Right after Lily adjusted her arm, the lighting shone on her; making the ring and sparkling stars become one, creating a full moon.
Susu smiled with her eyes filled with joy, "And this is what I mean by complete."
Once her design was fully displayed to every judge, Professor Luo Xia clapped loudly and announced, "I believe we don't even need to check off the score to know who the winner is. Am I right?"
The other five judges nodded alongside as their vision concentrated on the breathtaking dress in front of them. Susu smirked and crossed her arm, "Since I am the last contestant, may I ask how long will it take for the results to be announced?"
The judges exchanged glances and smiled, "We are pleased to announce that the winner to this year's Huang Corps' event is Yin, Susu! The second place goes to Yin, Karen. As for the third, we will need to discuss further to come up with a proper winner, which will be announced later. Thank you very much for your patience and efforts to join us here today! We hope to see you all next year!"
"That's not fair!" Karen accidentally slipped her tongue and ruined everyone's mood. Everybody turned their attention to her and her design.