Susu continuously stirred her Strawberry Pink drink while Lily, Chen Mu and Lin Que stared at her silently. Lily whispered to Chen Mu, "Do you know what's wrong with her?"
He shook his head and decided to wave his hands in her face to get her attention. "Susu! Susu!"
"Huh? What's wrong?" she moved backwards instinctively.
"This should be the question that we ask you. What were you thinking about just now? You looked so out of earth just now. Are you feeling alright?" Chen Mu asked.
"Huh? Yeah... I'm alright. I was just thinking about the whole invitation card to the design event thing. It doesn't add up anymore." Susu sipped her drink.
"What doesn't add up?" Lily asked.
"So like when he had Zhi Hei deliver the invitation card to me, he used the rose stamp on purpose to catch my attention and lure me to the event, right? But before that, nobody had ever seen my sketches or design. Therefore, with just his attentive nature, he could only have suspected Karen for plagiarizing and stealing. No matter how I think about it, it still wouldn't link to me."
"Weren't your initials on it?" Lin Que replied.
"Yes, but anyone could have had the same initials or purposely added these designs as their company logo. How did he trace back to me? And let's just say that he may have known about Karen being my stepsister, but who would go in depth to help me prove my design? And how did he know that I didn't give it to Karen so that she could get into the school?"
The more they talked, the more questions filled their heads. At first, only Susu had questions. Now, all four of them were thinking about the endless possibilities of how Professor Luo Xia figured things out in his own way.
"It's a wonder, but could it be a designer's instinct? Besides, he's been in this field for so long that he probably had plentiful experience with copycats like that woman." Lily stabbed her salad a few times when she mentioned Karen.
"Okay, so I'll even give the hypothetical situation where he actually knew all those. Then how would we explain the fact that he knew I had another method to proving my work? I mean, the initials were right there, right? How could he have known that I had another trick up my sleeves for that rose stamp?"
"Maybe he took an educative patterned guess? Since you proved your designed dresses in such a unique way, he probably expected it from the stamp as well." Chen Mu thought about it logically before responding to her question.
"It's impossible for him to have guessed that. There are two reasons. One, this could be a regular stamp with initials on it. Meaning, it is just a piece of paper with a rose print on top. Who would have thought that I would fold up the corners, poke a few holes and manage to craft it to a blossoming rose?"
"That is true...normally, people would think that it is just a regular stamp. When he asked if you could prove it using another method, his tone seemed quite confident as well. It was as if he already knew you would say yes to his question." Lily recalled the way Professor Luo Xia spoke to Susu and remembered that she always had an odd feeling about his attitude.
Whenever he spoke to Susu, his voice was at least a bit gentler and soothing to one's ears compared to talking to others. With other people, he always put up a straight face or a sense of seniority as he is famous amongst the design field.
Lily supported her head with her palm before pointing it out, "You know, I'm not sure if it is a female's sixth sense or whatsoever, but I always felt that Professor Luo Xia is quite friendly with our Su. Friendly as in like having a soft spot for her kind of way. I don't know how to describe it to anyone, though."
Lin Que joked around and said, "could he be Chen Mu's new rival?"
Poooffttt
Susu spat out her Strawberry drink and started coughing while Chen Mu soothed her back.
Lin Que quickly handed them tissues and raised his arms, "I'm just joking! Joking! He wouldn't have interest in such a young woman." Lily shot him a meaningful glare as she wiped the table clean and patted Susu's back. He gulped in response and hoped that the lords in heaven would pity him. 'Please let my queen spare me tonight. Spare me from the cuffs...' He inwardly repeated.
After Susu calmed down, she took a deep breath and continued her explanation from earlier, "The second reason for why he wouldn't have been able to figure out that rose stamp is because this was something my mother taught me when I was young. My mother and I worked on this design together, and I kept it to myself for the longest. I haven't shown it to anyone."
"Then could he have known your mother when she was alive? Maybe he was familiar with what your mother liked so when he saw the design and knew about your relations with the Yin family, he may have been able to guess?" Lin Que rubbed his chin.
Susu shrugged, "I have no idea."
"Hmmm, you might not know, but somebody else might." Lily sounded as if she had something figured out.
"Who?"
"Tian Yuo's mother, Shen Wen. I remember you telling me that Tian Yuo's mother and your mother were best friends. Even though you don't know anything about your mother's friends, she might. But the thing is, I'm not sure how willing you are in meeting her after what she did to you." Lily observed Susu's expression to make sure she didn't say anything that would offend her or make Susu feel awkward.
"No, it's fine. It's been a while and plus, nothing happened between Tian Yuo and me. Whether she interfered or not, we wouldn't have ended up together. I'll just call her and ask her to meet me one of these days. I guess we can only start from there and go on with whatever information we find out."