Chapter 605 Timely Help
Reading Tom’s mind at a glance, Elise said without pulling any punches, “Mr. Shaw, I’m a businesswoman, and I have every respect for your style and principles, but I won’t trifle with my own interests either. I hope you understand that it’s an extravagance to talk about style and principles before chasing the Saunderses out of the jewelry industry.” In the world, it’s always the winners who get to make the decisions, whereas the losers will only be buried forever in the course of history.
After much effort, Tom finally managed to push his way to the front of the crowd while escorting the two ladies. However, when they saw the work displayed at the booth, their expressions froze simultaneously.
To their great surprise, Fiona, the up-and-coming jewelry designer’s design looked exactly the same as Frostine’s, only that Fiona’s design had some accessories and little details added that seemed unimportant and easy to overlook. Even so, her design looked totally identical to Frostine’s, so much so that it’d be hard to distinguish between Fiona’s design and Frostine’s if they were put on display together.
“Isn’t this too much of a coincidence?” Tina exclaimed in horror.
Elise wasn’t very surprised, though. Soon, she let out a sneer, saying, “This is no coincidence.”
On the other hand, Tom was so anxious that he broke into a cold sweat. “This is bad. If such an obvious coincidence is pointed out by anyone, we’re absolutely gonna be showered with abuse!”
“But you know deep down that we never did it!” Tina was both angry and resentful. Frostine’s design wasn’t her work alone; everyone in Alexis had put a painstaking amount of effort into it. It was an intense experience that she had truly gone through herself, so she found it really unacceptable that all their hard work would be labeled as dirty plagiarism all at once.
On the other hand, Tom was burning with anxiety as well. “What’s the use of me believing it? The outsiders have to believe it as well! It’s fine if they just look similar, but they look exactly the same! There’s no way we can explain this!”
Instead of joining the pair’s discussion, Elise merely tried to recall what exactly had gone wrong. While everyone else wasn’t noticing, she quietly took out her phone and texted Joseph, asking him to look into something.
Meanwhile, Tom said, “How about we get Frostine to put something on top of our design to cover it? My heart’s pounding. I have a bad feeling about this…” Taking matters into his own hands, he started to fumble for his phone.
However, as soon as he took out his phone, a commotion broke out in their booth’s direction. “Come and take a look, everyone! The work Alexis entered for the competition looks exactly the same as Miss Fiona’s!” exclaimed a busybody all of a sudden, drawing attention from the surroundings all at once. As a result, an endless stream of people flocked toward Alexis’ display booth.
“Hey, it’s true! I just thought it looked familiar. Turns out it’s an imitation of Miss Fiona’s design, huh?”
“Imitation? No, it’s not an imitation. It’s a knockoff!”
“No way! Aren’t they treating us like fools, blatantly exhibiting works they’ve plagiarized from others? Alexis is going too far!”
The biggest characteristic of Cittadelians was their fondness for gossip and spectacles, so the news of the similarity between Alexis’ submission and Fiona’s instantly spread far and wide as it made waves among the crowd. In less than two minutes, everyone in the conference hall was startled by the news; such was the speed at which rumors spread.
With more and more people gathering in front of Alexis’ display booth, Frostine, the designer, was immediately hustled into a corner, looking weak, helpless, and pitiful.
The designer named Fiona was brought here as well. Despite being a seemingly elegant and poised middle-aged woman decked out in jewels, she managed to keep in shape, and her upwardly slanted eyes and fine eyebrows oozed the aggressiveness of someone who thought justice was on their side. She dashed toward the display booth and studied Frostine’s design carefully before her face wore an exaggerated expression. “Oh, my God! To think that someone actually copied my work as it is!”
Now that Fiona herself was here to seek justice, the onlooking crowd became all the more eager to fan the flames.
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