She Outshines Them All (Athena and Matthew) novel Chapter 279

Chapter 279
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The agent said coldly, “Do you think you still have a choice? You don’t even know who you’ve offended. The producer of ‘Immortal Heroes’ has dropped you. The top-tier script that was handed to you has also been taken back. If you keep being picky, you might not even get a role in a low-budget contemporary drama.”
Andrew cried even harder and said, “I, I’ll choose a role with a favorable character image and appealing styling…”
After the agent hung up, Gia’s call came in before Andrew could adjust his emotions.
Gia scolded him right away after he answered the call. “You caused such a mess,” she said. “Do you think you’re being fair to me? I spent half a year styling your production team for free, commuting between school and the set, only getting four or five hours of sleep a day, even failing two courses, all just to help you get famous and rebuild my studio. And now that you’ve shown some signs of achieving great success, you ruined it all. Do you think you’re being fair to me?”
Since the end of last September, she had been bringing her assistant and voluntarily serving as a free makeup artist and stylist for the “Immortal Heroes” production team. Andrew’s makeup and styling were all handled by her.
From the makeup products to fare, travel expenses, food expenses, and so on, she paid out of her own pocket.
She had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. After a long wait, “Immortal Heroes” finally became a hit. She was waiting for Andrew to endorse her studio and attract clients. In the end, Andrew caused such a mess.
She was really frustrated.
Andrew had been a little scared of this smart and capable sister of his since childhood. He said guiltily, “I was unlucky this time and got screwed over by my opponent. But hasn’t the issue already been resolved? You don’t need to be so worried. As long as I still have my good looks, we will continue to have a share of the market in showbiz.”
Gia said coldly, “Your face is good-looking, but there are plenty of good-looking people out there. You don’t have the acting skills or works to back you up. If more negative news comes out, you could be a has-been overnight.”
“I understand.” After Andrew worked in this industry, he personally experienced how complicated this industry was. He was also a little scared. “I’ll be more careful in the future. Please remind me too…”
Gia said impatiently, “Alright. Enough talking. Come over now. I’ll style you and take photos.”
She hung up the phone, picked up a few styling options, and thought about which one would suit Andrew the best.
Just then, the design supervisor rushed in, closed the door, and said in a low and hurried voice, “Yaen, a major problem has happened.”
Gia had gone through a fair share of difficult situations. Not even raising her head, she said, “Don’t panic when something happens. Take your time and explain.”
The design supervisor said, “I attended a comic expo with costume play yesterday and saw a girl wearing a hairpin that looked
very similar to our main style for this season…”
Gia said dismissively, “It’s normal for styles to be similar. As long as the core design is different, it’s fine.”
The design supervisor tightened her grip on the design draft and said quietly, “The core design is the same…”
Gia looked up. “Explain clearly.”
The design supervisor placed the design draft in front of her and unlocked her phone. “This is the hairpin I saw at the comic expo. Its design features a strawberry and a bug, which is very similar to our design.”
Gia took her phone and compared it with her studio’s design draft. “It really does look similar. Did we release ours first, or
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Chapter 279
did they release theirs first?”
The design director said, “We released ours first, but there’s more to this issue than meets the eye.”
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She didn’t dare to look Gia in the eye and quickly told her what had happened, saying, “This series was designed by Lily. She said that while sorting through the company’s emails, she found a few design drafts from someone else that had been submitted a year ago in the trash folder.
“She thought they were interesting, so she incorporated them into her work. I asked her whose work she had used, thinking that maybe we could find the person and buy the designs. But she had already completely deleted that email, so we can’t recover it. She only remembers the sender’s name, which is a rookie designer named Maria.”
“Maria?” Gia was too sensitive to this name. Her expression changed on the spot. “Could it be that Maria who was fired from our company a year ago? Of all the people you all can associate yourselves with, how come you all ended up associating with her?”
The design supervisor said uneasily, “Lily was sure that the sender was not well known. She wanted to deny it initially, but when she found out that the hairpin worn by the girl in her costume play came from Miss Yonder Studio, she got so scared that she confessed everything.”
“This matter is actually related to Miss Yonder?” Gia was so shocked that she stood up. She placed one hand on the table and pointed at the design supervisor with the other, feeling so angry that she wanted to curse. “I’ve been out there working hard, leaving the studio to you to manage, and you guys caused such a huge
mess for me?”
The design supervisor was about to cry. “We know we were wrong, but the priority now is to solve the problem. Our works have just been launched and we’re about to begin full-scale promotion. The jewelry with a similar style on Miss Yonder’s end is about to hit the market too. We can’t afford to wait.”
Gia shot her a few angry glares, then suppressed her anger. “Go out now. Let me think about how to deal with it.”
She thought, ‘Losing temper won’t solve the problem. Besides, I’m partly accountable for causing this incident to happen. While I was working as the makeup artist and stylist for the “Immortal Heroes” production team, I didn’t have time to focus on the studio’s affairs. I skimmed through quickly the documents handed to me by the studio and signed them just as fast, never really looking at the various design sketches carefully. Otherwise, I would have recognized that Lily had copied the design sketches that Maria had submitted during her job application.’
After thinking about it for a long time, she made up her mind and dialed a phone number. “Zoe, the level of your computer skills is so high. I want to ask you for a favor.”
Two days later, Miss Yonder Studio’s new collection was officially launched. Among them was a budget-friendly series called “The Angry Bug”, which was very popular with girls, especially non-mainstream girls. The order volume was good.
The series was designed by Maria.
She went online every day to check the order quantities and the reviews from netizens and customers.
With each additional person buying and each additional person praising her design, she would get so happy that she spun and cheered on the spot.
She did not get upset when someone criticized the design. Instead, she wrote it down seriously and thought about how to improve.
She even took screenshots, printed out all the comments, and kept them like treasures.
Although her work was not outstanding and the sales were not impressive, it was her first product released to the market. It meant a lot to her.
However, her happiness lasted for only two days before a large number of netizens pointed out that she had plagiarized.
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Before she recovered from her shock, the news of her plagiarism made it to the list of trending topics.
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Meanwhile, Miss Yonder Studio received a lawyer’s letter from Yaen Studio, which pointed out that the design of “The Angry Bug” series had been plagiarized from the design of their works. They demanded that Miss Yonder Studio make a public apology, pay compensation, and recall all the plagiarized products.
Upon receiving the news, Maria was so shocked that her face turned deathly pale. Her phone fell to the ground, and she kept shaking her head, saying, “I didn’t plagiarize! I sketched every part of these designs myself…”
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