Chapter 89 - I Have My Reasons (1/2)
”I just remembered something important.” Professor Luo Xia interrupted, and everyone turned their attention to the old man.
Karen's graven expression darkened, and she subconsciously shook her head slowly. He smiled and reached out to Susu with his right palm facing up, ” May I borrow the invitation card for a minute?”
”Sure.” Susu handed the invitation card over to him and watched as he placed the invitation card to the projector. ”Zoom.” he raised his arm and waved his index and middle finger in the air at the same time.
”I would deeply appreciate it if everyone could take a look at the zoomed-in invitation card.” His voice worked like a mantra as everyone's head followed to the projector slide and focused on the enlarged stamp on the invitation.
Borrowing a cane from one of the judges, Professor Luo Xia pointed to the tiny leaf corner of the rose stamp and pointed out Susu's initials. ”Just like the other designs, this stamp was designed by Yin, Susu.”
The crowd murmured as they wondered what this stamp had anything to do with this whole event and proving Karen's wrong doings. ”As everyone could see, this design goes quite well with today's rose outfit display, don't you all think that?”
After taking a close look, everyone followed along and nodded to each other. Professor Luo Xia smiled and turned to Susu, ”I believe that you must have another way of proving this design as your own. Just like the dress. Am I correct?”
Susu revealed a rare smile, ”Of course.” She stepped up and removed the invitation from the projector. With the use of her skillful fingers, she poked a few mini holes on some angles of the rose stamp. After that, she folded tiny corners of the design to reach the other corner. When she was done, the invitation card was trimmed down to only the rose stamp and the rose was no longer visible.
Now, the rose was folded and curved into a rosebud with the tip opened to reveal the mini holes that she had pecked earlier with a pen. She smiled and said to the microphone once again, ”Dear, will you turn on the special light again? The projector can remain on, but I will adjust the angle of it so that it wouldn't blind anyone's eye.”
”Alright.” Chen Mu's voice rung the ears of the audience as they heard hurried footsteps from somewhere above. It was too dark to see anything or anyone. Once the special lighting were turned on and the room darkened to give the highest-quality effect, Susu held the rose bud and let it do its trick for the audience.
Under the projector's view, everyone saw the mini leaf that had her initials dangling as the rosebud's stem. She pulled it slowly and the petals slowly spread into a rose. Once the rose became fully blossomed, everyone saw the colored edges of the petals from earlier reveal her initials at its center. It was magical.
If one didn't believe that this was a design event, then it would definitely be an a.d.u.l.t's fairytale land for the day with free admission tickets. Everyone clapped once again, but Professor Luo Xia didn't plan to stop just there.
”Miss. Susu, would you explain to me what happened to your designs from years ago and how long has it been since you've designed these amazing, creative works?”
”It was several years ago, and that was during the time when I planned on submitting my work for Paris Institute of Design. Unfortunately, two days before the deadline, Miss. Karen came into my room with a sizzling plate of beef and some drinks that she ended up spilling all over my laptop. While I ran to the restroom to clean myself up, she took my laptop and refused to give it back saying she wanted to bring it to the repair shop.”
Susu crossed her arms and stared straight at Karen's guilty expression, ”And then she came back to tell me that none of the files on my laptop were recoverable. I tried bringing it to a repair store after that, but even then, my files were all damaged.”
Professor Luo Xia closed his eyes as he listened to her part of the story and nodded, ”I completely and thoroughly understand now. Would you do me another favor?” He snapped his fingers and extended his hand towards his assistant. Quickly, an art portfolio with Karen's name was placed on his opened palm.
”Would you please go through each and every page of these designs for me? If any of these belong to you, please prove the design with your initials. If you recognize any designers from any resources that you've used for your research in any designs, please point it out as well. I believe everyone here is as interested as I am with what this portfolio holds.”
His assistant brought him and Susu a chair while Karen remained standing. Susu recognized the front page of the portfolio instantly and flipped through the pages while accurately pointing at where her initials laid hidden behind the designs. While roaming through different designs, she also pointed out the different resources she's used or seen before and pulled it up on her phone.
After half an hour, Professor Luo Xia thanked her for her descriptive explanations. Karen almost urinated herself from the extreme pressure that she was facing from the audience. She only dared to move the slightest of her body when she got tired of standing because everyone would roll their eyeballs to her side once she makes the tiniest moves.
Although stealing someone's work is a crime, she always thought that as long as she takes the work and claims it first then she is the winner. Of course, it doesn't work that way and the road to her wishful thoughts of gaining popularity was about to come true. Except, not the type of popularity she would enjoy.
Everyone's eyes were sharp and scanning every inch of her body as Professor Luo Xia handed the portfolio back to his assistant. ”I think everyone would love to know how I got my hands on her art portfolio. Not only were these designs on her self promoted webpage, she used these designs to pass the admissions exam for Paris Institute. I first noticed the odd initials on these designs after zooming in and out of them for so many times.”
”For those of you who don't recognize me, I am a professor at the art institute. Plagiarism is a very serious breach of academic integrity and a shame to every field in every career. At first, I was eager to see her designs from projects as she held one of the most impressive admission art design [portfolios. My suspicions grew as she failed to perform any talents during the basic introductory courses. Her drawings and sketches were atrocious nonsense.”