Chapter Sixty-Nine: Winner III (1/2)

After the banquet, the guests gradually returned to the main hall.

“We have come to an end for the evaluation segment. We would like to invite everyone to take a look at the final scores on the main screen.” The emcee on the stage quickly rushed out his speech as he hesitantly announced the final results.

The crowd look at the main screen.

Compared to their own company’s ranking, the majority of the crowd was more interested in Mr. Mystery’s final ranking.

However –

“Eh? Was there any change?”

“The ranking has not changed. Am I blind?”

“The scores were not amended? Mr. Mystery is still ranked number one.”

“Didn’t they call for an internal discussion on that? And this is the outcome of the discussion? I think they might as well call this conference a failure.”

On the main screen, Mr. Mystery’s work was still plastered at the top of the ranking list as the crowd went wild again.

Even Yan Jin was puzzled with this result. He turned to look at Secretary Fang who was beside him and asked: “There really were no amendments made?”

It was not that he could not completely accept this result, but it just seemed too illogical.

Yan Jin even included the possibility that Nan Chan would stir up trouble again, which was why he was surprised by this result.

Secretary Fang quickly shook her head: “It’s not that, the ranking did not change but…”

Then, the voice of the emcee once again echoed through the entire hall, covering Secretary Fang’s incomplete words.

“After internal discussion, we took into consideration that the original jewelry competition preceded the Autumn Release Conference. To allow future competitions to be held smoothly during the conference, we have added a new rule that for all non-physical works submitted to us, the rank of their exhibition booth will be demoted by two places. To compensate the demotion, the organizers will then provide alternatives for them.”

That ruling was purely pinpointed at the individual works category, as all corporate works submitted had physical samples. And most of the individual design competitors were in no condition to materialize their design.

The moment the host’s words ended, the image on the main screen had several changes.

Creating an uproar once again was naturally Mr. Mystery’s ranking that dropped from first place to the third. Second place rose to first, and third rose to second.

“What a way to counter it.”

“They can even do it that way by changing the rules so last minute.”

“It’s quite a feat to be able to come up with such a solution. The organizers didn’t have it easy.”

Almost everyone was staring at the change among the top three places, which was why very few people noticed that at the same moment, the individual work that was originally in the seventeenth place had been demoted to nineteenth place.

Yan Jin did not miss that dramatic moment.

The individual work that was in the seventeenth place was the same work that Zhou Jinrong had used to show off to him earlier. And now, because of the demotion for the individual works, its rank had dropped from seventeenth place to nineteenth. Also, YL, who was ranked nineteenth originally, now raised its rank to eighteenth – naturally standing above SI’s designer.

The edge of Yan Jin’s lips curled slightly.

Secretary Fang did not know what had happened while she went to coordinate with the organizers earlier. But that did not stop her from noticing that Yan Jin mood had turned pleasant.

To avoid the gathering crowd, Yan Jin specifically chose to sit in the last two rows. The position was not considered a good spot, but he was still able to watch his surroundings. The moment that the amendment was made, Yan Jin looked down with a teasing gaze and happened to align his gaze with Zhou Jinrong, who was looking upwards.

It was as if the atmosphere was filled with the smell of smoke.

Yan Jin was calm and collected while Zhou Jinrong was angry beyond words.

Their gazes connected for a second before Yan Jin looked away first, as if the gaze was just a coincidence.

However, it was not a coincidence. That gaze was provocative; it was an arrogant win and a well-paced counterattack.

Zhou Jinrong scoffed.

So, this person isn’t as unambitious as he looks on the surface. It turns out that he also had the desire to win.

But, how was that a win? SI’s rank was still above YL, was that not the reality? Even if they had fallen below the top ten, there was still a difference between rank eleven and rank eighteen¹. That was the real victory, wasn’t it?

… Wasn’t it?

Everything had already been decided – was that really the case?

Very quickly, Zhou Jinrong had his answers.

“Earlier backstage, we received several contracts for transfer of exhibition booth rights from the individual works. We will now be announcing the exhibition booth placing that was arranged accordingly.”

Due to the change in the conference venue, the alignment of the various segments, and the improvement of the setups etc., there would always be changes to the specific positions and setups for the Autumn Release Conference each year. The organizers had informed guests of the specific arrangements, so that was a very normal thing to hear.

However, what caught the attention of the crowd was obviously the first half of that sentence.

Received several contracts for transfer of exhibition booth rights from the individual works? That seemed logical; the exhibition booth itself did not have much value to those individual work designers. They might as well make a deal with the companies. The Autumn Release Conference would be starting tomorrow, so the companies with lower rankings had quickly struck their deals with the designers.

But, there was a critical question – among those several contracts for transfer of exhibition booth, did it include that Mr. Mystery?

The guests looked at the main screen with anticipation as they waited for the answer to be revealed.

The images changed once again as the original scores and works disappeared completely. The final presentation slide only had two columns – the ranks and the name of the corporation or designer.

The crowd quickly looked at the third row.

Mr. Mystery… was gone!

The crowd gasped in astonishment.

The organizers even purposely pulled a prank and temporarily blanked out the names of every designer that had transferred their exhibition booth. And that included the designer who was in third place. They would only reveal the corporation’s name when the emcee announced it.

“The first exhibition place is located at…”

The uproar off stage had begun once again. The crowd was impatient to know the results. They could not wait for the emcee to immediately announce the top two winners. The first and second winners who should have received more attention were instead being neglected. And that was because people were obviously more interested in which company had taken down this Mr. Mystery.

Especially when many of these people were ordered by their leaders to search for that mystery designer and had not even gotten a chance to attend the banquet on top of failing to find him. They waited for the results as their stomachs rumbled.

They gritted their teeth in displeasure as they stared at that blank column right beside third place, waiting for the name of the company to appear.