Did Freda get scammed?
Susan couldn’t help but purse her lips, feeling more and more like her words just now were a joke. Looking at the designers in Susan’s studio and then at Leo’s studio’s Milky Way fishtail dress, their eyes became strange, and some even shook their heads.
Susan felt like her face was on fire right now. She felt embarrassed and angry.
At this time, the chairman of the judges also spoke to her, “Miss Susan, your dress design is different from Leo’s design.”
She could only dryly smile and lower her head. At that moment, there was an obvious frown between her eyebrows. She turned around and walked to the side while taking out her phone to call Freda quietly.
When Freda saw who was calling when she received the call, there was a clear smile on the corner of her mouth. She thought that Susan had come to share good news with her; Jane had already been disqualified by the judges of the design competition.
She answered with a cheerful tone, “Miss Susan, how is it? Did Jane make a fool of herself?”
“What kind of fooling around?!” As soon as she heard this sentence, Susan became angry because she didn’t know what Freda did or if she just casually took a so-called design drawing to deceive them all. Although she said these words out loud in anger, she still lowered down voice so as not let others hear it.
She cautiously looked back for a moment and found that other designers were still looking at exhibition stands before feeling slightly relieved again.
She turned back quickly with an urgent tone, “What happened? Did you take wrong designs or something else happened? Why is Leo’s finished product completely different from what you gave me! It’s not retro style dress at all!”
“How could that be?” Upon hearing this sentence, Freda also panicked subconsciously refuting, “I clearly saw Camille put the designs on table…”
“I got exactly one piece.” In end, Freda still didn’t think Camille who looked simple-minded enough even stupid would cheat on them, “I’m sure.”
“Miss Susan,” Just as Susan wanted to refute again, she heard someone behind calling out for her making her heart tremble. The first reaction was quickly hanging up phone, and turning around in panic with eyes showing signs nervousness.
The person who called for him was none other than Chairman of Judges. He saw Susan turn her head back, and calmly repeated once again, “Miss Susan, please explain your own designed works exhibited here.”
Susan breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly put away her phone and walked over to the display shelf, putting on a polite smile and reaching for the dress.
“This dress was inspired by a TV show I watched one day…” Susan went on at length, detailing every aspect of the design from inspiration to detail. If Jane didn’t know what really happened with this dress, she might have believed Susan’s words.
However, after she finished speaking, the expressions of the designers present were all different. Most were hesitant or even strange.
Susan was confused and looked back at the dress subconsciously. Did she say something wrong?
Camille and Jane glanced at each other with knowing smiles. Camille stepped forward from among the crowd and pretended to be puzzled as she looked at the dress.
“Wait!” She said suddenly. “Miss Susan is indeed very creative, but this dress… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before… in Master Krog’s collection maybe? The position of that cat-eye stone in its belt is exactly identical.”
At that moment when Camille spoke up, Susan turned pale with an ominous feeling rising inside her upon hearing Krog’s name mentioned.
“I remember seeing it in Master Krog’s book too,” Camille continued casually. “He even said it was his most satisfactory work yet! How could Miss Susan have such similar designs? Is this plagiarism?”
Other designers also started discussing among themselves while casting disdainful or skeptical glances towards Susan as their voices reached her ears.
“I knew that dress looked familiar! I saw an exact same one in Krog’s book…”
“I was wondering earlier how Miss Susan won awards in design contests before when now we find out she plagiarizes others’ works! How did someone like her become a designer?”
“If you ask me,” another designer chimed in, “Leo is much better than her although he never shows himself publicly… it’s such a pity though because I participate every year just hoping to catch sight of him.”
Susan’s face turned red then white repeatedly especially upon hearing Leo’s name which felt like stepping on her Achilles heel.
The judges’ faces turned serious. It was obvious that they had noticed the similarities between Susan’s supposed original design and the Krog design.
The chairman of the judges looked at her sternly and said, “Miss Susan, what is going on? Please explain.”
Susan was stunned for a moment. A hint of panic flashed in her eyes. What should she say? Did she use Leo’s studio drawings without permission? In their circle, this was tantamount to plagiarism, even worse than that! She stammered and couldn’t even form a complete sentence. All she could do was shake her head in denial, “No, it’s not like that… it’s not…”
Camille saw this and said, “Then what is it exactly? Why does your dress look so much like the Krog master’s?”
Susan couldn’t say anything at all. She could only glare fiercely at Camille because there was no reason for her to copy someone else’s work.
Seeing Susan like this, the chairman of the judges had already made up his mind about her guilt. He turned around and whispered with two other judges for less than a minute before turning back to face Susan with a serious expression on his face.
“Miss Susan,” he said firmly. “After discussing among ourselves as judges we have come to an agreement that you no longer need to participate in this design competition or any future ones either since plagiarizing designs is one of the biggest taboos for designers!”
Susan froze completely as if being doused with cold water over her head; sweat broke out on both palms along with cold blood running through them too.
This sentence undoubtedly sentenced her death penalty within their designer circle.
Other designers also cast glances towards Susan, some mocking while others were more sympathetic. Most people didn’t like or approve of Susan’s actions; some had even been mistreated by her during designer exchange meetings before now!