Mr And Mrs Huo

Chapter 19

The finale was in full swing. The jewelry pieces of the first two finalists had been brought to the stage for the judges to evaluate. The two pieces got good reviews, but the judges didn't seem to consider them mind-blowing.

This fact was evident from the measured attitude of the judges during their evaluations. The jewelry pieces met the standard but didn't exceed it. If this continued, it was likely that something that rarely occurred might happen.

Donovan Jewelry Design Competition had steps in place to preserve its reputation. It only awarded the opportunity to collaborate with overseas partners to contestants who submitted jewelry pieces the judges considered mind-blowing. 

Things were done this way because any company the judges deemed as very good was sure to go places. The reward could be seen as extending an olive branch.

The winning company received a boost, and the Donovan Jewelry Design Competition got a feather added to its cap for every winner it produced that ended up being very successful.

Rules were put in place to preserve this beneficial arrangement. The reward was only given to the company that truly impressed the judges. These judges were veterans invited from all over the world. Therefore it took a lot to impress them.

Contestants knew this, so they put 150%  effort when designing their jewelry pieces. Hard work begets success. There was a winner on many occasions that this competition was held. But there were rare times when the judges concluded that none of the contestants were worthy.

The audience seated today was wondering if that rare occurrence would happen today.

There were seven judges at the final stage. Each of them had great accomplishments in jewelry design under their belts, and they were well-known in their field. One of them was Fang Zhifei.

Fang Zhifei was the oldest among the judges. He was a guru when it came to designing jade pieces. His designs won many awards, and famous and influential people wore them.

Fang Zhifei was rather old now, and most of his attention was on nurturing future designers. Because of this, he cared very much about this competition that was linked to the future of jewelry design in Country A.

He found the first two pieces somewhat disappointing. There were good in their own rights, but they couldn't enter his eyes. He was hoping the last two would be better.

Just then the anchor introduced the next jewelry piece. "Ladies and gentlemen, the next piece is from Lustrous. It's a necklace made from diamonds and sapphires called Blue Night."

Then the necklace was brought to the stage.

This necklace took the form of a twisted bead necklace. But Instead of ropes and beads, it had sliver as its base. There were many strands of silver with miniature jewels embedded in the many tiny pockets of each strand.

Each strand of jewel-filled silver was entwined around one another. Until this day, many never thought that silver could be used in such a flexible manner. The jewels used were white diamonds and blue sapphire.

Who knew what ratio of diamond and sapphires was used, but as the lights hit them, it was like one was staring into the night sky filled with a plethora of stars.

What drew attention the most wasn't this spectacular twist of silver, diamond, and sapphires but the star-shaped pendant at the center. It was star-shaped, but it bore some resemblance to a snowflake.

Its outreaching strands were encrusted with sapphires, and its middle had two rings of stars. The outer star was made of blue diamond, and the inner star was made from a diamond with a lighter shade of blue that almost seemed white.

It reminded people of the snowflakes during a starry night in winter. Cold and beautiful.

When this piece appeared, everyone had differing expressions on their face.

The audience had a look of awe, the contestants had looks of jealousy and defeat, and the judges had looks of excitement on their faces, although there were some anomalies.

One of the judges had a look of shock that was quickly transitioning into anger. Li Na had a mocking smile on her face, Yan Hui looked very proud, while Yu Yuan's face formed a quiet smile. A smile that was similar to the one she had when she watched Yan Hui leave earlier.

This smile didn't contain malice, but anyone with knee eyes would feel a sense of ominous foreboding if they saw it.

The show was about to start.

Yan Hui examined the looks on the face of the judges and was sure that he would win this competition.

He had employed some underhanded tricks to get this piece, but he didn't care. He would get the benefits, and the victims had no evidence against him. Thinking this way, he turned to look at the victims to observe their expressions.

Then he frowned. Yan Hui didn't find any of the shock or anger he was expecting, but he caught the mocking smile on Li Na's face. An ominous premonition suddenly filled him.

Then he thought back to how he laid his hand on this piece in the first place.

When Lustrous was preparing for this competition, Yan Hui knew that just any piece wouldn't do. Still, the problem was that none of his designers could develop a satisfactory piece.

Then Yan Hui decided to turn to something he knew how to do best, stealing, and who best to steal from than the recent black horse of the jewelry design industry, Bejeweled.

The previous pieces he had stolen from Bejeweled brought him enormous benefits. This time, he was looking forward to what Bejeweled would produce for this competition.

But Yan Hui was cautious because he knew that Bejeweled would be on guard after the previous attacks. Therefore he had told the insider he had to be careful not to fall for any tricks.

When he got the design draft and heard of the "great difficulty" the spy went through to get it, he was convinced that this was another success. After all, the draft exceeded his expectations.

Although he was surprised that Bejeweled could still enter the competition, he wasn't bothered. It made sense that they would discover that something so guarded had been tampered with, and perhaps they had a Plan B. Anyway, a Plan B couldn't compare to Plan A.

Now it seems that he might have thought too simply. He wasn't so sure if the success he thought he had was still in his grasp.

Yan Hui turned his gaze to one of the designers at Bejeweled. This designer had a satisfied smile on her face and looked nothing like someone facing a tough competitor. It was Tan Lin.

Yan Hui cursed under his breath. Idiot.
His mind quickly turned, wondering what could go wrong and how he could get out unscathed.

******
Interview

Author: Yu Yuan, what did you do?

Yu Yuan: *Smiles quietly*

Author: *Shivers*

Author's Note
Everything is slowly unfolding. 🌝

I'm glad everyone is enjoying my novel, and I know you all want more updates. Honestly, I wish I could do more than one chapter a week, but my schedule is packed. I can only carve out a little time during the weekends to write.

The little time I have during the weekends is also shared by my Chinese novel translations at https://creativelymoon.blogspot.com

I'm sorry, everyone, but I'm caught up in the tough journey to financial independence. Life of an adult. 😞