CHAPTER 144

“The winner is…” Old Mr. Collins turned to face Emily first before he continued, “Emily…”Emily nearly

jumped in excitement when she heard her name.“Hold on.” At that juncture, a cold voice disrupted the

joyous moment.Janet strode toward the middle of the stage and stared at Old Mr. Collins with steady

composure in her eyes. “Old Mr. Collins, are you really going to announce the winner without looking at

my work first?” she asked breezily.At first, Janet was in fact not too keen on winning the contest and

becoming the apprentice of Old Mr. Collins. However, she couldn’t accept it when somebody else won

by stealing her idea, and it insulted her.Old Mr. Collins looked stunned when he saw Janet rising to her

feet.Everyone was dumbfounded for several seconds too before they burst out laughing.“Isn’t the

outcome very obvious by now? Emily is clearly the winner of tonight!”“That Janet girl is such an

attention-seeker. Won’t she feel embarrassed by making a fuss?”“Didn’t she see how good Emily’s

work is? Does she think she can win?”“Hahaha, I really look forward to seeing her painting which must

be as awful as a pile of dung.”“She really should reflect on her own abilities before making any noise. I

don’t why she is looking for trouble despite the fact that her work won’t be better than Emily’s.”In an

instant, everyone was condemning Janet for her shameless attitude.However, Janet was neither

anxious nor angry standing in the middle of the hall. Staring at Emily’s painting indifferently, a trace of

amusement was visible in her eyes.Calmly, she commented, “This koi painting is very beautiful, isn’t

it?”To everyone’s surprise, Janet started off by offering Emily a compliment.All of them were baffled as

no one had a clue what she was trying to do.Flashing her a faint smile, Emily pretended to sound

humble when she responded, “Thanks. Is there anything else you wish to express?”Raising her brow,

Janet questioned, “May I know what inspired you to think of such a color combination for the kois in

your painting?”Emily chuckled, “Of course, I came up with it after some meticulous thinking. I’m not

inferior to you in terms of my gift and effort.” Janet first chortled in response to her statement before

she continued with a cold voice, “Really? I can see you’ve really made a lot of effort trying to imitate my

sketches.”Everyone frowned in confusion when they heard Janet.Emily’s hands clutched the corners of

her shirt tightly and nervously upon hearing Janet’s allegation.Indeed, the koi painting was one of the

few paintings she had taken from Janet’s room before.When Old Mr. Collins announced that the theme Text © 2024 .

was animals, her mind had gone blank for a moment. All at once, she thought of the koi painting she

found in Janet’s room which struck her as a dazzling beauty. Finding it hard to believe that the work

was produced by Janet herself, she was adamant that she must have stolen someone else’s idea and

not Janet’s.She was sure Janet must have produced it by copying one of the masterpieces by some

great artist.However, she would never own up to stealing Janet’s idea at such a grand occasion.Emily

retorted confidently, “Everyone here knows that you can’t really paint. So, why do I even need to steal

your ideas? The drawing lessons I’ve taken over the years are surely way more than yours.”Old Mr.

Collins too frowned in irritation as he had never expected to see Janet making a fuss at such a crucial

moment. He must not have been thinking straight at the time he wanted to take her as his

apprentice.All the guests offstage started accusing Janet.“What did she mean by alleging Emily to have

stolen her sketches?”“Who does she think she is? Is her work even good enough to be imitated by

someone else? She’s hilarious!”“Can you even draw properly? I can’t believe you have the face to

accuse Emily of stealing your idea while you can’t even produce anything good yourself!”“Exactly.

Janet Jackson, don’t you think you’re being very shameless?”Seeing that all the guests were taking her

side, Emily put on a miserable face and cried crocodile tears. “Janet, do you really hate me this much

to look for my trouble on such an important occasion? Why are you doing this to me? I created the

painting myself and I won’t allow you to humiliate me!”She only dared to speak so boldly and

confidently knowing Janet had no evidence to prove her allegation.If Janet managed to produce any

proof, she would have to admit doing it. Listening to how unabashedly Emily had spoken, Lara had a

pressing urge to dash to the stage and beat her up right away.