Nan Zhi, Cheng Yi, and An Ran discussed tomorrow's design together before going home.

"So there might be more to the story than meets the eye when my aunt died?"

Xu Chaoci frowned and couldn't help but grip the armrest of the sofa. A fierce look appeared between his brows. He thought that his aunt's death was just an accident, but perhaps there was something else going on.

Nan Zhi nodded. "I only have some doubts for now. If what Mom said to them was really so terrible, why didn't they let Xu Yao tell me? That's why I feel that there might be something I don't know."

Xu Chaoci was deeply shaken. If it weren't for that Xu family girl's loose tongue, perhaps his cousin would never have had any doubts in her entire life.

They thanked the Xu family for adopting their aunt, but they also needed the truth. "No matter what, after your competition, we'll go to Yuecheng and find out the truth about what happened back then."

Nan Zhi shared the same thought. Things that happened so many years ago are difficult to investigate. If you want to know the truth, you can only start with the Xu family.

During the team competition, Nanzhi's group was assigned the theme of "Chasing Dreams," which left Anran speechless. "Why do I feel like our group is having such a difficult time?"

Nan Zhi laughed and said, "It's a team competition, so we need to cooperate. You guys should think carefully about how to come up with this design."

Cheng Yi had been staring at those two words in thought, while An Ran was dejected, clearly not knowing what to do.

Time passed by, and while the other groups had already started designing their costumes, Nanzhi's group hadn't even begun.

With only two hours left, An Ran couldn't help but ask:

"Nanzhi, aren't we going to start yet? I see some groups have already designed several paintings."

Nan Zhi and Cheng Yi exchanged a glance, and she felt that Cheng Yi should understand what she meant.

When the time comes, the order of appearance will be determined by the initial draw.

Nanzhi's group is the last one, the twentieth.

An Ran couldn't help but sigh, "I've noticed that whenever Cheng Yi draws lots, he's always at the end."

Nam Gyi expressed his agreement.

There were nineteen groups ahead of us, who took turns going on stage to present.

Nanzhi noticed that several groups initially designed three sets of costumes, with each person having their own design. Their scores weren't particularly outstanding, but they weren't bad either.

Li Weiwei was in the lead, and the members of her group were all quite resourceful. Among the top fifteen groups, Li Weiwei's group was temporarily in first place.

Lian Chuchu looked at Li Weiwei with an inscrutable expression; Li Weiwei was truly lucky.

Lian Chuchu was one person ahead of Nan Zhi in line. When it was their group's turn, Lian Chuchu went on stage to give her presentation. Her presentation was reasonable and logical. The theme was summer, and her presentation was refreshing and she received a high score.

Lian Chuchu's lips curled slightly. Today, she didn't take Nan Zhi's group seriously at all. She had been paying attention to the movements of Nan Zhi's group. An hour had passed and they still hadn't started writing. The girl named An Ran was getting anxious.

Therefore, Lian Chuchu is determined to win first place in this competition.

After all, Nan Zhi cared so much about her birth mother, as could be seen from her attitude towards Xu Yao that time.

When it was the last group's turn, everyone was surprised. The previous groups had each sent one person to the stage to explain their design, some with two pieces and some with three.

When it came to Nanzhi's group, all three of them went on stage together, and they only brought one piece of artwork.

"Haha, that's hilarious! What's going on in this group's heads?"

Snickers erupted from the crowd.

"Is this a case of making up for a lack of ability with sheer numbers?"

"What's the point of sending three people up there? It's a mess, they've probably given up on treatment."

Hearing the surrounding chatter, Lian Chuchu's lips curled up. Li Weiwei took her arm and said, "Sister Chuchu, Nanzhi is probably going to be at the bottom this time."

"Weiwei, don't say that. Maybe they have other ideas."

"Impossible. Look at Nanzhi. She's nothing compared to you."

Li Weiwei felt that Nanzhi was probably doomed this time. The previous teams all had two or three works, but Nanzhi only had one. The design was good, but the key was that there were too few. What was the point of three people going up?

The judges' area was also silent, with several people unable to help but frown.

The president stared intently at the person on the stage, his eyes devoid of any expression, seemingly unaffected.

Soon, Nanzhi explained the theme and meaning of her group's design for this project.

They designed a gown, and just looking at the design on the screen was breathtaking.

"This dress was a collaborative effort between the three of us, and we named it 'Chasing Dreams.' If you look closely, you'll see that this piece blends the styles of our group. I designed the outer shape, Cheng Yi designed the hem, An Ran designed the details of the dress, and the final touches were the result of our collective wisdom."

Nanzhi stood gracefully on the stage, describing the clothes they had designed, her gaze fixed on the judges as she explained their ideas to them.

"I think many people are wondering why the three of us only designed one piece. What I want to say represents our thoughts. This competition is a team competition, and a good piece requires meticulous craftsmanship. These short four hours cannot make our design perfect. However, for this piece, from the initial idea to the discussion and then to the design, we worked together. Each person also shared their own perspective on the theme and their aspirations for pursuing dreams. Therefore, we will explain our respective parts of the design to everyone in turn."

Following that, over ten minutes later, Nan Zhi, Cheng Yi, and An Ran each explained their respective parts of the design, and in short, their explanations were excellent.

The president stood up excitedly, looked at Nanzhi, and couldn't help but ask:

"Can you tell me why you thought of doing this?"

Nan Zhi was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and looked at the president with a calm expression. "Because we are a team, if everyone does their own thing, then it's not a team competition."

Her answer immediately won applause from the judges. The vice president looked up at the standing president and smiled. It seemed that the president had already been chosen.

Nan Zhi's name was thus deeply etched into everyone's minds.

Undoubtedly, Nanzhi's group far surpassed the second place, becoming the well-deserved first place.

It's not that the previous teams weren't excellent; they were just as good. However, they failed to grasp the core of the team competition. In this respect, Nanzhi's team was far ahead of them.

After this competition, there will be a three-day rest period to give the participants enough time to adjust. Then, the final individual competition will be held, with a shorter time limit and a set theme.