Chapter 282 Never Fight a Battle Unprepared
The room fell silent immediately after he said that.
Seeing the hesitant expressions on Dean Gao's and Professor Li's faces, Jiang Si suddenly had a bold guess.
"Is my design similar to someone else's?"
"You know?" Professor Li asked in surprise.
"I didn't know before, but I do now," Jiang Si said honestly.
Upon hearing this, Dean Gao and Professor Li exchanged a glance.
Both of them had spent their entire lives working in design and were by nature intolerant of any flaws.
The reason I didn't speak up immediately was because I found the whole thing rather unbelievable.
After a moment of contemplation, Professor Li said, "Xiao Jiang, I'll be frank. Your design is 90% similar to the winning design."
"Ninety percent?"
"Yes."
Jiang Si remained silent for a moment after hearing this.
It would be a lie to say you weren't surprised at all, given the complexity of this project.
Even if two people have similar ideas, it's impossible for them to have such a complete collision.
But to say it was particularly surprising, it wasn't.
Perhaps it's due to preconceived notions, coupled with what I saw and heard at the National Daily News office today.
To be honest, she didn't have a good impression of Shen Dong.
Hearing this news now, Jiang Si actually had a feeling of 'I knew it'.
Compared to her calm and composed demeanor, Huo Tingzhou's expression at this moment could not be described as merely ugly.
No one knows better than him how much his wife sacrificed for this design!
During that period, she had just finished her postpartum confinement and often spent the whole day drawing in order to meet her deadline.
It's common to get blisters on your fingers.
That's why he was so heartbroken when he learned that his wife hadn't been selected.
Now they're telling him it wasn't that his wife's design wasn't good enough!
Instead, her painstakingly created design was switched out by someone else. How could Huo Tingzhou not be angry?
Thinking about all this, Huo Tingzhou looked at the two people present.
"This design plan is my wife's hard work. At the end of last month, my mother personally brought it back to Beijing."
"It was then mailed from the Beijing Post Office, via registered express mail."
Originally, Mrs. Huo planned to deliver it herself, but the Ministry of Construction had regulations in place to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the event.
All design proposals, except those submitted anonymously, must be sealed and mailed to the Ministry of Construction before submission.
It was specified that only members of the review team could sign for it.
Mrs. Huo was worried, so she specially arranged for expedited registration.
If it's within the same city, it will definitely arrive within two days.
The registration receipt was given to Jiang Si by Huo's mother yesterday.
Registration certificate from the 1970s
"Professor Li, this is the post office receipt." Using her handbag as a cover, Jiang Si took out the receipt from her spatial storage and handed it over.
Just as she was about to mention that she had also taken photos for archiving, Professor Li immediately expressed his opinion.
"Don't worry, Xiao Jiang, we will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly and give you justice."
Professor Li has met countless people throughout his life, from the very first moment he saw Jiang Si.
He knew she was a smart and talented girl.
He was particularly impressed by her confidence and composure when she was explaining her design.
In her, Professor Li seemed to see a reflection of his younger self.
Even if we take a step back and assume the Huo family's current status...
As the daughter-in-law of the Huo family, she had absolutely no need to do such a thing, and of course, she disdained to do it.
"Thank you, Professor Li."
Jiang Si did not expect that, before she could produce any evidence, this would happen.
Professor Li has already concluded the matter.
But she never fights a battle unprepared.
If you want to seek justice, you naturally need to prepare more sufficient evidence.
So, as soon as they finished lunch, Jiang Si and Huo Tingzhou took Professor Li and Dean Gao home.
Afterwards, I drove to the Beijing Artists Association.
Fang Wenjun had just finished lunch not long ago, and she was both surprised and delighted to see the young couple coming over!
He quickly led them to his office, asking, "When did you get back?"
As she spoke, Fang Wenjun looked Jiang Si up and down. "You look a bit thinner than last year. Is it because taking care of the child is too tiring?"
Jiang Si felt a warmth in her heart and said that she had just returned the night before last.
He then smiled and said, "Teacher's wife, I'm doing well. You, on the other hand, look younger and younger."
"You're good at making me happy."
Fang Wenjun patted her hand reproachfully, "You sit down, Xiao Huo, you sit down too."
As she spoke, she took out a tea canister from the cabinet.
"There's nothing much going on at work this afternoon, so I can head back soon. You two can come with me; we can have a simple meal at my place tonight."
Knowing that Jiang Si had given birth to twins, Fang Wenjun specially prepared some gifts for them to take back with them.
Jiang Si stopped her, "Master's wife, don't bother. Actually, I came here today because I want to ask you for help with something."
Fang Wenjun asked in surprise, "What's wrong? What happened?"
Jiang Si then recounted how the design drawings had been stolen, explaining that the design drawings used in this submission were the official version intended for archiving.
Although it's supposed to be anonymous, you still have to add text annotations where necessary.
However, the font is strictly limited to Fangsong.
With limited time, it's clearly impossible for the other party to redraw a copy based on my design.
Jiang Si guessed that the other party probably submitted her design directly.
As for the text annotations and lines above, did he use a scraper to modify them, or did he use a technical pen to trace over them based on her original work?
We'll only know for sure once we see the original design drawings.
"This is outrageous!"
Fang Wenjun got angry as soon as she heard this, and her eyebrows shot up.
"He figured the design drawings wouldn't be made public, so even if he stole someone else's work, no one would notice for a while."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of this. I have an old friend at the Cultural Relics Bureau who specializes in handwriting identification. His skills are absolutely top-notch. I'll give him a call later."
Then she asked, "You just said you took photos for record-keeping?"
"Mm." Jiang Si nodded.
She initially took photos out of habit, never expecting that someone would actually steal her design drawings.
"That's perfect, give me the negatives."
This is crucial evidence, so the clearer the developed photos, the better.
Fortunately, their association and the Beijing Photo Agency frequently interact.
Fang Wenjun said, "I'll send the negatives over to them in a bit, and they'll develop and enlarge them for you by tomorrow morning at the latest."
Jiang Si was touched. "Thank you, Master's wife. I'm sorry to have troubled you this time."
Fang Wenjun gave her a reproachful look, "You child, why are you being so polite with me?"
The two chatted for a while longer, and seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Si got up to say goodbye.
Knowing they had other things to do, Fang Wenjun didn't linger.
After Jiang Si left, she thought for a while and finally dialed a familiar number.
After a long while, a refined male voice came from the other end of the phone.
Meanwhile, on the other side...
After leaving the China Artists Association, Jiang Si and Huo Tingzhou rushed to the Beijing Post Office.
The design drafts were sent from here, so the problem either lies in the mailing process or the Shen family has connections in the Ministry of Construction.
Otherwise, the design drafts wouldn't have appeared in his hands out of thin air.
However, as soon as the car came to a stop, Huo Tingzhou suddenly grabbed her hand.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Si turned her head to look over.
Huo Tingzhou didn't speak, but gestured for her to look in the direction of the post office entrance.
It was during the afternoon workday, and a group of post office employees wearing green uniforms and aluminum name tags pinned to their chests were present.
They were walking towards the post office building in twos and threes.
Jiang Si's gaze swept across the crowd, and her eyes suddenly fixed on a familiar figure.
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