For the next four days, Xia Weiwei spent almost every free moment developing her competition entry.
She attended classes in the morning, worked at the jewelry company in the afternoon, and continued drawing inside her home studio after dinner.
The phoenix gradually came to life on the page.
Its body emerged from a broken circle, while fragments of the destroyed ring transformed into feathers along its wings. Several pieces remained beneath it, representing the parts of the past that could not be recovered.
Weiwei documented every stage as Professor Zhao instructed.
She photographed rough drafts, recorded the dates, stored digital copies on an encrypted drive, and registered the developing concept under her name.
She was determined to leave no opening for accusations.
However, in concentrating on her work, she failed to notice that Mo Shian had become unusually quiet.
He still drove her to university when their schedules allowed.
