"Miss Xia, did you truly design this piece yourself?"
Professor Zhao's question echoed through the silent exhibition hall.
Xia Xinya stared at the red gemstone lying on the examination board. Her mind went blank for several seconds.
She had expected the necklace to receive praise.
Even if it did not win first place, the design was sophisticated enough to place among the top three. She had never imagined that the central gemstone would fall out during the preliminary judging.
"I designed it," Xinya answered after regaining her composure. "There must have been a mistake when I assembled the prototype."
"A mistake during assembly can happen," one of the judges said. "However, the problem began with the design itself. The setting is too shallow to secure a gemstone of this size."
"I must have miscalculated the measurements."
The representative from Aurelia House picked up the gemstone and placed it beside the necklace.
"What about the imbalance between the wings?"
