After Divorce I Married a Tycoon-Chapter 150: Pulling Dirty Tricks

CZ Group’s first-ever Fashion Design and Modeling Competition officially kicked off a week later.

The number of contestants who signed up to compete was enormous.

Designers and models from all over the country, and even from abroad, had registered.

So, like any other major contest, the competition was divided into four stages.

Auditions, preliminaries, semi-finals, and finally, the grand finals.

Although this competition was organized by Adrian Sutton specifically for Claire Mercer,

he never once thought of pulling strings for her or giving her a shortcut.

Because from the very beginning, he believed in her and acknowledged her talent and skill.

Therefore, she didn’t need anyone to pull strings for her.

What she needed was a stage where she could truly shine.

And he, Adrian Sutton, was willing to build that stage for her.

To help her achieve her dream and realize her worth.

So, just like every other contestant,

Claire Mercer started from the auditions, then moved on to the preliminaries and semi-finals...

After more than half a month of intense competition, she and Stella Thorne finally made it into the finals, just as they had hoped.

After half a month of competition, their synergy had become flawless.

Plus, they had been best friends for years and knew each other inside and out.

Claire Mercer knew exactly what styles would perfectly accentuate Stella Thorne’s best features.

And Stella Thorne had a precise understanding of how to wear every piece of clothing Claire designed for her, bringing out their unique charm and giving them life. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

There were sixty contestants in the finals in total—the top ten from each of the six competition regions.

Since this was the first competition hosted by CZ Group,

many professional designers and models had signed up to compete.

As a result, the competition was actually incredibly fierce.

Stella Thorne, in particular, felt immense pressure, terrified she would hold Claire Mercer back in the finals.

As they prepared for the finals, Claire Mercer and Roxanne Peyton constantly encouraged her.

"Don’t look at some of the other contestants—the ones who are professionals with years of stage experience—and think you can’t possibly beat them."

"After competing for the past half-month, you’re already completely in your element on stage."

"Stella, you have no idea how beautiful you look when you’re walking the runway. You were born for this, you know?"

"Sometimes, hard work and professionalism still lose out to raw talent."

"You’re the one with the talent. So you just need to be confident and leave the rest to me."

Roxanne Peyton quickly nodded in agreement. "Right. You need to trust not only Claire, but yourself as well."

"Besides, the competitions over the last half-month have been livestreamed on the official video accounts for each region."

"Even though the competition doesn’t have a huge following yet, your personal account has gained tens of thousands of followers in that time."

"Among the contestants in the Rhonia region, your looks and figure are top-notch."

"Your stage presence has gotten more and more steady, and you perform better every single time."

"Otherwise, you wouldn’t have attracted so much attention from all these fans. Isn’t that proof enough of how outstanding you are?"

After their encouragement, Stella Thorne’s anxious heart finally began to calm down.

Previously lacking confidence, she now started to feel that maybe she really wasn’t so bad after all.

After every competition, she would also watch the livestream replays to review her performance.

On one hand, it allowed her to spot her own shortcomings

so she could make up for them on her next turn on stage.

On the other hand, she could also observe her competitors and learn from their strengths.

On top of that, ever since she signed up, she had been spending a lot of time every day training hard.

Her performance over the past half-month was a fair reward for all her effort.

Suddenly, Claire Mercer said,

"What I didn’t expect, though, was that Scarlett Jewel also made it to the Rhonia regional finals."

Before signing up, she hadn’t known that Scarlett Jewel had also studied fashion design.

And she certainly never imagined Scarlett would actually enter the competition.

The last time she ran into her at the modeling workshop, she saw her team up with Lily Dalton and just assumed Scarlett Jewel was fooling around.

After all, she was pregnant and should be at home resting.

Running off to compete like this... Wasn’t she afraid something might happen to the baby?

"Would you call this ’enemies are bound to meet,’ or is Rhonia just too small?"

"It feels like she’s a persistent ghost; she’s everywhere I go."

"She’s over four months pregnant, right?" Roxanne Peyton asked.

Claire Mercer nodded uncertainly. "I think so. I’m not sure."

"Do you think there’s something wrong with her head?" Roxanne Peyton said.

"Instead of staying home and taking care of her pregnancy, she’s running off to compete in some competition."

"And the Sinclair Family, too. Aren’t they worried something might happen to her baby?"

"But from what I’ve seen, Scarlett Jewel’s designs don’t seem to have any defining features. I can’t believe she made it to the finals."

"Claire, I’m a layman. I don’t know anything about design."

"As someone who graduated with a professional degree in fashion design, what do you think of her work?"

To be honest, Claire Mercer hadn’t paid Scarlett Jewel any mind at first.

The designs she submitted for the competition weren’t even worthy of her notice.

But who would have thought that with designs like hers, she could actually overcome every obstacle and make it this far...

"Honestly, I can’t appreciate them either."

Stella Thorne asked, "Claire, do you think there’s some inside story behind her getting into the finals?"

"Her reputation is terrible, but she has the Sinclair Family backing her."

"Is it possible she used her connections with the Sinclair Family to bribe the judges?"

Roxanne Peyton said, "This is a competition hosted by CZ Group. Her reach can’t be that long, can it?"

"Even if the Sinclair Family has money and connections in Rhonia, CZ Group is way out of their league."

Claire Mercer thought for a moment and said, "Actually, Stella has a point. Even though the competition is hosted by CZ Group,"

"the judges in each region are hired by CZ Group; they aren’t employees of CZ Group."

"It wouldn’t actually be that hard for Scarlett Jewel to bribe the judges to get into the finals."

"But it’s too early to say for sure that she bribed them. After all, every judge has a different aesthetic."

"And while I can’t appreciate her designs, from a professional standpoint, they aren’t *that* bad."

"Besides, the judges for the finals are nationally acclaimed design masters."

"Even if she pulled some strings during the preliminaries and semi-finals, trying to cheat in the finals won’t be so easy."

"Whether she has real skill or just used some underhanded tactics—it’ll all come to light during the finals."

When it came to Scarlett Jewel and the other contestants from the Rhonia region, Claire Mercer was actually quite confident.

She had also familiarized herself with the contestants from the other regions.

Because after every round, she would take the time to watch the competitions from the other regions.

She had gotten a good grasp of many contestants’ styles, so she felt she knew her competition well.

Although the top ten contestants from each region were all very talented, she was also very confident in herself.

As long as there were no slip-ups or accidents during the finals, placing in the top three would be a sure thing for her.

Her only fear now was that Scarlett Jewel would try to cause trouble for her again.

After all, the woman was a bit unhinged, not quite right in the head, and always picking fights with her.

’That incident where she forced me to handwrite an apology letter and post a video of it online...’

’Given Scarlett Jewel’s character, she definitely holds a grudge against me for that.’

’She might actually try to pull some dirty tricks during the finals.’

’After all, she’s Mrs. Sterling of the Sinclair family now. With that status, it’s very convenient to get things done.’

So now, besides focusing on preparing for the finals, she also had to guard against a petty person like Scarlett Jewel trying to sabotage her from behind the scenes.