Xia Xiaolan closed the latest issue of “Domus.”

“I was looking at Heidi Dawson’s design. She’s Mond Dawson’s daughter – her father is a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, which is an extremely important award in architecture. And with this work, Heidi is my strongest competitor for this year’s AIA Emerging Architect award.”

As for what she could discern?

At her current level, she could still see some things.

The design was very mature.

Currently just a paper design, but it could be built if needed… Of course, Xia Xiaolan was also often described as having a mature design style. It couldn’t be helped – she wasn’t young at heart anyway, so mature work was natural.

But Heidi Dawson was truly young.

Xia Xiaolan suspected that Heidi’s work, which was featured in “Domus” magazine and shortlisted for this year’s AIA Emerging Architect award, was actually ghostwritten by Mond Dawson…

Or had Heidi taken some miracle drug and transformed overnight?

The latter possibility was too small – almost like ‘rebirth’!

But Xia Xiaolan had no evidence!

A father ghostwriting for his daughter had a perfect advantage – the father wouldn’t betray his daughter, and the daughter wouldn’t expose her father. With family ties and shared interests binding them, if news leaked that Mond Dawson, a Pritzker Prize winner, was ghostwriting for Heidi, he would be finished.

The same went for Heidi.

Not only would she lose the Emerging Architect award, but her reputation would be ruined.

Just like Lisa – plagiarists were universally condemned in the industry, making it impossible to survive.

Bai Zhenzhu nodded, “I remember, when you went to America last year for the lawsuit, that female architect called Li-something was the one who opposed you following Mond’s instructions!”

“Her name was Lisa. After losing the lawsuit, she was kicked out of Mond’s studio and disappeared.”

She truly vanished – in the vast expanse of America, if someone wanted to hide, who could find them?

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be bothered to spend money investigating Lisa’s whereabouts; she’d already received the court-ordered compensation anyway. Lisa originally had a job at GMP, but her greed led to such an outcome. Xia Xiaolan considered herself a victim – Lisa’s greed, combined with Mond Dawson’s manipulation, left her with nothing.

If Lisa wanted to hold a grudge, she should resent Mond Dawson!

However, Mond had returned to the fray so quickly, not by entering himself but by grooming his daughter for the AIA Emerging Architect award.

It made sense – a Pritzker Prize winner personally confronting someone of her junior status would be embarrassing whether he won or lost, and would invite questioning.

But pushing Heidi forward to compete with her wasn’t a problem.

If Heidi won against her, it would be killing two birds with one stone for Mond.

What disgusted Xia Xiaolan most was this: she knew Heidi didn’t have this level of skill, and others might suspect it too, but no one had proof. When Mond and Heidi both insisted that the design published in the latest “Domus” was Heidi’s work, it “absolutely” became Heidi’s work.

Ghostwriting and fraud exist worldwide.

If Mond Dawson had no shame, no one could do anything about it.

Expose Heidi?

Unless Mond only ghostwrote for Heidi this once.

If Mond was willing to sacrifice his interests and continuously supply works for Heidi, with his prowess as a Pritzker Prize winner, it would only take a few years to forcefully create a new architect with greater fame than Xia Xiaolan.

There was no help for it – Heidi was Mond Dawson’s daughter, and she was at the forefront of the global architectural circle.

Between an American emerging female architect and a Chinese emerging female architect, people might prefer the former.

The more Xia Xiaolan thought about it, the more agitated she became.

She had believed this year’s Emerging Architect award was in the bag!

No one should complain about having too many awards – world-class master architects were made through their works plus awards.

It was like winning Best Actor/Actress in the entertainment industry – an actor might claim to be skilled, and fans might praise them wildly, but without winning an award, their fans lack confidence when arguing with rivals.

Awards were both shields and weapons.

They could defend against enemy attacks and strike back powerfully.

Things were different with awards – you could stand tall in arguments, and against any attack, you could throw back the challenge “Let’s see your person win an award first!” What a powerful counter!

For Xia Xiaolan, when people questioned her gender, design style, or even her age and nationality, she could respond: She’s an AIA Emerging Architect award winner!

Of course, replacing the “AIA Emerging Architect award” with the “Pritzker Architecture Prize” would be even more intimidating against enemies.

But Xia Xiaolan remained rational. She knew she couldn’t win the Pritzker Prize anytime soon – in its nine years of existence, it had never been awarded to a female architect, let alone a young female architect!

After much consideration, the “AIA Emerging Architect” award was her best chance in the short term, the most prestigious, and most suitable award – if Heidi wasn’t competing this year, Xia Xiaolan could confidently say the award should be hers!

The Shangdu Museum was genuinely good, her recent masterpiece.

Damn, that shameless Mond Dawson.

And Heidi, who calmly accepted her father’s ghostwriting – this father-daughter pair…

Bai Zhenzhu was somewhat scared.

She rarely saw Xiaolan looking so upset.

Any difficult situation in Xiaolan’s hands could usually be resolved – was she helpless this time?

When Bai Zhenzhu voiced this, Xia Xiaolan smiled bitterly:

“Do you know why? I can solve problems not because I have superpowers, but because I have money power! Think about life’s troubles – how many are caused by poverty? Like your situation – you have money, so you can directly hire two caregivers for your grandmother. You have money, so they can’t restrict you from choosing the life you want.”

Money wasn’t omnipotent, but being without it was impossible.

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t preaching money supremacy; she was just stating facts.

“Money power?”

“Yes, the power of money – isn’t it vivid?”

Bai Zhenzhu nodded vigorously – it was indeed vivid.

“So this time, you can’t use your money power?”

“How could I? Bribe all the AIA judges to only vote for me and not Heidi? Or hire a hitman to take out Heidi – they can’t give the AIA Emerging Architect award to a dead person…”

Xia Xiaolan became increasingly embarrassed as she spoke because she noticed approval in Bai Zhenzhu’s eyes as if wondering why not use these perfectly viable solutions.

“Comrade Zhenzhu, your thoughts are both bold and dangerous!”