For just a new architect’s award ceremony, was all this necessary?

Making it seem like a Nobel Prize, with her and Heidi sharing the award.

Xia Xiaolan felt the award had instantly lost its value.

If it weren’t for Tang Youru’s upcoming first surgery, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t have wanted to stay in America to receive this award. But Kissinger and others urged her to attend:

“Why not go? If you don’t attend, all the glory will go to Heidi, and Mond will laugh himself silly!”

“Yes, AIA knows Heidi’s work is questionable, but they couldn’t find any flaws, so they had to split the award between you two. Your receiving the award is well-deserved, while Heidi receiving it is just a joke to industry insiders.”

The industry would mock Heidi.

But those mockeries wouldn’t be public – with Mond Dawson as her father, Heidi wouldn’t miss out on any advantages.

Xia Xiaolan realized they had a point. She hadn’t lobbied for the AIA award, and when faced with Heidi’s “exceptional” competition entry, AIA still insisted on splitting the award in half, giving her the other portion. Wasn’t this recognition of her abilities?

She wasn’t just competing against Heidi, but engaging in a remote battle with Mond.

Her work wasn’t far behind the competition entry that Mond Dawson had helped prepare for his daughter. Xia Xiaolan was competing against a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner and managed a draw – there was nothing shameful about that.

Just going to receive an award?

Why not!

AIA even organized a small award ceremony, truly keeping up with the times, making a newcomer architectural award seem quite impressive.

As soon as Xia Xiaolan appeared, reporters quickly recognized her.

The one who fought the copyright lawsuit in New York last year!

The Dawson family of three also attended the ceremony. Mrs. Dawson was particularly elaborately dressed, though privately complaining to Mond that it would have been better if Xia Xiaolan hadn’t shared the award.

With Xia Xiaolan present, everyone’s attention was focused on her.

Heidi received much less attention.

Mrs. Dawson’s gaze was full of disgust, and Xia Xiaolan’s expression was far from friendly.

The organizers had the two winning new architects take photos together. With Xia Xiaolan standing there, chest out and head high, Heidi could barely straighten her back and didn’t dare make eye contact with Xia Xiaolan… Xia Xiaolan smiled at the camera as the photographer captured their joint photo.

Then reporters urged father and daughter Dawson to take a photo together with the trophy.

Mond was composed.

He handled the reporters’ interviews with experience.

His gaze toward Heidi showed rare affection:

“She is Mond Dawson’s daughter, she must study architecture – on this point, I am an autocratic father. Of course, Heidi is developing well, just as I hoped. Whether she will inherit the Dawson Studio in the future? That’s not certain. She can forge her path, establish her firm, she will become my pri-“

Before he could finish saying “pride,” Mond’s smile suddenly froze.

Bang!

Bang bang bang!

Mond Dawson clutched his chest and fell.

Zheng Feng, who had attended the ceremony with Xia Xiaolan, darted out from beside her and tackled her down.

“Director Xia, there’s a shooter!”

There was a shooter – the shooter had attacked Mond Dawson.

The reporters were all stunned.

Mrs. Dawson screamed, “Help – oh God, help!”

Heidi didn’t know what had happened either, she could only dazedly support her shot father.

Xia Xiaolan, protected by Zheng Feng, backed away while looking into the crowd.

The shooter hadn’t retreated, just stood there waiting to be caught, wearing a hoodie, looking dirty like a homeless person… a homeless woman. My God, it was Lisa who had vanished for so long!

Now Xia Xiaolan didn’t dare expose herself either, Lisa had attacked Mond like a madwoman, and she feared Lisa might go berserk and try to take her out too.

Xia Xiaolan worried unnecessarily. Lisa, hidden in the crowd, had shot Mond several times but didn’t target anyone else, not even Heidi and Mrs. Dawson who were standing with Mond.

After shooting Mond, Lisa didn’t run but stood there laughing loudly until several police officers arrived to subdue her.

“He deserved to die!”

“Mond Dawson, the cancer of the architectural world!”

“He ruined my life!”

Lisa had gone mad.

She had been lurking for nearly a year, and probably had many chances to kill Mond Dawson, but held back, just to deliver the fatal blow in this public setting.

Lisa wanted Mond to die, and to die with a tarnished reputation.

With the shooter subdued by police, the reporters dared to gather around again. In front of them, Lisa exposed everything Mond Dawson had done.

What a deep hatred it must have been to make Lisa murder in public, and Mond Dawson couldn’t get up to defend himself… This year’s AIA Rising Star Architect Award was even more dramatic than last year’s copyright lawsuit.

The ambulance arrived, but it was too late to save Mond Dawson – he was pronounced dead.

Mrs. Dawson broke down crying, while Heidi supported her father’s body with one hand and held the blood-stained trophy with the other, too shocked to even cry.

Xia Xiaolan was stunned.

She hadn’t expected this to happen when she came to receive the award.

Once reporters figured out Lisa’s identity, they would come to interview her, since she had won the lawsuit against Lisa last year.

Before the reporters could react, Xia Xiaolan quietly left the scene.

The second AIA Rising Star Architect Award ceremony became the architecture world’s bloody day.

They had selected two new architects but lost a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner. Though Mond Dawson might have been lacking in character, he undeniably had exceptional talent in architecture – his death was certainly a loss for the architectural world!

But could anyone blame Lisa the killer?

From Lisa’s perspective, she had been working fine at GMP, and though temporarily underappreciated, she was still a well-paid formal architect.

Just because she was deceived by Mond, Lisa lost her job, ruined her future, and lost all her savings… This greatly traumatized Lisa, making her radical and crazy. She wanted nothing else but to kill Mond Dawson, which was completely unpredictable.

Xia Xiaolan was quite shocked.

If she had been Lisa’s most hated person, if those shots had been aimed at her, could she have dodged them?

Xia Xiaolan refused interviews but stayed in New York to attend Mond Dawson’s funeral.

Although Mrs. Dawson in her black attire glared at her angrily, Xia Xiaolan barely reacted. Lisa’s shooting of Mond made Xia Xiaolan start to reflect – some enemies must be thoroughly defeated, but with others, perhaps she could use gentler methods.

She hadn’t come to mock Heidi.

Mond Dawson was an enemy Xia Xiaolan had set for herself. She had aimed to defeat him in the professional field, but with this enemy’s sudden death, Xia Xiaolan felt regret.

“Heidi, I hope you can inherit the Dawson Studio.”

The Dawson Studio was supported by Mond Dawson alone. With his death, even if the studio didn’t dissolve, it would fall from first-tier to third-tier. If Heidi couldn’t sustain it for long, it would become irrelevant!

Heidi’s gaze was both grief-stricken and complex.

“…I will win. There will be such a day. I will become father’s pride.”