Chapter 8

“These two bottles are the samples from Rebirth and MN Inc., respectively. Mr. Hall, please try them and see if there’s any difference.” Lily raised her hands high so everyone present could see the bottles she was holding.

“So what if there’s a difference or not?” Nathaniel narrowed his eyes slightly. Then he continued disapprovingly, “Even the judges said the scents and the ingredients are alike. What will charade this prove?”

“This can prove why Rebirth won the competition. Mr. Hall, you insisted I stole MN Inc.’s product, didn’t you? Since you insisted it’s plagiarism, and there’s a difference between the samples, the original product should be the better one, am I right? Since you think it’s unfair, this is your best chance to clarify everything to everyone in our industry and the media.”

All along, Lily had a faint smile and spoke in a gentle voice. Due to the incident in the past, many held prejudices against Lily. However, they found they could not say harsh things to her when she was smiling.

Nathaniel looked at Lily, frowning profoundly and wondering what tricks Lily had up her sleeves as he thought, ‘What is wrong with her today? Why must she make a scene here? Also, I can’t believe she doesn’t listen to what I say anymore.’

“Oh right, you aren’t a professional perfumer after all. Understandably, you are unsure about the more technical things. However, Ms. Thayer should be able to identify the differences since she is the creator of First Love, right?” Lily asked in a thought-provoking manner as she turned to look at Melanie, standing behind Nathaniel.

Melanie held the wine glass in her hand tightly and tried to suppress the panic rising in her heart. She knew better than anyone how Lily created First Love.

It was difficult for Melanie to figure out Lily’s sudden appearance and why Lily put the spotlight on her, asking her to distinguish between the two samples. She was unsure of Lily’s intentions.

Melanie pursed her lips and said, “It’s unfortunate for MN Inc. and Rebirth that such a thing happened today. Of course, First Love’s formulation got leaked, but what’s the point of distinguishing which sample is fake or authentic now? Lily, I don’t know what happened, but we were friends in college. I refuse to pursue this matter any further.” Melanie turned around gracefully and slightly lifted the corner of her dress off the ground, preparing to leave the scene.

“But I want to pursue this matter. What should we do about that?” Lily’s clear voice possessed a hint of tease. She would not let Melanie get away so quickly. It made Melanie stop in her tracks and turn around to stare at Lily with widened eyes.

“Lily, you’re going too far with this!” Nathaniel tilted his head slightly to avoid the cameras that focused on him before he lowered his voice to rebuke Lily impatiently.

“Is this too much for you?” With a smirk, Lily put the two sample bottles on the table and removed the corks that secured the openings.

Then she looked at the audience and thundered, “Everyone, I created First Love based on the unique feelings between a man and a woman. This concept was the source of inspiration for this product. At the same time, I wished for this scent to evoke nostalgia and yearning among its users. I used a sweet fragrance as its base, and there should also be a slight astringent scent, but its aftertaste would still be sweet. The difference between these two samples is in its base notes.”

Some curious people have already moved forward to have a smell, while some tried to distinguish the difference with test strips. However, they were still puzzled.

“The scents are similar, so what’s the difference in their base notes?”

A perfume had its evaporation process, and it would take some time for the base notes to appear. Now that Lily had evoked everyone’s curiosity, the crowd had little patience to wait for that.

Lily smiled. “All of you have already smelled the difference in the base notes.”

“When did we…”

Someone realized what Lily meant first. “It was on someone! It was the smell earlier!”

A hint of panic flashed across Melanie’s face as she realized where the strange stench came from. Furious, she shot Lily a glare and thought, ‘Did she add something to my First Love sample?!’

Lily looked back at Melanie smilingly, but her gaze was as cold as glacial. Indeed, Lily asked Olivia to add a particular ingredient to Melanie’s sample.

When its base note appeared, it would give off the stench of a rotting fish. Lily was sure Melanie would use the First Love sample on herself to stand out. However, the tampered perfume’s base note had appeared just in time.

“You’re right. No wonder there was a stench earlier.”

“I didn’t expect the base notes to differ so much when its top notes are so similar!”

The situation engaged the audience in a discussion among themselves. Soon, someone raised their doubts, “Shouldn’t the samples be the same, regardless if it’s plagiarism or stealing a company’s product?”

“It’s obvious this is a trap.”

Nathaniel turned to look at Lily before he walked toward Melanie. “Even if there were a mistake in formulating the perfume, it would not be such a fatal one. Moreover, Ms. Thayer has put so much effort and testing into this product. Let’s look at this from another perspective. If it’s plagiarism or theft on our side, why would we change the perfume’s formulation and produce a flawed product? Someone stole our First Love formula and ruined our sample to frame MN Inc.”

At that point, Nathaniel paused as he shot a sharp gaze in Lily’s direction.

“Ms. Christian, we did not want to hold you accountable because you are a former employee of MN Inc., and we did not want to make things look bad for you. However, you have been overbearing and accused us of your crimes. Due to that, I must take legal action against you to protect my and Miss Thayer’s reputation. That is it. I will file a lawsuit later. As for Rebirth, I will also need to sue the company if your side insists on protecting a thief.”

Nathaniel stood rooted, righteous, and awe-inspiring. He did not back down and, with such logic, made everyone believe MN Inc. was indeed the victim in this competition.

“How shameless!”

“The organizer should have investigated things properly! Do the judges even know what they’re doing?”

“They deliberately distorted the truth, didn’t they?!”

“People like her shouldn’t even be here! She should get out of here now!”

The crowd was furious and could not suppress their anger, even if Rebirth had La Beauté Group’s support. Some reporters had already started broadcasting the scene live on social media because they could not wait to spread the word.

Meanwhile, a man with a noble aura in the VIP room narrowed his eyes, about to burst from anger. After being in the business world for many years, he had met various people, but it was rare for him to meet such a shameless pack.

He looked at his recently wedded wife standing alone on stage, her figure desolate and helpless. The man buttoned up his cuffs and reached for the door handle. His fingers were about to touch the metal door handle when he heard Lily’s sweet and pleasant voice.

“That’s right. I changed the formulation and the sample.”

Alexander froze in his spot for a second before he turned around to look at the screen. Lily had her head held high, looking dazzling under the spotlight.

There were no traces of panic or anger on her face. Instead, she exuded absolute calmness. Seeing that she was confident, Alexander retracted his hand. Perhaps he should trust her more.