-‘Cultures Without Borders’ went live at nine in the morning sharp.
Everything proceeded in an orderly manner. In the first two hours, the program invited folk artists from
Fornd and Diajan to demonstrate their respective cultures and techniques. After that, special guests
were invited to interact with them on behalf of the audience and achieved the purpose of promoting the
minorities’ culture from other countries.
Although it might not be as entertaining compared to a variety show, interest continued to pour in as it
was uncommon content.
Two hours later, as a Rosepeak-nationality Cittadelian, Abby represented Ekaterina to go on stage and
completed a picture of cherry blossoms in a little just below ten minutes with the Rosepeak’s national
anthem. Although the performance drew much applause from the audience, some questioned if
’embroidery was truly a Rosepeak heritage’ in hushed tones.
Sitting opposite the stage, Elise calmly looked at Anthony with questioning eyes.
They said that they would cross Ekaterina off the list, but now they were letting them be grandiose in
such a manner on stage. It was as though he had gone back on his word.
Knowing full well he was in the wrong, Anthony discreetly averted his eyes and pretended not to have
seen anything. However, his fidgeting had betrayed the guilt he was trying to hide.
Since he didn’t cherish the opportunity she had given him, Elise no longer had any qualms about taking
action. She took the microphone and interrupted the conversation. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to interrupt
here.”
Graceful, the host smiled to show that it was fine. “Miss White, do share with us your brilliant insights.”
“It’s no brilliant insight, but I have a question for Miss Mellor onstage.” Elise adjusted her sitting posture
and continued in a neutral tone, “You’ve mentioned that embroidery originated from Rosepeak in 600
BC in your introductions just now, which meant its history is more than two thousand years now.
However, as far as I know, embroidery in Cittadel can be traced back to more than three thousand
years ago. By that logic, the culture of embroidery would be Cittadel’s. After all, we only say that
children take after their parents, but never the other way round. Am I wrong in saying so?”
“So what if it’s three thousand years? That proves nothing since history is being recorded differently by
each country. In terms of skill, Rosepeak has been peerless all this while. Perhaps the history you
perceive is wrong, Miss White,” Abby replied mechanically while staring vacantly at the ground, as
though she was a walking corpse.
Elise was disappointed with her. “Do you know what you’re saying? Did your heart rot as well upon
changing your nationality? Our cultural history has been accumulated for thousands of years. It’s not
something that can be erased just because of one or two results of a competition!”
Still motionless, Abby replied coldly, “Then, how about showing us proof to convince everyone here,
Miss White? Just as your logic of only children taking after their parents, if this technique did originate
from Cittadel, then I’m sure a Cittadelian would be much better than the ones who were merely
imitating them.”
The words she spoke were for her own ears as well. For seven years, she had followed Ekaterina
Miiyagi into various competitions, yet no Cittadelian had won against her before, let alone Ekaterina. As
cultural heritage required confidence and, more importantly, capability, she wouldn’t have gone so far
as to degrade herself had she seen just a glimmer of hope.
“You want proof? Alright, I’ll have a match with you.” Elise stood up candidly.
Abby finally raised her head. “You dare to challenge me when you’ve only taken embroidery lessons?”
“Well, it’s two years of simple lessons.” Elise spoke truthfully. However, since Abby did not question her
about who she learned it from, she saw no need to reveal it.
“Two years?” Abby repeated with a bitter smile. “Since you’ve only learned some basic techniques,
winning against you is just a natural outcome. What is even the point of comparing?”
“So, you’re afraid that you can’t even beat an amateur like me?” Elise provoked.
Agitated by her taunts, Abby replied, “Since you want to lose that much, I’ll grant your wish.”
In no time, another embroidery stand was placed opposite Abby with the help of the staff. Elise then
confidently walked over and sat down in front of the stand.
After that, the host announced the rules of the match. “The first to complete their work within thirty
minutes will score two additional points. Then, four guests will judge and give a score of up to ten
points each. After two rounds of scoring, we will declare the winner of the match. You two, are you
ready? Ok, ready, begin!”
Just as the timer began, both Abby and Elise fully focused on their embroidery.
Since her opponent had only learned embroidery for two years, Abby chose the simplest embroidery
technique and finished within fifteen minutes. Standing up and bowing to the audience, she flipped her
embroidery stand to show off her work—the magnolia flower.
One of the guests who knew a fair bit about embroidery took the lead in the judging. “This work was
done using the colored hair embroidery that uses various natural colored hair of different people and
employing more than ten different kinds of stitches to achieve an artistic realm of flat, solid, detail,
density, uniformity, thin, harmony, and fluency. Truly an exquisite show of craftsmanship with these
marvelous materials.”
Then, he paused briefly before he continued in a tone tinged with implication, “Colored hair embroidery
is the most basic embroidery technique. With Abby Mellor’s talent, using this technique is like using a
sledgehammer to crack a nut. Looks like she intends to give Elise a chance.”
In the end, she was still a Cittadelian, so she was unwilling to allow her compatriot to lose face
publically. This made a good impression on the audience as they had seen the earlier embroidery she
had done.
Just then, Elise had also put down her needle and silently stood beside the embroidery stand as she
awaited the judges to give their scores.
Winona was the first to notice and immediately led the conversation over to Elise. “Looks like Miss
White is done as well.”
“Yes.” Elise nodded.
“Alright, then let’s welcome Miss White to display her work!” The host excitedly directed the camera to
cut to Elise.
Calmly adjusting the stand, she then revealed her work of an ink-style embroidery of a dragonfly on a
lotus flower on the big screen.
It was then, the guest who evaluated Abby’s work just now started to lament. “Not bad, not bad at all.
This chaotic style of embroidery combines the technique of oil painting and sketching. By changing the
length of the lines, the colors are layered upon layers but still retain the unique texture of a silk thread
that results in a color richer than that of a painting. From a distance, it looks exactly like a painting. With
such a talent, her future is very bright indeed if she continues on this path of embroidery for a few more
years.”
As both of the works were highly praised, the host couldn’t figure out just which was the better of the
two for a while. “So, which work is the supposed winner?”
“In terms of the works, they are evenly tied,” the guest said.
“So… it’s a draw?” The host was afraid of offending either one of them.
“It’s my loss,” Abby said quietly, albeit clearly.
As the crowd shifted their attention to her, Abby walked over to Elise and bowed. “Although I was the
one who had underestimated you, you have shown that you only needed two years to reach the level
that I needed twenty years to. In terms of talent, it’s obvious that you are the better one, Miss White.”
“So now, do you still think that embroidery is a Rosepeakian culture?”
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