This had Principal Zhou, who was standing to the side, practically sweating bullets. He had no idea what was going on.

Seeing this, Lu Fan got straight to the point. "Principal Zhou, you may not be aware of the situation. My daughter is currently a student at Jinling University. She recently entered the Jiangnan Garden Cup and has been working on her design submission. However, yesterday she unexpectedly discovered that she didn’t pass the preliminary review."

"The reason given by the organizers was suspected plagiarism."

"So, I had my company’s design team analyze my daughter’s work piece by piece. In the end, the only area with any resemblance was just this one image."

With that, Lu Fan handed the tablet to Principal Zhou.

Principal Zhou frowned as he looked at it.

’Although it did look a tiny bit similar, judging it as plagiarism based on this single rendering was just too ridiculous.’

Lu Fan continued, "I’m a man of principle. If her work wasn’t good enough and she was eliminated, I’d accept that. But to disqualify her entire submission based on a single rendering is another matter entirely, especially when this rendering doesn’t even look that similar."

"Later, I learned that the main reason Professor Chen was so insistent that this was plagiarism was because my daughter’s rendering bore some resemblance to a winning piece by one of his students."

"So today, I’ve come here specifically to ask Professor Chen for his expert opinion on what exactly constitutes plagiarism."

Principal Zhou finally understood the drama. He tried to smooth things over, "Perhaps Professor Chen didn’t mean any harm. He just happened to think they looked similar and subconsciously assumed it was plagiarism. But I don’t think it’s plagiarism at all. Right, Professor Chen?"

At this point, Professor Chen was breaking out in a cold sweat. He replied guiltily, "Well, at the time, I thought it looked very similar. But later... I decided it was fine. I figured university students’ thought processes are all pretty much the same; perhaps they just happened to use a similar style. President Lu, I apologize for this matter."

"Don’t be in such a hurry to apologize." Lu Fan chuckled calmly. "Since you’ve said that, Professor Chen, does that mean you’re admitting my daughter’s work doesn’t actually rise to the level of plagiarism?"

"Correct." Professor Chen nodded, replying awkwardly, "From the current look of things, it doesn’t seem to be plagiarism."

"Right, right, I don’t think it’s plagiarism either," Principal Zhou chimed in from the side.

’He had already cursed out Chen Laide a hundred times in his head.’

’It was a classic case of unknowingly offending one of our own.’

To have provoked Lu Fan for no good reason...

It was true that Lu Fan wasn’t a big shot in academia, nor was he an expert connected to the education sector.

But the foundations he had established over the years gave out real money to various schools!

Take Jiangsu Forestry University, for example. It received five million a year in merit-based scholarships.

Principal Zhou had been hoping to make a good impression on Lu Fan today. Who knew, it might lead to him being able to apply for more merit-based scholarships in the future.

But instead, Chen Laide had to go and cause this kind of trouble.

Principal Zhou was speechless.

For now, all he could do was appease President Lu and hope no other incidents would arise.

"Then what about those works from before? Professor Chen, do you think those were plagiarized?" Lu Fan continued his questioning.

Principal Zhou was a bit puzzled. "Were those works also your daughter’s?"

"No, my daughter didn’t design those," Lu Fan replied. "Principal Zhou, do you think the degree of similarity in those works was high?"

"Yes, I think it was quite high." Hearing that the previous works weren’t by Lu Fan’s daughter, Principal Zhou nodded affirmatively. "Especially the first two pieces. They were practically direct copies."

These words only made Chen Laide’s guilt grow.

He didn’t even dare to look up at Lu Fan.

He could only stammer, "Um... as I was saying, great works often come from a place of mutual inspiration. So, for those pieces just now, you could say they just happened to think along the same lines as the original."

Lu Fan chuckled. "Professor Chen, that’s not what you were saying just a moment ago."

When Principal Zhou heard this, he thought, ’Wait a minute, something isn’t right here.’

’Why does Professor Chen look more and more guilty?!’

He quickly asked in a low voice, "President Lu, those works from before..."

"Those works from before were designed by Professor Chen and his students. Furthermore, I discovered that some of the professor’s award-winning pieces were actually ghostwritten by his students," Lu Fan explained.

As soon as these words were out, Principal Zhou broke into a cold sweat, and his legs nearly gave out from under him.

’If word of this got out—that the honorary professor his design institute had invited was a man of such low character... Once it blew up online, his own position as principal would be in jeopardy!’

He quickly asked, "Professor Chen, were those your works?"

Professor Chen nodded, but he still tried to argue his case. "Those works were designed by me and my students. There was no imitation or plagiarism involved."

"Is that so?" Lu Fan, knowing he would say this, gestured for Jiali to present more direct evidence.

Jiali immediately pulled up an image.

The image highlighted thirteen places where the designs were identical.

Lu Fan explained, "I asked my design team. They said that unless it was a direct copy-paste, it’s impossible for designers to create identical graphics. Even the transplanted trees are the same. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?"

Professor Chen completely panicked. He immediately started apologizing, "President Lu, I’m so sorry. My own arbitrary judgment caused your daughter’s work to fail the preliminary review. It was a dereliction of my duty. I’ll contact the organizers and see if we can get her a supplementary spot."

"You don’t need to trouble yourself with that," Lu Fan said calmly. "I’ve already contacted Elder Meng, who is my daughter’s teacher."

Hearing this, Professor Chen’s eyes widened in shock. "E-Elder Meng? Teacher Meng is your daughter’s teacher?!"