You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 3 Part 2

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 3 Part 2 

Friday evening, school was over and it was bustling outside the gate of Su City First High School. Xu Huaishi took out her cell phone while waiting at the bus stop. She logged on to her Jinjiang account.

About a month ago, she had discovered a ‘tragic’ story in an outdated cell phone. The lead character in the story was her brother and he had had a crush on a girl from another classroom during his high school years. But he never mustered enough courage to confess to her before he went abroad.

It was such a sad story that she couldn’t help herself from creating an account on the website where she usually went on to read novels. She then wrote a short story based on the information she gathered from the old cell phone.

It wasn’t that she was thinking of having a side job as a writer. It was just that after reading through all the drafts on that phone, she felt the urge to tell someone about it. Yet she couldn’t tell her friends, besides anything she posted online might spread and eventually be found by her brother. So she chose to post on Jinjiang which was the “treasure trove of women's literature.”

Xu Huaishi quickly discovered that she was wrong.

Because she had gone viral. Over a thousand new comments appeared under her story in just two days. She was bombarded with comments which informed her that a relatively well-known author had plagiarized her story.

Xu Huaishi was dumbfounded and stood there, unable to believe it. When she came around, she quickly looked up the other story and glanced over it. She found the Weibo of the other author and angrily decided to confront this person to ask for an explanation.

On the top of Wenxiang’s Weibo homepage-- --Reply: There’s no plagiarism. I’ve already contacted the other author @A Person Writes Poem to try to clarify the similarity of the two stories, <Really Want to Whisper in Your Ear> and <Her Eyes Can Smile>. I’m still waiting for a reply from this author. I’ll give a full explanation after I fully understand the situation. (Heaven knows, this story about a crush is my personal experience in my school days….../laugh cry)

This author’s statement in the parentheses certainly wasn’t enough to convince everyone. Yet she had attached a video clip at bottom. The video showed the last updated date on her computer’s outline file, which indicated that it was written before <Her Eyes Can Smile> was published.

In the video, people could see the last time the file had been modified and what was inside the file as she scrolled through it. Compared to screen shots, this was much more powerful evidence that helped clarify the situation.

Indeed, under this Weibo post, most comments had become more reasonable.

Xu Huaishi was surprised to see the evidence. She then clicked open the message from Wenxiang.

The first two paragraphs of Wenxiang’s message was a brief explanation of what had happened. In the last few lines, she said: “<Really Want to> is indeed my own original idea. I absolutely didn’t plagiarise your work. Yet I can’t deny that there are quite a few identical scenes in both stories. I’m here to inquire about this and looking forward to hearing from you.”

Xu Huaishi remembered what this author had said in her home page, “personal experience”. Xu Huaishi was dubious and went back to read Wenxiang’s story again. Then she found something not quite right.

Her story was adapted from those draft messages and she had cut off some of the events mentioned in those drafts. Yet there were several of those specific events that appeared in Wenxiang’s story.

What could it mean?

It was an early summer day, yet Xu Huaishi felt a chill on her back. She had goosebumps for no apparent reason.

A male voice interrupted her thoughts: “Xu Huaishi, what are you standing there for? Don’t you know that three route 19 buses have already passed by?”

She looked up and happened to see Zhao Yi, a classmate, walk over from across the street. He looked like a hooligan with his crew cut hair and a lollipop hanging from his mouth like it was a cigarette.

Xu Huaishi was troubled by her recent findings and was about to give him a cold shoulder. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She said with a smile: “Zhao Yi, what a coincidence!”

“Wow.” Zhao Yi was surprised to hear her greet him and hurriedly came over: “Has the sun come up from the west? So friendly, what are you up to?”

Xu Huaishi giggled and covered her mouth to say in a small voice: “You know a lot of people. Let me ask you, do you know anyone who knows how to hack into a Weibo account and find out the person’s real personal information? I don’t want anything illegal. I just need the name.”

Zhao Yi sincerely said: “Young lady, just the name is still illegal.”

Xu Huaishi was taken aback and sighed. But Zhao Yi lowered his head and came closer to her to say: “However, with money, it’s possible.”

Xu Huaishi struggled for a moment then gripped her teeth: “How much?”

Zhao Yi gestured and said: “Thirty thousand RMB.”

“......”

Xu Huaishi turned around to walk away. Zhao Yi grabbed her arm to pull her back. Xu Huaishi turned back and saw him beaming with a big smile: “A cup of milk tea; price between friends.”

An hour later, at the nearby milk tea shop, Zhao Yi received a call. After saying a few words, he finally said: “Thanks, uncle, I’ll buy you crayfish another day.”

Putting down the phone, Zhao Yi snapped his fingers and pulled over a sheet menu to write down two big crooked characters on it. Then he handed it over to her.

“Ruan Yu?” Xu Huaishi read the characters out. She thought for a moment then said: “Zhao Yi, be a nice guy and go back to school with me?”

“What for?”

She pointed at the menu: “To the school archives, to see if this person is our xuejie.”

Xu Huaishi remembered that the very last entry in the draft box was the day before her brother left the country. The entry said: [My last look at you was your picture in the school archive building. Goodbye.]

She wondered if there was really such a miracle-like coincidence like this in the world, if Wenxiang wasn’t lying about her “personal experience”, then Ruan Yu’s picture must be in the school archives.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.