Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.
You’re My Belated Happiness
Chapter 4 Part 2
Ruan Yu was fully awake by now. She patted Shen Mingying and showed her the cell phone.
“Was the outline really leaked?” Shen Mingying said while rubbing her eyes after reading the message.
The two of them had actually thought about the possibility of the outline being leaked in the beginning. But, except for Shen Mingying, Ruan Yu only showed her outline to one publisher which she had worked with for many years. Besides, just based on the outline, it couldn’t be possible to have so many exact details.
Therefore, they couldn’t draw any conclusions yet.
Ruan Yu frowned: “Could it be possible that my computer’s infected?”
Shen Mingying had become fully awake after rubbing her eyes: “Ah.” Then she pressed down on Ruan Yu’s shoulder: “The flash drive! That day, at the coffee shop, did you take the flash drive back?”
Ruan Yu’s eyes twitched, jumped off the bed, and rummaged all over for it. Half an hour later, she knelt on her bed, about to cry: “Can’t find it……”
That day, her mom came over rather suddenly and she had to rush to go back to meet her. She truly couldn’t remember whether she had taken the flash drive with her. Shen Mingying also left the coffee shop soon after Ruan Yu, carrying only her own laptop.
Both of them held their foreheads.
If it was just the outline that had leaked, it wouldn’t cause a situation like this. Only the flash drive would cause such damage since it contained most of the details she had found in her diary.
A minute later, Shen Mingying looked up: “I’ll go to the coffee shop. This time don’t keep quiet, try to negotiate with the other author.”
Ruan Yu nodded. She understood what Shen Mingying meant.
Though the other author had offered the best solution for her side under the current situation, she couldn’t let such an abominable offense of stealing and selling outlines from a studio go.
She sent a message over: [How are you? I would like to know from which studio that your friend bought the outline from?]
On the other side of the screen, Xu Huaishi, with dark circles under her eyes and messy hair, dialed Zhao Yi’s phone number: “What to do? How do I reply? I told you your lousy idea won’t do……”
“Oh, then just tell her the truth.”
“No way!”
If she let Ruan Yu know about the truth, then she probably would have to let her brother know what she had done. She said: “My brother is really, really mean…… He’ll kill me!”
“Isn’t your brother a lawyer? How can he kill you knowing the law?”
“He can cut off my spending money. What’s the difference between that and killing me!”
“How about this, you tell her that your friend can’t disclose that since they have a confidential agreement. For the moment, she won’t be able to find your personal information unless she knows someone who has some ‘grey connections.’”
“But, I would feel so terrible for Ruan xuejie……”
“You’ll be apologizing publicly, delete your story and your pen name. To her, this should be the best result. If you tell people about this incredible coincidence, I’m afraid no one would believe you!”
Xu Huaishi was still hesitating: “What if my brother still likes Ruan xuejie and thinks that I’ve done a good deed, maybe he’ll reward me instead of punishing me?”
“Are you joking? It’s been eight years, how could he still like her? You think your brother can live his life with only the memory of a crush from the past? Doesn't he need a sex life?”
“Oh, you’re right……”
“Well, if you want to tell him then do it. Just remember that you can’t expect to have a good life afterwards.”
Xu Huaishi shivered and decided to listen to Zhao Yi.
As Zhao Yi had expected, without any information from Xu Huaishi, Ruan Yu couldn’t get to the bottom of it for the time being.
Xu Huaishi didn’t know how much Ruan Yu had believed her. After a few rounds of negotiation, a message came from Ruan Yu: [Please just release the statement for now.]
It looked like Ruan Yu hadn’t given up on getting to the bottom of this issue, but in order to get over the controversy and minimize her loss, she had decided to have the apology released first.
Xu Huaishi felt so sorry for her and apologized over and over. Then she released the statement on Weibo which Ruan Yu rigorously edited. A few minutes later, she saw “Wenxiang” repost the statement and attached some of the chat history between her and Ruan Yu.
Xu Huaishi didn’t feel relieved at all.
She told one lie because she couldn’t face the consequence, yet now she had to cover that lie with even more lies. Though it looked like she had done whatever she could to make it up to Ruan Yu, somehow she felt even more uneasy.
She sighed and hid herself under the blanket like an ostrich.
Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.
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