Returning - Chapter 126
Chapter 126: You Like Me
"You know Ling Jianwei?"
"I don't know him."
"Then how do you plan to get it done?"
"That doesn't seem like something I need to report to Director Xue, does it? All Director Xue has to do is wait for the results, right?"
Xue Zhan let out a cold laugh and sized her up from head to toe with deliberate scrutiny. "By relying on your looks? By using that body of yours?"
Zhao Yu smiled indifferently. "So what if I do? Being able to solve problems with my looks is a skill too. So, Director Xue, just tell me—are you in or out?"
Xue Zhan abruptly stood up and strode toward the door. "I'm not so incompetent that I need my assistant to fuck men into compliance."
Just as he neared the door, Zhao Yu's voice suddenly rang out from behind him. "You like me."
Her tone was utterly certain, laced with thick amusement.
Xue Zhan stopped dead in his tracks. He froze for two full seconds before coldly saying, "I dislike nothing more than women who think too highly of themselves."
"You do like me." Zhao Yu leisurely approached him, her smile growing ever more smug. "Otherwise, why would you refuse a deal this good, a pie falling straight from the sky? Are you afraid of me selling my body, unwilling to let me sleep with another man? Or are you afraid that after three months of sleeping with me, you'd fall in love with me?"
Xue Zhan swept a frigid glance over her and continued out the door. "I'll handle this matter myself. I don't need your help. And even if you helped, I wouldn't be grateful."
He still had a meeting with the legal department and no time to bargain with Zhao Yu here. But once he reached the conference room downstairs, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He hurriedly called Wang Qi. "Keep an eye on Zhao Yu. Don't let her leave the company today."
Wang Qi's bewildered voice came through the line. "Director Xue, Zhao Yu... she just left a little while ago. She said you sent her out to handle urgent business."
Xue Zhan froze. He hurled his phone onto the table.
Zhao Yu had sent a private message to Ling Jianwei on Weibo asking to meet. The incident had long since made it onto Weibo's trending topics, fueled by Lanxi and other industry players. She was certain Ling Jianwei had been following it closely, too.
Sure enough, within minutes, Ling Jianwei's reply came through—just a single word: "Alright."
It was as if, ever since they'd first met all those years ago, he had never been able to refuse her. Whatever she said. Even after she had heartlessly hurt him four years ago. He was still the same.
They met at the same café as last time, even the same private room. And just like last time, Ling Jianwei had arrived before her.
When he saw her enter, he merely glanced at her indifferently, his gaze as cold as ever. "You're looking for me because of Huacan's plagiarism scandal?"
Zhao Yu sat down across from him and nodded candidly. "That's right."
Ling Jianwei sneered. "Xue Zhan sent you? The man who made you the prospective chairman's wife still needs you to come begging on his behalf?"
"I'm not here to beg. I'm here to negotiate terms." Zhao Yu rested her chin on both hands and looked at him with a beaming smile. "Interested?"
Ling Jianwei said, "I can state with certainty that he plagiarized."
"Not necessarily. You have to understand, plagiarism is very difficult to prove. I've seen your piece too—it's unique. But in this industry, at the end of the day, how different can designs really be? Sometimes inspiration overlaps. It's normal. Your two works, viewed purely from appearance, aren't even that similar. A court might not necessarily rule it as plagiarism."
Ling Jianwei fixed his gaze on her steadily. After a long pause, he spoke in a low, hollow voice. "True. It is very difficult to prove."
Although Zhao Yu had always known his coldness toward her was a front, the laugh he let out as he stared at her just now made her feel strange. But what exactly was off? She couldn't put her finger on it.
Ling Jianwei asked, "Do you truly want... me to let this go?"
Zhao Yu nodded. "The design patent for that piece—it should still be in your possession, right?"
Ling Jianwei looked at her directly. "Yes. It will never be transferred, and I will never license it to anyone else."
Zhao Yu felt inexplicably unsettled under his stare. She could only lift her coffee cup and take a slow sip.
Flat white. Her old favorite. A rich, aromatic flavor and a silky smooth texture. She especially loved the way the thin layer of milk foam melded with the coffee.
The coffee had been ordered long before she arrived. He still remembered exactly what she liked to drink.
For a fleeting moment, Zhao Yu truly felt despicable. Out of everyone she could have entangled herself with four years ago, why did she have to hurt someone so sincere toward her? And now, here she was again, exploiting his feelings for her over and over.
But that thought only lingered in her mind for a few seconds before vanishing without a trace. She set her coffee down and smiled at him. "As long as you agree not to pursue this, I'll agree to anything."
Ling Jianwei stared at her for another long moment. Then, abruptly, he picked up his phone from the table, opened Weibo, and handed it to her. The implication was clear: write whatever you want.
Zhao Yu hesitated briefly, then accepted it without further ceremony. She typed in the words she had prepared in advance. But in the end, she didn't hit send. Instead, she held the phone out to him and asked, "Will doing this put you in a difficult position with your family?"
Ling Jianwei didn't answer. Taking the phone back, he didn't even glance at what she'd written before pressing send directly. "Is this enough?"
Even the supposed "victim of plagiarism" had now publicly declared he hadn't been plagiarized, that he wouldn't file a lawsuit, that their inspiration sources just happened to share similarities, which naturally led to common elements in their designs. With the statement going that far, Zhao Yu believed that whether it was the rubbernecking public or Lanxi, everyone would have to drop the act—there was simply no show left to put on.
Once again, Zhao Yu felt overwhelmingly vile. But she still spoke calmly. "The Zhuang and Ling families will definitely investigate why you did this."
"Don't worry. I won't give you up." He stood. Passing by her, he strode toward the door.
"Ling Jianwei." Zhao Yu couldn't help calling out to him. She fixed her gaze on his tall, slender back. "About four years ago... I'm sorry."
He paused. He said nothing. Then he kept walking out.
By the time Zhao Yu returned to the company, everyone was already buzzing with excitement over Ling Jianwei's Weibo post. Xue Zhan was still in a meeting with other departments.
Wang Qi looked from Zhao Yu to the Weibo interface on her phone, her face a mask of utter disbelief. "The urgent business you went out to handle... don't tell me it was... this?"
Zhao Yu laughed. "You think I have that kind of ability?"
"That's true. This can only be called the most surreal event of the year. That great designer Ling—isn't he from Lanxi? Why the sudden switch of allegiance? Did someone put a spell on him?"
Zhao Yu shook her head. She sat down at her workstation and opened Weibo, carefully examining the design sketch Ling Jianwei had claimed was plagiarized. She looked at it from left to right, and suddenly, it struck her as vaguely familiar.
That piece was something Ling Jianwei had designed back in university. It had even won an award. Their studio's official blog had a detailed introduction, along with a news article from an interview he'd done after winning.
Halfway through reading the article, Zhao Yu abruptly froze.
Ling Jianwei's design was a necklace composed of diamonds and jade, the pendant shaped like an unusual square gift box—with one corner missing.
Ling Jianwei had said his design inspiration came from an incomplete gift.
Only then did Zhao Yu vaguely remember. That incomplete gift... it seemed she had inadvertently given it to him.
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