Chapter 74: So Naughty
That soft little remark was as deafening as thunder.
Li Shouquan’s eyes were forced onto An Yi as if nailed there. He could not look away. The muscles in his face twitched, and the words in his mouth broke off halfway.
The media reporters gathered in front of him noticed the panic on his face. “Mr. An, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Li Shouquan’s neck had gone stiff. He could not even turn his head.
He had never expected to meet An Yi again.
With An Yi’s studio caught in a plagiarism scandal, the first thing he should have been doing was figuring out how to deal with public opinion and prove their innocence, or contacting their studio and the competition organizers to investigate the matter. He should have been flustered, disoriented, desperate to explain, desperate to prove himself.
But instead, he had come here in the flesh.
Even though Li Shouquan was surrounded by media and reporters, and An Yi’s coming here would only create even more public pressure and even more damaging rumors for their studio—
An Yi still came.
Seething with rage, just like back then, as if in the next second he would kick him flat onto the ground.
Looking at him, Li Shouquan felt the panic in his heart spreading like giant vines.
He kept telling himself to calm down, but that guilty feeling—that crushing pressure of having stolen someone else’s things—still made it hard for him to breathe.
But it was fine. Fine.
He had capital backing him now.
After their studio won first place in the international competition, investors and business partners had poured in. Some major boss had even said he wanted to back their studio long-term and serve as their management company.
He had people behind him now.
Even if the truth really came out, the company would protect them. Otherwise, the astronomical contract penalties would drag the company down too.
Besides, public opinion was currently on their side. The public was already leaning toward them. As long as they crushed that so-called Pink studio the moment it tried to speak up, and kept them from getting any exposure, this matter would pass easily enough.
After all, when it came to ordinary people versus capital, everyone knew who usually won.
And An Yi, at present, was nothing more than a designer in a somewhat up-and-coming little studio. Just like back then, even if he resisted, he would have to lose a layer of skin and still get nothing in the end.
Li Shouquan had long since planned his escape route.
That was why, only after signing with the company, had he dared pass the story along to them and to the media, deliberately stirring up public opinion.
As long as An Yi was doing well, there would always come a day when he might remember him. Who could really say how fate worked? Li Shouquan had thought An Yi would be trapped in that barren mountain forever. Then An Yi got out. He had thought he had already risen beyond An Yi’s class and level, but the moment he looked up, there An Yi was, right in front of him.
He could not let all his effort be destroyed.
After getting into university, he had learned just how vast and boundless the world outside really was. Every day brought something new, some new difference, some new hope. If he had not stolen An Yi’s place to go to university, he never could have had any of that.
He knew, too, that if a person did not strive, he could only stay trapped in one little corner. So in university he worked while studying, harder than anyone, more driven than anyone. Right after graduation, he founded a studio with like-minded friends, and only then did he achieve what he had today.
He was not giving any of it up.
He did not want to go back. When his father died, he had not returned to that mountain. Now he had even less reason to.
Only if An Yi was ruined could he live the rest of his life in peace.
He wanted An Yi never to be able to rise again.
A smile gradually appeared on Li Shouquan’s face. That ignorant confidence once again swelled in his chest.
Broad daylight. Media reporters. Countless gazes. Public opinion online.
He did not believe An Yi would dare touch him.
He smiled at An Yi, a vile smile on his face.
In the very next second, An Yi shoved through the crowd and punched him to the ground.
The sheer force and pain hit him at once. Li Shouquan was stunned as he looked up at the person above him.
He had been wrong.
Completely wrong.
How had he forgotten? An Yi was not someone who accepted his fate.
Before the crowd could even react, An Yi was already grappling with Li Shouquan on the floor. Clenching his teeth, An Yi struck at his head with ruthless fists.
The media recognized him as someone from the so-called plagiarist studio and immediately began snapping photos like mad.
When Li Shouquan’s old classmates saw it, three or four of them rushed forward to pull people apart—but they only dragged at An Yi. And while doing so, they secretly kicked him a few times to vent their anger.
An Yi bit down hard on Li Shouquan’s neck. The terror of suffocation made Li Shouquan’s limbs spasm.
“What right did you have to steal my things—my university, my design?!”
“Are you An Yi? Who is An Yi? Tell me—who the hell is An Yi?!”
“Li Shouquan, have you lived under someone else’s name for so long that you’ve forgotten who you are?”
Li Shouquan’s old classmates finally pulled An Yi away.
“Are you sick in the head? You’re the one accused of plagiarism—how do you even have the nerve to come here?!”
An Yi had nearly lost all reason. He kicked the speaker hard. “Plagiarism? And you’ve got the nerve to accuse someone else of plagiarism?!”
“You—”
An Yi ignored all of it. Just as he was about to throw himself into another full-blown fight, Gu Lingling finally struggled out of the crowd and hugged him from behind in a tight hold.
“An Yi! Calm down!”
When An Yi first heard the news, he had gone blank and never even realized the call hadn’t ended. Gu Lingling had heard the taxi destination through the still-open line, and terror gripped her heart. She rushed over at once.
She clung to An Yi’s back with all her strength, tears pouring down, her face ruined by crying. She held him tightly and begged him to calm down. If this went on any further and the other side called the police, An Yi would be finished.
Right now, the situation was completely against them.
“They’re sick! Your whole studio is sick! Damn sick! A bunch of lunatics—plagiarizing lunatics!!”
An Yi roared, “We didn’t plagiarize anything! You’re the thieves! You are! You are!!”
One of Cooy Studio’s senior members watched An Yi losing control and suddenly felt a very bad premonition.
He looked at Li Shouquan, sprawled on the ground, blood all over his hands as he clutched his neck, then looked at An Yi.
When Lin Jiu came hurrying over, he was finally able to carry An Yi away.
They took the emotionally shattered An Yi to the studio lounge and gave him a sleeping pill. Only then did they turn around to deal with the plagiarism matter.
—
When the farce was over and the media prepared to leave, the company side found them and instructed them to broadcast only the footage of the fight. Everything said earlier about plagiarism was to be cut out. The major boss backing the company had money and power, and the media naturally did not dare offend him.
And of course the company knew perfectly well how to stir public opinion.
Li Shouquan did not go to the hospital. He simply had a doctor come treat his wounds.
The senior member and the others stood beside him.
One of the boys said, “They went too far. Let’s call the police.”
The moment Li Shouquan heard that, his heart nearly gave out. “No. We can’t call the police.”
If the police got involved, what if they uncovered what he had done before?
Calling the police had never been part of his plan.
The senior member stood beside him and studied the guilty look on his face. His expression grew uglier and uglier. “If I remember right, the design direction was first proposed by you, and the initial draft was done by you too, right?”
Li Shouquan nodded.
“And thanks to An Yi, we won the award and caught the eye of a major company.”
“Yeah, An Yi was our great hero.”
The senior member stepped forward and stared at Li Shouquan. “You came up with all of it yourself, right?”
Li Shouquan’s guilt flared. “Of course. Senior, why are you saying such strange things?”
The senior member looked at him. “Who’s Li Shouquan? The same name that person used when he yelled at you just now.”
Five minutes earlier, Gu Lingling from that other studio had sent him a message showing the timestamp of their original draft.
It had clearly come before Li Shouquan’s.
Cold sweat burst out all over his body the moment he saw it.
Li Shouquan stammered.
At last the senior member lost it and kicked him to the floor. “So you copied someone else’s initial draft and then handed it over to our studio?!”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. They had won awards now and gained public approval, but all of it had been stolen.
No one understood better than they did how crushing the stigma of plagiarism was in this circle.
“You’re a fucking beast. Do you even know what you’ve done?!”
“What did you think this studio was? Do you still remember what you said when we first put this studio together? Were you trying to ruin all our futures along with yours?!”
If this situation really got reversed, their whole studio would be finished. None of them would ever get a foothold in the industry again.
The more he thought about how everything might be over, the senior member lost all rationality. He grabbed Li Shouquan and slammed him into the glass coffee table beside them.
Glass shattered everywhere. Li Shouquan’s head burst open and bled even more as he screamed on the floor.
“We… we’re all grasshoppers tied to the same rope now.”
The moment he said it, the rest of them finally understood.
He had stolen Pink Crystal Maiden Heart’s design and used it to make them win.
Everyone’s hair stood on end.
They had just gone from the ecstasy of winning and changing their class overnight straight down into hell.
“An Yi… Senior Ji, is what he said true?”
“You stole someone else’s work, and we’re the plagiarists? Don’t be ridiculous!”
“An Yi, fucking say something! Is it true? Is it true?!”
Li Shouquan struggled up from the shattered glass, feeling as though his life was over. “Yes.”
The moment the word left his mouth, another beating followed.
“You’re insane! What do we do now? What about our future?!”
Every single person was terrified. A shocking reversal had hit them head-on.
The senior member could not bear to watch any longer. “We apologize publicly. Right now.”
“Senior, are you crazy? If we do that, all our futures are over!”
Before Li Shouquan could speak, someone else was already panicking.
“We can’t do that. We finished designing the final product too. We have ability too!”
“The company will protect us.”
The senior member stared at their ugly expressions. “Have all of you gone mad with him? This is exactly why we need to admit it now. If we don’t say it now, and public opinion flips later, then we really won’t have any future left.”
But no one listened. One of them immediately ran to the company executives. After learning what happened, the higher-ups were shaken, but just as Li Shouquan had expected, they still chose to protect them.
After all, they had just signed a pile of projects. It was impossible for them to abandon such a big catch over a little public scandal. As long as they crushed the other studio hard enough, there would be no reversal at all.
The senior member looked at them. “If anyone’s leaving, I am. Is anyone coming with me?!”
He had been the one who first proposed forming the studio.
But things were no longer what they were back then.
No one followed him.
He looked at the blood-soaked Li Shouquan, then turned and left the company.
When he arrived at Pink Crystal Maiden Heart, Gu Lingling froze in shock. The message she had sent earlier had sunk without a trace. She had thought no reply would come.
She had never expected him to come in person.
The senior member said, “I’ve already figured out the whole situation.”
Then he bowed deeply toward them. “I’m willing to help you.”
But when the two sides gathered the evidence and posted it online, it was deleted almost instantly.
Gu Lingling tried again and again, but nothing would stay up.
A tremendous sense of helplessness and panic swallowed her whole. All she could think of was the way An Yi had just lost control and screamed at those people. The people on their side had been utterly dismissive.
Only then did she truly understand why they had worn such expressions.
They had backing.
Her own side did not.
Lin Jiu’s face looked grim. The usual playful, unserious air around him was gone.
He grabbed Gu Lingling and the senior member. “Come with me somewhere.”
Gu Lingling had no idea where he was taking them.
Lin Jiu looked at An Yi, still asleep in the lounge, and led the others out. When Gu Lingling saw the towering building they arrived at, she asked, “Lin Jiu, why did you bring us here?”
Lin Jiu said, “To find my brother.”
This tower was part of the Lin family’s business empire.
And Lin Jiu, their so-called poor college student, had brought them here to find his brother?
Gu Lingling asked, “Does your brother work here as a janitor?”
Lin Jiu: ……
For all his chuuni nonsense, when he stepped through the building entrance he had already wiped at his tears.
He had come to lower his head before his brother.
His assistant had already told him before that Lin Jiu’s studio had run into trouble.
Lin Jiu had once thought that with enough youthful passion, without relying on anyone, with nothing but himself, he could carve out his own world. But reality had slapped him hard across the face.
He had been wrong.
If An Yi divorced Huo Beixing, Huo Beixing might not help him.
An Yi and Gu Lingling were his friends. In his eyes, that was the kind of bond where they would charge into battle together in ancient times—the kind of people you never abandoned in your life.
And now those two had been brought to the edge by this whole affair.
Usually he was the least reliable one among them.
At a time like this, he was the one who should finally grow up.
His worthless pride and ego meant nothing in front of reality.
When Gu Lingling was brought by Lin Jiu into the chairman’s office, her jaw practically hit the floor.
The moment she sat on the leather sofa, it felt like she was sitting on an entire apartment.
Lin Kan did not even lift his eyes. “What brought you here?”
Lin Jiu said, “Big brother, I was wrong.”
Lin Kan looked up at Lin Jiu’s expression.
He had known Lin Jiu would come back to him sooner or later.
His younger brother had always had too many unreliable points, but he had expected him to return with his chin up, arguing and making excuses.
Now, however, Lin Jiu was truly bowing his head.
Lin Jiu said, “Big brother, I was immature before. This time, please help me.”
Lin Kan sighed. “I already knew your studio was in trouble.”
He paused, then said, “I can’t help you with this.”
Lin Jiu froze. “What, is their Wang Group really that unbeatable?”
Then he shot Lin Kan a doubtful look.
What a damn loser.
Lin Kan: ……
Lin Kan kept his temper because there were outsiders present. “Someone else already stepped in. You don’t need me.”
Lin Jiu asked, “Who?”
Lin Kan answered, “Huo Er. Huo Beixing.”
When he had just ordered his people to take care of it, his subordinates had told him the Huo family had already learned about it and had already moved first.
Lin Jiu was dumbfounded.
He hurriedly pulled out his phone.
In the mere dozen minutes it had taken them to come here, public opinion had already flipped.
The news about the other studio’s plagiarism was spreading like wildfire. Even one of the teachers who had addressed them during the international competition publicly stated that the initial concept they had seen back then came from Pink Crystal Maiden Heart Studio.
Gu Lingling stood rooted to the spot.
She had not even finished processing the fact that Lin Jiu was a rich young master when another blow landed.
What the hell was Huo Beixing, and why was he helping them?
Gu Lingling floated in place, battered by the shock of an entirely new world.
Meanwhile, when An Yi woke up on the lounge sofa, the first thing he heard was a low curse.
“Why the hell won’t this stupid kettle boil?”
His voice was dry and hoarse as he turned to look.
“……”
How was it supposed to boil if it wasn’t plugged in?
But when he saw Huo Beixing’s back, his brain could barely process it.
His voice came out rough. “Why are you here?”
Huo Beixing turned when he saw him wake, carrying over a paper cup of water.
“A man doesn’t go home, so I came out looking for him.”
The deep grievance of a neglected husband.
“You don’t need to worry about those things anymore. I’ll have people handle them.”
Before An Yi had even sat up, Huo Beixing had already pulled him into his side and was looking at the skin scraped off his hand in pain.
“You should’ve picked up a stick before fighting.”
An Yi: ……
His throat was dry. “You know about my past now?”
“I do.”
An Yi’s voice turned aggrieved. “I didn’t plagiarize.”
“I know.”
“Don’t you have anything you want to ask?”
“Ask what?”
Obviously the cause and the process.
Before An Yi could speak, Huo Beixing bent down and looked straight into his eyes.
“I already told you. I’ll always stand on your side.”
Looking at that handsome face so close to his, An Yi finally felt, for the first time, that Huo Beixing and Huo Dabao were truly the same person.
All the grievance and unwillingness in his heart exploded at once. He wrapped both arms around Huo Beixing’s neck and refused to let go.
“Thank you… for trusting me.”
An Yi cried all over him, tears and snot all mixed together, soaking Huo Beixing’s shirt, utterly lacking the imposing single-man-versus-the-world energy he had shown while fighting earlier.
There were no tissues nearby, so Huo Beixing simply reached out and scrubbed at An Yi’s face.
An Yi, who felt like his face had changed shape: ……
His eyes were now as red as a rabbit’s. Huo Beixing’s heart ached at the sight.
“Close your eyes and rest first.”
An Yi obediently listened.
The moment he closed his eyes, someone stole a loud kiss on his cheek.
An Yi immediately grew wary. “You kissed me?”
Huo Beixing was shameless. “A businessman has to get some profit before he does anything. I can’t do all that work for no gain.”
An Yi said, “If there’s something you want, you can just tell me.”
“I want you. How am I supposed to say that?”
An Yi: ……
Hadn’t he just said it?
Still, thinking about it, he was pretty valuable. One kidney alone was worth tens of thousands.
Huo Beixing went back to clumsily fiddling with that useless kettle.
Watching his back, An Yi could feel his heart pounding harder and harder.
“Huo Beixing.”
Huo Beixing turned around to look at him.
An Yi asked, “Do you still want any more reward?”
Huo Beixing didn’t take it seriously. “Then make out with me for ten minutes.”
The air fell silent for a few seconds.
“…Okay.”
The kettle froze in Huo Beixing’s hand.
He could hardly believe what he had just heard.
An Yi swallowed. “Come on.”
Huo Beixing stood there in shock for a few seconds, then suddenly seemed to hit fast-forward. He lunged to An Yi’s side, both hands tightly pinning him so he couldn’t wriggle away. Even the look in his eyes changed.
“You said it.”
An Yi instantly regretted it when he saw that wolfish, tigerish look in his eyes.
But he still forced himself to say, “I said it.”
Huo Beixing howled inside with joy and leaned in eagerly to kiss him.
Yet just as he moved, the lounge door was suddenly pushed open.
Lin Jiu came charging in like a bullet. “An Yi, our studio’s saved—”
Before he could finish, he met Huo Beixing’s gaze.
The atmosphere in the lounge was strange. An Yi’s face was red, and the two of them were still lawful spouses who hadn’t divorced yet. What they had almost been doing was obvious enough.
Lin Jiu instinctively looked away from Huo Beixing’s gaze.
Sure enough, murderous intent in a person’s eyes could not be hidden.
But the atmosphere was so awkward that if he didn’t say something, he couldn’t gracefully retreat.
“What a coincidence—you two were kissing.”
Huo Beixing looked at him coldly.
“In broad daylight, isn’t that a little inappropriate?”
Lin Jiu laughed dryly twice, then forced himself to add, “So naughty.”
Huo Beixing: ……
Naughty your ass!
