As a student, Zhao Mei ended a busy day, returned to school, and continued her life of full classes.

That day, when Zhao Mei was leisurely and skillfully pulling Qiu Jiahe out of bed and preparing to go to the morning together as usual, something happened in the fashion company.

It was Qiu Jiahe who discovered it while watching the trending searches for Big Eyes while eating. He stuttered because there was still half a wonton in his mouth: "Beautiful... beautiful, hey, hot... did you see... trending searches?"

Zhao Mei looked up at her with a puzzled expression. Qiu Jiahe handed the phone over directly. Zhao Mei took it and saw that the names of Xu Yan and Bello Company were clearly written on the tenth and sixteenth items.

Zhao Mei had a bad feeling in her heart and quickly clicked on it. Sure enough, the topic was discussing Xu Yan's past "plagiarism" incident.

"I said this brand was unreliable a few days ago. Do people really read this copycat brand?"

"Recently, TIDE first found the wrong spokesperson, then endorsed a brand that copied it. I'm afraid they're going to be in trouble, right?"

"Ah, the house collapsed before it was even built? That's a bit fast."

"Isn't this the brand modeled by Ms. Zhao Mei, the campus philanthropist, campus beauty's first love, and internet celebrity? A fake person with a fake brand, absolutely."

Zhao Mei became calmer and calmer. Even though she was the one being scolded, she didn't care much. What she cared about most was how to deal with this matter. Although there was no concrete evidence in the current topic, there was only a lawyer's letter sent by Alice's company before. In fact, a lawyer's letter without filing a lawsuit was meaningless.

Despite this, Zhao Mei didn't want to gamble on the quality of netizens. She just put down her phone and called Zhao Jing, asking him to contact Junshan Law Firm urgently. After hanging up the phone, she called Xu Yan.

"Hey, Sister Xu Yan, have you seen the trending searches?"

"... Hello? Beautiful... What's trending?... Oh, nothing."

Zhao Mei could hear the tired tone in Xu Yan's voice, and was afraid that she was still in bed, but now was not the time to rest, so she could only briefly tell her the situation.

"Don't sleep anymore. You've been criticized and trending on the Internet because of that incident before."

"...What?! I'm going, now?"

Zhao Mei nodded: "Yes, now. I have asked Zhao Jing to contact the law firm, so do you have any ideas on how to handle this matter?"

Xu Yan sat on the bed on the other end of the phone, stunned. Even though she had just been frightened, she was still a little distracted from staying up all night revising the manuscript: "Ah, could it be plagiarism..."

"Yes, now the internet is saying that Bello hired a chief designer who plagiarized other people's work." Zhao Mei switched her phone to her ear with her other hand and rubbed her eyes with her other hand. "Although the time and speed at which this became a trending topic suggests someone is trying to frame you, solving the problem right now is far more important than finding the culprit. The fashion show is about to start in a week."

Xu Yan sat on the bed and turned to look at the calendar on the bedside table. There was a date circled on it. She remained silent, then woke up and replied, "I know. The reason Alice didn't file a lawsuit was because they knew their methods were dishonorable. I've said before that if I really fight to the end, I can win the case, but it will cost a lot of time and money."

"And you might also think I'm indecisive. I could win and I'm right, but I just choose to run away."

"But on the one hand, I really didn't have the mood to sue the company at that time. For me, losing my design inspiration was far more difficult than being falsely accused. On the other hand, even if I spent two years suing them, even if I won, the most they would have done was pay me some money, while my reputation would have been in tatters and my brand would have been completely ruined. It was really not worth it."

"I originally planned to take a few years off. If my design ideas came back, I would move abroad for development. If not, I would just continue to muddle along. Of course, now I've met you, but that's another story."

"It was not a pleasant experience to go against such a big company at that time. I also worked at Alice. It was common for them to sue some freelance designers who didn't want to join, or to bully new brands. The lawsuits could drag on for years and it was really annoying. This was partly why I left."

Zhao Mei listened to the rogue behavior of this rogue company and laughed out loud: "Isn't this just rogue behavior?"

Xu Yan sighed: "There's nothing I can do. Alice's legal team doesn't get paid that much every year for nothing."

The two fell silent at the same time. Although Zhao Mei believed in the system's comprehensive evaluation of a person, and knew that there must be a reason why Xu Yan scored 93 points, but now was a critical situation, so she had to ask for clarification if possible. No one could be sure whether the high achievement score among her 93 points was overturned decades later, or whether her work became popular when she was old.

So he closed his eyes, rubbed his brows, and spoke first: "It's okay. My biggest advantage is that I'm rich. It's just a small lawyer's fee, provided you are sure you can win the case."

Xu Yan moved away from the calendar and looked at the bookcase in the corner of the room. "Of course I'm sure, because I saved the surveillance footage from that night. I was working like crazy at the time. I had originally planned to get a cat after the fashion show to shake things up, so I bought a bunch of pet supplies. I didn't expect to use them here, and I didn't even get a cat."

Zhao Mei was so shocked that her eyes widened. "Surveillance?! So if you have this kind of thing, why don't you just sue me?"

Xu Yan shook her head at her phone, "There's nothing I can do. When I was working there, I saw a young designer at another company whose work was plagiarized. He brought in surveillance footage of himself and his own manuscripts to file a complaint. He did win the case, but he was ultimately fired and lost his job. And because of Alice's warning, he doesn't have any other job opportunities."

What Zhao Mei wanted to say seemed to be stuck in her throat: "...Is it not possible abroad?"

"It might be possible abroad, but as far as I know, that designer ultimately wasn't able to get a job at any reputable fashion company, not even the most ordinary studio."

"You can call me a coward, or say I deserved it, but at the time I didn't want the rest of my life to end up like that designer. I simply kept the footage from that day and quietly chose to disappear."

Zhao Mei didn't know what to say for a moment, because reason told her that what Xu Yan said was right and the choice she made was also right. If she hadn't kept the evidence and endured it at the time, she might still be appealing now, and all her time would be occupied by this matter, dragging her down to death. Even if she won, there would only be smoke and ruins, desolate and lonely, and the real bad guys would continue to stand there without fear of the itch.

After a long while, Zhao Mei, who had been silent for a long time, said softly to Xu Yan, "Don't worry, I can afford it."