Chapter 38 You’ve been plagiarized! ...
On the last day of the holiday, Tao Siyun was woken up by Tao Qian early in the morning before he woke up.
Tao Siyun ate his breakfast with sleepy eyes and no appetite. He watched Tao Qian's busy figure coming and going, and said drowsily, holding his head, "Brother, are you really going to move out?"
"How about I wait on you here every day? That's wishful thinking." Tao Qian quickly buckled up the suitcase and pointed to the kitchen. "There are dumplings and wontons in the refrigerator. If you're hungry, cook them yourself and avoid ordering takeout."
"knew."
After seeing Tao Qian off, Tao Siyun prepared to go back to sleep. Just as he lay down on the bed, his cell phone rang.
She turned over, reached for the phone on the bedside table, glanced at the name on the screen, and picked up the phone.
On the other end of the line, Zhao Yiran's voice sounded cheerful, and he spoke with emotion, "Dear, I have news for you. You've been plagiarized. It's such a coincidence that the person who plagiarized you came to my design assistant interview with her portfolio five minutes ago. And guess what? Her gold medal-winning work in last year's design competition is exactly the same as your graduation project. Surprising, isn't it? As the teaching assistant who once coached you on your graduation project, I feel very complicated right now. I feel like a thief who didn't know I was a police officer and came to the police station to walk into a trap after stealing something. Can you understand?"
“…”
Zhao Yiran was Tao Siyun's senior when she was studying in France. After graduating from graduate school, she went to work in Milan. It was only last year that she was urged by her parents to return to China to inherit the family business.
The process of their acquaintance was also full of drama.
At that time, the freshman year had not yet started. In the morning, Tao Siyun went to the Immigration Bureau to queue up for a residence permit and then went home.
She remembered that there was a big strike that day, but traffic was not affected at all and everything was normal, which was particularly inconsistent with the usual style of the European people.
There were so many people on the train that she was squeezed from the front to the back, standing next to the window. It was only when a French boy reminded her on the way that she realized her backpack had been opened...
Tao Siyun's head buzzed and he hurriedly checked the things in his bag.
Sure enough, her wallet was missing.
Even the transparent document bag containing various supporting documents and a large-denomination bill showed signs of being opened.
The thief probably didn't find any cash in it, so he just rummaged through it and stole her wallet.
The only consolation was that her passport, the school's enrollment certificate, and the rental contract were all still there.
There are only a few dozen euros in cash in the wallet, which can be lost if it is lost, but the residence card, domestic ID card, and credit cards are all in the wallet!
Europeans are known for their low efficiency. It took her several months to get a residence permit from the appointment to the receipt. Because the residence permit requires fingerprinting, she didn't return home for the entire summer vacation. If she re-applies, she doesn't know how many more months she will have to wait...
Tao Siyun was so anxious that tears came to his eyes. For a moment, he didn't know whether to call his parents to freeze the card and report it lost, or to call the police first.
These things may not seem like a big deal now, but she was only a teenager at the time, alone in a foreign country, isolated and helpless for a long time, and she felt like the sky was falling.
In fact, Tao Siyun herself knew that she was not crying entirely because she lost something, but because she lacked an opportunity to release the pressure she had been under for a long time.
The two elderly French aunts who were close to her saw her crying so sadly, and asked her with concern whether she had lost anything important and whether she needed help. They comforted her in French for a long time, but switched to English for fear that she didn't understand. At that time, Tao Siyun's French was not very fluent, and she sobbed and told them in a broken voice that it was okay.
At this moment, she clearly caught a female voice from the surrounding chatter, "Are you Chinese?"
It is no exaggeration to say that Tao Siyun felt that all the comfort he had heard was not as valuable as this sentence of his mother tongue at this moment.
Zhao Yiran and Zhou Yu happened to be in the car at the time. When they saw their compatriot being stolen, they immediately took her out of the car.
The three of them circled the bus stops several times, not missing a single trash can.
Finally, Zhou Yu found her wallet in a trash can with a recycling symbol on a nearby street corner. "Is this the Mickey Mouse one?"
"Um……"
Several credit cards and cash were taken, but fortunately my ID card and residence card were still there.
It's a blessing in disguise.
"Red means you will lose money. Just change to a black wallet next time..." Zhou Yu thought for a long time, and finally used this reason that sounded rather metaphysical to comfort the unlucky girl in front of him.
Zhao Yiran also comforted him, "It's okay, it's okay. Just freeze your credit card in time. Consider it a loss to ward off disaster. Thieves usually only want cash. Wallets and IDs are useless to them, so they just throw them away. Anyway, if someone gets robbed, searching the trash first is definitely more effective than calling the police. This is my experience from being in France for so long."
Mickey Mouse's wallet was rubbed dirty in the trash can. Tao Siyun took out a tissue and wiped it for a long time, but it couldn't be wiped clean.
"There are so many thieves in Europe. I don't know if it's because Chinese people have become richer in recent years, but they especially like to steal from Chinese people. In fact, it's useless to call the police. These thieves are basically organized into families. Those who come out to steal things are pregnant women and children. They are already old acquaintances in the police station. They are arrested and detained for two days and then released. The French police can't do anything to them. You can only be careful and vigilant. Remember to carry your backpack in front of you when you go out in the future." Zhou Yu spread his hands and said helplessly.
…
That's how she met Zhao Yiran and Zhou Yu. Later in their conversation, she learned that they were both international students. Zhao Yiran was a senior student in the same major as her at the university she was about to attend and was a graduate student. Zhou Yu was the same age as Zhao Yiran and had just graduated from Sciences Po.
Zhao Yiran was very enthusiastic and immediately added her to the school's international student group.
***
Plagiarism is the norm in the design industry. The similarity in creativity and form must reach 90% or even 95% before it is identified and judged as plagiarism. It is ridiculous. In fact, any discerning person can tell what is going on at a glance.
Most of the time, original designers have no way to deal with these "habitual thieves" and can only verbally condemn them at best.
Perhaps it is because of this kind of lucky mentality that some people in the industry are becoming more and more unscrupulous.
"The law can only restrain the noble, not the villain."
Although this statement is not completely accurate, it is not groundless. It expresses the helplessness of people in the industry today in a very poignant way.
Zhao Yiran had been in the design industry for so many years and felt that his tolerance was already very high. He had originally planned to just ask a few symbolic questions, go through the process, and then let her go.
So during the interview, I casually asked about the design concept and source of inspiration.
Zhao Yiran was spinning the huge diamond ring on his index finger out of boredom. After listening to the nihilism for a long time, he didn't hear a single practical point and finally became impatient.
"Excuse me, young lady." Zhao Yiran snapped his portfolio shut, politely interrupting the other person and smiling formally, "Excuse me, did you really design this?"
The person opposite was still immersed in his own world and talking nonstop. Seeing this, he was suddenly stunned and didn't react for a moment.
"To be honest, the original author of the award-winning work you just introduced happens to be my junior classmate. This is her graduation project. She was the only Chinese student among the three students who graduated with perfect scores. Do you and she share the same brain?" Zhao Yiran tapped the table with his fingers, stood up, and said bluntly with a look of disdain, "But that doesn't seem likely. As her former teaching assistant, I followed her graduation project from beginning to end. I understand every step of it better than you do. Also, you don't seem to have changed these twenty design drawings at all. Did you download them directly from Designers and then import them into Photoshop to trace them?"
Don't you have any idea about your original work? Why are you pretending here? Can you have some shame?
To be honest, Zhao Yiran sometimes admires the mentality of this kind of people. It’s not right to say that she has no brains. She has to give people the feeling of "pretending to be poor because she has no money."
It's so fucking embarrassing to watch.
Zhao Yiran is the kind of beautiful woman with aura. She is good-looking and eloquent. No matter whether you are a drama master or a scholar, your true colors will be revealed in front of her.
Tao Siyun once had the honor of seeing her attacking others with insults and curses in four languages at the same time. She was particularly sharp-tongued.
From Paris to Milan, Zhao Yiran has seen all kinds of green tea, white lotus and scheming bitches, and his combat effectiveness in practice is no joke.
"The current creative environment is so unfriendly. After all, I'm a person who has received higher education, but instead of thinking about how to improve my abilities and study hard, I just keep producing things that are not presentable. My mind is filled with nothing but vanity. It's really sad! I don't know if this is a failure of education or a regression of education..."
"Then what?"
"Then she left on her own. What else could I do? Did I keep her as an intern under my nose? Why would I need an assistant like that? I even feel like she's taking advantage of me by paying for her five social insurances and one housing fund."
“…”
Zhao Yiran brushed his long, wavy hair and twirled the teacup in his hand lazily. "What are your plans? Will you return to Beijing after graduation or stay in Shanghai West?"
Tao Siyun lowered his eyes slightly, took a long breath, and said in a confused tone, "This... I haven't thought about it yet."
"Seeing how conflicted you are, why don't you just come to my company?"
"996?" Tao Siyun asked with a smile.
"No." Zhao Yiran waved his index finger in front of her eyes. "The design department is undergoing reforms, and I have the final say from now on. My dad recently hired a design director from Italy at a high price, with an annual salary of one million. We plan to implement a four-day work week soon. Let's see how it works first. If it works, we can work four days on and three days off."
"That's fine."
Tao Siyun had been studying while abroad and had never interned in a company. She thought this was a good opportunity. She chatted with the senior student about work-related matters for a while and said that she had considered it and could do an internship next semester.
Zhao Yiran mentioned Zhou Yu to her, "He resigned from the embassy and returned to China some time ago. He is now working in Beijing."
She and Zhou Yu hadn't been in touch for almost two years. She had blocked his Moments long before returning to China, so she didn't know his recent situation. Tao Siyun hesitated for a moment, then shook her head, indicating that she didn't know.
"No way?"
Zhao Yiran went to Italy right after graduation and had no idea what happened next. He was obviously a little surprised and muttered to himself, "He came back last month, and he didn't even contact you? This is not in line with his usual style..."
"We really have no connection."
Zhao Yiran said "Oh" in surprise and didn't say anything else.
***
When Xu Ji received Tao Siyun's call, he had just arrived at Jiang Zhen's house for less than ten minutes.
The man was like a big boss, sitting on the sofa in the living room, his long legs spread wide apart, an open bag of dog food on his thighs. He grabbed a handful and patiently fed Alaska one by one.
Mengmeng squatted obediently in front of him, resting her head on his other thigh, enjoying the hard-earned fatherly love.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and then Tao Siyun suddenly asked him: "Where are you now? Are you off work?"
Her cautious tone gave off the vibe of a timid girlfriend checking on her boyfriend for the first time...
Xu Ji's feeding movements froze for a moment, and a subtle feeling passed through his heart.
But he quickly recovered and asked lazily, "Well, what's wrong?"
Tao Siyun took a few deep breaths and looked at Zhang Yuhao in front of her, who was concerned and anxiously asking her if it hurt. She closed her eyes and mustered up the courage to give him an address. "Come and pick me up..."
“Pada—”
A few grains of dog food fell from his hand, landed on the floor, bounced a few times, and made a crisp sound.
Mengmeng whimpered twice in dissatisfaction, lowered her head and licked the dog food on the floor.
Xu Ji rubbed Alaska's head soothingly and stroked its fur from time to time.
After two seconds of silence, he confirmed that he had heard correctly.
"you--"
"Xu Ji," Tao Siyun interrupted him and said, "Can you... come pick me up now?"
The voice was so soft that it sounded like she was acting coquettishly.
“…”
The baked cake base is placed on the table. During the cooling process, the sweet smell keeps penetrating into the nose, which makes people unable to help but imagine how soft the bread is.
Xu Ji was a little confused by her sudden request. He called her in a low voice and asked puzzledly, "Are you lost again?"
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