Gu Anran agreed. She hadn't been back to the company for a while, so this was a good opportunity to visit. The two arranged a time and went to the company together.
It was New Year's and she had brought some gifts. The company receptionist was very excited when she saw her, but was a little disappointed when she learned that she wasn't there to work. Gu Anran gave her a red envelope.
"Let's continue to work hard in the new year."
The receptionist took the document, her eyes red-rimmed, as if she wanted to say something, but she held back. Just then, someone arrived, and Gu Anran gestured for her to go about her business while she took Lu Bairan to the elevator.
After entering, she encountered several subordinates who were all excited to see her. Standing next to her, Lu Bairan watched Gu Anran distributing gifts, never expecting that even such a boss would be betrayed.
The secretary arrived late, and the three of them entered the office together. "How did the distribution of the New Year's gifts go? Take some more money from my personal account for the outstanding employees."
Lu Boran, sitting on the sofa, coughed twice. Gu Anran then remembered that the purpose of this trip was to investigate the theft of the design drafts. She asked her secretary to bring the list of people who participated in the show and arranged for them to have a brief conversation.
"Think carefully about who you gave the original design draft to?" After the secretary left, Lu Boran helped her organize her thoughts.
Gu Anran lowered her head and pondered. There was a problem with the original product, so she decided to make improvements. She spent two days making the improvements and then sent it to the factory. The finished product that was sent afterward was excellent in both quality and design.
Once she confirmed there were no problems, she handed the final design to the design department for archiving. However, she had no recollection of who she gave it to, as if she had blacked out after drinking too much.
"Could it be someone from the factory?"
"No." Gu Anran shook her head. "I bought the clothes that were released earlier, and the quality is completely different. Moreover, the factory manager is a good friend of mine. After the incident, he investigated their employees and found nothing unusual."
Another suspicious point is that Lin Xinrou suddenly appeared at the entrance of YR, but she had already snatched the design drafts back. Besides, if it were her, she would probably have loudly proclaimed that these works were hers.
Lu Boran frowned. If all of these were ruled out, the person who got the manuscript from Gu Anran was the one who did it. Just as the two were discussing, there was a knock on the door.
After receiving a response, the secretary opened the door and brought in an employee, one of the people in charge of the show. After sitting down, Gu Anran exchanged a few simple greetings and got straight to the point, but there was no useful information.
Next up was the design department manager. "The design drafts are usually filed by Xiao Li. You can ask her."
This was a clue. Gu Anran suppressed her excitement and called Xiao Li over. The document was indeed archived, but it was given to her by another designer in the design department. After Xiao Li left, she looked at Lu Bairan standing to the side.
“He wasn’t lying. If you follow this lead, you should be able to find him today.”
Lu Boran had studied psychology and could judge whether someone was lying based on micro-expressions and actions, which made things much simpler.
The next few employees only gave irrelevant clues, which made Gu Anran a little discouraged. She wanted to directly find the designer that Xiao Li mentioned and ask him, but he stopped her, saying, "It would be troublesome if we alerted them."
Gu Anran thought it made sense, so she continued talking to the employee, "I hadn't noticed that, but I've noticed that Zhao Ling has been behaving strangely lately, and she's also become extravagant with her money."
Zhao Ling was the designer Xiao Li mentioned. Gu Anran had a vague impression of her, only vaguely remembering that she performed very well during the interview, but did not achieve much after joining the company.
She changed direction and began to investigate Zhao Ling's performance indirectly from the outside. Several employees said that Zhao Ling had some problems and that it might really be related to this matter.
"Have the personnel department send Zhao Ling's file to my computer."
Two minutes later, Zhao Ling's onboarding information appeared on Gu Anran's screen, showing that she was a single mother, her parents were old, and her family's financial situation was not very good.
“These are her transfer records for the past few months. I found that one card has a sum of money deposited into it regularly.” Lu Boran placed the computer in front of her, and Gu Anran frowned.
Based on the information provided by the employees and the suspicious money, there was a 90% chance that it was her. The two exchanged a glance and decided to meet Zhao Ling.
She walked out of the office and into the design department. She looked around and saw Zhao Ling. She noticed the panic in Zhao Ling's eyes when they met. She walked over and knocked on Zhao Ling's desk.
"Come to my office with me, I have something to tell you."
Zhao Ling nodded, feigning composure, and got up to follow her toward the office. As soon as Zhao Ling stepped inside, the door closed. She glanced at Gu Anran with a panicked look, then forced a smile.
"Boss, what did you call me here for?"
"Don't you know what's going on?"
She clenched her hands on her lap and then slowly released them. Had she been discovered? As long as she stubbornly denied it, everything would be fine.
"Is there something wrong with my work? I hope the boss can tell me."
Lu Bairan, who was standing to the side, kept observing her, not daring to look directly at Gu Anran, and kept swallowing. His obvious nervousness suggested that it was pretty much a done deal.
"I gave you the design draft that day, right?" Gu Anran squinted at her.
Zhao Ling's heart tightened, and she nodded. She answered Gu Anran's questions one by one, admitting to everything. However, when asked if she had leaked the design draft, she shook her head and refused to admit that she was the one who did it.
Lu Boran sneered, thinking that they could get away with it by not admitting it. They were too naive. "In that case, why don't we go check the surveillance footage?" he said tentatively.
Seeing that she agreed, he knew that the surveillance footage would definitely not reveal anything. However, since she had said so, he decided to go and take a look. The three of them went to the surveillance room to retrieve the surveillance footage. As he expected, they did not find any obvious evidence.
However, the surveillance footage showed that Gu Anran gave it to her at 2 PM, but she took the manuscript out for a while and returned with the manuscript still in her hand. However, this period of time became very suspicious.
At this moment, Zhao Ling knew that if she didn't take the initiative, she would be finished. "Boss, actually, something happened at home during the show. My father fell down the stairs and needed surgery, so I was a bit absent-minded. I took it out without thinking when I received a phone call."
Lu Boran raised the corners of his mouth. Not bad, he knows how to take the initiative now, but he has more than just this much evidence in his hands.
“Your father fell and was hospitalized a month before the show, but I have a transfer record here that shows that funds started being transferred into your account a week before the show started, at regular intervals and in fixed amounts.”
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