Chapter 4: Record Recovery
Trust
Yuan Anāanās Weibo account was completely unremarkable. With only a few “zombie” followers and very low account weight, his repost and comment were quickly buried under the mountain of other responses, failing to attract anyoneās attention.
After exiting Weibo, Yuan An clicked into Penguin and found that Xingxing had just sent him a message.
[Xingxing: Anāan, Iāve helped you recover your records. Log into your account and see if anything is missing.]
Yuan An glanced at the time. Nearly four hours had passed since the two of them had reconnected that afternoon.
Growing up in the environment of the Lu family, Yuan An had long since made it a habit not to trouble others. At the thought of Xingxing busying himself for so long over his affairs, he felt quite uneasy.
Therefore, Yuan An stared at the message for a moment and did not rush to open his computer. Instead, he sent a reply to Xingxing first:
“Iām sorry, did I end up delaying your own work?”
Qin Sixing stared at this reply, momentary lost in thought.
Since he had known Yuan An, this was the first time he had actually helped the boy with a favor.
He wasn’t sure if it was because they hadn’t been in contact for a year, or because of Yuan Anāanās inherent personality, but he felt a heavy sense of distance from that apology.
If it was the former…
Then he would have to put in a bit more effort to make their relationship familiar again.
Qin Sixing thought for a moment, then clicked the handset icon in the upper right corner and placed a call.
Yuan An stared at the incoming call in a daze, only answering after a few seconds.
He heard the familiar voice come through the phone: “Don’t apologize. Your business could never be a delay. Besides, thereās no need for us to be so polite with each other.”
After saying this, Qin Sixing secretly reflected on whether there was anything inappropriate in his tone.
Listening to the unchanging tenderness and familiarity in the other person’s voice, Yuan An couldn’t help but feel his eyes grow slightly moist.
“Thank you, Xingxing.”
Qin Sixing chuckled. “I know the person in charge of the Siyuan Documents development team. After recovering your records, I went to remind them to do a better job with data protection. It had been a long time since I contacted him, so we chatted for a bit. Speaking of which, I should be the one apologizing for making you wait so long.”
This sentence was merely a lie told to prevent Yuan An from overthinking.
Siyuan Documents was actually a product under his own company. After receiving Yuan Anāanās message that afternoon, he had immediately returned to the office to handle the matter personally.
Account records were just a pile of data; recovering them naturally wasn’t very difficult. The reason it took him so long to reply was because after restoring the data, he had been busy hunting down the hacker who had wiped Yuan Anāanās account in the first place.
Furthermore, with the “#HanDaoPlagiarism” hashtag trending so many times, they had to prepare the public relations strategy for the day the truth was revealed.
How could Yuan An actually let Qin Sixing apologize? He hurriedly said, “I didn’t wait long at all; it was already very fast. Xingxing really is a computer genius!”
Hearing this familiar “rainbow fart,” Qin Sixing couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, only you would think that recovering data makes someone a computer genius.”
Just like in years past, whenever he occasionally answered Yuan Anāanās computer questions or wrote a small program, Yuan An would praise him to the skies.
Unlike the perfunctory compliments of others, Yuan An truly believed from the bottom of his heart that he was incredible.
When Yuan An tried the small games he made, the program had crashed or blacked out several times. Yet, Yuan An had only foolishly thought it was his own phone lagging or breaking, never once doubting the skills of his “computer genius.”
Yuan An said, “You taught yourself computer science well enough to become a hacker; isn’t that a genius? And you solved a problem that had me at my wits’ end so quicklyāthatās very, very impressive.”
Listening to these words, Qin Sixing seemed to see the serious expression of the little person he imagined in his heart.
He chuckled softly for a while and said, “Is that so? Iām honored that you think so. By the way, I haven’t congratulated Anāan yet for achieving your old dream. Being able to persevere all this time… Anāan, youāre wonderful.”
Yuan An was stunned, then smiled. “If you talk like that, my self-confidence is going to explode.”
From his previous life until now, the only ones who thought he was “wonderful” were Director Xu and Xingxing.
“Then just walk forward with that confidence. Create even more great stories in the future.”
Yuan An gave a hum of agreement, his voice filled with a smile.
The two chatted for a while longer until Yuan An felt drowsiness washing over him.
From the moment of his rebirth until now, in just one short day, things had become completely different from the same day in his past life.
Director Xu wasn’t disappointed in him, he had reconnected with Xingxing, and he had successfully left the Lu family…
These differences gave Yuan An a sense of unreality. While he was showering earlier, he had even been wondering if his rebirth was just a dream.
Yuan Anāanās consciousness began to drift. He felt so tired that he could no longer keep his eyes open properly.
The Penguin call with Xingxing hadn’t been disconnected yet. Hearing Xingxingās gentle voice, Yuan An murmured, “Xingxing, will you still be here tomorrow?”
His mind wasn’t entirely clear, and he didn’t even know if he had actually spoken the words aloud.
He only thought that, just before falling into a deep sleep, he heard Xingxing say firmly:
“Iām here. I won’t ever leave you again.”
…
Yuan An felt as though he had slept for a very long time.
His body felt light, as if he were flying around in a blurred, dream-like place, his feet unable to touch the ground.
Until a phone ring woke him up.
The hotel curtains were tightly closed, leaving the room somewhat dim, making it impossible for the newly awakened Yuan An to tell what time it was.
He sat on the bed for a while to recover. He remembered saying something to Xingxing before sleeping last night, but he couldn’t remember what it was at all.
Glancing at the still-ringing phone, Yuan An quickly picked it up.
The caller was Director Xu. “An Yuan, did you get your records back?”
Yuan An looked at the time and found it was already almost eleven in the morning.
He hadn’t expected to sleep for so long.
“I got them back last night. Sorry, I forgot to let you know.”
Director Xu didn’t mind. He let out a sigh of relief and said, “Itās good that they’re back. Take a look at the Weibo hot search; the topic of Liu Fengqingās response has trended.”
Hearing this, Yuan An put the call on speaker and opened Weibo.
The hot search for Liu Fengqingās response was in the middle of the rankings. Yuan An clicked in and found that the first few posts from marketing accounts only had about a dozen comments each.
Director Xu added, “Look at the number and content of the comments under those marketing accounts. Itās like they’re afraid people won’t notice the trend was bought. Even funnier, people in the real-time section are asking who Liu Fengqing even is, hahaha!”
Infected by Director Xuās laughter, Yuan An also couldn’t help but smile.
After a moment’s thought, he climbed out of bed, grabbed his backpack, and logged into Siyuan Documents.
Last night, he had been so preoccupied with chatting with Xingxing that he had forgotten to check his records. Now, seeing every single record appearing in the backend without a single omission, Yuan Anāanās heart finally settled completely.
He made a screen recording and sent it to Director Xu. “These are my records. Please take a look.”
“Alright, Iāll check them.”
After speaking, Director Xu clicked on the video Yuan An had sent him.
Seeing the time stamps in the video, Director Xu was somewhat surprised. “Two years ago… An Yuan, how old are you now?”
“Twenty-two. Why?”
“Then you were only twenty two years ago. To be able to independently complete a script at such a young age… youāre really something.”
Director Xuās praise made Yuan An a bit embarrassed. After all, there were many people younger than him who could complete a work; by comparison, he could only be considered ordinary.
Director Xu had finished watching the video. He made a clicking sound with his tongue and said, “Now we just have to wait and see what the appraisal results from Liu Fengqingās side say. If itās true… then at that time, itāll be hard to say who exactly plagiarized whom.”
Yuan An nodded and said, “Thank you.”
That Director Xu could believe him so much even before seeing his evidence moved Yuan An deeply.
Director Xu laughed. “Itās nothing. If you can prove your innocence, itāll actually be a good thing for our crew. What a great publicity opportunity.”
Yuan An also smiled.
“Speaking of which, itās strange. I was very angry yesterday, but after you answered the phone, my temper vanished instantly. Actually, when I first saw people online saying you plagiarized, I didn’t believe it at all. You just don’t look like that kind of person.”
Hearing this, Yuan An was slightly stunned.
If that was the case, then in his previous life, had Director Xu also never believed he had plagiarized?
Yuan Anāanās mind was in a turmoil. He pursed his lips and said, “Iām glad I didn’t let you down.”
“Yeah. It just shows that my judgment of character is very accurate, hahaha!”
Listening to Director Xuās hearty laughter, Yuan An let out a soft sigh.
After hanging up, Yuan An stared at his phone, lost in thought.
Next, he would have to see what the appraisal results from Liu Fengqingās side would look like in this life.
Translator’s Note
Terms used in this chapter:
- Zombie followers (åµå±ē²): Inactive or fake accounts used to pad a follower count.
- Rainbow Farts (彩č¹å±): Slang for flowery, exaggerated praise. It comes from the idea that someoneās “farts” are so wonderful they come out as rainbowsāessentially saying someone can do no wrong.
- Marketing Accounts (ēé·č): Professional accounts on Chinese social media that post content (often paid) to manipulate public opinion or boost trends.
- An Yuan (å®é”): This is Yuan An’an’s pen name. “Yuan” (é”) means “wish” or “desire.”
- Siyuan Documents (ęęŗęęŖ): The software Yuan An uses for his writing.
I love the dynamic between Yuan An and Xingxing. Itās so clear that Xingxing (our President Qin!) is head over heels, even if Yuan An hasn’t realized it yet. And Director Xu is such a breath of fresh air compared to the toxic Lu family!
Can’t wait to see the “appraisal” results. See you in the next chapter!
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