Chapter 5: Plot Twist
What Did He Base His Plagiarism On? Thin Air?
Yuan An waited until past six o’clock in the evening. He didn’t get Liu Fengqing’s results, but he did receive another message from Xingxing.
The message contained a file detailing all the logs of Han Dao being transferred out, which Xingxing had obtained from the person in charge of Siyuan Documents, as well as the IP addresses of those recipients.
Yuan An stared at these records, lost in thought. In his previous life, when Liu Fengqing brought out the appraisal results, he had suspected whether someone had transferred his files out to Liu Fengqing.
But back then, he had no channels and no way to investigate it.
The file Xingxing sent over now completely confirmed his suspicion from his past life.
With this file, he could file a lawsuit and have the police investigate who had secretly transferred his files back then.
Yuan An breathed a sigh of relief and chatted with Xingxing for a while longer.
About half an hour later, Yuan An discovered that Liu Fengqing had finally posted a Weibo message to release the appraisal results.
The results showed that the overlap between the two scripts was as high as 70%. Such a high degree of similarity could only occur if one wrote it while copying the other.
As soon as Liu Fengqing posted this result, drama fans and netizens eating melons left comments under Liu Fengqing’s Weibo post as if experiencing a collective climax.
[An overlap of 70%! I’d like to see how that An Yuan explains himself.]
[Xu Li’an’s judgment is getting worse and worse, actually choosing a plagiarized script.]
Some extreme drama fans even went directly to the official accounts of Director Xu and the movie Han Dao to hurl abuse.
[A story written by a plagiarism dog—only a fool would watch it! I hope your box office tanks!]
[Xu Li’an, get out of the film industry! Plagiarism dog An Yuan must die!]
[An Yuan’s plagiarism is already set in stone! Xu Li’an, do you still want to be stubborn and shoot this movie? Just wait to lose money!]
The related discussions grew more and more heated, and the popularity of the topic regarding Han Dao‘s plagiarism kept rising. At ten o’clock in the evening, the hashtag climbed onto the hot search list once again and quickly rushed to the front ranks.
Director Xu sent a message to Yuan An at this time; he wanted to take advantage of this hot search opportunity to release Yuan An’s screen recording.
Yuan An thought about the events of his previous life and said, “If we release the screen recording now, Liu Fengqing will still have a chance to defend himself. Let’s wait a little longer.”
Director Xu didn’t know what Yuan An was waiting for, and he was afraid of missing the best timing for clarification. But since Yuan An didn’t say, he could only wait quietly.
About half an hour after making the hot search list, Liu Fengqing posted another Weibo message.
[First of all, I want to thank the netizens who have been following this matter all along. Without your persistence, this issue wouldn’t have received so much attention. Ever since I received the appraisal results this afternoon, I have been trying to contact Director Xu and the scriptwriter, An Yuan.
However, I haven’t been able to get in touch with them at all, nor has the scriptwriter An Yuan come forward to apologize for plagiarizing my script. More than three hours have passed now. I don’t plan to wait any longer; let the matter settle here.]
Under his Weibo post, a drama fan asked him: “Since An Yuan won’t apologize, Teacher, you should just sue him directly!”
Yet, Liu Fengqing replied: “I will not choose to sue him. But if An Yuan can see my Weibo, I hope he will lay down his pen from now on, stop creating in the future, and quit shaming the cultural and artistic circles.”
Seeing this response from Liu Fengqing, the netizens all shouted in the comment section that they felt aggrieved on his behalf.
They wanted Liu Fengqing to use strong methods to teach Yuan An, this plagiarism dog, a lesson. However, Liu Fengqing’s attitude toward this remained against suing, only hoping that An Yuan would lay down his pen.
Gradually, some netizens also came to think that Liu Fengqing was too soft-hearted and too kind, so their insults toward Yuan An became even more excessive.
Upon seeing the content of Liu Fengqing’s Weibo post at the first opportunity, Director Xu was so angry that his beard blew up and his eyes widened. He sent several messages to Yuan An, complaining about how shameless Liu Fengqing was.
When he saw these remarks from Liu Fengqing, which were exactly the same as in his previous life, Yuan An merely let out a soft chuckle. Then, he sent a message to Director Xu: “Director Xu, you can release the screen recording now.”
Director Xu had been waiting for these words for a long time. He hurriedly took advantage of this hot search to release Yuan An’s previous screen recording from his own account, adding a caption:
[A script that took shape two years ago actually has a 70% overlap with a drama broadcast this year. What exactly is going on here?]
His words seemed to pose a question, yet anyone who read it could immediately understand his implication.
The screen recording showed a portion of Han Dao‘s plot content. To everyone’s astonishment, these plot contents were all the “famous scenes” that Jiang Shang Yue‘s drama fans had once raved about extravagantly; even the characters’ lines and movements were identical.
Furthermore, the completion timestamps of these plot contents were all prior to the broadcast of Jiang Shang Yue. In this way, the accusations of Han Dao‘s plagiarism collapsed without a fight.
This could truly be called a shocking major plot twist!
The melon-eating masses and drama fans were all dumbfounded. Just a moment ago, Liu Fengqing was stating with absolute certainty that An Yuan’s plagiarism was set in stone. Yet now, the twist came so quickly. An Yuan’s screen recording clearly showed that the script took shape two years ago. Two years ago, what did he base his plagiarism on? Thin air?
At this time, the official account of the movie Han Dao also reposted Director Xu’s Weibo message.
[Settle here? I don’t think so.]
The netizens fell silent. Some secretly went to delete their comments supporting Liu Fengqing, while others deleted the Weibo posts they had previously used to abuse Yuan An.
However, a portion of the drama fans remained stubborn, arguing that the plot displayed in this screen recording wasn’t much, and perhaps the rest of Yuan An’s plot was copied from Jiang Shang Yue.
Some bystanders couldn’t stand it anymore and stood up to say:
[Can Liu Fengqing’s fans look at reality? Aside from those few famous scenes that collided with Han Dao, the rest of Jiang Shang Yue‘s plot is like a piece of crap. Is it even watchable?]
Director Xu was also utterly speechless at the stubbornness of that segment of drama fans. When chatting with Yuan An, he even used several question marks.
“I boldly speculate that these questioning drama fans are actually trolls looking for amusement. They want to play us for fools just to get their hands on the rest of Han Dao‘s plot, right?”
Yuan An couldn’t help but smile upon seeing the message.
Now, the dirty water of plagiarism splashed on his body was basically washed clean; the final step was to sue Liu Fengqing.
However, it would still take some time from filing the lawsuit to the court hearing. According to his memories of his previous life, his illness would deteriorate very quickly, so he had to go to the hospital for surgery as soon as possible.
There weren’t many people he could turn to for help right now, only Director Xu and Xingxing. And the only one who could know lawyers related to this field was Director Xu.
Thinking of this, Yuan An pursed his lips and dialed Director Xu’s number.
“Director Xu, I have one more matter that requires your help.”
“Go ahead.”
“Could you help me find a lawyer in this field to handle the lawsuit for me?”
Director Xu readily agreed and then asked, “There will be a script table read in a couple of days. Do you want to come and participate?”
Although Yuan An really wanted to go, he still declined: “I have to be busy with other things these next few days, so I won’t be able to make it.”
Director Xu let out a sigh. After all, the script was written by Yuan An. If the actors could resonate with the writer when understanding the script, the final presentation would be much better.
“That really is a pity. But once you’re done with your busy work, remember to visit the set often.”
Yuan An smiled and said, “Don’t you always say those actors are very talented? Plus, with you there, Han Dao will definitely be filmed wonderfully.”
In his previous life, although Han Dao hadn’t been released before his death and he couldn’t know what the final product would be like, he believed that with Director Xu’s capability, the final result of Han Dao would certainly be very good.
“Hahaha, that’s for sure! Right, do you have a Weibo account? I’ll tag you later. You ought to come forward and make a statement about this incident as well.”
Yuan An gave an “Mm” and said, “It’s just called Yuan An.”
“Alright, then go ahead with your business. Remember to contact me anytime if you run into difficulties.”
Yuan An’s heart warmed. “I understand, thank you.”
After the two hung up the phone, Yuan An booked an appointment with a specialist for tomorrow. Before going to bed, he took another look at Weibo and found that Director Xu hadn’t tagged him, but had instead reposted one of his Weibo posts.
It was the one he had reposted last night after seeing Liu Fengqing say he was going to find an institution for appraisal.
When Director Xu reposted it, he added the exact same words: “Then let’s meet in court.”
Yuan An gave Director Xu’s Weibo post a like before finally putting down his phone and going to sleep.
……
On the other side, compared to Yuan An’s night of pleasant dreams, Liu Fengqing wasn’t having such an easy time.
He never expected that an affair he thought was securely in his grasp would twist so quickly, and right when he was at his most triumphant, he would be smacked across the face by Xu Li’an.
And now that his shameless words had already been spoken, fewer and fewer people supported him, and some even looked at him as a joke. What made him even more terrified was that An Yuan was actually going to sue him!
Liu Fengqing knew perfectly well in his heart that what he was about to face was far more than just a lawsuit for defamation.
Looking now at the identical phrase “let’s meet in court” from both Director Xu and Yuan An, Liu Fengqing felt his entire body trembling.
He pulled out his phone, his fingers trembling violently as he tapped the screen. Only after a good while did he find a certain person’s phone number and dial it.
Before the line could ring more than a few times, the other side hung up on him.
Liu Fengqing stared at the disconnected call, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Refusing to give up, he continued to dial, making several calls in a row until it was finally picked up on the tenth try.
Before he could even speak, the person on the other end said impatiently, “It’s so late, what are you calling for?”
Liu Fengqing said, “That An Yuan is going to sue me! You were the one who gave me the files back then, and you were the one who said there would be no problem writing according to his script. Are you going to make me bear the consequences all by myself now?”
The person on the other end let out a disdainful chuckle and said, “An Yuan isn’t going to sue me, so what does it have to do with me?”
Anxious, Liu Fengqing roared, “It’s all because of you! You lied to me! If it weren’t for you, how could I have ended up in this state today?!”
“Did I hold a knife to your throat and force you to plagiarize? Weren’t you the one who thought the script was good and wanted to ‘borrow’ from it? Furthermore, I warned you not to act too hastily. It was your own smugness that caused you to slip up and expose your flaws.”
Liu Fengqing fell silent. He recalled the discouragement hidden in that person’s words during their chats two years ago. Only now did he realize, with hindsight, that the person had already dug a pit for him back then.
Harboring one last shred of hope, he said in a trembling voice, “At least… at least suppress the hot searches, don’t let so many people notice. I know you have the power to do this!”
The person mocked, “You were able to buy hot searches back then, and now others also have the financial power to keep this hot search up for as long as they want. I don’t know why you’re panicking so much. Isn’t it just a matter of paying some damages?”
With that, the person hung up directly, leaving Liu Fengqing absolutely no time to respond.
Liu Fengqing wanted to call back again, but discovered that the other party seemed to have already blocked his number.
Recalling that person’s final words, Liu Fengqing was so furious that he threw his phone away.
How could someone with millions understand! It was absolutely not just a matter of losing money! His reputation, his future, and his son’s future could be said to be more than half-ruined!
Looking at the phone on the ground, which had cracked from the impact, Liu Fengqing squatted down holding his head, pulling at his hair as he frantically racked his brain for a countermeasure.
Yet, what he didn’t know was that once certain things were done, the consequences must be borne.
Afterward, Han Dao made the hot search list once again, except it was no longer under that plagiarism tag.
The various marketing accounts unanimously reposted Director Xu’s “let’s meet in court” Weibo post, all attaching the hashtag “#HanDaoPlagiarismClarification”.
In addition, the hashtag “Liu Fengqing Suspected of Stealing Manuscripts” also firmly occupied a spot on the hot searches without dropping.
Back then, Liu Fengqing wanted to use public opinion and hot searches to nail down the charge of plagiarism against Yuan An. However hot those trends were back then was exactly how hard this manuscript-stealing hot search would make him crash now.
Netizens one after another cursed Liu Fengqing for using dishonorable means to frame a newcomer. Under the sarcastic and cynical remarks of the netizens, the fans of Jiang Shang Yue stayed dead quiet, not daring to make a sound.
Over the next three days, these two hot searches would appear from time to time and be pushed to the top, allowing even more people to see them.
At this point, the stigma of plagiarism on Yuan An was completely removed.
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