I Fell In Love With My Friend's Younger Brother Who Has A Low Sense Of Presence. - Chapter 9:
Chapter 9: Framed
Su Shixiao looked at the documents Sister Wu gave him and couldn’t help but frown. These documents looked suspiciously like the character brief for the major villain that the supervisor had assigned her to create.
Although he was very confused, he didn’t think too much about it and just glanced towards Sister Wu before continuing his work.
The villain character he had to create was Zhu Fu, a major antagonist who could read a person’s inner thoughts and attack enemies’ inner demons through verbal means. He was skilled at manipulating power from behind the scenes.
Over four days, he drew nearly twenty versions of Zhu Fu, none of which satisfied him. He felt the figures he drew didn’t align with Zhu Fu’s image.
That night, Su Shixiao, who was about to go to sleep, was suddenly struck by inspiration. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his iPad, and began drawing the line art.
After more than three hours of revisions and edits, he finally completed the line art that matched Zhu Fu’s image. He now had a complete, colored character image in his mind that perfectly matched the villain boss described in the documents.
He stretched, closed his iPad, and went to bed.
The next day at work, he spent the entire morning coloring the line art. Just as he finished coloring, the department manager called him into the office.
Su Shixiao arrived at the manager’s office door and knocked.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and walked in. “General Manager Jin, did you need something from me?”
General Manager Jin put down his pen and looked up at him. “Xiao Su, you’ve been working at the company for almost two weeks now, right?”
Su Shixiao nodded. “Yes, I have.”
“Why haven’t you submitted even one game character design for company review after all this time?” General Manager Jin continued. “The meeting to finalize the character images is next week. The company requires everyone to have two to three character designs. Didn’t the person guiding you tell you?”
Su Shixiao’s face turned pale, and he quickly explained, “Wait, General Manager Jin, I have already designed a character called ‘Feng,’ but Sister Wu told me to send it to her, and I thought that was the submission process, so I didn’t report it.”
Su Shixiao continued, “Moreover, Sister Wu never mentioned the submission requirement or the fact that the review would start next week.”
General Manager Jin frowned slightly. He hadn’t expected such a thing to happen. “‘Feng’? Didn’t Wu Qing design that? And she’s already reported it in the system.”
“That character was designed by me.” Su Shixiao’s gaze met General Manager Jin’s doubtful eyes with determination. “I am not lying.”
General Manager Jin realized the seriousness of the matter and his face darkened. “Go call Wu Qing to the office, and you come back too.”
Su Shixiao wrung his hands. “Understood.”
Before the words fully left his mouth, he ran out to call Sister Wu.
To be honest, he was angry that he had just started his career and was already being bullied and having his credit stolen.
His tone was not pleasant when calling Sister Wu. “Sister Wu, General Manager Jin is looking for you.”
Wu Qing saw his dark expression and her heart dropped. “Looking for me?”
Su Shixiao now knew the whole story and understood what the villain boss character was all about. He was in no mood to be friendly to her, his face icy. “Yes.”
Wu Qing saw the coldness in his usually gentle eyes and felt a little guilty. “So what if he is? Why are you being so aggressive?”
Su Shixiao followed her into the office.
Wu Qing saw General Manager Jin’s grim face and started to panic a little. “General Manager Jin, you were looking for me?”
General Manager Jin pointed at the game character ‘Feng’ on the computer screen and looked up at her. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Wu Qing looked at it and said blankly, “General Manager Jin, this is the character I designed. Is something wrong? Does it not fit the image of the character Feng?”
“Is that so?” General Manager Jin glanced at Su Shixiao and said slowly, “Then why does Su Shixiao say that he designed this character and submitted it to you? He also claims you didn’t tell him about the character review next week or the requirement to report a finished design.”
Wu Qing looked distraught and spoke with difficulty, “I was indeed too busy and forgot to tell him about the review and submission, but the character ‘Feng’ was truly designed by me. Su Shixiao is slandering me.”
Tears streamed down her face as she spoke. She suddenly turned towards Su Shixiao, pointed at him, and choked out, “I went out of my way to help you get familiar with the work environment and taught you how to work. Why are you trying to frame me? Although it was my fault for forgetting to tell you about the review and submission, I apologize to you. Why would you treat me like this?”
It was Su Shixiao’s first time facing such a situation. He instinctively took a step back, trying hard to prove his innocence. “I didn’t frame you! I have evidence. The creation process and line art for ‘Feng’ are on my computer.”
Wu Qing bravely wiped away her tears, glared at him for a moment, then turned back to General Manager Jin, looking wronged. “General Manager Jin, since he says he has the creation process and line art on his computer, let’s go look at his workstation now and see if he really does.”
General Manager Jin, who had worked with the employee for many years, still trusted her more. He nodded. “Fine, we’ll go check now to see who is lying. Stop crying.”
Seeing Wu Qing so confident that he was slandering her, and now insisting on checking his computer, Su Shixiao already guessed that the creation process and line art for ‘Feng’ on his computer had been completely deleted. Now, he truly had no way to explain himself.
The coolness in Su Shixiao’s gentle eyes intensified, radiating an aloofness that warned people to keep their distance. He followed them into the art department. All the employees stopped working and looked at them curiously. This was the first time in over a week they had seen Su Shixiao with a cold expression. He was surprisingly intimidating.
What exactly happened?
Su Shixiao rushed to his workstation, opened the drawing software to check, and found that it was indeed deleted. He tried to recover the deleted canvas, trying every possible recovery method, but failed to retrieve it.
General Manager Jin frowned, the pressure surrounding him invisibly. “Su Shixiao, do you have anything else to say?”
Su Shixiao rose from his seat, his eyes cold as he looked at Wu Qing. He said in a frigid voice, “You were the one who deleted it, weren’t you?”
“Deleted what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Wu Qing was quite frightened by his cold glare. She suddenly remembered something, straightened her chest, and said loudly, “General Manager Jin, I have the creation process and line art on my computer. I can prove that he is slandering me.”
General Manager Jin motioned for her to open her computer. Wu Qing quickly turned it on and opened the drawing software to show the line art and coloring process.
General Manager Jin didn’t even look at Su Shixiao. “Su Shixiao, you are fired.”
“Why are you firing me? I was the one who drew it!” Su Shixiao pointed at Wu Qing. “It was her! She copied the creation process and deleted everything on my computer.”
At this point, the employees in the department finally realized what was happening.
General Manager Jin spoke to the staff member sitting nearby. “Xiao Xi, come take a look. Have you ever seen Su Shixiao drawing this game character?”