The Moon Shines on Me (GL) - Chapter 23

The next day, when Shen Yuan arrived at the office, she noticed several strange gazes fixed on her.

One colleague saw her and immediately stood up from their desk excitedly: “Shen Yuan, did you check the work group chat?”

“No, what’s wrong?”

The person hesitated.

“You should check the group first.”

“Okay.” Shen Yuan walked to her desk in confusion and clicked into the employee chat group that Lu Qingwan had added her to yesterday.

Messages were scrolling quickly. Shen Yuan slid to the top and looked at the source of the discussion.

【Shocking! Probationary employee Shen X of the Art Department’s official employment work is actually a plagiarism.】

【Ah? Plagiarized who?】

【A blogger @Murui】

【Clicked in and checked, it really looks quite similar.】

After seeing those messages, Shen Yuan’s mind went blank.

She had experienced a scene just like this three years ago.

“Yuan-jie, what’s wrong?”

Lu Qingwan saw Shen Yuan’s pale face as soon as she entered the office. Startled, she quickly threw her bag onto her seat, then rushed over to Shen Yuan, asking with concern.

“I’m fine.”

Shen Yuan said, then pressed the computer’s power button. Sure enough, as she expected, those people used the same trick as last time: first, they destroyed the backup on her computer, and then they framed her for plagiarism. But she had completed her work from rough draft to final image in the office. How did it leak out?

“Holy cow, the group is spreading rumors that your drawing is plagiarism, that’s ridiculous.” After seeing the messages, Lu Qingwan immediately started typing furiously in the group chat.

【Yuan-jie’s drawing was drawn from rough draft to final image with me watching. How could it be plagiarism.】

【@LuQingwan If you don’t believe it, go check P-site: @Murui】

Lu Qingwan clicked on the homepage of Murui and indeed saw a painting that was very similar to Shen Yuan’s assessment piece. Crucially, the posted time was a week earlier than Shen Yuan’s submission.

A week was enough time to imitate a similar piece.

But Lu Qingwan had spent so much time with Shen Yuan and was very clear about her ability and character. She was not the type of person to plagiarize someone else’s work.

Lu Qingwan frowned and asked, “Yuan-jie, did your drawing get leaked?”

Shen Yuan pondered for a few seconds, then confirmed: “I didn’t do any drawing outside of the office.”

“So that means someone in our office is trying to harm you.” Lu Qingwan’s face scrunched up into a knot. Who would want to harm Yuan-jie? Yuan-jie had a reserved personality and didn’t seem like the type to clash with others.

Shen Yuan didn’t speak, her gaze sweeping across everyone.

She didn’t seem to have had any conflict with anyone in the office.

“I know! Come with me quickly.” Lu Qingwan suddenly pulled Shen Yuan to a desk. Shen Yuan looked, and the nameplate on the desk read Bai Yu.

“You were the only one besides me who saw Yuan-jie’s rough draft that day. Was it you who leaked her line art?” Lu Qingwan questioned Bai Yu.

Bai Yu frowned, looking at Lu Qingwan in confusion: “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t pretend! The group is saying Yuan-jie plagiarized. Among all these people in the office, you’re the only one who doesn’t like her. If it’s not you, then who?”

“It’s not her.” Shen Yuan pulled Lu Qingwan back, then turned to Bai Yu with an apologetic look: “I’m sorry, Sister Bai, Wanwan is just too worried about me. Please don’t take it to heart.”

Shen Yuan pulled Lu Qingwan back to their desks. Lu Qingwan looked bewildered, “Yuan-jie, how do you know it wasn’t her?”

“There’s no benefit for her to harm me, it might even cost her job. She was just a little strict with me, but it wouldn’t be to the extent of giving up her own future just to deal with me.”

Lu Qingwan thought Shen Yuan’s point had merit. “Then who could it be?”

Shen Yuan lowered her eyes, an answer faintly forming in her mind.

Shen Yuan said, “I can’t be sure who it is yet. Until we find evidence, everyone in the office is under suspicion, including the group of interns who left yesterday.”

“The interns?”

Lu Qingwan suddenly understood.

Yuan-jie and the interns were in competition. If they framed Yuan-jie for plagiarism, they’d have one less strong opponent.

But the timing was off. If the interns did it, why didn’t they expose the news on the day of the official employment, but instead waited until the second day after Yuan-jie was officially employed?

By then, the interns had already left the company, and even if Yuan-jie was exposed for plagiarism, the official employment spot wouldn’t fall to them.

Was it really them doing such a mean thing when it brought them no benefit?

What exactly was their goal?

At some point, the messages in the work group chat had stopped updating. Shen Yuan clicked to see that the group administrator had enabled overall mute.

And the group administrator was… the newly promoted Assistant Chen.

This meant that Gu Shiwei also knew about the matter?

Just as Shen Yuan was thinking, a message popped up on WeChat.

Zhaozhao: Come to my office QAQ.

Y:1

Shen Yuan greeted Lu Qingwan and left the office. As soon as she walked out, she saw Assistant Chen waiting for her at the door.

Assistant Chen didn’t mention the group chat discussion. She directly led Shen Yuan to Gu Shiwei’s office. After pouring her a cup of tea, Assistant Chen withdrew.

Gu Shiwei got up from her office chair and sat down next to Shen Yuan on the sofa with a smile.

Shen Yuan’s expression had been serious since she entered. Gu Shiwei leaned in and watched her for a while. Only when the tips of Shen Yuan’s ears turned slightly red did Gu Shiwei open her mouth contentedly: “Yuan-yuan, I’ve heard about the group chat matter. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Yes, that’s right. Since Gu Shiwei’s confession yesterday, her address for Shen Yuan had changed to Yuan-yuan. According to her, this was to show intimacy and to distinguish her from ordinary friends.

At the sound of the address, not only did Shen Yuan’s ears turn red, but her cheeks also flushed. She turned her head, looking straight into Gu Shiwei’s eyes with a look of integrity, and said, “I didn’t plagiarize.”

“Of course I know you didn’t plagiarize. So, how do you want to handle this?” Didn’t Gu Shiwei understand Shen Yuan’s character? She would pay for a stranger on the bus. She clearly had high moral standards and would definitely not do such a thing.

“Call the police.”

This was the only method Shen Yuan could think of.

“The police have already been called. They will arrive soon.” Gu Shiwei suddenly recalled the information she had someone look up half a month ago. Three years ago, Shen Yuan was framed for plagiarism and incurred a significant debt, which weighed heavily on her, causing her to suffer from depression and self-harm several times. Now it was the same situation. How dare those people frame her person right under her nose? They were truly audacious.

Shen Yuan looked at Gu Shiwei, stunned: “You…”

“No need to thank me. It’s just calling the police, a small favor.”

Although Gu Shiwei said not to thank her, Shen Yuan still felt a little uneasy. Three years ago, when she had the plagiarism incident at Qiuyu Group (Autumn Rain Group), the company even pursued accountability and fined her hundreds of thousands because it damaged the company’s reputation. Now, Gu Shiwei not only believed she was wrongly accused but also helped her call the police to thoroughly investigate the matter.

The fact that Gu Shiwei dared to call the police showed that she had never doubted her from the start.

Gu Shiwei saw Shen Yuan’s eyes suddenly become moist, and her expression instantly changed. Her eyes showed undisguised tension. She grabbed Shen Yuan’s arm and asked what was wrong.

Shen Yuan was just a little wronged and a little moved.

It seemed that some things were different from three years ago.

Before she could say anything, Gu Shiwei pulled her into an embrace, one hand gently patting her back, and the other resting on the back of her head, stroking her hair rhythmically.

“Don’t worry, Yuan-yuan, I will not let those people frame you again.” Gu Shiwei felt a pang of pain when she thought of how much Shen Yuan had suffered three years ago. Her drawings were so good, there was no need for her to plagiarize anyone else’s work.

Whether it was S.Y. from three years ago or the current Shen Yuan, there was no need.

Shen Yuan, held by Gu Shiwei, stood still in a daze. Her hands hovered in the air. After several moments of internal struggle, she finally put them around Gu Shiwei’s waist.

Sensing Shen Yuan’s action, Gu Shiwei hugged her tighter and secretly kissed her hair.

When Shen Yuan emerged from Gu Shiwei’s office, she had composed herself. When she returned to her desk, the police had arrived. She heard that they had checked the surveillance footage and even collected a few fingerprints from Shen Yuan’s mouse.

Since Shen Yuan was framed three years ago, she had developed a habit of leaving a paper trail for her work. Although the drawing records on the computer had been cleared, she had long since zipped and sent the drawing process to her private email account. It also recorded the time the rough draft was created, and other details. As long as she could prove that her drawing was earlier than that of Murui, the accusation of plagiarism would not hold up. Correspondingly, the person who framed her would receive the punishment they deserved.

Thanks to Gu Shiwei’s help this time, the surveillance footage was reviewed smoothly, the computer was not broken, and there was a high probability of data recovery. Coupled with Shen Yuan’s record-keeping evidence, it would not be so easy to frame her again.

Shen Yuan cooperated with the police to give a statement, and then, as the legal consultant of Zhaoyang advised, she sued the platform to obtain Murui’s identity information. Gu Shiwei said she would handle the rest, and since Shen Yuan was not a law student and didn’t know much about this area, she didn’t insist on handling it all herself.

A month later, the case finally made progress.

The investigation revealed that Murui and the account that framed Shen Yuan three years ago were registered by the same person. Murui stole Shen Yuan’s rough draft through the intern Luoluo and created a drawing highly similar to Shen Yuan’s assessment piece.

To frame Shen Yuan for plagiarism just like three years ago, Murui posted the drawing on the internet before Shen Yuan submitted her work. But what she didn’t expect was that this time Shen Yuan was smarter and sent records to her private email. What she was even more surprised by was that Gu’s Group would actually go to such lengths—meticulously reviewing a month’s worth of surveillance footage, minute by minute, for such a minor matter.

How much manpower must that have cost? They must be crazy! The office itself didn’t have surveillance, so they could only use the cameras in the hallway and the elevator to track the person who stole the image. All this for a small employee?

Murui realized that she had truly kicked a steel plate this time. She opened WeChat and sent a message to the woman she had nicknamed “Heart.”

【Sister, the mission failed QAQ】

【It’s fine. You don’t need to show up for the next step. Go back to Jiangcheng.**】