Chapter 3: The Poor Girl and the Secret of the Design

Song Ning came to the Lin Group the next afternoon.

She wore a faded shirt and clutched a document folder to her chest. The moment she walked into the meeting room, she kept apologizing for being late.

Lin Qian invited her to sit.

“You don’t need to apologize. I want to hear the story from your side.”

Song Ning hesitated a long time before taking out a set of drawings.

“This is the project I did in my last year of university. I sent it to a design consulting firm when I applied for an internship. Afterward, they said it wasn’t a good fit and sent my portfolio back.”

“Do you have proof of when the drawings were made?”

“I have the saved files on my computer, the email I sent with the portfolio, and the edit history. But I don’t know if it’s enough.”

“Those are things that need to be checked. We won’t draw any conclusions until there’s enough basis.”

Song Ning lowered her head, her hands clenched.

“Ms. Lin, I don’t want to cause trouble. My family isn’t well off, and I still have to work part-time. If there’s a long lawsuit, I can’t afford to see it through.”

Lin Qian looked at the girl in front of her and suddenly thought of the people the original Lin Qian had hurt over a bit of meaningless jealousy.

She couldn’t change what had already happened.

But at least she could stop going down the same road.

“We can help you find a lawyer and assess your case at the start. If there’s enough basis, the parties will negotiate or settle it according to the rules. The final decision is still yours.”

Song Ning looked up, her eyes red.

“Why are you helping me?”

Lin Qian answered quite matter-of-factly:

“Because I don’t like people making money by passing off other people’s work as their own.”

Three days later, the expert team finished its preliminary report.

Bai Lian’s design had many details in common with Song Ning’s project. However, the versions of the documents, the dates of publication, and the scope of use still needed to be compared to determine ownership and each party’s responsibility.

At the same time, Lin Qian found something else suspicious.

The consulting firm that had received Song Ning’s portfolio had a partnership with an intermediary company working for the Lu Group.

A consulting payment had gone through this company just before Bai Lian’s design appeared.

Not enough to conclude that anyone had illegally bought and sold the rights, but enough to raise questions about where the design came from.

Lin Qian had legal preserve the evidence and look into the related transactions.

She didn’t rush to announce any conclusions.

Meanwhile, Bai Lian began to panic.

She called Lu Xi.

“Xi, Sister Qian is investigating the design. If this comes out, my career is over!”

Lu Xi frowned.

“Didn’t you say you finished that design yourself?”

“I… I only used it as a little reference.”

“A little reference, and it looks this similar?”

Bai Lian burst into tears.

“Are you doubting me? I did all of it to help you win the project!”

Lu Xi rubbed his forehead.

He didn’t love Bai Lian the way she imagined. To him, she was a useful pawn: good at pleasing people, good at building an image, and able to make Lin Qian lose her temper.

But now that pawn was in danger of becoming a burden.

“Calm down. Don’t post anything else. I’ll find a way to deal with it.”

That same day, Lin Qian received an invitation to a party for the investment world.

The host was Gu Yichuan, chairman of the Gu Group, a famously private man with enormous influence in finance.

In the original novel, this was the turning point that let Lu Xi reach new sources of capital.

Through Lin Qian’s introduction, he got the chance to meet Gu Yichuan, then gradually widened his network and, step by step, took over the Lin family’s projects.

Lin Qian looked at the invitation.

If she remembered correctly, this party was also where Bai Lian first showed off her talent in front of the big investors.

She smiled faintly.

“What perfect timing.”

This time, she wouldn’t be Lu Xi’s bridge.

She would find out for herself what kind of man Gu Yichuan was.

And whether he was truly trustworthy enough to work with.