novelraw Chapter 125: Turmoil
Chapter 125: Turmoil
After lunch, Secretary Yao sneaked into Pei Xu’s office, looking playfully at the person sitting at the desk.
"Did you find out?" Pei Xu asked her.
"The first thing you ask about is her situation when you come in, are you overly concerned, don’t you know?"
Pei Xu’s gaze became more profound, not understanding what she meant.
Secretary Yao walked around the desk, leaned beside him, and laughed, "The little princess thinks you like her."
With these words, Pei Xu’s expression stiffened slightly, indescribable, "Girls’ hearts are indeed a bit sensitive."
Secretary Yao couldn’t help but laugh, "I think the little princess can still stand on her own, you don’t need to worry too much, be careful not to end up with nothing and scare the little princess away."
Pei Xu looked up at her, "How do you get along with her?"
"Pretty well." Secretary Yao smiled sweetly, "Okay, I won’t disturb you, I’m going to rest."
After saying this, Secretary Yao turned around smoothly and left the office.
When afternoon work time arrived, Su Lingzhi stared intently at a design draft in her hand, then opened the browser and searched a page.
She found an image almost identical to the drawing in her hand.
After sitting in silent contemplation for a while, she asked Assistant Shen to bring in the designer of this draft, Song Xinru.
"Lingzhi, were you looking for me?"
Su Lingzhi looked at her, pushed the design draft toward her, and asked, "I want to ask you some questions about this design draft, when did you draw it, and what was its inspiration?"
"I drew this during the National Day period; the inspiration came from the sea."
"What texture from the sea?"
"Gentle, with shimmering light on the sea surface when sunlight refracts."
"Then which design elements correspond to this?" Su Lingzhi asked gently, without any pressure in her tone.
But Song Xinru’s heart inexplicably grew tense.
Well aware that calling her up suddenly was definitely not without reason.
However, how could she be frightened by a girl much younger than her?
She retrieved the design draft, clearly explaining the inspiration in detail once more.
Su Lingzhi listened carefully, "Innovation on the basis of the blue ocean has no convincing power; I believe a different explanation would be more persuasive."
Song Xinru frowned, feeling a vague uneasiness.
Su Lingzhi continued, "This work is mainly inspired by the Atlantic Sea Goddess Sea Slug, you just said the design of the skirt hem and cuffs is your fantasy of sea angels, but actually these designs are inspired by the body wings of sea slugs."
"What body wings? What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean, you should know very well."
Su Lingzhi calmly turned the computer screen around, "You’ve never seen what a sea slug looks like, have you?"
Song Xinru looked pale as she gazed at the computer screen, her previous words suddenly seemed pale and futile.
The screen displayed two images, one of a sea slug and one of the design draft.
Whether this dress’s design was inspired by the sea or sea slugs was immediately clear; the comparison alone demolished her previous arguments.
Su Lingzhi frowned, "This is my classmate’s work, last year our professor assigned a cross-disciplinary project with marine organisms as the theme, your work and his design are so similar that even the dimensions are the same, who copied whom, I shouldn’t need to further clarify, right?"
Song Xinru clenched her fist, suppressing the humiliation of being exposed, suddenly tearing the design draft in front of her.
Su Lingzhi calmly watched her actions, "You don’t think tearing up the draft will erase the mark of plagiarism, do you?"
Song Xinru explained, "I came across the image online by accident, it had very few likes and views, I thought using it wouldn’t be discovered, I never expected..."
"Never expected the original was by my classmate, right." Su Lingzhi said coldly, "This time I found out, there’s no guarantee I won’t find out next time, if this work appeared on our brand’s show, the Lindxu brand would be ruined as well. As a designer, you should be very aware that plagiarism is a major taboo."
Song Xinru hurriedly pleaded, "Lingzhi, can you help me cover this up, I won’t make such a mistake again."
"Sorry, my team cannot accommodate a plagiarist, everything will proceed according to the company’s normal process."
"Lingzhi..."
Su Lingzhi interrupted her, "There’s no need to say anything more, I don’t want to waste time with a plagiarist."
Song Xinru looked at her anxiously for a while, bent down to pick up the pieces on the ground, stiffly stuffing them into her pocket one by one.
After picking them all up, as if giving up, she glared at her resentfully, gritting her teeth, "The draft is gone, what evidence do you have to prove I plagiarized, on what grounds do you fire me? Just because you returned from overseas, do you think you’re something special? Can you even handle your current position?"
A series of questions were not doubts about her ability, but insults.
Su Lingzhi didn’t expect a well-educated master’s graduate to say such things, it was a disgrace to high achievers.
There was no reasoning with someone so unreasonable.
She coldly met her gaze, replying indifferently, "Get out."
After the person angrily left the office, the room immediately felt empty and cold.
Su Lingzhi clenched her fist, walked to the window, and took a deep breath.
So infuriating...
After calming down, Su Lingzhi called Assistant Shen in and asked her, "Where can I view the Design Department’s surveillance?"
"You can view it at the HR Department." Seeing her look a bit unwell, Assistant Shen asked with concern, "Did something happen?"
"Caught Song Xinru plagiarizing, the evidence was destroyed by her."
Assistant Shen’s eyes flashed with disbelief, quickly understanding the situation, indignantly saying, "Such audacity is unacceptable, the company absolutely cannot allow such a person to exist."
She continued, "President Su, if you want to fire someone, there’s no need to go through such trouble, now that her plagiarism has been discovered, just inform the HR Department."
Su Lingzhi shook her head, "I’ve just arrived, firing someone without evidence wouldn’t convince everyone."
Assistant Shen didn’t hesitate, "Don’t worry, I’ll go get the surveillance for you right now."
With that, she went to handle it.
The plagiarism issue caused quite a stir, everyone on the floor knew about Song Xinru’s vile behavior.
Because of this, Pei Xu specifically called all the designers into the conference room for a meeting, and it was the first time he got so angry, no one dared to make a sound.
The entire atmosphere of the office building was extremely tense all afternoon.