Reborn to outshine My Ex and His White Moonlight-Chapter 920: How Could They Possibly Have a Conscience?

Chapter 920: Chapter 920: How Could They Possibly Have a Conscience?
University.
Shirley took advantage of the cover of night to get into a car.
"Sis, she’s not falling for it at all. How’s it going on your end?"
"It’s useless. She seems to have some conscience." Xia Wan said.
"Conscience? How could they possibly have a conscience?" Shirley sneered, "We must not have turned up the heat enough."
With that, Xia Wan handed her the phone.
"Looks like the fire hasn’t started yet, but someone’s already trying to put it out."
Shirley glanced at the trending topics, incredulous.
"Why is a man’s infidelity in the top five of the trending list?"
"It must be Third Young Master helping Lin Zhiyi suppress the heat." Xia Wan said solemnly.
Shirley forcefully closed the phone and asked, "Sis, has Third Young Master contacted you?"
Xia Wan rubbed her forehead: "No, Third Young Master is even more composed than I thought."
"Didn’t your people ask around? They say Third Young Master holds Lin Zhiyi dearer than his own eyes, if something happens to Lin Zhiyi, he should be investigating you more, haven’t you made yourself clear enough?"
Shirley didn’t understand why things were not developing as they had planned.
Xia Wan said, "I think Third Young Master might also be testing me to see what my actual intentions are."
Shirley gritted her teeth, "Sis, you can’t get caught up in this, let me handle it."
"Shirley, don’t do anything reckless." Xia Wan cautioned.
"No, I won’t sit and wait for death, I have plenty of ways to deal with Lin Zhiyi. Don’t worry, I won’t let them trace it back to you."
With that, Shirley got out of the car.
Xia Wan called after her: "Shirley!"
"Sis, I’m fine, I’ll be careful."
"Okay."
Shirley nodded, tightened her coat, and left.
...
Lin Zhiyi was basking in the joy of a day out with Gong Chen.
Little did she know she’d be hit out of the blue the next day.
Lin Zhiyi was just brushing her teeth after getting up when her phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.
After a quick rinse, she answered the call.
The assistant started speaking rapidly before she could say anything.
"Boss! It’s bad! Someone anonymous released a recording of your conversation with Shirley, accusing you of pressuring Shirley in secret!"
"Those dialogues seem to be edited, they don’t sound right no matter what."
"There’s now an outcry online calling to boycott us."
"Miss Xia made three calls to the studio earlier, I could only say you’re handling the matter, maybe you should call her back first."
As Lin Zhiyi listened to the call, she walked to the study and checked the phone for updates.
Just as the assistant had said.
Online, the recording clearly showed traces of editing.
Piecing together her and Shirley’s conversation to make it sound like she was pushing Shirley to admit plagiarism.
"Don’t you want to explain about the plagiarism issue?"
"What’s your concept?"
"You don’t know?"
After adjusting the tone slightly, it even sounded aggressive.
And Shirley’s voice trembled, saying she didn’t know.
It was obvious who was stronger and who was weaker.
Thankfully, she hadn’t said much else.
Otherwise, who knows how it would have been edited.
The comments below were overwhelmingly one-sided.
"I knew Lin Zhiyi’s creativity had run dry, that’s why she’s stealing student designs."
"Poor Shirley, she obviously acts warily around Lin Zhiyi, coming for studies only to face such issues spreading online, foreigners might think all of us are like this."
"How could she shamelessly ask about someone else’s concept, thinking it would become her own idea once she knows?"
"I used to think she was excellent, didn’t expect her to be excellent at stealing ideas, boycott her!"
"Boycott her!"
The assistant continued over the phone: "Boss, so many people are calling to cancel orders now, and our premium memberships come with penalty for defaults, if they cancel due to plagiarism, we’ll lose a lot of money."
Lin Zhiyi felt a throbbing pain at her temples.
"First, help me calm the clients down, I’ll find a way."
"Alright."
After hanging up, Lin Zhiyi stared at the screen, her mind in chaos.
At this moment, a glass of milk appeared in front of her.
Gong Chen asked, "What did you think of?"
Lin Zhiyi smiled wryly: "I was hoping once the studio stabilized, you wouldn’t have to worry about me, never expected such an issue would arise at this critical moment."
"This isn’t your fault, achieving so much in such a short time is already impressive."
"But I can’t solve the current issue, no matter how I explain, it seems pointless, people will side with the weaker and magnify any flaw of mine."
Lin Zhiyi shook her head.
She couldn’t dissect the years she didn’t do design work for the public.
Does she really have to force Shirley to admit the plagiarism?
As she contemplated, Gong Chen placed his phone before Lin Zhiyi.
Lin Zhiyi asked, "What’s this about?"
Gong Chen whispered, "Recording."
"You... you recorded something?" Lin Zhiyi asked in surprise.
"Learned from you, it’s just you’ve been so busy lately, you’ve overlooked your little tricks." Gong Chen teased.
Lin Zhiyi immediately stood up and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you, Third Young Master!"
"That’s it?"
"Then I won’t take it." Lin Zhiyi didn’t entertain the game.
Gong Chen pinched her waist: "You’ve really figured me out, I’ll give it to you, okay?"
"Alright, I’ll reward you later." Lin Zhiyi took his phone.
"Just this isn’t enough. Who do you think leaked the recording?" Gong Chen queried.
Lin Zhiyi recalled: "There were other diners at the restaurant at the time, recording it wouldn’t be impossible, some people do anything for attention."
"Who else besides others?"
Lin Zhiyi’s eyes froze: "Shirley herself."
Gong Chen pointed at the recording on the computer: "Yesterday I helped reduce the heat, and today the recording surfaced, clearly to reignite interest, attention-seekers don’t need to go this far, however, I had Chen Jin investigate the IP immediately, turned out to be a teen who received an anonymous email, and upon hearing the content, associated it with the previous trending topic and uploaded it."
"So, this lead is definitely not traceable further."
"Yes, because the email was from a foreign address, the other party obviously doesn’t want to be traced, being so cautious, do you think it’s just a random teenager?" Gong Chen said.
"If it were Shirley, it indeed makes sense, she needs the hype to contend with me."
"So, if you’re going to counterattack, you have to cut off her retreat." Gong Chen advised.
Lin Zhiyi stared at the screen and contemplated for a moment.
Suddenly, something dawned on her.
"Third Young Master, I told you before that Shirley isn’t passionate about jewelry design, when I asked her about her concept, her eyes darted, so why not use my expertise to deal with her?"
"Seems like you’ve thought of a solution." Gong Chen stopped at that.
"Yes."
Lin Zhiyi first sent Gong Chen’s recording to herself, then listened to it in full.
She organized the timeline again.
Made a whole presentation of the incident, well-organized and justified.
She released the recording first.
"Here’s the recording, hope everyone takes a rational approach."
"I’ll release all evidence shortly, initially I thought resolving it privately with Shirley, being my junior, was for the best, but given the situation, I have to clear my name."