At ten o'clock at night, Shao Yichen closed the computer in front of her and rubbed her eyes.
Even after being forced by the System to enter the film industry, she had never watched a film this carefully, especially one known for its low budget like this online movie. But to understand exactly what she had allegedly plagiarized, she had no choice but to hold her nose and watch it.
In short, the film told the story of a little boy befriending an alien, with the entire plot taking place on a hospital rooftop—clearly designed to save on budget. The storyline was simple, the sets crude, the special effects eye-searing, the actors stiff, and what could have been a good story was edited into fragnts. On second thought, it wasn't completely without rits—the friendship between the boy and alien was fairly well established, and seeing things through the perspectives of a child and alien was creative. But under the perfunctory filming of the crew, it completely failed to imrse viewers. Perhaps only children could watch it with any enthusiasm.
After finishing, Shao Yichen was firmly convinced she had been frad—even if soone wanted to plagiarize, they would copy classics, not trash. What sense would it make to plagiarize a terrible film?
The editing wasn't even as natural as Jiang Miaomiao's!
She closed the movie and checked the comnts section. To her surprise, there were quite a few positive reviews. Upon careful examination, she found most comnts were along the lines of "my child really liked it" or "found it in the children's recomndations section, watched it with my daughter and actually found it enlightening."
Among these parent-filled comnts, Shao Yichen discovered one that stood out, seemingly from a hardcore film enthusiast.
"Inside industry gossip: I heard Liming Video Platform wanted to break into the children's market. They originally tried to negotiate exclusive online streaming rights for South Polar Bear Group's tokusatsu films, but offered too little and the deal fell through. This film was hastily produced internally to fill the recomndation slot—keeping the money in the family, so to speak. Considering it was made to fill a slot quickly, finding a script and completing production in such a short ti is quite surprising."
A script found in a short ti to fill a slot? Where did they find it?
Below this comnt was a string of collapsed replies. Curious, Shao Yichen clicked to expand them, discovering another industry insider discussing script issues with the first comnter. Their conversation eventually veered into hardcore film analysis before culminating in exchanging contact information. The two continued their earnest discussion of various industry insider details in what resembled a parenting forum, exuding an aura of "everyone else is drunk while I alone am sober" and "rare to find a kindred spirit in this world."
Although their discussion eventually strayed far off topic, Shao Yichen still discovered sothing crucial in their first two replies.
"Check who directed this film." "Wow, I hadn't noticed—so the little princess has co to practice with an online film. No wonder they found a suitable script so quickly."
Shao Yichen reopened the video and went straight to the end credits. There, in the director's position, was a familiar na—Li Qiaoqiao.
It's you again!
She rubbed her head, which started aching at the re sight of this person's na, and recalled her roommate status, feeling she had figured sothing out.
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At this point in the investigation, the truth was becoming clear.
If one insisted on the "Shao Yichen plagiarized" narrative from the exposé, then supposedly Shao Yichen had coincidentally seen her roommate's script for an upcoming online film. Perhaps out of jealousy that her roommate could direct a film before graduation, or simply lacking the ability to complete her graduation project, she referenced her roommate's script for her own thesis project but was discovered, causing her to delay graduation—a fitting punishnt for her actions.
But viewed from the perspective that "Shao Yichen is innocent," the story took on an entirely different shape—scriptwriting is a long process, and Shao Yichen had likely been refining her graduation project well before the online film was even greenlit, explaining why the December proposal already contained the frawork of her graduation project.
But when roommate Li Qiaoqiao's family's video platform encountered an issue with a children's promotion project, leaving a vacant recomndation slot that needed to be filled quickly with a new film, and unable to find a good script on short notice, Li Qiaoqiao targeted her roommate's clay animation project in progress. She even turned the tables, accusing her roommate of plagiarism, forcing Shao Yichen to delay graduation...
This would explain why this world's Shao Yichen had such severe ntal health issues during her delayed graduation period—her graduation project, prepared for so long, was plagiarized by soone else who then turned around and accused her of being the plagiarist, and that soone was her roommate of four years...
Just thinking about it was suffocating.
It was remarkable that the original owner, faced with such a devastating blow, not only avoided falling into despair but managed to graduate successfully the following year and even gained admission to graduate school—truly showing incredible strength.
Both were Shao Yichen, but how was one such a hardworking genius while she herself was just a slacker? Perhaps during this ti when she was single-mindedly trying to lose money in the other's body, the original Shao Yichen had already succeeded in her original world, spending her pocket money to create the works she wanted. That was the host the film system should have sought, not a slacker like herself...
Thinking of this, Shao Yichen tried hard to forget this depressing fact and took out her phone, intending to browse through the contacts to see if she could find any clues.
Previously, out of laziness in changing the original owner's things, she had simply continued using whatever the original owner had used, but she had no interest in prying into another Shao Yichen's privacy. Apart from using the original owner's phone to contact Zhao Kang, she hadn't even looked through the contact list.
She opened the contacts, initially intending to check if "Li Qiaoqiao" was in the blacklist, but was surprised to find the na prominently displayed in the contact list, even placed right below her newly added "Li Xingyu" contact.
So every ti she called Li Xingyu, her eyes must have passed over this na, but her brain had automatically pixelated it, blocking out the na...
Realizing this, Shao Yichen was impressed by her own obliviousness.
She opened the call history with this contact and found that the number had probably been bulk-cloned from the original owner's previous phone, with no recent ssages or calls. The most recent call record was from April four years ago—exactly during the period when graduation projects were submitted and Shao Yichen was discovered to have "plagiarized."
Shao Yichen sighed internally as she looked at this call record. Her finger hovered over the call button next to the number for a long ti, but ultimately she exited the interface without pressing it.
Currently without any evidence, making a hasty call might only give the other person ammunition.
Was there more concrete evidence?
From the contacts, it seed the original Shao Yichen hadn't deleted all records from that ti. If so, in this age of one-click phone content cloning, even ssages from four years ago might have left traces!
With this thought, Shao Yichen finally began exploring this phone that she'd previously only used for calls, ssages, and forum browsing, trying to discover any clues.
Half an hour later.
Shao Yichen glared at the login screen of the only app she couldn't open on the phone, frustrated with herself.
She had checked all the other apps, finding either pre-installed system apps that had never been opened, or very common, basic social dia applications. She had even opened the original owner's Weibo, scrolling from top to bottom, finding nothing but lottery reposts, likes on cat and dog marketing account videos, and frantic koi fish reposts before graduate school admission results were released three years ago—a typical social dia presence of soone living a regular life.
After looking through everything, all that remained was this blog app.
This blogging platform was a social dia platform that had appeared long ago, experiencing popularity for a period seven or eight years back when young people would share short vlog-type videos on it. But now it had even been removed from app stores, with users given less than a week to save their data before all blog content would be completely erased. In other words, Shao Yichen had only one week to crack this if she wanted to see the account's contents.
But although the app had auto-saved the account, she couldn't guess the password at all.
Just as she was staring down the app, her phone rang again.
She picked it up and heard Li Xingyu's familiar voice.
"Director Shao, marketing accounts and major Weibo users are posting about it now," his voice, unusually, betrayed a hint of anxiety. "Currently, Director Zhao Kang has an account arguing with fans online. I'm in the process of account verification, not sure when it will be approved... Do you want to register an account too, release a statent first to control the narrative?"
...It seed that despite her repeated warnings, the great Director Zhao had still waded into these muddy waters for her.
She sighed and replied, "I'll register as soon as I log into this account—"
Midway through her sentence, she suddenly rembered how Li Xingyu had sohow tracked down the source of that hundred million, and abruptly changed course to ask, "Do you know any hackers who could crack a blog password? This account might contain important clues, but I forgot..."
Li Xingyu didn't even ask what blog it was, responding directly: "Yes."
Five minutes later, just as Shao Yichen felt she had barely sent over the blog account details, Li Xingyu replied: "Done."
"That fast?!" Shao Yichen jumped up in delight. She looked at the blog password—qwerty.
Such a random-looking password, did it have so special aning?
She tried entering it, and on the fourth try finally realized this password was simply the six leftmost letters on the top row of a keyboard.
...Indeed, regardless of which Shao Yichen it was, so things never changed. Like laziness.
With this thought, she opened the blog.
Looking at the video previews inside, Shao Yichen was instantly flooded with a torrent of mories.
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The next day.
Qi Gelong entered the film set and sensed an indescribable heaviness in the crew's atmosphere.
...What was going on? Were they still upset about the director keeping them waiting for half an hour yesterday?
He saw his four actors huddled together seemingly discussing sothing, and approached to ask quietly: "What are you talking about?"
The young actors exchanged glances, and finally Xiao Sun, who clearly enjoyed internet surfing, spoke up: "Don't you know about what's being said online about Director Shao?"
Qi Gelong was stunned for a mont: "What things?"
Being older, he preferred watching short videos for entertainnt rather than scrolling through social platforms, so he was always a step behind on entertainnt industry gossip.
Seeing his confused expression, the young n quickly presented the fresh gossip to the lead actor, urging him to catch up: "Look at this! Entertainnt industry V account exposé!"
Qi Gelong took the phone from Xiao Sun's hand, slowly scrolling down, his expression growing increasingly grave, with the good mood he had felt from his breakthrough in acting completely vanishing.
After all, if a director had a history of plagiarism, even if the current work wasn't plagiarized, it would face boycotts, and the entire crew would suffer along with it.
Could it be that his coback battle had failed before it even began?
Xiao Sun couldn't see that Qi Gelong's mood was growing heavier, and continued chattering as usual: "In my opinion, Director Shao has been in the spotlight too much recently and must have offended soone. What's the big deal about plagiarism? Aren't there plenty of creators who 'reference' others now? As long as you plagiarize well, make money, and handle public relations, even the most solid evidence can be washed clean by people helping you! I say Director Shao should spend money on water armies now while there's still ti. It's only been one night, with so suppression it would blow over..."
Before he could finish, soone covered his mouth.
He made muffled protests of dissatisfaction, but Xiao Bai wouldn't let go, his expression seemingly angry yet nearly tearful: "Plagiarism is wrong! Director Shao would never plagiarize!"
Xiao Sun: "I nvr sd Drctr Shao plgrized! Lt go!" (I never said Director Shao plagiarized! Let go!)
While the two were wrestling and fighting, the actor playing Xiao Sha, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up.
"Look, is this Director Shao's account?" he held his phone up for everyone to see. "This account hasn't been verified yet, but it has the sa na as Director Shao."
"The handwriting in this profile picture does look like Director Shao's unique style..." Hearing this, Xiao Bai instantly released his hold, using his small stature to quickly escape the battlefield by ducking under Xiao Sun's arm, then crowding around the phone screen. "But this account only posted a link in the comnts. What's going on? Many people haven't even clicked on it, but they're already mocking Director Shao in the comnts section."
"This account didn't just comnt on this marketing post; it posted this link in the comnt sections of all the marketing accounts that shared the story," Xiao Sha continued. "Also, I heard the original exposé was on a forum, and this account posted this link there too."
"What kind of link is it?" Xiao Bai asked.
Xiao Sha shook his head: "Seems to be a blog, but it contains quite a lot of content. It was just posted three minutes ago; I haven't had ti to look at it yet. Why don't we click on it and check together?"
Xiao Bai nodded, actually already impatient to see it.
Clicking the link revealed a blog interface.
"This blog platform is still around?" Xiao Sun, his anger dissipated, also ca over to look. "Hasn't it been like ten years?"
"It's closing in a week," Xiao Sha replied.
Xiao Bai said nothing, focused entirely on browsing the blog. The blog appeared to have been a private blog previously, only made public last night. Its interface was a simple gray-white, containing many videos updated from seven or eight years ago until five years ago, with the last video stopping at four and a half years ago.
At the top of the blog, a video had been pinned, recorded five years ago, pinned at the sa ti the blog was made public.
He clicked on this video and found it was a crafting video, with only hands appearing on cara, molding a round-faced little girl. Though not sophisticated in design, with round eyes, it was quite cute.
He dragged the progress bar several tis and found it seed to be a crafting video from beginning to end, leaving him confused.
What was going on? Did the director want to show everyone a clay figure creation process?
Just as he was about to click away, suddenly voices appeared in the video.
The first person who spoke was sowhat distant, probably not the person making the clay figure. The girl's voice ca through faintly: "Making clay figures again? Still that alien story?"
"Mm-hmm." This voice was closer, presumably the person filming.
"That idea is interesting, but it seems like a lot of work. You definitely won't finish it," another voice faintly transmitted from a distance. "And you won't even make the alien into a handso guy, so it's just a girl and an ordinary guy of a different species. No one will watch..."
"I just want to create the story in my heart," the hands in the video paused slightly before continuing. "A little girl who doesn't know she's beco a ghost, and an alien who only returns every few decades riding a cot—they should be able to et countless tis, right?"
"Until the cot burns out, or the Earth perishes."
The others listening to this conversation didn't understand its significance.
But Xiao Bai suddenly sprang to his feet: "I get it!"
"What do you get?" Xiao Sun, who had just fought with him, had ssy hair and was straightening it while asking discontentedly.
"This is the dialogue between the little boy and the female-shaped alien at the end of the film accused of being plagiarized!" Xiao Bai exclaid. "But the little boy in the film never ntioned being a ghost, so when I heard this line it felt jarring... It turns out that when they 'borrowed' it, they didn't get the complete script!"
"This video completely proves that the creative idea for this script ca from Director Shao first! The so-called plagiarism those people are accusing her of did happen, but the plagiarist and the plagiarized are completely reversed!"
"Director Shao Yichen is the real victim!"
Author's Note: I originally planned to expand on the film's content, but later felt it wasn't necessary and might be sowhat filler, so I deleted it~
If I were to compare what this clay animation was originally conceived to be similar to, it would probably be closest in atmosphere to the film "The Inland Sea," the type that's all dialogue~
Thanks to the little angels who gave Overlord Tickets or Nutrition Solution between 2020-09-11 12:16:59 and 2020-09-12 12:34:27~
Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: Frivolous Male God, Fox Stop 1;
Thanks to the little angels who gave Nutrition Solution: Bai Hao Yi Ru Chen 6 bottles; Yi Xi 5 bottles; lani 2 bottles; Eggplant Fragrance 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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