CH 33.2

On the internet, once the specific process of how Yuan Yinhai PUA’ed the students was exposed, everyone immediately became entirely disgusted.

Soon, large law-related V1 accounts quickly listed out Yuan Yinhai’s two major criminal charges. One was academic fraud, and the other was violating copyright laws.

Violating copyright laws was easy to understand.

It refers to the unauthorized use of the copyright owner’s works, performances, audio-visual products and radio and television programs without the permission of the copyright owner and without compliance with the conditions for use stipulated in copyright law.

Such infringement may not only damage the personal rights of others’ works, but also damage the property rights of others’ works.

In law, academic fraud has always been a blank space.

Fraud that has been discovered can usually only be condemned from a moral perspective. Then, the institution will revoke their academic degree, job, professional career, and so on. There was no punishment, or administrative penalization.

Fortunately, Yuan Yinhai used his own name to publish scripts, while the entire contents were taken from the students’ scripts. It was considered that he violated others’ intellectual property rights and involved economic interests, so he at least had to provide economic compensation.

Regarding mincemeat like Yuan Yinhai, the netizens were very resentful that they couldn’t send him directly to jail.

[So after all that he just has to give them some money???]

Soon, those who knew the ropes came out to testify.

[In accordance with Yuan Yinhai’s income, it’s not as simple as paying a bit of money. As far as I know, the quoted price for his most expensive TV series was previously 500,000 yuan per episode. For a total of forty episodes, then for just that TV series, he has to give at least 20,000,0002 yuan]

Not to mention that Yuan Yinhai produces two works in a year, and over ten or twenty years, it has accumulated over a long period of time. Even if you take an average of 200,000 yuan per episode, that wasn’t a small amount at all.

[It’s at the level of losing a family fortune, guys. I hope that everyone whose signature was taken by him and has evidence in their hands will quickly come out to defend your money, giggle.jpg]

[Also, such high quoted prices can only be obtained because of the name of Yuan Yinhai. If they go out to pick up projects themselves, then they most likely wouldn’t even be able to get 20,000 yuan per episode. It seems that there’s no loss here? Doge]

A University responded very quickly to public sentiment.

Within three hours the afternoon the explosive allegations were made, they established an investigation team and in accordance with the relevant procedures they launched an investigation. They simultaneously released a statement announcing that they will issue a punishment based on the conclusion of the investigation.

The situation was so serious that it even alerted the Ministry of Education.

The Ministry of Education’s response was that ‘Yuan Yinhai was suspected of academic misconduct’, and that they attached great importance to the issue and requested relevant parties to investigate the issue immediately.

So far, there was no room for leeway.

Yuan Yinhai’s hospital room was deathly still, everyone could not believe the evidence.

Especially Yuan Yinhai’s daughter.

In her heart, Yuan Yinhai was the father she was most proud of – bright, just, and amiable. He was clearly able to retire early and enjoy life abroad with her as he grew older, but he insisted on remaining as part of the frontline of teachers, educating and imparting knowledge to his students.

Even her own husband was found in the same mold as Yuan Yinhai. But now that something like this has happened, all her beliefs have collapsed in an instant……

When the school leadership hurried over to Yuan Yinhai’s hospital ward to question him, Yuan Yinhai’s daughter was in the midst of bawling into her husband’s arms. That day she sobbed so hard she couldn’t even breathe, and it made Yuan Yinhai feel as if he was watching his own child die before himself.

It was said that Yuan Yinhai’s heart was like dead ashes, and he confessed to everything he had done, accepting all punishment.

His daughter originally prepared to take him abroad to recuperate. She also worked abroad, and couldn’t stay in the country for too long. But because Yuan Yinhai was a suspect in a case involving an enormous sum of money, she could not leave if she didn’t settle accounts.

The online criticism intensified, and the son-in-law was afraid that the hospital his father-in-law was in would be found by netizens, so he transferred Yuan Yinhai to a private hospital that night.

Ever since Ruan Song peeled the apple the night before for Yuan Yinhai, he never appeared in front of the other again.

But when the other was carried in a stretcher while being transferred to another hospital, he stood at the door with Ren Qinming in the dark, hearing a nearby doctor who came to watch the excitement, shaking his head while saying: “I heard that he has to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, this family is a real failure.”

“I’m afraid that if that old man is provoked into having a heart attack, or another stroke, becoming a vegetable that has to be taken care of by others, that would be the real failure.”

…

As all the evidence retained was too conclusive, the investigation team of A University released a statement on Yuan Yinhai the morning after he was taken by his family.

They confirmed Yuan Yinhai’s academic misconduct, removed Yuan Yinhai from a series of posts such as Dean and professor of A University of Liberal arts without delay, issuing a profound self-criticism of the university.

The nature of this matter had long evolved from news regarding the entertainment industry to societal news.

No one would have thought that the exposé of this incident was meticulously planned from beginning to end, and everyone only had lingering fears.

Fear that if Ruan Song hadn’t become popular and influenced everyone to care about this matter, then countless talented future stars would have been buried in A University, a top school that nearly represents the highest level in the nation.

The Ministry of Education ordered a strict investigation at every university, resolutely putting an end to the reemergence of pests within the system by opening up reporting hotlines to ensure that students have a direct channel to submit evidence.

Soon after, Feng Xiao sorted out a corresponding compilation of screenwriters and scripts, and A University revised and improved it in combination with Yuan Yinhai’s oral confession.

They ultimately confirmed that Yuan Yinhai first committed academic misconduct 15 years ago.

Within those fifteen years, the number of victims tallied up to 35 students, and he was suspected of encroaching on the copyright of 33 works. The numbers were so surprising that it once again shocked the entire internet.

Included amongst these works were the publicly lauded masterpieces ‘The Last Sunflower’ and ‘Journey to Tomorrow’, which have both been confirmed as Ruan Song’s works.

Ruan Song finally won a page on Douban with his real name.

The netizens were moved to tears, saying that he doesn’t have to change his pseudonym in the future! Nor does he have to hear others saying that he relies on his face to make a living!

A University recognized that they were largely to blame for this academic accident, and were willing to take the initiative to contact the 35 students and help them hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit against Yuan Yinhai to defend their rights and receive their corresponding compensation.

Yuan Yinhai issued a statement of apology through his personal Weibo.

As for the producer of the serial murderer IP project, he also forwarded a statement: I wish all the creators in the world have the right to stand in the sun and receive their due applause and flowers.

Ruan Song’s battle this time wasn’t just maintaining academic order, but also a wake up call for the lack of standardization of authorship for screenwriters in the industry.

There were too many screenwriters that could only act in the name of others and become unknown workers, unable to complete the simple task of telling others what works they have written.

The internet made the work highly efficient and convenient for all departments, and after the rhythmical movement of the matter in the past two days, a heavy curtain quickly fell over the situation.

But the netizens didn’t forget, and some didn’t forget the ‘original matter’ and once again called Fang Wei out.

After all, they first began tearing Yuan Yinhai down because of Fang Wei.

In reality, this person seemed excessively sincere while he was in the hospital ward accusing Ruan Song of cheating. It didn’t look like he was lying, but on the other hand, it made Yuan Yinhai, who avoided making eye contact, appear more suspicious.

[Now I want to know how they’re going to handle Fang Wei? Although it’s quite miserable that he’s always been kept in the dark and used as a tool, I really can’t sympathize with him]

[Same, just, reason is telling me that he would definitely be angry if he discovered that someone plagiarized his work, but in my heart I really can’t accept this!!! Frantic.jpg]

[Also, he only achieved his level of fame because of teacher Ruan’s ‘First Class Doctor’, and after graduating, he followed Yuan Yinhai’s desires. He was also the one who suppressed teacher Ruan the most……]

[Wuwuwu, my mother taught me not to become an Internet diode3, but I’m really fucking angry, teacher Ruan ended up being bullied by them after provoking whoever, but this glory should have been teacher Ruan’s!!]

[It was because of him that teacher Ruan changed his pen name frantically, and couldn’t take on any good projects!!!]

Now, no one remembered that several days ago, when everyone heard that Ren Qinming’s boyfriend was called ‘Ruan Song’, they were all indignant and disdainful.

Ruan Song once again used Ren Qinming’s Weibo to post a response to this matter.

[@Ren Qinming: I am Ruan Song. The law only protects expression, and doesn’t protect one’s thought. So objectively speaking, Fang Wei’s ‘First Class Doctor’ and my story doesn’t involve plagiarism. Only the setting of our stories are similar, both based on a long-standing court case, one in which a policeman, who had been at the scene of crime, failed to catch the murderer yet remembered that murderer for many years. However the specific logic of the subsequent plotlines of both stories aren’t entirely similar. ‘First Class Doctor’ was also completed by Fang Wei independently, and I have no right to pursue legal responsibility against him. But the good news is that after such a long period of refinement, I have a newer and better idea for this story, and will comprehensively edit the original script so that it will be entirely different from ‘First-Class Doctor’. In the future, if a producer wants to buy this script, I will invite everyone to appreciate it when the time comes. Finger hearts.jpg]

Once this Weibo was posted, the fans struck by calamity immediately felt alive again.

[Everyone should fucking solder the word ‘Pattern’4 into your keyboards!!!]

[It’s true that there’s no harm if there is no comparison. They both had the same story, but Fang Wei hysterically accused teacher Ruan of plagiarism, but our teacher Ruan directly gave up blame and said he already had better ideas]

[This is probably the level of a cultured person that I can never become in my whole life]

[Where’s the producer, hurry up and buy it!!! Buy it like crazy, and please set the price higher than Yuan Yinhai’s!! Laughing face.jpg]

[I really hope teacher Ruan gets rich. He is perhaps the first person in my life, and the only person that I hope will become richer than me. Kitty crying.jpg]

[Actually if it’s like that then……then isn’t this publicly punishing Fang Wei (??? doge]

[Hahahaha, fuck, seriously, I’m already rubbing my hands together in anticipation. Based on the quality of ‘The Last Sunflower’, I think that Fang Weil will die miserably, laughing to death]

Because of this mess, it was likely that it would be difficult to avoid having Fang Wei’s future scripts in the future be compared with Ruan Song’s.

He would have to live under Ruan Song’s shadow for the latter half of his life.

Many netizens used a dog head to ridicule him.

[I feel that in the future, Fang Wei will gradually become the Walmart version of teacher Ruan, doge]

[Fang Wei: mmp5, I wasn’t able to win against you in school but now I still have to fight against you after starting work. Old man on the subway looking at his phone.jpg]

There were many, many, many more netizens who wanted Ruan Song to create a Weibo.

[The last finger-heart is so cute!! Teacher Ruan, are you really not planning on creating a Weibo 15551]

Ruan Song replied again.

He once again assumed the attitude of a queen, got rid of his introduction, and his entire Weibo post consisted of only two words6. Adding on the punctuation marks would only make it up to four characters.

[@Ren Qinming: No, annoying.]

The fans were heartbroken, but also strangely a bit excited.

[Turns out kissing up to teacher Ruan is this appetizing???]

It also simplified matters for Ren Qinming’s fans if Ruan Song didn’t open his own Weibo and shared Ren Qinming’s account.

They are probably the only ones who will do this in the entire entertainment industry. It was the same being a fan of both of them, or just one of them, they could just follow another CP support club.

Everyone not only didn’t complain about Ruan Song stealing away their husband, but there were even more fans who even began to tear into Ren Qinming. It was as if they weren’t the ones who loved him to the point that they filled their tables and headboards with posters of him.

[You actually allowed our teacher Ruan to silently endure such an excessive situation! Then what’s the point of having a film emperor as your partner?!]

Fortunately, Ren Qinming had long anticipated his own fan’s reactions.

This was also one of the reasons why Xu Lan planned for Ruan Song to act like a little white flower.

Or else it cannot be justified that they had not acted for such a long time after Ren Qinming became famous despite having enough evidence to beat Yuan Yinhai thousands of times over.

They could only have Ruan Song act like he’s always easily trusted his seniors, as if everything ‘occurred suddenly’, and that he, just like everyone else, was caught off guard.

They secretly avoided everyone’s appraising gaze, and with little effort, dealt with both Yuan Yinhai and Fang Wei.

…

What awaited Ruan Song next was fame.

Ruan Song’s WeChat’s ‘New Contacts’ list directly exploded. Directors, screenwriters, producers, investors, so on and so forth, all kinds of people began appearing, and amidst this, there was no lack of those who wanted to buy his scripts with high prices.

Ruan Song didn’t agree to every single one, directly limiting the way others added him to their contacts.

There was no need to mention how happy Chen Yan was for him. In their video calls, he was like a broken record, so excited it was as if he was the one that became famous instead: “I just knew that our Song would inevitably grow up, aiyah, aiyah!! I just knew that I made the right choice telling you about Lan jie’s gossip and making you go on that variety show. What’s wrong with relying on your face to eat, you’re amazing if you can make a living with just your face! Our talent is no worse than our face!!”

With a face of ‘I knew it’, Ruan Song grumpily raised his eyebrows and looked at the other: “Actually you and Lan jie have been sneaking around long ago.”

At first, he didn’t realize it while Chen Yan was babbling on about Xu Lan being forced to retire after becoming pregnant, or how it wasn’t easy for her after her divorce, but later after he saw Xu Lan herself in the little coffee shop next to the hospital, the more he thought about the more he felt that something was amiss.

He wasn’t saying that Chen Yan was a liar, he just simply felt that it probably wasn’t that easy for Chen Yan to hear about the gossip of someone like Xu Lan.

Then there was only one possibility.

Chen Yan and Xu Lan colluded with each other to soften his attitude and whittle down his willpower, all in order to push him to join the variety show.

Chen Yan: “Wasn’t I just feeling heartbroken that you were so worried about making money that you were starting to get angry? Be honest, you actually still like Ren Qinming, right? Or else you wouldn’t wait until aunty needed surgery, you would’ve gone to borrow money from him 800 years ago.”

Through the video, Ruan Song immediately ‘oh’ed while looking at the other: “It seems you really know me?”

Chen Yan giddily laughed: “I don’t know about anyone else, but no matter what, I’m a serious screenwriter. I’m definitely an expert at analyzing character personas.”

At that time, Ruan Song was tidying up mother Ruan’s ward after dinner, while Ren Qinming accompanied his mother on a stroll outside. He was the only one in the room, and he spoke casually: “It sounds like you want to play matchmaker for me and Ren Qinming.”

Chen Yan immediately raised his eyebrow and corrected the other: “It’s not ‘matchmaking’ brother, this is called correcting the mistakes left over by history. I think our film emperor is pretty good, and matches you well.”

Ruan Song knew Ren Qinming for so long, yet this was the first time he was chatting about the matter of ‘our partners’ with a friend. He rarely took the initiative to say a bit more: “He even felt that he was useless today, saying that I solved everything by myself.”

Chen Yan was sincere and earnest: “You guys are what’s called a perfect match. If I said something about being ‘useful’ and made troubles in front of you all day long, I’d annoy you to death. I probably wouldn’t even last a day before being thrown out by you.”

Ruan Song thought about it and it felt that it was true.

The more he thought about it, the happier he felt. After folding the last of his mother’s clothing, he said: “Then that’s fine, I’ll reward you and allow you to send out a Moments. You can show off in front of all your friends, saying that your socially anxious roommate was actually Ruan Song.”

Chen Yan had always loved doing these kinds of things.

But as a result, the other actually rejected him this time. He made a show of great earnestness and said: “I can’t do that, the feeling of pleasure when posting such big news on Moments is not enough! I have to post it on a certain moonless night when the wind is high, when I’ve encountered a difficulty or when I’ve been bullied and humiliated by everyone, something like that. Then you’ll arise out of the blue, understatedly looking down on them while saying, ‘Who’s bullying my roommate?’ Then everyone will explode, hahahaha!”

He even began fabricating an emotional plot line.

Ruan Song once again laughed out loud: “What the hell, fine, up to you.”

…

That night, Ruan Song also left Xu Lan’s phone number to mother Ruan, saying that when he’s filming the variety show with Ren Qinming, she can find either Chen Yan or Xu Lan if anything comes up, and told her to not be so polite.

After everything settled down, the two prepared to set out on a long return journey back to the long separated wooden cabin halfway up the mountain.

They fully believed that what awaited them there would definitely be everyone’s cheers and applause.

But when they really returned to the cabin, all the lights in the cabin were dark, without any trace of human life, matching the waves of cold wind in the valley, and the atmosphere was quite strange.

When Ruan Song skeptically pulled out his keys to open the door, the cabin immediately became brightly lit.

Everyone jumped towards him from all directions, all simultaneously wrenching open the fireworks in their hands: “Welcome home, our big screenwriter Ruan!!!”

.

The author has something to say:

Note: The explanation for copyright and academic fraud were all taken from Baidu.

1. Large Weibo accounts, kind of like a ‘verified’ twitter account.

2. 500,000 yuan is approx. 69,000 USD. 20,000,000 yuan is approx. 2,762,000 USD.

3. A slang term that is meant to describe a netizen who has extreme views (see the world as black or white and don’t know how to view problems dialectically). Lmk if there’s a good English alternative for this!!

4. ‘Pattern’ at its essence in CN, means structure/layout. But in reference to a person’s ‘pattern’, it refers to the entirety of one’s cognition, thinking, mind, morality, values, insight, etc. As such, a greater ‘pattern’ is meant to describe someone with superior cognition, thinking, etc. I think when netizens write ‘pattern’, they generally mean someone who’s ‘pattern’ is high quality, as in, a pattern that we should all strive to achieve, because it’s something to be admired. Hence they’re all admiring RS for being superior (I think, lol)

5. Mmp = 妈卖批 = motherfucker

6. RS actually replies with 4 characters (不开，麻烦).

7. Shi = a formal particle added to someone’s maiden name, I guess English equivalent might be ‘Madam Ruan’