Free Web NovelChapter 106: Chapter 106: The Truth Behind the Plagiarism Incident
Milly: "I only heard this from other people at the studio. Just treat it as gossip, and whatever you do, don’t tell anyone else."
Lynn nodded. "Don’t worry, Milly. I know how this works. Spill! How is our Mr. Joyce considered your boss, too?"
"Ahem..." Milly cleared her throat, leaned forward slightly, and lowered her voice to Lynn. "Well, when I first started, the woman who had my job before me told me that Mr. Joyce from Apex Design bought shares in our Azure Studio. A *huge* stake."
Lynn frowned, deliberately putting on a nosy expression. "A huge stake? How much of a stake does he have?"
Milly raised her hand, making a ’six’ gesture. "I heard... sixty-seven percent."
"Sixty-seven percent?!" Lynn was stunned. "That’s not just a huge stake! You could say Mr. Joyce is the real owner of Azure Studio."
"Shhh—" Milly pressed her index finger to her lips, signaling for Lynn to lower her voice.
"Oh..." Lynn obediently clapped a hand over her mouth.
Milly: "You could say that. Anyway, inside the studio, it’s an unspoken rule that Mr. Joyce is the boss."
Lynn: "If Mr. Joyce is the boss, then what does that make Mr. Sloan, the one running the studio now? Is he a minor shareholder?"
Milly thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nope."
"Huh?" Lynn was puzzled. "Why not?"
Milly: "Because the remaining thirty-three percent is actually co-owned by three people. Mr. Sloan is just one of them."
"And the other two shareholders both work at other companies in Aethelburg and rarely get involved with Azure Studio’s management. So..."
"So your Mr. Sloan is basically just an employee Mr. Joyce left behind to watch over the studio?" Lynn finished Milly’s sentence for her. It was a harsh way to put it, but it wasn’t wrong.
Milly blinked in agreement.
"Wow..." Lynn gasped in amazement. "I never would’ve guessed Mr. Joyce was so impressive. In public, he’s the general manager of Apex Design, but behind the scenes, he’s the absolute majority shareholder of Azure."
Milly agreed. "We all think he’s impressive too. But he never seems to reveal his true identity at Azure Studio to outsiders. I’ve been here for three months and have run into him three times. But every time he comes over, he just says he’s here to see a friend, never mentioning his stake in the company."
"The receptionist still has no idea he’s the boss who signs her paychecks."
"Why doesn’t he reveal his identity?" Lynn didn’t understand.
Milly shook her head. "I don’t know either. Maybe he just likes being mysterious?"
"...Hmph." Lynn let out a soft laugh. "Perhaps."
"Hey, why did that woman who told you all this gossip quit? For her to know this secret, she must have been at the studio for a long time."
"Sigh..." At the mention of this, Milly couldn’t help but sigh repeatedly.
"What other reason could there be? Capitalists are heartless."
"Hmm?" Lynn’s intuition told her there was something fishy about this. She leaned forward slightly, getting closer to Milly, and asked with a gossipy look on her face, "What do you mean? Was she bullied by the management?"
Milly first let out a "Mm-hmm," and said, "This involves even juicier gossip."
She stopped after saying that, her expression becoming conflicted. "But this one is... explosive. I don’t know if I should say it..."
"Tell me, tell me." Lynn took Milly’s hand and swayed it gently, putting on the same exaggeratedly cute and whiny voice she used back in college. "You can’t just get my curiosity piqued and not tell me! Come on, tell me. I really want to hear it."
"Well..." Milly was still hesitating.
Seeing this, Lynn quickly raised her hand and swore, "If you tell me, I promise I won’t tell a soul!"
"..." Milly bit her lip, looking at her as her resolve began to waver.
Lynn started whining again. "Please, Milly, just tell me. Ever since I started at Apex Design, Mr. Joyce has had me working overtime every day. I desperately need some gossip about him to soothe my soul!"
"Milly..."
"...Alright." Milly’s resolve didn’t last long; Lynn’s whining easily broke through her defenses.
Worried she might be too loud speaking across the table, she picked up her drink and sat down next to Lynn, huddling close.
"Lynn, this gossip is huge. Once you hear it, you have to pretend you never did. Don’t let a single word slip out, you hear?" Before she began, Milly warned her one more time, still uneasy.
Lynn nodded furiously. "I know. Don’t worry, Milly, my lips are sealed!"
"Okay." Milly finally felt a little more at ease.
"Go on," Lynn said, her eyes wide as she stared at Milly, all ears and ready to listen.
Milly gathered her thoughts and began to speak slowly. "That woman really was a long-time employee at the studio. From what I know, she joined right when the studio was founded, so she was basically one of the original staff members."
"She was one of the original employees, and the capitalists at your studio still bullied her?" Lynn’s face filled with indignation. "That’s so shameless."
"Hah..." Milly gave a sarcastic laugh. "Aren’t all capitalists like that? They pick on whoever seems weak. And the gossip I’m about to tell you is the reason why she was bullied."
Lynn: "Okay, go on."
Milly: "Our studio might look high-end, but in some ways, it’s actually pretty dirty. About two months before I joined, that woman was given a task by Mr. Sloan. He wanted her to come up with some kind of publicity stunt to boost our studio’s online presence."
"It wasn’t the first time she’d done something like this, so when she got the order, she immediately contacted a few local influencers in Aethelburg, planning to use the old method of creating hype with them. But after Mr. Sloan reviewed her proposal, he rejected her idea. Instead, he told her to orchestrate a plagiarism scandal."
Lynn narrowed her eyes. "So were you the ones plagiarizing, or the ones being plagiarized?"
Milly: "We were the ones being plagiarized, of course! And by a well-known company, no less."
"...Which company?" Lynn’s heart leaped into her throat.
But Milly said, "I don’t know. The woman who told me didn’t say."
"Oh..." Lynn licked her lips. "Then what happened? What did she do?"
Milly: "What else could she do? She did what she was told, of course. Even though she was one of the original employees, she was still just working for the studio. When the boss gives an order, does she have any other choice but to follow it?"
"..." Lynn’s face was tense as she remained silent.
Milly: "I don’t know what method she used to get the studio’s work plagiarized, but in the end, she delivered what Mr. Sloan asked for, and our studio got a lot of exposure because of it."
"The sad part is, after the whole thing was over, the higher-ups found an excuse to fire her."
