CHAPTER 183: CHAPTER 167: FAMOUS PAINTER EXPOSED FOR PLAGIARISM SCANDAL

Gu Qimiao ran downstairs, brought up Jiajia’s resume, and Shen Yanchen casually flipped through it. He was relieved to see that she was a girl of the same age as Gu Qimiao, "It’s fine, she can come to the HR department at 8 AM tomorrow to register and start working."

Hearing that everything was settled, Gu Qimiao smiled with relief, "Thank you!"

Was this considered using connections? No matter what, she had successfully solved Jiajia’s job problem.

Shen Yanchen closed the resume, stood up, "I have to go to a meeting now, you go and take care of your own business."

Gu Qimiao nodded, watched him leave with a file folder, and then returned to her studio, immediately taking out her phone to report the good news to Jiajia.

On the other side, He Ye saw Shen Yanchen coming out. Since he didn’t approach him, He Ye hesitantly took out the meeting materials, opened the door, and followed Shen Yanchen.

Seeing that he didn’t say anything, He Ye breathed a sigh of relief, wondering what was the sister-in-law up to?!

Around 10 AM, Shen Yanchen was still in a meeting that had been going on for two hours, and Gu Qimiao started to lose focus. She went out to get a cup of water and then went to the restroom.

Just as she came out of the restroom, she saw the office’s glass door being pushed open.

Next, the assistant’s voice came, "Miss Lu, please wait here for a moment, President Shen’s meeting will be over soon."

Gu Qimiao was stunned where she stood. At this moment, Lu Qianwen walked in and immediately saw Gu Qimiao, her face instantly darkened as she stared at Gu Qimiao.

The assistant looked at the two of them. Everyone in the company knew they were probably love rivals. They had all thought President Shen would end up with Miss Lu, but suddenly, Gu Qimiao appeared.

"Miss Lu, please have a seat over there." The assistant spoke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

Lu Qianwen withdrew her gaze, stepped on her high heels, and walked to the sofa to sit down.

Before the glass door could close, another person walked in. The assistant, who was about to go out to pour water, immediately greeted respectfully, "President Shen."

Gu Qimiao turned her head to look, then quietly walked towards her studio, realizing they were still in contact.

Shen Yanchen’s gaze followed Gu Qimiao into the studio, and then he looked at Lu Qianwen on the sofa, walked over, and sat down opposite her, asking, "Doesn’t your company have a PR department?"

Lu Qianwen smiled gracefully, "Don’t you also personally meet with clients?"

Shen Yanchen let out a light snort and then got to the point, "I’ve seen your proposal, I’m not interested."

Lu Qianwen glanced at the distant studio, "What? For the sake of a woman, you’re willing to give up such a good partnership? You stole my brother’s bride back then, and now I’ve finally convinced him to work with you again..."

Shen Yanchen interrupted her with a smile, "I don’t lack partners. The reason I’m meeting you today is to tell you to mind your own business and not think about harming others."

"Ha, in your heart, only that woman is kind, and everyone else has ill intentions, right?"

"I hope you’re not one of them. We don’t need to discuss the partnership anymore."

Just as the assistant brought in the water, Shen Yanchen instructed, "Escort Miss Lu downstairs."

Lu Qianwen watched him stand up, a trace of mockery flashed across her lips, but she didn’t argue further. She turned and walked out of the office, and while entering the elevator, she dialed a number, "I’ve made my decision about what you mentioned. Let’s meet at that café from last time."

...

That afternoon, Gu Qimiao received a call from Fang Shaobei, asking her to come back to the gallery. He didn’t specify what it was about, but it sounded pretty serious.

Shen Yanchen postponed his afternoon work and went to the gallery with Gu Qimiao.

As soon as they walked in, they heard people inside the gallery discussing fervently. Not seeing Sister Mei, Gu Qimiao went straight upstairs.

In the lounge area of the corridor, several painters were sitting, talking angrily about something. Gu Qimiao barely caught words like plagiarism and copy.

From Fang Shaobei’s office, there were also sounds of argument. Shen Yanchen went ahead and pushed open the office door, Gu Qimiao followed closely behind. Inside, they saw a slightly thin man with glasses aggressively shouting, "Bring out that painter! Don’t dare to do it but can’t dare to face it! Not only did they plagiarize my work, but they also used it to cheat money!"

Gu Qimiao stepped forward and stood beside Fang Shaobei, "What’s going on?"

Before Fang Shaobei could speak, the man with glasses looked at Gu Qimiao, "Are you Gigi? You look like a decent person, how can you do such unethical things?! Come on, how are we going to resolve this?"

Gu Qimiao asked puzzled, "What happened?"

"Don’t play dumb!" The man angrily spread out a painting in his hands, "Isn’t this painting yours?!"

Gu Qimiao froze; this was the painting she had done for Lu Qianwen. How did it end up in this man’s hands?

The man threw the painting at Gu Qimiao, but thankfully Shen Yanchen reached out and caught it in time, otherwise it would have hit her head.

The glasses man angrily took out another painting. Gu Qimiao was dumbfounded. That painting was obviously based on the same reference material or copied from her work.

But now the imitator is coming to bother the original artist.

"I painted this piece just recently and haven’t even put it out for sale yet. And you went ahead, plagiarized my work, and sold it at a high price! How are you going to compensate for this?"

Gu Qimiao said calmly, "We all know who’s the original painter of this work!"

"Oh! You still don’t admit your fault? Still trying to argue?"

Fang Shaobei pulled Gu Qimiao back and stood in front of the man with glasses, saying, "Let’s go through legal procedures."

"Let’s go then! Your attitude should be exposed to the media! Acting so righteous about plagiarism! What kind of person are you!"

Fang Shaobei smiled politely, "See you in court, take care."

The man with glasses was pushed out of the door, cursing as he left. Fang Shaobei turned around and looked between Gu Qimiao and Shen Yanchen, saying, "You probably have guessed the reason for all this?"

Gu Qimiao didn’t speak, but knew for sure it had something to do with Lu Qianwen. The painting she had done for Lu Qianwen earlier was now being used by this man to cause trouble. It was obvious that Lu Qianwen had orchestrated this.

Shen Yanchen frowned and threw the painting in his hand onto the sofa behind him. If this issue wasn’t handled properly, Gu Qimiao would forever be labeled a plagiarist.

Even though an upright person isn’t afraid of shadows, once the media exposes it, gossip will inevitably follow. Those jealous of her would latch onto this point, and they’d love to fan the flames as long as there’s even a hint of plagiarism.

Fang Shaobei patted Gu Qimiao’s shoulder, "It’s okay, don’t worry, go sit outside for a while."

Gu Qimiao knew they had things to discuss, so she left on her own accord.

Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, facing such situations was frustrating. No one wants to spend time on these unnecessary disputes.

After watching Gu Qimiao leave, Fang Shaobei turned to Shen Yanchen, saying, "Chen, these problems are all brought to her by you."

Shen Yanchen glanced at him, "I’ll hire the lawyer, you gather the evidence."

Fang Shaobei raised an eyebrow, "I thought you didn’t need my help. Isn’t she doing pretty well with you there?"

Shen Yanchen remained indifferent, but his expression showed that things were more than just ’pretty well’. Though his face was still stern, his eyes were noticeably less icy than before.

That night, Weibo went crazy with a news headline: ’Renowned Painter Accused of Plagiarism Scandal’.

Gu Qimiao wasn’t very well-known yet, only familiar to people within the circle. But Fang Shaobei was different; he was someone who people immediately thought of when discussing art.

Because the Weibo post mentioned that this female painter was a disciple of Fang Shaobei, discussions quickly erupted.

Shen Yanchen didn’t want the situation to escalate, so he aimed to resolve it quickly. The next day, he went directly to court.

Going through formal procedures was to leverage the media for fair treatment for Gu Qimiao. Ironically, Lu Qianwen’s plan helped give Gu Qimiao some much-needed publicity.

Shen Yanchen’s identity made it inconvenient for him to appear in court, so Fang Shaobei and the top lawyer he hired were there to represent Gu Qimiao.

In court, the man with glasses adamantly claimed that Gu Qimiao copied and sold his work, while Liang Zixuan posed as the buyer, angrily claiming she was deceived by Gu Qimiao.

Lu Qianwen didn’t show up at all; she played the innocent model in this farce.

Numerous media outlets were present, covering the event live.

The defendants remained quiet but projected a sense of justice that dominated the room, calmly observing the drama unfold.

When the judge called for their defense, the lawyer sent by Shen Yanchen stood up slowly and confidently stated, "Regarding Mr. Wang’s accusation that Miss Gu copied his work and sold it to deceive others, we completely reject this defamation. Now, we’ll present several pieces of evidence."

The lawyer stood up and handed over a file bag, which contained a USB drive and a CD.

The USB drive was plugged in, displaying comparison photos of two paintings. The lawyer explained from the podium, "The left painting is Mr. Wang’s work, the right is Miss Gu’s. Both are signed at the bottom."

"Now, let’s have teacher Fang Shaobei provide a professional analysis of these two paintings."

Fang Shaobei stood up, casually adjusted his clothes, and walked to the podium as if he were giving a class, "Taking a closer look at these paintings, anyone with some painting experience can analyze them. Let’s set aside the evidence and just look at the paintings themselves."

"The left painting, when zoomed in, shows clearly that the technique used is less proficient than the one on the right. You can see evident traces of patchwork and alterations in the lines. In terms of color, the left painting does not blend as harmoniously as the one on the right; it looks like a forced mix of color blocks. From these observations, it seems more likely that Mr. Wang copied Miss Gu’s work."

"Stop slandering!" Mr. Wang immediately stood up in excitement, "Of course, you’re speaking in her favor, you’re her teacher!"

Seeing his agitation, the nearby security personnel restrained him back into his seat.

The details pointed out by Fang Shaobei were obvious to everyone, so the focus of blame shifted to Mr. Wang.

Fang Shaobei continued, "If these points aren’t convincing enough, we have more substantial evidence."