CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: BAI YUEGUANG’S STAND-IN

He pushed the door open and entered, smelling the fragrance of food filling the room.

"Mom, whose car is downstairs?"

Seeing Jiang Lai return, Mrs. Jiang quickly came out of the kitchen, her face full of joy.

"You still don’t know, do you? That’s your dad’s luck winning a prize!"

"A prize? What did he do to win a car worth over 700,000?"

Nonsense!

Mrs. Jiang’s tone was excited, as if she could still savor the ecstatic joy after winning the big prize that day.

"Your dad and I went to buy an electric bike that day and ran into a lottery event. The third prize was a big TV, and the first prize was a car! I just drew a ticket at random, opened it, and unexpectedly it was a first prize! Your dad was over the moon, and he can’t bear to drive it, so he parks it downstairs every day to show off. You know, when luck comes, you can’t stop it!"

Jiang Lai frowned, calmly looking at the beaming Mrs. Jiang, and could already imagine with a toe that there couldn’t be such good fortune in the world.

"Where’s Dad?"

"He’s watching over the stall. I wanted him to sell the car, but you know your dad, he likes these things all his life, there’s nothing I can do..."

"Just keep it, it’s a gift from the heavens anyway."

After speaking, Jiang Lai handed over the gifts she had brought back to Mrs. Jiang, then went to the fruit stall to help Mr. Jiang watch the stall.

Life in the small town is very slow-paced, and Jiang Lai’s work is very flexible. After getting used to it, she simply didn’t want to return to Jiang City.

A few days later, the Xiang Family’s official Weibo page released a new product preview, below were several photos of the product, with rounded light pink glass bottles accompanied by a warm yet unique illustration. In the illustration, a pink-nosed girl holds a young fawn walking through the forest, leading to a small house with smoke rising from its chimney, symbolizing the abundant harvest and happiness during the autumn equinox.

The perfume brand that has always followed a high-profile luxury route surprisingly released such a simple yet exquisite limited edition product this time. It was quickly reposted and commented on by major beauty bloggers, and the first round of pre-sales was snapped up as soon as it began.

Of course, people’s attention was not only on the product but also on the illustrator mentioned at the end of that Weibo post.

This was an original illustrator with a small fan base and not much information online. Usually, she only posted her own sketches, each with her signature in the bottom right corner: J

Her Weibo username was also simple and low-profile.

JSlove, which seemed like the initials of a name.

To collaborate with such a famous brand to launch a co-branded perfume, and also being a signed original illustrator for Light Sensing Technology company, plus a character designer for one of the currently most popular games worldwide, all these titles collectively created a wave of popularity for this once-obscure artist online.

Not long after, as Wasteland Queen Ophina’s promotional image was released, all the players were in an uproar.

This was the Wasteland Queen that had been in preliminary promotion since half a year ago! Global players had been waiting for a whole year and they finally saw her design revealed.

Under the official blog post, Ophina’s image went trending.

"Ahhh, my Wasteland Queen, my only goddess!"

"Charming lady, welcome to my wasteland shore."

"Wow, this is killing me, it’s too cool!"

"Someone please make a personal CG for the Wasteland Queen!!"

"Her short hair and tattoos are so cool, oh, what a queen!"

This image of Ophina, promoted for nearly a year, surpassed all players’ expectations, with exquisite and meticulous design from head to toe, deeply moving the players.

And behind this emotion was the hard work of the original illustrator, and thus, the Weibo account JSlove was once again sent to the related trending topics by a group of enthusiastic players.

In just a week, the Weibo account, which initially had over 300,000 followers, skyrocketed to nearly 700,000 followers, with fans being drawn in by the simple story sketches occasionally released by the original illustrator. The once quiet comment section now had a huge crowd asking for updates every day.

Jiang Lai’s career progress had already shot up to 95%.

As for Shen Liao, every day he was left hanging. Occasionally receiving a phone call and responding perfunctorily even seemed to increase favorability. Overall, Jiang Lai’s task progress reached 90%.

When Little Buding was basking in its glory, one morning it suddenly discovered the career progress had plummeted from 95% to 80%!

"Jiang Lai, Jiang Lai, wake up, something happened!"

Jiang Lai frowned, opened her Weibo on her phone, and as the page flashed on, endless private messages frantically refreshed down. A quick glance showed most of them contained the same message.

"Copycat, isn’t it disgusting?!"

Jiang Lai’s mind, still not fully awake, looked at this rude private messages with unruffled calmness and even felt that their vocabulary was lacking. The insults were just a repeat of the same few lines.

"Wake up, Jiang Lai, your world is about to collapse!"

Jiang Lai’s personal space had also been taken over by a group of haters. Anyone who spoke up for Jiang Lai would be quickly besieged by them, so to outsiders, this original illustrator appeared to be a universal target without the possibility of a comeback.

Yawning, Jiang Lai went to check the original post that accused her of plagiarism.

It turned out that the illustration she designed for Xiang Family was revealed to highly overlap with the original embroidery of a certain ethnic artist. Although there were some differences in details, even a layperson could see at a glance that one of these two pieces seemed to be a copy of the other.

The girl in the picture, as well as the fawn she was holding, were exactly the same.

Moreover, the background color block made up of rose clusters also highly overlapped. A professional had already posted the color palette, directly accusing Jiang Lai of plagiarism.

"One was published in early August, while this one came out in late September, isn’t it clear which one copied the other now?"

"I’ve been following that artist lady; she had a personal design exhibition in Milan five years ago with countless representative works. How could she copy a relatively unknown artist?"

"Not taking sides, just waiting for the two of them to speak up."

"Xiang Family is ridiculous, hiring a plagiarist to be the illustrator for their autumn new product. Aren’t they worried about ruining their reputation?"

"I even asked my boyfriend to get that perfume for me, originally attracted by the illustration on the bottle. I want a refund now."

Jiang Lai, having looked around, clearly understood that she was at a disadvantage.

Not just because the other party hung her out first, but also because their publication time was indeed earlier than hers.

But how could it be?

From start to finish, she had completed the illustration independently. How could someone else have published it first?