The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal a.s.sistant
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
Chapter One Hundred
When Ling Miao heard Tofu say that someone on the forum was exposing Su Yuyang for plagiarizing, his first reaction was of course, "Who the f.u.c.k is this green-eyed person trying to drag Su Yuyang to their level." Tofu said that the other party had proof, but Ling Miao just wanted to throw it in their face.
Ling Miao had been on the forums for four or five years and had seen many callout threads and fight threads. The evidence in these threads was usually embellished to some degree, so even though Tofu said the evidence was very, very reliable, Ling Miao didn"t believe it.
He clicked on the thread. The first thing he looked at was the OP"s ID—IAmCallingOut—Ling Miao wasn"t familiar with this ID. The second thing he looked at was the account registration date—three days ago. Ling Miao clicked into the account profile and found that the person had only started one thread. He had made many replies, but they had all been made in the last three days and they were all replies to comments on Su Yuyang"s plagiarism thread.
A new account, which had only posted the one Callout: Shu Yang"s "Heavenly Domain" plagiarized the abandoned book "Destruction of Heaven!" thread, and the replies were suspicious too…
All in all, it was very likely that this person was trying to ruin Shu Yang"s reputation.
Ling Miao began to read the thread with the att.i.tude he would take to reading a joke, and also the att.i.tude of someone ready to fight 300 rounds with his opponent.
But when Ling Miao saw the evidence posted in the thread, his heart immediately jumped. The contents were very disadvantageous to Su Yuyang, and they didn"t look exaggerated. In fact, Ling Miao couldn"t find evidence of tampering at all.
Su Yuyang had really plagiarized?
Ling Miao"s own suspicions began to rise, but he quickly denied them. Firstly, Su Yuyang"s talent obviously showed in Demonic Song Defying Heaven and Ma.s.sacre of the Nine Heavens. Secondly, Ling Miao didn"t believe Su Yuyang would plagiarize.
But the evidence was laid out before him and he had to be careful.
Ling Miao rolled the scroll wheel downward and saw the name of the first replier to the thread. He slapped the bed: "f.u.c.k, it"s this guy!"
The first reply to the thread was from ProfessionalHoleDigger.
Ling Miao had a strong impression of this guy. It could be said that the two were enemies. When Ling Miao saw a post from this guy, he would look for content in it he could refute. If he couldn"t find anything, he would pretend he hadn"t seen the post. If he did find something… anyone in the forum who had been there a while knew that if the moderators didn"t close the thread, it would explode.
ProfessionalHoleDigger was a dedicated Shu Yang hater. He had said in a previous thread that he read the official versions of all novels except Shu Yang"s, which he pirated. Just on that comment alone Ling Miao had had a 300-post argument with him which had only stopped when the moderators stepped in.
The moment Ling Miao saw that the first reply was this guy, and the time between the thread being posted and the first reply was only a few seconds, he let out a cold laugh. "Heh—he"s green-eyed again."
Ling Miao DMed a friend and asked for two IP cards. On investigation, IAmCallingOut had the same IP as ProfessionalHoleDigger.
"I was right!"
452# ZeroSecondsAgo: The IPs of the OP and the first reply are the same and they were posted only a few seconds apart. Clearly, the thread was posted by the first replier. Shu Yang"s hater posted a callout thread saying Shu Yang plagiarized. This implies Shu Yang didn"t plagiarize.
Very quickly, Ling Miao"s a.s.sessment got a reply.
456# IAmCallingOut: "The IPs of the OP and the first reply are the same…"
You"re Shu Yang"s boyfriend, of course you"re biased towards him. I"m very suspicious that you didn"t even read the contents of the OP before accusing me and the first replier of being the same person. If you say that Shu Yang didn"t plagiarize, then please refute me with evidence. If you can"t, then shut up! Of course, if you can get Shu Yang himself to explain, that will be even better. I"m sure he will have nothing to say against it.
Seeing the reply, Ling Miao was speechless.
Evidence? Where would he get evidence? From Su Yuyang?
No one would be more sure than Su Yuyang as to whether he had plagiarized. But Ling Miao didn"t want Su Yuyang to know of this—firstly because Su Yuyang was already exhausted from pus.h.i.+ng out drafts for the past few days and Ling Miao didn"t want to tire him out even more with this matter, and secondly because he believed he could settle this matter himself.
Su Yuyang asked Tofu to register a forum account for him, then kept refres.h.i.+ng the callout thread. When he saw Ling Miao"s reply and the OP"s response, he went silent.
The thread continued to grow in size, but none of the new replies were Ling Miao"s.
Su Yuyang looked up and glanced into the bedroom. Ling Miao"s face was partially blocked by his laptop, but Su Yuyang could see that his pallor wasn"t good.
He hasn"t replied in so long. He probably really isn"t sure how to reply. Su Yuyang got up and walked slowly over to Ling Miao"s side.
As the light around Ling Miao dimmed, he quickly shut his laptop and asked warily, "What are you looking at?"
Su Yuyang lifted his hand to gently rub Ling Miao"s creased forehead and fussed, "Seeing you like this makes my heart hurt. Tell me what the matter is and I"ll share the burden with you."
"No!" Ling Miao said stubbornly. "You"re tired from rus.h.i.+ng drafts for the past few days. I"ll settle this myself."
Su Yuyang raised the cover of the laptop and sighed, "If you could settle it yourself, you wouldn"t be pouting so much." Su Yuyang tapped Ling Miao"s lips with a finger. Ling Miao cursed and said in dissatisfaction, "Someone made a callout post on the forum saying that you plagiarized, but I don"t believe it."
"I didn"t plagiarize," Su Yuyang laughed gently.
"The OP is definitely ProfessionalHoleDigger!" Ling Miao said angrily. "He"s a dedicated Shu Yang hater. If there"s even one typo in your chapter, he"ll write a whole rambling thread on it, and none of the replies ever have the same content."
"ProfessionalHoleDigger?" Su Yuyang read the name softly aloud.
Ling Miao heard Su Yuyang speak but didn"t clearly hear the content. He asked, "What is it?"
"This ID is very familiar."
Su Yuyang had previously already guessed who had posted the thread. Now, he was completely sure. Aside from that person, he couldn"t think of who else might have this account name—that is, if that person had been using this account all along.
"You"re on the forums too?" Ling Miao"s curiosity rose. Su Yuyang stared at "ProfessionalHoleDigger" and could imagine the real person"s expression. A smile that was vicious and satisfied, as if he had successfully carried out some plan.
"I was on for a couple of years, then I stopped after writing Heavenly Domain." Su Yuyang seemed to be reminiscing about the time he wasted on the forums. Ling Miao looked at his face in profile and an inexplicable affection rose in his heart.
Su Yuyang closed out of the browser, pulled Ling Miao to him, and laughed. "Go cook. I"m hungry. Also, ignore this idiot."
"But…"
"No buts." Su Yuyang put his index finger on Ling Miao"s lips. "Xiao Miao, I"ll settle this matter."
"No!" Ling Miao yelled. "I can"t let someone slander you like this! Even if you can take this, I can"t!"
"But what if this really is my fault?" Su Yuyang"s expression grew grave. Ling Miao looked at him in shock. Did he really plagiarize after all?