What Are Your Tastes? chapter 63
It Should Be Me
On the drive home, it was already completely dark. Perhaps because he was preoccupied, Lu Yunchu drove slowly, the lights on either side drifting past the car windows at a leisurely pace.
At the last intersection before Blue Bay, he stopped the car at a red light, absentmindedly almost leaning on the steering wheel, only snapping out of it when the car behind honked as the light turned green.
After crossing the intersection, the entrance to the neighborhood and the gradually clearer figures came into view almost simultaneously. Lu Yunchu startled and hit the brakes, stopping right next to Zhou Yanchuan.
“Did you come down… to wait for me?”
“Yeah, I said I’d meet you, it’s so late,” Zhou Yanchuan replied, noticing Lu Yunchu’s unusual state, “What’s wrong?”
His question made Lu Yunchu’s nose tingle with unexplainable sourness, but this was his own issue, no need to burden Zhou Yanchuan. He said softly, “It’s nothing.”
He let Zhou Yanchuan get in the car to head home together, but Zhou Yanchuan, after opening the passenger door, walked around to the driver’s side: “You sit over there, I’ll drive.”
Lu Yunchu nodded obediently. He was indeed tired and didn’t want to move much. Once seated in the passenger’s seat, he closed his eyes.
They were almost at the entrance, just minutes from the garage. After parking, Zhou Yanchuan looked at the now awake Lu Yunchu.
“Yunchu, is something bothering you?”
“I…” He might easily disguise his emotions in front of others, but Zhou Yanchuan could see through him with a glance.
“Is it work-related?”
“Yes.” He didn’t deny it, but didn’t elaborate either.
“I don’t understand your work, maybe I can’t help much,” Zhou Yanchuan said gently, “But if someone made you angry or upset… if you need to vent, just tell me, I’ll listen.”
Lu Yunchu chuckled softly, unbuckling his seatbelt: “Let’s talk upstairs.”
Finding traces of something that happened six years ago was difficult. Lu Yunchu had never posted it on online platforms, and he couldn’t even remember if there were any photos related to it.
He changed phones almost every year, and after breaking up with Meng Xiao, he discarded many things from his old phone, never thinking to retrieve them. Meng Xiao was shameless, but as he said, without enough evidence, Lu Yunchu had no way to prove anything.
After explaining the situation to Zhou Yanchuan, Lu Yunchu went to his own apartment next door to see if he could find anything useful. He also messaged Ning Ruowei, hoping she might have seen his design when they exchanged ideas in school.
However, Ning Ruowei’s reply crushed his hopes: 【A brooch with birds and flowers? No, I don’t remember you mentioning it to me.】
Not understanding why Lu Yunchu suddenly brought it up, she asked: 【What’s going on?】
Lu Yunchu briefly summarized the situation, unable to go into details as it made him sick just thinking about it.
After a while, Ning Ruowei called, angrily cursing: “Damn, how can someone be so disgusting?”
She was also an art student, now working in fashion design, and was equally sensitive to plagiarism. Moreover, the person involved had cheated on her friend, adding insult to injury.
“Yeah.” Lu Yunchu weakly traced his fingers along the second row of his bookshelf, pulling out a photo album.
“I just checked my old QQ messages, couldn’t find anything, you never sent it to me…” Ning Ruowei said reluctantly, “No, we have to find a way, we can’t let him get away with this!”
“I’ll think about it.”
After their call, Lu Yunchu opened the album, flipping through miscellaneous old photos, including those from his school days. In the middle, he found a familiar face – a photo of him and his professor, De Luca.
It was taken before she fell ill. Though it didn’t provide any information about the brooch, it brought back memories for him.
Despite his anger, he felt more sadness.
Back then, he was naive. He hadn’t deliberately kept the design sketches, thinking they wouldn’t be needed again, as he wanted the gift to be unique for his professor.
But now that the design was being used by Meng Xiao for a mass-market product, the very thought of it sent waves of anger through him.
Lu Yunchu had met professor De Luca’s family a few times while studying abroad, though not often. From what he knew, her husband’s health had been deteriorating in recent years; her son traveled extensively for work, and her daughter, Rossi, who was only a year older than Lu Yunchu, had settled in southern Italy with her father and family. When De Luca passed away, Lu Yunchu had sent an email to express his condolences to Rossi, who replied with thanks, but that was their last communication over a year ago.
Would contacting Rossi help him find the brooch that was left behind as a keepsake? But he wasn’t sure if it would be a burden for her both practically and emotionally.
Rossi was not obligated to help him. They only had a slight acquaintance, her mother had passed away, and the whole family had moved to another city. Was it appropriate to make such a laborious request? Lu Yunchu couldn’t help but worry.
He hadn’t found any other photos in his apartment; professor De Luca rarely took photos after falling ill, and the brooch was only made after her diagnosis.
Lu Yunchu put down the album and returned to the apartment across. Zhou Yanchuan was on the phone with someone, and upon seeing him enter, he quickly ended the call and put down his phone.
“Yunchu, did you find any other clues?”
“No,” he shook his head, “I couldn’t find anything useful.”
“I also looked into it, and it’s not easy to defend your rights in this matter. You need to prove that you made the brooch earlier,” Zhou Yanchuan said seriously, which was rare for him. “It’s best if you get the help of the family to find supporting evidence.”
“I understand.” Lu Yunchu suddenly realized, “Were you just on the phone about my issue?”
“Of course,” Zhou Yanchuan replied straightforwardly, “Ziyang studied law in his undergraduate, so I asked him about it.”
He initially thought Lu Yunchu was in a bad mood because of a picky client, but it turned out to be a serious case of infringement, and he couldn’t just stand by.
“Are you finding it difficult to approach the family?” he continued.
Lu Yunchu hesitated. “Yes.”
“If it’s hard for you, I can help with this.”
“What?” He looked over in surprise.
“I don’t speak any foreign languages, so I can’t communicate with foreigners, but my company has excellent translators,” Zhou Yanchuan insisted. “You shouldn’t back down. You’re not in the wrong, and I believe the other party will understand. If there are any difficulties, you can offer them financial compensation.”
Lu Yunchu hadn’t expected Zhou Yanchuan’s help, but these words eventually dispelled his reluctance.
“No,” he said, relaxing into a smile, “This is my issue, I should handle it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” If this request was going to be a burden for Rossi, it wouldn’t matter who made the contact. Therefore, he should be the one to owe this favor.
More importantly, knowing that Zhou Yanchuan was standing behind him, he no longer felt exhausted.