Someone had stolen her work.
Jiang Yue's chest tightened, fury and despair boiling together. Her words weren't just ink on paper, they were blood, bone, and fragments of her soul. To see them paraded around under another's name felt like another kidnapping, another fire, another knife to the chest.
She was trembling when Tessa called.
"Don't cry yet," Tessa's voice came through, sharp and electric with righteous fury. "I'm handling it."
Jiang Yue sniffled. " am not that delicate but What do you mean handling it?"
"Check the livestream. I already scheduled it."
That afternoon, Tessa went live on every platform they had. She wore her fiercest red lipstick, her hair pulled back in a battle-ready ponytail, and her tone was as sharp as a whip.
"To everyone tuning in," Tessa began, voice dripping with mock sweetness, "today's literary tea is piping hot. You see, a certain someone, let's call her Dusty Raccoon, decided to publish a book full of stolen work. Not just anyone's work, mind you, but Jiang Yue's, the internationally recognized poet who bleeds brilliance onto paper."
She held up screenshots: Jiang Yue's drafts, timestamps, even emails where Jiang Yue had once shared the poem privately with her. Then she slammed the rival's book onto the desk dramatically.
"Plagiarism," Tessa declared, "is not a form of admiration. It's theft. It's desperation. It's what talentless, fame-hungry Dusty Raccoons resort to when they realize they can't create a single original line to save their lives."
The comments section exploded.
"Wait, this is word for word???"
"I bought Lin Qiao's book last week, are you saying it's fake???"
"Justice for Jiang Yue!!!"
"LOL not Dusty Raccoon "
Tessa wasn't done. She leaned forward, eyes gleaming.
"You can steal clothes, you can steal makeup looks, hell, you can even steal your neighbor's WiFi. But words?
Words carry souls. You can't plagiarize someone's soul and expect to get away with it."
The rival poet tried to respond with a weak statement online, claiming "inspiration" and "coincidence" but Tessa clapped back live.
"Inspiration? Sweetie, if by inspiration you mean CTRL+C and CTRL+V, then sure."
The internet roared with laughter. Memes began spreading instantly, with "Dusty Raccoon" trending worldwide by evening.
Jiang Yue sat in her childhood bedroom, watching the chaos unfold with wide eyes. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
Her brother peeked into the room. "What's going on?"
Jiang Yue wiped her tears, smiling faintly. "Tessa's fighting my war."
Hours later, after the dust settled and publishers announced investigations into the rival's fraud, Jiang Yue's phone buzzed again. This time, it was Li Zhenkai.
Li Zhenkai : I saw the livestream. She doesn't need to fight alone. Neither do you.
Her heart skipped. She typed back slowly.
Jiang Yue : Thank you. For everything.
A pause. Then his reply came:
Li Zhenkai : You're not allowed to break. Not when I'm here.
She shut her eyes, clutching the phone to her chest.
For the first time since the kidnapping, she felt something steady, like maybe she wasn't entirely cursed. Like maybe, amidst the chaos, she still had people who would burn the world down for her.
And as she drifted to sleep that night, Tessa's fiery voice echoed in her ears:
"Plagiarism is not admiration, you dusty raccoon."
Later that night, when she woke up after her parents had gone to bed, Jiang Yue slipped outside to the porch. The night air was cool, carrying the scent of rain-soaked earth. She leaned against the railing, her thoughts tangled.
The sound of a car pulling up startled her. A sleek black vehicle stopped at the curb, and her heart knew before her eyes confirmed.
He stepped out. Black suit, undone tie, hair slightly disheveled as if he'd driven without pause. His eyes found her instantly.
"You didn't answer my calls." His voice was low, threaded with worry.
"I wanted… quiet, and I fell asleep" Jiang Yue admitted.
The male lead's jaw flexed, but he didn't push further. Instead, he walked up the porch steps and without hesitation pulled her into his arms. She stiffened only for a moment before sinking against him. His embrace was grounding, steady.
"I saw the livestream," he murmured against her hair. "The world finally knows the truth. But you " He pulled back slightly to look at her, his gaze fierce. "Don't you dare disappear on me again. Not after everything."
Her lips curved faintly. "I wasn't planning to. My brother might kill me if I tried."
As if on cue, Ruhan appeared at the door, glaring. "You. CEO guy. If my sister gets hurt again "
"I'll protect her with my life," the male lead cut in smoothly, his eyes not leaving Jiang Yue's.
Something flickered between them then an unspoken vow, fragile but unyielding.
For the first time in weeks, Jiang Yue felt the knot inside her chest loosen. Tessa's fiery revenge had carved open a path, and standing here, with her family and with him, she dared to think, maybe bad luck wasn't the only thing that she got in this novel, but she knew one thing for sure she needed to get stronger