After breaking off the engagement, she became the CEO's favorite

Lu Ranran held the envelope in her hand. It felt heavy and her heartbeat quickened unconsciously.

"Can I open it and take a look?" she asked cautiously.

Ma Zhiyuan waved his hand indifferently, "Look, it's all in the past."

Lu Ranran opened the envelope with trembling hands and carefully pulled out the fragile manuscript. The sunlight came in from the window, leaving a layer of yellow marks on the paper.

The first page was the title, the black ink had lost its luster.

"A Time to Live and Let Die"... not "A Small Town Story".

Lu Ranran's hand paused, and she turned her head to look at Shen Xiling.

Shen Xiling blinked soothingly, signaling her not to be nervous.

Taking advantage of this gap, Ma Zhiyuan casually asked:

"Why did Wenshu think of asking you to come to me?"

Shen Xiling briefly recounted what had happened, and when he mentioned Cai Wenshu, his words were more tactful.

"We heard from grandma that you worked as an editor at Weekly Film Review for a long time."

"That's why I took the initiative to ask for your address."

In other words, there was no statement that Cai Wenshu "asked" them to come.

After hearing this, Ma Zhiyuan just nodded, muttering "very good" and "this is how it should be".

After a while, he stood up and walked towards the yard.

"Take your time to look at it. I'm going to go look at my flowers."

After Ma Zhiyuan left, Lu Ranran nodded to Shen Xiling excitedly.

"Although, although the name is different, but..."

Lu Ranran handed one of the pages to Shen Xiling and pointed heavily at a certain sentence with trembling fingers.

“Here, the line Ella said appears.”

“It’s exactly like in the movies.”

"We, we finally——"

Shen Xiling held Lu Ranran's hand to calm her down, and at the same time picked up the envelope with his other hand and carefully looked at the postmark date on the stamp.

"How is it?" Lu Ranran's voice was a little difficult.

Shen Xiling put down the envelope and looked into Lu Ranran's eyes with a serious expression.

The date on the postmark was not earlier than Chu Yue's earliest date. In other words, this manuscript not only could not prove that Chu Yue had plagiarized, but it proved that An Ning had plagiarized Chu Yue!

Lu Ranran sat dejectedly on the sofa, frustration and loss sweeping over her like a tsunami. Facing the huge waves dozens of meters high, she seemed so small and helpless.

At this time, Ma Zhiyuan pushed the door and walked in, his originally clean fingers were covered with a lot of dirt.

He was not surprised when he saw Lu Ranran's expression.

"Actually," Ma Zhiyuan cleaned the dirt off his hands, slowly sat back on the sofa, picked up the enamel teacup and took a sip, "I went to see it as soon as "A Small Town Story" was released."

"When I saw that An Ning was not listed as the screenwriter, I roughly knew what was going on."

"Then why did you--" Lu Ranran couldn't help but blurt out, but fortunately Shen Xiling pinched her hand and stopped her in time.

There was no major fluctuation in Ma Zhiyuan's expression.

He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, lowered his head and wiped the lenses with the corner of his clothes.

"An Ning sent me the manuscript and asked me to give her some advice. I am very grateful."

As he spoke, he put his glasses back on and tilted his head to look at the teacup.

"I was just a small editor, my influence was insignificant, and A Small Town Story was a hot film at the film festival at that time."

"An Ning has already passed away."

"It's no use saying anything more."

"Perhaps you will think that I did something wrong. But at my age, right and wrong are no longer important."

After saying so much, he seemed a little tired.

"If you want to take this letter, just take it." After saying this, Ma Zhiyuan stared blankly out the window, like a statue. Only the teacup that he had forgotten to cover was still emitting curls of hot steam.

Lu Ranran carefully put the manuscript back into the envelope and was about to leave.

At this time, Shen Xiling, who was always calm, suddenly said:

"Grandpa Ma, I hope you don't feel offended by me. I'm asking this question on behalf of my grandma."

Ma Zhiyuan's mottled fingers trembled slightly.

"Grandma wrote you many letters from abroad... I presume that you would have kept every letter carefully."

"Did you get your grandmother's letter?"

Ma Zhiyuan did not answer.

Lu Ranran pulled Shen Xiling's sleeve, signaling him to stop talking.

But Shen Xiling continued:

“If you received it, why didn’t you respond?”

"My grandmother met my grandfather after she returned to China."

In other words, if Ma Zhiyuan had not cut off contact with Cai Wenshu, Shen Xiling might not trust Shen now...

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Ma Zhiyuan just smiled contemptuously.

"What do you know, young man?"

As he spoke, he gently pulled up his trouser legs, revealing the stainless steel prosthetic limbs, his tone indifferent.

"Why didn't I go back? Because I gave up mine, understand?"

"She deserves a better life. Why should she suffer with an old man like me who has no legs?"

"Besides," he turned his gaze to Lu Ranran, "what happened is over. No matter how hard you try, you can't start all over again."

Lu Ranran shook his head and smiled:

"Grandpa Ma, you misunderstood. I'm not looking to start over, nor am I looking to restore my deceased mother's reputation."

"What I want is justice."

"Authors should have the right to be named when they create their own works, and this will not change because the author is dead."

"Even love...will not change because of the death or accident of one party."

Ma Zhiyuan tightened his hands around his trouser legs, but finally slowly loosened them.

He kept looking out the window until Lu Ranran and Shen Xiling left.

On the way back, Lu Ranran asked curiously:

"Did grandma ask you to ask Grandpa Ma?"

Shen Xiling shook his head.

Lu Ranran looked at him in surprise, "Then how dare you ask?"

The subtext is that you are not afraid that your grandmother will find out that you are making up stories about her in private and get beaten again.

While waiting for the red light, Shen Xiling smiled and winked at Lu Ranran.

"If you don't tell me and I don't tell you, how will grandma know?"

"Seriously!"

The red light passed and the car started moving slowly.

"You haven't noticed the flowers planted in the Shen Mansion?"

Lu Ranran shook her head.

Every time she went to the Shen Mansion, something important happened, which made Lu Ranran feel like she was facing a great enemy. She had no time to take a closer look at the flowers in the yard.

"It's peony, grandma's favorite flower."

"'A man and a woman, they joked with each other, and gave each other a spoon of medicine.' We traveled together, talked together, and joked together. I give this peony to you, hoping that you will not forget me."

"I took a quick look and saw that all the flowers planted in Grandpa Ma's yard were peonies."

"Ran Ran, don't worry," Shen Xiling's voice carried a soothing power, "We will definitely find other evidence."