Chen Jie had already got a backup copy of his paper. He bent over to pick up the clothes on the floor and looked at He Bai, “You have already seen the attitude of the instructor and the university faculty. If we refuse to agree to settle it out of court, maybe the instructor would have problems with us.”
Wang Hu felt so wronged, “But we are the victims.”
“I can fight them and I don’t care if I can’t get the degree. But you guys…” Niu Junjie scratched his hair as he felt a little bit grumpy, “Lao Er is planning to go for the master degree in our university, which is…”
He Bai didn’t feel good either. The reason why their instructor suggested them to settle it out of court was that they didn’t have any real loss and Huang Wei had already admitted his fault with a nice attitude, despite he twisted the truth by describing the theft as a prank. Now they were forced by the instructor to settle it out of court with a stupid reason like maintaining the reputation of the university. It felt like they were so mean and didn’t love their university if they refused to cooperate, and they would definitely swallow the pain.
“Let’s sleep first.” He recalled what Di Qiuhe had said and comforted them. Then he asked them to clean up the dorm together and cheered them up to shift their attention.
Next early morning, Wang Hu got a phone call from the instructor and was told that things had been changed.
The student who was caught by that snap went to the police office by himself and he brought a lawyer who insisted that he knew nothing about Huang Wei’s theft. The lawyer also said that although he lent the car to Huang Wei, he barely knew him and had just met him. Huang Wei had said that he got a second-hand laptop to show him and wanted to borrow his car for some business. He happened to be free, so he went along to check it out. Later he felt bored so he got out of the car halfway and went back home.
At the same time, Huang Wei changed his statement and said exactly the same as that student. He also said that he already knew he did wrong and he would compensate He Bai and the others for what they had lost, as he wished they could forgive him being impulsive. He was sniveling so sincere with his tears. Anyway, the instructor was here to persuade them. Since Huangdu and the Qin family had wielded the university both pressure and benefit, the instructor promised that if they agreed to settle this off court, the university would compensate them something.
“Our four laptops are worth quite a few thousand in total, not to mention the added value of those photos on Bai’s laptop and the paper on Lao Er’s. How dare they wish to settle this off court? How is that possible?” Niu Junjie was so mad that he smashed the table. He didn’t want to take it. Except for that drama started by Liu Huanhuan, he had never suffered from anything like this in his entire life.
He Bai was disgusted as well. How could they be so shameless to confuse right and wrong? Unless there was someone who insisted on settling this in the court, they would definitely swallow all of the pain.
As he was thinking, Niu Junjie got a phone call from his father. His father boldly said that since they had brought a lawyer, then they would bring one as well! And he said someone hired a lawyer for He Bai as well. Two lawyers together, we could fight them!
He Bai was so shocked, he had got a lawyer as well, who?
Before he went back to his mind, Chen Jie got a phone call too. They said they were from an association and the paper he sent to them was of great research value. Since they had heard that the original copy was lost, they felt very sorry and they would like to demand justice for him.
Chen Jie threw a glimpse at the USB he used to copy his paper and hid it right into the deepest corner of his drawer. He sighed and said he was so sad that his paper was lost.
Everyone was like, “…”
After his sighing, the police called again, saying that the case couldn’t be settled off court because the amount of money involved was too much so it could not be handled that way.
Niu Junjie already started to smile and he asked, “How come the money was too much?”
“The photos in your roommate He Bai’s laptop were all damaged and his lawyer calculated them with the market price of He Bai’s work and it turned out to be a quite big number. Plus the value of the laptop, so the total amount of money was too much and the leader demanded us to deal it seriously.” The police explained and promised that they would handle this case seriously then hung up the phone.
Niu Junjie couldn’t help laughing so hard and struck the table, “He deserves it, hahah! Bai, you charge by hours for your shooting, so the photos can’t be cheap. And you’ve got such a large number of pictures on your laptop! Hahaha!”
Wang Hu took out his phone immediately to call the instructor and told him what the police had just said. He then said it was not that they didn’t want to settle it off court, but the police refused to do so. All of them were good students but if the police said no, then they couldn’t help.
The instructor was shocked and told the university faculty immediately.
While they were cheering, Xu Yinrong called He Bai and told him that the picture he sent to the exhibition was sold for more than 600, 000. The buyer was a shareholder of Huading, Ke Shi, who extremely appreciated his inspiration showed in his picture and was willing to buy his whole collection of scenery pictures.
He Bai, “???” Exhibition? When did he send any pictures to any exhibition? And Huading? Produce and market all by himself?
“It was the exhibition held by my old friend. I sent the work all of you three, 2 pictures for each of you.” Xu Yinrong said in a slow pace as if he had told him about it before, “It’s like a charity exhibition and all of the proceeds from the auction will donate a part to the Hope Project. Yours and the work from Lao Da were all auctioned and Lao Er was lame, he only sold one.”
He Bai, “…which two of my pictures did you send them?”
“The two I asked you once, you said I can use whatever I want, the forest night view and city illusion. You need to make money with your portrait so I didn’t use them.” Xu Yinrong explained and sighed, “You can make money with the portrait, but the scenery pictures are art. Your ability to shoot scenery pictures has been buried while learning with me for the portrait, I can’t let that happen.”
Well, you let that happen before…
He Bai tried to not complain and comforted him as well.
“Oh, by the way, I’ve heard that your laptop was stolen, and many pictures were lost?” Xu Yingrong seemed to have recalled that all of a sudden and sighed, “That shareholder from Huading also wanted to buy the other pictures from the same collection. But now the pictures were stolen, how are we going to deal with that? And I’ve heard that the lawyer Di Qiuhe hired for you is calculating the value of those stolen pictures, then the auction price must be added to it. Mr. Ke has paid the whole deposit.”
“…”
After the whole lecture, this was what he wanted to say.
Hanging up the phone, He Bai felt it a little bit funny and silly at the same time. His lips were twitching and his eyes were full of happiness. The feeling of being fully cared for by your close ones was…just super good! It felt so good!