E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World-Chapter 44 - Episode 44 Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism 6

“Yinyin, there’s a complaint number in the magazine…” Yao Shanshan timely relayed this information to Zhou Xueyin.

“Oh? They’ve actually got the guts to put up a complaint number!” Zhou Xueyin picked up the magazine and immediately dialed the number without a second thought.

“I’m sorry, the line you are trying to reach is busy…”

“Er… call again!” Could it really be such a coincidence that someone else was calling them at the same time?

She tried all the phone numbers listed in the magazine, but they were all busy.

“How about we wait a bit? Maybe they’re out for lunch and just left the handset off the hook?” Li Jiniang guessed.

“Fine, I haven’t done anything all morning except dealing with those rabid dogs. If this goes on, sooner or later we’ll end up like that beauty forum owner… If we can’t handle it, we just hide…” Zhou Xueyin said, deflated.

Such valuable time, when we should be using our clear minds to write content and post on the forums! Instead, all our time is wasted on deleting posts, silencing users, banning IPs, and clearing our names on other forums.

If things continue this way, the forum will eventually be brought down by them.

After a simple lunch, Zhou Xueyin started her second round of phone calls.

“Hello? Hi, this is Fashion Xinrui magazine, may I know who you’re looking for?” This time, the complaint hotline connected immediately.

“Hello? Hey! Hi! It’s like this, several pieces published in your September issue were originally posted on our forum… eh? Hello? Hello?” Zhou Xueyin hadn’t even finished speaking, and a busy tone started sounding from the other end.

“What the fuck! What kind of trashy magazine is this? They just hang up on me the moment they hear what I have to say?” Zhou Xueyin said, holding her phone, at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

“Hello? Sorry for the switch, but you can speak directly to me now.” A rather brusque male voice picked up the phone from where the previous conversation had left off.

“Oh, I’m saying that some of the content in your September issue is from our forum…,” Zhou Xueyin replied, no longer feeling obligated to be overly polite after hearing the impolite tone of the other party.

“Huh? Your forum? What forum are you talking about?” the other person asked arrogantly.

“51buy. The series about this autumn’s fashion guide in your magazine, it’s all from our forum. Also, the beauty section’s round-up of the best autumn eye makeup, that’s our content too!” Zhou Xueyin listed the content they had plagiarized from them.

“Evidence? What evidence do you have that the content you posted is originally created by you? We found it on the internet too. What makes you think you were the first one to post it?” The other party asked unreasonably.

“Hey, you guy, with the nose on your face…” Zhou Xueyin was about to start cursing when her phone was taken away by Li Jiniang.

“This is not the time to argue over the phone! I’ll handle it…” She covered the mouthpiece and whispered to Zhou Xueyin, “Hello, someone else will be taking over.”

“Oh…” The tone of that “Oh” seemed to carry all the disdain in the world from the other end of the line.

“You can check the publication date of our content. If you don’t believe it, just search the title in Baidu, and you will see who posted the content first. I believe you, with your extensive knowledge of the internet, surely are familiar with Baidu’s search rules, right?” Li Jiniang said politely, but one could feel the questioning force in her words.

“I… don’t know about any rules or whatever. I just searched casually, found some suitable content, and used it for reference…” Sure enough, the person on the other end had assumed they were dealing with an ignorant girl and was completely taken aback when they were pressed for an answer.

“So… you’re admitting that your magazine plagiarized content from our forum?” Li Jiniang cleverly turned on the computer’s recorder and hit the speakerphone button on her phone.

“Young lady, let’s get this straight. Our magazine is so well-established and prestigious, why would we need to plagiarize your content?” The other party was still stubborn, refusing to admit to plagiarism.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

“Oh, you don’t need to plagiarize our content, is that right? Then, could you explain why there’s content identical to ours appearing in your publication?” Li Jiniang pressed on.

“…” The other party seemed to be searching for a way to answer her question and fell silent.

Zhou Xueyin gave Li Jiniang a thumbs up, mouthing the words: Well done!

Li Jiniang also winked at Zhou Xueyin, indicating it was all on her now: “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Hold on, let me check on that…” The tone of the person on the other line became agitated.

However, before anyone could receive an update on the situation, the man hung up the phone, leaving them with a busy signal upon redialing.

“Psh, gutsy enough to steal, but not brave enough to admit it! What a piece of trash! A fine magazine, ruined like this… what a shame…” Zhou Xueyin said contemptuously, shaking the magazine in her hand before tossing it aside.

The three kittens, mistaking it for a toy, pounced on the magazine and started rolling around. In no time, they had torn the poorly made publication to shreds.

“Seriously, is the magazine quality that bad? Walnut and the others just ripped it apart so easily?” Zhou Xueyin remarked disdainfully, “Compared to the August issue, their September issue has really gone downhill in every sense…”