Filed to story: Sweetheart Do You Still Love Me
“Have you really thought it through?”
Lisa nodded and continued moving closer to him.Meanwhile, at the door, when Callum heard the two people had already progressed to this stage, he lowered his head to take a look at Elspeth, who was still unconscious in his arms. After a moment’s pause, he turned around and carried her back to the Winthrop Residence.As the voices at the doors faded away, Blake immediately let go of the girl in his arms, making her heated body wriggle. She was seemingly somewhat dissatisfied.”Enough, Lisa. I’ll take you to the hospital. If I do anything to you, Elspeth will definitely kill me tomorrow.”At first, he didn’t notice it but later, he realized that someone was standing at the door. He knew it was either Callum or Elspeth. No matter who it was, as long as they knew something happened between him and another girl, they would let down their guard on him, especially Elspeth. She shouldn’t be as wary of him anymore. This way, he could finally have a proper conversation with her because ever since he confessed his feelings to Elspeth, both Callum and Elspeth had been acting very awkward with him. What he wanted the most was to be friends with her.Blake then looked at the girl in front of him and took a deep breath. But I feel quite guilty for ruining her reputation.At the same time, Lisa seemed to have finally listened to him. Perhaps because she had been unsatisfied for a long time, she fainted right away with a flushed face.Seeing that, he sighed heavily and carried her to the hospital.The next day, Elspeth woke up and found herself in the Winthrop Residence. Theodore and Margot happened to be at home and when they saw Elspeth coming downstairs, they greeted her with smiles,
“Good morning, Elsie. You’re finally awake.”
Having gone through so much, they treated her as if she were their daughter. Especially Margot, who even seemed to be so biased toward Elspeth that she would scold Callum on Elspeth’s behalf.”Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop. Where’s Callum?”Hearing that, Margot chuckled as she covered her mouth and teased Elspeth.
“You just woke up and are already looking for Callum? It seems like you two really have a good relationship. Don’t worry, Elsie. He went to the office to handle some things. He should be back soon.”After a nod, Elspeth suddenly slapped herself on the forehead when she remembered that today was the day the drama would be released. While I was unconscious, Callum probably took the lead with Blake and Yelena. At this thought, she quickly got ready and rushed to Luminous.Since early morning, Timothy had already been at his computer, waiting for the premiere date and ratings which were crucial for the drama’s future promotion. Yelena skipped her training and waited with him in front of the computer as well.As soon as Elspeth entered the room, she looked around but didn’t see Blake, so she asked,
“Where’s Blake?”
He’s usually very particular about these things. How can he forget about this?Timothy shook his head.
“I don’t know. He hasn’t messaged me about taking a leave, so he probably overslept.”As long as nothing serious has happened to him. Elspeth didn’t dwell on it. She looked at the computer in front of her and felt a little nervous. This was the drama she had personally signed up for, but she hadn’t been very involved with it until now. Seeing the data on the screen, she couldn’t help but feel anxious.The drama premiered with the first three episodes at 9.00AM. Coincidentally, the large-scale historical drama, ‘Song of Viollenys’, also premiered with the first three episodes at the same time. It was obvious that they were copying them. However, Elspeth wasn’t too worried about that. Plagiarism? I’m not afraid of that! At 9.00AM, the unremarkable numbers on the screen began to skyrocket. Most people were drawn in by the fame of Yelena and Blake and were amazed by the strong chemistry between the two of them. The comments section exploded with discussion, with some marveling at the chemistry between the two and others praising the drama’s plot.Soon, the discussion evolved in a way they didn’t expect.I Love Potato wrote, ‘OMG, did anyone watch the third episode? I think I saw Elspeth and Callum in it! Is this for real?’Carrots with Soy Sauce typed, ‘The point is that their acting is so good! It’s my first time seeing them act, so I thought it would be awkward…”Kisskiss chimed in, ‘They’re so cool! Real couples are just so great to watch!’Your Girl is Here also added, ‘Don’t you guys think that Elspeth is even prettier than the female lead… Ah! The carrying of the female lead in her arms shows off her charisma!’Stone wrote, ‘Calm down, girl. You’re about to lose your mind over her!’…No one promoted that, but Elspeth and Callum’s acting skills had won everyone over. Seeing the comments gradually turn into a discussion about Callum and herself, Elspeth didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. At the same time, Yelena was also holding her stomach and laughing non-stop on the side.”Elspeth, they say that you’re practically the ideal person that girls these days want to marry. Congratulations! You’ve attracted a large number of female fans through this drama. I’ve never seen such a strange comments section before. Haha!”Elspeth held her forehead in her palm as she muttered,
“Although it’s not quite what I imagined, it’s not a problem.”As Yelena held Elspeth’s hand, she said with a serious face,
“The closer person gets the chance first. Even if someone is to marry you, I should be the one marrying you first.””Do you want to shoot more commercials, Yelena?”
Elspeth threatened with a sly smile.As soon as Yelena heard that, she immediately withered.
“I’m sorry! If you arrange more commercials for me, I’ll die right away and you’ll need to bring a big chicken drumstick to visit me at my gravestone every year during my death anniversary-“
She kept complaining, causing Elspeth to have a headache from listening. So, she covered Yelena’s mouth with her hand and made her continue reading the comments.Things were going so well but suddenly, a strange twist happened.The number of viewers for their drama dropped somehow. Elspeth carefully searched for the problem and found that all of their audience had gone to watch ‘Song of Viollenys’!”What’s going on?”
She frowned. Suddenly, Timothy, who was next to her, had an unpleasant expression and he said in a serious tone,
“Elspeth, take a look at the news.”Shock overtook her when she saw it. It was written in bold letters that the novel ‘The Moment I Met You’ on which the drama was based had been exposed for plagiarism! They even put this novel side by side with another novel and highlighted the parts that were plagiarized. In an instant, everyone was turning against ‘The Moment I Met You’, and the ratings were plummeting. Coupled with their fellow peers in the industry maliciously discrediting them, the ratings hit rock bottom.”What should we do, Elspeth? I remember reading this novel before, but no one pointed out the plagiarism.”With a nod, Elspeth replied,
“Don’t worry. I’ll see what’s going on.”
She checked the IP address of the article and sure enough, it was from the entertainment company where Emma was. Seeing that, she squinted her eyes while cruelness flashed in them. So, you’re still not being honest, huh? Well, if that’s the case, don’t blame me for retaliating!
Yelena was so anxious that she paced back and forth in the room. It was a highly anticipated drama even before its premiere, so she couldn’t accept if the drama had flopped just like that!
“Don’t worry. I have a solution!”
Elspeth spoke confidently.”A solution? Since things have come to this extent, if we can’t prove that the author didn’t plagiarize, we won’t be able to turn the tables.”Why would there be rumors about the novel being plagiarized? And even if it was plagiarized, why would it be exposed exactly at this time?”Yes, so don’t be too worried. Let’s see how things develop from here. The more it is discussed, the better it is for us.”
Elspeth wanted to see whether Emma could have the last laugh later on.”Elspeth, the post has been liked and shared more than 100 million times. If we don’t clarify this issue, both Luminous and the drama will be done for!”
Timothy, who had been monitoring the figures, was disheartened when he saw that most of the comments were nasty comments. However, Elspeth seemed calm and was typing away on the keyboard as if there was no one around her.”Elspeth, the server is now down! This is horrible! Luminous is being lambasted!”The main thing was that they lost half of their followers. Yelena’s 10 million followers had been reduced by half. Blake had taken a worse hit as he lost almost 30 million followers!’The drama and cast are awful! Get out of the entertainment industry!”Stop making dramas. It’s disgusting!”Still not coming out with a statement? Cowards!”I must have been blind to stan these people!’Soon, a wave of book fans came to defend the writer.’What do you mean plagiarize? Lucrece is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, so it can’t have been plagiarized.”A novel like this is unprecedented. I’ve never read something like that before. The novels that you claim are similar are written by yourself?”I’ve read Lucrece’s novel for almost five years. I’d know better if they are plagiarized. If you dare to chat offline and claim that it’s plagiarized, I’ll tear your mouths apart!’And it went on and on.”Elspeth!”
Yelena couldn’t take it anymore.
“I have an account too. Can you allow me to chat with them? They have lost their minds.”
Yelena thought that the netizens had overreacted even if they had selected a plagiarized novel by mistake.”Don’t worry. I’m almost done.”
Elspeth stretched and finished typing the last few words. After that, she logged into her account and posted the article that she had just typed. Everyone was on Elspeth’s page waiting for a statement as being Luminous’ person in charge, she had to come out to deal with the issue.’I’m sure that all of you are aware of the issue with Luminous’ script. Below is my clarification on the issue of…’The article had caused a buzz upon being posted. ‘Forget about everything else, but Elspeth is the author of the novel?”This article is written by Lucrece, who is the author of the novel and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.”They sought Elspeth’s help probably because they don’t dare to confront the famous author.”Whether or not the novel is plagiarized is the book fans’ issue. It has nothing to do with the entertainment industry.’Some people even posted some nasty comments which were refuted by the book fans. They never would have thought that the author of the novel, actor, and investor were the same person!An anti-fan commented, ‘So what if you are the author? Can you prove that you didn’t plagiarize?’ Following that, some netizens posted below the comments, ‘Blockhead, you should read the whole article before commenting ignorantly.’ The article clearly stated the publication date of all the suspected plagiarized novels. The information on their website could be validated too. Upon checking, they realized the publication dates of the novels were later than Elspeth’s, aka Lucrece’s, novel! With that, the anti-fans were so embarrassed that they stopped posting. The server which had almost collapsed finally went back to normal.Most of them had probably left to avoid embarrassment. At the same time, Yelena and Blake’s followers were increasing, becoming 10 million, 20 million, 50 million… Soon, the number of followers had returned to their initial figures and was 30% more than before!Yelena’s eyes lit up when she saw that.
“That’s great, Elspeth! And here I was wondering why you have been so calm throughout it. Turns up you have a great plan up your sleeve! It’s impressive that you managed to search for all the publication dates. They won’t be able to deny it now that we have the proof!””Of course, since this is just child’s play for a hacker. Emma sure is stupid.”
Elspeth ridiculed Emma.Meanwhile, Emma, who was about to sit back and watch the fiasco, suddenly sneezed.
“How strange. Why am I sneezing when the heater has been switched on?”
She rubbed her nose. After a long wait, she was finally going to read about the tragic state Elspeth and Luminous were in. However, she noticed that most of the nasty comments had disappeared. Some of them were deleted by the users themselves and some were done by Elspeth without anyone’s notice.”What happened?!”
The enraged Emma simply grabbed onto someone and asked about the situation.Seeing that Emma was furious, the person stuttered,
“E-Emma, you’ll find out after visiting Elspeth’s Twitter.”
Elspeth again! After reading the well-written article, Emma realized that it was impossible to accuse them of plagiarism! Before she could make sense of the situation, another piece of news was published.This time around, it was a video. In the video, the man and woman were making love to each other. The woman was blushing while lying on the bed as the man thrust into her. Their important parts and the man’s face were blurred out, but the woman’s face was in high definition. As soon as the video was published, it caused a stir on the Internet. The reason being the woman in the video was Emma Walker, the hottest star from Falcon Entertainment!’This is big news!”It’s crazy!’It was now Emma’s turn to be the talk of the town. Emma was stunned when she saw the video. A few seconds later, she screamed so loud that everyone in the whole company could hear it’Goodness, she looked so innocent, but she turned out to be a tramp!”So disgusting! I won’t be watching any of her dramas!'”It’s ‘Song of Viollenys’, right? She’s so disgusting that I won’t be watching it!’The viewership of ‘Song of Viollenys’ dropped by 50% upon the release of the video and its ratings were extremely low. At this rate, it might even be taken down shortly after its release!”Elspeth… It must be Elspeth!”
Emma took a breath and there was a glint of malevolence in her eyes. She swore that she wouldn’t let Elspeth off the hook.However, before Emma went to see the director, the president of the company had gone to see her first.
“Emma, it is apparent that you are now notorious. To cut our losses, the company has decided to keep you out of the public eye.”
It was extremely difficult to cultivate an excellent star, but they had no choice but to abandon Emma at this point.
Ever since that day, Emma never appeared in the public eye again. Her drama, ‘Song of Viollenys’ had been taken down due to poor viewership. Soon, the central television station announced that they would be taking down any works that were related to Emma due to her poor character. This also made the actors that had collaborated with Emma hate her. Elspeth, on the other hand, was named The Nation’s Idol because of her drama. Since the beginning, she was indifferent about joining showbiz but now, she became the hottest star. She was really lucky. Meanwhile, the director kept his word by sending the drama over and signing the contract. Elspeth had assigned this task to Timothy and he had full authority over this. He could even get the funds directly from the finance department if there was a shortage of funds.However, Elspeth was more puzzled about that day when Callum was secretly doing something by himself instead of for her drama. He had been somewhat mysterious the past few days. These days, she had been staying in the Winthrop Residence and hadn’t returned to her villa. Thus, she didn’t know what happened to Lisa.Elspeth’s call was answered after two rings.
“Hi, who is this?”Is that Blake? She was so startled that she almost dropped the phone.
“Blake, tell me the truth. Why do you have Lisa’s phone?”Elspeth had an ominous feeling that her dear Lisa had been taken by an unworthy man and yet, she didn’t know about it.”Erm… She’s in the hospital. I’m taking care of her…”
Blake’s voice quavered and he sounded guilty.”Hospital?!”
Elspeth’s head started spinning and she didn’t care about the relationship between them anymore.
“What happened? Send me the address now. I’ll be there real soon!”
Seeing that they couldn’t hide the incident from her anymore, Blake obediently sent her the address.When Elspeth arrived at the hospital, she saw Lisa lying on the bed with a long face and Blake was sitting next to her while skinning an apple.”Elspeth, you’re here!”Hearing that, Lisa tried to sit up as she called out,
“Elspeth…”Seeing that, Elspeth made her lay down again.”Alright, alright. Tell me why you’re at the hospital. Are you feeling unwell?”
Elspeth looked concerned, but Lisa was too embarrassed to speak.”I’m fine. I just got poisoned. I’m recovering well so I’ll be discharged tomorrow,”
she explained as she coughed.The next moment, Elspeth turned to look at Blake and said,
“Your turn.”Blake blinked his eyes and spoke the truth as he was startled by Elspeth’s cold tone.
“The other day when Lisa was poisoned, I happened to be looking for you, so I gave her a call and ended up saving her.”He couldn’t tell her what poison it was, or else Elspeth might misunderstand him and take him as a man who took advantage of others. He was worried that she might start ignoring him.”What poison?”
Elspeth insisted on knowing the truth. Hearing that, Lisa blushed and didn’t dare to speak when she looked at Elspeth.”Speak.”Seeing that Lisa was placed in a tough position, Blake had no choice but to reveal the truth.
“She had taken a love potion mixed with poison.”Elspeth’s head went blank upon hearing that. She realized that this was the reason why Blake had gone missing and that she wasn’t able to contact Lisa.
“The both of you…”
“Nothing happened between us! Don’t even think about it!”
Blake quickly explained.”Elspeth, it’s true. He sent me to the hospital that night and nothing happened between us.”
There was a hint of embarrassment in Lisa’s gaze.”Alright, then.”
Elspeth heaved a sigh of relief. She knew how Blake felt about her, so if he did sleep with Lisa, she would feel bad for the other woman.”Since you’re fine, I’ll look for Callum and discuss something with him. Rest well.”
Just as Elspeth was about to leave, Blake called out to her.
“Elspeth, is it about your engagement?””How did you know?”
She was surprised.”Of course, I know about it!”
Blake smiled bitterly before continuing,
“The whole Winthrop Family knew about it since Callum announced it.”Announced… He sure is a big show-off! Elspeth laughed resignedly and prepared to settle accounts with Callum later on.”Hey, do you like Elspeth?”
Lisa asked the dispirited Blake after Elspeth left.”Hahaha! Is it that obvious? Even you can tell.”Lisa bit her lip and probed,
“Was the reason you… didn’t do it with me because you like Elspeth?”Blake was surprised to hear that and he gazed at her, but she looked away.
“No, I felt like I shouldn’t taint your reputation.”Since he was a man of integrity, he wouldn’t have taken advantage of her.”If you like her, then why don’t you fight for her?””I won’t be able to win her heart.”
Blake sighed.
“She doesn’t like me. Moreover, Callum is more outstanding, so it’s right for her to like him.””Who says so? I think you’re nice.”Lisa’s words made him smile. Since Blake was a handsome man, he looked even more attractive when he smiled and Lisa, who never wanted anything for herself, was mesmerized by his smile.”Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Do you eat peaches? I’ll slice them up for you…”…Before long, Elspeth had arrived at the Winthrop Group’s CEO’s office. Callum was going through some documents. When he noticed her, he passed her the papers before she could say anything.
“You came at the right time. Go through these documents. Is there something wrong with it?”Elspeth suppressed her anger and read through the wordy documents which gave her a headache.
