After Her Death, They Begged for Forgiveness - Chapter 7

“Your computer has been under remote surveillance for 1 year, 7 months, and 21 days.”

Xu Bingqi stared at the brief message sent by the other party, yet her heart remained surprisingly calm.

Xu Qingci’s candid admission about the location tracking had gradually clarified the vague suspicions in Xu Bingqi’s mind.

What if she was being monitored for more than just her location?

After moving all her personal belongings from her room to a storage facility, Xu Bingqi quickly handed her computer over to a professional cybersecurity expert for inspection.

During this time, she even worried that entrusting it to a local IT support engineer might involve insider risks after all, she knew all too well the extent of Xu Qingci’s influence. In comparison, it seemed safer to courier the computer to a technical analyst in a neighboring city and leave contact information.

In the early hours of the morning, she finally received the analysis results from the cybersecurity professional.

This was the outcome she had mentally prepared for countless times.

It was the most logical explanation for all the disgraceful endings in her past life.

In her previous life, she had never managed to shake off the stigma of plagiarism, even until her death.

Even when diagnosed with a malignant tumor, Xu Bingqi was still pondering why, despite every melody being her original creation, the evidence accusing her of plagiarism and hiring ghostwriters was irrefutable.

At the time, her head throbbed with pain, her consciousness already blurred, yet she could still sense the inconsistencies in the situation.

For instance, news headlines were all along the lines of “Unknown Composer Acts as Xu Bingqi’s Ghostwriter” or “Heiress of the Xu Family Plagiarizes Obscure Composer.”

Countless pieces of evidence revolved around timelines certain melodies and tunes had been released by obscure composers weeks or even days before Xu Bingqi, with compositions strikingly similar to hers, albeit sounding rough and unrefined, as if they hadn’t been polished.

Thus, everyone concluded that Xu Bingqi had secretly sought out obscure melodies, subtly adapted them, and claimed them as her own.

Moreover, such incidents were hardly uncommon. Xu Bingqi’s reputation had already been tarnished, and everyone knew she was jealous of her younger sister’s exceptional talent, making such actions seem almost inevitable.

But after listening repeatedly to the so-called obscure composers’ works, Xu Bingqi found them strangely familiar, reminiscent of the initial drafts she had composed in moments of inspiration.

Xu Bingqi had already been expelled from the Xu family by Xu Qingci, who had blocked all her contact methods, leaving her with no way to return to her room in the Xu family villa to retrieve her computer and the discarded drafts of her compositions.

She also had no direct means of contacting Xu Qingci.

So, Xu Bingqi had no choice but to call Jiang Ruo.

The only thing she felt grateful for was that Jiang Ruo hadn’t blocked her. Soon, she heard Jiang Ruo’s gentle, spring-like voice through the phone’s speaker: “Sister, is there something you need?”

At that moment, Xu Bingqi was nearly moved to tears.

At her lowest point, Jiang Ruo was the only one who didn’t kick her while she was down.

After expressing her request, Xu Bingqi anxiously awaited Jiang Ruo’s response.

But all she heard was Jiang Ruo’s regretful voice: “I’m so sorry, sister, but Mother doesn’t want to hear anything related to you.”

Xu Bingqi fell silent for a moment, politely thanked her, and then heard Jiang Ruo sigh with emotion: “Sister, Mother has already thrown away all your things. She said they were too much of an eyesore.”

Xu Bingqi hung up the phone, utterly disheartened.

From then on, her illness worsened, and she could only bear the stigma of plagiarism, quietly awaiting death.

Recalling the past, Xu Bingqi smiled sarcastically.

The incident had been chewed over and fermented repeatedly in her heart. After the sour bitterness of emotion peaked, it eventually settled back into quiet solitude. Thus, when she thought of it now, she no longer felt intense heartache.

Xu Bingqi replied calmly: 【Is it convenient to copy all the evidence and send it to my email now?】

She then included her email address.

【OK】

Seeing the reply, Xu Bingqi breathed a sigh of relief.

All the painful experiences had taught her one thing: to avoid complications, everything must be done as quickly as possible.

Fifteen minutes later, Xu Bingqi received the attachment sent by the other party.

Though it was already late at night, her eyes shone brightly as she stared at her phone screen.

After confirming that the computer in the attachment was indeed hers and that the evidence was sufficient, Xu Bingqi quickly downloaded the files to her phone and transferred them to a backup account.

Only after completing all this did her furrowed brows finally relax.

【This kind of remote monitoring software is installed very discreetly, but it must be installed manually on the computer during the initial setup.】

Xu Bingqi froze for a moment, then understood the hidden meaning in the message and replied: 【I don’t know who installed it either.】

She truly had no way of guessing who that person might be.

She often cleaned her computer and had replaced her mouse countless times, making it impossible to extract any fingerprints.

Until the truth came to light, Xu Bingqi didn’t want to suspect anyone without evidence.

And at this point, she had no interest in expending the immense effort required to uncover the truth.

Xu Bingqi knew that in her previous life, when she was falsely accused of plagiarizing an obscure composition, someone she was very familiar with someone she spent day in and day out with had been smugly admiring their carefully laid trap.

That person knew better than anyone how unjustly accused Xu Bingqi had been.

Xu Bingqi was well aware that after she abandoned her old computer, the other party would inevitably be unable to resist falsely accusing her of plagiarism ahead of schedule.

When that time came, that person would reveal themselves.

Xu Bingqi set down her phone. She still had one more piece to deliver, a promotional theme for a game character. For her, composing it wasn’t particularly difficult.

She had already written both pieces long ago, but after her rebirth, she had been too busy to upload them.

Xu Bingqi opened her digital audio composition software and listened to the two melodies she had composed.

Hearing them again after her rebirth, aside from the overwhelming sense of familiarity, she easily detected the flaws in both compositions.

They were technically proficient but emotionally lacking.

In her previous life, she had been too eager for recognition. Even for an ordinary promotional theme, she would polish it repeatedly, striving for flawless harmony and melody like an over-polished gemstone that had lost its most raw and moving brilliance.

Xu Bingqi revisited the character’s introduction.

The promotional character was a fox spirit sister who appeared gentle and cunning but was actually curious and inquisitive about everything in the world, at times even frighteningly naive.

The character inherently carried a strong sense of contrast.

Staring at the character description, Xu Bingqi’s thoughts drifted inappropriately. She thought of Song Guanjin, who liked wearing cat-ear accessories.

Outwardly aloof, but inwardly innocent and simple.

Though that was largely due to her lack of understanding of society, giving her a kind of beauty untainted by knowledge.

Thinking of Song Guanjin, an indescribable inspiration flooded her mind like a tide, making the composition flow so smoothly that even Xu Bingqi herself found it unbelievable.

Only after completing the character promotion song did Xu Bingqi realize that the sky had quietly changed. The gentle morning light streaming through the window softly illuminated her hotel room.

Since she had deactivated her previous account, Xu Bingqi casually registered a new email address and sent the completed character promotion song to the game promotion team.

She briefly explained the situation to the game promotion team and then closed her laptop, whose battery was nearly depleted.

She had done her utmost to complete the final melody written under the identity of the former Xu Bingqi.

Rubbing the corners of her eyes, a few slender eyelashes fell off. Then, she let out a soft yawn, feeling exhaustion wash over her entire body.

Xu Bingqi’s eyelashes drooped gently, and the melody in her mind grew increasingly hazy, with all the notes drifting at the edge of her dreams.

Without even checking the time on her phone, she lay on the bed and unconsciously closed her eyes.

A piercing ringtone shattered the tranquility.

Song Guanjin’s eyelids fluttered slightly, and her brows unconsciously furrowed.

A moment later, Song Guanjin woke up. Instinctively, she pressed the phone screen, only to realize something was amiss when she remembered she had extended a cat’s paw.

Her soft paw pad tapped the phone screen a few times before slowly transforming into slender, delicate fingers that pressed the “end call” button.

Reassured, Song Guanjin closed her eyes again, only to snap them open moments later.

That phone number just now…

It was her agent’s!!!

Song Guanjin immediately sprang up from the bed and stood up swiftly.

By now, she was fully awake.

She recalled her agent’s reminder from the night before: today, she had to join the script reading session for the drama.

After a hurried wash, Song Guanjin opened the door and rushed out, only to bump directly into her waiting agent.

“I didn’t actually expect to get you up.”

It dawned on Song Guanjin belatedly that she had set an alarm the night before, albeit clumsily, but it seemed the alarm hadn’t gone off.

Excluding the possibility that she had set the wrong time for the alarm, the only remaining explanation was…

Had she woken up too early?

Song Guanjin checked her phone, and the time, 6:02 glared back at her, stinging her eyes.

Without meeting her gaze, the agent urged hastily, “Arriving an hour early might earn you some positive press about your professionalism if the drama becomes a hit. Who knows, it might even give your career a little boost…”

That sounded quite reasonable.

Besides, if she became famous, the chances of running into Xu Bingqi would significantly increase, especially since Xu Bingqi occasionally composed OSTs for TV dramas.

So, the agent was pleased to see Song Guanjin obediently head to the makeup room without a single complaint.

Though not highly educated, she was more dedicated than most artists the agent had worked with.

Song Guanjin waited quietly in the makeup room. Just as she was suppressing the instinct to knock the makeup brushes onto the floor, she suddenly heard a gentle voice.

“Hello, everyone.”

It sounded familiar.

“You’ve all come so early, thank you for your hard work. I brought coffee for everyone.”

Song Guanjin completely withdrew her hand, which had been hovering near the makeup brushes, and turned to see a familiar, smiling face.

The gentle voice felt like a warm spring breeze to Song Guanjin’s ears.

She remembered this was the person she had met at the hospital entrance last time.

So, Song Guanjin also offered a polite smile: “Hello.”

Support After Her Death, They Begged for Forgiveness