Hiring a lawyer like Zheng Zhihe to fight a lawsuit was truly impressive!
Zheng, quick and experienced, didn’t need multiple court trips to supplement evidence. The case was successfully filed, and by late July, the court summons was delivered to Aige’s editorial department.
Han Qin was late, but Zou Weijun wasn’t angry.
Han Qin ignored Zou Weijun’s calls and refused to communicate, but Zou Weijun wasn’t angry.
Han Qin thought Zou Weijun was soft and spineless.
She mistook Zou Weijun’s refinement for weakness, never expecting her to be so resolute as to sue Aige directly.
The demand was for the magazine to apologize and restore the reputation of the new author “Against the Current Fish”!
How could the court accept the case?
The termination statement published in Aige, though vague in its keywords, wasn’t wrong.
The magazine’s editors failed to obtain the subsequent manuscript of Teen Idol from Against the Current Fish, who then signed with Rongcheng Publishing Group. These were facts!
The court summons hit the editorial department, and for Han Qin, it wasn’t very damaging but highly insulting, especially after being called in for questioning by the chief editor. Her face was clouded with gloom.
Han Qin managed to smooth things over with her boss, claiming Rongcheng Publishing Group was stirring trouble.
“Teen Idol’s hype is so big now, and it started in Rongcheng. I only wanted to terminate the contract with Against the Current Fish. Why would I go out of my way to promote her?”
Teen Idol had the highest buzz in Rongcheng.
Rongcheng’s print media influence covered the entire Sichuan Province, even reaching neighboring Chongqing.
Han Qin wasn’t kind enough to promote Teen Idol. Those negative reviews weren’t her doing.
Of course, she had planned to do so after Teen Idol officially hit the market. Han Qin had bet that once the termination statement was published, Rongcheng Publishing Group might abandon the Teen Idol project.
After all, for a new author whose reputation was tarnished before their book even launched, why would Rongcheng Publishing Group take the risk?
More importantly, with Aige terminating the contract, Teen Idol’s early momentum would stall. Rongcheng Publishing Group didn’t have a notable youth literature magazine to sustain it. The readership belonged to Aige, and without continued serialization, Teen Idol would become a stagnant pool.
No matter how good a book is, without follow-ups or discussion, its buzz fades.
As for Against the Current Fish, with the Aව
System: Aige contract terminated, and publishing plans scrapped, any future submissions would be scrutinized for her “record” by industry magazines.
She could submit under a new pen name.
But if she didn’t make it big, fine. If she did, her real identity wouldn’t stay hidden in the industry, and Han Qin would have other plans.
Han Qin had thought it through.
If the editor handling Teen Idol’s publication wasn’t Zou Weijun, her plan might have succeeded.
After all, a new author with unclear market value wasn’t worth a publishing group’s effort to defend.
But Han Qin had crossed Zou Weijun.
Zou Weijun’s gentleness came from her upbringing, but her persistence and tenacity were equally shaped by it.
This personality was a double-edged sword, causing her great pain after her husband’s betrayal, even leading to depression.
But when applied to her career, that persistence and tenacity became a driving force!
Without that tenacity, Zou Weijun wouldn’t have refused to apologize for the boundaries of Shh, Little Secret.
Without that tenacity, she wouldn’t have reported Song Foxiang for sexual harassment.
Even if Zou Weijun didn’t know Wen Ying or wasn’t Xie Qian’s friend, as long as she signed Wen Ying’s book and it had no fundamental issues like plagiarism, Zou Weijun would fight to the end for Wen Ying’s reputation!
Han Qin underestimated Zou Weijun, which led to the magazine receiving the summons.
The chief editor’s questioning stirred Han Qin’s accumulated frustrations: “Rongcheng Publishing Group is shameless, using this to make a fuss. Someone’s despicable, piggybacking on our magazine’s hype. First, they spread negative reviews, then hired people to post positive ones, making readers who never heard of Teen Idol aware of it. Now they’re suing our magazine, probably to keep the hype going through the lawsuit. Doesn’t this pattern feel familiar?”
It did feel familiar.
This year’s bestseller Shh, Little Secret rose to fame this way.
It started with a shocking tagline to grab attention, clearly intentional. Previous educational books were low-key and honest, but Shh, Little Secret took a bold approach.
For other educational books, fine, but for adolescent health education, few publishers could stoop so low. Everyone had some dignity.
Yet dignified honest folks got no reward, while the shameless Rongcheng Publishing Group produced the year’s hottest educational book, Shh, Little Secret.
Han Qin was right. If Rongcheng Publishing Group operated this way, having tasted success with Shh, Little Secret, they might be trying to replicate it with Teen Idol?
Rongcheng Publishing Group wasn’t the only one with print media clout.
As Rongcheng launched an aggressive attack, Aige wasn’t some parentless wild child. The magazine, under Shandong Publishing Group, wasn’t a pushover either.
The chief editor frowned at the summons and told Han Qin to handle it herself.
“Be cautious with your words from now on. Don’t give anyone leverage. Deal with this matter going forward.”
A mere court summons wouldn’t scare the magazine.
Both were major players. If Rongcheng could hire lawyers, couldn’t Aige?
The magazine couldn’t apologize to a new author right after receiving a summons. Contradicting themselves would erode their credibility with readers, a self-inflicted slap they couldn’t afford.
With her boss’s approval, Han Qin consulted a lawyer friend.
The lawyer thought it was a minor case.
“These cases are hard to fight. The magazine has the right to terminate contracts. The author’s suing you for damaging their reputation, but you can counter-sue for breach of contract. I recall your magazine has priority publishing rights for serialized novels, right? As long as you didn’t formally relinquish Teen Idol’s publishing rights, the author signing with Rongcheng’s publisher over you could be considered a breach.”
As the sued party, the best approach wasn’t to follow the opponent’s pace and prove innocence but to take the offensive and turn the tables.
Han Qin’s lawyer friend had a different style from Zheng Zhihe. Zheng’s aggression was subtle, while this friend’s was blatant.
It was a good plan, but Han Qin felt it played into Zou Weijun’s hands, letting her benefit from the hype.
As Han Qin hesitated, after the editorial department received the court summons, the police showed up.
