Rebirth: Illuminating a Brilliant Life

Chapter 165 Contract Mystery: Crisis and Hidden Worries

Su Xuan's contract with the online novel website is about to expire. The website has always highly regarded the quality of her works; her novels, with their captivating plots and nuanced character portrayals, have garnered a large following and enjoy considerable popularity on the site, attracting significant traffic and making her one of the website's top authors. Therefore, despite the intense competition in the current online literature market, the website hopes to renew Su Xuan's contract and continue their collaboration.

However, since Su Xuan started working, her energy has been greatly diverted, making it difficult for her to devote herself to her creative work as wholeheartedly as before.

Previously, she maintained a high creative frequency, constantly releasing new works, but now she rarely starts new posts. This slower update speed has resulted in a decrease in new traffic and revenue for the website.

Given this situation, the website proposed lowering the signing fee in the renewal terms, hoping to maintain the cooperation while ensuring a balance of its own commercial interests.

After receiving the renewal terms proposed by the website, Su Xuan was caught in a deep dilemma.

On the one hand, she has a deep affection for this novel website, which is where her dreams took flight. Her works received initial recognition and support here, and the comments and encouragement from those enthusiastic readers are still vivid in her mind.

Moreover, continuing to create on familiar platforms can save a lot of energy from adapting to new environments.

On the other hand, the demand to lower the signing fee left her feeling uneasy. She knew that her creative energy had diminished since she started working, but she still meticulously crafted each piece, and the quality had not declined.

The creative process is inherently arduous; from conceiving the plot and shaping the characters to repeated revisions and improvements, every step requires a great deal of effort. Lowering the signing fee made her feel that her hard work was not being respected or rewarded.

The renewal contract submitted by the website appears ordinary on the surface, but it actually contains hidden traps. The carefully designed loopholes are concealed within the complex clauses, which are interconnected and can be easily overlooked if one is not careful.

These loopholes mostly involve core rights such as royalty distribution, copyright ownership, and adaptation rights. Once Su Xuan signs, she may be put in a passive position in future collaborations, and her own rights may be infringed.

Taking royalty distribution as an example, the contract made vague provisions on how to calculate royalties for sales through different channels, which left room for the website to lower royalties in the future. Regarding copyright ownership, some clauses intended to quietly transfer part of the copyright of Su Xuan's works to the website, which greatly weakened Su Xuan's control over her works.

Upon receiving the contract, Su Xuan felt utterly distressed. She repeatedly reviewed it, the densely packed clauses overwhelming her. Although she vaguely sensed something was amiss, she couldn't pinpoint the exact problem with her limited abilities.

These obscure legal terms and complex clause logics, like layers of fog, trapped her, leaving her feeling utterly lost and helpless.

Overwhelmed with worries and nowhere to vent, Su Xuan confided in her friend Meng Jiawei. She told Meng Jiawei about the contract in detail with a wry smile, her words filled with helplessness and confusion.

"I really don't know what to do. This contract feels weird, but I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with it." Su Xuan frowned, her eyes revealing anxiety. "If I sign it without thinking, will something go wrong later?" At this moment, she desperately wanted to get some advice and help from Meng Jiawei, as if she had grasped a lifeline.

Listening to Su Xuan's story, Meng Jiawei already had an idea in mind. His first thought was Cheng Ran. Cheng Ran possessed professional legal knowledge and keen insight; if he could get Cheng Ran to review the contract, those hidden problems would surely be exposed. The words were already on the tip of his tongue, but at the very moment before they were about to escape his lips, Meng Jiawei hesitated.

Suddenly, the scene of Nianci running away from home flashed into his mind. The scene was chaotic and intense, with arguments and crying intertwined.

That incident was like a sharp thorn stuck between them. Although some time had passed, the wound had not fully healed, and their relationship had become delicate and sensitive. Meng Jiawei knew that mentioning Cheng Ran might touch on Su Xuan's inner pain and trigger unpleasant memories again. If this led to another big fight, it would be a loss.

After some internal struggle, Meng Jiawei decided to take the contract to Cheng Ran himself. However, he knew he couldn't just hand it over directly; he had to alter the contract so that neither Su Xuan nor Cheng Ran would suspect its true origin. Therefore, Meng Jiawei spent considerable time and effort carefully manipulating the contract.

He replaced the names of key figures in the contract with some fictional names, and cleverly adapted the specific information related to Su Xuan's works, making the descriptions of the story background and plot vague and universal, so that neither Su Xuan nor Cheng Ran could associate the contract with Su Xuan's contract renewal from the surface content of the contract alone.

With everything prepared, Meng Jiawei, clutching the specially processed contract, went to find Cheng Ran with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. On one hand, he hoped Cheng Ran could use his professional skills to find loopholes in the contract and solve Su Xuan's immediate problem; on the other hand, he was worried that some unexpected situation might arise during the process, leading to new conflicts.

When Meng Jiawei found Cheng Ran, Cheng Ran was engrossed in a mountain of documents. He looked up, saw Meng Jiawei, and a hint of surprise crossed his face, but he quickly and warmly invited him to sit down. Meng Jiawei casually handed him the contract, smiling as he said, "Old Cheng, I've run into a tricky situation. Could you take a look at this contract for me? Something doesn't seem quite right." Cheng Ran took the contract, his eyes instantly becoming focused. He adjusted his glasses and began to study it word by word.

Time passed by, and Meng Jiawei sat to the side, appearing calm on the surface, but his heart was pounding like a rabbit's.

He kept stealing glances at Cheng Ran's expression, trying to glean some clues from his subtle reactions. Cheng Ran's brows furrowed more and more, his pen scribbling circles on the paper and writing dense annotations beside it.

After a long while, Cheng Ran finally put down the contract and said to Meng Jiawei with a serious expression, "This contract has serious problems! The terms seem complicated and cumbersome, but they actually hide many traps. For example, the clause on the distribution of rights is seriously ambiguous and can easily be exploited by a party with ulterior motives, which will greatly damage the interests of the signatory. And the provisions on copyright ownership are simply an unfair contract, handing over almost all the initiative to the other party."

Listening to Cheng Ran's analysis, Meng Jiawei felt both shocked and relieved. He was shocked that the website had set so many traps in the contract, but relieved that he had found the right person, and that Su Xuan's crisis might have a solution.

However, he dared not appear too eager, so he could only pretend to be calm and continue to discuss the details of the contract with Cheng Ran, trying to get more useful information from Cheng Ran.

After leaving Cheng Ran, Meng Jiawei rushed home. He carefully reviewed Cheng Ran's analysis, pondering how to convey this information to Su Xuan without letting her know that the contract had been analyzed by Cheng Ran. He knew that every step from here on out was crucial; the slightest misstep could trigger unnecessary trouble again.