Studying at Western University starts with a knife-forging competition

Chapter 97

Catherine picked up her glass, finished the last sip of white wine, and gently placed the glass back on the table.

"If you won't agree, then I'll have to get involved my own way." She stood up, picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I'm not threatening you, Matt. I'm a business school graduate student, and I see a brand with potential that I want to get involved in."

"You reject me, no problem. But I won't give up this market opportunity just because you reject me. If you won't let me help you with brand protection, then I'll do it myself."

She turned around, took two steps toward the door, then stopped and looked back at Matt.

"By the way, your business email accounts are indeed completely unprotected. If someone can access those emails containing quotes, contracts, and design drawings that you send to clients, your entire client list and pricing strategy will be completely transparent."

Matt stood up. "What are you implying?"

Catherine smiled. "I'm reminding you. The free version of Gmail doesn't even have two-factor authentication enabled. After you posted that video of you sewing needles with a fake leather strap, how many people saw your commercial potential? Just because you don't implement security measures doesn't mean others won't notice."

She opened the door and went out.

As the door closed, the bell hanging on it rang once, then slowly fell silent.

Matt stood there, staring at the closed door. His hand was still clutching the beer mug, his knuckles white. The bartender peeked out from behind the bar and asked, "Would you like a refill?" Matt shook his head.

He sat down again, flipped his phone over, opened his email, and found the confirmation email he had sent to his California client yesterday. He stared at the email's sending history for a while, then opened Gmail's security settings page.

Two-step verification is indeed disabled.

He leaned back in the leather chair of the booth, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The air conditioner in the bar hummed, and the fluorescent lights flickered occasionally on the ceiling. He sat for a few minutes, then stood up, put on his coat, and went out the door.

In the parking lot, his SUV sat alone in an empty space. He opened the car door, got in, and instead of starting the engine immediately, took out his phone and sent a message to Lin Yuan.

"We finished talking. She brought up trademark registration, brand protection, and business email security. There were some things we didn't do well, and what she said was true. She wanted 10% of the profits to be a brand consultant, which I didn't agree to. She said if I refused, she would enter the market in her own way."

After sending the message, he stared at the screen for more than ten seconds. Lin Yuan's reply came in quickly.

"What specific things? Trademark registration and email security?"

"Yes. No one has registered our brand name; anyone can register it. She reminded me that this is indeed a loophole."

Also, your GitHub email address does not have two-step verification enabled.

There was silence on the other end for about half a minute, then Lin Yuan sent another message.

"We'll talk about it when we get back. You drive first."

Matt placed his phone on the center console and started the engine. As the car drove out of the parking lot, TheFo appeared in the rearview mirror.

The bar's sign looked dull and gray in the afternoon light. He drove onto the main road, merged into the traffic, and headed towards the school.

Matt parked his car in the parking lot downstairs from the dormitory building, turned off the engine, and didn't get out of the car immediately.

He sat in the driver's seat, hands on the steering wheel, staring at the oak tree outside the windshield. The parking lot was empty; most people hadn't returned yet at this hour.

He took a deep breath, opened the car door, picked up his backpack, and went upstairs.

Lin Yuan was already in the living room. He was sitting on the sofa, with his laptop spread out on the coffee table in front of him, displaying Gmail's security settings page on the screen.

Hearing the door open, he looked up and glanced at Matt.

"You're back?"

"I'm back." Matt tossed his backpack next to the sofa and sat down in the chair opposite Lin Yuan. "I sat in the bar for a few minutes after she left to catch my breath."

"What did she say?"

Matt recounted the entire conversation that took place in the bar.

Trademark registration, brand protection, business email security, a 10% revenue share, and her own way of entering the market. He didn't embellish or omit any details, including Catherine's final reminder about email security.

After listening, Lin Yuan remained silent for a few seconds, then turned the laptop around to show Matt.

"You're right. Two-step verification wasn't enabled. I just enabled it." A QR code was displayed on the screen, with a backup code below it. "I copied down the backup code and saved a copy on my phone."

Matt glanced at the screen and nodded. "Anything else?"

"The email address itself is secure," Lin Yuan said. "I haven't put any sensitive information in the emails. Quotations and contracts are handled by your side. My email is mainly for receiving the first inquiry from the client and then forwarding it to you."

Even if someone were to hack in, the content they would see would be limited to something like, "Hello, I'd like to order a knife."

"That's good." Matt stood up from his chair, went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water, drank half of it in one gulp, then walked back with the glass and sat down again.

"There's one more thing." Matt placed his water glass on the coffee table, crossed his hands, and rested them on his knees. His posture was a little more tense than before, his shoulders slightly forward, his chin tucked in, and his gaze fixed on the floor.

Lin Yuan remained silent, waiting for him to speak.

“I told you before, she threatened me with false sexual harassment allegations, and I had to go along with her.” Matt’s voice was lower than usual, and he spoke more slowly, as if he was carefully choosing each word. “That part is true. When she first came to me, she said she could publish an anonymous article in the campus media accusing me of touching her inappropriately at a party.”

She said she could find eyewitnesses if she wanted to. I didn't know what to do, so I asked her what she wanted. She said she just wanted to be friends with me.

"6

Matt paused, picked up his water glass, and took another sip.

"And then?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Later—" Matt put the water glass back and clasped his hands together again, "Later she came to see me more and more often. Every time it was the same routine: first she would mention that article and say, 'You know what would happen if it were published,' and then she would ask me to go out to eat with her, to the library, and to her dorm."

At first, I reluctantly cooperated, feeling like I was being forced into it and had no other choice.

He took a deep breath.

"But a few times later, it was me who took the initiative."

The living room was quiet for a few seconds. Someone was making a phone call in the hallway; the sound was muffled and the content was unclear.

"You mean, you went from being forced to cooperate to actively seeking her out?" Lin Yuan said.

"Yes." Matt looked up at Lin Yuan. "The first time was after she threatened me. But a few times after that, she didn't threaten me; I went to her on my own initiative. It was my fault. I can't put all the blame on her."