A Losing Case

Su Niannian carried a bag of oranges and knocked on the door of 502.

"I want to resign and work on BugKiller full-time. Product, operations, marketing—I can handle all of it alone."

Han Luyi looked at her.

"But you have to give me equity."

"How much?"

She didn't hesitate. She knew BugKiller's data better than Han Luyi did: over ten thousand registrations, forty-seven paid users, an eighty-two percent retention rate, and a monthly income of one hundred forty thousand. She had designed the pricing plan, made the competitor analysis, and set the operational rhythm for the launch of the paid module. She had been doing this work for free for three months.

"Twenty percent."

"Deal."

Han Luyi answered in a second.

The corners of her mouth twitched, failing to form a smile, and she tightened them back up.

"You didn't even think about it?"

"You've already worked for free for three months. Without you, there would be no BugKiller, and twenty percent isn't much."

Su Niannian didn't answer. She took an orange, peeled it, and ate it segment by segment. Only after finishing it did she speak.

"I'm going to submit my resignation!"

The very next day, she handed in her resignation application. According to the rules, she needed to give thirty days' notice, but Fang Xu replied to her email that same day: "There isn't much work to hand over, so you don't need to wait a full month. Just finish the process by the middle of the month." It was abnormally fast. A normal manager would arrange for a handover, but he didn't even ask what she had on her hands.

On June fifteenth, she went through the departure procedures.

The HR representative pushed over a stack of documents: social security transfer, housing provident fund sealing, and salary settlement, having her sign them item by item. When she reached the final page, the HR representative flipped out a separate document.

"We need you to confirm this. The company has decided to initiate a non-compete restriction against you. The scope of the restriction includes artificial intelligence, code review, software quality assurance, and related fields, with a term of two years. The company will pay economic compensation monthly in accordance with the agreement, and the first payment will arrive before the end of the month."

Su Niannian held her pen and didn't move.

The HR representative paused and added another sentence: "I need to remind you that the liquidated damages stipulated in the agreement amount to three times your annual salary."

She signed the departure handover form and walked out of the Beaver Technology building. The mid-June air in Haichang was muggy, and the glaring white sunlight made her feel dizzy.

Standing beneath a street lamp, she replayed the entire process from just now. Fang Xu voluntarily waived the thirty-day notice period and didn't even want a handover. It wasn't because he was being accommodating—it was a trap. Reassigning her, cutting off her permissions, and keeping her out of meetings—step by step, she was stripped of her core business responsibilities. Once she finally left, they would use the non-compete agreement to deliver the final blow.

She took a taxi to Han Luyi's place, went upstairs, and knocked on the door of 502.

Han Luyi opened the door, saw the look on her face, and stepped aside.

She sat down and pulled the non-compete agreement out of her bag, placing it on the table.

"Beaver has triggered the non-compete clause. The scope is written as artificial intelligence, code review, and software quality assurance, and the liquidated damages are three times my annual salary, over a million."

Only after she finished speaking did she realize she had been clutching her bag strap. She let go, and her palms were covered in sweat.

"Do you know any labor law lawyers?"

Han Luyi looked at her for two seconds.

"I know one from Boheng Law Firm. We've collaborated before, and she's very strong."

He took out his phone and sent a few WeChat messages. Su Niannian sat beside him, watching him type, not knowing what to say. After a while, he looked up. "Tomorrow afternoon at two, I'll go with you."

Back in her rental room, Su Niannian sat on the bed and turned on her phone.

The official website of Boheng Law Firm, partner page, scrolling down: Gu Siyue.

The photo was a standard business portrait: a black suit, a white shirt, thin-rimmed glasses, and a low ponytail. She looked about the same age as Su Niannian.

Reading further down.

Fudan University Law School, enrolled at sixteen through independent admissions, undergraduate GPA ranked first in the entire school; LLM from Harvard Law School, full scholarship; returned to China at twenty-one to join Boheng; practiced for six years, the youngest senior partner at Boheng.

Su Niannian read it twice.

Went to Fudan at sixteen? This resume was simply too impressive!

She flipped through public case records and media reports: intellectual property, internet compliance, commercial litigation, non-compete disputes. The reviews were unanimously "professional," "efficient," and "extremely logical."

When on earth did Han Luyi get to know someone like this?

She flipped her phone face down on the bed, staring at the ceiling as the lights from outside shone through the gaps in the curtains.

The next afternoon, Boheng Law Firm.

Su Niannian stepped into this office for the first time.

On the windowsill sat a pot of devil's ivy, its leaves glowing a vibrant green.

Gu Siyue stood up from behind her desk.

She was even thinner than in her photo, and her aura was colder than in her photo.

She flipped through the materials Su Niannian brought: the original non-compete agreement, the compensation payment notice, and the departure handover form. She turned the pages quickly, but she didn't skip any, reading every single one to the end.

She didn't speak immediately after finishing.

She pulled out the compensation payment notice and placed it at the very top of the desk.

"Ms. Su, let's start with the conclusion: this case is difficult to fight."

Gu Siyue looked at Su Niannian.

"In most non-compete disputes, either the company fails to pay compensation, or the scope of the restriction is written too broadly for the court to recognize, or there are fatal flaws in the procedure—making them not too hard to rescind. Yours is different. Beaver Technology makes its monthly payments on time, the scope of the restriction precisely targets your position, and there are no procedural flaws to pick at."

Gu Siyue asked, "Ms. Su, if you were sitting in the arbitration tribunal and the opposing lawyer asked you, 'What product were you responsible for at Beaver Technology?' how would you answer?"

"...An AI code review tool."

"He will follow up by asking, 'What product does the company you are joining now make?'"

Su Niannian didn't speak.

Gu Siyue closed the folder.

"The exact same track, the exact same product direction. If we only look at the overlap in business, this is a case you are bound to lose."