Then another matter arose — one that, however tentatively, brought a small surprise to the tense rhythm of their work and life:
Invincible Warrior had won this year’s “Government Award for Internet Industry Development.”
When Zhu Yun first received the notification, she thought it was a scam — she confirmed it several times before accepting it was real. No one in the entire company had ever heard of this award. Zhang Fang went online to look it up: it had only been established two years prior, introduced by the government to encourage innovation in internet technology. There were three award spots in the games category each year. Zhang Fang checked the previous winners and found they had all been PC games — Invincible Warrior was the only mobile game among them.
Zhang Fang pressed a hand to his own chest. “Why does this feel so unbelievable to me?”
Zhu Yun found it remarkable too. Li Xun told her it was probably Zhao Guowei who had put them forward.
So Zhu Yun packed up a proper selection of gifts and went to visit Zhao Guowei to express her gratitude — this time she could finally afford something decent, because Feiyang had officially shed its long-running deficit and moved into profitability.
Speaking of the profitability, Zhu Yun had complicated feelings about it. The game she had worked so conscientiously on earned almost nothing, and on top of that, the users were extremely demanding — one wrong line of dialogue could inspire thousands of words of emailed complaints. Meanwhile, Li Xun’s game was raking in money hand over fist, and users treated the developer like a deity — when Li Xun dragged his feet updating a single character, the player base practically lit incense and prayed to the heavens.
And yet Li Xun was planning to open up the source code of this very profitable project.
Right now, only she, Li Xun, Dong Siyang, and Hou Ning knew about this. Zhu Yun hadn’t dared tell Zhang Fang and the others — she was afraid they wouldn’t be able to handle the shock.
Before long, advertisers and investors began knocking on the door. Li Xun turned all of them away.
It was also around this time that the company’s employees, without quite realizing it, began to treat their interactions with Li Xun with an added measure of respect. They had probably come to understand that this man with the terrible temper was likely the leading contender in the entire startup park.
Days grew smoother. Zhang Fang often reclined in his chair and mused contentedly: “If things keep going like this, we can coast on these two games forever without a care in the world.”
Every time Zhu Yun heard it, she couldn’t help smacking him on the head.
---
The government award ceremony was to be held at Huajiang Hotel. When the invitations arrived, Zhu Yun was entirely unsurprised to see Jili Company’s name on the guest list.
Zhu Yun asked Li Xun: “Are you going?”
She had expected Li Xun to have no interest in this kind of event, but to her surprise, he agreed without hesitation.
The event allowed a maximum of ten attendees per company. This was where Feiyang’s small headcount worked in their favor — with only seven people in total, the entire company went.
The evening before the ceremony happened to coincide with an update day for Invincible Warrior, and Zhu Yun was busy until well past midnight before she got home. Even then her sleep was restless, and she woke early the next morning to rush to the office and check on the update.
Everything was fine.
Zhu Yun exhaled in relief, and only then remembered today’s event. It was scheduled for seven in the evening — there was still some time. She checked herself in the bathroom mirror. She was dressed far too casually — shirt, trousers, barely any makeup.
She considered whether to go home and change while she still had time, but there was still daytime work to get through.
She went to check on Li Xun and found he was dressed even worse. He had been sunk in his chair for nearly a week, and that grey T-shirt had clearly not changed in all that time. Combined with how heavily he’d been smoking, walking past him was like passing a biological hazard.
Zhu Yun thought it over and decided to forget it.
If the man himself was walking around like that, why should women bother getting dressed up?
So that evening, Dong Siyang drove his beat-up van and ferried a carful of scruffily dressed employees to Huajiang Hotel.
The moment they pulled up, Zhu Yun had second thoughts.
At the hotel entrance, a cluster of reporters was furiously photographing Wu Zhen. Compared to the last time Zhu Yun had seen her at the shopping mall, Wu Zhen’s appearance was even more glamorous: a floor-length gown, heavy, elaborate makeup, draped in colors like a blossoming flower, hanging on Gao Jianhong’s arm and softly answering reporters’ questions.
Zhu Yun scratched at the side of her nose. It wasn’t about competing, exactly, but she was still the only female employee at Feiyang — shouldn’t she at least hold up the company’s image?
She was still deliberating whether there was enough time to buy a dress, when someone gave her a push from behind. Li Xun was tall, and standing up in the van required him to bend deeply at the waist. He said to Zhu Yun, impatiently: “Hurry up and get out!”
Zhu Yun: “……”
Forget it. In for a penny, in for a pound. Who’s afraid of whom?
On their way up the stairs, they ran into Fang Zhijing.
Zhu Yun had braced herself for a verbal clash, but to her surprise, Fang Zhijing merely looked down at them with a passing glance, then turned back to continue chatting with a reporter.
Zhu Yun looked back at Li Xun — he had come away from the computer and seemed sluggish, yawning as he walked inside, not even sparing Fang Zhijing a glance. She could see clearly the muscle in Fang Zhijing’s jaw tighten.
Perhaps things really were as Li Xun had said: Fang Zhijing was deeply afraid of him.
“Ah…” It was Zhang Fang’s first time setting foot in a five-star hotel. He was completely overwhelmed, gawking all around him like a country cousin in the big city. Beside him, Zhao Teng pinched him. “Could you not embarrass us like this?!”
Guo Shijie also said quietly: “The internet conference last time was held here too — if you’d been there, you wouldn’t be this shocked.”
Zhang Fang said sidelong: “So you’re saying I gave you too much work to do?”
Guo Shijie: “No, no, nothing like that.”
The internet conference last time had actually been at the International Convention Center — but the awards ceremony tonight was on the third floor of the hotel, in the grand ballroom, which was ordinarily used for wedding receptions. It was decorated like a fantasy, even more dazzling and resplendent, with three long rows of tables laden with exquisite food.
The Feiyang employees had all skipped dinner after work. Zhu Yun’s stomach was growling. At this point she had nothing left to prove, so she grabbed a plate and worked her way from one end of the tables to the other.
The speeches were handled by Zhang Fang, who fully put his silver tongue to use. He thanked the government, described the hardships and determination of the company’s startup journey, and even managed to allude darkly to the unfair competition the game had faced — all delivered in a performance so moving it was practically tearful.
Zhu Yun, meanwhile, was eating her way through the spread. With Li Xun on her mind, she picked out a pile of food for him too. Li Xun, however, was not paying attention to the awards or the speeches — he and Hou Ning were out on the large balcony smoking.
Zhu Yun carefully selected a few items and was carrying the plate over when someone intercepted her — an unexpected figure making a beeline for Li Xun.
Wu Zhen was dressed in a water-blue floor-length gown, carrying a delicate chain purse, and moving with elegant, swaying steps. She held a glass of wine and came to stand before Li Xun and Hou Ning.
Zhu Yun felt another pang of regret.
She really should have dressed better…
Wu Zhen said to Li Xun: “We meet again.”
The first time they had met was at the internet conference, when Fang Zhijing had introduced Li Xun as a “stray dog.”