After breakfast, Chen Guiliang followed his cousin downstairs.
When the motorcycle reached a school, Feng Tao pointed at the building ahead. "The studio's in there."
The old building had no elevator, so they had to climb all the way to the fifth floor.
Standing outside a door, Feng Tao reminded him, "Be polite when you meet people, especially Brother Gang and Yang Ge. You can't call them 'Brother' like I do, since you're a generation below us. Call them President Tao and President Yang instead."
"Got it." Chen Guiliang was very obedient.
In Feng Tao's eyes, Chen Guiliang was just a half-grown kid.
He thought all that talk about business was complete nonsense, nothing more than a teenager boasting shamelessly.
He had only agreed to bring Chen Guiliang to the game studio so his nephew could broaden his horizons and play some games over the weekend.
Feng Tao continued, "Once you're inside, don't touch anything. If you want to play games, ask Yang Ge first. He'll find a chance to free up a computer for you."
Chen Guiliang put on the look of an honest kid. "I'll remember."
Knock, knock, knock!
Only then did Feng Tao knock on the door.
A teenager with a messy bird's-nest hairstyle opened it while rubbing his bleary eyes. "Who are you looking for?"
"I'm a friend of your boss," Feng Tao said.
The teenager said nothing more. Yawning, he let them in.
Good lord!
The moment Chen Guiliang stepped inside, the smell nearly drove him back out.
Smoke filled the room like an immortal's realm. Besides the overpowering stench of cigarettes, there were also smells of instant noodles, sweaty feet, body odor, and mildew!
Computers were lined up along the walls, with young people seated in front of every one.
Some were slumped over their desks, already asleep.
They played all kinds of currently popular online games, mechanically farming gold and leveling up day after day.
Any hobby became dull and tedious once it turned into work.
Games were no exception.
Unlike players at internet cafés, they showed no excitement. Every one of them looked listless and dispirited.
Feng Tao said, "Most of them are minors addicted to online games. They heard they could play games here for free and even get paid every month, so they eagerly signed up to farm gold. They work twelve-hour shifts, two shifts a day. They can eat and use the bathroom during work. They can sleep if they're tired too, but there's a daily minimum quota. If they don't meet it, their wages get docked."
"So it really is an internet addiction rehabilitation center," Chen Guiliang said with feeling.
Feng Tao laughed. "The shortest-lasting one disappeared after just two days. He didn't even come back for his wages. Earlier this year, there was a senior high school student who kicked his gaming addiction here and obediently went back to school. Even though he only got into a junior college, his parents still sent us a banner. Look over there on the wall."
Chen Guiliang turned and looked up. The banner was embroidered with several lines: Saving misguided youths, kindness forever remembered—respectfully presented by parent Hu Guogang.
What fucking nonsense!
"Welcome, President Feng, for your inspection." A young man emerged from the inner room in flip-flops, grinning as he came over to greet them.
Feng Tao chuckled. "President Yang, getting rich, are we?"
The young man said, "Getting rich my ass. Nothing but bullshit happens to me all day."
Feng Tao introduced him. "This is Yang Yuhui, my high school classmate. He runs this studio with President Tao."
Chen Guiliang understood.
The big boss behind the scenes, Tao Chenggang, had brought in his high school classmate Feng Tao to open a computer store. Then he had brought in another high school classmate, Yang Yuhui, to run a game studio and farm gold.
"This is my nephew, Chen Guiliang. He's a top student at County No. 2 High School, the kind who can get into a key university without breaking a sweat."
"Hello, President Yang."
"Hello, hello. Come sit inside. It smells bad out here."
There was a small room inside that served as Yang Yuhui's office. Besides a computer, it also contained a folding cot.
"Smoke?" Yang Yuhui offered him a Hongtashan.
"Thanks." Chen Guiliang took it and tucked it behind his ear.
Yang Yuhui tossed another cigarette to Feng Tao, lit one for himself, and complained, "I don't even want to keep doing this. Those little punks are a nightmare to manage. Parents come making trouble every few days, and someone nearly smashed my computers two days ago."
"Money's hard to earn and shit's hard to swallow. Just hang in there," Feng Tao advised.
Yang Yuhui grumbled some more. It was clear that he and Feng Tao were very close.
Chen Guiliang sat quietly to one side.
Before long, the outside became lively. Another group of teenagers had arrived to change shifts.
Yang Yuhui said to Chen Guiliang, "Wait here for a while. I need to check their performance from last night, then take them downstairs for breakfast."
Chen Guiliang rose to see him out. "Please, President Yang."
Feng Tao left as well. He had business to handle at the store.
With nothing to do, Chen Guiliang carefully examined the office.
Soon, he turned on the tap, filled a kettle with tap water, and watered the cactus on the windowsill that was nearly dying of thirst.
Even when it was almost ten in the morning, boss Tao Chenggang still had not arrived.
Putting up with the disgusting smell of the studio, Chen Guiliang went outside to watch the internet-addicted teenagers farm gold.
After watching for a while, Chen Guiliang asked, "Doesn't 'The World of Legend' have any offline leveling Game Cheats? They're actually still relying on manual power-leveling?"
"You wish."
Yang Yuhui took a hard drag on his Hongtashan, fighting poison with poison against the secondhand smoke. "'The World of Legend' has only been online for a little over a hundred days. A lot of Game Cheats haven't been developed yet, and Shanda is cracking down on them hard. A while back, someone made a remote item-grabbing cheat, but it got completely banned within two days."
Chen Guiliang walked into a corner and stopped in front of a computer. "Is this Fantasy Westward Journey?"
"President Tao used connections through a friend to get two spots in the first round of closed beta," Yang Yuhui said. "It's been in closed beta for nine days now. There are still plenty of bugs, but this game will probably become popular. We move into whichever game gets popular."
Chen Guiliang suddenly remembered that China's foremost father had first made his name with this Fantasy Westward Journey.
What an idol!
That foremost father of China had publicly recruited young beautiful women to bear his children, openly offering a set amount of money for every child. His small life goal was to have fifty children.
By the day Chen Guiliang was reborn, China's foremost father had shown off thirteen children on Weibo and claimed he had more than a dozen others he had not shown.
The feminists couldn't beat him.
Yang Yuhui ate and slept at the studio every day. Surrounded by a group of internet-addicted teenagers all day long, he had probably not spoken to a normal person in ages.
That was why he was so talkative, taking the initiative to introduce all kinds of games to Chen Guiliang.
"This is Legend 3, published by Yangcheng Guangtong," Yang Yuhui cursed. "Yangcheng Guangtong is run by idiots. They licensed the game from Korea, yet insisted on personally deleting and changing things. It has even more bugs than Fantasy Westward Journey. A few days ago, they suddenly canceled the monthly cards, and half the players have already left. Gold and equipment prices crashed, catching me completely off guard. I still have some I haven't managed to unload!"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "Sell them off at cabbage prices. If you drag it out any longer, nobody will buy them at all."
Yang Yuhui blew out a smoke ring. "Wait a little longer. We'll pull out the people first, but leave the accounts and equipment alone. Once Yangcheng Guangtong's virtual cards launch, maybe we can recover some of the losses."
All that could be said was that Yangcheng Guangtong was a magical company.
Every month, it came up with some ridiculous stunt that drove players away. It was practically an artist at courting disaster!
"Eeya!"
The broken door outside opened, and Tao Chenggang arrived with his girlfriend.
His girlfriend looked very young, probably still a student. A small lock of her hair had been dyed rainbow colors. The moment she entered, she covered her nose and backed out. "Honey, it smells awful in there. I'm not going inside."
"Then go wait in the car." Tao Chenggang sounded a little unhappy.
This game studio was one of his labors of love.
He had eagerly brought his girlfriend over to inspect his domain, only for her to think his domain was too shabby.
"Brother Gang, you bastard, you finally showed up!" Yang Yuhui went over with a grin.
Tao Chenggang took out a pack of Huazi and tossed it to him from a distance as a reward.
Yang Yuhui casually slipped the Huazi into his pocket and introduced Chen Guiliang. "This is Feng Tao's nephew. He's been waiting for you half the day."
Chen Guiliang stepped forward and shook his hand. "Hello, President Tao. Sorry to disturb you."
As he shook hands, Tao Chenggang quickly sized Chen Guiliang up—
His first impression was that Chen Guiliang was a poor student. Everything he wore together was worth, at most, a little over a hundred yuan.
The sleeves of his cheap jacket had been washed until they were fuzzy, and there was even a hole behind one elbow.
The seam along the side of his pants had split and been stitched back together by hand. The crooked stitches looked like a writhing centipede.
His shoes were not quite as worn, but they were still some no-name brand that cost only thirty or fifty yuan.
Yet his expression was steady and his bearing composed.
There were dozens of internet-addicted teenagers in the studio, and every one of them was dressed better than Chen Guiliang. But in terms of temperament, Chen Guiliang seemed to stand among the clouds while those teenagers were buried in the dirt.
Tao Chenggang took out another pack of Huazi and stuffed it into Chen Guiliang's hand. "Your cousin is my friend, so you count as one of my juniors. Consider this pack of cigarettes a meeting gift."
Did he think Chen Guiliang was here to mooch off him?
Chen Guiliang smiled. "Then I should give President Tao a meeting gift too."
"What are you going to give me?" Tao Chenggang asked.
Chen Guiliang said, "A chance at wealth."
Hahaha!
Tao Chenggang immediately burst out laughing. The words reminded him of the storyteller tales he had heard as a child, and he did not take them seriously. "Let's talk in the office. The smell out here really is pretty strong."
Yang Yuhui followed them inside, flopped onto the folding cot, and sprawled out. "Brother Gang, did you change girlfriends again? This one's still in school, right?"
"The prettiest girl at Tourism Vocational High School," Tao Chenggang bragged proudly.
Yang Yuhui immediately gnashed his teeth. "I'm reporting you for harming an underage girl!"
"She's an adult. It's not illegal," Tao Chenggang said.
After beating around the bush for a while, Yang Yuhui finally revealed his purpose. "Have your girlfriend introduce me to one of her female classmates. I don't want an ugly one!"
"No problem. On Monday, I'll take you to the vocational school and let you pick whoever you want," Tao Chenggang said with a smile.
"Now that's more like it." Yang Yuhui closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Chen Guiliang had been silently observing the whole time.
The way these two interacted gave him a rather favorable impression of Tao Chenggang.
Though he had money, he did not put on airs.
And after becoming wealthy, he had still brought his old friends along to make money.
Tao Chenggang spun around in his computer chair to face Chen Guiliang and asked as though teasing a child, "So, kid, what kind of wealth are you giving me?"
Chen Guiliang did not mention private servers at all. He simply took out the A4 pages about developing pay-to-win games. "President Tao can take a look first."
Tao Chenggang accepted them casually.
He was just a poor student. No matter how calm and mature he seemed, what useful thing could he possibly produce?
If not for Feng Tao's sake, Tao Chenggang would not even have bothered to meet Chen Guiliang.
Tao Chenggang tossed Chen Guiliang a Huazi, then lit one for himself and held it between his lips as he lowered his head to read the pages.
The concept of free games and their operating model?
At first, Tao Chenggang merely skimmed through them. Before long, however, he sank into thought.
As he read, he stubbed out the half-finished Huazi and flipped from the second page back to the first to read it again.
Seeing his expression, Chen Guiliang was somewhat surprised:
I'm only giving this a try. My real goal is to make private servers. Don't tell me you're actually going to bet your entire fortune on developing a pay-to-win game yourself?
Before you continue