Starting a business?

Chapter 9: Starting a Business... Maybe?

Finally.

Most of the bento box in Li Xue's hand was eaten by Tang Yao.

It couldn't be helped.

She was dazed by the feeding from the mature older sister.

"Are you really full?"

Tang Yao ate the last small piece of bread, then turned to look at Li Xue, who was packing up the lunchbox next to her. "Did you eat it all for me?"

"I'm full. Actually, there's always some left over, and you're helping me deal with it."

Li Xue shook her head, closed the lunchbox, and replied, "Besides, I need to lose weight."

"What are you trying to lose weight for with your figure?"

Tang Yao looked up and down the tall, outstanding older sister type dressed in a professional suit. "You're just creating anxiety for yourself... Here, water."

As she spoke, she handed over one of the green tea bottles.

"By your standards, it is indeed creating anxiety."

Li Xue sized up the youthful girl beside her, whose figure was curvaceous and seemed to have no flaws, then looked down at her own chest, her waist, and then her arm, sighing.

She wasn't fat at all, but her opponent was just too outrageous.

Meanwhile.

Tang Yao ignored her. What did having a good figure have to do with her? It wasn't like she wanted it to be this long.

She found it troublesome too, her shoulders ached terribly after running around all day...

"I heard you had another fight with your editor-in-chief?"

Li Xue was used to Tang Yao's evasiveness about her figure. She twisted open the cap and took a sip of green tea, changing the subject.

Tang Yao nodded, and at the same time asked in confusion, "Yeah, but it happened this morning, how did you know so quickly?"

"Because everyone is paying attention to you."

Li Xue looked at the girl's fair side profile and explained, "After all, topics related to beautiful women are always popular. Also, the news that a troublemaker came to the Big Comic Editorial Department and clashed with the editor-in-chief every day is also very popular."

"Are they that free?"

Tang Yao sighed, then said with some helplessness, "But honestly, I really can't stand that Editor Ding. He completely misses the point. Sales, sales. Only when the manga quality improves can sales increase. Doesn't he understand such a simple logic?

I asked him to contact Teacher Ou, and he talked about the impact of taking a week off.

No, if you value him so much, why do you need an editor? You might as well put a log at my desk.

And that remark later was even more outrageous, asking me to accompany him for drinks? If it weren't for the potential repercussions, I would have really wanted to punch him."

Speaking of which.

Tang Yao slightly furrowed her delicate brows, clearly very dissatisfied with her superior.

"I knew it. When people like that encounter something that directly concerns them, they turn into demons. After all, in big companies like this, you can't get ahead just by flattering. It's either nepotism or you can genuinely bring benefits to the company.

Your Editor Ding falls into the latter category. Although I personally hate his methods, and although his approach isn't very suitable now, people are creatures of habit. Plus, he has indeed succeeded before."

Li Xue gently shook her head. "It's too difficult to change someone who still holds old-fashioned ideas. So, as I said, Xiao Yao... come to my department."

Tang Yao didn't answer, but asked with interest, "Are you saying that when Ding Yilong was an editor, there was a Manga Artist who achieved great success under his complete hands-off approach?"

"Yeah, that's Teacher Rumi, who is currently serializing in YOUNG comic."

"...No wonder."

Even though Tang Yao hadn't been in this world for long, she had heard that name.

Because this Teacher Rumi was practically the Oda Eiichiro of this parallel world.

Li Xue asked again, "So, are you really not considering transferring to my department? Even if you're just slacking off, it would be easier to slack off here. I'm the deputy editor-in-chief, after all."

"Miss Li, I really don't understand Shoujo Manga... If it's just to slack off, let alone you, I would look down on myself."

Tang Yao thought for a moment, then said earnestly, "Besides, that wouldn't be fair to you. It's rare to make a friend, and I don't want to leave you with the impression that I'm just freeloading."

"..."

Li Xue's red lips parted, wanting to say something, but the words caught in her throat. She suddenly realized that she seemed to like this about Tang Yao.

If she really became someone who needed to be fed... Hmm, that might not be bad... No, that wouldn't work.

Tang Yao continued, "Also, I want to move up my resignation date."

Hearing this, Li Xue immediately snapped out of her fantasy of feeding Tang Yao every day. "Because of the manga award?"

"No, I've already resolved that matter. The main reason is that I'm too disappointed with that Editor Ding. Perhaps he won't even look at the original manuscripts. His arrogance and conceit are nauseating. Working under someone like that will only lead to escalating conflicts.

Also, I've discovered a talented person, and I've also discovered something very important."

"Ah? Resolved?"

Li Xue paused, looking at Tang Yao in confusion. "Talent? Did you find a replacement Manga Artist?"

"No, the talent I'm talking about is a man who almost went to jail for creating a battle platform."

Tang Yao thought of Kang Ming, who was balding at a young age. "And surprisingly, there are already services for renting out cloud servers. Although cloud services at this point probably have a lot of loopholes and bugs, they'll definitely improve in the end. It might actually be possible to make games."

Tang Yao remembered that in her past life, all of miHoYo's game servers were hosted on Aliyun.

"???"

Li Xue didn't understand.

Weren't they talking about manga? Why did the conversation suddenly shift to cloud servers and games?

And what did she mean by a battle platform that almost landed someone in jail?

"To be honest."

Seeing Li Xue's expression, Tang Yao said with a bit of embarrassment, "Miss Li, I want to start a business."

"Huh? So suddenly..."

Li Xue's beautiful eyes widened slightly, finding it hard to keep up with Tang Yao's train of thought.

"The main thing is that it's truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity right now."

Tang Yao gently fiddled with the green tea on the table and explained softly, "Especially for mobile games, I feel like if done well, they can instantly achieve initial capital accumulation and also quickly dispel my sister's doubts."

"Mobile games, you mean those crude, meaningless little games? They probably won't make much money. Only a few really make it big. One seems to be a parkour type, and another is called something like Flappy Bird?"

Li Xue carefully observed Tang Yao's expression and noticed she seemed serious. Her own expression gradually turned serious as she advised, "This isn't a field where you can just make money easily. On the other hand, I've heard online games are very popular. A company owner recently became the richest person, but that's already a completely saturated market."

"I know..."

Tang Yao wasn't surprised by Li Xue's reaction.

Because at the moment, it was indeed difficult to convince people that mobile games could be profitable.

Don't let Tang Yao's demeanor fool you; she had actually investigated this world.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so shocked.

Although the domestic landscape here had greatly expanded compared to her previous life, the development path was similar. It just had some industries that weren't popular in her past life, like the manga Tang Yao was currently doing.

And the current time node in this world was somewhat similar to the transition period between traditional internet and mobile internet in Tang Yao's past life.

4G had already emerged, and smartphones were quietly starting to dominate the market. However, major internet companies were still habitually focusing their attention on the digitalization of existing industries, such as housing and restaurant ratings. Of course, there were also the hugely profitable, envy-inducing online PC games. As for single-player games... well.

On the mobile side, it was still stuck in the "vertical era," the era when games like Fruit Ninja were popular in her past life. The few games Miss Li just mentioned were similar small games.

Actually, at this stage, people were probably already noticing the upcoming mobile internet trend that would become widespread.

But at least so far, no decent products had emerged.

So, wasn't this a gold mine?

Although there was a probability of failure, Tang Yao truly believed this industry could make money... at least for completing the initial capital accumulation, it was completely feasible.

This was the most reliable and fastest way she could think of to seize the first pot of gold.