Starting a Business?

Starting a business...?

Finally.

Tang Yao ate most of the lunch in Li Xue's hands.

There was no helping it.

She'd been completely won over by the mature big sister feeding her.

"Are you really full?"

Tang Yao ate the last little piece of bread, then turned to Li Xue, who was sitting beside her and packing up the lunch boxes. "You gave it all to me?"

"I'm full. There's always some left over, so it's nice that you can help me finish it."

Li Xue shook her head, put the lid on the lunch box, and replied, "Besides, I'm trying to lose weight."

"What are you trying to lose weight for? Look at you."

Tang Yao looked the tall, striking woman up and down in her professional outfit. "You're just making yourself anxious for no reason... Here, have some water."

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

"By your standards, I really am making myself anxious for no reason."

Li Xue looked at the youthful girl beside her, whose figure was curvy and seemed flawless. Then she looked down at her own chest, her waist, and her arms, and sighed.

She wasn't fat at all, but her competition was just too unfair.

"..."

Meanwhile, Tang Yao ignored her. What did her figure have to do with her? It wasn't as if she'd asked to be built this way.

It was a hassle, too. After running around all day, her shoulders ached like crazy...

"I heard you got into another argument with your editor-in-chief?"

Li Xue was used to Tang Yao's reluctance to discuss her figure. She unscrewed the cap and took a sip of green tea, changing the subject.

Tang Yao nodded, then asked in confusion, "Yeah, but it only happened this morning. How did you hear about it so quickly?"

"Because everyone's interested in you."

Li Xue looked at the fair profile of the girl beside her and explained, "After all, anything involving a beautiful woman is always popular. And so is the news that Big Comic's editorial department has a troublemaker who argues with the editor-in-chief every day."

"Do they have that much free time?"

Tang Yao sighed, then said helplessly, "But honestly, I really can't stand Editor Ding anymore. He has no idea what matters. Sales, sales, sales—improving the quality of the manga is what will help sales grow. How can he not understand something so simple?

"I asked him to contact Teacher Ou, and he started going on about the impact of taking a week off.

"Seriously, if he cares that much about the other person, why have editors at all? He might as well put a log at my desk.

"And what he said afterward was even more ridiculous. He wanted me to go drinking with someone? If I weren't worried about the consequences, I'd have punched him."

At that, Tang Yao furrowed her delicate brows, clearly unhappy with her boss.

"I told you, people like that turn into demons whenever something affects them personally. After all, you can't rise through the ranks at a big company just by sucking up. Either you have connections, or you can genuinely bring the company profits.

"Your Editor Ding is the latter. I personally hate his methods, and his approach isn't really suited to the times anymore, but people get stuck in their ways—and he has succeeded before."

Li Xue shook her head gently. "It's hard to change the minds of people who still cling to outdated ideas. So I'll say it again, Xiaoyao... Come work in my department."

Tang Yao didn't answer. Instead, she asked with interest, "You mean that when Ding Yilong was an editor, there was a manga artist who achieved great success after he gave them complete freedom?"

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

"...No wonder."

Even though Tang Yao hadn't been in this world for long, she'd already heard of the name.

That was because 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 just want to coast, it'd be easier to do that with me. I am the deputy editor-in-chief, after all."

"Miss Li, I really don't understand shoujo manga... If I were just looking to coast, I'd look down on myself."

Tang Yao thought it over for a moment, then said earnestly, "And it wouldn't be fair to you, either. You're a friend I've only recently made. I wouldn't want you to think I was just sitting around doing nothing."

"..."

Li Xue's red lips parted, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She'd suddenly realized that this might be exactly what she liked about Tang Yao.

If she really did become someone who just waited around to be fed... Well, that didn't sound so bad... No, it wouldn't do.

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

Hearing that, Li Xue immediately snapped out of her daydream about feeding Tang Yao every day. "Is it because of the Manga Award?"

"No, I've already dealt with that. I'm mostly just so disappointed in Editor Ding. Maybe he doesn't even look at the manuscripts. He's so arrogant and conceited that it makes me sick. If I keep working under someone like him, the conflict between us will only get worse.

"Besides, I've discovered a talented person—and something very important."

"Huh? Dealt with it?"

Li Xue stared at Tang Yao in confusion. "A talented person? Did you find a replacement manga artist?"

"No. The talented person I'm talking about is a man who nearly landed himself in jail while making a battle platform."

Tang Yao thought of the young, balding Kang Ming. "And, unexpectedly, there are already services that rent out cloud servers. Cloud services probably have a lot of bugs and security issues at this point, but they'll definitely improve. Making games might actually work."

Tang Yao remembered that all of miHoYo's games in her previous life ran on Aliyun servers.

"???"

Li Xue was completely lost.

Weren't they talking about manga? How had the conversation suddenly turned to cloud services and games?

And what did she mean, he'd nearly landed himself in jail making a battle platform?

"To be honest..."

Seeing Li Xue's expression, Tang Yao looked a little embarrassed. "Miss Li, I want to start a business."

"Huh? That's so sudden..."

Li Xue's eyes widened slightly. She was having trouble keeping up with Tang Yao's train of thought.

"Mainly because this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Tang Yao gently fiddled with the green tea on the table and explained softly, "Especially mobile games. If I can make them well, I feel like I could build up some initial capital in no time—and put my younger sister's doubts to rest sooner."

"Mobile games? You mean those crude, pointless little games? I doubt those will make much money. Only a few have really stood out: one seems to be a running game, and another is called something like Flappy Bird?"

Li Xue studied Tang Yao's expression and realized she seemed serious. Her own expression gradually grew grave as she tried to talk her out of it. "That's not a field where you can just make money easily. Online games, on the other hand, are supposedly booming. I heard the head of one company recently became the richest person in the country. But that market is already completely saturated."

"I know..."

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

At the moment, it really was hard to believe that mobile games could make money.

Even if it didn't seem like it, Tang Yao had researched this world.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so shocked.

Although this world's domestic territory had expanded greatly compared to her previous life, its development had followed a similar path—with a few industries that hadn't been popular in her previous life, such as the manga industry Tang Yao was working in now.

The current era in this world was somewhat like the transition from the traditional internet to the mobile internet in Tang Yao's previous life.

4G had already arrived, and smartphones were quietly beginning to claim the market. But the big internet companies were still instinctively turning their attention to bringing existing industries online, like housing and restaurant reviews. And of course, there were online PC games, which were making ridiculous amounts of money—enough to make people green with envy. As for single-player games... Well.

On mobile, things were still in the upright-screen era—the era when games like Fruit Ninja had been popular in Tang Yao's previous life. The games Miss Li had just mentioned were similar little games.

Actually, at this stage, someone had probably already noticed the coming dominance of the mobile internet.

But so far, no decent products had appeared.

So wasn't this a gold mine?

Sure, there was a chance of failure, but Tang Yao truly felt that this industry could make money... At the very least, building up her initial capital wouldn't be a problem.

It was the most reliable way she could think of to get her hands on her first pot of gold, and the fastest.