Who Was Causing Trouble Behind the Scenes? (Part 1)

"It's almost nine. Why hasn't Brother Sun arrived yet?"

After yawning, Yang Fei glanced out the door again. Then he curled his lip, turned to the person beside him, and complained irritably, "Brother Sun sent a group message yesterday afternoon telling everyone to come early today. The rest of us were all here before eight, but he's the one who still hasn't shown up."

"You're the only one in such a rush!"

Zuo Nan, who was sitting beside him, did not even look up. Fiddling with his phone, he replied impatiently, "With things as they are, who here doesn't understand what's going on unless they're blind? If nothing unexpected happens, he's here to announce the disbandment. What difference does it make whether he comes early or late?"

Yang Fei's expression darkened. Clearly, he thought the same. Only after a long while did he shake his head. "It's just a shame for everyone. We've been working at this for three whole months..."

His words were met only with Zuo Nan's silence. After quite some time, Zuo Nan irritably tossed his phone onto the desk in front of him, then slumped over it without making another sound.

Standing at the stairwell on the third floor of an old office building in the old campus, Sun Cheng hesitated for a long time before finally gritting his teeth and walking toward an office a few steps away.

The moment he reached the office door, he felt several pairs of eyes turn toward him at once, making his face heat up.

"Brother Sun, you're here!"

A chubby-faced young man immediately stood up to greet him. The expectation in his eyes was impossible to hide, and it made Sun Cheng's heart ache.

The young man was called Yang Fei. He was a computer science junior, one year below Sun Cheng, and like him, a student at South Capital University of Technology. He was probably also the person here closest to Sun Cheng.

Sun Cheng knew better than anyone what Yang Fei was hoping for. Yet at the thought of it, a stabbing pain rose in his heart.

"How did things end up like this?"

Unable to stop himself from asking that question again, Sun Cheng swept his gaze over the five people in the office and suddenly felt his nose sting.

Three months ago, Sun Cheng had been filled with ambition. He had never hidden his confidence, boasting to more than one person around him, "This is an era full of miracles, and success favors those who are prepared. We may have nothing today, and we may still be poor tomorrow, but we have dreams, and we have the will to act. In the future, we will surely be repaid a hundredfold, a thousandfold, for what we put in today!"

He had said those words more than once—to himself, to others, even to his teachers.

Now, in those people's eyes, with both feet already through the gates of failure, he was probably nothing more than an idiot with a terminal case of teenage syndrome.

But he was so unwilling to accept it!

Suppressing the growing sting in his nose, Sun Cheng took a deep breath and walked into the office under the expectant gazes of the others.

"Something came up, so I'm late. I've held everyone up for a bit. I won't waste words—you've probably guessed why I asked everyone to come here today, right?"

With a sigh, he knew that what had to be faced still had to be faced. Dragging it out would not only hurt himself; it would also be irresponsible toward everyone here.

So, after quickly composing himself, Sun Cheng looked openly at Yang Fei, at Zuo Nan, at Lu Yu, and at every young person in the office whose name he knew. He spoke calmly, "This is my graduation year. Like all of you here, I'm a young person full of energy, with dreams and aspirations. We had a plan and made preparations, so three months ago, I worked with two roommates and another senior of yours to draw up an entrepreneurship project and apply to the school for startup support, hoping to carve out a place in the world for us young people!"

At that, he paused and smiled at the silent group.

"Although I don't want to admit it, the outcome was bitter. I failed, and I failed miserably—so miserably that today, I have no choice but to say 'I'm sorry' to every one of you who placed your hopes in me."

Sun Cheng had a dream he wanted to achieve no matter what. But he also understood better than anyone just how difficult it would be to realize it. So, from a long time ago, he had been racking his brains over how to bring himself closer to success.

That was why, three months ago, he had taken the lead in bringing together two classmates and one of his dorm roommates. The four of them had created a startup proposal and applied to the school for startup support.

Perhaps their proposal had been impressive enough. After a brief review, the school actually approved their application. Not only did it clear out an office in an old teaching building on the old campus for their temporary use, it also provided five desktop computers and thirty thousand yuan in funding.

At the beginning of their venture, everyone had worked with blazing enthusiasm.

Among the team's original four members, Sun Cheng had the weakest technical skills, so he was not responsible for development. But he was eloquent and the venture's initiator, so everything from recruitment and daily management to fundraising fell under his responsibility.

Looking back now, that period had been difficult and exhausting, but even amid the hardship, it had been full of happiness.

Unfortunately...

"I'm sorry!"

Bending at the waist and lowering his head, Sun Cheng solemnly bowed to Yang Fei, Zuo Nan, and the other five, apologizing to each of them.

"The fault is entirely mine. Perhaps this startup project was a mistake from the very beginning!"

Thinking of the flash drive in his pocket and the suspicion that had yet to be confirmed, he felt an even sharper pain in his heart. His teeth clenched so tightly that he could not pry them apart.

Clearly, Sun Cheng's humble attitude reminded the young people present of how he had looked after them in the past.

Seeing him apologize with such sincerity while taking all the blame upon himself without shirking any responsibility, Yang Fei, who was closest to him, could no longer sit still. He was the first to stand up in Sun Cheng's defense.

"Brother Sun, what are you talking about? Everyone knows what our situation is. If Huo Miao hadn't been so greedy for money, things never would have turned out like this!"

"Huo Miao..."

Hearing Huo Miao's name from Yang Fei, Sun Cheng opened his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing. He merely shook his head slightly.

Huo Miao was his classmate and one of the startup team's original four members. Sun Cheng had spent considerable effort persuading him to join the team because he was a technical expert with programming skills no worse than those of a professional.

Half a month ago, as one of the four original founders, Huo Miao had sent in a resignation letter through someone else and had never returned. Later, when Sun Cheng heard that he had joined another startup team, he had been so furious that his teeth itched for a time.

But now, he had also realized that the startup plan the original group had made had been flawed from the start. It was far beyond what a small team like theirs could accomplish.

Huo Miao might have set a bad precedent and accelerated the team's collapse, but after thinking everything through, Sun Cheng instead felt that he ought to thank him.

If Huo Miao had not left so decisively, Sun Cheng might still have held out hope for this project and kept running around trying to raise more money to pour into it.

If that had happened, he would likely have lost even more miserably than he had now.

With a sigh, Sun Cheng remained silent for a long time before finally voicing the words that had risen to his throat. "I was the one who proposed this project. At first, I only saw the potential in cross-platform mobile game operation. I hoped to develop an emulator with better compatibility while also accommodating the usage habits of Chinese users. Unfortunately, I only saw the prospects and overlooked the difficulty of development. Without an investment of over a million yuan and half a year—or perhaps even longer—failure was inevitable!"

"Several key technical members have already left, and the funds for further development have dried up. Things have reached this point. I thought it over for several days before making this decision. Perhaps it's time to say goodbye to everyone."

At this point, he bowed to everyone once again. "I'm sorry, everyone. I made you so many promises, yet I didn't fulfill a single one. I can't even afford to treat you to a final meal now. I'm really... sorry!"

He bent deeply at the waist and remained that way for a long time, Sun Cheng unable to straighten up.

The office fell silent. After quite a while, the sound of muffled sobbing could be heard. The only young woman among them had covered her mouth and begun to cry quietly.

After that, no one spoke. But footsteps began to sound—one set, then another, then a stream of them heading straight out the office door, until they could no longer be heard.

Throughout it all, Sun Cheng remained bent over in his bow, never once raising his head.

After a long while, he wiped away the tears spilling from the corners of his eyes. Thinking everyone had already left, he finally raised his head—only to discover, to his surprise, that one person had remained in the office.

"Yang Fei?"

Sun Cheng sniffed through his aching nose and suppressed the urge that had just risen in his heart to cry alone.

"Brother Sun..." Yang Fei sighed. "The team's disbanded, so don't be too upset. Actually, none of us blame you. Because we all know you've had it the hardest!"

Sun Cheng fell silent!

Over the past three months of starting a business, all for the dream in his heart, he had borrowed anywhere from three to five thousand to ten or twenty thousand from several roommates he had known for three years.

To keep the team's daily expenses going, he had not only borrowed ten thousand in his own name from a campus loan platform, but also another fifty thousand under the name of the startup project. Adding it all up, the debt on his shoulders now totaled nearly a hundred thousand.

Now that the venture had failed, his roommates were gone, and his relationships had been strained to the breaking point. Regardless of right or wrong, merit or fault, every debt had fallen onto Sun Cheng's shoulders. He truly was the worst off among them.

Yang Fei had clearly read his mood from his dim eyes and pale face. He opened his mouth, wanting to offer a few words of comfort, but nothing came out. After hesitating for a moment, he finally sighed and said softly, "Brother Sun, I left the key on the desk. You're meant for great things—one failure doesn't amount to much. If you ever need anything from me, just give me a call!"

Only after seeing him nod stiffly did the young man reluctantly turn around and take one last long look at the office they had occupied for several months before following the others out.