Ladybug

On July 1, Gu Siyue sent over three documents: the Shareholders' Agreement, the Intellectual Property Ownership Agreement, and the Articles of Association. Han Luyi held 68%, Su Niannian 17%, and the option pool 15%. The two of them signed separately, took photos, and sent them back.

On the 3rd, Haicheng Source Code Technology Co., Ltd.'s business license was approved. Its registered capital was one million, subscribed but unpaid, and its business scope took up half a page.

The registered address was a startup incubator in Pudong recommended by Gu Siyue. The actual office address was Bug Café.

In July, the cicadas in Haicheng chirped from morning until night.

At noon, his phone lit up.

A WeChat message from Lin Wanqing: "Coming over for dinner tonight?"

A few seconds later, another message came in: "Nothing fancy, just a home-cooked meal."

"Sure. What time should I come over?"

"Five-thirty is fine."

At five-thirty, Han Luyi knocked on the door of 501. Lin Wanqing opened it, wearing a light gray lounge T-shirt. The sound of the range hood came from the kitchen behind her.

"You're here. Come in." She stepped aside. "The ribs are still stewing. Sit for a while first."

Han Luyi had passed by the door to 501 for years. This was the first time he had entered from the outside.

The entryway was narrow. A pair of adult cloth shoes and a pair of pink children's sandals sat side by side. Lin Wanqing handed him a pair of disposable slippers. The living room was small, with the same layout as 502, but the decor was completely different. A floral tablecloth covered the coffee table. Duoduo's crayons and drawing paper were piled in a corner. The refrigerator door was covered in palm-sized doodles: suns, flowers, and one enormous ladybug.

Four or five illustrations hung on the wall, framed in simple white frames.

A cat basked on the windowsill. At the mouth of an alley on a rainy day, standing water reflected half a streetlamp. A little girl ran through a field of dandelions, the wind lifting her skirt into an arc.

"Brother Luyi!"

Duoduo rushed out of her room and threw herself around his leg. A five-year-old did not have much strength, but she hugged him tightly.

"Brother Luyi, you came to my house! Look, look—"

She held up a sheet of A4 paper. On it was an elephant with four legs of uneven thickness, its trunk drawn as a rainbow.

"Looks good." Han Luyi crouched down.

"Its trunk can change colors! Because the water it sprays is made of rainbows!"

"That makes sense."

"Then give it a name."

"Rainbow Elephant."

Duoduo thought for a moment.

"That doesn't sound nice. Call it Pangpang."

"Sure. Pangpang."

Lin Wanqing called out from the kitchen, "Duoduo, stop pestering him," but she did not sound like she truly meant to stop her.

Duoduo dragged Han Luyi around the living room, determined to show him all her drawings, all her stickers, and her treasure: a plastic kaleidoscope her kindergarten teacher had given her.

"Look! It changes when you turn it!"

Han Luyi took it and gave it a twist. Brightly colored fragments formed a pattern. He turned it again, and it changed.

"Isn't it pretty?"

"It is."

The sound of stir-frying came from the kitchen.

The dining table was a small folding square table, usually stored against the wall. Lin Wanqing brought it out and set it up in the middle of the living room. It was just big enough for three people.

Four dishes and a soup: braised pork ribs, stir-fried shrimp, sautéed loofah, cold cucumber salad, and a small pot of tomato and egg soup. The rice had just been scooped from the cooker and was still steaming.

Han Luyi took a bite of rib.

"How is it?" Lin Wanqing stood beside the table without sitting down.

"Delicious."

"That's good."

Lin Wanqing smiled and put a rib into Duoduo's bowl, picking out the bone with her chopsticks before setting it down. Duoduo ate until her mouth was smeared with sauce.

"Brother Luyi, can you come eat here every day?"

"Duoduo." Lin Wanqing wiped the corner of her mouth with a tissue.

"Pleeease—"

"He has things of his own to do."

"Duoduo, your mom works really hard cooking too." Han Luyi picked up a second rib.

Halfway through the meal, Lin Wanqing set down her chopsticks, as though she had found a suitable opening.

"Thank you for introducing that lawyer," she said quietly. "Attorney Shen called me today and told me the preservation order was approved."

Han Luyi nodded.

"She's very good." Lin Wanqing paused. "Not like the lawyers I imagined. She was very patient. She asked about a lot of things I thought were unimportant—where Duoduo's kindergarten was, who usually picked her up and dropped her off, what it was like the last time he came. After she was done asking, she told me, 'Ms. Lin, we have the advantage. Don't be afraid.'"

Duoduo could not understand what the adults were talking about. She focused on the rib in her bowl.

"Oh, right—"

Lin Wanqing set down her chopsticks and went into the room to retrieve something.

It was a painting, palm-sized, on a small stretched canvas.

The painting showed an old-fashioned wooden door. The dark red paint had peeled a little, and a ladybug rested on the doorknob. The ladybug was painted in detail, its antennae curved and five black spots on its wings. The grain of the wood was finely rendered too, with rings visible in the timber.

"Duoduo insisted I add the ladybug." Lin Wanqing handed the painting to him. "So I painted one."

Han Luyi took it. The canvas frame was very light.

"Thank you for introducing the lawyer, and thank you for... what happened before."

"You're welcome," Han Luyi said.

Duoduo leaned in to look. "Mom painted it! I painted one too! But my ladybug has eleven spots!"

"Why eleven?"

"Because I wanted it to have more!"

"Reasonable."

Lin Wanqing began clearing the dishes. Han Luyi stood up to help, but she shifted sideways to block him. "Sit."

Her tone was not harsh, but it left no room for discussion.

Duoduo climbed onto the sofa, tugged at his sleeve, and pulled out her drawing book to show him page after page. Every page came with an explanation: this was the kitten from kindergarten, this was Mom, this was the ice cream monster, and this was Brother Luyi.

"Wait, this is me?"

On the paper was a very tall stick figure wearing enormous round glasses, with a ladybug as big as a person floating beside it.

"Yep! You and your ladybug! Mom says you're the person who catches bugs."

"...More or less."

Lin Wanqing washed dishes in the kitchen. Water splashed and ran, and every now and then, he heard her laugh through the doorway.

Han Luyi looked around 501. The illustrations on the wall were warm and fluid in color, like a quiet person had painted every word she had never said onto paper.

On the easel in the corner was a half-finished illustration. An orange cat lay on a windowsill, while the scene outside the window was only half drawn, its pencil lines still visible. Several printed reference images lay spread across the small table beside it. They looked like commissioned work.

"Brother Luyi, are you coming again tomorrow?" Duoduo looked up at him.

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

"On whether I'm busy."

"Then come if you're not busy." Duoduo said it in a tone that allowed no refusal.

"Duoduo, it's time for your bath." Lin Wanqing came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

"No."

"You can watch an episode of Peppa Pig after your bath."

Duoduo immediately jumped off the sofa. "Bye, Brother Luyi! See you tomorrow!"

Then she ran into the bathroom, dragging her slippers behind her.

Han Luyi stood up. "I should head back. Dinner was delicious."

Lin Wanqing walked him to the door. The motion-sensor light in the hallway came on, casting the same white light over both doors.

"Hang up the painting," she said.

"I will."

The door to 502 closed.

Han Luyi placed the ladybug painting beside his monitor, next to the crayon drawing of the giant ladybug Duoduo had made before. One big and one small, each with its own charm.

He picked up his phone and sent Gu Siyue a message.

"Thanks. For Lin Wanqing's preservation order."

"What are you thanking me for? Shen Yuwei handled the hearing. What does that have to do with me?"

Two seconds later.

"Still, your recommendation was good. Her case wasn't difficult. Yuwei handled it very well."

Helping Duoduo was like helping his younger self, but he would never say that aloud.

Gu Siyue did not say anything else either.

He turned on his computer and prepared to continue coding.

His phone lit up. It was Su Niannian—a screenshot.

The homepage of a tech media outlet—

<Breaking: CodeSafe Announces Strategic Partnership with Dingsheng Cloud, Officially Integrating with Dingsheng Cloud's Developer Toolchain>

Subtitle: Dingsheng Cloud's 150,000 enterprise developers will gain one-click access to CodeSafe's code review engine.

Beneath the screenshot was a single line:

"The giants are entering the game."