Hesitation Means Defeat

Qingyue Cloud Haicheng Headquarters.

Han Luyi and Su Niannian arrived at the reception desk ten minutes early. Su Niannian wore a grayish-blue dress, with her hair tied higher than usual. Han Luyi wore a white polo shirt with jeans.

The receptionist made a call upstairs. Less than two minutes later, a young woman emerged from the elevator, her badge reading "Developer Ecosystem Department." "Mr. Han, Ms. Su? Director Liang is waiting for you on the twenty-third floor. I'll take you up."

When they reached the conference room on the twenty-third floor, they found an entire wall of glass, a table for four inside, and two bottles of mineral water on it. Liang Yu was already on his feet when he saw them. He was around thirty-five or thirty-six, with short hair and a navy-blue shirt.

"I've heard so much about you." Liang Yu's handshake was not particularly firm, but it was quick. "Zhou Yan has mentioned you several times. I finally get to meet you in person."

"You're too kind, Director Liang."

"Don't call me Director Liang. Just call me Liang Yu. Would you two like coffee? I can have two cups brought over."

Su Niannian smiled. "Then two lattes, please. Thank you."

Liang Yu opened a stack of printed documents—a BugKiller product introduction, covered in handwritten notes and annotations.

"Let's start with our side," Liang Yu said. "Qingyue Cloud's developer platform launched its tool marketplace last year. We've been looking for partners in the code review space. We talked to two companies before, but neither worked out. We conducted an internal evaluation of BugKiller, and I watched the livestream replay too."

"And your conclusion?"

"Your impact assessment is the best I've ever seen." Liang Yu spoke at an unhurried pace. "Your detection rate is high as well. Personally, I really like your tool."

Su Niannian opened her tablet and pushed over the summary pages of the audit report and white paper.

"This is Zhongdun's data security audit report, along with our data security white paper."

Liang Yu flipped to the audit conclusion page and read it for a while.

"End-to-end encryption, deletion immediately after processing, no human access at all." He looked up. "That's some serious stuff."

Han Luyi opened Sight.

[Emotion: Enthusiastic (hidden: Urgent)]

Liang Yu was far more anxious than he let on.

He closed Sight. His energy dropped by 7 points.

"How would you like to discuss the partnership model?" Su Niannian asked.

Liang Yu turned to the second page of the printed documents and slid it over. The partnership terms ran to two and a half pages.

"I'll state the proposal directly. SaaS listing. The product runs on your own servers, while Qingyue provides the entry point, billing, and user management. Technical integration uses a standard SDK and takes two to three weeks to adapt. Revenue split is eighty-twenty, with you taking the larger share."

He paused.

"On that basis, we hope to establish a deeper partnership. In exchange, we'll guarantee a minimum monthly revenue of two hundred thousand, plus a first-year promotional resource package. Homepage banner placement, developer email pushes, jointly hosted technical salons—valued at one to one and a half million at market rates."

"And the definition of 'deeper partnership' is..." Han Luyi picked up the document. Clause Four contained the terms for deeper cooperation.

"BugKiller will only list on Qingyue Cloud in the AI code review space and will not join the tool marketplaces of other cloud platforms. The term is three years, and we will have priority for renewal upon expiration."

Han Luyi and Su Niannian exchanged a glance. Neither spoke.

"I understand you need time to consider it. But frankly, code review isn't a new field. What we really value is your AI capability. Not just anyone can get terms like these."

"Director Liang." Han Luyi closed the document. "We'll take the proposal back and study it. The guaranteed minimum and promotional resources are both very sincere offers, but an exclusivity agreement involves company strategy. I need to go through it with my partner and lawyer."

"I understand." Liang Yu stood. "But I fought for this proposal internally for quite a while. The window won't stay open for long, so make your decision soon."

"Understood."

"Let's add each other on WeChat. Contact me anytime once you've decided."

Liang Yu escorted them to the elevator.

Once the elevator doors closed, Su Niannian pressed the button for the first floor.

Su Niannian watched the floor numbers tick downward and let out a soft breath. "The terms are better than I expected. A guaranteed two hundred thousand a month plus promotional resources, in exchange for three years of exclusivity... A month ago, I might have hesitated."

"Don't hesitate. Hesitation means defeat."

"Han Luyi, you're awful." He made her laugh.

After a while, she added, "Luyi, when Liang Yu said 'you're not the only one,' I felt like you couldn't hold back your smile."

"Did I?"

"You did."

The elevator reached the first floor. They did not leave the office building, and Su Niannian started hailing a ride. Haicheng in August was nearly forty degrees Celsius. Heat rolled in from all directions, like they were being steamed in a sauna.

"They're even more desperate than we expected," Han Luyi said. "Liang Yu was too well prepared. Those terms weren't drafted on the spot. He only came to meet us after completing the internal approval process."

"So what about our pace? Faster or slower than planned?"

"Faster! The original plan was to use a letter of intent to approach Tianshu. Now Qingyue has given us exclusivity terms directly. This is more useful than a letter of intent."

"Get in."

They returned to 502.

Lu Mingzhou was sitting at Han Luyi's desk. On the table sat the Lenovo ThinkPad he had brought with him, a bottle of mineral water, and a fountain pen. He had been with Source Code Technology for over a week now, and the dining table in 502 had practically become his workstation. When Han Luyi and Su Niannian entered, he was revising a financial model without even looking up.

"Finished talking with Qingyue?"

Han Luyi tossed Liang Yu's term sheet onto the table.

Lu Mingzhou skimmed it quickly. "Exclusivity?"

"Guaranteed two hundred thousand a month, promotional resources valued at one to one and a half million, three years of exclusivity."

"What's the revenue split?"

"Twenty percent."

Lu Mingzhou picked up the document and flipped through two pages, even faster than Liang Yu had gone through the audit report. When he finished, he looked up. "A guaranteed two hundred thousand is on the low side for the industry. Top tools start at three million a year. The promotional resources are valued using their own list prices, with at least thirty percent padding. Their real value is around seven hundred thousand to one million."

Su Niannian sat in another chair.

Lu Mingzhou set down the document. "We don't sign exclusivity. We discussed that before. The question is how to use this offer."

Leaning against the doorframe, Han Luyi said, "It's even more useful than we expected. Exclusivity wasn't just the director's proposal. It was at least a hard KPI imposed by a VP. The entire Developer Ecosystem Department is rushing to hit Q3 targets. They haven't met their review metrics, so he's more anxious than we are."

"How do you know it came from a VP?"

"He doesn't have decision-making authority. Add in the performance pressure—someone with real confidence wouldn't keep emphasizing the limited window."

"If exclusivity is a hard requirement from above..." He pushed up his glasses, his speech speeding up a notch. "Then this card is worth far more than it looks. You have an exclusivity offer from Qingyue in hand. Whether you want to accept it or not, Tianshu and Kunlun will only know that someone is competing for you."

Lu Mingzhou took a sip of mineral water. "You know that if the negotiations fall apart, you'll be left with nothing, right? If Qingyue doesn't get exclusivity, there'll be no traffic or promotion. And Tianshu and Kunlun are still nowhere in sight."

"I know. I'm confident."

"Fine." Lu Mingzhou set down the bottle. "I came here to take a gamble anyway."

Su Niannian opened her tablet. "What about Tianshu?"

Han Luyi thought for a moment. "More than forty teams among BugKiller's paying customers are deployed on Tianshu Cloud. Several Tianshu customers have asked whether we can offer native integration."

"Customer demand!" Su Niannian's eyes widened. "The best foot in the door."

"I'll compile a summary of customer demand," Han Luyi said. "It doesn't need to be too formal—just screenshots of real user feedback. We'll take that to Tianshu. We're not going there to sell anything. We're going to help their customers solve a problem."

Lu Mingzhou reopened his laptop and created a new spreadsheet.

"Don't reply to Liang Yu for now. Neither agree nor refuse—stall for as long as you can. Let me know as soon as there's progress with Tianshu, and send me each company's offer proposal for review."

Su Niannian was already typing. "Who has connections at Tianshu?"

Han Luyi said, "We can't ask Zhou Yan anymore. He helped arrange the Qingyue meeting and has ties to Liang Yu. Qingyue can't find out that we're approaching Tianshu at the same time."

Su Niannian said, "A few former colleagues from my old tech company moved to Tianshu. I'll ask around. Check through the customers too—there are over forty teams on Tianshu. Someone has to know people inside."

Han Luyi opened the BugKiller backend and checked the ticket records. "Several CTOs have asked for native integration. We'll start with the most enthusiastic ones."

Lu Mingzhou looked up too. "I know someone in Tianshu's strategic investment department. We worked together when I helped a SaaS project raise funding before. I'll ask."

"We'll push on multiple fronts and see which path opens first."

Han Luyi opened his computer and began compiling customer requirements.

The three of them busied themselves with their own tasks. The room fell quiet, leaving only the tapping of keyboards and the hum of the air conditioner.

Near six o'clock, Lu Mingzhou closed his laptop. "I'm heading out. Going home for dinner."

Han Luyi raised a hand in acknowledgment. Lu Mingzhou packed up and left, leaving only the two of them in 502 again.

Han Luyi asked, "What do you want to eat?"

"Anything."

Han Luyi ordered two deliveries: braised chicken with rice and boiled beef in chili oil, with two bowls of rice. He pushed the boiled beef toward Su Niannian. She opened the container, and the smell of chili oil filled the room.

They did not talk about work while eating. Su Niannian took out her phone and put on a Li Ziqi video to watch with her meal. Han Luyi glanced over a couple of times, quickly shoveled down his food, then returned to his screen.

At six in August, the sky was still blindingly bright.

WeChat chimed. It was a voice message from Mr. Li of Cross-Border Reach. Cross-Border Reach was their first paying customer.

"Mr. Han, someone's trying to poach me again. This time it's even more ridiculous. CodeSafe is offering their product for free and throwing in three months of Dingsheng Cloud vouchers.

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving. Your product is so much better. But to be honest, several people in our industry group are talking about it. I'm guessing some companies have less resolve than I do."

Han Luyi replied with a "Thanks" and switched to the BugKiller backend.

A red alert sat in the notification bar.

[Cancellation Notice]

[Ruisi Data · Pro Annual Plan → Cancelled]