Han Luyi and Su Niannian got out of the rideshare ten minutes earlier than their appointment.
When Su Niannian entered the building, she looked up at the sign. "Don't you think their sign is more understated than Azure Peak's?"
"Azure Peak started with consumer-facing products, so its sign needs to stand out. Celestial Pivot mainly serves enterprise clients. The more understated it is, the more stable and reliable it looks," Han Luyi guessed. Su Niannian nodded.
The elevator reached the eighteenth floor, and the two reported their names at reception. After waiting for two minutes, a man in a light-gray suit hurried out.
"Boss Han, Ms. Su? I'm Zhou Mingyuan. Please, come in."
"Nice to meet you." Han Luyi shook Zhou Mingyuan's hand, and the three of them headed toward a meeting room.
Zhou Mingyuan looked to be in his early forties, with somewhat thinning hair. He spoke at half Liang Yu's speed.
"The strategic investment team forwarded the materials to me. I've reviewed them." He got straight to the point. "Forty-seven paying teams have deployed on our platform. That's a very solid foundation."
"Several paying clients on our Tianshu Cloud platform have mentioned wanting native integration." Su Niannian slid her tablet over. "I compiled a summary of their feedback. Please take a look."
Zhou Mingyuan flipped through two pages, then closed it.
"The data source was self-reported by the clients?"
"We conducted a sample survey."
"Mm." He placed the tablet back on the table.
Han Luyi activated Sight.
"Ms. Su, could you open the backend and let Mr. Zhou see the real-time data?"
Su Niannian glanced at Han Luyi, opened the BugKiller backend, filtered the platform to Tianshu Cloud, and handed over the tablet.
Zhou Mingyuan took it, scrolling as he examined the data. He paused for a while at the latency monitoring section.
"How low can this pipeline latency go for large teams?"
"Eight minutes," Su Niannian said. "Three to four minutes for small teams, five to six for medium-sized ones. Non-native integration adds an extra relay layer, so every build has to wait. Large teams run dozens of builds a day, so the impact is significant."
Zhou Mingyuan turned to Han Luyi. "Boss Han, how far have your talks with Azure Peak gotten?"
"Azure Peak gave us a proposal for deep cooperation. We're evaluating it."
"I know Azure Peak's style. They come in demanding exclusivity, trading minimum guarantees for lock-in." He returned the tablet. "Our approach is different. We want to deliver the best client experience, so I care more about what BugKiller can bring to Tianshu Cloud users."
"I understand," Han Luyi said. "We prepared a cooperation proposal."
Su Niannian switched the tablet to the proposal document Lu Mingzhou had prepared and handed it back.
Zhou Mingyuan scrolled to the section on Celestial Pivot-exclusive adaptations.
"This caching layer was newly added?"
"It went live this week. We optimized the caching layer for Tianshu Cloud's APIs, bringing latency for large teams down from eight minutes to four or five. But to truly solve the problem, we still need native integration."
"Email me a copy of the proposal. I'll take it back and start the process. My boss can make the call directly, so it won't need layers of approval." Zhou Mingyuan handed back the tablet. "We'll give you an answer next week."
"Looking forward to it."
In the elevator, Su Niannian let out a breath.
"Why did you suddenly ask me to open the backend?"
"He didn't believe our report." Han Luyi watched the floor numbers tick downward. "He's a pragmatist."
"Do you think it'll work?"
"Didn't I tell you? They're all within range."
After leaving the Tianshu building, Han Luyi glanced across the street.
"Let's eat before heading back. Tell Mingzhou to order takeout for himself."
Su Niannian sent Lu Mingzhou a WeChat message, and the two turned into a noodle shop next door.
"Do you think Zhou Mingyuan will report to his boss today?" Su Niannian lifted her bowl and blew on the noodles.
"No work talk while we're eating."
Su Niannian smiled and told him about a post she had seen on Little Red Book yesterday, where a product manager had switched careers to become a baker. It had over a hundred thousand views, and the comments were full of "I want to quit too." Han Luyi said she was already in a quitting-her-job situation. Su Niannian said this was called entrepreneurship—it was different.
Halfway through the meal, Han Luyi's phone rang.
It was an unfamiliar number.
"Is this Boss Han from Source Code Technology? I'm Chen Kai from Kunlun Cloud's Developer Ecosystem Department."
Su Niannian's chopsticks froze in midair.
"Mr. Chen, hello, hello."
"Here's the thing. We noticed that your company has recently been in contact with Azure Peak Cloud and Tianshu Cloud. Kunlun Cloud is also expanding into AI developer tools, so I wanted to ask whether Boss Han would be interested in talking."
"I am. When would work?"
"Would next Wednesday afternoon be convenient? We have an event in Haicheng on Thursday, so I'll come over a day early."
"Sure. I'll add you on WeChat, and we can confirm the exact time there. Is this the right number?"
Han Luyi hung up, turned to Su Niannian, and was clearly holding back a laugh.
Su Niannian lowered her head over her noodles without even looking up. "No work talk while we're eating."
"So not only did you meet with Tianshu, Kunlun came knocking too?"
By the time they returned to 502, it was nearly two o'clock. Su Niannian rattled off everything about Tianshu and Kunlun in one breath, and Lu Mingzhou opened his mouth in surprise.
"Neither of them wants exclusivity?"
"Tianshu explicitly doesn't. We haven't discussed Kunlun's terms yet, but they approached us, so they won't come in too hard."
"Then Azure Peak is the only one left."
"Azure Peak will come back."
At the end of August, sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves of the plane trees, scattering broken shadows across the gray-brick road. The ground floors of the old houses lining the street had all been converted into shops, with milk tea stores and general stores crowded together. The air carried an indescribable mix of smells. Pinewind Teahouse was tucked away at the end of an alley, its storefront only half a room wide, with a faded wooden sign hanging outside. Chen Kai had arranged the place.
Han Luyi came to the meeting alone.
Chen Kai looked to be in his early forties. His hair was gray at the temples and slicked back. He wore an expensive gray suit and looked more like a finance professional than an internet man.
He poured Pu'er tea for both of them, then set the teapot aside.
"Boss Han, I'll be direct. CodeSafe from Ding Sheng is gaining too much momentum. Kunlun can't afford to have nothing. I came here with sincerity."
Han Luyi activated Sight.
Chen Kai pulled a document from his briefcase and slid it over.
"This is our proposal. Non-exclusive, an eighty-five-fifteen revenue split, a monthly minimum guarantee of one hundred fifty thousand, with promotional resources calculated separately."
Han Luyi lifted his teacup and took a sip.
Once traffic picked up, the revenue split would be considerable, and the minimum guarantee would become meaningless. The guarantee wasn't worth fighting over. The split was the long-term money.
"The guarantee is fine, but I'd like to discuss the split."
Chen Kai hadn't expected him not to negotiate over the guarantee. "Eighty-five-fifteen is our standard term."
"Standard terms are for standard products," Han Luyi said. "Mr. Chen, I want 92%."
Chen Kai ran his thumb around the rim of his cup.
"Ninety-ten. I can approve that."
"92%," Han Luyi said. "That's my offer. It won't change."
Chen Kai slapped his thigh.
"Boss Han, you won't give an inch. This exceeds my authority—I need to ask my superiors." As he spoke, he stood and walked outside with his phone.
Han Luyi sat quietly.
A few minutes later, Chen Kai returned. "Boss Han, good news. My superiors agreed. Once I'm back, I'll start the process and send you the revised proposal."
"Pleasure working with you." Han Luyi stood.
Source Code Technology's executives gathered around a whiteboard in 502.
Tianshu: Non-exclusive / 200,000 minimum guarantee / 85%
Kunlun: Non-exclusive / 150,000 minimum guarantee / 92%
Azure Peak: -
Lu Mingzhou let out a breath. "Azure Peak is the only one left."
Han Luyi looked at the blank space on the board. "Azure Peak will come back."
His phone rang.
Caller ID: Azure Peak—Liang Yu.
502 fell silent. When Su Niannian saw the screen, she sat up straighter.
Han Luyi answered.
"Boss Han, about last time... we handled it a little too hastily."
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