She Thought So Too

By the time the taxi arrived beneath the Zhangjiang shared office building, the rain had stopped.

Han Luyi pushed open the company door and immediately heard a familiar booming voice from inside.

"What is this stuff on your wall? It's all in English? Su Niannian, you guys are really grinding hard with this startup!"

Ma Xiaofei was squatting in front of Su Niannian's kanban wall, flipping through the sticky notes one by one.

Su Niannian leaned against the desk with her arms folded, watching him. "Don't touch my board."

"I'm just looking, just looking." Ma Xiaofei held a sticky note up to his face. "What does 'P0 blocker' mean?"

"Please, Ma Xiaofei, go get a job for a couple of days."

Han Luyi walked over. Ma Xiaofei looked up, grinned, then gave him a once-over. "Boss Han, wear a suit next time. Otherwise, no one will believe you're the boss when they film you."

"Real big shots don't wear suits." Han Luyi thought of Lin Zheng's appearance earlier. "The VC partner I met just now looked like he'd come straight off a sports field."

"What sport? Basketball?"

"Golf."

"As expected of Boss Han. Your taste is improving fast." Ma Xiaofei stood up and gave him a thumbs-up. Then he looked around. "Damn, seriously, this office is nice. Zhangjiang! You've really upgraded. Way better than your rental."

Lu Mingzhou came in behind Han Luyi, nodded to Su Niannian, and went straight back to his workstation.

Su Niannian greeted Han Luyi. "How did the meeting go?"

"Not well. It fell through. I'll explain later."

Ma Xiaofei cut in. "Old Han, take me to get a drink first. Su Niannian, we'll come back to you in a bit."

When they reached the break room, Han Luyi handed Ma Xiaofei an icy can of Coke and poured himself a glass of water.

Ma Xiaofei's attention had already been captured by the ladybug logo on the wall. "Who designed this? It's beautiful. Feels really high-tech."

"A designer friend," Han Luyi said.

"A woman, right?" Ma Xiaofei turned back with an expression that said, I get it.

"What did you come here for?" Han Luyi could not be bothered with him.

"Su the Goddess asked me to come," Ma Xiaofei said. "I'm filming promo videos for you guys. Community building, you know."

"Do you need me to cooperate?"

"We'll talk about that later." Ma Xiaofei leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Flash got acquired by Dingsheng. Did you know?"

Han Luyi froze with his glass halfway to his mouth. "Where did you hear that?"

"Old Zhou told me. Old Zhou from 36 Degrees. It hasn't been officially announced yet, but it's basically confirmed," Ma Xiaofei said. "They went through bankruptcy restructuring, and Dingsheng made a package offer."

Han Luyi set down his glass without saying anything.

"Your expression's off." Ma Xiaofei stared at him. "Isn't this a good thing? Ding Ren packed up and left. No one's investigating you anymore. It's a shame it ended up in Dingsheng's hands, but Dingsheng doesn't have any beef with you."

"I just feel like something's wrong."

Han Luyi took out his phone and sent Gu Siyue a message:

"Flash was acquired by Dingsheng. Is there any legal risk regarding the report?"

Less than a minute after he sent it, Gu Siyue replied:

"The identity of whistleblowers using regulatory reporting channels is protected by law. It will not be directly exposed unless the other party proactively sues for defamation and applies to the court for access to the case files. Our report has already been substantiated, so even if they sue, the case will not be accepted."

A few seconds later, another message came in.

"Don't worry. If anything happens, come to me."

Han Luyi replied, "Okay," and put his phone away.

"Who were you messaging?"

Ma Xiaofei had sidled over at some point.

"Legal counsel," Han Luyi said.

"The woman lawyer from last time, right?" Ma Xiaofei wore that I get it expression again.

Han Luyi took a sip of water and ignored him.

"Hey, I was just asking." Ma Xiaofei changed expressions. "But seriously, how did Su the Goddess end up here with you? Wasn't she just 'helping' you look after the product?"

He emphasized the word "helping."

"She wanted to come herself."

"That's not what I mean," Ma Xiaofei said. "Back in college, the whole department thought you two would end up together. The department beauty and the department heartthrob—made for each other. How did it not happen?"

Han Luyi frowned. "Don't talk nonsense. Someone might hear and get the wrong idea."

"It's just the two of us. What are you afraid of?" Ma Xiaofei said dismissively. "Besides, I'm not making it up. That time, you two—"

"Ma Xiaofei!" Han Luyi lowered his voice.

"Fine, fine." Ma Xiaofei raised his hands. "Just one question. What exactly is your relationship now?"

"Good friends," Han Luyi said. "Same as us."

"Same as us? When you got laid off," Ma Xiaofei lowered his voice a little, "she came to me on her own to ask about you."

Han Luyi did not respond.

"Stop chatting and come talk about the project."

Su Niannian's voice drifted over from two meters away.

Ma Xiaofei switched gears instantly, turning to greet her with a playful grin. "Boss Su! I was just about to tell you."

Han Luyi stood by the window. The rain had stopped completely, but the clouds had not yet dispersed. The road was still wet, reflecting the gray-white light of the sky.

Ma Xiaofei had already pulled Su Niannian over to sit down and started explaining his community content plan. "Developer educational content these days is either too hardcore for people to understand, or so shallow it's useless. I've got both technical knowledge and entertainment value, and I've built over a hundred thousand followers in this niche. I'm a perfect fit."

"The content needs to showcase the product, but it can't feel like an ad," Su Niannian said.

"That's a classic client demand. I get it." Ma Xiaofei slapped his thigh. "Hard ads have the opposite effect. My approach is to turn bug cases into stories. What do programmers love watching most? Bugs written by other people. You provide real cases, and I'll package them. One three-minute video at a time, guaranteed at least a hundred thousand views."

"A hundred thousand?" Su Niannian raised a brow.

"At minimum." Ma Xiaofei held up one finger. "Developer content consumption has been seriously underestimated. Trust me, I'm a professional."

Su Niannian glanced at Han Luyi. He nodded once.

"Fine. Go back and write up a proposal, then send it to me," Su Niannian said. "Make the format, frequency, and revenue split clear. And remember to give us a discount."

"Got it!" Ma Xiaofei snapped to attention. "Boss Su gets things done fast."

Ma Xiaofei packed up and prepared to leave.

Su Niannian stopped Han Luyi. "Luyi, all the offers we sent out were accepted. But I was there for all of their interviews. How should I put this... are you sure?"

Han Luyi knew what she meant. The three new developers they had hired had been a point of disagreement between him and Su Niannian, but he had already checked the cards.

"Li Ting reports to you. I'll manage development directly," Han Luyi said. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Ma Xiaofei said, "Boss Han, you're hiring already? That's awesome. Any pretty girls?"

Han Luyi grabbed him. "Stop gossiping, Brother Ma. Let's go. I'll walk you down."

As the elevator doors closed, Ma Xiaofei asked one more question.

"Friend, are you sure she thinks so too?"