She Thought So Too

By the time the taxi reached the shared office building in Zhangjiang, the rain had stopped.

Han Luyi pushed open the office door and heard a familiar booming voice inside.

"Wait, what's all this on your wall? It's all in English? Su Niannian, even your startup is this intense?"

Ma Xiaofei was crouched in front of Su Niannian's board, flipping through the sticky notes one by one.

Su Niannian leaned against a desk, arms folded. "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, get a job for two days."

Han Luyi walked over. Ma Xiaofei looked up, grinned, then gave him a once-over. "Boss Han, wear a suit next time. Otherwise, nobody will believe you're the boss when they take your picture."

"The real big bosses don't wear suits." Han Luyi thought of Lin Zheng's manner earlier. "The venture capital partner I just met looked like he'd come straight from the course."

"What course? Basketball?"

"Golf."

"That's Boss Han for you. Your taste is improving fast." Ma Xiaofei stood, gave him a thumbs-up, then looked around. "Damn, seriously, this office is nice. Zhangjiang! You've really moved up in the world! It's way better than your rental."

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

Su Niannian greeted Han Luyi. "How did it go?"

"Not well. The talks fell apart. I'll fill you in later."

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

In the break room, Han Luyi handed Ma Xiaofei a cold can of Coke and poured himself a glass of water.

Ma Xiaofei's attention had already gone to the ladybug logo on the wall. "Who designed that? It looks great. Very techy."

"A designer friend," Han Luyi said.

"A woman, right?" Ma Xiaofei turned back with an I know what's going on look.

"What are you here for?" Han Luyi couldn't be bothered to indulge him.

"The goddess Su invited me. I'm making a promo video for you guys. Community building and all that."

"Do you need anything from me?"

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

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

"Old Zhou told me. Old Zhou from 36 Degrees. They haven't announced it yet, but it's pretty much confirmed. Flash went through bankruptcy restructuring, and Dingsheng offered a package price."

Han Luyi set down his glass without a word.

"That look on your face isn't right." Ma Xiaofei studied him. "Isn't this good news? Ding Ren's packing his bags, and nobody's coming after you. Shame Flash ended up with Dingsheng, but they don't have a grudge against you."

"I just feel like something's off."

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

"Dingsheng acquired Flash. Is there any legal risk from the report we filed?"

Less than a minute later, Gu Siyue replied:

"The law protects the identity of anyone who reports through regulatory channels. It won't be disclosed directly unless they sue for defamation and ask the court to release the records. Our report has been verified, so even if they sue, the case won't be accepted."

A few seconds later, another message came in.

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

Han Luyi replied, "Okay," and slipped his phone into his pocket.

"Who were you texting?"

At some point, Ma Xiaofei had sidled up beside him.

"Legal counsel," Han Luyi said.

"That female lawyer from last time, right?" Ma Xiaofei gave him another I know what's going on look.

Han Luyi took a drink of water and ignored him.

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

He put extra emphasis on "helping."

"She wanted to come."

"That's not what I mean," Ma Xiaofei said. "Back in college, our whole department thought you two would end up together. The prettiest girl and the best-looking guy in the department—a perfect match. So why didn't it happen?"

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

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

"Ma Xiaofei!" Han Luyi hissed.

"Fine, fine." Ma Xiaofei raised his hands. "Just one question. What exactly are you two now?"

"Good friends," Han Luyi said. "Same as you and me."

"Same as you and me? When you got laid off," Ma Xiaofei said, lowering his voice, "she came to me on her own to ask about you."

Han Luyi said nothing.

"You two can stop chatting and come talk about the project."

Su Niannian's voice came from two meters away.

Ma Xiaofei switched gears instantly and turned to meet her with a grin. "Boss Su! I was just about to talk to you."

Han Luyi stood by the window. The rain had stopped completely, but the clouds hadn't cleared. The road was still wet, reflecting the gray-white sky.

Ma Xiaofei had already drawn Su Niannian into a seat and started pitching his community content plan. "Developer explainers these days are either too technical to follow or too shallow to be useful. My stuff has both substance and humor. I've built an audience of over a hundred thousand in this niche. It's a perfect fit."

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

"Now that's a classic client request. I get it." Ma Xiaofei slapped his thigh. "A hard sell backfires. What I do is turn bug cases into stories. What do programmers love looking at most? Bugs other people wrote. You give me real cases, I'll package them. One three-minute video at a time, guaranteed minimum of a hundred thousand views."

"A hundred thousand?" Su Niannian raised an eyebrow.

"At least." Ma Xiaofei held up one finger. "People seriously underestimate how much content developers consume. Trust me, I'm a professional."

Su Niannian glanced at Han Luyi. He nodded.

"Okay. Go back and write up a proposal for me," Su Niannian said. "Format, posting frequency, revenue split—spell it all out. And remember to give us a discount."

"Got it!" Ma Xiaofei snapped to attention. "Boss Su doesn't waste time."

Ma Xiaofei gathered his things to leave.

Su Niannian stopped Han Luyi. "Luyi, everyone accepted their offers. But I sat in on all their interviews. How should I put this... Are you sure?"

Han Luyi knew what she meant. They had discussed the three new developers before and disagreed a little, but he had seen what they could do.

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

"Boss Han, you're hiring already? Damn. Any pretty girls?" Ma Xiaofei asked.

Han Luyi caught hold of him. "Enough gossip, Pony Ma. Come on, I'll see you down."

The elevator doors closed, and Ma Xiaofei asked one more question:

"My friend, are you sure she thinks so too?"