The flight was delayed by an hour, and by the time they arrived back in N City, the sky had already begun to brighten. The car stopped at the entrance to the software park, where office workers, some walking briskly and others slowly, were making their way into the office buildings, with one hand carrying breakfast and the other holding a laptop.
Li Xuan usually had little sleep, but after two sleepless days, the baby in the seat next to him on the plane had been crying incessantly, and only quieted down towards the end of the flight. Despite his energy, he still felt a bit sleepy.
But he had a lot to do recently, especially with the game update that week. He also had a meeting with investors in the morning—capital was always profit-driven, and “Nook” was growing fast, so he had been contacted by quite a few investors recently.
The company had already discussed this matter several times internally. Qi Boyuan and Chu Tianheng were not so resistant to funding, but Li Xuan was firm in his stance — he didn’t want to be restricted and was unwilling to accept any form of capital aid, so for now, he had no plans to accept investment.
Most of the investors he had spoken to had been rejected, including several well-known venture capital firms. That day’s meeting wasn’t with a firm, but with a private investor who had a background in programming. A few years ago, he had a good streak and earned a substantial amount, gradually investing in several small game companies both domestically and abroad.
Li Xuan, as usual, had no interest, but after looking at the list of projects the person had invested in, he found several games he had actually played. Though the market logic was debatable, most of the games were of good quality. With Li Xuan’s picky standards, some of them had redeeming qualities. Seeing the sincerity of the investor and after several attempts to set up a meeting, the investor even reached out through the building’s landlord to facilitate a connection, stating that it was fine if nothing came of it, but it would still be good to meet. Qi Boyuan had agreed after much persuasion, and Li Xuan reluctantly agreed to a casual chat.
The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 AM, two hours away. Li Xuan considered whether to take a nap or go straight to work. After thinking about the time he had lost in the ‘Pick Your Moon’ studio yesterday, he decided to forgo resting and focus on work instead.
In fact, it wasn’t much of a delay. He parked the car and planned to grab a coffee from the automatic machine downstairs. On the way, he thought about how seeing Sheng Min every day was always worth it. He checked his phone and saw a message from Sheng Min sent half an hour ago, telling him he was already at the filming set.
A smile unconsciously appeared on Li Xuan’s lips, and he moved his fingers to text Sheng Min, asking what time he would be done. As soon as he sent the message, someone called him, “Xuan Ge, good morning.”
“Morning.” Li Xuan put away his phone and turned around, seeing the administrative staff holding a stack of documents, with several people behind him. “What’s going on?”
“They’re here for interviews. They can’t get in without a security card, so I came downstairs to meet them.” The staff walked up to him and explained. “Xuan Ge, I’ll be leaving next Friday after finishing the work. Before I leave, I need to decide on my replacement.”
“I heard from Qi Boyuan.” Li Xuan ordered a black coffee. “Let’s book a restaurant for next week. Before you leave, we should have a get-together with the team to send you off.”
“We might be busy next week with the game update,” the staff hesitated.
“Even so, we still need to eat,” Li Xuan insisted. “How about Thursday evening?”
“Thank you, Xuan Ge.”
“No problem.” Li Xuan tapped the screen to order a black coffee, then turned to look at the people waiting for the interview. He casually asked, “Are they all here?”
“Two more people are missing. I’ll hurry them up. Xuan Ge, you can go upstairs, and I’ll bring your coffee to your office later.”
“No need, I’ll do it myself… Are you the one conducting the interview?”
“Originally, it was supposed to be Qi Ge, but he’s running late, so he asked me to handle the first round.”
“Okay. Once the final decision is made, send me the resumes to my email.”
“Got it.”
The coffee machine hummed softly as it operated, with the bitter aroma lingering in the air. Behind him, the administrative staff was still on the phone, trying to reach interviewees who hadn’t arrived yet. One of the calls had apparently not gone through, as they kept dialing repeatedly.
Li Xuan bent slightly to take the coffee from the machine, then turned to tell her to stop calling if it wasn’t going through. People with no sense of time shouldn’t bother with interviews. However, at that moment, he caught several abrupt phone ringtones being cut off. He didn’t pay much attention at first but then overheard the administrative staff muttering, “It’s connected, why aren’t they answering?” His mind clicked, and he frowned, following the sound of the ringing, and saw someone hastily walking out.
“Looking for trouble.” Li Xuan’s face darkened almost instantly as he recognized the person. He couldn’t help but curse, startling the administrative staff. He quickly walked over and grabbed a young man out of the crowd. His attitude was far from gentle. The man tried to run, but Li Xuan kicked him in the lower back, forcing him up by the shoulder.
The surrounding people didn’t know what was happening, and out of a desire to avoid trouble, they instinctively stepped aside. The staff, confused, ran over to try to mediate, but Li Xuan snatched the phone from her and dialed the number that had been repeatedly hung up. The ringtone came from the young man’s pocket.
Li Xuan couldn’t help but sneer. The man whispered, “Nineteen.”
The staff subconsciously looked at the young man. In the midsummer heat, he was still wearing long sleeves, and she felt a strange sense of familiarity. After thinking for a moment, she remembered that she had seen him before. One night, he had come to the company with Li Xuan.
The coffee spilled on Li Xuan’s hand left a sticky, unpleasant feeling. He washed his hands for five minutes in the restroom, but the anger in his chest didn’t dissipate.
He went to the kitchen, got a glass of cold water, and returned to the office. Zhao Jizhe was sitting on the sofa, and as soon as he heard the door open, he immediately stood up in a panic, “… Nineteen.”
“Don’t call me that.” Li Xuan reached for the thin resume on the desk, reading it over several times. He flicked his fingers at it, “Zhu Zhou helped you with this? Aside from the name, I really can’t find anything genuine about it.”
“… No, I had someone do it.”
“Right, Zhu Zhou wouldn’t have dared.” Li Xuan dragged the office chair back and sat down, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. “You’re bold. You had someone do it? How much did it cost? You’re spending my money to fool me, huh?”
“… Nineteen.”
“Can you say something else?”
Zhao Jizhe nervously fiddled with his fingers, lips tightly pressed together.
“I told you to speak, don’t act dumb.” Li Xuan leaned back in the chair. “You’ve been quiet for a month, so you must have prepared a good excuse, right? Don’t just sit there. You were waiting for me to figure it out, weren’t you?”
Still silence, Li Xuan tapped his fingers on the desk. “Not going to speak, huh? Want me to do the talking for you? Let me think how to spin this… You don’t know this company is mine? You randomly applied, and it just so happened to land on a dead mouse? You’ve been here before, right? There’s no way out now, is there?”
“I know your company is hiring.” Zhao Jizhe mumbled, “I looked at the job requirements, I can do those things, really. I’ve learned a lot with Zhu Zhou these past few days. I just want to help you, Nineteen. I… I can work without pay.”
“Do you think I’m short on money?” Li Xuan sneered. “Help me? If that’s the case, why did you run off after submitting your resume this morning? Are you here to work, or are you waiting for your fake resume to land in my hands so I can question you? I just realized today, you must have been pretty disappointed waiting this long, huh?”
Under his aggressive questioning, Zhao Jizhe finally said, “I really wanted to come… this morning, I saw you and I was afraid you’d be angry, so I suddenly decided to leave.”
“Afraid I’d get angry, but you’ve done nothing but cause trouble. If I hadn’t caught you today, you’d have slipped in and I’d have swallowed it, huh? Do you have a single truthful word in your mouth? Can anything you say even match up?”
Zhao Jizhe dared not speak again. Li Xuan stared at him for a moment, then smirked. “I really can’t understand what’s going on in your head. You don’t want any pay, fine, then tell me—what do you want?” He picked up the resume, walked over to Zhao Jizhe, and slammed it onto the desk, raising his voice, “Tell me, what are you trying to get by deceiving with this piece of paper?! Speak!”
“I just want to be closer to you!” Zhao Jizhe was forced into a corner and shouted. He looked at Li Xuan, his voice dropping again as he repeated breathlessly, “I don’t want anything, Nineteen, I just want to be closer to you.”
“Just that?” Li Xuan felt his emotions snap, pointing violently at the ground. “Last month, right here, in the same position. What did you say? That knowing about my current life was enough? And now? You want to be closer, and then what? Kill me and mount me as a specimen?”
Hearing this, Zhao Jizhe became agitated, shaking his head vigorously. “How could I harm you? Nineteen. I treat you like my own brother, you’re the closest person to me in this world…”
“Don’t ever let me hear that again.”
“Nineteen…”
“Shut up!” Li Xuan could no longer hold back. His anger built up and exploded, grabbing the glass cup from the table and hurling it onto the floor. There was a loud crash, and water and shards scattered everywhere.
In the chaos, perhaps hearing the noise, hurried footsteps approached the door.
“Nineteen, you…” Zhao Jizhe panicked and rushed to check on his injuries. Li Xuan pointed at him harshly, “Stay back, don’t disgust me.”
Zhao Jizhe didn’t dare to move anymore. The next moment, the door was pushed open, and Qi Boyuan entered, followed by a strange man.
The two of them, walking hurriedly, froze when they saw the chaotic scene in the room. The bloodstains on the wooden floor were especially eye-catching. Qi Boyuan rushed over, grabbing a few sheets of tissues to wrap Li Xuan’s hand, lowering his voice, “What’s going on? Who’s this… causing such a scene?”
“It’s fine,” Li Xuan said, regaining some of his rationality, and asked softly, “Who’s the person at the door?”
“The investor. Didn’t we have an appointment this morning? He was coming over, then heard the noise,” Qi Boyuan replied helplessly, then turned to the man, “Mr. Song, I’m really sorry, something came up today, it might not be convenient.”
“It’s okay,” the investor seemed not to have expected such a scene, but quickly composed himself. He stepped around the broken glass and walked over to check on Li Xuan’s injuries. “You should go to the hospital quickly. My car’s right outside, I’ll take you.”
“No need, Mr. Song,” Li Xuan refused stiffly, “let’s talk another day.”
“Talk about what? Come on. I’ll park the car downstairs, you two hurry up,” he said as he turned to leave, but not before reminding Qi Boyuan, “Watch his hand.”
Qi Boyuan looked at the investor, who had taken matters into his own hands, then at Li Xuan’s bleeding hand, where the blood had soaked through the tissue. He sighed, “Fine, fine. Since he insists, let’s go to the hospital first.”
Dragging Li Xuan out, Zhao Jizhe, who had been standing still, couldn’t hold back and caught up with them. “Nineteen.”
Qi Boyuan turned back in confusion and found Zhao Jizhe was also looking at him, his expression strangely gloomy.
Li Xuan took a deep breath, stopped, and said to Qi Boyuan, “Wait for me a minute.” Before Qi Boyuan could snap out of the strange look, Li Xuan had already pushed him out of the door.
“Your….hand,” Zhao Jizhe stammered.
“It’s fine. What else do you want to say?” Li Xuan’s tone darkened. “No need for the same old talk. You only have a few lines. I have a good memory, I can recite them back to you, even backwards.”
Zhao Jizhe felt awkward, and after a long pause, finally asked, “Was that your friend just now? You seemed close, when did you meet…”
Li Xuan looked at him coldly, and that gaze made Zhao Jizhe feel exposed. His voice grew weaker.
“I don’t mean anything else, I’m just concerned about you, really…”
“Really? That’s certainly not true.” Li Xuan sneered, his eyes lowered as his finger lightly tapped Zhao Jizhe’s chest. Bloodstains trailed down his shirt, leaving mottled marks. “Let me tell you what’s real. You’ve got a problem here. You need treatment. That’s what’s real.”
