While working to reshape Li Xun’s lifestyle habits, Zhu Yun also had to continue preparing the legal documentation. When Li Xun cooperated, things went smoothly enough, but the moment he dug in his heels, Zhu Yun’s work rhythm was thrown completely off.

Director Dong had once suggested to Zhu Yun, “Why don’t you find him a girlfriend to keep him in line?”

At this suggestion, both Li Xun and Zhu Yun pretended not to have heard it.

Under Zhu Yun’s coercion, Li Xun had been exercising reasonably well. Once a person starts moving regularly, their entire energy and spirit changes — Li Xun’s work efficiency improved, and even his scolding of others became more vigorous.

Around the time the company’s own legal procedures were nearly in order, Jili Company’s new game, Perfect Girlfriend, began its promotional push.

“That was fast,” Zhu Yun said, standing beside Li Xun, watching his computer screen, which was playing the promotional video for Perfect Girlfriend. Jili’s greatest willingness to spend was always on marketing — roughly sixty percent of the entire project budget had gone into promotion and distribution. Watching the gameplay introduction, Zhu Yun said with a cold laugh, “You really called it exactly right — it’s identical, just wearing a different skin. When do we file the lawsuit?”

Li Xun said, “No rush. Wait for the game to launch and rake in a good sum first. Is everything you were supposed to prepare done?”

Zhu Yun said, “Done long ago.”

Li Xun tilted his head to look at her. Zhu Yun said, “What?”

Li Xun curved the corner of his mouth and gave her a sly, sideways smile. “Nothing,” he said coolly. “Their launch timing is actually quite well chosen — it’ll land right in their peak revenue period when the securities regulator is conducting its review. In the meantime, go contact all the other companies that have copyright disputes with Fang Zhijing. Visit every single one across the board. If they’re willing to have us represent their lawsuits, that’s ideal — we’ll cover all the costs. If not, it doesn’t matter; just collect as much material and evidence as possible.”

With one sentence from him, Zhu Yun was back to traveling all over the country on business. There were simply too many companies that had copyright disputes with Jili — they were spread all across the country. Every time Zhu Yun left on a work trip, she would find Zhao Teng and instruct him to help keep watch over Li Xun’s exercise habits.

When Zhu Yun wasn’t around, Li Xun did have a tendency to slack off. Zhao Teng didn’t dare interrupt Li Xun while he was working, so he could only report back to Zhu Yun in secret and then wait for Zhu Yun to unleash a relentless barrage of calls from hundreds of miles away.

Perfect Girlfriend launched at the end of March, and in less than a month its revenue figures had broken through the charts. Then, on Labor Day — the first of May — Jili Company received a copy of a lawsuit filing from the court.

This wasn’t the first time Jili Company had received something of this nature. The legal letters sent to Jili had piled up enough to bind into a book at this point, so their legal team didn’t take it especially seriously.

Fang Zhijing sat in his office. Two seats away from him was Gao Jianhong. Gao Jianhong looked haggard, his complexion pallid. He was pressing one hand against his temple, seemingly forcing himself to endure a powerful headache.

In front of both of them lay copies of the lawsuit filing. Gao Jianhong said, “Is what’s written here true?”

Fang Zhijing smiled and said, “More or less.”

Gao Jianhong lowered his hand and looked at Fang Zhijing. “You used his source code directly?”

Fang Zhijing said, “That’s right.”

Gao Jianhong’s head throbbed sharply. He closed his eyes and forced himself to endure it, gritting his teeth. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Fang Zhijing said, “You spend all day shut in your office writing programs, and you won’t even come to meetings when you’re called.”

Gao Jianhong stared at Fang Zhijing. “Before, the worst we ever did was copy the style and borrow the core gameplay mechanics. Even so, you still shouldn’t have directly lifted the source code — nearly verbatim. It’s absolutely disgraceful!”

Fang Zhijing said dismissively, “There’s all kinds of open-source game code online.”

Gao Jianhong was furious.

“Open-source? Do you think this is Snake or Mahjong Solitaire?! Li Xun wrote that entire system himself. Where exactly is it ‘open-source’ anywhere? Lifting source code wholesale — and at a sensitive time like this — your nerve is something else!”

Fang Zhijing listened to this with a cold smile. Seeing the expression on his face, Gao Jianhong’s head throbbed even more fiercely, and a few beads of sweat appeared on his brow.

“Lifting source code is disgraceful — but copying the core mechanics isn’t?” Fang Zhijing shot back with a sharp sneer. Gao Jianhong clenched his jaw and glared at him.

Fang Zhijing said coldly, “Gao Jianhong, do you know what your biggest problem is? Everything you do is half-hearted — your virtues are half-hearted, and your vices are half-hearted. Last year when we were promoting Seven Kingdoms, you were willing to run the smear piece on Zhao Guowei, but you privately suppressed the article about her husband accepting gifts from students — don’t think I don’t know.”

Gao Jianhong forced down the pain and said, “That’s because that story was entirely fabricated. Zhao Guowei did genuinely have professional disputes with other professors over teaching methods.”

Fang Zhijing gave another cold laugh. “Oh? Did she have disputes to the degree we described?”

Again Gao Jianhong had no reply, and Fang Zhijing held his speechlessness in contempt.

“This society has room for good people and room for bad people. The only kind it has no room for is the half-hearted type like you — neither side respects you. You accomplish nothing and spoil everything!”

Gao Jianhong was so furious his face went ashen.

Fang Zhijing straightened his collar and said with composure, “When I chose to use his source code, I had already thought through the question of him suing us. I’m not afraid of him taking us to court. The backlog of game copyright cases in this country would take ten years to get through. That’s the beauty of our environment — users only care about the product, nothing else. Lifting the source code wholesale does carry some risk, admittedly, but it doesn’t much matter. Infringement cases are costly to pursue, damages awarded are low, and the burden of proof is difficult. Small companies simply cannot outlast us. Just watch — in less than a month they’ll drop the suit.”

His expression was resolute, his words delivered with absolute certainty.

Upon hearing all this, Gao Jianhong felt such a surge of exasperation that it turned into something almost like dark amusement. He pressed one finger against his temple and shook his head slowly.

“Take a look in the mirror — you don’t even believe what you’re saying yourself.” He steadied himself against the edge of the desk and slowly rose to his feet. “I worked alongside Li Xun for three years and never once saw him give up on anything. That said, I won’t throw cold water on you right now. I’m quite looking forward to seeing the day you ‘outlast’ him.”

Fang Zhijing sat in his chair and said with venomous calm, “Then you’d better take very good care of your health.”

Gao Jianhong said as a final remark, “Let me give you a reminder: his financial backing is absolutely not as simple as just Feiyang Company. He has an older brother, and there’s the lead vocalist from the Qinghong Band — neither of them lacks for resources, and at critical moments they’ll both come through for him.”

Fang Zhijing said, “Ren Di is also your university classmate. How is it that every single classmate of yours supports him instead of you?”

Gao Jianhong shook his head. After that exchange, he felt increasingly dizzy — his vision was darkening at the edges — and he steadied himself against the wall as he made his way out. At that moment someone suddenly burst through the door, and Gao Jianhong nearly got knocked over. Wu Zhen came rushing in, looking frantic and distressed.

“Old Gao?” she said anxiously. “I heard Feiyang Company is suing us — is it true?”

The collision had made Gao Jianhong’s head spin even more. He lowered his voice and said to Wu Zhen, “Come home with me.”

Wu Zhen said, “How can you talk about going home at a time like this? Did you have a meeting? Is it serious? Has anyone figured out how to handle it?”

Gao Jianhong suddenly shouted, “I told you to go home!”

The shout made Wu Zhen’s heart pound in her chest. In her memory, Gao Jianhong had always been a soft-spoken man — carrying that touch of cautious, somewhat stiff quality that the technically-minded so often had. He had never spoken to her that way.

She was already agitated, and the shout sent her temper flaring. She was just about to snap back when Fang Zhijing spoke from the side, “You two go home for now.” He gave Wu Zhen a meaningful look, and Wu Zhen swallowed her anger. “Fine, let’s go. Wait for me downstairs.”

Gao Jianhong left first. Wu Zhen turned to shoot a glare at Fang Zhijing. Fang Zhijing said, “Don’t argue with him lately.”

Wu Zhen said, “Since when do you care about his feelings?”

Fang Zhijing said, “Feiyang has filed the lawsuit and we don’t know yet how far Li Xun intends to push this. If he’s timed it to coincide with the securities regulator’s review period, that’s going to be somewhat troublesome. We need to prepare for both scenarios.”

Wu Zhen asked, “What do you mean, both scenarios?”

Fang Zhijing glanced toward the doorway, as though the frail figure of Gao Jianhong still lingered there. Fang Zhijing narrowed his eyes and said, “If they truly won’t drop the suit, your husband’s illness might come in useful.”

Wu Zhen frowned. “What do you mean?”

Fang Zhijing said with a cold laugh, “Whatever else you say, he and Li Xun were old classmates — they even started a company together. Their bond runs deep. Li Xun despises me to the core, but he doesn’t necessarily feel the same about Gao Jianhong. We need to keep that card in reserve.” He looked at Wu Zhen, “So don’t argue with him lately. If you actually upset him to death, that would ruin everything.”

Another week passed, and the very thing Fang Zhijing had been worried about came true.

He learned from the legal team that compared to all the other companies that had previously sued them, Feiyang’s stance was not especially aggressive, but no matter what, they absolutely refused to accept an out-of-court settlement. Li Xun and Zhu Yun had not appeared directly — the parties dealing with Jili were a law firm they had engaged.

The legal team informed Fang Zhijing that the firm Feiyang had retained had a considerable reputation in the domestic legal world.

“They’ll be bleeding money fighting this case. Even if they win in the end, the damages they recover won’t cover the legal fees.”

Fang Zhijing studied the documents the legal team had submitted. His brow was deeply furrowed. On his large desk sat an ashtray packed with cigarette butts.

The legal team member said, “Don’t worry, Director Fang. If they’re paying for such expensive lawyers, they won’t be able to sustain it for long. Although, honestly, they are being pretty thorough — they’ve pulled together a coalition of companies and dug up a pile of evidence. It’s probably all groundwork for squeezing a better settlement offer in the end. Director Fang, we absolutely must hold our ground. They simply cannot—”

“Shut up!” The interruption to his thinking earned the legal team member a fierce rebuke.

The more Fang Zhijing thought about it, the more he felt he had walked straight into Li Xun’s trap. Wu Zhen was indeed bold and attractive enough, but Li Xun was no ordinary man — he couldn’t have had his source code stolen so easily. The fault lay in his own lack of vigilance. Back when he had “cracked” Li Xun’s encrypted flash drive, he had felt quite pleased with himself, privately mocking Li Xun for choosing an encryption method so outdated it was practically laughable. But looking back now, it was all a carefully laid trap.

Fang Zhijing despised Li Xun — despised him to the point he wished he could grind his bones to dust — but he also feared him. Ever since Li Xun was released, he’d been having nightmares on and off: sometimes he’d dream of the moment of humiliation he’d suffered at the very first competition, sometimes of the split second at the second competition when his eye was punched blind. Whichever it was, he’d wake up startled out of his wits, a frightened bird, unable to shake it for days.

As though the heavens found all this insufficiently chaotic, not long after, the securities regulator demanded that “Juxin Toys” submit supplementary materials, citing significant uncertainty regarding the future profitability of the target company in the proposed restructuring.

Fang Zhijing had also developed the same headache affliction as Gao Jianhong. He immediately contacted Wu Zhen and told her to go find Li Xun.

“I don’t care what method you use — you must make them drop the suit. We absolutely cannot allow the listing to be affected. Let them name their price. If they want a cash settlement, we’ll accept it. Just buy us some breathing room first!”

Wu Zhen was also starting to feel anxious. “It won’t be a big problem, will it? From my interactions with him, I didn’t get the sense that he has all that much ability.”

“You can’t see a damn thing!” Fang Zhijing snapped. “Listen to me — when you find him and that Zhu Yun, lay on Gao Jianhong’s illness as heavily as possible!”

Wu Zhen said, “They were just classmates. How much can that kind of personal sentiment be worth? Maybe…” She gritted her teeth. “Maybe I should just spend a few nights with him. That’s probably more effective than dragging Old Gao’s illness into it.”

Fang Zhijing cursed her in his head for having the brains of wet clay. He enunciated every word carefully: “Don’t go stirring up unnecessary complications for me. Just use Gao Jianhong’s illness. Pile everything on him, whether it’s relevant or not. I’ve noticed that Gao Jianhong has been looking very poorly these past few days — he looks half dead already. You’d better persuade Li Xun to actually come and see him in person. That’ll definitely have more impact.”

Wu Zhen was still a little uncertain. “Will that really be enough on its own?”

“If that doesn’t work, nothing will work!” Fang Zhijing stood at the window, looking down at the endless stream of people and vehicles below. “His sister essentially died right in front of him. He must have a deep psychological scar around people he’s close to dying. No matter how decisive and ruthless he seems on the surface, he’s actually deeply emotional at his core. This time I’m betting he’ll show some mercy!”