Ye Zhen, worried sick about Ruiyi’s future, found himself with absolutely no desire to sleep. In the end, he simply got up and dug out a stack of professional books on the manga and entertainment industry to read.

By the next morning, the circles under Ye Zhen’s eyes had gone dark — but he’d also grown stronger for it.

There was one thing Ye Zhen genuinely wasn’t exaggerating about — he had always been exceptionally good at learning. Once he entered a state of focus, his concentration was intense, and combined with his existing knowledge base, he absorbed new material remarkably fast.

By the end of that one night, he had already roughly mapped out the developmental trajectory and future outlook of the entertainment industry, and had gained a new understanding of the manga industry as well.

Previously, when reading the “Chuyuan” studio’s manga, Ye Zhen had mostly approached it as a reader. Now, armed with a bit of professional knowledge about manga, revisiting this parallel-timeline project, he could see the nuances within it — genuine strengths that made it appealing, but also the shortcomings typical of a fledgling startup team.

Without delay, Ye Zhen quickly arranged to meet with the “Chuyuan” studio head.

“Here’s the analysis of your strengths and weaknesses. Overall, of course, the flaws don’t outweigh the merits — personally, I really like this project, and I still want to secure Ruiyi’s incubation funding for you.”

Hearing this from Ye Zhen, the “Chuyuan” studio head’s face flashed with unconcealed delight.

“But right now your studio has only this one work, absolutely no business model to speak of, and your staffing structure isn’t reasonable either. However, I happen to be very good at building this kind of commercial framework — let’s work together to get it done.”

Designing organizational structure and business models was Ye Zhen’s forte. As for IP reserves and content design…

He flipped through the manuscript pages of “Chuyuan” studio’s parallel-timeline manga, and gave the studio head a faint smile. “Are you free tonight?”

“Yes, yes, I’m free every night.”

“No, you’re only free tonight. No other time works.” Ye Zhen said calmly. “And let’s say — if you don’t get to meet Ruiyi’s person in charge tonight, if you don’t get to see any hope of your project being valued and incubated, you’ll be so disheartened you’ll decide tomorrow to give up on this manga project entirely and go home to work at an electronics factory.”

The studio head looked utterly baffled. “Huh, no, I wasn’t planning on going to work at an electronics factory, I’ll keep pushing forward…”

Ye Zhen picked up his phone and glanced at him. “No, whatever I say goes. If you’re not satisfied with this electronics-factory setup, you’re welcome to switch to a different factory.”

“…”

“Any other objections?”

The studio head wiped away a bead of sweat. “None… I’ll just stick with the electronics factory then. I don’t want to go to a different one either…”

Ye Zhen nodded, gesturing for him to stay quiet, then dialed Jiang Xiaoyi’s number. “Hello, Jiang Xiaoyi, could you change your personal plans for tonight?”

His usual cold demeanor gave way to a tone laced with genuine-sounding awkwardness and apology. “Here’s the thing — the ‘Chuyuan’ studio head has been working with me, but after talking with him, I got the sense that he’s lost all hope for the road ahead. No matter how I tried to convince him, he just couldn’t be talked into staying motivated — he said if he doesn’t get some major good news about the project tonight, he’s planning to head home tomorrow to take a job at an electronics factory. He’s already got the offer letter.”

Ye Zhen’s face was a perfect picture of sincerity and regret. “I tried to talk him out of it for a long time, but he just can’t wait any longer. He says tonight is his last night still in the city — he’s flying back home tomorrow.”

“Talking about this parallel-timeline project and his dream, he cried so hard — he said the pressure had gotten to be too much, that he couldn’t hold on any longer. I encouraged him for a good long while, but he said I don’t have enough authority, that I can’t get anything done at Ruiyi, and that’s not enough to change his mind about going back to work at the factory.”

Ignoring the studio head’s look of stunned disbelief on the other end, Ye Zhen continued in that same reluctant tone. “I know you had personal plans tonight, but you said before how much you liked this project, how many regrets you had over it, so I felt I should let you know. If you really can’t make it back in time, that’s fine too — I suppose this project just wasn’t meant to be for us. There are plenty of other good projects out there, so it’s not a big deal either way…”

Before Ye Zhen had even finished speaking, Jiang Xiaoyi’s anxious voice came through the phone. “No! I really love this project! Ye Zhen, I’ll go change my plans with my senior right away! Please, hold on to the studio head tonight — I’ll have dinner with him, I’ll talk it through properly, we absolutely have to keep him drawing! This project has so much potential — how could he possibly throw away his future like this and go work at an electronics factory!”

…

Once Ye Zhen hung up the phone, the “Chuyuan” studio head still looked shaken. “Jiang — isn’t Jiang Xiaoyi Director Jiang from Ruiyi? Isn’t it kind of a bad idea to lie to her like this?”

Ye Zhen raised an eyebrow, retorting without much sympathy, “How is this lying to her? In this dog-eat-dog society, how’s a man supposed to survive without some skill and some wits about him? Regardless, I’ve gotten you a meeting with Jiang Xiaoyi — your project just got fast-tracked through the green channel. Any complaints?”

“None, none at all.” As if he’d dare.

But the “Chuyuan” studio head was, deep down, an honest man, and though he’d agreed to Ye Zhen’s plan, he was still wrestling with it internally. After a moment, he couldn’t help but speak up. “But if I act like I’m ready to give up the moment things get a little hard, threatening to abandon everything — doesn’t that make men look bad? Modern men already have it hard enough as it is, and if I act this weak and spineless on top of that…”

Ye Zhen remained utterly unmoved, looking at him calmly. “Ever heard the saying — ‘Nobody loves a man who’s too tough’? You’ve already finished being tough on your own; what do you need a woman’s comfort for? Is being tough going to get your studio funding? “

“‘It was the worst of times, it was the best of times’ — the worst part is that men have low status, stereotyped as needing to appear soft; but the good part is exactly that too. As a man, why bother being so rigidly strong? Can toughness get you anything to eat? If a good cry can get you what you want, why not go for it?”

“But… but if even a good cry doesn’t work… wouldn’t that be embarrassing…”

“If one round of tears doesn’t work, do two.” Ye Zhen said ruthlessly. “A real man knows when to bend and when to stand firm.”

“…”

**

Because of the Fire Extinguishing Club’s offline themed store hitting it big, Jiang Xiaoyi had originally arranged to have a celebratory dinner with Dan Hui.

That first victory had given Jiang Xiaoyi a lot of confidence, and several plans she’d never been able to act on as an ordinary employee now filled her with the urge to just go for it. She’d planned to use tonight’s dinner with Dan Hui to further plan the next steps for offline marketing and the themed-store chain expansion — but then Ye Zhen’s phone call threw her entire schedule into chaos.

He’d actually made contact with Chuyuan studio!

In this timeline, Chuyuan actually still existed!

Just hearing this news left Jiang Xiaoyi thrilled beyond words.

Now that she was Director Jiang, she could finally, decisively push the approval process through and pour money into Chuyuan, making up for her old regret.

Only, perhaps because the timeline was different, though Chuyuan still existed and the parallel-timeline manga project was still there too, the studio head’s personality had turned out to be wildly different — where he’d once been steady, restrained, and persistent, here he had become a man who cried at the drop of a hat, ready to abandon everything and take a job at an electronics factory the moment things got tough, declaring he’d give up on manga entirely if he didn’t get good news tonight…

Marveling at how much the environment could shape a person, Jiang Xiaoyi apologized to Dan Hui and canceled their original dinner plans, then rushed straight to the restaurant Ye Zhen had booked.

Ye Zhen had chosen a restaurant with a good atmosphere, suitable for business negotiations. By the time Jiang Xiaoyi arrived, he and the Chuyuan studio head were already there.

Looking at the familiar studio head, and receiving the familiar manuscript, Jiang Xiaoyi felt a wave of mixed emotions. “I really believe in this project. I hope you’ll keep going no matter what — Ruiyi will absolutely provide incubation funding.”

Jiang Xiaoyi was intimately familiar with the project, and with just a few words, the Chuyuan studio head’s face lit up with the joy of meeting a kindred spirit. The two of them hit it off immediately, deep in animated discussion about the manga’s content.

“Director Jiang, I never expected you’d understand the content this well! Everything I wanted to express, that’s exactly what you’re saying! Especially your take on the parallel timeline — it’s identical to mine!”

The studio head grew more and more excited as he talked, nearly reaching out to grab Jiang Xiaoyi’s hand — it was only after Ye Zhen kicked him under the table that he pulled himself together and put a bit of distance between them.

It was at this moment that Ye Zhen naturally inserted himself into the conversation, casually pulling out a thick stack of documents. “Director Jiang has a great eye for content — she’s a real expert, and clearly you two hit it off. I’m sure this has given you real hope for the project, so there’s no need to go work at an electronics factory after all.”

“As for the future business model and organizational structure for after incubation and expansion, I actually had about half an hour to spare before coming here for dinner, so I went ahead and finished putting these materials together.”

Ye Zhen pressed his lips together and, feigning nonchalance, set the thick stack of materials in front of Jiang Xiaoyi, as though he wasn’t fishing for credit at all. “A good manga project can’t rely on content and the creator’s passion alone. This industry isn’t in its wild-growth infancy anymore — commercialization is inevitable, so figuring out how to plan a path to commercialization and lay a solid foundation for future development matters a great deal. I happen to have some background in this area, and since our Director Jiang thinks so highly of this project, I figured I’d contribute a little of my own effort too.”

Jiang Xiaoyi, looking at the thick stack of materials, indeed wore an expression of disbelief. “You put together all of this in such a short time?”

As she spoke, she flipped through the materials, her surprise growing more and more visible by the page. “Ye Zhen, the quality of what you ‘casually’ put together is way too high!”

Jiang Xiaoyi’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Ye Zhen, both relieved for Chuyuan studio’s future and genuinely impressed. “You’re amazing, Ye Zhen!”

In truth, Ye Zhen had lied — while he was certainly skilled at business structuring, he had no real knowledge of the manga studio landscape, so producing analysis this professional had actually required staying up all night studying, not the relaxed half hour he’d claimed.

Preparing these materials hadn’t just cost him a good night’s sleep — it hadn’t produced any monetary return either. This kind of thoroughly uneconomical, cost-ineffective effort was something the old Ye Zhen wouldn’t have been caught dead doing.

And yet, in this moment, being looked at with such worshipful eyes by Jiang Xiaoyi, feeling that sense of complete trust, Ye Zhen found he didn’t feel it had been a waste of time at all — he even felt it had been worth it, carrying a certain pride at having his hard work recognized.

Had working as an employee for this long somehow brainwashed him with capitalist propaganda without his even realizing it?

Meanwhile, the Chuyuan studio head could no longer contain his excitement. Having thanked Jiang Xiaoyi, he moved on to thanking Ye Zhen, and having had a bit to drink out of happiness, he grew quite talkative—

“Director Jiang, to be honest with you, I actually graduated with a proper physics degree, studying astrophysics and multiverse theory. My postdoctoral thesis was on the parallel-universe topic. It was only later that I realized my true passion was for manga, but I couldn’t bear to let go of all those years of specialized knowledge, so I thought about combining the two.”

“This parallel-timeline topic of mine might look a bit fantastical, but it’s actually all grounded in real theory.”

Since Jiang Xiaoyi had quickly promised to incubate his project, his manga career had suddenly turned a corner, and the studio head, feeling that rare joy of meeting a true kindred spirit over drinks, couldn’t help but open up about his background. “Actually, according to multiverse theory, parallel timelines really do exist.”

“The theory of parallel timelines — or the multiverse — was first proposed by an American named Hugh Everett. He believed that the multiverse consists of a collection of infinite, or finite, possible universes, encompassing everything that exists or could exist: all space, time, matter, energy, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. Put simply, the concept of a parallel universe basically means that beyond the universe and timeline we exist in, there may be other universes or timelines similar to the one we know.”

The studio head took another sip of his cocktail, sounding quite reflective. “Nature and the universe really are so mysterious — what we humans understand of them is probably just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many theories and unknowns still waiting to be explored. Scientific research really is endless.”

He smiled and looked at Jiang Xiaoyi and Ye Zhen. “It’s entirely possible that, in a timeline we don’t even know about, there exists a society exactly like ours, with people identical to us in every way, working completely different jobs and living completely different lives.”

“The world is made of matter, and so are people — cells, atoms, ions, electrons, quanta — these are things you can’t perceive directly by rubbing your eyes and touching them, and yet they make up a human being. The same matter also makes up the universe. Isn’t that fascinating?”

Although Jiang Xiaoyi had worked with the Chuyuan studio head before, the two of them had never had a deep conversation like this — this was the first time she’d learned he had actually studied astrophysics.

The studio head had spoken without any particular intent, but Ye Zhen was listening with great interest. “You’re saying that, according to your research, parallel timelines genuinely exist? So is there any way to cross from this timeline into another? What I mean is, what conditions would need to be met to trigger a transition between timelines?”

On the drive to take the studio head home, Ye Zhen kept wanting to press for more, but unfortunately, having been promised Ruiyi’s incubation funding, the studio head was so happy he’d gotten a little tipsy, and couldn’t answer any more of Ye Zhen’s questions.

And yet, the ambitions Ye Zhen had once set aside were reignited by that one conversation with the Chuyuan studio head.

Since parallel timelines and the multiverse existed according to scientific theory, and the only limitation was humanity’s current level of scientific understanding and technology, then regardless of how it had happened, if he and Jiang Xiaoyi had managed to cross over into this world, there must be a way to cross back too — it just needed further exploration.

Was there a chance — was there really a chance — that he could find his way back?

Ye Zhen’s heart couldn’t help but pound with sudden, fierce excitement.