Lü Mingliang felt his eyes light up—wasn’t this exactly the best concept artist he had been desperately searching for?

The high price wasn’t a problem at all. Mr. Pei had specifically said he wanted someone who charged high rates.

The key was that this artist was already approved by Mr. Pei!

He had done the classic art concept design for “Ghost General”!

Choosing him would satisfy Mr. Pei!

With this thought, Lü Mingliang immediately sent a message to Ruan Guangjian.

…

At this time, Ruan Guangjian was already at his home.

As a senior in college, many of his classmates would be busy looking for jobs after the New Year.

But Ruan Guangjian was different—he was already being fought over by several major companies!

His artwork for “Ghost General” had made him famous in one shot. Almost everyone in the domestic concept art circle knew of Ruan Guangjian.

“Ghost General” had proven just how popular and promising this epic ink-oil painting style that Ruan Guangjian had created could be!

Many large companies producing MMORPG games had extended olive branches to Ruan Guangjian, hoping he could help with concept designs for characters and scenes in their new games.

On the resource platform, there were also many designers who hoped to collaborate with Ruan Guangjian and have him be responsible for the original artwork of their games.

But Ruan Guangjian had turned down almost all of these requests.

He had already made plans to establish his art studio after graduating from college, bringing along his dormitory buddies to start his own business.

With such a perfect beginning, he could completely skip the outsourcing stage and move straight to the next level.

On the resource platform, Ruan Guangjian’s value had naturally risen, reaching the ranks of the highest-priced top-tier concept designers—he had reached the pinnacle in one leap thanks to the game “Ghost General”!

During this period, Ruan Guangjian had been selectively taking on jobs with very low workloads. He planned to take it easy during the second half of his senior year, enjoy life a bit, and prepare for opening his studio after graduation.

That day, Ruan Guangjian was casually drawing a promotional image for a game company.

It was just one promotional image, yet the quoted price had reached 100,000 yuan!

Of course, the precision of the promotional image was extremely high, taking anywhere from one week to half a month to complete.

But this also reflected Ruan Guangjian’s current value.

Originally, Ruan Guangjian had nothing to do during the New Year period, so after some consideration, he accepted the job and was leisurely drawing it to be completed after the Spring Festival, earning an easy 100,000 yuan extra income.

Opening the resource platform, he found several new messages.

Habitually, he opened them one by one, scanned them, and closed them one by one.

He wasn’t interested in most of them and didn’t want to accept the jobs.

Suddenly, Ruan Guangjian noticed a special message.

It was from Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.!

He certainly remembered Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.—wasn’t that the development company for “Ghost General”?

He still remembered how generous and fair Mr. Pei had been during the development of “Ghost General”—not only had he not interfered at all, letting him express himself freely, but he had even given him extra money!

He could refuse other jobs, but he definitely couldn’t refuse Mr. Pei’s job!

After all, Mr. Pei had shown him tremendous favor!

If it weren’t for “Ghost General,” Ruan Guangjian might still be miserably looking for a job now!

Moreover, working with Mr. Pei was itself a win-win situation. When a good game became successful, the concept artist naturally gained recognition too. Money wasn’t that important in comparison!

Ruan Guangjian immediately replied.

This time, the person contacting Ruan Guangjian wasn’t Mr. Pei, or even the designer of “Sea Fortress” from later on, but a newcomer named Lü Mingliang, who had recently been promoted to executive game designer.

Look at how quickly talent was iterating!

After chatting with Lü Mingliang for a while, Ruan Guangjian learned about Tenda’s recent situation.

In short, they were thriving!

When they were making “Ghost General,” Tenda could only be considered a small company, and Pei Qian was at most an independent game developer.

But now, Tenda had grown to a considerable size. After the success of “Sea Fortress,” they quickly had a new project in the works.

This was the project Lü Mingliang hoped to collaborate with Ruan Guangjian on: “Game Producer.”

Ruan Guangjian considered for a moment but didn’t immediately agree.

“Could you show me a simple design draft first?”

“I don’t mean anything by it.”

“I would accept Mr. Pei’s project unconditionally. I’m not trying to back out. I’m just afraid that my abilities aren’t sufficient to produce an outstanding effect.”

“Please show me the design draft first. If I feel I can handle it, I’ll do it myself; if not, I’ll recommend more skilled and suitable concept artists from my circle.”

Lü Mingliang quickly sent over the design draft.

Ruan Guangjian quickly skimmed through it and couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Indeed, as expected of Mr. Pei!

Such a fantastically imaginative design!

Although Ruan Guangjian wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about game design, he could feel that this game was full of satire of the gaming industry, full of a sense of dark humor!

This wasn’t a shallow game that mindlessly pleased players.

It seemed to deliberately frustrate players at every turn, but in reality, it let players step into the minds of game manufacturers and designers, exposing various chaotic phenomena in the gaming circle!

It wasn’t just a game that satisfied entertainment needs—it was also a work of art!

And the content that needed to be designed in the game, from abstract concepts to concrete images, was crucial for expressing this artistic quality!

This happened to be exactly what Ruan Guangjian was very good at.

Perfect!

After thinking for a moment, Ruan Guangjian made up his mind.

“Good, I’ll take this job!”

“I’m duty-bound to take on Mr. Pei’s work!”

“You don’t need to pay market price. Mr. Pei voluntarily increased my pay back then, and I remember this kindness. This time, I’ll return the favor to Mr. Pei—just give me a token payment for my efforts!”

Ruan Guangjian suddenly felt as if a flame was burning intensely in his chest!

Creating concept art for other companies was work.

But creating concept art for Mr. Pei was an artistic pursuit!

Such a good subject matter, perfect for showcasing his skills!

The two hit it off immediately, agreeing to officially start work after the Spring Festival and begin producing the most crucial concept design drawings!

…

…

February 12th.

The 2010 Spring Festival was approaching, all company matters had been arranged, and the seven-day holiday was about to begin.

Pei Qian had also packed his luggage, preparing to go home.

Although Pei Qian had both reincarnated and obtained a system, which from all perspectives made him fit the standard protagonist template, he had not joined the “Qidian Orphanage.”

His parents were well.

It’s just that his parents, who had always adopted a hands-off approach to raising their son, indeed didn’t have much presence.

During the first few days after returning to this time, Pei Qian had called home to confirm his parents’ well-being, but hadn’t contacted them since.

As for the matter of starting a company…

He hadn’t mentioned it to his family yet.

There were two reasons.

First, Pei Qian would have to explain clearly where the initial 50,000 yuan came from.

With living expenses of only 1,000 yuan per month, barely enough for food, it would have been impossible to save up 50,000 yuan for entrepreneurship and game development.

He couldn’t very well say he had taken out a loan without collateral, could he?

Second, Pei Qian’s father, also known as Old Pei, was a person with very traditional, even somewhat rigid, thinking.

He had considerable prejudice against games!

Old Pei had once said at a drinking table that games were deeply harmful and should all be banned!

Seventy percent was drunk talk, thirty percent was his real thoughts.

Old Pei was quite representative of certain parents of this era, and this was a widespread phenomenon, otherwise, there wouldn’t have been the “battle against internet addiction” incident.

Of course, Old Pei just had some prejudice against games, fundamentally different in motivation from those “experts” who profited from “internet addiction.”

It could only be said that this was a generation gap.

But regardless, if Pei Qian told his parents that he had opened a game company, made money, and sold a Fire Qilin for 888…

It felt like a storm would erupt at home.

Thinking about this, Pei Qian had quite a headache.

Following the principle that fewer problems are better than more, it would be best not to disclose this matter yet.

As for Old Pei, he would need to proceed gradually and wait for his thinking to change.