Zhu Yun said she wasn’t going to keep an eye on Li Xun, but she secretly watched him for two days anyway. After seeing his smooth, effortless pace of operation and progress, she finally felt at ease.

The first thing she did after putting her mind at rest was to cut Zhao Teng’s workload on “Invincible Warlord” by more than half, freeing up the extra time for him to go “lend a hand” with Li Xun.

Li Xun made it emphatically clear that he did not need any help.

“Lend a hand — more like get in the way.”

Zhu Yun: “Just tag along for a bit.”

Li Xun said, impatient, “I told you, I don’t need it.”

His bad temper when in the middle of a project had come back in full force. Zhu Yun didn’t try to match him head-on. She lowered her voice and tried a different angle. “It’s not really about helping — would you be willing to just… guide him a bit?”

Li Xun looked at her with a furrowed brow. Zhu Yun said, “Zhao Teng has solid skills, but his background is self-taught, and he’s picked up some bad programming habits along the way. Your foundation is more mature than mine — help him level up.”

“Level him up so he can come back and help you?”

“That’s not really it. We’ll be working on other projects down the line, too. Think bigger.”

“Oh? Are you accusing me of thinking small?”

“……”

Zhu Yun caught the teasing edge creeping into his eyes and knew that if she let him keep going, she’d end up surrendering again. She cut him off. “Zhao Teng is young and has real potential. With so few people at this company, are you seriously going to go teach Zhang Fang instead?”

Li Xun raised his brow. Zhu Yun felt his gaze crawling over her skin, and without quite realizing it, nudged his arm again. “Come on, just take him under your wing.” That last sentence came out with an inexplicably wheedling, almost coaxing quality that startled even Zhu Yun herself.

Li Xun laughed through his nose — a lazy, unhurried sound — and turned away.

“Fine, send him over.”

With Li Xun settled, Zhao Teng then decided to be difficult about it. He’d already been dismissed by Li Xun as more hindrance than help, and his pride was bruised — he flatly refused to go, no matter what.

Zhu Yun couldn’t be bothered explaining her reasoning to him. She just grabbed him by the back of the neck and issued a direct threat.

“Are you going or not?”

“Sis… hey, hey, let’s talk this through calmly, sis.”

“Are you going or not?”

“Going, going, I’m going — even if it’s a mountain of swords or a sea of flames, I’m going!”

Zhu Yun let go, satisfied.

The days ticked by, busy and uneventful. Everyone had more work than they could finish.

As time passed, under Zhao Guowei’s script supervision, the user count for “Invincible Warlord” began a steady recovery. Each update managed to generate a small wave of interest — nothing grand enough to make a real splash, but a stable user base gradually took shape, and revenue was neither good nor bad — barely presentable, at least.

Meanwhile, from the day of the planning meeting onward, Li Xun’s side of things had been advancing at breakneck speed.

One day Zhao Teng pulled Zhu Yun out for lunch. It was bitterly cold outside, and they ducked into a noodle shop. After ordering, Zhu Yun asked him how things were going with the project. Zhao Teng smiled and said, “Unbelievable.”

“What do you mean, unbelievable?”

Zhao Teng said, “Last week we were working on the escort and tracking system. He gave me a task — building the content for the companion guiding the player forward. I stayed up for a week putting it together, brought it to him — and you know what?”

Zhu Yun said, “Did he say it wasn’t good enough and tell you to revise it?”

“No — he’d already finished his version.”

“……”

“Then he showed me his code, and it suddenly hit me that we could probably add a shared cover mechanic, so players could move from their companion without leaving cover themselves — it would make the gameplay far more dynamic. But since none of us had worked with anything like that before, I just mentioned it offhandedly, went home, spent the whole night researching it, came in the next day — and you know what?” Zhao Teng spread his hands, same words as before. “Unbelievable. Already done.”

Zhu Yun buried her face in her bowl, laughing.

Zhao Teng let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

Zhu Yun: “What’s the matter?”

Zhao Teng shook his head. “Nothing. Just feeling like life is brutally unfair.”

Zhu Yun laughed. “You’re so young — don’t go thinking like that.”

Zhao Teng said lazily, “I’ve always known there are exceptional people in this industry, but it was always just a concept, an abstraction. I never expected to come face to face with one. And this is someone who spent six years in prison — it’s absurd. I stay up burning oil for a week and produce what he can do in half a day. I can’t take it. Life is impossible.”

Zhu Yun said, “Your lamp has only been burning for a week and you’re already struggling. His has been burning for more than ten years.”

Zhao Teng looked at her. Zhu Yun tilted her chin in his direction and said, “Try burning yours for ten years, too. Who’s to say you won’t end up just like him?”

Zhao Teng sprawled back lazily and grinned.

“Give me a break — let’s just eat.”

Midway through the meal, it began to snow heavily outside. After finishing, Zhao Teng and Zhu Yun headed back, and at the base of the office building they unexpectedly ran into someone.

Zhu Yun stared at the figure standing in the snow and cried out in surprise, “Tian Xiuzhu?”

Tian Xiuzhu was wearing a white coat, tall and elegant. He stood quietly, umbrella in hand, his nylon coat perfectly clean without a single snowflake on it. When he heard Zhu Yun’s voice, he turned his head and gave her a smile.

Zhao Teng murmured beside Zhu Yun, “He’s gorgeous.”

Zhu Yun said, “Go on up.”

Zhao Teng grumbled but then added out of nowhere, “Don’t do anything to betray the company.”

Zhu Yun: “Betray the company?”

Zhao Teng hinted meaningfully, “If you put the team leader in a bad mood, it affects the project timeline. That’s betraying the company.”

Zhu Yun: “What are you talking about — you’ve been away for a few days and you’ve already switched sides? You’re calling him ‘team leader’ now? Go upstairs.”

She sent Zhao Teng on his way and walked over to Tian Xiuzhu.

“What brings you here?”

“Oh, so you do still remember who I am.”

It was only then that Zhu Yun remembered — when she was absorbed in her work she completely lost track of the outside world, and she hadn’t seen Tian Xiuzhu in over half a month.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhao Teng sprinted back into the office and beelined straight for Li Xun, nearly knocking Zhang Fang spinning several times over on the way.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Zhang Fang came charging after him to make a scene. Right beside him, Li Xun was deep in concentration, typing code.

Zhao Teng shoved Zhang Fang aside and said to Li Xun, “Get downstairs. Now.”

Li Xun’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker.

Zhao Teng slapped the desk. “Get downstairs, I said.”

Zhang Fang asked, “What’s going on?”

Seeing that Li Xun still hadn’t moved, Zhao Teng straightened up. “Fine. You just sit here calm as a mountain. But don’t come blaming me when someone swoops in and steals Zhu Yun away from under your nose.”

Zhang Fang’s face lit up with the eagerness of someone who’d just caught a whiff of gossip. “What’s actually happening?”

Zhao Teng said, “There’s an absolutely devastatingly handsome pretty boy downstairs, and he’s standing right there with Zhu Yun, saying God knows what.”

After he said that, Li Xun’s side showed no reaction whatsoever — but from another corner of the room, there came a tremendous commotion.

“He’s here?!”

Zhao Teng and Zhang Fang both spun around. Guo Shijie had leapt to his feet and was staring at Zhao Teng with wide, unblinking eyes.

“Is there someone downstairs? Is it Teacher Tian? Did he come?”

Zhao Teng looked confused. “What Teacher Tian… oh right, I think Zhu Yun called him ‘Tian Xiuzhu.'”

There was a clatter and a crash as Guo Shijie inadvertently sent a pile of books tumbling to the floor. Zhang Fang stared at him strangely. “What is wrong with you — and what is going on with you today? Dressed up for a date?”

Guo Shijie ordinarily had the lowest profile of anyone in the office, always slumping around in his impoverished-student clothes. But today, for some reason, he had come in wearing a suit, looking as awkward as humanly possible.

Zhang Fang teased him, “If you really are going on a date, take some advice from your elder brother — go change. You’ll definitely crash and burn looking like that.”

Guo Shijie grabbed his bag and rushed for the door. As he passed Zhang Fang, he did something completely out of character — he puffed himself up and said with heat, “Out of the way! Don’t hold me up!”

Zhang Fang watched him walk past, and it took him several seconds to recover.

“Are you rebelling or what——?!”

But Guo Shijie was already out the door.

Downstairs, Tian Xiuzhu was in the middle of complaining to Zhu Yun.

“If I’d known you’d stop paying attention to me the moment the poster was finished, I would have drawn it more slowly.”

Zhu Yun explained, “Things have genuinely been hectic lately. I’ll try to come find you this weekend — let me treat you to a meal. I still haven’t properly thanked you for that poster.”

Tian Xiuzhu: “Are you free today?”

Zhu Yun looked a little awkward. “Today I really can’t get away……”

Tian Xiuzhu studied her for a moment, then made a soft sound of dismissal. He glanced past her and said, “If you’re busy, so am I. I’m very busy, you know.”

Just then, footsteps thundered up from behind — Guo Shijie came barreling over.

“Teacher Tian——!”

Zhu Yun was startled. At the sight of Tian Xiuzhu, Guo Shijie’s eyes filled with emotion, and he was so excited his teeth were practically chattering.

“Teacher Tian! Teacher Tian, you came.”

Tian Xiuzhu gave a brief affirmative and said genially, “Shall we go up?”

Guo Shijie: “Yes! I’ll show you the way!”

Zhu Yun was bewildered.

Guo Shijie walked with a constant half-bow. “Teacher Tian, let me carry your bag.” Tian Xiuzhu made no move to refuse, and handed his briefcase over. “Thank you.” Guo Shijie glowed with the kind of happiness you’d see on a schoolchild who’d just been praised, eyes shining like stars. Zhu Yun stared at the scene, completely dumbfounded — for a moment she almost mistook Guo Shijie for Zhang Fang.

She called out from behind, “Tian Xiuzhu?”

Tian Xiuzhu turned around and said to her with great seriousness, “I’m working now. Don’t disturb me.” And with that, he followed the effervescent Guo Shijie upstairs.

Zhu Yun: “……”

Guo Shijie ushered Tian Xiuzhu into the office with all the ceremony of a royal escort. “Teacher, please come this way — our director isn’t in today.” He brought Tian Xiuzhu directly over to Li Xun. “This is our project team leader, Li Xun.”

Zhao Teng and Zhang Fang stood nearby, wearing identically dazed expressions.

Li Xun’s hands, which had been striking keys all day, finally came to rest. He looked toward Tian Xiuzhu and said, simply, “Hello.”

Tian Xiuzhu smiled in return. “Hello.”

The three of them went into the little windowless room. Zhao Teng went over to Zhu Yun and pulled her aside, asking in a low voice, “What’s going on?”

Zhu Yun: “I want to know even more than you do.”

Just then, Guo Shijie came out to prepare hot tea for Tian Xiuzhu. Emboldened beyond his usual self today, he actually had the nerve to dig into Dong Siyang’s premium tea stash — and Zhang Fang caught him red-handed, marching him over to Zhao Teng and Zhu Yun.

Zhu Yun asked him, “Do you know Tian Xiuzhu?”

Guo Shijie said, animated, “Who doesn’t know Teacher Tian!”

Zhang Fang swatted him across the back of the head. “Look how smug you are!”

Zhu Yun pushed Zhang Fang aside and asked Guo Shijie, “Do you know him personally?”

Guo Shijie: “No.”

“Then how did you two get in touch?”

Guo Shijie said, looking a bit confused, “On the art requirements page of Team Leader Li’s proposal, there was an email address.”

“Where did he get the email address?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, Team Leader Li was the one who told me to reach out. He didn’t say it was Teacher Tian — just said it was the person who painted the poster earlier, and that I should ask him if I had any questions.” As he went on, Guo Shijie’s expression turned positively lovestruck. “But Teacher Tian turned out to be incredibly approachable. When he heard I was an employee at Feiyuan, he gave me quite a lot of guidance.”

Zhu Yun: “Team Leader Li was the one who told you to contact him?”

“That’s right.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Not much… oh, right — he told me to let Teacher Tian know that the company’s current workload is very heavy, and that if we don’t nail down the art style for the project soon, everyone will be working through the New Year holiday. Teacher Tian was very concerned when he heard that. He’s such a wonderful person.”

Zhu Yun: “And today’s meeting——”

“Oh, it’s like this: Teacher Tian heard how heavy our workload was and offered on his own to come help us. Honestly I hadn’t wanted to impose, but I simply couldn’t resist the chance to meet my idol.” Guo Shijie beamed. “Team Leader Li really is great — giving me this opportunity.”

Zhu Yun narrowed her eyes. He just thought email correspondence was too slow for you.

Zhu Yun waved a tired hand. “Go back to your meeting.”

She dropped into her chair and pressed a hand to her forehead. She remembered now — Li Xun had once asked her to forward him the email Tian Xiuzhu had sent her with the poster. At the time, she had naively assumed he simply wanted to see the poster. She hadn’t anticipated a scheme this elaborate.

Li Xun was throwing himself entirely into the project. He was absolutely not willing to let Tian Xiuzhu slip away as an art resource — invaluable and impossible to replace. But for various reasons, he didn’t want to contact him directly, so he had pushed forward his unsuspecting proxy, Guo Shijie, laid a few carefully chosen words as bait, and maneuvered the guileless Tian Xiuzhu into walking through the door of his own accord.

Working through the New Year holiday… of course Tian Xiuzhu wouldn’t want her working through the New Year holiday.

“Brilliant,” Zhu Yun said, at the end of her chain of reasoning, and gave an admiring nod.

Zhao Teng: “What’s wrong?”

Zhu Yun remembered the first time Tian Xiuzhu had helped her with the promotional poster — Li Xun had quarreled with her about it. And now, in the blink of an eye, the two of them were sitting in a meeting together. What kind of magnanimity, what kind of cunning, what kind of resolve was this? Great men are never held back by personal feelings — she suspected that even if you dropped him on Mars, he’d find a way to cultivate a patch of ground for experiments.

Zhang Fang asked, brow knitted, “So what’s actually going on?”

Zhu Yun took her hand down from her head and looked at Zhao Teng and Zhang Fang, then said, “Let me make you a bet.”

“What kind of bet?”

Zhu Yun: “With Team Leader Li at the helm, if this company isn’t wildly successful within two years — I’ll gouge out both my eyes and let you steep them in your wine.”