Chapter 53: A Difficult Problem

Xuhui District, Shanghai. MiHoYo company office.

Looking at the grim-faced and silent Zhang Qianjun sitting on the opposite sofa, and the dense crowd of over a dozen entourage members packed tightly at the company entrance, Cai Haoyu felt his heart leap straight into his throat.

Not long after work began in the morning, Zhang Qianjun had walked in expressionless, followed by about ten men in black suits who nearly scared the newly hired concept artist into calling the police.

Upon learning that this man was the company's financial benefactor, the expression on the concept artist's face was indescribably colorful.

There were seven people in the company altogether. Except for Jin Zhicheng who had asked for morning leave and Liu Wei who was out in the field, everyone else was cornered inside the office.

*‘This guy isn't going to have his bodyguards beat me up in a moment, is he? I heard that celebrities who rise to fame this fast have terrible tempers...’*

Just as Cai Haoyu was feeling uneasy, a figure squeezed through the cluster of black suits at the entrance. The moment he saw this person, Cai Haoyu's heart immediately settled a great deal.

Liu Wei, who had been out in the field, had finally rushed back. With the company's social butterfly present, the atmosphere wouldn't be quite so awkward.

Cai Haoyu hurriedly shot a look at Liu Wei, gesturing with his eyebrows toward Zhang Qianjun on the sofa to signal him to hurry up and smooth things over.

"Qianjun, why didn't you give a heads-up before coming? I would have gone out to welcome you. I just happened to be out looking for the scenario writer for *Honkai Gakuen* today, and you happened to arrive at the company."

Zhang Qianjun, whose eyes had been fixed on the desktop, finally raised his head.

"Do you guys think that just because I make movies, my money drops from the sky?"

Regardless of how Liu Wei felt, Cai Haoyu, standing to the side, nodded repeatedly in his heart—well, it was practically the same as dropping from the sky.

Liu Wei, however, put on an indignant expression.

"Qianjun, you're making me unhappy by saying that. Why did you invest in the first place? Isn't it because we share the same philosophy and are soulmates? Remember when we went to the fourth-floor cafeteria of Jiaotong University to eat stone-pot bibimbap, and your girlfriend back then even said it was delicious? You've brought your girlfriend today too, which shows you still treat us as friends. Look at your girlfriend—"

Liu Wei stopped short like a crowing rooster pinched by the neck, because he suddenly noticed something.

*Holy shit! This woman isn't the same one from last time!*

He had been too busy thinking about how to appease the benefactor upon entering and hadn't noticed that the benefactor had swapped girlfriends.

What did the half-smile on this woman's face mean? Was she about to make trouble for him?

Liu Wei adjusted his mood and hurriedly switched tracks.

"Qianjun, come take a look at the workstation. This is our new game in development, *Honkai Gakuen*. It's custom-developed for the iOS platform and playable on iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S. By this autumn, when the iPhone 5 drops, our game is definitely going to blow up!"

Hearing the name *Honkai Gakuen*, Zhang Qianjun's expression shifted slightly.

"Do you mean to say that his departure won't affect the company's gaming project?"

Liu Wei pressed his lips together and answered truthfully, "There is definitely an impact; after all, he is one of the four founders. But we can guarantee that we will recruit even better personnel to make sure the upcoming game is done right."

Hearing this, Zhang Qianjun's heart eased a little.

Because he had constantly been pondering one thing: how much had the world changed due to his arrival?

In his view, from the moment of his rebirth, everything was a brand-new future to him.

If he hadn't invested in MiHoYo, when would they have secured financing? How much did they raise? Who were the core team members precisely?

These questions, which ordinary people wouldn't pay attention to, were just as blurry to him. The only thing he knew was that this venture could make money.

But matters having reached this point, it no longer mattered. Once resignation was brought up, one could no longer expect things to be as they were before.

"Why does he want to leave?"

Hearing this, Liu Wei knew the situation today wouldn't be a major issue.

"Zhicheng's family background isn't good, and they've always hoped he could find a good job to subsidize the household. He received an offer from Cisco last week. Even after our salary raise following the financing, the gap is still quite large. Furthermore, his family arranged a marriage match for him, and he needs money for the down payment. Qianjun, we know this breaches protocol, but we really have no choice. His mind is made up, and he can't be kept."

Zhang Qianjun nodded.

"How many shares does he have?"

"He held 15.3% when MiHoYo was founded, and still had 10.7% after the last financing round. Zhicheng wants to exit based on last year's valuation. He hopes you can take them over."

Zhang Qianjun was somewhat surprised and also hesitant.

"Didn't you guys establish a founder equity vesting mechanism clause beforehand? Big Brother Wei, this money is nothing to me, but I'm primarily worried about two things. First, will the three of you follow his example later on? If you guys walk out too, this company will become completely worthless. Second, if I take over his shares, I'll hold 40.7% of the equity. Facing an external shareholder who merely put in some money yet holds over forty percent of the stakes, how much work motivation will you guys still have? It might be fine now, but what about the future?"

Liu Wei fell silent for a moment because internally, they had indeed considered this issue. At this point, Cai Haoyu, the true core member, spoke up.

"We hope to conduct a share buyback once the company reaches a certain scale, to be used for subsequent equity incentives and employee stock ownership plans, preparing for an IPO."

Zhang Qianjun nodded.

"Is the new game buy-to-play or gacha-monetized?"

Cai Haoyu was momentarily stunned, but quickly reacted.

"Buy-to-play."

Zhang Qianjun chuckled softly.

"Buy-to-play won't make a damn bit of money. Whatever. Have the contract drafted and coordinate with the people at Mercury Investment. Let's hope Zhicheng found a good wife."

While Liu Wei was still wondering what this had to do with Jin Zhicheng finding a good wife, he saw Zhang Qianjun stand up, preparing to leave.

So he hurriedly rose alongside Cai Haoyu. After declining an invitation to dine together, Zhang Qianjun left the small company.

Watching the group split into two elevator trips just to get downstairs, Liu Wei smiled and said to Cai Haoyu, "It seems the big celebrity is really afraid we'll just tank and run away."

Cai Haoyu nodded. "I reckon he's mostly afraid of losing face. Look at that entourage—he's clearly someone who values his pride above all else."

Leaving the building where MiHoYo was located, Ye Qing looked at Zhang Qianjun with great interest.

"You really don't hide anything from me, do you?"

Zhang Qianjun pulled her into his embrace and stared into her eyes. "If I hid things from you, how could I show off? That would take away so much of the fun."

Ye Qing stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the cheek. "I really hope that next time, the time after that, and every time in the future, the person accompanying you is still me."

Zhang Qianjun laughed out loud. "Then you'll have to learn how to be an assistant from Xiaoyu. Actors simply can't stay by my side all the time."

Hearing this, Ye Qing glanced at Chen Xiaoyu, who was half a step behind them on the other side, and unexpectedly found their gazes meeting with a tacit mutual understanding.

Exchanging a smile with her, Ye Qing resumed asking about the subsequent schedule.

"What else could there be? You're going to prepare to join the cast of *Same Root, Same Dream*, while I'll gather the team for a script seminar to see what issues *Keep You Safe* has. You have no idea—when we first discussed *Better Days* in my cabin, those guys roasted me so hard I had nowhere to hide my face."

Back in Beijing, in the familiar one-bedroom apartment, the only difference was the addition of a young man with a buzz cut and black-framed glasses.

Wen Muye, a 2011 directorial graduate student from the Beijing Film Academy, was currently studying under Professor Tian. Hearing that Zhang Qianjun was starting a new project, Liu Chang had brought him along.

After everyone picked up the scripts and read through them for a while, Li Kai was the first to raise a question.

"Qianjun, I only have one point of confusion. In the movie, the anchor's assistant has a WeChat video chat with the anchor, and then the anchor live-streams while facing the phone screen. Does WeChat even have that feature right now?"

Zhang Qianjun recalled for a moment. "My friends at Tencent said this feature will launch in July this year. We can just ask WeChat if they want to do product placement."

Liu Chang chimed in from the side, "There are way too many places in this script suitable for product placement: Weibo, Tieba, Bilibili, YY Live, Shengda Literature, and so on. After all, it's closely tied to the internet era. But why isn't AcFun mentioned in your story?"

Zhang Qianjun thought to himself, *How am I supposed to answer this? I can't just blurt out that A-station is going under.*

He simply ignored Liu Chang's question and instead looked toward Han Qiming and Wen Muye.

"Qiming, Muye, you two share your thoughts as well. Let's pick out the flaws first, and then look at how to handle the problems. Under the premise of ensuring the overall logic holds up, try to enhance the entertainment value. After all, this film is essentially a comedy, and we can't deviate from that."

Han Qiming smacked his lips. "The other issues aren't huge, but later on, the grave of Han Lu's boyfriend is relocated by his sister, and the male protagonist goes to snatch the urn. That doesn't feel right. Stopping the boyfriend's sister from moving Han Lu's grave is fine, but when someone relocates their own younger brother's grave and you go snatching their urn, that's outright mental illness. Yet without this subplot, many subsequent scenes can't unfold. It feels tricky to handle."

Zhang Qianjun nodded. "Okay, Brother Kai, note that down. How about Muye? Don't hold back; speak your mind freely."

After some careful thought, Wen Muye spoke cautiously, "Would it be better if Han Lu were truly a hostess? That way, it feels like there's more depth to explore."

Zhang Qianjun pondered briefly. "If we did that, wouldn't the whole theme shift to whether hostesses should be discriminated against? That's a tough topic to steer."

Hearing this, Wen Muye nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Whether a grave can be relocated should depend on the contract, not on chastity. If she really were a hostess, Han Lu wouldn't be a flawless victim."

Seeing that everyone else had no further questions, Zhang Qianjun finally shared his own thoughts.

"Actually, if you view this film as a wuxia movie, it becomes easy to understand: stepping up for righteousness, suffering ten years of prison, walking the mortal world once more, yet keeping a promise worth a thousand gold. Of course, acting as a knight-errant has its retribution, which is why the protagonist ends up in detention for fourteen days, saddled with 150,000 in debt, forced to downgrade from four wheels to two, and his daughter has to return home with her stepfather. Do you guys think this ending is exceptionally realistic?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Chang waved his hands dismissively. "Damn, stop talking. I was just about to bring up whether the protagonist ends up living too miserably, and hearing you put it like that makes it feel even more depressing."

Seeing that the script discussion had concluded, Zhang Qianjun was just about to talk about character casting when Liu Chang brought up another matter concerning *So Young*.

"Qianjun, aren't you going to contribute a theme song or ending track for *So Young*?"

Zhang Qianjun scratched his head; he had almost forgotten about *So Young*. "Can't we just use *Bubble*? All romances are bubbles—it fits the theme so well."

Liu Chang rolled his eyes upon hearing this. "You can't just keep pulling out old songs to cope. Do you have anything else that's suitable?"

Zhang Qianjun recalled the song copyrights he had registered previously. "Then let's use *Silence*, a song Lao Zhang sings to Ruan Guan."