"You... sigh!" Lang Xi sighed heavily.
"SevenGames wants to collaborate with us to complete the game."
Yu Nan looked completely bewildered. Zhu Yao pondered for a moment and said, "Are you suggesting we clean up this mess?"
Lang Xi nodded: "It's not entirely a mess. Qiyou directly offered us shares on the condition that we plan the subsequent storylines and gameplay for those games."
"Are they looking for a hitman?"
The game by Qiyou is strange from beginning to end, like a greedy behemoth desperately devouring everything that can be used to make money.
"SevenGames is willing to share the profits from the game... Take a look, the profits are quite substantial."
Zhu Yao flipped through the contract Lang Xi had brought and understood what was going on.
It's likely that 7game realized the game was going to be a flop.
Without a suitable team to operate the subsequent content, those games will eventually shut down; if someone is willing to take over the mess, even if they have to give up their share of the profits, it's still a lot of money.
"Then why don't they let the game development team run it?"
Zhu Yao asked the question that had been nagging at her for a long time. The games developed by 7Games are all very mature and have a high level of completion. With a team like that, why bother finding someone else to operate them…?
"This is the strangest thing about Qiyou: all the games are planned by Li Zhimin, while the programming and art are outsourced. But Li Zhimin doesn't plan to continue as a game planner; she wants to go into other fields to make money and can't take care of these games anymore."
Yu Nan was speechless, and Zhu Yao was also surprised: "If she's so talented, why doesn't she continue making games..."
"Li Zhimin admitted that she made games to make a quick profit, a short-sighted scheme to reap the rewards and then shut down completely. The person who contacted us is the current head of the Shuai Group. She and Li Zhimin are in a relationship, and she wants to preserve Li Zhimin's work in the gaming industry..."
"That's why they chose us as their ghostwriters."
Yu Nan was a little frustrated. She wished she could make Qiyou's game, but even after studying hard, she could only manage a draw with Qiyou's unfinished game.
That Li Zhimin, she makes incredibly amazing games but she squanders her talent. It's outrageous.
"To accept or not to accept?"
Just then, Wolf Blade Studio finished all its projects and needed a new project to hone its game development skills... Chang Jingxue and Ning Chen left Binhai City after the celebration banquet, so it was naturally inappropriate to ask them to come back and help with the new game.
The collaboration with 7game was like a godsend.
Just then, Lang Xi's phone rang; it was Ning Chen.
"Hello? Huh? What? It's you. Oh, no wonder you were looking for us. Okay, I trust you too much."
Under the scrutinizing gazes of Zhu Yao and Yu Nan, Lang Xi hung up the phone and gave a wry smile: "Whether I like it or not, I have to accept it. Ning Chen found the cooperation with Qiyou."
"Ning Chen knows the higher-ups at Qiyou and recommended our studio there..."
No wonder 7Games was able to choose Wolf Blade Studio from among so many game studios.
“Cooperation is fine, but I have a request,” Yu Nan suddenly looked up, “I want to meet with Li Zhimin.”
Lang Xi was a little surprised: "Are you going to fight?"
"I want to see what such a talented producer is like. And why she would give up game development so easily."
"Okay, I'll ask around for you."
However, after Lang Xi's perfunctory communication, Qi You explicitly rejected Yu Nan's request.
Yu Nan was very unhappy: "Why not? Is she some important leader?"
"What the CEO means is that Li Zhimin is a genius programmer with Asperger's syndrome, and she does not have the ability to communicate with people."
Asperger's syndrome is a type of autism. People with this syndrome often have difficulty with interpersonal communication; their behavior patterns are rigid and ritualistic; their interests are limited and special; and their motor skills are relatively clumsy.
Some people with Asperger's syndrome possess exceptional talent in specific fields. Famous figures such as Newton and Einstein also had Asperger's syndrome, hence the condition is sometimes referred to as a "genius disorder."
"Is it a genius syndrome...?"
No wonder I found out online that Li Zhimin didn't even go to university and rarely goes out, staying only at the company headquarters.
In Yu Nan's mind, the answer to those unbelievable "perfect" games was finally found.
Chapter 62 Qiu Yu
Taking over the mess that was 7game, the workload suddenly increased significantly.
Since Qiyou's games weren't single-player, Lang Xi simply called over the people from Liji Studio, since they had experience making online games.
"You are... Xiao Fang!"
Zhu Yao never expected that her previous roommate was one of Li Ji's people.
"Hahaha, I knew you were here all along, Teacher Yao Ling! I'm a huge fan of yours~"
Where is your boyfriend?
"We broke up a long time ago!"
Xiao Fang crossed his arms and grinned maliciously: "Men will only slow me down when I'm coding."
The room was bustling with activity, filled with laughter and chatter from old and new friends. Zhu Yao looked around but couldn't find Yu Nan.
Zhu Yao quietly left the room, and the commotion behind her stopped the moment she closed the door.
Outside, a fine drizzle fell, its threads swirling in the wind and forming slanted, transparent lines.
A single autumn rain brings a chill; the fresh air carries a hint of cold, and white breaths emerge with each exhale.
Winter is coming.
Under the withered tree in the front yard, Yu Nan was holding a transparent umbrella, looking up at the wind chimes tinkling in the rain.
Yu Nan's white hair had faded to a slightly yellowish hue, with black roots. Zhu Yao suddenly realized that the two had known each other for almost half a year.
Without an umbrella, Zhu Yao quietly approached Yu Nan from behind in the rain, her footsteps blending into the pattering autumn rain.
Unaware of the person tiptoeing behind her, Yu Nan stretched out a hand outside the umbrella, trying to catch the autumn rain that floated in the air like silver fish, but she caught nothing.
Yu Nan, who was usually carefree, looked forlorn, like a fragile little animal.
Isn't it cold outside?
Upon hearing this, Yu Nan turned around and saw Zhu Yao standing behind her in the rain.
Zhu Yao simply draped a coat over her shoulders, her warm and gentle eyes seeming to encompass the entire world as she gazed at her with deep affection.
Why didn't you take an umbrella?
Yu Nan handed over half of the umbrella and welcomed Zhu Yao inside.
The umbrella was small, and the two were very close. Yu Nan could clearly see that Zhu Yao only had her reflection in her eyes.
Then, her eyes turned into a crescent moon, and Zhu Yao said with a smile, "I came out to find you."
Yu Nan blushed and lowered her head to avoid the suffocating gaze. She rested her forehead on Zhu Yao's shoulder, feeling Zhu Yao's body temperature.
Zhu Yao grasped Yu Nan's hand, which was red from the cold, and took the umbrella from her, pulling her into her arms.
Yu Nan stood there for an unknown amount of time, and the chill emanating from the autumn rain seeped into Zhu Yao's arms, while the iron ribs of the umbrella radiated an icy coldness.
Yu Nan murmured in a barely audible voice, "You're the lead planner, don't you need to communicate with them?"
Zhu Yao hugged the person in her arms tighter: "It's alright, we'll have plenty of time to communicate in the future, so let's just leave the troublesome matters to Lang Xi for now."
At this moment, all she wanted to do was hold Yu Nan tightly, to hold her lonely lover close, and to soothe her unease.
Yu Nan chuckled: "Lang Xi, Lang Xi... You can really entrust the work to her with peace of mind? When did you two become so close?"
It seemed as if she was blaming her, or perhaps expressing her grievances.
"Honey, are you in a bad mood?"
Zhu Yao used a questioning tone, but Yu Nan understood it as a statement.
Yu Nan hummed in agreement, her brows furrowing even more as she nestled in Zhu Yao's arms, her voice tinged with a hint of grievance: "I don't really want to see them, it feels a little awkward..."
After all, Yu Miao once arrogantly abandoned the people at Liji Studio, clamoring to make indie games, but achieved nothing.
Now he's not even the lead planner...
Yu Nan escaped the oppressive indoor environment, only to find the autumn rain pouring down outside, the vegetation sparse, and the surroundings as quiet as an uninhabited wilderness.
The autumn wind, mixed with cold rain, sounded like nature's lament.
The anxiety and unease had reached a breaking point, and at that moment, Zhu Yao's warm embrace acted like a dam releasing floodwaters, causing Yu Nan to lose control of her emotions.
"Sister, the flowers have all withered..."
In the rain, most of the evening primrose petals fell, leaving only a brown stalk standing in the garden. White petals mixed with the soil, and the ground was littered with the dead flowers.
Zhu Yao sighed softly, draped her clothes over Yu Nan, and let Yu Nan cry uncontrollably in her arms.
The fast-paced and high-intensity work these past few days has left everyone breathless. Even the usually carefree Yu Nan has stopped causing trouble. Li Zhimin's incident has also had a huge impact on Yu Nan.
Yu Nan, who loves games, even fell into self-doubt after discovering that Li Zhimin, who has extremely high talent, was only using games as a way to make money.
Zhu Yao suddenly had a thought—did she make a mistake by agreeing to cooperate with Qiyou?
Instead of developing her own games, she's cleaning up the mess left by businessmen... Yu Nan has really been feeling wronged these days.
Zhu Yao sighed silently, thinking that she would talk to Lang Xi about this when she got back.
Yu Nan's eyes should be filled with hope and love, not resentment and self-pity.
"Are you and Yu Nan developing a new game...?"
Lang Xi rubbed her temples, seemingly having a headache: "We're already short-handed... It's one thing for Yu Nan to insist on making games, but why are you doing the same thing?"
"I don't want Yu Nan to fight internally anymore."
Lang Xi was taken aback, then said with relief, "That's true. I initially thought of using Qiyou's stall as practice, but I overlooked you guys."
Let the professionals handle the professional tasks.
With the money saved from "Disguised Lunar Base" and "The Undertaker's Night Shift Life," plus the profits from the collaboration with Qiyou, Lang Xi simply established her own game company, recruited some new employees, and moved out.
The villa returned to its original state, a private world for Zhu Yao and Yu Nan—the only difference being that the two of them had moved into the same house, along with Lang Xi who occasionally came to visit.
"We're going live! What are we streaming today?"
I want to see you guys play horror games!