Sun Guoping was filled with malice. "Hmph, so you're the new lead artist? No wonder you have that sly, seductive look—must be really good at blowing pillows..."
"Sun Guoping." Pei Cizhou cut him off coldly, "My brother never told you that your job here is solely to assist me."
Sun Guoping's face twisted in anger. Of course he had been told, but what does this kid know?
From registering the company, finding the address, decorating the office, opening accounts, recruiting staff, to setting projects—all of it was done hand-in-hand by him. Besides writing programs and finalizing game mechanics, wasn’t he the one running all the business operations? After all, Pei Cizhou was still just a kid who had to go to school.
"Xiao Zhou, I personally brought DreamQuest up from scratch. I watched it grow from just a name to the scale it is now," Sun Guoping said earnestly. "We’re only six months away from going public, and now you’re throwing all the preparatory work out the window for some woman. Not only have you wasted two months, but the launch date has to be pushed back indefinitely!"
He shot a fierce glare at the femme fatale beside him. "Our company can’t afford such delays. Even if you want to make changes, why not wait until after we go public, when we have some cash flow, and then slowly make adjustments?"
Despite the long-winded tirade, Qiuyun remained silent, even though she was offended.
First, she had no obligation to solve someone else’s problems when they were taking their anger out on her.
Second, she wanted to see how her future direct superior would handle this situation, to test the waters.
Pei Cizhou leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and lazily asked, "Who gave the name?"
"What?" Sun Guoping was caught off guard.
Pei Cizhou repeated, "From nothing to something, from just a name to the scale it is now."
"Xiao Zhou, well..." Sun Guoping hesitated.
"Answer me."
Sun Guoping’s face turned ashen. "...You did."
"Running the business registration, the bank, the agencies, the decorators, the job market," Pei Cizhou tapped the edge of the desk with his finger. "Are these tasks so technically demanding? If I wanted, couldn’t I find someone to replace you?"
Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, Sun Guoping was instantly frozen by the casual humiliation.
"I called you 'Uncle' before out of respect for my brother," Pei Cizhou smiled faintly, but his eyes were cold. "But now, it seems you don’t know your place. You’re trying to use your mere three percent stake to dominate the decisions of me, the founder."
His words were blunt and unapologetic.
Especially considering the other man was over a decade older.
Sun Guoping had been a college student back in their generation, fighting tooth and nail to reach his current position. Now, he was being looked down on by a high school kid who hadn’t even fully grown up yet, with a smirk that made him furious.
Pei Cizhou, calm and collected, continued, "As a subordinate, your first duty after a leader makes a decision is to obey, not to storm in here angrily questioning me. What, your previous boss never taught you that? Fine, today I’ll teach you for free—no need to thank me."
So harsh.
Qiuyun couldn’t help but glance sideways.
No wonder they call him Demon Boy.
"What makes you so damn special?!" Sun Guoping snapped, enraged by the high-handed attitude of this kid.
He yanked off his tie and threw it on the floor. “You’re nothing but someone who got lucky being born into a good family! Otherwise, what do you think I’ve been acting all this time? Did you really think I was praising you before? Without a good father, who do you think you are?”
“Oh, and that crappy game you’re always fiddling with—just selling those useless devices costs users thirty-eight thousand! With such a high barrier to entry, plus all the extra charges, nowadays free-to-play rules the market. Do you really think anyone’s going to play it? I’m telling you, I’ve had enough. I don’t want to waste my time on this anymore!”
With that, he slammed the table and stormed out of the office in a rage.
The room fell into silence. Daniel stepped forward to take charge. “Alright, everyone, that’s it. Break up and get back to your work.”
The office was quiet.
Pei Cizhou glanced at his new art director and cleared his throat, wanting to explain that he wasn’t really so... harsh on his subordinates.
Qiuyun quickly cut in, “These are extraordinary times. We understand.”
After all, this so-called veteran employee, who fancied himself as having contributed greatly to the company, couldn’t accept his place. He relied on his status and age to look down on Qiao Tuo, the young founder. Pei Cizhou’s temperament simply wouldn’t tolerate that.
If the company had money, he would have coldly fired him already.
But now, since even Pei Cizhou’s own pockets were empty, he couldn’t afford the severance pay. The best he could do was to provoke the guy into quitting in anger, saving himself the trouble.
Pei Cizhou’s expression softened a bit, and he couldn’t help but look at Qiuyun with renewed respect.
Working with smart people was truly a relief.
“Daniel,” Pei Cizhou called.
The secretary came in. “Mr. Pei.”
“Go negotiate the termination with him,” Pei Cizhou said. “And tell my brother to arrange a good job as compensation for Sun Guoping.” He tapped the edge of the desk. “Also, get our company’s original three percent shares out of the deal.”
No matter if the game ultimately succeeds or not, he wasn’t going to let his assets fall into anyone else’s hands.
Daniel asked, “Who will be the final owner of those shares?”
Pei Cizhou looked toward Qiuyun.
She refused outright, “Don’t look at me. I don’t have the money to buy them.”
“...”
Then his gaze shifted to Jiang Chuling, who had just finished lunch and gone back to the game room for another round.
Qiuyun helped refuse on her behalf. “Forget it. The young lady is still in elementary school. Her monthly allowance is only five hundred thousand, and even that isn’t enough for her.”
It really wasn’t.
Pei Cizhou sighed, rubbing his forehead as he told Daniel, “Forget it. Just fool that Sun guy into thinking even I don’t want to take over. Those shares will rot in his hands sooner or later. Meanwhile, try to push the price down.”
“...”
That was a bit too convenient.
Qiuyun gave a thumbs up.
As expected of you.
By the afternoon, Jiang Chuling had cleared two levels and still wasn’t satisfied. She’d been lucky, picking the two most polished game dungeons, and didn’t want to log off.
“Pei gege, can I buy the first game console?”
Pei Cizhou squinted and smiled. “No, but you can have the second one. Console number 002 belongs to your brother.”
“Yay!”
Jiang Chuling was delighted.
She felt this summer vacation was absolutely perfect!
Hot summer vacation, and being able to hang out with her two dear older brothers was already more than enough for her as a little sister.
With only five days left, Jiang Chuling spent almost every day in the air-conditioned room, carving wood, painting, and playing the violin. Occasionally, she would go swimming at the pool or take advantage of the cool evening to ride horses at the ranch or play a few rounds of tennis.
Qiuyun, on the other hand, was quite busy.
Recently, the lady had just taken over as housekeeper. Whether it was Assistant Sun deliberately making things difficult to discourage her or some other reason, the daily chores had become overwhelming.
Thankfully, it was summer vacation now, and the lady had no classes. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have had so much time to handle all the trivial matters around the house.
