As for the new regulations, Qiuyun had already drafted them gradually back when the Master handed over control of the household to the Mistress.
All that remained was to wait for the right moment—a time when she could personally step in and implement the overhaul.
After all, establishing new rules was equivalent to establishing authority.
From now on, within the main branch of the family, she represented the new rules, while Sun Assistant Manager stood for the old ones.
New rules versus old practices—which one everyone chose to follow would, on a subconscious level, be equivalent to whose side they were on.
Once her thoughts were set, she put down her brush.
Previously, she had only practiced writing simplified Chinese characters with a gel pen. As for drawing, she had merely sketched for her own amusement and never practiced it seriously, so her artistic skills were mediocre.
Now that she had to face her colleagues in the art department, only knowing how to use a brush would be too strange.
After returning to the estate, overachiever Qiuyun spent a week getting used to writing with a hard-tip pen and also looked up tutorials online to make her drawing style closer to modern society.
The Hall of Inherited Magnificence, the Pavilion of Misty Veils, the Hall of Subtle Sounds, the Hall of Myriad Grandeur...
Luckily, she often accompanied the Mistress into the imperial harem, and though she wasn't as familiar with it as she was with the Duke's mansion, as long as she thought carefully, familiar scenes surfaced one by one, and her brush moved faster and more accurately, gradually transferring them from her mind onto paper.
At nine in the evening, the online meeting for the ancient-world art department began.
To accommodate her schedule, Pei Cizhou had specifically adjusted the art department's working hours. Employees could ignore the morning clock-in and arrive at the office at one in the afternoon instead. However, most colleagues would show up by noon to take advantage of the free staff meals.
After the afternoon shift ended, everyone had the option to keep working at the company or work from home. As long as they clocked in on time in the afternoon, the time and place of their evening work would be more flexible.
"Lead artist, our planning department has reviewed the large world map you provided, and we've decided to add imperial examination and court politics, national unification, inner-house intrigue, and jianghu (martial arts world) quests to the existing gameplay," the planner was the first to present their department's suggestions.
Previously, following the original plan, they had set the ancient-world background tasks as palace intrigue and business management. Palace intrigue leaned more toward a female audience, while business management was gender-neutral.
But when the lead artist provided the maps of Da Qi and Fengjing, their planning department immediately held several days of meetings. After much discussion with President Pei, they decided not to waste such a complete and mature grand worldview. They resolved to make it the most realistic sub-world in the game—second only to the urban school setting!
The only catch was that the launch date would inevitably be delayed again, though exactly how much still couldn't be calculated.
Qiuyun nodded. "That's fine. You're more professional in this area than I am. If you need any information or materials, you can ask me."
"Yes, we do!" The planner immediately asked about the official ranking system, the imperial examination system, members of the inner-house intrigue, servant hierarchies, jianghu rules, and so on.
Qiuyun knew the first few topics well, but she hadn't explored the jianghu topic herself, so she didn't offer much advice on that one.
After finishing with the planning department, the art department staff had also finished reviewing the imperial palace map Qiuyun had drawn that day and began discussing specific details.
Things like the placement of furniture, screens, and tables inside rooms, the height of artificial rockeries, and the carvings on doors and windows...
Two hours passed before they finished confirming the details for three palaces. However, since harem scenery was largely similar, Qiuyun told them to follow the existing standard specifications and let them know if they had any uncertainties.
Once the 2D team's work was done, it was the 3D modeling team's turn.
After five days, the environment artist had only finished dividing up the foundational terrain blocks for the imperial palace.
It was safe to say this was the most complex map they'd ever worked on in their careers!
No question about it!
A few more details were clarified, and once the imperial palace section was complete, they could start on the great city map of Fengjing the next day.
Next came the character modelers.
Since this was a self-directed, time-traveling dungeon-crawling game, player character models were crafted by the players themselves for better immersion, so the company was mostly responsible for NPC modeling.
That was relatively easier.
Finally came the prop modelers.
Props included but weren't limited to clothing, jewelry, brushes, fans, wooden combs, bronze mirrors, and so on—anything the player could move counted as a prop. These were the critical pieces that enriched the details and created a sense of realism.
Fortunately, Qiuyun had extensive experience. She had come from a poor peasant background and, after selling herself into servitude, had often interacted with ordinary common folk. The Deputy Minister's residence was a middle-tier scholar-official household, the Duke's mansion was an aristocratic establishment, and she'd even had the privilege of seeing the imperial palace.
In other words, she had encountered and understood every social class from top to bottom, so she could handle the key props for every storyline without any pressure.
By the time all the work was finished, it was already midnight.
Qiuyun quickly washed up and returned to bed. The high-intensity work had greatly improved her light-sleep habit, which she'd developed from staying up on night watch.
Her sleep quality shot up!
The next day.
Qiuyun brought the new regulations to the Mistress. Without a second thought, the Mistress had Sister Zhou notify the assistant managers of each building to come and hold a meeting.
When everyone arrived at the Bright Moon Tower looking confused, they learned that the Mistress, having already familiarized herself with the process, had decided on a major overhaul, a major change!
The main branch was no longer as relaxed as before, where people could coast by without effort!
Sun Qiao, who had come along, sensed trouble.
Her third uncle wasn't even here—what was the Mistress doing with a reform? After this, would her third uncle's position even exist anymore?
But just as she took out her phone, Qiuyun called her name. "Sister Qiao."
"Ah." Sun Qiao froze, shoving the half-out phone back into her bag and playing dumb. "What's up?"
Qiuyun opened the app and cast her phone screen onto the big display. "Come up here and do a live demo for everyone. I'll tell you what to do, and you follow along."
"Okay... fine." With no way out, Sun Qiao had to tough it out and go up.
By the time the new regulations had been announced and printed operation manuals were distributed, it was already eleven in the morning.
Trembling, Sun Qiao sent a photo of the A4 page to her third uncle. Five seconds later, the phone rang at once.
"Something this big, and you didn't notify me in advance?! Is the meeting over already?!" Her third uncle's angry roar came through the line.
Sun Qiao stammered, "It's... it's over. That woman surnamed Qiu made me go up and demonstrate. I... I couldn't notify you, Uncle."
"Idiot! Don't you know how to use the excuse of going to the bathroom?!"
The sound of someone getting out of bed and pushing open a door came through the phone. "I'm coming back right now. Is the Mistress there?"
"...I don't know."
"Useless! What do you actually know?!"
By the time Sun Bo hurried back from the city hospital, it was already past one in the afternoon.
Sun Qiao said anxiously, "Uncle, why did you take so long to come back? The Mistress just left a moment ago."
Sun Bo remained silent.
Yesterday, he had fainted, and the Mistress's driver, Zhang Wenyou, had taken him to the hospital.
When he woke up, he was already in the hospital with an IV drip. Zhang Wenyou said that his own elder brother had once fainted for no apparent reason. The hospital found nothing wrong and he didn't push further.
But it turned out the doctors were unprofessional back then—they hadn't done a gastroscopy and hadn't discovered a gastrointestinal tumor, which led to his brother dying in his forties.
At the time, Sun Bo had thanked Zhang Wenyou profusely. After all, what a waste it would be to die before enjoying all the money he'd earned! He immediately decided to stay in the hospital and scheduled a fasting gastroscopy for the next morning, plus a full-body checkup.
At the same time, he also didn't want to deal with the mountain of tasks the Mistress had been handing down, thinking he'd stall for a couple of days and then report the situation to the Master.
But he never expected the Mistress and Qiuyun to move so fast, so swiftly—as if they had dug a pit specifically for him to fall into!
