Chapter 184: Talking about Work and Relationships
"Okay, you go ahead." Chen Fei moved towards Zhu Yingning, sat up straight, and put on an attitude of listening attentively. Wen Wenxu also leaned over curiously.
So she began to speak.
Her thoughts were not long and could be expressed in just three or five sentences. After she finished, Shen Fei and Wen Wenxu looked at each other, and saw surprise and confusion in each other's eyes.
It wasn't because her idea was expensive or difficult to execute, but because it sounded so... new.
It was so new to them that they never thought that two completely unrelated things could be connected like this.
Zhu Yingning said that she wanted to start promoting the game by operating it.
The enduring popularity of both "The Sims" and "Stardew Valley" demonstrates that management simulation games have a significant audience among young people. Their pig farming business could be seamlessly integrated into management games. For example, they could partner with a gaming company to develop a pig farming feature within the game. This wouldn't be difficult to achieve. Once a certain number of points or levels are achieved in pig farming, the game can be linked to the real world, where these points can be redeemed for pork products.
"That sounds quite interesting, but..." Wen Wenxu pondered, "Captain, I'm a little curious why you came up with this idea."
She explained, "Many games now have version updates, especially mobile games, which are released as they're developed. Each update fixes bugs and adds new features. I think this real-time update feature is very suitable for long-term promotion and allows us to make adjustments. Furthermore, management games are inherently slow-paced. Unlike horror games, which you don't want to play again after a few hours, management games can be played for a long time. Their various characteristics are very suitable for us to build brand awareness in the early stages when we don't have actual pork products. Furthermore..."
She smiled. "Aren't we talking about attracting young people to return home? I've been wondering how pig farming can actually attract young people. Seriously, if you weren't assigned to work in the village, but were just two ordinary college students, would you choose to return home to raise pigs after graduation?"
Wen Wenxu glanced at Chen Fei, then at Zhu Yingning, and said awkwardly: "Then it must be... no."
Chen Fei said: "I might come back and try it for a few months, then find it too hard and leave."
They are all people who have experienced the convenience and prosperity of the city, received a good education, have broad vision and high aspirations. Who would be so narrow-minded as to be willing to give up city life and go to the village to deal with a few stinky pigs?
"Yes..." she sighed with a smile, "So, it's very difficult to attract young people back. We can't get them to buy into pig farming or returning to their hometown to build a community. But we desperately need young people. Young people are our lifeblood and vitality. Only a village that can attract young people to stay is a vibrant village."
"To truly engage them, we need to plant the seeds of culture in their hearts. Games are the most engaging and relatable way to promote culture that I can think of for the younger generation. Many people wouldn't even glance at a roadside billboard that says 'Hardworking Pig Farming, Prospering Hometown,' but if a management game included a pig farming feature, they might actually give it a try. After all, they can avoid the stench of pig manure through a screen, and they can enjoy the air conditioning. Why not?"
"This approach won't produce immediate results. It's a long-term, soft project. Our goal isn't to generate profits, but to gradually get young people to embrace these seemingly unsophisticated things and to gradually make our work known to the public, even if it's just to let them understand the pig farming process... What do you think?"
The faint smile on her face turned shy for once. "Isn't this idea too idealistic?"
Even though she studied economics in college and knew that the economic base determines the superstructure, she still could not give up her obsession with spiritual culture and always wanted to transform her hometown in a softer and more profound way.
She didn't want to be just a builder, because houses would fall apart after thirty or fifty years. She wanted to leave behind a construction manual so that no matter how many houses were destroyed, someone could use it to build new shelters.
The blessings will last for thousands of years.
Wen Wenxu was in a dilemma. On the one hand, he felt that what Zhu Yingning said made sense, but on the other hand, he also felt that she was too idealistic.
The atmosphere was about to become awkward when Shen Fei suddenly said, "I think it's okay."
Wen Wenxu looked at her in surprise.
Chen Fei explained, "I made games in college. The pig farming feature, for example, is essentially part of the farm functionality. It's very common in management games and isn't difficult to implement. Even without our brand joining, many game developers would still want to implement this feature. Our involvement would at most require them to make minor changes, which would be very low-cost. Subsequent collaborations could potentially generate revenue for them. If I were a game developer, I would consider your proposal."
Zhu Yingning's eyes lit up. She didn't know much about games, so Chen Fei's words undoubtedly reassured her.
When Wen Wenxu heard the words "very low cost," his accounting instincts kicked in, and he immediately changed his tune, "In that case, it's not bad to give it a try. We have nothing to do right now anyway. But Captain, do you have a target company?"
Talking about this topic, Zhu Yingning's smile faded a little. He lowered his eyes to look at the lines on his palm. After a moment, he nodded and said, "Yes."
"That's easy. Which company is it?" he asked.
She looked up at them and said, "It's a friend of mine."
**
It would be a lie to say that this idea of linking with the game was something I came up with out of thin air and has nothing to do with Xu Sirui.
Ever since that night when he told Liu Guifang that he was pursuing her, Zhu Yingning was so worried that he couldn't sleep well for several nights in a row.
The point she was struggling with was not whether to agree to him, but how to make him give up this idea and let them return to a normal friendship. She was very sure that she did not want to fall in love with Xu Sirui now.
But he is not the kind of person who can just stop talking to her forever or just laugh it off as if nothing happened. His existence is too special. Because of his specialness, she found that she could not think of a comprehensive way to refuse him. So far, she could only play dumb and deal with it in a confused manner.
For the first twenty-plus years of her life, Zhu Yingning had always been a straightforward person. She'd say who she liked, fight for what she wanted, and move on if she didn't want it anymore. She was decisive. She rarely felt as indecisive as she was now. This hesitation made her feel clingy, like working in the hot summer sun for half a day, drenched in sweat, and wanting to go home for a shower, only to find the water was out. There was no freshness at all, let alone comfort.
After feeling uncomfortable for several days, she forced herself to focus on her work and began to think about promoting her pig farming business.
But every time she thought about something, Xu Sirui would pop up like a stubborn bug, floating around in her mind like a ghost, interfering with her thoughts.
Furious, she decided to just let it all go at once, like a sudden craving for a certain food. If she ate until she was full and vomited, she'd never want to taste it again for a while. Well, she thought her logic was impeccable.
So she clicked on the official website of Xu Sirui's studio and browsed the current progress of their studio.
Although she had always known that he was making games, she herself had no interest in games and was at the stage where "I feel happy when playing, but I don't take the initiative to play or suddenly want to play", so she never figured out what games they were making.
She took a closer look and realized their studio currently had two games. One was an MMORPG, surprisingly three years old. Calculating the time, it had been released when he was just a sophomore in college. The other was a business simulation game that hadn't officially launched yet, only a closed beta version. The closed beta link was posted on the official website, and anyone who wanted to play could download it directly. There were no quotas, no lottery required, and it was very free.
She hesitated for a moment and downloaded the beta version of the business simulation game.
The reason is simple. This game doesn't require combat, and she really can't handle that kind of combat operations. She is always in a mess every time.
That night, since it was the weekend and she didn't have to go to work, she turned the phone to silent mode, lowered the screen brightness to the lowest, and hid herself in the quilt to try out the game, and she played all night long.
The game's maps aren't very large yet, with many areas still under development. Zhu Yingning thinks Xu Sirui's approach might be to refine and deepen the most important maps first, such as the home system.
The houses here are not like those in other games. There is a prototype of the house from the beginning, and there is no initial furniture that can be put together and placed at will - no, this game only gives players an initial fund. To build a house, you need to contact a company or construction team yourself, starting from the foundation, and there are many details that are so real that they are ridiculous.
For example, after she had been busy running around and finally found a construction team to pour cement, on the second day of the game time, the system suddenly told her that the cement she had just poured was trampled by the neighbor's chickens.
Zhu Yingning:?
Only then did she remember that when she was working on the construction all day yesterday, her neighbor's chickens often appeared near her land, occasionally lowering their heads to nibble on the grass. At the time, she didn't think too much about it, thinking that these chickens were just ordinary background decorations.
Out of curiosity, I went to the game forum to look at the guide. Someone said that he had foresight and felt that the chickens were suspicious as early as the first day of construction. He specially visited the neighbor and found that there was an option in the dialogue options: "Can you put your chickens in a cage?", which avoided a tragedy.
Her cement had been damaged by the chicken, so she had no choice but to take the chicken to her neighbor to argue.
She went there during the day, and her neighbor was not at home. She saw that the gas stove in the neighbor's house was not turned off, so she went up to turn off the gas stove out of her nosy nature. The neighbor hurried back and found that she had turned off the gas stove for him. She immediately compensated him for the amount of cement that was damaged by the chicken. According to other players in the forum, if they had not discovered the gas stove in time in the house, they would have been poisoned by carbon monoxide and sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.
What kind of plot was this going to? This was too much of a rip-off, wasn't it? She felt a mixture of laughter and tears, yet she continued to play with great enthusiasm. Before she knew it, the morning light was filtering through the quilt.
She heard Shen Fei get up, brush her teeth and wash her face.
After playing games for a whole night, Zhu Yingning was extremely excited. She had no desire to sleep, so she simply sat up and took a closer look. She was horrified to find that she had unknowingly recharged two hundred yuan into the game last night.
The harm of staying up late was reflected at this moment. She wanted to cry but had no tears. Thinking that she was troubled by Xu Sirui and had also given him money, she felt that it would be better for her to go to bed.
Despite feeling depressed, she still carefully wrote several hundred words of opinions when the beta version of the questionnaire popped up, praising what was done well and hoping for new features to be added.
The more she wrote, the calmer her heart became, and the idea of collaboration came to her naturally at that moment. She suddenly realized that what she and Shen Fei were doing now could be fully integrated into this type of game and understood by more young people.
The moment the idea came to her, hesitation followed. She couldn't help but hesitate. She had decided just a few days ago to keep a distance between them and discourage him from pursuing her, but now she was actively trying to discuss cooperation with him and establish further contact with him. Was this inappropriate? Should she avoid suspicion?
But on second thought, she felt that having such thoughts made her seem not honest at all.
Appointing people based on personal connections means letting emotions hinder one’s career, but does not nepotism mean the same thing?
As long as a person has the ability and can really help her career reach a higher level, why would she deliberately let go of such a good opportunity for cooperation just because of a personal relationship?
No matter whether he is someone she hates, likes, or is undecided about, as long as he is the right person based on objective facts, why shouldn't she dare to choose him?
After figuring this out, Zhu Yingning suddenly felt relaxed, and the sticky feeling vanished. She slipped under the bed, opened her laptop, and began to look up the details of the other management games. She planned to make a table to compare who would be the best choice. As for Xu Sirui, he was also included in her selection range.
**
Time goes back to the present.
Zhu Yingning sent the form he had made to Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu, and said to them, "I compared more than a dozen business games in China and think my friend's game is the best choice. You can take a look at it, and if you have any different opinions, you can tell me."
Chen Fei opened the form and let out a soft "ah".
"Hmm?" Zhu Yingning gave her an inquiring look, thinking she had something to say.
But Shen Fei shook his head and said, "Nothing... I'm just shocked that you went into so much detail."
Wen Wenxu smiled and said, "It's not the first day you've known her. Isn't our captain always so meticulous and detailed in his work?"
Chen Fei shrugged helplessly: "That's right."
The three of them discussed under the light of the desk lamp, and looked up some new information. In the end, they all agreed that Xu Sirui's side was the best choice. As for other management games, they still picked out a few as backup options.
After confirming it, Wen Wenxu looked at her and said briskly, "Captain, you said the developer of this game is your friend, so we don't need to make it so complicated. You can just give him a call and talk to him. He'll agree to it, right?"
Can you be so casual? Zhu Yingning was ashamed.
However, if you think about it carefully, the reason why they had to diligently contact other departments of the company according to the procedures, and then transfer the matter to people at the level of general manager or chairman, and send township or county-level leaders to talk to the other party, was not because they did not know these senior executives of the company and their words had no weight?
Since you know the founder, why make it so complicated?
She thought it made sense: "Then I'll call him tomorrow and tell him about it."
"You can play now." Wen Wenxu rubbed his head in confusion. "Isn't it only 7:30? Your friend might still have to work tomorrow. Now is the freest time, the perfect time to reminisce about our school days and old friendships. Captain, just play the emotional card and appeal to their feelings and reason. I believe you can do it."
Zhu Yingning felt dizzy after being fooled by him. She picked up her phone and stood up: "Then I'll go outside to call."
It was cold outside, but the house had no heating, so it wasn't much warmer either. She hunched her shoulders and stamped her feet, but she was barely able to adapt. She searched through her phone's contacts and realized that the last time they spoke seemed to be a long time ago.
I clicked on the number and heard a "beep-beep-beep" sound from the other end, each beep was very long.
After four or five beeps, she heard Xu Sirui say "Hello".
Zhu Yingning had prepared a speech, intending to get straight to the point right away. But when she heard his voice, she felt it was too cold and impersonal, as if she had called him just to take advantage of him. So, her speech inexplicably turned into the common Chinese greeting: "Have you eaten yet?"
Xu Sirui paused for a moment and said, "I ate it."
After a few seconds of silence, Li Shang reciprocated and asked, "What about you?"
"I ate it too," she said. "Are you adapting well to returning to work after the Lunar New Year?"
"fine."
He was at a loss for words after he finished speaking. The whole conversation was like chewed sugarcane, without any sweetness and too dry to be swallowed.
Zhu Yingning racked her brains to recall her library of pleasantries, trying to salvage the situation, but then she heard Xu Sirui say in a helpless tone, "If you have something to say, just say it."
Her hunched shoulders relaxed and she let out a couple of awkward laughs: "Well, actually... I called because I really want to talk to you about something."
He was silent for a moment, then lowered his voice: "What do you want to talk about?"
Zhu Yingning hadn't sensed anything was wrong until she heard the droop in his voice. Then she realized her statement was ambiguous and quickly clarified, "Let's talk about work."
There was no sound from the other end. She waited for a while before hearing Xu Sirui's response: "Okay, go ahead."
She then repeated what she had just said to Shen Fei and Wen Wenxu in the room: she had come up with a way to promote their village's pork and wanted to collaborate with him. She briefly outlined the process—his game could develop a pig farming feature, and her farm could supply them with pork, creating a real-life connection. She happily suggested that this might spark a little interest in the farming industry among young people.
As she spoke, Xu Sirui would occasionally hum softly, indicating that he understood. After she finished briefly and silence fell on both ends of the line, he asked, "Is that all?"
"Well, that's about it. I wanted to ask for your opinion. Do you think it's feasible? Is it possible to cooperate with us?"
He laughed softly on the other end of the phone: "Let me ask again, are you here to talk to me about work, not about love?"
Zhu Yingning was a little embarrassed, but still said, "Yes."
"Okay," he said, "then I'll tell you, it's impossible."
"...What?" She was stunned for a moment.
She never thought that Xu Sirui would reject her, or rather, even if he did, in her expectation, his rejection would probably be friendly, out of helplessness and for a reason, rather than a simple and neat "impossible".
……Why?
She opened her mouth to ask, but was speechless.
"Business and relationships are two different things. At work, every choice I make affects my colleagues, the players, and the future development of the studio. I must be responsible for them," Xu Sirui explained calmly. "Everything you've said from the perspective of your village's interests has been about what benefits you can gain from it, but you haven't shown me the value I can gain from it."
He chuckled softly, his tone hinting at helplessness. "Zhu Yingning, when you persuaded other companies to cooperate before, you knew you had to travel, develop project plans, and convince the person in charge of your project's development potential. But when you come to me, you're just going to brush me off with a few words? You said you came to discuss work, but I see you're clearly here to discuss feelings. You think I like you, so I'll definitely agree."
With every extra word he said, her cheeks burned a little more. Thinking back, she realized that she had indeed made a fatal mistake. She had been talking about how their village could promote its brand through this method and the benefits of this cooperation for their village, but she did not consider the perspective of the partner and make the other party believe that he could benefit from it.
The world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit. In business dealings, the most important thing is profit.
But she did not emphasize this "benefit". She kept talking about herself, empty ideals, and the bright future.
How could she make such a low-level mistake?
Realizing this, Zhu Yingning herself felt surprised and frustrated, until Xu Sirui's last words came from the microphone. His voice was transmitted through the phone and was a little distorted. It was not as clear as heard offline. Instead, because she held the phone very close to her, it sounded like it was ringing next to her ear.
He said, you think I like you, so I will definitely agree.
"I'm not!" The words echoed in her ears, and she opened her mouth to refute without thinking. Her voice almost broke with excitement, and her cheeks became increasingly hot. She had to be thankful that they were on the phone and not chatting face to face, so Xu Sirui could not see her expression.
But, isn't she really?
She knew the answer, knew Xu Sirui had a point. While not as exaggerated as he'd made it out to be, she subconsciously felt when she called him that, given their years of relationship, there was no reason for him to refuse. She'd said they were just discussing work, but in reality, she was exploiting his feelings. She hadn't properly distinguished between work and love.
Admitting that she'd been spoiled wasn't easy; it filled her with shame. But admitting her mistakes wasn't her motto. Zhu Yingning took a deep breath, slowly calmed herself, gripped her phone, paused for a moment, and said seriously, "...I understand. I'll give you a detailed project plan."
He laughed on the other end of the phone, gently at first, then more and more wildly. She could even imagine his expression, imagined his eyebrows slightly raised, his beautiful peach blossom eyes brewing with a leisurely, smug, teasing and naughty look.
He said, “I may not agree to it.”
"You will." This time she was not affected by him. Although her cheeks were still warm, her words were firm and clear. "You will definitely agree, because I will try every possible way to convince you."
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The author has something to say: Today, two chapters were merged into one, and I updated it all at once at 9:30. It's over 6,000 words, which is not a lot, right? (hands on hips)
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