Zhuoguang could do without anyone—except Luo Ming.
Don’t be fooled by how Luo Ming usually doesn’t meddle in day-to-day affairs and spends half her time living the “blissful” life of a big star.
But Zhuoguang’s development path and game development plans—all of it was mapped out by Luo Ming.
Without Luo Ming, no matter how high Rong Mu’s emotional intelligence was or how shrewd he was at handling things, he could never hold Zhuoguang together.
So Lin Shuwen couldn’t possibly make this kind of decision without going through Luo Ming.
But Rong Mu was still here right now, so naturally Lin Shuwen couldn’t just call Luo Ming directly.
So she said to Rong Mu, “Mu Tou, I hear your opinion. Let me think about it—I’ll figure out which server company to use and give you an answer tomorrow.”
“Alright. Business is done, let’s talk personal stuff. I’ve been thinking—last time I lost to you at mahjong, I got played by you. Today I’m taking back everything I lost!”
Lin Shuwen’s eyes lit up at that—the money tree has arrived!
“Let’s go, let’s battle!”
“Bring it on!”
The two went to a mahjong parlor near the neighborhood and battled it out for three hundred rounds.
The thrills of that session are not for outsiders to know.
After this great battle, Rong Mu’s wallet was gravely wounded, and Lin Shuwen counted her cash, her mood improving quite a bit.
Back home, Lin Shuwen called Luo Ming.
Over the morning, Luo Ming’s migraine had hurt and hurt until it stopped hurting. He now felt, for once, that there wasn’t a single thing wrong with his whole body—it was wonderfully comfortable.
On such a rare occasion, Luo Ming sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, flipping through a magazine Lin Shuwen subscribed to.
The magazine rested on “Lin Shuwen’s” smooth, jade-like thighs, and Luo Ming turned a page from time to time.
“Good grief, no wonder it’s 4102—public intellectuals are everywhere!” Luo Ming let out this sigh once again.
The magazine Lin Shuwen subscribed to had a public-intellectual essay every three pages.
Of course, it was 4102 now, not 2008. Public-intellectual essays were no longer the low-level stuff about German sewers or island nations drinking toilet water.
Luo Ming was speechless. He genuinely couldn’t understand why Lin Shuwen would pay money to subscribe to this.
“Ring ring~” Just as Luo Ming was looking for someone to vent to, Lin Shuwen’s call came in.
Luo Ming picked up and got straight to the point: “Wenwen, what kind of messy magazine are you paying to subscribe to?”
“Magazine? I have no idea!”
“Someone delivers a magazine to your house every week and you don’t know?”
“Oh, I know what you’re talking about now!” It took Lin Shuwen almost a minute to realize what Luo Ming meant. “That’s a brand-promotion magazine created by a women’s clothing brand I endorse. It’s free—I usually just throw it in the trash when I get it. The stuff inside is too idiotic, completely nonsensical.”
“You know it’s ridiculous and you didn’t bring it up with the organizers?”
“I’m not the magazine’s spokesperson, and their magazine is given to customers for free. It doesn’t matter.”
“Don’t treat it like it’s nothing. If they blow up someday, it’ll damage your personal image too.”
“How would they blow up? They haven’t done anything, right?”
“You’re still underestimating the internet. Once the internet develops further, even a small thing that seems like nothing now could ruin your career.”
Lin Shuwen’s expression turned serious at that.
In Lin Shuwen’s view, Luo Ming’s judgment about the internet’s future could absolutely not be wrong. Luo Ming had already proven his forward-looking vision with games and big data.
“I understand. I’ll tell sister Shan tomorrow and have her communicate with that magazine publisher.”
“Mm, as long as you’re aware. You’re calling on a weekend, so you probably have something to discuss, right?” Luo Ming changed the subject and asked.
“I do have something. This morning Mu Tou brought me a document—it’s the server provider he selected.
Mu Tou favors 21Vianet. He thinks 21Vianet’s large-scale servers have high stability and can also meet users’ personalized needs with flexibility.
I think Tencent’s servers are better. Our company’s main goals for the coming year are ‘Plants vs. Zombies 2’ and ‘Clash of Clans.’ Since we’re both in gaming, Tencent is professionally matched in this area. I think using their servers is more appropriate. What’s your opinion?”
Luo Ming thought for a moment and said, “I want to use Huawei’s.”
Luo Ming wanted Huawei not because of some lame reason like supporting domestic products—as if Tencent and 21Vianet weren’t domestic companies too.
Luo Ming wanted Huawei because Huawei’s servers are products specifically designed for data center and cloud computing scenarios.
Huawei’s large-scale servers all adopt efficient and reliable architecture designs. Through careful hardware configuration and software design, they can provide more stable service.
Compared to other companies, Huawei’s server performance isn’t the strongest, but stability is definitely the strongest, and security is relatively high as well.
High stability often means low latency and high concurrency.
Anyone who’s played games knows that a smooth gaming experience has little to do with how fast your download speed is—the key is low latency, especially in FPS and MOBA games.
To achieve low latency, you mainly reduce the number of buffered frames in the render queue through real-time technology, because the more frames there are, the higher the latency.
This real-time frame scheduling system, on one hand, is related to the computer’s own GPU.
If GPU performance can keep up, each frame in the game can be rendered before the GPU needs it, thereby reducing the number of frames in the render queue and achieving extremely low latency.
On the other hand, there’s buffering speed.
Buffering speed generally refers to the speed at which corresponding data is transmitted to the server.
In this process, the faster the player’s internet speed and the higher the server’s stability, the faster the response speed and the lower the latency.
This was why Luo Ming wanted to choose Huawei.
Luo Ming then told Lin Shuwen his reasons.
“It seems all three of us have different opinions! So what do we do?”
“Our company’s games aren’t large-scale online games—the playing experience should be roughly the same either way. There’s no need to specifically choose Tencent’s servers.
My consideration of stability is also related to the company’s future plans. The portal-website-type APP we’ll be launching later is mainly about big data storage, which needs stability even more.”
Luo Ming didn’t say anything further after that.
Lin Shuwen pondered for a moment and then said, “Alright, alright! I’ll listen to you. But you’ll have to explain it to Mu Tou yourself—no using me as an excuse.”
“Don’t worry! The two of us have ways to solve problems. We won’t use you as a shield.”
“That’s fine then.”
The next day, Monday, Luo Ming and Lin Shuwen swapped back.
After returning, Luo Ming felt like he’d survived a disaster.
This week was way too brutal.
First, three days of period torment—the first day being the excruciatingly painful kind—then Lin Shuyue suddenly showing up, and finally going to some charity dinner for no apparent reason.
Sure, he’d seen some fanservice shots and experienced what it felt like to have big bunny ears bouncing around while pressed against them.
But those fanservice shots didn’t seem all that worthwhile compared to the hunger and cold that followed.
The only thing that made Luo Ming feel it was worth it was how Lin Shuwen looked in that evening gown.
Luo Ming found the photo of that evening gown in their chat history.
No matter how many times he looked at it, Luo Ming found it incredibly stunning. The gown gradually deepened from top to bottom into a starry-sky color, as if Lin Shuwen had draped the entire vast galaxy over herself.
Without hesitation, Luo Ming set this photo as his screensaver.
Then Luo Ming did a quick wash-up and headed to the company.
He’d originally planned to discuss the server matter with Rong Mu, but who knew Rong Mu hadn’t shown up at the company this morning—no idea what he was up to.
Now over to Lin Shuwen’s side. The moment Lin Shuwen returned to her own body, she immediately checked whether her period was gone.
Confirming her period had ended, Lin Shuwen was thrilled.
This was so comfortable—she’d only had pain for one day this month. It felt as satisfying as skipping class to eat hotpot for the first time in college.
“Sister Wen, you’re on the trending searches again.” As soon as the Chen sisters arrived, Chen Sichu said excitedly.
“What’s it about this time?” Lin Shuwen asked while eating a tea egg Chen Sichu had brought.
“It’s the photos from the charity dinner the night before last.”
“Photos from the charity dinner? Let me see!”
Chen Sichu immediately opened Weibo and found the photo.
Lin Shuwen took the phone and found the photo showed her in high heels wearing that starry gradient evening gown, smiling at the camera.
The gown really was beautiful—so much so that Lin Shuwen herself was somewhat mesmerized.
And the comments under the Weibo post were all praising Lin Shuwen’s looks:
“To be honest, nothing special. Huh? Why is my computer screen wet?”
“Strange, why is my phone screen wet too?”
“Nüwa really isn’t fair. When she made me, she probably just flicked mud dots. When she made Wenwen, it was private custom design.”
“Ahhhh! Can sister please not have her gender locked so strictly?”
“Day one, I moved in with Wenwen. Day two, we went to see the ocean together. Day three, we adopted a cat.”
Lin Shuwen was baffled by that comment. Moving in together, seeing the ocean, adopting a cat? What do these three have in common?
Chen Junmiao saw Lin Shuwen’s expression and leaned over to take a look, then her face turned red immediately.
“Ahem! sister Wen, this isn’t healthy. Better not look at it.” Chen Junmiao snatched the phone from Lin Shuwen’s hand.
“Not healthy? How is it not healthy? Why isn’t it healthy?” Lin Shuwen pressed.
Chen Junmiao was too embarrassed to answer. She didn’t want such a clean, innocent sister Wen to be tainted with colors she shouldn’t be.
After breakfast, Lin Shuwen went to the company with the Chen sisters.
Today, Huayue Entertainment’s artists showed up unusually complete.
Even Zhou Ping, who’d just been discharged after being hit by a car, was wheeled over by his manager-slash-wife.
Because the first Monday of the new year was Huayue Entertainment’s annual year-end summary meeting.
Lin Shuwen greeted familiar artists while looking for sister Shan.
It wasn’t until she was almost at the meeting room that Lin Shuwen spotted sister Shan.
Sister Shan was following the company’s chairman, Tong Qifeng, alongside distribution department director Zhou Jing, TV production department director Yan Mingfei, music department director Old Huang, and technology department director Wang Hongyu.
Half the company’s executives were around the chairman, plus sister Shan—one of only two studio heads affiliated with the company—which gave the company’s artists and other executives a feeling that something was off.
Sister Shan noticed Lin Shuwen but didn’t come over—she just gave her a look.
Lin Shuwen didn’t understand what sister Shan’s look meant.
That wasn’t her fault—mainly because sister Shan’s eyes were really too small, and the two of them were a bit far apart.
Fortunately, Chen Junmiao had 2.0 vision. She explained to Lin Shuwen, “Sister Wen, sister Shan wants you to not say anything later.”
“Keep silent? That I’m good at!”
The lengthy 2013 annual summary meeting began in the meeting room.
And Lin Shuwen began her keeping silent.
She stared blankly at the table, eyes glazed. Her body was still here, but her soul had no idea where it had flown off to.
Chen Junmiao was speechless. This is keeping silent? This is zoning out!
This was a skill Lin Shuwen had honed during boring public lectures in college. This was only the first form. The second form was when Lin Shuwen’s head and eyes could subconsciously follow the teacher’s movements while her brain was completely empty—or thinking about other things—and the teacher could absolutely not spot any flaw.
But a company meeting clearly didn’t require the second stage.
As topic after topic proceeded, it was unknowingly already 11:30.
“It’s about time. Next is the last topic. Xiao Qin, help me announce it!” Tong Qifeng said to his secretary.
The secretary nodded and said, “Next, announcing the 51st item of the first board meeting of 2014. Chairman Tong will establish the position of President’s Assistant at the company. Mr. Zhou Jing, Director Zhou, will concurrently serve as President’s Assistant of Huayue Entertainment.”
The moment Secretary Qin said this, the entire meeting room erupted in uproar.
Especially the company executives led by Director Zhu—their expressions all turned ugly.
President’s Assistant was not the same as President’s Secretary. The President’s Assistant is a position that assists the president in managing the company. The rank isn’t high, but in terms of power, it’s not one bit lower than the CEO—after all, the President’s Assistant represents Huayue Entertainment’s president, Tong Qifeng.
And Tong Qifeng held 43.5% of Huayue Entertainment’s shares. Any major company decision couldn’t bypass him.
Even if he retired and became a hands-off boss, important company resolutions would be sent to his home for his review.
Now Tong Qifeng hadn’t retired yet, and not only that, he’d arranged a President’s Assistant position. What did this mean?
Was he reconsolidating his grip on the company’s power?
Or did Chairman Tong lose trust in Director Zhu and feel he couldn’t serve as Huayue Entertainment’s president?
For a moment, the shareholders and company executives who had sided with Director Zhu—believing he was the company’s next person in power—all became uneasy.
“Sister Wen, sister Wen, stop zoning out! Something big happened.” Even the usually calm Chen Junmiao was anxious. She shook Lin Shuwen hard a few times to wake her.
Lin Shuwen looked at Chen Junmiao in confusion, and Chen Junmiao immediately explained the situation.
After hearing it, Lin Shuwen was stunned too.
Chairman Tong isn’t retiring?
