After figuring out what Luo Ming wanted to do with big data, Lin Shuwen fell into deep thought.
Luo Ming didn’t disturb her. In 2013, this kind of knowledge would’ve been baffling not just to someone new to the internet industry like Lin Shuwen, but even to a seasoned veteran like Zhao Ningyuan.
The next morning, Luo Ming got out of bed and had barely stepped out of his room when he saw Lin Shuwen coming back from outside, carrying steamed buns and soy milk in her hands.
“You’re up? I was just about to come wake you!”
“What are you…”
“Going for a run to lose weight! I weighed myself before bed last night—still 109, not a single pound off! This is a real crisis!”
“You don’t really look fat, though.” Luo Ming sized her up as she stood there in her red tracksuit.
“You can’t tell like this, but you’d see it on camera. The lens is basically a magnifying glass in a way.”
“Uh, well, keep at it then. I’m going to wash up and head to work.”
“Mm, don’t forget to eat.” With that, she placed the buns and soy milk on the coffee table and went back to her room.
Luo Ming arrived at the company building and ran into Zhao Ningyuan.
“Morning, boss!”
“Morning, Zhao. How have you been finding things at the company lately?”
“Pretty good, actually. Everyone’s pulling together, putting their energy in the same direction—it makes me feel like I’m back in my internship days.
Back then, I interned at a browser-game company. The conditions there were worlds apart from Tencent—it was like heaven and earth.
But everyone in that company was fully committed to making a great game.
Too bad fate had other plans. When our game launched, MOBA games just happened to be blowing up in the domestic market.
The boss had poured everything he had into that game, and it flopped hard. The company went under in the end. The last official stamp our company ever used? It was on my internship certificate.
Later, I graduated and joined Tencent. Tencent had a great work environment, and there wasn’t much hierarchy between employees—I even called my team lead ‘Old Four’ directly.
But for some reason, I never quite found that same feeling I had back at that tiny, run-down internship company.
Now, at our company, I’ve got that fire again. I truly believe that if we can finish this game, we’re going to take off.”
“I believe that too. But we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us!
According to my plan, Plants vs. Zombies Adventure Mode should have 50 levels, with scene changes ranging from day to night, from the pool to the rooftop.
The Mini-Games and Puzzle modes should each have 20 unlockable levels.
Right now, we’ve only made it to 4-4 in Adventure Mode—we’ve still got 16 more levels to go! And that’s not even mentioning Mini-Games and Puzzle mode.”
“Boss, I actually think we could release Mini-Games and Puzzle mode later as free DLC updates. We could get the game ready for launch as soon as Adventure Mode is done.
And besides Steam, I’d also suggest we produce and sell physical game discs. Most computers these days have optical drives that can read them—that could bring in some extra revenue.”
Luo Ming’s eyes lit up after hearing Zhao Ningyuan’s suggestion. Releasing the game first and then filling in the missing pieces later via DLC—that was actually a pretty solid idea.
Plus, it made it easier to add fun extras later—like the popular randomized version of Plants vs. Zombies that was big before Luo Ming’s time—they could roll that out as DLC too.
The physical disc idea was also solid—it would give them an offline sales channel.
“Boss, I’ve got a friend working at Sony. Once our game is ready, I could reach out to him and see if we can work something out with Sony.
If that works out, our Plants vs. Zombies might even be included on Sony’s newly released PS4—that’d be another sales channel.”
“PS4?”
“Yeah! You didn’t know, boss? Sony launched their latest console, the PS4, in North America on November 15 this year.
It went on sale in Europe, Central America, Oceania, and South Africa starting November 29.
For Japan, it’s apparently coming out in February next year. By then, our game should definitely be out—just in time for the PS4 launch in Japan. To promote the PS4, Sony probably wouldn’t mind having more games from other developers—it’d help build hype for the console too.”
“Zhao, I didn’t realize you had connections like that!” Luo Ming said, impressed.
“Hey, I’ve been in this industry for years—you’re bound to know a few people.”
“Then I’ll leave that to you too. If it works out, Zhao, you can count on getting some stock options next year.”
Zhao Ningyuan’s eyes lit up at that. He’d already been thinking about staying at BlazeLight long-term—the only issue was that the salary was a bit low right now.
But stock options? That changed everything.
Over the next three days, Lin Shuwen stayed in Bingzhou.
Every morning at 6 AM, she’d go for a run. In the afternoon, she’d do three hours of yoga. At night, she’d go for another run. She strictly controlled her diet and managed to lose a full five pounds in just three days.
Besides working out, Lin Shuwen also studied big-data algorithms systematically with Luo Ming’s help.
And of course, she didn’t slack off on programming either.
With Luo Ming’s guidance, her C++ skills improved significantly. She almost completely independently created a small game—2048.
Luo Ming remembered that when he learned C++ in his past life, his first assignment was to independently write a calculator program. Then came small games like 2048 and Tiao Yiao. After that, he moved on to operating systems, embedded systems, graphics processing, and more.
Lin Shuwen had already completed step two—next, she’d move on to more complex fields.
Based on her learning pace, Luo Ming estimated that in about two weeks, she’d be able to join the development of Plants vs. Zombies.
Of course, by then, it probably wouldn’t be the PC version—it’d be the mobile version instead.
Tomorrow was Saturday—also the day of Director Liu’s new movie’s preview screening in Shanghai.
All the main cast and crew would be there. As the singer of the theme song, Lin Shuwen naturally had to attend as well.
So she asked Chen Sichu to book plane tickets for 7 PM that evening.
Luo Ming borrowed Rong Mu’s car and drove them to the airport.
He initially wanted to see them inside, but Lin Shuwen declined—she was worried about being photographed by someone with ill intentions.
Luo Ming didn’t insist. He watched them walk into the terminal, then started the car and drove away from the airport.
Back home, staring at the empty room, Luo Ming felt an inexplicable sense of loss.
Lin Shuwen felt it too. While waiting for the flight to take off in the VIP lounge at the airport, she felt an odd emptiness in her heart.
Feeling restless and distracted, she pulled out her phone and started playing the 2048 game she’d developed herself.
At first, Chen Sichu didn’t pay much attention to the little game Lin Shuwen was playing. But as she watched, she found herself getting more and more curious—until she couldn’t help asking, “Wen Jie, what’s this game called? I want to download it too!”
“It’s called 2048.” Lin Shuwen replied without even looking up.
Chen Sichu pulled out her phone, opened the App Store, and searched for it—there was no 2048 at all.
Not willing to give up, she searched online—still no 2048. Plenty of 1024s, though—lots of them, actually.
