Sister Shan rolled up her sleeves and yanked Wang Hongyu over: “Little Wang, that’s about enough from you! How dare you try to poach someone right in front of me!”
“Sister Shan, I genuinely feel that Miss Lin is wasting her talent being a celebrity. Didn’t you say she only took an elective course in programming in university?
She’s got this kind of skill after just a few elective classes—you could call her a genius and that wouldn’t be an exaggeration. I’m completely outmatched, I admit it.
Sister Shan, why don’t you just let her go? Don’t hold back a good seed.”
“Get lost! Do you think it’s easy for me to find an artist I actually like?”
Wang Hongyu sighed, looking at “Lin Shuwen” with a face full of regret.
Sister Shan’s face went dark immediately.
“Wenwen, I’m heading out first. We’ll let this slide this time, but don’t let it happen again! From now on, even if it’s your own company, you still have to go through proper procedures.” With that, Sister Shan dragged Wang Hongyu out of Lin Shuwen’s home.
She was afraid that if she stayed any longer, Wang Hongyu really would steal the person away.
Sister Shan wasn’t blind—she could tell that her Wenwen was also quite interested in programming.
After watching Sister Shan leave, Chen Sichu looked at Luo Ming with admiration: “Sister Wen, you’re amazing! The people in the tech department never even give us a proper look normally, and you actually won over their boss.”
“No, Chuchu, you’ve got it wrong.”
“Huh? What did I get wrong?”
“The programmers in the tech department don’t refuse to look at us properly—they’re just not good at socializing with us.”
“No way?”
Luo Ming smiled and didn’t dwell on the topic, changing the subject: “Chuchu, it’s already very late. Why don’t you take Yunshang home?”
“Okay. Miss Li, shall we go?”
Li Yunshang clearly didn’t want to leave. In an instant, she came up with a way to stay. Step one was to refuse Chen Sichu’s offer to drive her home. So Li Yunshang put on an embarrassed look and said: “It’s already past 9. I can just call a taxi myself. Chuchu, don’t trouble yourself.”
“It’s no trouble. I often drive at night. Sometimes when Sister Wen attends banquets, she doesn’t finish until 11 or 12, and I always get her home safely. Trust my driving.” With that, Chen Sichu pulled Li Yunshang out the door.
Li Yunshang was internally screaming. Her plan hadn’t even started and it had already failed?
As soon as the two left, Chen Junmiao walked over with a conflicted expression: “Sister Wen…”
“If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”
“Alright, I’ll say it then! I feel like Miss Li is a bit off.”
“Off? Off how?”
“Ahem! Sister Wen, you know I usually dress pretty neutrally. When I was in university, girls at my school would confess to me.
The way they looked at me… it’s very similar to the way Miss Li looks at you.”
Luo Ming was completely stunned and instinctively asked: “How similar?”
“I’d say identical.”
“So that’s why you had Chuchu drive Yunshang home no matter what?”
Chen Junmiao nodded.
“She… she’s gay?”
“I’m not sure about that. I had Chuchu test her. We’ll know when Chuchu gets back.”
Forty minutes later, Chen Sichu returned.
“Chuchu, how did it go?” Chen Junmiao asked.
“Sis, I think you’re overthinking it! Li Yunshang is perfectly normal! I did what you said—I deliberately brought up topics about lesbians, and she seemed pretty resistant.
Then when I mentioned Sister Wen, her resistance turned into conflict.”
“I see! Then I must be overthinking it. It’s probably just that Sister Wen’s charm is too strong and it went to her head!” Chen Junmiao gave her own judgment.
Luo Ming let out a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
At that moment, Li Yunshang was lying in a hotel bathtub, thinking back on Chen Sichu’s questions.
“Was that Wenwen testing me just now? No, it probably wasn’t Wenwen. I acted pretty normal in front of her. It was probably Sister Shan or Chen Junmiao.
But Chen Sichu’s questions actually helped me confirm one thing—I really am not interested in women. I’m only interested in Wenwen.” Li Yunshang thought to herself.
To avoid exposing herself in front of “Lin Shuwen,” Li Yunshang didn’t go along to the commercial performance the next day. She wandered around Shanghai, bought a night flight ticket, and flew back to the capital.
Before leaving, Li Yunshang sent Luo Ming a WeChat message saying she had returned to the capital.
When Luo Ming saw the message, a hint of guilt welled up in his heart.
He knew the Chen sisters meant well, but that kind of testing must have hurt Li Yunshang, right?
However, Luo Ming’s guilt came quickly and left just as fast, because that evening he received a call from Lin Shuwen with good news.
“Luo Ming, 2048 has taken off!” As soon as Luo Ming picked up, Lin Shuwen’s excited voice came through the receiver.
Luo Ming’s eyes lit up and he quickly asked: “What are the 24-hour download numbers and payment rate?”
“The iPhone store broke 100,000 by around 4 PM, and Google Play is at over 140,000.
As for the payment rate, iPhone is at 83%, and Google Play is at 67%.”
“So that means 2048 already has 176,000 paying users, right?”
“Yeah, at $0.99 each, 176,000 comes to about 1.25 million. We made that much in just one day! Luo Ming, you’re a genius!”
Luo Ming had never heard Lin Shuwen sound so excited. Combined with what he’d learned before—that after getting her 4 million yuan paycheck, Lin Shuwen couldn’t care less about the TV drama flopping—it was clear:
This was a money-loving, shallow woman.
What a coincidence—Luo Ming was also shallow and loved money. Great, the two of them had something in common.
But then again, if this were his previous life and he’d suddenly earned 1.25 million, Luo Ming figured he’d be dancing with joy, then promptly quit his job and go back to his hometown to open a supermarket.
But in this life, 1.25 million wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy him.
So Luo Ming decided to calm Lin Shuwen down first. He cleared his throat: “Ahem! Wenwen, don’t get too excited.”
“Why shouldn’t I be excited? We made 1.25 million in a single day!”
“It’s not 1.25 million. First of all, whether it’s the iPhone store or Google Play, they both take a 30% cut. Out of that 1.25 million, they take 30%, so what we actually get is about 875,000.”
“875,000—that’s still a lot!” Lin Shuwen said without hesitation.
“I’m not done yet! Besides the iPhone and Google Play cuts, the remaining 875,000 still has to be taxed.
Our company counts as a university student startup, so there are corresponding tax benefits. Currently, only VAT is mandatory.
VAT is divided into general taxpayer enterprises and small-scale taxpayer enterprises. The tax rate for general taxpayers is 13%, and for small-scale taxpayers it’s 3%.
Our company is a general taxpayer enterprise, so we have to pay 13% VAT.”
“Don’t we have to pay corporate income tax?”
“No. The country has corresponding tax incentive policies. If a business founded by university students operates in the information industry or technology services industry, then after approval from the tax department, they can be exempt from corporate income tax for two years. We can skip that entirely for two years.
So from that 875,000, we still deduct 13% VAT, leaving us with about 760,000.”
