Zhao Jizhe disappeared from the company just as abruptly as he came.
Not many people cared about his appearance and departure. The only one who did was the cleaning lady who asked Chu Tianheng anxiously: "Is Xiao Zhao not coming?"
"Yeah, he probably has other plans." Chu Tianheng has always been the gentlest and easiest to talk to in the company. "Auntie, what's wrong?"
"It's okay, it's okay, I'm just asking." The aunt waved her hands and stammered, "This child is quite nice. He often helps me when I can't lift things..."
On the day Chu Tianheng relayed this to Li Xuan, the three of them were having dinner downstairs. Qi Boyuan was also there and snorted, "Pretending."
"Have you gone to have your fortune told? Why are you so dissatisfied with him?" Chu Tianheng glanced at Li Xuan and said to Qi Boyuan.
In fact, he didn't have that many opinions about Zhao Jize, largely because he was not present on the day Li Xuan smashed the cup, so he didn't see the bloody scene, and he didn't know how Zhao Jize followed him to the hospital in a sinister manner.
"Is there any need to calculate? I can tell from his face that he has bad intentions and is completely beyond my comprehension. I have never met such a person in my first half of life, and I'd better not meet another one in the second half of my life."
Qi Boyuan spat out half of a crab claw from his mouth. Seeing Li Xuan raise his eyes indifferently, he stopped the topic in time and checked the time on his phone. "Then I'll go back to the company first and go to the bank later... Senior, remember you have to go to the forum today, don't forget it."
After leaving the restaurant, Chu Tianheng went straight to the forum. Li Xuan found a secluded place and called Sheng Min. There were still two days before the primary election. Sheng Min either went to school to discuss with teachers or stayed at home all day watching various dramas.
"It's a nice day today, go to the balcony and bask in the sun for a while. Don't stay in the study all the time."
"I know. Why is it you who is talking about me now?" Sheng Min said with a smile.
"No way?" Li Xuan said, "The governor is allowed to set fires, but the people are not allowed to light lamps? How can you be like that?"
While talking on the phone, he walked around the software park twice before going upstairs. He bumped into Qi Boyuan walking out: "Are you free this afternoon? I'll go through this month's account with you when I get back from the bank."
"Okay." Li Xuan thought for a moment, "Six o'clock."
He saw the administrator behind him carrying a bag and throwing it out. Qi Boyuan coughed uncomfortably, "Whose... I forgot to ask someone to clean it up."
It wasn't him who forgot, it was the administration who forgot. Today, Qi Boyuan remembered it and reminded him again.
Li Xuan didn't say anything: "What time does the forum end? Call the seniors to come together, and by the way, discuss the revenue of "One Corner" last month."
"Okay, I'll tell him."
Qi Boyuan saw that the seat where Zhao Jizhe had sat was now empty. He waved his hand in a rare good mood and hurried out.
However, his good mood did not last long. Chu Tianheng was unable to make it back for the six o'clock meeting, and his phone call to him was always busy.
"Senior, what are you talking about? It's over at five o'clock, isn't it? It's not far..." Qi Boyuan took off his glasses and wiped them, "Why are my eyelids twitching..."
"Because you sleep too much." Li Xuan typed on the keyboard with one hand and took out a mint candy from the drawer.
"You think everyone has forty-eight hours in a day, just like you do."
Li Xuan snorted and laughed, and continued to write programs while chewing mints. Qi Boyuan dialed again, and this time it actually went through. He slipped his hand and pressed the speakerphone, and heard Chu Tianheng's slightly anxious voice: "Boyuan, are you in the company? Li Xuan didn't leave, did he?"
"No... where are you?"
"Is Li Xuan here?"
The signal on the other end was probably bad, so Chu Tianheng asked again.
"I'm at the company." Li Xuan heard something was wrong and replied.
"That's good. Wait for me for a moment. I'll be there soon."
"No, what's going on, senior? Don't be so mysterious." Qi Boyuan's voice suddenly rose a degree, and Chu Tianheng's voice became busy. He couldn't get through when he called again.
"Stop calling. He should be in the garage or in the elevator." Li Xuan saw Qi Boyuan pacing back and forth in front of his desk. "Can you sit down? It hurts my eyes."
"No, that's only half the story..."
Li Xuanwei frowned: "You'll know when you come back."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door was pushed open and Chu Tianheng walked in hurriedly, holding a laptop in his hand. He glanced at them, turned around and closed the door again.
"There's something I think everyone probably doesn't know yet." His tone was calmer than it had sounded on the phone, but still very serious. "I went to the forum this afternoon, and someone from Yuanxin was there too. I ran into an old colleague of mine."
As he spoke, Chu Tianheng quickly opened his laptop and explained, "We didn't get along well in the past... He was involved in many of Yuanxin's imitation foreign games. He's not very skilled and always uses some crooked tricks. I avoided him today, but he bumped into me... and asked about you."
"Him?" Qi Boyuan pointed at Li Xuan.
The latter raised his eyebrows calmly. Chu Tianheng reported a name and asked, "Do you know him?"
"I don't know him." Li Xuan shook his head coldly. "What do you want to ask me?"
"I don't think I know him either." Chu Tianheng said, "You are so sarcastic and have no point. You said..." The words were really unpleasant. Chu Tianheng paused for a moment, "You said that I left Yuanxin on purpose because I thought I was climbing up the ladder and didn't even know I was going to fall."
"How badly do you two disagree? Is your colleague an elementary school student? Why would you pick on something like this?" Qi Boyuan said speechlessly, "Senior, don't be too angry..."
"Let him finish first." Li Xuan stood up and took a bottle of soda water and threw it to Chu Tianheng, "Then what?"
"I didn't take it seriously at first, but the more I thought about it, the more strange it became. Although he has a bad character, based on my past experience with him, he wouldn't go crazy without any basis." Chu Tianheng was in a hurry to come back. In such a cold season, he was sweating. "Besides, Yi Yu was originally on Yuanxin's monitoring and analysis list. It's not convenient for me here now. To be cautious, I called the colleague who resigned and asked him to help me find out. As a result, he sent me this when I came out of the forum just now."
Chu Tianheng opened the link on the computer, clicked a few times, and pushed it to Li Xuan.
This was a promotional video for the closed beta version of the game. The moment he saw the page, Li Xuan pursed his lips. He clicked in and quickly went through it from the beginning, pressing the magnification. His fingertips stopped on the keyboard and he sneered. Qi Boyuan, who was watching from behind, had a sullen look on his face. He grabbed the laptop from Li Xuan and gritted his teeth and said, "You don't care about your face anymore. At least you can change your skin. You're so perfunctory in changing your skin."
"You still have some dignity. This production company has nothing to do with Yuanxin on the surface." Chu Tianheng pointed at the company name on the login interface. He was busy all afternoon with great tension and his tone was a little tired. "I checked. It was only registered last month. But Yuanxin must be the technical support behind it. I can see the shadows of several familiar faces in this style... But the core content and gameplay are directly copied from Yiyu. Anyone who knows a little bit or even has played it can tell at a glance."
Li Xuan didn't say anything. In the office, there was only the sound of Qi Boyuan constantly typing on the keyboard, fast-forwarding and freezing. Chu Tianheng took a sip of water and continued, "This is also what I find strange. According to their usual practice, and even the situation of their previous internal meetings, it shouldn't be so obvious to copy. Moreover, "One Corner" is now a well-known game. Legal prosecution takes time, but the risk of public opinion is immediate. Of course, this should be the reason why another company was established as the publisher. But in this case, there is another thing that doesn't make sense. The investment is too large."
He frowned in annoyance. "I can't understand their motivation for doing this. Yuanxin has been able to achieve its current position in the industry because most of its employees are capable. Many of the functions in Yi Yu are very complex. Copying them to this extent would require enough effort to develop a new game. Moreover, Yi Yu has such a high market share now. This similarity is aimed at a certain type of players. How are they going to win them over? Increase the recharge discount? How do they make money? At least from my point of view, this is a completely unprofitable business."
No one answered for a long time. After a while, Qi Boyuan put down his laptop and looked at Li Xuan. His tone and expression were a little subtle: "Last week, our server was not attacked again... Was it the same group of people?"
Chu Tianheng was puzzled: "The attackers to our server were from Yuanxin? That's impossible. This won't do them any good."
Li Xuan shook his head, looking at the pages that kept jumping on the computer screen. It was true that Yuan Xin must have been staring at "Yi Yu" all the time, otherwise it would be impossible to restore it to this point in a short period of time. It is difficult to generalize which one requires more investment, imitating a game or copying it, but the latter is undoubtedly the more risky one.
They have no grudges against Yuanxin. Yuanxin is only after money. Skinning, plagiarism, and high-fidelity copying could not have been their original intention. Now that they are willing to do this kind of loss-making business against them, it must be that someone is taking greater profits to fill the hole.
Don't even think about who it is.
Even today Chu Tianheng discovered this matter...
"He came to you as soon as you got there?" Li Xuan said.
“Yeah…” Chu Tianheng sensed something was wrong and answered hesitantly.
Li Xuan pursed his lips tightly, using his usual trick of striking a mountain to scare a tiger. Li Mingge was not afraid that he knew, but was afraid that he didn't know.
Chu Tianheng looked at his tense expression and said, "We have to think about how to deal with it. We are still in the closed beta stage. It will take another quarter for the internal beta test and the public beta test to be officially launched..."
"When did the closed beta test start?" Li Xuan interrupted and asked in a deep voice.
"The day before yesterday, the scope was very narrow, and it was only conducted within Yuanxin. I wanted to find a closed beta account, but I haven't got it yet."
The day before yesterday... Li Xuan held his hands on the table. It was a closed beta test the day before yesterday, and today he couldn't wait to pass on the news. What kind of closed beta test is this? They were doing it for him to see.
Li Mingge was waiting for him to give in. As long as he gave in, no matter how much money was invested in the game, it would probably not be launched. If he didn't give in, judging from Li Mingge's aggressive attitude, it was probably because Shu Xin was seriously ill and couldn't afford to waste time.
All crazy.
"Senior, there's no need to calculate the time." Li Xuan pressed his brows, "There won't be any internal or public beta tests. If you can't wait for my reply, it will be online next week at the latest."
"Wait?" Chu Tianheng was stunned. "Who is waiting? What are you waiting for? ... ... How do you know there is no internal or public beta test?"
"Because they are here for him!" Qi Boyuan couldn't help asking after not getting an answer from Li Xuan for a long time. He looked at him and asked, "Isn't it?"
"yes."
Li Xuan answered happily, but Qi Boyuan didn't know how to respond. He asked tentatively: "Do you know who it is? ... Your father?"
Chu Tianheng, who was standing by, was stunned: "Whose dad? The one who came last time?"
"Does it matter who it is?" Li Xuan said.
Qi Boyuan was just guessing. He had only a vague understanding of Li Xuan's affairs and was not clear about his grievances. However, Li Mingge's fierce criticism that day left a deep impression on him. He didn't want to hear that Li Xuan's intention was actually guessed correctly. For a moment, he didn't know whether he was more surprised or more troubled: "Is it not important? Your father wouldn't really treat you like this... To scare you? Don't have that expression. Are you his biological child?"
"No." After a series of questions, Li Xuan only uttered two words indifferently.
"No?!" Qi Boyuan was stunned, "Are you kidding?"
"Is it funny?"
Qi Boyuan quickly exchanged a glance with Chu Tianheng, who was also surprised, and pursed his lips: "So is this for real? What should we do now?"
"What should I do?" Li Xuan pressed his temples. "Don't you have any work to do?"
Qi Boyuan gritted his teeth, trying to suppress his emotions and diverting his attention from Li Xuan's sudden life experience: "I'm preparing the litigation materials..."
“It’s difficult.”
Li Xuan said calmly that since Li Mingge could persuade Yuanxin to do such a thing, he was not afraid of being sued. There are substantial similarities in the domestic determination of game infringement, and there are too many things to do. The gameplay and mechanism are completely unprotected in the current legal practice.
Qi Boyuan almost wanted to curse: "This is not okay, that is not okay, are we just going to stare and do nothing?"
"Do what you have to do." Li Xuan said coldly. He grabbed the cup and took a sip of water. He pressed his hand on the table and thought for two seconds. His fingertips were tense and white, but his voice was still steady. "... ... They should adopt a completely free model. For Yi Yu, the update progress will be accelerated first. The new map will be launched in advance and completed in two days. Can you finish it, senior? If not, I will do it."
"Completely free?" In just one afternoon, Chu Tianheng received too many messages.
Li Xuan just asked again: "Can you finish it?"
"Okay." Chu Tianheng said with some effort.
"Will this work?" Qi Boyuan felt like his head was about to explode when he heard Li Xuan say "completely free". He recalled that a few months ago, Li Xuan told him lightly that the company might have some troubles. He thought that frequent attacks on the server were already the limit, and he never thought that there would be such a way of hurting the enemy by 800 and hurting ourselves by 1,000. "If it is really free, no matter how fast we update, it will be difficult to ensure that players will not leave."
"Maybe more than that."
"Not only that?! Can you even pay me back?"
"Shorten the upgrade time, give away props..." Li Xuan said disdainfully, "These are the means, do I need to list them one by one? You don't have to worry about it. The revenue of "Yi Yu" will definitely be affected. I know it. Hurry up and complete the financing. As for the two companies I met last week, whoever gives more will be chosen. There is no need to discuss it anymore, but it must be done quickly. If it can't be implemented... ...just do it first, and we'll talk about it later."
"Your family, your dad, oh, no, your adoptive father, right? What exactly are you trying to do?" Qi Boyuan couldn't stand it anymore and asked again, "He's not your biological son, so there's no reason to do this. Are you going to force it now? Is there no other way? Can you at least tell me the reason clearly?"
"For me, no. I can't explain it clearly. Do you want me to write a short essay about myself?" Li Xuan's eyes were deep. "Just tell me whether you will do it or not."
"You still think you're right? You're such a fucking bastard!" Qi Boyuan seldom swore, and after a long stalemate, he cursed viciously, slammed the door and walked out.
"Bo Yuan." Chu Tianheng wanted to chase him, but was stopped by Li Xuan, "It's okay, he went to discuss investment."
He glanced at the computer screen, the picture was so bright that it hurt his eyes, turned his head and took out another mint candy and put it in his mouth.
Chu Tianheng sighed: "Then I will also work on the update of "One Corner". Don't worry, I can finish it."
"I'm sorry, senior." Li Xuan pulled the corner of his mouth, "Qi Boyuan knew a little bit about it, but I didn't mention it in the early stage."
"It's okay. You've known each other for a long time." Chu Tianheng shook his head without any concern. In fact, he had not yet fully recovered from the series of changes. Looking at this young man who was a few years younger than him, he comforted him, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I'll ask someone about Yuanxin. Maybe it won't be so fast."
In fact, he still felt like he was dreaming. When he came back from the forum in the afternoon, he just felt unwell. How could it suddenly come to this
Li Xuan smiled without commenting: "It's possible to be faster."
As expected, the weekend after he said this, before they even got the closed beta account, the game named "Void Island" appeared out of nowhere and was officially launched.