Chapter 36: How Is It You? (Part 1)

Mumaen Company.

Sunlight streamed into the office.

It illuminated a busy, graceful figure.

In fact, today was Liu Ruohan’s first official day on the job to familiarize herself with her duties.

She had woken up early and arrived at the office to first set out her snacks—potato chips, jelly, lollipops, and various other treats.

Once the snacks were arranged, she swapped her mouse pad for a cute little kitten pad and enthusiastically stuck cat ears onto the corners of her monitor. From a distance, the entire computer setup looked adorable.

After finishing all this, she grabbed a broom and swept the already pristine office from top to bottom. Only then did she sit down in her chair with satisfaction and turn on her computer.

In her dictionary, the success of a day depended on the morning. A comfortable environment and cute equipment put her in a good mood, and once she was happy, her work efficiency soared.

“Hmm?”

After booting up the computer, she popped a lollipop into her mouth and looked at the memos on the screen with interest, planning out her day’s tasks.

The first item on the memo was: “8:00 AM, Legend Marketing Department meeting. Focus on the risk assessment of the new version.”

The second item was: “8:30 AM, Dadi Network will officially release the first background expansion for War of Warcraft. Mumaen’s marketing department will focus on tracking market feedback for the expansion to counter competition from War of Warcraft and design projects for Legend to attract players…”

The third item: “9:00 AM, Marketing Department project meeting, new employee orientation…”

“…”

“…”

“Item ten: Contact Zhang Yang, evaluate the value of his team…”

She sucked gently on her lollipop, reading through the list one by one.

Her daily workload was packed.

When she reached the tenth item, she gave a cute little frown, recalling how Zhang Yang looked when he left the previous night.

She suddenly felt that this person might be difficult to recruit.

If the offer was too high, the company certainly wouldn’t agree. The company’s primary focus now was online games; the profit margins for standalone games were too small for them to care about. But if the offer was too low…

Would he even come?

“Is the second game from Zhang Yang’s company about to be released?”

Thinking of this…

She opened the Tieba forums to see how many people were in the Beat the Grass Mud Horse sub-forum.

According to her previous predictions, the Beat the Grass Mud Horse sub-forum should have around seventy or eighty thousand members by now…

But the moment she opened it, she saw Zhang Yang’s name appearing in a thread within the top ten trending posts.

The thread was titled: “An Interview with Mr. Zhang Yang, Chairman of Universe Technology.”

She froze.

Subconsciously, she clicked on the post.

And then…

“As an artistic worker, we hope to turn games into a form of art, providing a sensory experience for everyone. Beyond that, I hope everyone can look at each of our games with an objective eye…”

“If you observe closely, you will find that every game we make, now and in the future, is rich with human philosophy…”

“Metamorphosis is our eternal theme. For example, this painting of the universe by Mendeleev…”

“It contains a sense of rebirth and an all-encompassing inclusion. There are many things we must calm our hearts to savor slowly before we can grasp their true essence…”

“…”

She watched as Zhang Yang shamelessly held a freshly framed painting and spoke at length on the forum about Mendeleev’s philosophy.

From the timing of the painting to the brushwork, the tone, the overall compositional logic, the environment at the time, and the artist’s emotions…

He boasted about every single aspect, and not only did he brag, but he also added his own rambling “divergent thoughts”…

The lollipop almost fell out of her mouth.

She was stunned.

Reading from beginning to end, she had never seen someone who could boast like this. It was a full-scale, 360-degree, dead-end-free brag-fest.

“This guy…”

“This guy…”

“Does he have no shame?”

“This is disgusting!”

“…”

She decisively closed the forum and rubbed her arms.

She had goosebumps all over.

After closing the forum, she checked the time. It was exactly 7:30 AM, half an hour before her meeting.

This seemed to be the release time for Beat the Grass Mud Horse?

That name…

While easy to remember!

It really was…

So vulgar!

It sounded like an insult.

Maybe she should just forget it…

She hesitated for a moment.

Even though she knew this game might be somewhat malicious toward her, she ultimately clicked on the official website…

She had to admit that Zhang Yang’s previous promotion had indeed piqued her interest in the game.

What would a game look like when everyone contributed to the script and the art?

“Why is it so laggy?”

“…”

The Universe Technology official website was exceptionally slow today, taking a long time just to load.

Once it finally loaded…

She saw the download page for Beat the Grass Mud Horse.

Before she could even click it…

She saw the website crash. The entire site displayed a 404 error.

After that, no matter how much she refreshed, the page remained a 404!

“What kind of server is this? Is it running on a toy computer?”

Liu Ruohan was speechless.

She opened the official Beat the Grass Mud Horse forum.

The forum was incredibly lively, filled with controversy and cursing…

It was flooded with accusations of scams, money-grabbing, and trash servers.

Some people had just clicked in and paid but couldn’t download.

Some couldn’t even get onto the official website at all…

Others were experiencing extreme lag; they had finally managed to start the download, only for the data transfer to stop at ninety-nine percent.

……………………

“President Zhang, we’re finished! Over thirty thousand data requests flooded in at once, and the whole system crashed…”

“President Zhang, we need to upgrade the servers. There’s a major problem…”

“We’re doing emergency repairs, but we’re short-handed…”

“President Zhang, my computer specs are too low. It won’t run anymore…”

“…”

Universe Technology.

Zhang Yang, who had just finished bragging and was feeling refreshed, turned around to see several people in the rented apartment wailing and complaining in front of their computers.

His smile vanished instantly, replaced by a sudden wave of awkwardness.

Since its founding, Universe Technology had basically relied on equipment employees brought themselves or cheap, secondhand junk.

He had pinched pennies here and there, and now that frugality had caused a major problem.

The entire network server had collapsed under the strain.

“Go post an announcement on the forum. Say it’s technical maintenance… Don’t panic, take it slow. I’m going to buy a server!”

“If that doesn’t work, I’ll rent one first!”

“…”

………………….

Mumaen Technology.

Liu Ruohan saw a post appear on the forum: “Official website server upgrade notice. Download of ‘Beat the Grass Mud Horse’ delayed by five hours…”

She was amused.

Was that server made of paper?

How could it crash so easily?

She shook her head, checked the time, and headed to the conference room for a meeting.

Half an hour later.

She walked out of the meeting.

As she stepped out…

She saw Shen Yi standing by her office door, looking slightly hesitant.

“Uncle Shen, what is it?”

“I just took a call. Zhang Yang, well, he wants to ask if we can help him upgrade his server, or perhaps rent one of ours. I know this should be handled by another department, but regarding Zhang Yang, I feel we should help him out first. He’s a talent. It might make the acquisition talks easier later on…”

“Huh? That guy came to us?” Liu Ruohan was even more amused now.

“He’s waiting in the guest room next to my office. How about I go…”

“Uncle Shen, tell you what, I’ll go see him. I’ll handle things from here…”

“Alright!”

………………….

Zhang Yang was draped in a freshly pressed suit and had specifically put on a pair of refined-looking glasses. He sat in the guest room with a very serious expression.

His face showed no sign of anxiety.

He didn’t look like someone who needed help at all.

In fact, the server crash wasn’t a huge deal to him…

Using it as a pretext to test whether Shen Yi truly valued him was his real goal.

He felt Shen Yi was a talent. If they talked more, he could naturally poach him later when Shen Yi eventually felt sidelined by the company and couldn’t stay any longer.

Yes!

You read that right!

Faced with a server collapse and running what was essentially a home-based workshop, Zhang Yang currently had the sheer audacity to plot the future poaching of a Human Resources Manager from a Huaxia game industry giant!

Initially, Shen Yi had been very enthusiastic. He had come down personally to greet him, warmly invited him into the office to sit, and even poured him water, acting like a lord seeking out worthy scholars¹.

It made Zhang Yang feel somewhat flattered for no apparent reason.

Wasn’t this a bit too enthusiastic?

Why did it feel like he was being treated as prey?

Then…

Shen Yi said he had to go file a request.

Zhang Yang nodded.

So he waited patiently, taking the opportunity to observe Shen Yi’s office.

Hmm…

This decoration is nice. I’ll decorate my office like this in the future…

This dragon faucet² isn’t grand enough. Mine needs to be more imposing!

Why does this money tree³ look like this? It’s trash…

While he was enthusiastically critiquing the decor, he suddenly heard a knock at the door.

Then…

“Mr. Zhang, I heard your server crashed?”

“Yeah!”

He heard a pleasant voice that sounded somewhat playful.

He instinctively turned his head.

And then…

When he saw clearly who had entered…

His smile gradually stiffened.

His very breath stopped.

(End of Chapter)

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Translator’s Notes

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1. lord seeking out worthy scholars: A translation of the idiom lǐxián-xiàshì (礼贤下士), which describes a person of high status treating talented individuals with humility and respect. This behavior is traditionally associated with leaders who are actively courting or recruiting valuable talent to their cause. ↩
2. dragon faucet: The Chinese term lóngtóu literally means ‘dragon head’ but is the standard word for ‘faucet.’ In high-end Chinese office decor, fixtures featuring dragon motifs are traditional symbols of power and prestige. ↩
3. money tree: Refers to the Pachira aquatica, a popular plant in Chinese business environments. It is culturally associated with attracting wealth and prosperity (fācái), making it a common fixture in offices to invite good fortune. ↩