Chapter 157: The Quietly Rebellious One

After leaving the Corner Pet Park, Chen Mo and Pang Tao returned to the cat and dog rescue center together.

He planned to adopt a few more dogs. For one, the number of employees at the company had grown, and in order to ensure there was enough food in the cafeteria, they had to cook in larger quantities. As a result, leftover food was piling up, and the five dogs he had adopted previously simply couldn’t eat it all.

Plus, adopting more dogs would increase his expenses—food, vaccines, and so on—all of which cost money.

“Boss Chen, all the big dogs are over here. They’ve all got huge appetites,” Pang Tao said, pointing to several cages in front of them, his heart filled with gratitude. Boss Chen was even considerate enough to adopt the dogs that ate the most in order to reduce the rescue center’s burden. How thoughtful was that?

“Let’s go with the dogs in these two cages,” Chen Mo replied casually, pointing at two of the big dog cages without looking too closely.

He roughly counted—there were about a dozen dogs. They would be kept beside the new workshop. The dog pens were already built—sturdy and spacious enclosures made of brick and stone by the renovation company—so there was no worry about the dogs escaping and hurting anyone.

Now that the workshop had been fully renovated, it was the perfect time to bring the dogs back.

And with more dogs, he’d need to hire someone to feed them, which meant more expenses—exactly what he was aiming for.

Pang Tao confirmed the chosen cages, “Got it, Boss Chen. I’ll get these dogs loaded up and sent to the factory in a bit.”

“Mm.” Chen Mo nodded. Seeing that he’d achieved what he came here for, he was just about to leave when Xu Zhengming rushed out from a nearby room.

“Boss Chen! Lunch is ready for you!”

Seeing Xu Zhengming’s enthusiastic face, and then checking the time—it was already well past noon—Chen Mo realized there’d probably be no lunch left at the clothing factory by the time he got back.

He’d have to spend money to buy food. Glancing at the few tens of thousands left in his account, he quietly followed Xu Zhengming into the room.

As soon as he entered, he noticed a calligraphy scroll hanging on the wall directly across from the door.

The handwriting was quite messy, but it had been carefully framed.

“Nothing in the world is difficult, if only one is determined.”

“Boss Chen, Pang Tao wrote that. He said it was something you once said, and he thought it made a lot of sense. So he wrote it out in calligraphy and had it framed.”

Xu Zhengming noticed Boss Chen staring at the writing on the wall and explained with a smile.

Chen Mo: …Well then.

After a quick lunch, Chen Mo left the rescue center, but instead of heading back to the clothing factory, he made his way directly to Cangxue Games.

He hadn’t checked in for quite a while. Wei Yan, that guy, had been eerily quiet this whole time, which made him uneasy.

When a rebellious type goes quiet, it usually means they’re scheming something big.

Better take a look for himself.

Meanwhile, Pang Tao was loading up the dozen dogs and heading to the clothing factory.

……

At Cangxue Games,

Wei Yan, Fang Chang, and Zhao Bowen were sitting in the office, chatting excitedly.

“Brother Yan, your foresight is seriously impressive. Authorizing that Heavenly Pavilion Studio to host their own Heavenly Pavilion tournament brought in a whole new wave of players!” Zhao Bowen said, looking at Wei Yan with admiration.

Not long ago, someone from a group called Heavenly Pavilion Gaming Club had contacted them, saying they wanted to host a Tianlong tournament and were looking for official authorization.

Director Wei had agreed without hesitation.

The result? The offline tournament was a huge success. And for some reason, it ended up on the homepage of Tiger Head Live, one of the two major streaming platforms.

Since it had been featured on the homepage, the tournament’s pull was even stronger than that of a top-tier influencer with millions of followers.

The offline event lasted for a week. And in that short span, over one million new players had been funneled into Tianlong.

Right now, the game had over two million active players—an impressive figure that meant the game was now a modest hit.

Even some popular streamers had started live-streaming Tianlong, which was a whole new source of organic traffic.

If not for the fact that Tianlong had already sold streaming rights to a few platforms, they could’ve earned another big sum just from licensing fees.

“Just a lucky break,” Wei Yan waved off Zhao Bowen’s praise.

He had indeed given the go-ahead hoping the tournament would bring in players.

But he hadn’t expected it to get front-page promotion on Tiger Head Live.

That was pure luck.

“Haha, planned or not, it’s still great news! Boss Chen will be here soon—we’ve gotta share this with him,” Fang Chang chimed in with a laugh.

It had been a while since Boss Chen visited Cangxue Games. This was definitely a pleasant surprise.

“Oh right, Fang-ge, how’s your new game coming along? How soon can we launch it?” Zhao Bowen asked, curious.

“About two-thirds done,” Fang Chang replied. “But the modeling is key for this one. To ensure realism and immersion—and with all the testing and debugging—we’ll need at least two more months.”

The game’s modeling was extremely demanding, especially the details. That meant slower progress as they got closer to the end. Plus, with how massive the models were, bugs kept popping up, so they had to constantly debug.

Also, since Boss Chen didn’t allow overtime, the pace was slower than expected.

Still, during the last round of additional funding, Boss Chen had said he didn’t mind if things took a bit longer, which reassured him.

As long as time wasn’t a factor, game quality became the top priority.

This was the first game he’d truly been in charge of since becoming a game planner.

In previous companies, even though he had the title, most decisions were made by upper management. He had to follow orders, never really getting to design games the way he wanted.

But things were different now.

Boss Chen had given him complete creative freedom—zero interference.

He was determined to make this game the best it could be. He couldn’t betray that trust.

……

Outside Cangxue Games,

Chen Mo greeted the receptionist and walked straight in.

He made a mental note—now that the clothing factory’s office building was done, maybe it was time to get a couple of receptionists too.

He could sort that out later when things settled.

Upon arriving at the office, he found Wei Yan, Fang Chang, and Zhao Bowen already waiting.

“Boss Chen!” the three greeted in unison, standing up.

“Sit down, take it easy,” Chen Mo waved a hand casually and walked over to sit at the desk.

His gaze swept across the three of them before he spoke in a calm voice.

“Has anything happened in the company lately?”