After the match that day, they changed out of their jerseys and the small squad went out to eat together.
Once they were seated at the restaurant table, Yu Xun rolled his neck and sighed contentedly. “That feels good.”
Yu Xun continued, “You really have to move your body like this. Working every day, doing projects—if your brain doesn’t rot first, your body will.”
Everyone agreed.
Yu Xun declared boldly, “Three games this year. We’ll fight again next year!”
Flipping through the menu, He Xiaoyuan also felt relaxed in both body and mind.
The regret of never having participated in a basketball tournament during his student days—he hadn’t expected it to be made up for after he started working.
On the court today, he truly felt like he’d gone back to his student years—running, clashing, and freely pouring out sweat.
The feeling and the experience were simply wonderful.
During the meal, He Xiaoyuan received messages from Xu Ruomeng—full of photos and videos from the day’s games.
After looking through them, He Xiaoyuan picked out a few close-up shots of himself and sent them to Lu Chen. There was no deeper meaning—just sharing.
Lu Chen replied quickly: 【Handsome.】
He Xiaoyuan smiled as he held his phone.
He replied: 【Handsome but bad.】
【We still lost.】
Lu Chen replied: 【Winning or losing isn’t important. Don’t worry about it.】
【Going through it is enjoying it.】
He Xiaoyuan smiled again, feeling that Lu Chen really understood him.
【I know.】
【Little dinosaur hopping around.jpg】
Unable to resist, He Xiaoyuan added: 【I added a lot of people on WeChat these past two days.】
All of them worked in the CBD area, from all kinds of different companies.
Lu Chen understood right away: 【It really is good to get to know more people.】
A moment later, Lu Chen: 【All women?】
He Xiaoyuan: 【Of course not.】
Lu Chen: 【None?】
He Xiaoyuan: 【There are some.】
Lu Chen: 【Hmm?】
He Xiaoyuan couldn’t help but laugh. He knew Lu Chen was teasing him, so he replied: 【I’m a proper gentleman.】
Lu Chen: 【And what else?】
What else?
He Xiaoyuan laughed to himself.
He replied: 【It’s nothing like what you’re thinking.】
【Not even a little!】
【Absolutely nothing!】
Only then did Lu Chen say: 【Alright, got it. Nothing.】
Lu Chen: 【What are you doing now? Back at the apartment?】
He Xiaoyuan: 【I’m eating with the colleagues I played with, and with President Yu and the others.】
【What about you, bro? Off work yet?】
……
After dinner, since it wasn’t far, He Xiaoyuan walked back.
On the way, he scrolled through his phone as he walked—
His contact list was packed now, and so were his group chats. He was getting private messages and being @mentioned;
He’d added quite a few people these past couple of days, and had been pulled into several new groups;
And in the group chat with the high school kids he played ball with, someone had @mentioned him asking about homework.
He walked the whole way staring at his phone, and before he realized it, he was already at the apartment. He hadn’t even felt the time pass.
When it finally hit him—how full and busy his life had become—he felt both reflective and deeply satisfied.
Things were really so much better than before.
Everything was going smoothly too, even more smoothly than he’d imagined or dared to hope.
Just then, a voice call came in. It was Lu Chen.
The elevator doors opened at that moment. He Xiaoyuan answered as he stepped out, his tone light and cheerful. “Bro.”
Lu Chen’s voice wasn’t coming from the phone, but from right beside him. “Back already?”
He Xiaoyuan looked up and saw Lu Chen standing by the door, holding He He in one arm.
He Xiaoyuan lowered his phone and walked over, smiling. “Why are you here?”
Lu Chen said, “Figured you’d be back after dinner, so I brought our cat son over to check out big brother’s new place.”
He Xiaoyuan stepped closer, reached out to rub the head of the big Maine Coon in Lu Chen’s arms, then went to punch in the lock code while saying, “If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve given you the code so you could come in first.”
The door opened. His tone was bright and cheerful, this time directed at He He. “Welcome, welcome, welcome—welcome to big brother’s new home!”
Back when he lived in the company dorm, he couldn’t bring He He upstairs. Today, he finally could.
Everything—everything he had right now—felt smooth and complete.
He Xiaoyuan looked radiant, smiling openly.
Lu Chen carried He He inside and glanced at the young man. “That happy today?”
“Yeah.”
He Xiaoyuan closed the door and sweet-talked without missing a beat. “I’m happy as soon as I see you, Lu-ge.”
Lu Chen’s lips curved upward.
Even knowing it was just a soft, coaxing line, he still found it especially pleasant to hear.
There was nothing he could do about it.
After all, he liked He Xiaoyuan—and lately, he’d been liking him more and more.
—
That day, when Xue Jinming arrived at the office, his face was taut and the pressure around him noticeably low. The assistants and administrative staff had been chatting happily, but the moment they saw Xue Jinming’s expression, they all fell silent. The office went quiet in an instant.
Not long after, Xue Jinming pushed open the glass door and left, still wearing that grim expression. Qin Chengfei followed soon after.
They didn’t leave together, but everyone in the office could tell that Qin Chengfei had been summoned by Xue Jinming. Judging by the situation, he was probably about to get chewed out.
On the OA system, He Xiaoyuan was even temporarily pulled into an office group chat to gossip a bit. Everyone asked him what was going on with Qin Chengfei.
He Xiaoyuan replied: 【No idea.】
Someone said: 【Anyway, when Boss Chang gave Little Boss Qin only 0.001% of the project profit last time, I already felt like it was a warning—he’d better start taking projects seriously.】
Another added: 【Exactly. 0.001% gets rounded down to zero when profits are calculated. Might as well not exist. Boss Chang was clearly warning Little President Qin.】
【No idea what Boss Xue is upset about this time.】
【Boss Xue isn’t like Boss Chang. I’m guessing Little President Qin is getting an earful.】
He Xiaoyuan didn’t know what had happened either, and he was puzzled.
Before long, Qin Chengfei came back. Xue Jinming did not.
Qin Chengfei looked fine, expression normal. He Xiaoyuan glanced at him and didn’t ask anything yet.
It wasn’t until lunch, when they ate together, that He Xiaoyuan learned from Qin Chengfei that Xue Jinming really had lost his temper that morning. Whether it counted as a scolding or not, the words hadn’t been pleasant.
The cafeteria was noisy. While eating, He Xiaoyuan asked Qin Chengfei across from him, “What happened with you?”
It couldn’t be like the Barre project before, right—doing a proposal and then ignoring everything else?
Qin Chengfei replied calmly, “No. I told President Xue directly that I’m withdrawing from the project.”
He Xiaoyuan: “……”
What?
Withdrawing halfway?
He Xiaoyuan was shocked. “What are you thinking?”
Qin Chengfei pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, still calm. “I’m going to work on my own project.”
He Xiaoyuan paused. His own?
He asked, “What is it?”
Qin Chengfei said, “My original field—Internet logistics.”
He went on to explain that a senior alumnus from his university had spent ten years developing a warehouse and storage algorithm based on current traffic and logistics conditions. Once implemented, it could dramatically improve Sipu’s in-house warehousing and logistics efficiency.
He Xiaoyuan was stunned as he listened.
Thinking from a project perspective, he instinctively asked, “The company would have to buy this algorithm, right?”
Qin Chengfei answered firmly, “Yes.”
He Xiaoyuan asked, “How much?”
Qin Chengfei replied, “Two hundred million for the purchase and initial investment.”
He Xiaoyuan nearly choked on his soup.
Qin Chengfei kept a serious expression and adjusted his glasses again. “The total plan is about five hundred million in capital. Once it’s in use, the expected return is around three billion over five years.”
He Xiaoyuan dabbed at his mouth with a tissue, wiping off the soup he had nearly choked on. He thought to himself how just recently, with no projects on his plate, his sense of money had finally returned to reality—rent at six thousand a month instead of eight or nine-figure sums. And now, Qin Chengfei came along talking about two hundred million, five hundred million, thirty billion.
“Big brother.”
He Xiaoyuan couldn’t help but exclaim in disbelief: “Are you trying to crush me with pressure?!”
He felt as if he had been back in the management trainee program, nearly being buried under work on the beach.
Even so, he didn’t have the skills or the capability to quickly start his own project the way Qin Chengfei could.
He knew he couldn’t rush things; with his current situation, he had to take things step by step, steadily.
After some consideration and research, He Xiaoyuan decided to join Xiao Qiyi’s project:
The other party was a fashion e-commerce company focusing on middle-aged and plus-size women’s clothing.
Their annual revenue was impressive, and the market niche they targeted was precise.
Xiao Qiyi planned to invest in the company and eventually take it public within three to five years.
While reviewing the preliminary materials, He Xiaoyuan noticed a key problem: the return rate for clothing, especially online women’s clothing, was extremely high.
So what made this company, called Rusu Fashion, special enough to attract Xiao Qiyi’s attention and Sipu’s investment?
Xiao Qiyi explained: “Because they also do cross-border e-commerce and were among the first in the country to sell plus-size women’s clothing online.”
“They have strong capabilities from design and pattern-making to sample production, factory manufacturing, distribution, and even after-sales service.”
“In the same category, they can rank in the top fifty online.”
“Middle-aged men’s clothing has also sold very well in recent years.”
He Xiaoyuan was even more puzzled. A company like this couldn’t have just started; it must have been running for at least three years.
He asked: “No one invested in them before?”
Xiao Qiyi: “They did.”
He Xiaoyuan: ?
Reason?
Xiao Qiyi: “It was a family-run business. They were divorcing.”
He Xiaoyuan: “And now?”
Xiao Qiyi: “After some back and forth, the divorce didn’t happen. They couldn’t part with the company or the money. They agreed to remain legally married, but in practice partners. Their feelings could be gone, the marriage nominal, but they couldn’t afford to lose money.”
He Xiaoyuan could only laugh and shake his head.
Unlike the earlier Meow Meow project, this case was a two-way selection. Not only did Xiao Qiyi want to invest, but the other party also had sincere intentions.
At this stage, all that was needed was thorough due diligence to ensure Rusu had no hidden business issues or major risks that would make investment inadvisable.
That evening, after joining the new project, He Xiaoyuan sat on the sofa at the Yanlan Bay penthouse, his cat on his lap, the cat leaning against his tablet as he watched a livestream of one of Rusu’s plus-size women’s brands selling products.
As usual, when a small plate of cut fruit was placed in front of him, He Xiaoyuan took it, thanked the server, and while eating, continued watching the livestream.
Not long after, Lu Chen’s voice came from above: “New project is fashion e-commerce?”
He Xiaoyuan, eating fruit while looking at the tablet: “Yes.”
Lu Chen sat on the armrest of the sofa beside him, draping an arm along the top of the sofa behind He Xiaoyuan, close enough to watch too.
He Xiaoyuan glanced at some sales data, then switched back to the livestream.
He set the fruit aside, crossed his arms, and thoughtfully said: “Sales aren’t bad. Just don’t know the return rate.”
Lu Chen casually remarked: “If their online distribution is strong, they don’t overstock, and returns are mostly undamaged and resellable, even a fifty or sixty percent return rate isn’t a big deal.”
He Xiaoyuan turned to him, blinking in surprise: “You know all this? Is there anything you don’t know?”
Lu Chen smiled faintly, reached out, and pinched He Xiaoyuan’s chin, turning his face back toward the tablet so he could continue watching.