Chapter 56: A Shattered Start

After Shen Mo picked and chose from a thousand options, he finally settled on his track: games.

Liu Yue waved her hand generously and invested five million.

The office was located in one of Liu Yue's private office buildings.

Only then did Shen Mo learn that Liu Yue actually owned an entire office building for lease — utterly absurd.

On the day Baiyin Game Company was officially registered, another major event happened in Jinghai: Sun Biao was dead.

The cause of death was absurdly ridiculous.

Sun Zhichao's company went bankrupt, and his pregnant girlfriend wanted to break up with him.

Because Sun Zhichao's girlfriend knew Sun Biao could no longer spend money on Sun Zhichao.

Sun Biao, for the sake of his precious grandson, personally went to comfort Sun Zhichao's girlfriend.

Then, while comforting her, Sun Biao and Sun Zhichao's girlfriend suffered carbon monoxide poisoning together in the car.

As everyone knows, when a man and a woman engage in vigorous activity, they need a large amount of oxygen.

And a car is a sealed space, making it very easy to cause oxygen deprivation, leading to death by suffocation.

The situation was utterly absurd.

Upon learning the news, Aunt Chen swiftly cremated Sun Biao and flushed his ashes down the drain.

The handling was very efficient.

Sun Zhichao's girlfriend's family went to Aunt Chen demanding an explanation — their daughter was dead, inexplicably dead.

Aunt Chen didn't care at all, and directly called the police, letting them investigate.

In the end, it was confirmed Aunt Chen had nothing to do with it, and Aunt Chen certainly wasn't going to pay up.

Under Aunt Chen's maneuvering, Sun Zhichao and Sun Zhichao's mother didn't get a single cent.

When Sun Zhichao's mother went to make a scene, Aunt Chen had just one line: do you want to inherit Sun Biao's debts?

Sun Zhichao and Sun Zhichao's mother were completely dumbfounded.

Back when Sun Biao schemed against Aunt Chen, he had put all his assets under the company's name.

The current situation was: Sun Biao and Aunt Chen's money was all in the company, and the company had debts.

You can inherit if you want, but you have to inherit the debts along with it.

When Shen Mo heard this gossip, he was utterly stunned.

This was just too satisfying.

The mistress and the mistress's son ended up with nothing in the end; years of sunk cost换来 nothing.

Aunt Chen also spread the story of Sun Zhichao's girlfriend and Sun Biao, making Sun Zhichao even more of a laughingstock.

Silly boy, you're really cuckolded.

After laughing at others, Shen Mo returned to sorting out his own affairs.

Baiyin Game Company opened for business, and Shen Mo began recruiting publicly.

Finance, HR, and administration were all sent by Liu Yue.

What needed to be recruited were PR, sales, game designers, and so on.

The order Liu Yue gave HR was: offer top industry salaries, as long as they're talented.

HR agreed immediately — no problem.

During the company's recruitment period, Shen Mo and Liu Yue took a trip back to Erbin.

To handle the media company's affairs.

It was actually quite easy to handle — just a simple handover, after all, Ms. Wen Ya was keeping an eye on things.

The main thing was to say goodbye to family.

Ms. Qin Hao patted her daughter's shoulder, smiling and saying, go out and take on the world; if it gets tough, just come home, Mom will support you.

Grandma and Grandpa took it very well too.

Besides, transportation was developed now — they could meet anytime.

It's not like anyone couldn't afford the plane tickets.

When Shen Mo returned to the game company, HR had already finished recruiting.

Qiang Ni, a gold-medal PR master who had just resigned from overwork.

Li Qiang, a spaced-out programmer who had been denied by his former boss but whom headhunters said had never made a mistake.

Xiao Zhi, a post-00s game engineer who had just graduated from college and been rejected by dozens of game companies.

Li Li, an illustrator and part-time internet-famous manga artist with tens of millions of fans.

Seeing her, Shen Mo raised his hand and asked in confusion, "Miss Li Li, you shouldn't be short on money, right? Why are you coming to work for me?" Li Li, only 1.5 meters tall and wearing a Lolita dress, blushed slightly and said, "Your HR said the boss is a two-hundred-and-fifty, so he probably won't interfere."

Shen Mo was rendered speechless.

He discovered a problem — how on earth had these people been recruited?

So...

Shen Mo looked at the industry-famous PR master Qiang Ni, programmer Li Qiang, and game engineer Xiao Zhi.

Qiang Ni shrugged: "HR told me that if your place goes under, I can go straight to work at Liu Group."

Li Qiang said quietly: "HR said you don't understand programming."

Xiao Zhi grinned broadly, showing his big teeth: "Hehe, HR said you don't know anything, so I can design whatever I want, as long as I don't let the boss's wife invest more money."

As for the rest, Shen Mo couldn't be bothered to ask anymore — either they had impressive resumes, or they were just plain weird.

In any case, a small game company had sprung up in no time.

Liu Yue was very satisfied with this.

At least from Liu Yue's current perspective, even if this company went under, she could still take on a PR master — worth it.

Shen Mo couldn't be bothered to manage it. He decided to be a heartless machine, sitting around waiting for the company to go bankrupt — after all, he'd only invested five million, which wasn't much for Liu Yue.

Because the company had few people, and Shen Mo wasn't great at management, he let Qiang Ni serve as Administrative Vice President.

At the very first meeting, Xiao Zhi proposed designing a match-three game that was absolutely impossible to beat.

"The match-three games on the market right now are all too simple — they all chase quick, easy, short-term wins."

"I propose we design a match-three game that is absolutely impossible to beat."

"Level one: extremely simple."

"Level two: absolutely impossible to beat."

"The money-making model is getting people to buy items and watch ads."

"That's the whole game — just two levels."

It was a moronic proposal, and Shen Mo finally understood why Xiao Zhi had been rejected and fired by countless companies over the past two years since graduation.

But Shen Mo still approved his plan.

Because the game was cheap to make.

In Li Qiang's words, it could be designed in just a few days — very easy.

Li Li said the illustration side was no problem either.

Qiang Ni came up with a promotional plan on the spot.

It was simply to feature this little game on Shen Mo and Liu Yue's accounts.

"Featuring our own company's game on our own accounts — I believe netizens can accept that."

"Especially when you add Boss Shen's reputation for freeloading off a woman to start a business."

"The stingy, sensible image, the bleak scene of being forced into entrepreneurship — very appealing."

"As long as this game is even slightly decent, it can attract a lot of people."

Qiang Ni laid this out in the manner of a PR master.

Once the matter was settled, each department started doing its own thing — whatever they wanted — and Shen Mo didn't manage them at all.

Like Qiang Ni bringing his kid to work, and Shen Mo taking his kid downstairs to the newly opened KFC for burgers.

Li Li shopped online at work, and Shen Mo eagerly asked what kind of birthday gift girls liked — he wanted to buy one for Liu Yue.

Xiao Zhi played games at work and took paid bathroom breaks, so Shen Mo thoughtfully switched it to a sit-down toilet and installed air conditioning.

Li Qiang quietly typed away at his code, and Shen Mo felt bad for him, asking if he could take a break.

Anyway, they just had to follow the plan Xiao Zhi had laid out, step by step.

The company's atmosphere was very relaxed.

Liu Yue dropped by occasionally and thought it was pretty nice too.

As long as nothing went wrong, it was fine.

Three days before Liu Yue's birthday, the moronic match-three game Xiao Zhi had made — called "Sheep Eat Sheep" — officially launched.

Along with it came a romance video of Shen Mo and Liu Yue.

(End of chapter)