Chapter 1410: Probing

The Science Park, the former office location of Youxiang Net, was now empty.

However, it had been cleaned quite thoroughly; there wasn't a single scrap of waste paper on the floor or tables, and there wasn't much dust accumulated on the desks either. Before moving out, Youxiang Net had specifically hired someone to clean the place.

The reason for moving out was that Liu Qiangdong was not like Wang Yan; he was a completely social person, making it more convenient to manage the company. Although Wang Yan didn't attend classes, it still didn't look good for him to never even come to school; to this day, he still lived in the school dormitory. As for the house he bought outside, he only used it for in-depth exchanges with Xiao Qianxi...

"Come on, fever medicine. Drink it and take a nap, and you'll basically be almost better." Wang Yan took the medicine, prepared a bottle of mineral water, and placed it on the table.

"Thank you, Wang Yan."

Xie Qiao thanked him, picked up the fever medicine, and drank it down with the water in one go—she gulped down half the bottle.

She said with some embarrassment, "I discovered I had a fever this morning, and I ran out without even drinking any water."

"You haven't eaten either?"

"No."

Wang Yan checked the time on his phone: "Just endure it a little longer. Food will be delivered in a little over an hour."

"Mm."

Xie Qiao nodded, sitting in the chair, filled with worry. "Do you think I really caught it?"

"I've said it several times, no, you haven't." Wang Yan shook his head, amused. "As far as I know, there isn't a single confirmed case in our school right now. Those being quarantined are just the ones with fevers. How could you possibly have caught it? Put your heart at ease, don't let your imagination run wild; there's absolutely nothing wrong."

"I'm really scared, Wang Yan. These past few days, I keep thinking, what if I really caught it, what should I do? Will my face look particularly terrifying when I die..."

"Scaring yourself only makes you feel worse. Think about something else to distract yourself, and you'll be fine."

"I can't control it. My head is full of influenza, influenza..." Xie Qiao rested her elbows on the table, her hands covering her feverish forehead, feeling miserable.

Wang Yan sat beside her, his long legs propped diagonally on the table: "Have you been working in the dorm these past few days?"

"I did a little. Qianxi did the most; she's the steadiest, as if she's afraid of nothing and doesn't think about the flu at all. Every day, she's busy messaging and communicating with other employees. Xu Lin just shouts all day that she wants to go home, saying she doesn't want to die in a foreign place, and if she's going to die, she wants to die at home. She works for a while, then shouts a few times, watching the reports on Zhiwo Net every day, calling home, and so on."

Xie Qiao rambled on, then turned her head to look at Wang Yan. "Wait, aren't you being too much of a capitalist? At such a severe time, you're still making us work?"

"A capitalist? I've been quite decent to you all." Wang Yan glanced at her and said with a smile, "In this life, if one wants to not die, one must live."

"Isn't that just nonsense?"

"Then how do you live? Isn't it by earning money? As long as it's not truly the end of the world, people have to sell their labor in exchange for money to buy what they need for life. Otherwise, what can they do? A whole family sitting there staring at each other?"

"Besides, it's not just my company's business. Isn't there group buying? The delivery manpower for Zhiwo Net alone has over a thousand people in Beijing. And what about those manufacturers? What about the workers?"

"This is an entire chain. If it didn't exist before, that's one thing, but now that it does, it can't be cut off. Otherwise, what will happen to the workers absorbed by it? Although Zhiwo Net isn't big yet, the upstream and downstream population it affects is nearly a million people."

"I didn't think it was this complicated." Xie Qiao let out a long sigh. "Looking at it this way, the magazine office has over sixty families behind the employees, plus two or three hundred people. It's really difficult..."

"It's just for this period; it will be better afterward."

"Do you have accurate news?"

Wang Yan shook his head: "No."

Xie Qiao asked: "Then how long do you estimate?"

"Another two or three months. The spread, diffusion, and blocking of the virus will be within this timeframe. The number of infection cases should increase for a while, then under control, it will gradually decrease, and finally, production and life will return to before."

"Ah?" Xie Qiao sighed again. "Doesn't that mean we'll be locked down until June?"

"May should be about right," Wang Yan said. "After all, we are a university, full of talent; it's definitely a matter of prioritizing safety."

"Sigh... you say, everything was fine, how did such a thing happen?"

"Imperialism's desire to destroy us never dies, that's why."

"What? You mean, this was poisoning by foreigners?"

"Hard to say, I'm just talking nonsense." Wang Yan shook his head. "Whether it's true or false, just treat it as true—that someone is sabotaging our situation of stability, unity, and prosperous development. Thinking this way makes one feel better, and gives one a target for anger."

"You really know how to comfort yourself."

"Otherwise, think about how I grew up strong all by myself for so many years?"

Xie Qiao fell silent. After a long while, she said: "You've really had it hard."

"So, absorb some advanced experience from me. Before things have even reached the end, don't start thinking about putting yourself in a coffin."

"Sigh..." Xie Qiao couldn't help but sigh again. "It's just too scary..."

This is nothing. Sixteen years later, there will be even fiercer ones...

Wang Yan shook his head and turned to ask: "I remember Qin Chuan said before that he opened a shop outside, right?"

"That was just before the New Year. He rented a storefront, planning to renovate it and open for business right when school started. Then, well, the flu happened, and his shop couldn't open. He lost several months of rent for nothing. He even said he wanted to issue coupons on Zhiwo Net..."

"Natural and man-made disasters are unavoidable. How much money is that for him? Look at me; the money I've lost is in the tens of millions."

"Didn't you say you could earn it all back later? You're a big company; millions go in and out, there's simply no comparison, okay?"

"Mm, what you say makes sense." Wang Yan nodded with a smile.

Since Qin Chuan didn't leave because of Xie Qiao's rejection, then continuing to develop along the original plotline and operating a shop outside was a natural progression.

Qin Chuan had also earned quite a bit over the past year; he himself mentioned a net profit of five thousand yuan per month. At this time, the average wage for employees nationwide was just over a thousand; even in Beijing and Shanghai, the average wage hadn't reached two thousand.

He and Da Long making pancakes together was already a quite high-paying job. Even without Wang Ying's money, if the two of them worked for a year and saved some money, and invested some extra, opening a shop was more than enough.

Moreover, the school stall was still profitable; Qin Chuan and Da Long having no worries about food and clothing was no problem. They could even not go themselves, hire two people to work there, and still have plenty of money left over every month, which counted as passive income.

In the original story, this was Wang Ying's help. Now, however, it was Wang Yan's patronage. After all, Wang Ying had no reason to help Qin Chuan; if he didn't speak up, Qin Chuan couldn't have entered the school cafeteria.

On the other hand, his help would be even longer-lasting. After all, in the original story, Wang Ying's father fell from power, and Qin Chuan's stall in the cafeteria definitely couldn't be kept. Now, with his, Wang Mou's, protection, this stall would always be Qin Chuan's.

From this perspective, Wang Yan was quite decent to Qin Chuan...

"Perfunctory..." Xie Qiao curled her lips.

Wang Yan smiled again and put his arm around her shoulder: "Comrade Xie Qiao is in high spirits now, why aren't you worried about the flu anymore?"

"Oh my, don't be like this. If you're like this again, I... I will..."

"You will what?"

"Oh my." Xie Qiao broke free from Wang Yan's arm, slid the chair further away, and said with a red face, "Are you worthy of Qianxi by doing this? It's not appropriate."

"I seem to have said from the very beginning that I am a fickle person. When I was with her, she told me what you all advised her. She also told me her answer."

Xie Qiao was silent; she didn't know what she should say at this very moment.

So Wang Yan spoke on his own: "I told Qianxi that I wouldn't marry her."

"What?" Xie Qiao's eyes widened. "Not marry?"

"Is there a problem? Don't you think this should be the normal development? What can marriage represent? What can it constrain?" Wang Yan repeated to Xie Qiao what he had previously said to Li Nana. "I might sound very utilitarian saying this, because this erases love, but for me, it is just like this."

After hearing this, Xie Qiao was silent again.

After a long time, she popped out a sentence: "What did Qianxi say?"

"Understood."

"Understood?"

Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "That's exactly what she said."

Xie Qiao had a look of sudden realization: "I was wondering why she was working so hard; she wants to make herself valuable, she doesn't want to be someone who is kept."

"Then you might have misunderstood." Looking at Xie Qiao's confused expression, Wang Yan said, "Qianxi has always been a strong-willed person; regardless of her relationship with me, this point will not change. She works hard, indeed to improve her ability and value, but how much of this is improved for me remains to be discussed."

"But this point is not important, is it? If she improves her own ability, she will have the confidence not to depend on others in the future, maintaining a high degree of freedom, and won't be afraid wherever she goes. This is a good thing. After all, no one can say for sure what will happen in the future. What if I go bankrupt? At that time, although not poor, it will be hard to be rich, and I won't be able to take care of her, but she can still carve out a career for herself."

"Actually, it's not just Qianxi; Xu Lin is the same. She also works very seriously and very hard. Because she knows this is a rare opportunity for her, it is the capital for her to walk in society in the future. Qianxi has my support, you are a local, your family doesn't count on you for anything, as long as you are safe and healthy, and Wang Ying goes without saying. So Xu Lin is working very carefully, growing, and improving her self-value."

Xie Qiao frowned in thought and nodded: "What you say is really true; usually I didn't pay much attention at all. Sigh, thinking about it this way, Wang Ying is actually working very seriously too."

"She got in on her own ability; she is also quite strong-willed, thinking about not relying on her family to prove her ability. Many second-generation children from powerful and wealthy families have this kind of thought; it's very normal."

"Then what do you think of Lu Daxian? How is she?"

The Lu Daxian in Xie Qiao's mouth is Lu Qianran, because Lu Qianran loves to mess with some tarot cards for fortune-telling, and is mystical, hence the name.

Wang Yan said: "Her state is about the same as yours. You are both locals, both treasures of your families, without too much motivation to struggle, and the feeling you give people is very comfortable."

"You two aren't particularly hardworking, but because of the atmosphere in the magazine office, you haven't held anyone back either. For you two, the work in the magazine office is more like playing a growth management game; if you are happy, you do more, if you are not happy, you do less."

"So the art and photography magazines we are responsible for have mediocre results?" Xie Qiao looked at Wang Yan pitifully. "Did we hold you back? Especially since I'm responsible for your favorite photography..."

"Didn't I just say you didn't hold anyone back? Mediocre results are actually a good job done by the two of you." Wang Yan comforted her with a smile. "Art and photography themselves are small categories; there aren't as many people paying attention as you imagine. If you really want to explode, want to have huge popularity, you have to wait until our country's economy develops to a certain extent, and the people are wealthy to a certain extent, and start paying attention to these again."

"Obviously, people now are not wealthy enough; literature is withering and falling, let alone art which covers more, and photography which is even more niche. So, being able to have a batch of stable readers and ensuring content output above the standard, you have already been very successful. Don't be discouraged because of this. If you were doing poorly, I would say it directly."

"You really know how to comfort people."

"Speaking the truth. You know, I have always been a sincere person. Speaking the truth is a part of sincerity."

Watching Wang Yan smiling and raising his eyebrows at her, Xie Qiao, who just thought the topic change was successful, turned red again, the whole person lying on the table, buzzing: "I want to lie down for a while."

"Okay, I'll go down to work. Call me if anything happens."

Wang Yan responded, got up decisively, and left to go downstairs to continue the struggle.

The employees downstairs were all students majoring in computer science from Beiqing who were working part-time; this was already the third batch. Compared to the first batch of seniors who basically all stayed in the company, the number of students who stayed in the latter two batches dropped a lot. Because they lacked the collective spirit of hard struggle of the first batch, and didn't have that friendship.

Now it is completely a counterpart cooperation between Zhiwo Net and the school, just providing a relatively popular platform for Beiqing students to intern while in school.

But this is also not bad; after all, Beiqing students have high aspirations. Although the country is developing rapidly right now, foreign countries are still leading, and it is still difficult to escape the meaning of these people striving toward foreign countries.

Wang Yan doesn't mind these either; hiring high-level labor at a low cost, he made a big profit. Not to mention there are various research projects related to the school, he can also participate in them, and has gained a lot of benefits...

Hearing Wang Yan leave, the empty office fell into silence, so quiet that Xie Qiao heard her own excited heartbeat and suppressed breathing, and she finally revealed her eyes.

Her mind was running wild, work, life, studies, friends, and... Wang Yan...

Unknowingly, she fell asleep lying on the table...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who tipped, voted for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support!

? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1411 =====