Chapter 34 : He really regretted it (2/2)

Sang Miao had been busy for the past few days,

but she finally finished the first draft for the setting of several major game worlds.

After wrapping up the draft, she headed to Xinghe to hand it off to Shen Xiasha and join a few department leads for a discussion meeting.

Her artistic style was exactly what Shen Xiasha wanted from the start,

So there weren’t many disagreements.

After tweaking some details and adjusting the color tones,

they finalized the overall tone and the foundational worldbuilding.

The game was positioned as an open-world survival adventure RPG.

Initially, it would be released on PC and major consoles,

with plans to eventually develop a mobile version based on the same IP.

This meant their target audience wasn’t limited to just core gamers.

Trying to please both casual and hardcore players wasn’t easy.

But it was the key to creating a breakout hit.

In China, the overall gaming landscape still favors mobile over PC and console.

There weren’t many teams working on large-scale games.

At the studio, a group of passionate and highly creative young people had gathered.

They were pouring at least a full year of effort into this project, hoping it would bring them recognition.

So, expectations were very high for this one.

Including internal staff and outsourced teams, the current development scale had reached nearly a hundred people.

Aside from large-scale world map scene drawings,

there was also a massive workload: character NPCs,

environment flora and fauna, architectural details, monster designs, and more.

Because of that, the art and visual effects departments were running short on staff.

Some complex VFX elements could take ages to refine,

even just for one character or one creature.

It was extremely taxing.

Sang Miao had picked up the pace as well.

She had already arranged for company equipment to be purchased.

The desks, chairs, and computers in several offices were already installed.

New coffee machines, refrigerators, and other break room gear had been ordered and delivered.

The sofas and leisure furniture in the lounge area had also been replaced.

Over the past few days, she’d bought a lot of things for her personal office too,

which were now all piled up in the downstairs lobby.

A few interviews were scheduled for later in the week.

So, that afternoon, Sang Miao made time to stop by,

planning to get everything organized and move into official operating mode.

Arriving at the building, she saw a large sign posted outside the small Western-style office, with Xueyu Tech’s logo on it.

On either side of the first floor were small gardens.

Spring flowers stretched freely, with roses and a few unnamed blossoms in bloom.

In a few more weeks, when the peak bloom came, the courtyard would be full of flowers.

There were patio umbrellas and tables outside,

making it feel less like a tech company.

Inside, the space still felt a bit empty.

The old furnishings had all been removed.

The sanitation and cleaning had already been taken care of by a hired company.

Later, they’d just need to hire a couple of permanent custodial staff.

So today, with the task being just to organize her own stuff, Sang Miao hadn’t asked for help.

She figured a half-day of solo effort would be enough.

Shen Xiasha heard she was coming over and said he could stop by to help.

Barely ten minutes later, he arrived.

Sang Miao was surprised.

Was he really this free during work hours?

He wore a dress shirt and slacks, sleeves rolled up to reveal his arms.

Even though it was during work hours, unlike some upper management types who always wore ties and looked uptight,

he carried a kind of effortless flair.

He could’ve walked a red carpet and looked the part.

Sang Miao had just arrived as well.

She had moved the office sofa a bit by herself and said to him,

“You actually have time to come over right now?”

Shen Xiasha smiled with a touch of exasperation.

“Just finished a meeting with the planning team.

Gave me a headache. Needed a break.”

The planning department handled the game’s core mechanics,

system functions, and numerical balance.

It wasn’t unusual for members to disagree and argue during meetings.

A lot of ideas only revealed whether they were good or not after being implemented.

Changes were constant.

Reworking or even scrapping things was nothing new.

A game producer needs to oversee the entire project,

judge what should be kept and what should be changed,

and also allocate manpower and material resources properly.

They need to arrange the work well to avoid serious delays or going over budget.

Coordinating conflicts between departments and maintaining a harmonious team atmosphere is also extremely important.

Once a major project starts, it’s guaranteed to be exhausting in both mind and body.

No wonder he wanted to find a reliable person to help out.

Shen Qixia noticed she hadn’t moved the sofa yet, so he stepped in to help and asked curiously,

“Where was this sofa originally?”

Sang Miao pointed to the other side, where the outline of the sofa was still marked in dust on the floorboard.

Shen Qixia: “…You moved this all by yourself?”

Sang Miao looked at the distance and realized that for most people, especially a woman who appeared slim and not very strong, this might be quite difficult.

She chuckled and shifted the topic to something else.

Shen Qixia didn’t press the issue.

After helping move the sofa, he glanced around at the pile of delivery boxes:

“So what now, are we moving all this stuff upstairs?”

“Mm-hmm,” Sang Miao didn’t stand on ceremony with him.

But since she was asking for help, she didn’t want it to be just pure labor, so she took out her phone.

“No rush, I’ll order some coffee first.

What would you like to drink?”

…

On Friday after school, Meng Xici and Ji Zhuoran stayed behind for a while for a meeting.

After the meeting, they walked out together to the parking lot.

Ji Zhuoran still wanted to discuss the performance with him, so he said he’d go back with him.

Meng Xici paused, “I’m not going home just yet.”

“Huh?

Then where are you going?” Ji Zhuoran found it strange.

He wasn’t heading straight home?

He made a show of being shocked and laughed, “Where are you going to play?

And not even taking me?”

Meng Xici didn’t want to get questioned endlessly, so he just said, “…No, I’m going to buy a cake.”

“?” Ji Zhuoran was even more confused.

“Whose birthday is it?

Your dog’s?”

“…?”

Meng Xici was speechless.

How did his brain work?

Who thinks of a dog’s birthday first when someone says they’re buying cake…

But Ji Zhuoran did have his reasoning.

Meng Xici normally didn’t eat cakes or sweets,

so if he was buying a cake, wasn’t it most likely for a birthday?

If it were for his dad’s birthday, that seemed unlikely.

He thought about it,

if there was someone who could make him go out of his way to buy a cake, it could only be Simba…

Oh, wait, now there was also a new stepmother, but that seemed even less likely.

With Ji Zhuoran’s personality,

if Meng Xici didn’t have something especially important going on,

he’d want to tag along and find out the truth.

Meng Xici didn’t bother explaining anymore: “It’s a bit far.

If you want to come, just come along…”

“Far” wasn’t a problem for Ji Zhuoran.

He was in no rush to go home anyway.

Meng Xici first searched for the name of Jiang Jingxun’s shop and told the driver to head there.

Ji Zhuoran had his driver go home first and rode in Meng Xici’s car with him.

There was a bit of a distance from the school to the café,

and it was actually in the opposite direction from the Meng family’s villa.

Ji Zhuoran didn’t get it.

Not only did the Meng family already have Michelin-level pastry chefs,

even if he didn’t eat the ones at home, whatever he wanted could easily be delivered.

Even having it flown in from overseas the same day wouldn’t be difficult.

Was this cake that good that he had to go out of his way to get it?

And it wasn’t even on the way!

Now he had to see what kind of divine cake this was.

About twenty minutes later, the two of them arrived and parked outside a retro-style café in a residential area.

Curious, Ji Zhuoran followed him in.

It looked like an ordinary place…

At this hour, there weren’t many people in the café.

Jiang Jingxun had already returned and was currently delivering food to a table of customers, so he didn’t notice them come in.

As Ji Zhuoran stepped into the café, he looked around at the space and immediately saw Jiang Jingxun, the guy who had just recently rejected him.

He was genuinely stunned for a second when he saw him, but didn’t call out.

Instead, he leaned closer and whispered to Meng Xici, “Hey, look—it’s Jiang Jingxun.

Is he working part-time here?

Wait, that can’t be right…

Hold up, did you know he was here and came on purpose?”

Meng Xici was momentarily speechless and didn’t feel like entertaining his wild guesses.

He didn’t call out to Jiang Jingxun either.

He just walked to the counter and looked over the menu and the desserts displayed in the cooler.

Ji Zhuoran still hadn’t figured out what was going on, so he continued questioning, “How did you know he’d be here?”

Meng Xici looked at the cakes, simple in appearance but crafted with intricate details, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly.

He replied in a low voice, “Aren’t you supposed to be well-informed?

You didn’t know this is his family’s shop?”

Ji Zhuoran blinked.

He didn’t know that.

What was even stranger was: how did Meng Xici know?

And he came all the way here?

He stood there frozen for a few seconds, then suddenly had a realization.

But still a bit confused, he whispered,

“Wait, don’t tell me you came all this way just to convince him to attend the opening ceremony?”

After being turned down twice by Jiang Jingxun back at school,

Ji Zhuoran had pretty much given up on that idea.

Meng Xici thought he must have the opening ceremony on his mind all the time.

He took a deep breath, held back, and replied word by word, “What.

Do.

You.

Think.”

As for the real reason he came today, it was kind of on a whim.

Maybe it was because of the few interactions he’d had with Jiang Jingxun this week at school.

They made him think of Sang Miao.

She had brought cakes back several times,

so it wouldn’t be strange if he brought one home just this once.

Ji Zhuoran took his denial as an answer, but didn’t care much.

He just pouted and, since he wasn’t getting a straight reply,

started looking over the menu too.

At that moment, there was some movement from behind the counter.

Ling Xi came out of the kitchen carrying a few freshly made cakes.

She first said to Jiang Jingxun, who was not far away,

“Ah, Xun, there’s a delivery coming up, can you take it out later?”

As she finished speaking,

she noticed the two young men standing in front of the counter and couldn’t help showing a flicker of surprise.

Both Meng Xici and Ji Zhuoran were striking in appearance,

hard to forget after seeing them even once, not to mention that they had some past interaction.

Ling Xi gently placed the tray of cakes on the counter and smiled warmly.

“You two are Ah Xun’s classmates, right?”