Qin Zhao was the online username used by Qin Zhao.
Qin Zhao looked at the lily flower pinned to the chest of the person in front of her - it was the decoration they had agreed to wear to recognize each other. Qin Zhao was also wearing one on her chest.
"It's me," Qin Zhao pointed to the seat across from her, "Please sit down."
The other person was a typical career woman, dressed more formally than Qin Zhao in a neat business suit and black rimmed glasses.
"Let me introduce myself, Pei Fanzhi," she reached out her hand, "I'm a bit older than you, you can call me Sister Pei."
Qin Zhao shook her hand and said, "Qin Zhao."
The server brought out the food Qin Zhao had ordered, and took Pei Fanzhi's order. Then the two woman began their discussion in earnest.
Qin Zhao asked the question she most wanted to know the answer to: "Sister Pei, I want to know, why would you be willing to pay 5 million for a comic that has just started its main story arc?"
Pei Sister clearly came prepared. She took out a stack of documents from her briefcase and handed them to Qin Zhao, saying "Take a look first."
Qin Zhao accepted the documents and flipped through them.
Surprisingly, she was very familiar with the content - these were data on "Prairie Fire", the competitor of "Wilderness", Qin Zhao's comic.
Prairie Fire was owned by the Ren Xiaoyao Game Company.
The game had a story background of five women with different personalities beginning to survive in the wilderness after a global disaster.
Players could choose one of the identities based on their own situation. During gameplay, they could form teams with others, with a maximum of five people per team.
Different teams could also cooperate or compete with each other.
Without a doubt, Prairie Fire was already the most successful wilderness survival game.
Ye Chenxi's company's people were all extremely envious of its success.
Twenty minutes later, Qin Zhao put down the documents, signaling Pei Fanzhi to continue speaking.
Pei Fanzhi asked, "What do you think?"
"The game is very successful."
Pei Fanzhi nodded, "Did you notice anything abnormal?"
Qin Zhao had indeed noticed some issues with the user growth data of the game, but she didn't want to discuss irrelevant matters with her.
She simply said, "Sister Pei, do you need me, an outsider, to help you solve professional problems?"
Pei Fanzhi smiled and said, "Of course not. Since Miss Qin is not interested in this, I'll get right to the point.
Since Prairie Fire went online, its users have been steadily and crazily growing. Such results can be called a miracle, but players are always limited. Growth will reach a limit at some point.
The decline has already emerged, but our boss wants this miracle to continue at least through this year, maintaining first place in the industry."
Qin Zhao was curious about the "this year" deadline and tentatively asked, "May I ask why it has to be this year? Is there something special about this timeframe?"
Pei Fanzhi's coffee stirring paused, seemingly debating whether to answer. After a moment, she said:
"If you agree to sell the copyright of your Don't Look Back comic to me, or more accurately to our company, I'll tell you the answer to this question, as well as why the company is willing to pay a high price for it."
Qin Zhao was flattered and said, "Thank you for your boss's appreciation. If there is an opportunity, please introduce me to her - I'm very interested in her. Most people who make games choose broader user groups to earn more money. People like your boss who choose to serve minority groups are really rare."
Pei Fanzhi nodded, "I will pass your message to our boss. She is the one who truly likes your comic. I'm sure she would be very willing to meet you."
After taking a sip of coffee to wet her throat, Pei Fanzhi continued, "As for the 'this year' deadline, it's because if a gaming company doesn't earn enough profit this year, it will go bankrupt.
Our boss and this company's president are love rivals, and she lost to him in romance, so she wants to defeat him in business to get even. It's that simple."
The keywords gaming company and president caught Qin Zhao's attention. She asked, "The president you're talking about wouldn't happen to be Ye Chenxi, would it?!"
If the love rival was Ye Chenxi, then the person she liked must be...
Pei Fanzhi gave Qin Zhao a meaningful smile, "I can't say anything more. Those are private matters of our boss. If you really want to know, you can ask her directly."
Qin Zhao pouted, "I do want to ask her, but I don't even know how to contact her."
But Pei Fanzhi said, "You don't need to worry about that. Didn't you submit your resume to our company?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Then there's no problem. The boss said that if you're willing to sell the comic copyright to us, she'll give you a suitable position."
"How do you know I'm MaoTouHuMian?"
Pei Fanzhi laughed and said, "That's actually very simple."
...
After signing the copyright contract with Pei Fanzhi and obtaining a concept artist position, Qin Zhao happily returned home.
As soon as she got home, she received a mobile banking text message alerting a new deposit of 3 million, half of the comic copyright fee. They had finally agreed on a price of 6 million, with the remainder to be settled after the comic was completed.
Just as Qin Zhao was grinning stupidly at her bank account balance, the system suddenly popped up, giving her a fright.
Even more frightening than the system's jump scare was its message: "Host, this is bad, Ye Chenxi proposed to Nan Yue!"
