Chapter 25: Ji Mingxiu Is Not Human

Chapter 25: Ji Mingxiu Is Not Human

Over the next few days, Shi Ling, along with Mo Jin and Shao Qin, managed to revise the entire code, adding quite a few new features on top of the original work.

The version that Jiang Sijie and the 412 dorm discussed and modified was indeed much more refined compared to the original.

During this period, Shi Ling also kept Ji Mingxiu updated on the progress from time to time.

Although both of them were quite busy and didn’t have the chance to meet up throughout the process, after nearly half a month of working together, their relationship had become more familiar than before.

In addition, Shi Ling also established some degree of contact with Ji Linze, one of Zhou Su's pursuers from the original storyline.

This was mainly because Ji Linze was quite familiar with people.

Ever since Ji Linze found out that Shi Ling and his roommates had collaborated with Jiang Sijie to create a game, and after he had tried it out himself, he shamelessly obtained Shi Ling's contact information from Ji Mingxiu. Recently, he had been relentlessly urging them about the progress.

He was even more concerned than Ji Mingxiu, the future boss.

However, ever since Ji Linze interrupted a discussion between Shi Ling and Ji Mingxiu about the game's future development with a phone call, he had rarely bothered Shi Ling again.

Instead, he went to bother Fang Lingyun.

According to Ji Linze, based on the current division of labor in Shi Ling's team, and knowing the current progress of the game, Fang Lingyun was probably the most idle person in their team, so urging him wouldn't be wrong.

Fang Lingyun complained in the dorm, "Why is Ji Linze so annoying?"

"If he spent half as much effort pursuing Zhou Su, he wouldn't still be trying to win her over!"

When Shi Ling returned from his part-time job and heard Fang Lingyun's complaint, he said, "But from what Ji Mingxiu told me, the main reason Ji Linze and Zhou Su aren't together is because the Ji family doesn't approve."

As soon as he said this, several gossip-loving roommates immediately looked over, and Fang Lingyun even poured him a glass of water to moisten his throat, "Tell us more?"

Shi Ling didn’t hold back and shared with his friends what he had heard from Ji Mingxiu, "Basically, the Zhou family's development has hit a bottleneck, and they want to use Zhou Su's connections to get closer to other families and give the Zhou family a boost. A few years ago, when Zhou Su and Ji Linze had just met, Zhou Chuanbai, on his father's behalf, had discussed this with the Ji family."

"Ji Linze just wanted to be with Zhou Su simply, but with the Zhou family involved, it's unlikely to happen, so the Ji family doesn't approve of Ji Linze continuing his relationship with Zhou Su. According to Ji Mingxiu, if Ji Linze and Zhou Su were to get together, everything the Zhou family would ask for in the future would have to come out of his own pocket."

He paused before continuing, "I heard that to prevent Ji Linze from impulsively messing with the Ji family's resources, the shares that were supposed to be given to him after he came of age were withheld by the Ji family's elder."

Ji Linze, as a person, would be a fairly outstanding rich second generation. He has a sense of propriety and doesn't cause trouble, but if you ask him to focus on a career, that would be too much for him.

Since he couldn't provide what the Zhou family wanted, he and Zhou Su couldn't be together.

Fang Lingyun clicked his tongue, "So the Zhou family selling their son for resources isn't a new trick, no wonder they were so eager to use you for a marriage alliance as soon as you returned to the capital!"

Not just Fang Lingyun, even Shi Ling found it somewhat unbelievable when he heard Ji Mingxiu's explanation.

He only knew that Ji Linze had been chasing after Zhou Su in the storyline, but he didn’t realize there were so many underlying issues.

But when he thought about it later, it seemed that Ji Linze mostly provided emotional support to Zhou Su, and when it came to funding, it was mostly Zhong Shao or Jiang Yulin who provided it.

He had originally thought it was because Ji Linze was just newly an adult and couldn't gather that much capital, but it turned out it was because the Ji family had withheld his shares.

After Fang Lingyun's sigh, he asked Shi Ling again, "By the way, has the Zhou family been contacting you recently? When I called home, my brother mentioned that the Zhou family isn't so easily giving up on you and still wants to persuade you to return."

Shi Ling couldn’t help but reflect, Fang Lingyun's brother, being the carefully cultivated heir of a prominent family, indeed had sharp insights.

As Fang Lingfeng had said, the Zhou family had indeed been contacting Shi Ling, but Shi Ling's attitude remained the same—as soon as he realized the caller was from the Zhou family, he would hang up and block the number.

After doing this multiple times, it had become somewhat of a reflex for him.

Shi Ling replied, "They've been calling, but I'm not picking up."

He organized some clean clothes in his cabinet, planning to take a shower before the lights went out, "It's kind of contradictory, the Zhou family is contacting me and politely asking me to return, but when I accidentally run into them outside, they act all arrogant towards me."

Thinking back to the unpleasant encounter with the Zhou family at the cinema on the first day of the National Day holiday, Shi Ling still felt a bit angry.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to see them again; dealing with the calls was already annoying enough.

Shi Ling quickly shook off the unpleasant memory of that family and asked Fang Lingyun, "Tomorrow is the day Jiang Xuejie arranged for Ji Mingxiu to have you take Shao Qin and Mo Jin for negotiations. You'll be the key person tomorrow, are you prepared?"

Fang Lingyun nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry, I've prepared both the game's background story and the latest version's gameplay demonstration. With me there, nothing will go wrong."

Seeing how confident he was, and recalling Fang Lingyun's frequent mentions of the close interactions between the Fang and Ji families, Shi Ling felt half of his worries settle down.

"Then I'll leave it to you!"

However, when he returned from his part-time job the next day, he was greeted by a completely dark dorm.

According to their usual routine, it should have been brightly lit at this time, with the three roommates chatting enthusiastically.

He glanced at their beds and could vaguely make out three figures.

He was puzzled, what were his roommates up to today?

Shi Ling pressed the light switch, and with a "click," the previously dark dorm was suddenly illuminated.

He looked over at the other beds, and sure enough, there was a motionless person on each of the three beds, not even stirring when suddenly exposed to the light.

It was as if they had experienced some kind of trauma.

Thinking about what they might have gone through that day, Shi Ling chuckled, "What's going on? Did Ji Mingxiu give you a hard time?"

Hearing Shi Ling's question, the other three immediately had a lot to say.

Especially Fang Lingyun, who had been leading today's negotiations. Despite pretending to be dead on his bed just moments ago, he now shot up, "Shi Xiaoling, do you know how excessive Ji Mingxiu was? He's not human! The weird questions he asked were insane!"

The other two beds, Shao Qin and Mo Jin, were nodding in agreement.

"Indeed, worthy of Ji Zong, the pressure when facing him was immense."

"Originally, it seemed like Senior Jiang wanted to help out too, but for some reason, she later left us to face Director Ji alone. It was really terrifying."

"I’ll just stick to coding. As for negotiations, we can leave that to Fang Lingyun in the future!"

Upon hearing this, Fang Lingyun looked pitifully at the other two. "Are you going to abandon me too?"

Shi Ling couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "Lingyun, didn’t you say just yesterday that with you handling things, there would absolutely be no problems?"

Fang Lingyun sighed and then, with some pride, lifted his head. He looked at Shi Ling. "Although the process was quite difficult, with me, Fang Lingyun, handling the negotiation, the outcome didn’t go wrong!"

However, he quietly added, "Though I feel like Director Ji went easy on us later on. If it had followed the normal standards of negotiation, we probably wouldn’t have made it through."

Shi Ling comforted him, "It’s fine. The result is good anyway."

"Besides, based on my previous experience dealing with Ji Mingxiu, his willingness to invest in our project should be quite high. If he really didn’t think much of the project, he wouldn’t have talked to me so much before the negotiation. Ji Mingxiu isn’t Ji Linze; he’s very busy and wouldn’t waste time on things he doesn’t think are worth his effort."

Fang Lingyun breathed a sigh of relief. "You have a point, but Shi Ling, I didn’t expect you to talk with Director Ji for so long."

He hadn’t thought much of it at first, considering it normal communication between two people. Maybe after spending time together, they found their personalities and interests matched, leading to more topics and conversations.

But after today’s negotiation, where Ji Mingxiu had grilled him for almost two hours, Fang Lingyun now saw Shi Ling as some kind of superhero.

How could Ji Mingxiu possibly get along with Shi Ling? He was the kind of person who could leave you speechless with every word!

Recalling the strange questions Ji Mingxiu had asked in the office earlier, Fang Lingyun sincerely asked Shi Ling, "How can you stand talking to Ji Mingxiu for so long? From today on, I don’t want to speak to Ji Mingxiu ever again."

Amused by his reaction, Shi Ling said, "It’s not that bad. We usually just talk about games. I add some details about the game’s settings, and Director Ji gives his opinions too. The communication is quite peaceful."

Shi Ling genuinely believed this. In the few meetings they had, Ji Mingxiu had been quite nice to him, showing that he was a well-mannered person.

Even the first time they met accidentally outside the villa area, after guessing Shi Ling’s identity, Ji Mingxiu had asked questions in a roundabout and tactful way.

But it was possible that Ji Mingxiu’s attitude in daily life was different from during negotiations.

After all, work and personal life could bring out different sides of a person.

Trying to salvage Ji Mingxiu’s image, Shi Ling added, "And Director Ji seems like a nice person too. He even watched a movie with me before!"

However, in response to Shi Ling’s defense, Fang Lingyun was incredulous. "Watched a movie? You and Ji Mingxiu?"

Fang Lingyun couldn’t help but doubt, "Shi Ling, are we talking about the same person?"