Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Yan Yu asked, "By the way, Hellfire, are you interested in investing in my shop? If you're willing to put up capital, I can share the profits with you."

Gu Chengzhi wasn't interested in sharing. How much profit could a tiny online shop selling cosplay costumes really bring in? A physical store would obviously lose money; this is a niche hobby.

Yan Yu said, "Forget it. You don't understand our industry. I'll find someone else to talk to."

Gu Chengzhi replied, "1.2 million isn't a small chunk of change. Let me think it over."

Yan Yu said, "Alright, I'll wait for you then."

With that, he logged off without hesitation.

Lin Xiaotang asked, "What if he's not actually Han Ge's cousin?"

Yan Yu shrugged, unbothered. "It doesn't matter if he's not. If he helps me out, I'll take care of him later. If he is, then I'll just play along with him."

Rong Yuan genuinely admired Yan Yu's guts. But he was also somewhat worried. If they knowingly messed with Gu Chengzhi, it'd definitely make things worse. After this was over, they'd probably become sworn enemies.

He really despised Gu Chengzhi, but continuing to deepen the rift with the main branch went against the wishes of the old couple and wouldn't benefit them practically.

Rong Yuan brought this up with Gu Shenhan later that evening, hoping to confirm the other party's identity first. He said, "Honey, is there any way to look into this? Once we have a clear answer, we can decide what to do. My original intention was just to prevent Xiao Yu from getting cheated, not to create any extra trouble."

Gu Shenhan asked, "So what will you do if he turns out to be Gu Chengzhi?"

Rong Yuan didn't answer immediately. He took Gu Shenhan's hand and paused. "If that's the case, I'd like to hear what Xiao Yu thinks first, since he's the one being deceived. On the other hand, I'd rather handle it gently. Otherwise, this issue, which was originally just between us and the main branch—only the main branch has a grudge against us—might end up involving Xiao Yu, or even Lao Yan and Xiao Tang."

"Are we scared of him?"

"It's not about being scared. It's that conflict always brings risk and takes energy to deal with. And you can't deny that it adds to the company's internal problems. Besides, we're about to have a baby. I think we shouldn't make things too tense."

Gu Shenhan didn't say anything. He grabbed a cheese stick, let Rong Yuan bite the yogurt off, then kept the paper stick in his mouth.

When trying to quit smoking, he always felt like something was missing in his mouth. Having something to gnaw on helped calm his irritation.

His feud with Gu Chengzhi went way back, not something that could be resolved in a few words.

But he didn't want Rong Yuan to worry, so he promised to look into it thoroughly. "We should be getting some info soon."

Rong Yuan kissed Gu Shenhan. "I knew you'd be the most reliable."

A milky taste spread between them. Gu Shenhan snorted, acting annoyed, but soon his breathing grew heavy.

He slid his hand under Rong Yuan's shirt and groped him for a bit. Then he stood up and walked away without looking back.

"Where are you going, honey?"

"The gym. Where else?" Gu Shenhan said with some resignation, emphasizing before he left, "Don't come find me. I need to cool off."

Rong Yuan noticed that someone was clearly worked up and needed to burn off energy. He smiled and tugged at the corner of a cushion. "Oh."

When Gu Shenhan reached the gym, he wrapped his fingers in training tape while thinking about what Rong Yuan had said.

He knew his little wife wasn't wrong, but emotionally, he couldn't accept it.

His people had initially discovered that the account "Hellfire" wasn't registered to Gu Chengzhi. But they still needed to confirm if Gu Chengzhi was the one using it.

The most effective method was to see what Gu Chengzhi was doing when Hellfire was online. Simple but the most reliable way to be sure. However, to ensure accuracy, it required some time and someone to cooperate.

Whenever Yan Yu was online, if he saw Hellfire active, he'd forward the information. Whether the account was in active play or just logged in without operations, everything was recorded.

They even logged everything that person said or did.

Gu Chengzhi was out doing field sales. He didn't have a fixed workplace and was often out and about. But whenever he was out on business, he had to meet people. Meetings meant talking shop, which wasn't suitable for gaming.

It wasn't hard to have a few people schedule meetings with Gu Chengzhi and check what Hellfire was up to during those times.

So a week later, Gu Shenhan confirmed that Hellfire was indeed Gu Chengzhi.

At first, he wasn't sure, because sometimes when Gu Chengzhi was out doing nothing and not holding his phone, the Hellfire account would still be online and playing.

During those times, the account's skill level would sharply improve. After checking multiple times, Gu Shenhan realized it was probably a hired booster.

Yan Yu said to Rong Yuan, "This guy really is rotten to the core. How can he have the nerve? Isn't he afraid of real-life embarrassment?"

"It's a kind of gambling mentality," Lin Xiaotang said. "There's risk, but if you actually fall for him, he could claim he didn't know from the start."

"Could he be expecting that Yan Ge will hand him a check to stay away from Xiao Yu?" Rong Yuan guessed. "I've seen that plot in dramas a few times."

"...Xiao'an Gege, have you been watching too many 90s idol dramas?" Yan Yu was exasperated. "How can you watch such old shows?"

"Old? I think they're pretty interesting."

"Did Han Ge find them for you?"

"No, I found them myself."

The dramas Gu Shenhan found for him weren't like that, but he found these entertaining. The parents writing checks with such arrogance, and the heroine turning them down with backbone!

It got his blood pumping.

Lin Xiaotang asked, "So what do we do next?"

That 1.2 million was clearly quite a sum. The other party hadn't responded about giving the money to Yan Yu, but hadn't explicitly refused either.

Yan Yu and Hellfire were in a very delicate state. Now that Yan Yu knew the other's identity, he'd lost interest. And Hellfire seemed to be weighing his options.

"Xiao'an Gege, what do you think?"

"I think there's no need to waste each other's time. Xiao Yu, you can do many other things you enjoy instead of wasting time on someone unnecessary."

"But he deceived me. Don't I deserve to teach him a lesson?"

"Letting his plans fail is a lesson in itself. Embarrassing him and deepening the conflict brings us no real benefit. It's completely unnecessary."

"Am I supposed to be afraid of him?"

"That's not the point." Rong Yuan patted Yan Yu's head. "The confidence in your words comes from Lao Yan backing you. If you were on your own, would you still say that? Do you remember what you thought when you moved out?"

"Yes, I remember. I wanted to prove I could live independently."

Or rather, he no longer wanted his brother to see him as a child.

He wanted a fair chance to compete, against the rival he'd never even seen. But he knew that was no longer possible.

If his brother were the type to easily change who he likes, he wouldn't have liked him for so long.

He truly couldn't afford to lose the person he liked and fail to achieve what he set out to do. If he really got tangled up with Gu Chengzhi, what could he accomplish for himself? Nothing at all! He couldn't rely on Gu Chengzhi to get rich, or even if he did, it would feel awful.

Wasting time! Sapping my energy! Playing games with a jerk! Oh no! That sounds even more childish!

"Then why don't I just come clean with Hellfire? Tell him I know who he is."

"No need. Just do what you want to do. For example, now that you know his real identity, do you still want to play with him? If not, don't waste precious time on something that won't benefit you. Just say you're busy with the studio. When you feel like playing, go find someone you actually enjoy playing with. That's it."

"Sounds really relaxing." Yan Yu couldn't quite figure out why this seemingly backing down move didn't bother him at all. Fiddling with a newly dyed silver strand of hair, he said, "I know what to do. But Xiao'an Gege, aren't you even angry? He tried to drive a wedge between you and Han Ge."

"He'd have to actually be able to drive that wedge first. Besides, by pulling this stunt, it only makes Han Ge and me closer."

"Alright, I'll just stay steady and roll with the punches!"

Yan Yu didn't bother to take back what he said about needing one hundred twenty thousand. He just used the increasingly busy studio as an excuse to reduce his online time and started begging Lin Xiaotang to be stricter about enforcing a regular sleep schedule for him.

Speaking of that sleep issue, he'd been doing so much better before, only to fall back to square one. Who could he blame?

That day, Yan Yu didn't log on again. He handed his phone to Lin Xiaotang, then thought twice and gave it to Rong Yuan as well.

Rong Yuan asked, "Why give it to me?"

Yan Yu said, "Xiao Tang Ge spoils me. If I beg him a couple of times, he gives in."

Lin Xiaotang replied, "It's not my fault you have a face that no one can say no to. But you're right to do this, otherwise I'd really struggle with it."

Rong Yuan seemed gentle, but among them, he was the least swayed by others, following a clear set of his own rules.

All three phones ended up in Rong Yuan's hands, making that day incredibly productive.

A week ago, Yan Yu took on a job that was almost at the shipping deadline and still not finished. But that day, not only did he finish it, he also shipped it out before the courier cutoff, feeling a huge weight lift off his shoulders.

Once the parcel was sent, Yan Yu went to Rong Yuan to get his phone back: "Xiao'an Gege, quick, give me back my precious!"

Rong Yuan handed it over: "Here you go, but don't play on it yet. I'll treat you two to a nice meal out, alright?"

Lin Xiaotang asked, "What's with the sudden dinner out? Found some great spot?"

Rong Yuan transferred 13,333 yuan to each of them: "We made some money today, didn't we? Let's go celebrate."

Neither Lin Xiaotang nor Yan Yu accepted. They knew where that money came from. It was the fee and material costs from their biggest client so far—the woman who commissioned the set of embroidered magnolia horse-face skirt, plus an extra 5,000 yuan for a later-added small accessory.

Rong Yuan said, "I spent more time on it, so I went ahead and took an extra share for myself."

Lin Xiaotang was stunned for a moment: "But all I did was cut and sew, and that only took two days."

Yan Yu said, "I just took the order and had a few words with the client... Isn't this too much, Xiao'an Gege?"

Rong Yuan replied, "Not too much. You guys also handled the shop's messages at night—I never dealt with that. And most of the cleanup around here isn't done by me either."

After finishing the handcrafted work, there was always tidying up, but they never let him do it. Lin Xiaotang, knowing his special circumstances, and Yan Yu, feeling Rong Yuan provided the space and covered the utilities, did whatever they could.

The two still felt awkward accepting. Compared to the massive embroidery work, they had practically earned it for nothing.

But Rong Yuan insisted: "When we work together, it's built on mutual trust and compromise. If we split things too clearly, it hurts our bond."

Yan Yu said, "Then I'll do the same going forward. I've been worried about how to calculate income anyway."

At the start, they hadn't made much, just covering daily expenses. But as winter came, profits slowly picked up, and they couldn't keep it so informal forever.

Rong Yuan said, "Let's leave it like this for now. Next time, we'll keep a running total and split everything evenly."

Lin Xiaotang said, "But I live and eat here for free. If we split evenly, that feels unfair. I should take a little less."

Most of the client sourcing and platform management was handled by Yan Yu, and he hadn't charged Lin Xiaotang rent or utilities either.

Yan Yu said, "I don't pay rent or utilities either. This isn't my place. Besides, Xiao Tang Ge, you handle all our meals."

Rong Yuan said, "So we really need to push harder to set up our own studio. Let's make that our new little goal?"

Yan Yu and Lin Xiaotang agreed. Having the workspace mixed with living space sometimes blurred their boundaries between work and rest, making them feel like they were never fully off the clock.

After discussing it, they held a small meeting to organize customer feedback from the comments section, analyze it, and check out the popular Hanfu styles on the market. They did this about once a week.

Rong Yuan and Lin Xiaotang kept focusing on new designs. They planned to target the mid-to-high-end market for now, since their small team couldn't handle mass production, and their intricate, ornate designs suited that niche better.

But they didn't intend to stop there. Rong Yuan had ideas and understood the low-end market too. Lin Xiaotang knew many Hanfu groups and clothing manufacturers and had some connections, so they could explore partnerships later.

The three guys gradually shifted their focus to work. Especially after Rong Yuan laid out some thoughts, Yan Yu suddenly felt like their small, shabby shop was becoming something legit. He got fired up for no reason.

And that meant Hellfire had no room to maneuver. Logging on at night, no one there. Logging on during the day, still no one. Messages went unanswered, and he couldn't just show up at Bishui Bay.

Gu Chengzhi couldn't understand why things had suddenly taken this turn. After much thought, he felt sure Yan Yu must have discovered his identity and was testing him.

Just then, something even more baffling happened: Gu Shenhan proposed promoting Gu Chengzhi at a regular meeting of Qianhai Shipping. His reasoning was that Gu Chengzhi had been at the grassroots level long enough, and as the eldest grandson of the Gu family, staying too long in lower positions might make outsiders speculate about discord between brothers, harming the group's reputation—not a good thing.

The old foxes in the meeting naturally agreed, since no one wanted to offend anyone. The matriarch went along with it, arranging for Gu Chengzhi to become a deputy director in the marketing department.

No more sales calls—that should have been a good thing. But knowing it was Gu Shenhan who made it happen made Gu Chengzhi feel awful.

What made it worse was that soon after, Gu Shenhan had his own office at Lianshan headquarters and could even participate in project decisions!

That night, acting on some strange impulse, he messaged Yan Yu, offering to invest in Yan Yu's clothing shop.