CH 37.1

“Many years ago, Qu Di wasn’t born yet. At that time, Ji Xun could be considered to have achieved a small success. A friend of mine asked me then, what I planned on doing with it next.”

The lights in the lecture hall were all switched off. In this crowded space where every seat was filled, a blue light sparkled in every student’s eyes, reflected from the huge projection screen behind Han Shi Yu.

“I wasn’t even thirty years old then.”

The audience listened to him quietly and carefully.

He continued on, “Maybe I seemed far too young in the eyes of the industry. According to the weight that Ji Xun carried, it should have been held in the hands of a business elite who has experienced half a lifetime at least. Only then will the others feel at ease to support him in his chase of the ambition: ‘growing bigger with each passing day’.

Yet, the president Han Shi Yu, was someone who have yet to come to understand the life he was leading. He had only received god’s favor and blessings, riding on the waves of the new generation along with many of his peers who carried high ambitions – the lucky child who got pulled up to the top of the industry.”

“There’s an old saying that goes like, ‘when the wind comes, even pigs would fly’. Han Shi Yu was of course better than a pig. He was a quail who had only just broken through its shell.”

The audience let out a laugh.

“And so, my friend asked out of concern, ‘how do you plan on moving forward from here’.” Han Shi Yu smiled, raising the microphone to his mouth and said, “Take a guess what I said.”

The audience under the stage replied, “We don’t know.”

Han Shi Yu said, “I was attending a gathering at that time and there were many elderly seniors within the industry there too, including Mr. Zhou, the director of Yue Xin. The seniors were attracted by this question and all kinds of eyes surrounded me. Bathing in their attention, I told my friend, “I want to lead Ji Xun Technology to dominate the world.”

Yang Han, who was standing in the back aisle of the last row, snorted.

She had a staff sign hung around her neck and was together with Yang Mo.

“The seniors didn’t reply to me for a long time,” Han Shi Yu said, “And after this incident had passed, Zhou Yi didn’t contact me for many days as well. I asked him why he was avoiding me, and he said his father told him to not hang around me so much.”

A wave of laughter coursed through the hall.

Yang Han turned towards to Yang Mo and asked, “Is that true?”

Yang Mo nodded, keeping his eyes on the stage.

Once the laughter subsided, Han Shi Yu continued, “It’s because I’m young. What they are too afraid to say, I dare to say it.”

“Who hasn’t dreamed about being successful? When writing a story, penning down your very first word, you must have already envisioned it turning into the world’s best-selling film with the highest gross earnings in your mind. When taking an exam, after you answered the first multiple-choice question, you would feel like you were already at the grand recognition ceremony for being the honour student in your school. When I founded Ji Xun at that time, I had only just graduated – my company was still called Very Fast then, so why couldn’t I have had the ambition of surpassing Apple as the world’s number one?”

The mention of “Very Fast” triggered another wave of laughter.

“The good thing about being young is that, no one would think it’s weird for me to have and to utter such unrealistic ambitions. Instead, they would think this is a unique quality for people my age, whether their attitudes were encouraging or ‘let’s wait and see, Han Shi Yu has always been like this’.”

The powerpoint slide on the screen changed. It was the logo of Qu Di and its slogan – “Qu Di, the paradise for young people.”

“And so, I wanted to create a platform where people can voice their opinions. People can use it to talk about their dreams and passions. It has to be fresh, youthful and encompass all sorts of bold, unrestrained ideas. As you join in and stand in the midst of it, you can connect and resonate with countless people your age through this platform.

The audience’s gaze moved to the screen and stared at the dazzling Qu Di logo.

“But this wasn’t an easy thing to achieve,” Han Shi Yu said seriously, “Before Qu Di was founded, I put this idea into practice and experienced a complete failure so serious that Ji Xun almost went bankrupt.”

A smile inexplicably appeared on Han Shi Yu’s face as he continued, “At that time, my current lover and I had been dating for more than six years and we were planning to get married. But during that period, there were so many conflicts that happened, and we almost broke up.”

Yang Mo: “.”

The air stood still for three seconds.

The media reporters who were only going to take a few photos of this seminar, return to write their official articles and call it a day might have froze for a moment. Then, they let out a ‘holy crap’ in their hearts unanimously.

This news came too suddenly.

After the silence, the lecture hall began to stir.

Yang Han no longer had to worry about the attention this seminar would garner anymore. Probably in a moment later, the internet will be filled with livestreams, lagging the sites to the point where their programmers would doubt the purpose of living. Then, the crowd of netizens would chime in later to watch the replay of the streams.

Or maybe, not too long from now, in the hot search list will appear a topic that goes:

# Han Shi Yu’s first public announcement of his marriage #

However, Han Shi Yu who was on stage still remained calm. As if he had only used this example as a transition to the next topic.

Han Shi Yu said, “If it’s something I want to create, and there’s an issue with its cultural core, then no matter how top-notch it is or how high-end the design is, one day it will collapse too. The investors said I was too naïve. I didn’t believe them and it really did turn out to be a crushing failure.”

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“In that declining period, I was thinking I won’t do it myself anymore. Let it go bankrupt, what’s the big deal? I could just go back and inherit my family fortune.”

The audience: “…….”

The atmosphere was molded into such a bleak one by him that they almost forgot Han Shi Yu was a rich second-generation kid.

Yang Han didn’t even have to think about it to know that there would be live comments like, “Is this what a human should be saying.” and “hhk isn’t acting like one again” flooding the livestream.

“At this time, one person came out and gave me a scolding.” Han Shi Yu paced to the center of the stage before continuing, “He said, ‘if you continue to present yourself as someone who only sees yourself, then how are you going to achieve resonating with your users. Those dreams you’re having are not something normal people can afford to have. You have to ground yourself from now on.’”

Yang Mo’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He leaned his body back in the darkness, yet in the next second, he was found by the person on the stage. Han Shi Yu glanced at him from a distance away, his face still carrying that dazzling smile. His bright gaze lingered on him for a few more seconds before he looked away.

Yang Mo remembered what he said last night, that he could find him in a crowd of people in one glance.

Han Shi Yu placed the microphone to his mouth and continued, “This person who split me apart with a good scolding from him, is the legendary Starry that you guys talk about all the time.”

The audience let out a collective: “Ohh——”

Yang Mo had just graduated from university as he received an offer from Microsoft. This was a graduation certificate that people could only watch with envy but never get their hands on. However, he managed to keep a clear, rational head amid the praises and jealousy.

The first step after graduation was extremely important. He wasn’t a student of this major, so before he came to a decision, he went to Cheng Shao for advice, and of course, Lin Chu too.

The two of them supported him to go and gain some experience. Not only for experience, it would help him smoothly transition into this industry in China when he returned later on if this was added to his resume.

At that time, Lin Chu had already joined a famous internet company in China and they agreed on meeting on the third floor of the fourth restaurant, where they first met, for dinner.

Lin Chu asked him how he was going to manage the initial expenses of going abroad.

Yang Mo was silent for a while. This was indeed a problem for him. Although Old Yang was very supportive of him going and was willing to borrow money from others to let him do so, Yang Mo didn’t like it.

“Maybe I’ll borrow from Han Shi Yu…” Yang Mo said, “I’ll pay it back.”

“You shouldn’t say things like wanting to pay him back right in front of him,” Lin Chu lowered his head and laughed, “He’ll probably feel sad over it.”

Yang Mo swallowed the food he had been chewing for a long time.

He then said, “En.”

Graduation was a hurdle between couples and they weren’t excluded from it either.

Han Shi Yu still had another year.

Before Yang Mo’s graduation, he became extremely clingy, to the point of almost eating and sleeping with Yang Mo every day. No matter what relationship they had, being so close all the time made Yang Mo feel a little uncomfortable. So after some time, he finally spoke up, wanting to drive Han Shi Yu away.

But this dog hung his head and looked really pitiful suddenly. He said, “Ge, after you leave, are you not going to miss me?”

He added, “You’ll have your job, colleagues and things to be busy with. There’ll be more things for you to think about, and you won’t have time for Han Shi Yu anymore.”

Han Shi Yu: “But I’ll only be thinking about you.”

Yang Mo: “……”

Fine.

Yang Mo reined in the horse at the edge of the cliff and ultimately did not yank this piece of chewing gum off his own body.

Though, Yang Mo only stayed abroad for two years.

In the last year, Han Shi Yu called him with great enthusiasm and said, “Mo, I want to start my own business. Do you want to come back?”

There was time difference between the two locations. Han Shi Yu would always take note of the time to convenient Yang Mo every time he called. He sounded a little tired, having stayed up till midnight to give him a call.

Han Shi Yu said foolishly yet confidently, “My goal is shooting for the sea of stars and to dominate the world.”

Yang Mo suppressed the corners of his lips from curving upwards. Without thinking much, and after confirming a few more details, he said, “Alright.”

Before Han Shi Yu proposed to him, there were actually quite a bit of accumulated conflict between the two of them due to matters concerning Ji Xun.

At that time, he hadn’t yet confessed to Old Yang about their relationship. Perhaps it was also because of these conflicts that caused his mood to be extra cranky and explosive without a reason. So much so that he didn’t have the courage to take that extra step which would further worsen his mood like fuel on fire.

After the marriage proposal that occurred during Chinese New Year, the conflicts between the two still did not get solved.

Ji Xun at its lowest point may look impressive on the surface, but in reality, it was like a luxury car with all sorts of hidden problems inside. Furthermore, the driver’s mind was no longer even on the steering wheel anymore.

Yang Mo finally asked Han Shi Yu a question that many people have asked him. He said, “What do you plan on doing from now onwards?”

Han Shi Yu said indifferently, “My mom might buy over Ji Xun. After all, we did do well on the communication aspect, which helped logistics a lot. Letting her take over the operations would fare better than if I do it and the original staffs can keep their jobs too…”

As if holding in a surge of flames within him, Yang Mo said, “I’m asking you. What do you plan on doing?”

Han Shi Yu probably didn’t dare to look him straight in the eye. He unintentionally bit his lower lip and said, “Ji Xun…I won’t continue working on it anymore.” He smiled to ease the atmosphere, “Sigh, maybe I started out too early. I should work under my mom as training first.”

Yang Mo said, “What did you tell me at the start of everything?”

Han Shi Yu went silent.

Everyone had gotten really tired. Han Shi Yu in this muddled period went through a great transformation and was vastly different from his previous self. He began to rely on Yang Mo a lot.

Although his face was smiling, but Yang Mo could tell that there were disappointments and sadness in his shadow. Therefore, in that period, Yang Mo never got angry with him and always tried to meet the standards he requested.

Up until he uttered a “I’m not doing it anymore” and the bad habit he held in finally exploded.