Chapter 429 Seventh time
It's spring again.
It is 2012, and it is also the 14th year since Xu Cheng's rebirth.
Xu Cheng didn't go home during the winter vacation and basically spent the whole time in Shanghai.
Until the eve of the Spring Festival, he still couldn't find a time to go home for the New Year.
Almost as soon as he took a breath, he had to continue with the work arrangements at Hapi.com.
At the beginning of the year, Hapi.com is facing huge challenges.
In the past year, Hapi.com, whose main business is social games, has gradually begun to show signs of decline, and this decline can be described as a discontinuous drop.
The financial statements for the second half of 2011 showed that in many months, the daily revenue of Hapi.com was less than 10,000 yuan, which was less than one-tenth of the revenue of the company's other website Weibo.
Up to now, the daily revenue of Hapi.com has been less than a few thousand yuan, and has even reached hundreds of yuan in recent days.
Qingzhou is declining in the online game market and can no longer attract the favor of capital.
For venture capitalists, Hapi.com has almost completely lost its appeal.
Capitalists are more shrewd than each other, and no one will invest in a project that has no value and no prospects.
There was a panic inside Qingzhou Company in Shanghai, with various rumors of layoffs.
Many people have noticed that the market conditions have undergone fundamental changes.
But this was also within Xu Cheng's expectations.
He hadn't expected Hapi.com to last long.
Social games have a short life cycle. After 2011, the entire social network game industry began to decline.
Small games like stealing vegetables and grabbing parking spaces have basically started to gradually disappear from the stage this year.
Faced with such a situation, Xu Cheng announced without hesitation that Hapi.com would begin to transform.
We will gradually abandon the current social gaming business, or give up gaming, increase social attributes, move towards more interactive social networking sites, and develop towards multiple platforms, web and mobile terminals.
It can be said that Qingzhou is facing another extremely dangerous juncture.
But fortunately, Weibo on the other hand is doing smoothly and the number of users is rising steadily.
Under such circumstances, Qingzhou can still maintain relatively stable operation, but many people are skeptical as to whether this operation can be maintained forever.
The problem comes from Qiao Yiming.
Qiao Yiming has been acting arrogantly in Yanjing for a long time.
Many people could sense that Qiao Yiming hardly ever considered other people's feelings and often bossed his employees around. He even often yelled at Gong Zhengxiong, who was at the same level as him.
Now, within Qingzhou, except for Xu Cheng and Su Yu, Qiao Yiming has had "unpleasant" experiences with most people.
Many people know that Qiao Yiming has a good relationship with Xu Cheng in private.
It can be said that the two have been partners since they started their business.
Xu Cheng, who had never restrained Qiao Yiming, finally mentioned his name at today's personnel change meeting.
"The Magic City has been under so much pressure recently, let's transfer Qiao Yiming from Weibo's R&D department first, and let him temporarily go to the front-line marketing department to work on product promotion first." Xu Cheng pressed the ballpoint pen in his hand and gave a light instruction.
"But... Mr. Qiao might have objections to this..." the person in charge of personnel said hesitantly.
"What do you think?"
"Boss Xu, you can't do this to me. You know Boss Qiao has a bad temper."
The HR manager lay helplessly on the table.
The atmosphere in the company has always been relaxed, and she just says whatever she wants to say.
"Are you afraid he'll scold you?"
"I'm afraid..."
"Then tell him that this is the company's arrangement and he just needs to obey. If he has any questions, just come to me directly."
Hearing that Xu Cheng took the initiative to take charge of the matter, the HR department breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that this was within their scope of operation, and nodded.
"Okay, Mr. Xu."
"President Zheng, please take charge of Weibo first." Xu Cheng looked in the direction of Zheng Zhihao.
Zheng Zhihao was previously the main person in charge of the QQ space at Penguin. After leaving Penguin, he joined Qingzhou.
Su Yu sat next to him and glanced at Xu Cheng with a strange look.
"Do you really want to arrange it this way?"
"Is there anything wrong?" Xu Cheng gave her a questioning look.
“No, no.”
Boss Xu Cheng has always been easy to talk to. He never gets angry even if you make a joke with him or complain to him about work.
But at this moment, no one dared to test his attitude on this issue.
The meeting ended at around five in the afternoon.
The people in the conference room quickly left, and Xu Cheng noticed a familiar figure.
"Minister Huang?"
He called out to Huang Zifei, who was dressed in formal attire and had lost some of his student look. He turned around and greeted him.
"Boss Xu, I am no longer your department head."
"I'm used to it. I'm afraid I can't change it. I'm used to working here."
"It's OK. The atmosphere in Qingzhou is pretty good."
Huang Zifei has passed Xu Cheng's interview, received an offer from Qingzhou, and started his internship at Qingzhou this semester.
The two exchanged greetings for a while, and Huang Zifei said goodbye to Xu Cheng, saying something in passing.
"Mr. Xu, I wish you a happy new year in advance."
"Happy New Year?"
Xu Cheng was startled for a moment, and then he realized that today was already New Year's Eve.
Tsk tsk.
He is such an evil boss.
The practice of not having a holiday on New Year's Eve, which was not introduced until more than ten years later, was implemented in advance starting this year.
Not only do we not have holidays, we also have to work overtime.
But there is no way around it, as the company is at a critical juncture recently.
Xu Cheng thought for a while, returned to the office, and called Ying Juemin, who was in charge of administrative work.
"Lao Ying, tell the brothers below not to work overtime tonight. Tomorrow is also a day off. Everyone can go home to celebrate the New Year. Just leave a few people on duty."
"real?!"
Ying Juemin showed a pleasant surprise, "Boss Xu, you are too considerate. You don't know that these people have been grumbling for a long time because they have to go to work during the New Year."
"It is natural to have a holiday during the Chinese New Year. I am sorry for all of you during this period, but the finance department will definitely pay you all your wages and compensation for your work during the Chinese New Year. Okay, let's stop talking nonsense and make arrangements quickly. Every minute and every second now is a waste of your holiday time."
"Okay, I'll be leaving first." Ying Juemin pushed the door open with a smile on his face, then turned back and said, "Well, Happy New Year, Mr. Xu."
"Thank you and Happy New Year."
A few seconds after Ying Juemin walked out of his office, cheers broke out outside.
"Long live President Xu!"
"Wuhu, it's holiday time."
"Whether you have money or not, go home for the New Year."
"It's gone."
Xu Cheng sat in front of the computer for a while. When he went out again, the company was empty and almost everyone had left.
He bumped into Su Yu, who was carrying his bag and preparing to leave, and showed a look of surprise.
"Sister Su Yu, I thought you would fight at your job until the last moment. This doesn't match my impression of you as a workaholic."
"Come on, I'm a human, not a machine. If you ask me to do any work again, I'll kill someone. Besides, if I take the high-speed train at this time, I can still go home in time to eat a bowl of dumplings."
Su Yu’s hometown is near Shanghai, so he still has time to go back by high-speed rail.
Xu Cheng joked.
"Sister Su Yu, you are so mean. I am spending the New Year alone in Shanghai. Why don't you invite me to your house to have a meal together? You don't have a partner anyway, so why not let me meet some uncles and aunts? You see, I am not bad at all."
"???"
Su Yu glanced at him doubtfully, and Xu Cheng tilted his head and blinked twice.
Then he was ruthlessly pushed away by Su Yu.
"I'm really sorry, I like someone more mature."
"???"
Now the question mark on his face moved to Xu Cheng's face, and he hurried to clarify.
"Hey, don't get me wrong, I just want to have a free meal, what are you thinking about?"
"I didn't think anything."
Su Yu smiled faintly, without turning around, he just raised his arm and raised his middle finger, showing an internationally accepted friendly gesture.
"Little brat, if you dare to make fun of me again, you'll be dead."
After a pause, he added.
"Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year."
Xu Cheng said, looking at her back.
In fact, Xu Cheng also wanted to ask Su Yu to stay . After all, they were not only superiors and subordinates, but also friends. With such a friend as a companion, he would not feel so lonely during the Spring Festival.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the office, looking at the setting sun slowly setting outside the glass curtain wall, the bustling and noisy city seems peaceful and lonely at this moment, and the pedestrians and vehicles on the road seem to be rushing back to reunite with their families.
Things are a bit bleak now.
Xu Cheng typed on the computer for a while. When the office got dark, he stood up and turned on the light. He took a walk around the company and caught a few employees on duty secretly playing games together. They were playing King of Fighters on 4399.
At this moment, one of them was playing K and the other was playing Kusanagi Kyo. Xu Cheng watched from the back for a while. One of them, at the reminder of his colleague, put away the smug look on his face while playing the game and turned back suddenly.
"Mr. Xu, you, you didn't go back." He said somewhat embarrassedly.
Xu Cheng frowned.
"You're such a jerk at playing."
“Ah, ah?”
"When playing K Crow Bite, you can't follow up with Light Kick. You could have hit a whole line of blood, but you didn't even hit half of it."
"I don't know how to do it, I just pressed it randomly."
"I'll do it, I'll do it."
Surrounded by people, Xu Cheng replaced the employee and sat in front of the computer, his hands on the keyboard.
"Come on, come on, K Teaching Bureau."
When several employees saw that their boss was like this, what else was there to say?
Just have fun.
"Then I'll have to show you my unique skills, Mr. Xu. People give me the nickname, the best Yagami-an in Xuhui District."
At this time, Xu Cheng looked just like an ordinary teenager , and he also possessed the common characteristics of all teenagers, that is, he loved to brag about how good he was at playing games.
Just now he was teaching others in a very serious manner, but once he started, not only were all his skills useless, but his blocking skills were also all pressed randomly. The opponent's Iori Yagami couldn't even find a chance to lose blood, and he didn't dare to really beat up the boss, so he had to "act".
The wave was thrown in the opposite direction, and the small and big skills were also madly caught in vain.
After a hard fight, Xu Cheng, who secured the victory, couldn't help but sigh.
"It was a really exciting battle."
He also patted the shoulders of the employees next to him.
"If you are not good at it, practice more."
However, Xu Cheng's boasting didn't last long. After playing for a while, the employees' family members came running with lunch boxes to deliver meals.
The aroma of food filled the hot lunch box, and the rising white mist added a bit of warmth and a touch of the New Year atmosphere to the somewhat cold company.
"Boss Xu, would you like to eat something together?"
"No, no, someone at home has done it."
Xu Cheng almost embarrassedly rejected the kind invitations of several people and then fled from the company.
It was already dark outside by this time.
The surrounding buildings are lined up with lights, and the warm lights carry the reunion of other families.
Driving into the heavy traffic, Xu Cheng turned off the radio playing Andy Lau's congratulations on your prosperity and called home, which was quickly connected.
"Thief."
"Hey, Mom, have you eaten yet?"
"Your dad just got off work, and we were making dumplings at home."
"What's the filling?"
"Pork and corn, have you eaten yet? We, the people's comrades, should combine work and rest more often. Your father, the capitalist, is a workaholic. Don't learn from him. Times have changed, and our thinking must also progress."
"Teacher, I really want to improve."
"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm asking you if you've eaten yet?"
"It's already this late. I've already eaten in the company cafeteria. I had handmade rice dumplings made by the chef, as well as lotus root stewed with pork ribs, broccoli fried with shrimps, and honey-grilled chicken wings. I was so full." Covering his empty stomach, Xu Cheng made up a lot of stories.
This is what happens when you grow up. Even if you don’t have a good time outside, you don’t want your parents to know.
After returning to the community and parking the car, Xu Cheng looked up and took a look at his dark home.
Huh?
Why is the light on!
Is there a thief?
The boy doubted it at first, but quickly denied it.
Whose thief stole things on New Year's Eve? It's so rude.
Could it be that...
Xu Cheng took out his cell phone and dialed Lin Wanzhou's number.
"Hello?"
On the other end of the phone, Lin Wanzhou's voice sounded a little nervous.
"H-Have you finished get off work?"
"I just got off and I've just parked the car. Have you eaten yet?"
"Just had it."
"What do you eat?"
"Well... my mom made handmade glutinous rice balls, and... stewed pork ribs with lotus root, stir-fried shrimp with broccoli, and grilled chicken wings with honey sauce... I ate so much that I was really full."
"???"
Xu Cheng immediately confirmed his guess.
They really are a perfect match. Even their lies are exactly the same.
"Yeah, I'll be home soon. I'm already in the elevator."
“So fast!”
The girl screamed, and the tinkling sounds from the other end of the phone became more frequent. Xu Cheng could also hear Lin Wanzhou running hurriedly.
"What are you doing?"
"No, nothing. I'm going to hang up first. Beep, beep."
There was a dead tone on the other end of the phone. Xu Cheng shook his head and smiled, then waited at the elevator door for a while, giving the girl enough time, before pressing the button and getting on the elevator.
When I opened the door, the house was dark.
He turned on the light, glanced towards the living room, and immediately saw the sumptuous dishes on the coffee table.
Lotus root stewed with pork ribs, broccoli fried with shrimp, honey grilled chicken wings...
It turns out it’s not nonsense.
Lin Wanzhou also jumped out from behind a table nearby.
“Ah!”
"Did I scare you?"
Xu Cheng jumped with poor acting skills.
"Wow, so scary, why are you back in the Magic City?"
"What? You weren't scared at all." Lin Wanzhou curled her lips and didn't answer Xu Cheng's question. She asked, "Why are you off work at this time? I heated up the dishes several times but you still haven't come."
She had practiced cooking with her mother for a month during this winter vacation, and this was the first time she showed off her cooking skills in front of Xu Cheng.
"I'll go cook the rice dumplings my mom made, and then we can have dinner."
The girl was wearing an apron, looking like a busy little cook.
She ran to the kitchen, but was hugged from behind by Xu Cheng.
"Lin Wanzhou, I'm very happy to have you around."
"Humph, I knew you would feel uncomfortable being alone, so I took the high-speed train here this afternoon."
Xu Cheng hugged her again, even tighter, and buried his head tiredly in the girl's fair neck.
"Happy New Year. Although I have said this to many people today, the blessing for you is the greatest."
"Hey, it's too early to tell you now. I want more after 12 o'clock."
"More? How many more times?"
Lin Wanzhou thought about it.
"Eight is more auspicious. Since you've already mentioned it once, I'll ask for it again tonight..."
"Seven times."
