Hu Songbai took the file folder but didn’t rush to open it. "What do you want to know?"
"My cousin is a victim of domestic violence, and she wants a divorce."
Hu Songbai instantly understood. She wanted to catch the other party committing domestic violence or adultery to secure more assets in the divorce.
"Pay a fifty thousand deposit first. Our detective agency charges by the day. I will message you daily until we find what you need."
Ning Yue pulled a black plastic bag from her purse and tossed it onto the table. "If you can find evidence of him committing a crime, I will pay extra. Don’t drag this out for too long."
"Rest assured," Hu Songbai said. "Our agency only takes on one job at a time. As long as he did it, we will definitely find out." After all, they were a well-established detective agency. There was no secret their Hulai Detective Agency couldn’t uncover.
Having received a satisfactory answer, Ning Yue left, as she still had two people to meet later.
However, she couldn’t meet them looking like this. She had to change back into her usual attire.
Lihua Group often received project proposals seeking investment, and naturally, many were rejected. Those rejected projects had given Ning Yue a lot of inspiration. Since the money she had invested in pork stocks was about to be recovered soon, she planned to put those funds to use again.
Zhixing Game was a small game studio with only over twenty people. The company’s lead creator was a junior student at Qing University, and the other employees were all his classmates.
These people were skilled at designing games, but they didn’t have much capital and had already run out of it. They couldn’t attract investments either. If there was no new capital injection, their small studio would have no choice but to fold.
The agreed meeting place was a Chinese restaurant near the Zhixing Game studio.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Ning?"
Ning Yue looked at the tall, thin young man in front of her and nodded. "Fang Weisheng? Please have a seat."
Fang Weisheng smiled and sat down across from her. He didn’t expect the person who had contacted him over the phone about investing in his game studio to be so young.
"Miss Ning, let’s get straight to the point. Our studio is open to investments, but I don’t want you interfering with the studio’s development. This game is something the twenty-eight of us spent two years and countless amounts of blood, sweat, and tears to complete. I don’t want anyone to ruin it."
"That’s fine," Ning Yue said. "But I want to know, how much investment do you need, and what is the maximum percentage of shares I can get?"
Fang Weisheng narrowed his eyes slightly. "You’re asking this without even looking at how our game turned out?" He wondered if that was appropriate. It felt like this Miss Ning was being a bit too casual.
Ning Yue picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said, "Answer the first question first; only then is there a need to continue this discussion. Besides, do you think I would be here if I hadn’t looked into it?"
Fang Weisheng couldn’t help but swallow hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing anxiously. He wondered why the aura of the person in front of him felt stronger than his own. It was so oppressive he could hardly breathe. "For twenty million, I can give Miss Ning twenty percent of the shares."
Truth be told, he had gathered all his courage to ask for those twenty million. Although their online game, Jianghu Travel, had taken nearly two years to develop, their financial investment—aside from time—amounted to over seven million. This included their computer equipment, rent, and basic living expenses.
For twenty million, he would have been willing to give up even more shares.
But this was a business negotiation, wasn’t it? Naturally, they had to take their time negotiating.
"If I want fifty percent of the shares, wouldn’t that mean I have to invest fifty million?" Ning Yue asked.
Fang Weisheng was speechless. He wondered which wealthy family this young lady came from.
"Fifty percent won’t work. I need absolute decision-making power."
"Then forty-nine percent," Ning Yue said. "If that works, we can keep talking. If not, forget it. Furthermore, if your game can meet some of my requirements, I can even add to the investment."
Fang Weisheng was at a loss for words.
"So, what exactly are your requirements?"
"Have you ever thought about what would happen if each person could only register one account for this game, and the gold coins inside could be exchanged for cash at a ratio of one to ten or one to one hundred?" Ning Yue asked.
Fang Weisheng wondered what else could happen. A game that allowed cash exchanges would definitely attract a massive wave of players to register. With popularity, setting everything else aside, they could rake in a fortune just from built-in advertisements alone.
But that was unrealistic!
Ning Yue had long anticipated his thoughts and immediately added, "The official platform won’t be able to exchange cash, but we can specifically set up an exchange group."
With that, she explained her plan in detail.
The contract was signed, and the funds were to be transferred within three days. After Fang Weisheng returned to the studio and shared the good news with the employees, waves of cheers erupted in the office. Following that, Fang Weisheng gathered the core members of the company for a meeting. Subsequently, the Zhixing studio underwent a series of changes. They recruited new staff, the studio was rebranded as Zhixing Game Company, and advertisements began to roll out.
When Ning Yue checked her college entrance examination scores, she could see a small ad for Jianghu Travel as soon as she turned on her computer.
Before the scores were officially released, she had been receiving calls from various universities left and right, yet none of them told her what her exact score was, so she had no choice but to check it herself.
Mr. Ning and Ning’s mother were anxious, but they didn’t dare rush her. Seeing that she had finally turned on the computer, they held their breath and stood behind her, staring unblinkingly at the screen.
She quickly entered her candidate number, and Ning Yue’s name appeared on the screen. A total score of 738 points. Rank: 1st.
Ning’s mother was so excited that she shouted out, "First! Yuanyuan got first place! I’m not seeing things, am I? Am I?"
Mr. Ning was overwhelmed with emotion, his face turning red. "That’s right, you’re not seeing things. Our daughter really got first place!"
With the exam scores out, Ning Yue naturally had to go to school to submit her university preferences. The teachers of Class 13 couldn’t stop smiling when they saw her—after all, their bonuses were now secured. When she returned to the classroom, even though her classmates had anticipated a good result, their attitude towards her changed drastically once they learned she was the top science student in Beijing City.
The Class Monitor approached Ning Yue’s desk, squeezing out the student sitting in front of her. "Ning Yue, you’re really something! You kept a low profile, but now you’ve blown us all away! Out with it, which department at Tsinghua did you apply for?"
Bai Yiyi hated seeing the Class Monitor getting close to Ning Yue more than anything, but fearing she would provoke his disgust, she forcefully held herself back.
"Materials Science."
The Class Monitor clicked his tongue upon hearing this. Great, it was a subject he had absolutely no interest in.
"Let’s get together tonight. He Ye is going abroad soon, so consider it a farewell party for him. Just the four of us." The four people he mentioned naturally included Li Danting.
He Ye was leaving for overseas early in half a month, so he was definitely going to attend university abroad.
Ning Yue was surprised. She didn’t feel she had any sort of friendship with He Ye, nor did she understand why it was necessary for her to see him off when he went abroad. Naturally, she refused, and even Li Danting’s repeated coaxing was to no avail.
The Class Monitor glanced in He Ye’s direction, then gave a helpless shrug. He Ye’s eyes darkened, but in the end, he didn’t say anything.