Chapter 135 Don’t Listen to Strangers Tell Stories

“Okay.”

Chen Lu responded straightforwardly, but he didn’t shout it out directly. He felt a little awkward.

“Can I call you Xiao Lu?” The girl asked softly, fiddling with her fingers.

“Call me whatever you want, but only my elders call me that. It’ll make you seem old. I suggest going straight for ‘husband’.”

“I’ll just call you Chen Lu…”

Liang Zhirou thought back, realizing that only his elders called him that.

Why does he have a name with two characters that have the same sound? So strange…

Chen Lu yawned lazily. He was truly exhausted, but the girl still hadn’t let go of his hand.

He wasn’t in a hurry, so he patiently waited for her to finish.

Liang Zhirou tightened her grip on his hand. She bit her lip, her mouth opening and closing, before finally squeezing out three words after a long pause:

“Kiss me…”

Chen Lu was stunned.

Was this a good thing?!

After a long while, the girl stopped tiptoeing and hugged Chen Lu reluctantly. A few seconds later, she let go and went back to her room.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Chen Lu watched the girl’s closed door and shrugged. If she missed me so much, why didn’t she just come sleep in my room?

I’m clearly such an upright gentleman.

Girls are so strange.

…

The next morning.

The night’s rain had washed away the dust, making the world seem cleaner. From the window, you could see puddles everywhere.

The weather was unusually cool, making the air conditioner unnecessary.

No matter how late Liang Zhirou slept, she always woke up early.

She didn’t wake Chen Lu up. Instead, she diligently cleaned the living room, made breakfast, and then walked into Chen Lu’s room with a bit of nervousness.

Chen Lu’s sleeping posture was quite decent. He lay on his side, quiet and not snoring.

Just as she was mentally praising him, Chen Lu turned over, lying flat on his back with his arms and legs spread out.

“…”

The girl secretly kissed his cheek, then walked to the window and slowly pulled open the curtains.

It was an old house after all, no matter how careful she was, the curtains still made a slightly jarring noise.

“What time is it?” Chen Lu asked sleepily.

Liang Zhirou was slightly startled. She realized she had woken Chen Lu up and sighed sadly, “Seven thirty, it’s still early.”

“Pull the curtains a little more.”

Chen Lu said with one eye slightly open, his voice deep, clearly still not awake.

Liang Zhirou turned to look at him, “Is it too bright?”

“Yeah… I don’t like it.” Chen Lu rolled over, covering his face with the pillow. “That’s why my mom always calls me a vampire, can’t stand the sunlight.”

Liang Zhirou nodded in understanding, pulling the curtains further closed, “No wonder you like kissing my neck so much.”

“You’re getting naughty.” Chen Lu said with a smile.

Silly, she’s even teasing me now. The longer we’re together, the more adorable she seems.

“I’m not…”

Liang Zhirou sat on the edge of the bed, gently holding Chen Lu’s hand. Seeing that he was still closing his eyes, she asked, “Do you want to sleep after breakfast?”

Chen Lu rolled over in bed, moving closer to her, still not opening his eyes. “Have you ever heard the story of the ostrich and the crocodile?”

The girl tilted her head in confusion, “No, I haven’t.”

Chen Lu held the girl’s hand and slowly began to speak:

“Once upon a time, there was a very silly and cute ostrich. She suddenly felt thirsty, so she went to the river to drink water.”

“As she was drinking, she saw a crocodile surfacing. The crocodile said to her, ‘You’re in danger, be careful of being dragged into the river.’

The ostrich said, ‘You’re so kind.’

Then she continued to drink, not paying any attention to the crocodile swimming closer and closer.”

“What happened next?” The girl asked curiously.

“Then, she was dragged into the river by the crocodile.”

Chen Lu finished speaking, then wrapped his arms around the girl’s waist and pulled her onto the bed.

“Just like this!”

Liang Zhirou was startled and let out a gasp. She tried to struggle, but Chen Lu remained motionless.

Then, she only heard his muffled and contented voice: “I’m going back to sleep…”

A few minutes later.

Liang Zhirou was held in Chen Lu’s arms like a pillow. Her heart wouldn’t stop racing. She stared blankly at the white ceiling, feeling both angry and a mix of resentment and helplessness as she bit her lower lip.

I clearly remember my mom telling me as a kid not to listen to stories from people with unclear intentions…

…

After sending Liang Zhirou home, Chen Lu returned to the company.

He was in a good mood. If he continued to cook like this, wouldn’t sleeping in the same room be just around the corner?

He pushed open the door to his office with a smug smile, only to find Jiang Chao sitting there with a worried expression, pulling his hair out from time to time.

“Stop that, you’ll go bald.”

Chen Lu sat back in his chair.

“Another fight?” He asked with a playful tone. There hadn’t been any problems at the company lately, so it must be a relationship issue.

“Yeah.”

Jiang Chao sighed deeply, not trying to hide it.

Chen Lu furrowed his brows. “You two are fighting a lot lately. What’s it about this time?”

Jiang Chao threw his cigarette butt into the overflowing ashtray.

“What else? She thinks I’m too busy.” He impatiently reached for his cigarette pack, only to find it empty. He squeezed it hard before tossing it into the trash. “I didn’t spend much time with her this summer. We’ve been in a cold war for days.”

“You two can fight as much as you want, just don’t go cold.” Chen Lu said helplessly. “Speaking of which, you don’t need to do everything yourself. Learn from me.”

Jiang Chao clicked his tongue. “I just want to develop faster.”

Chen Lu wanted to give him some advice, but he suddenly didn’t know what to say.

The words were all stuck in his throat, unable to come out.

Their goals and dedication were different. Although they both wanted to grow and become stronger, he wasn’t as eager as Jiang Chao.

“If all else fails, just promote Peng Leyun and let him help you.”

Chen Lu used a folder to point at the ashtray filled with cigarette butts. “You and Liu Yan have such a deep relationship. There’s no need to fight over this.”

“Besides, no matter how much you struggle, you can’t change anything alone. You can at most make the project more stable, but you can’t make it faster.”

Jiang Chao nodded helplessly and pushed his phone towards Chen Lu.

“Look at this.”

Chen Lu looked closely. The video showed their studio’s game, and the person in the lower left corner of the screen was a famous AC station uploader.

He was practically the top streamer on AC station.

“Such a big uploader?” Chen Lu was surprised.

“Not only that, more and more people are streaming this game.”

A smug smile appeared on Jiang Chao’s face, which had been filled with worry just moments ago. “It’s all thanks to your little stunt at the comic convention. It created a butterfly effect. We didn’t spend a dime on advertising for this.”

Chen Lu chuckled. “It feels like we’re about to take off.”

“There’s also some bad news.” Jiang Chao said suddenly.

“What bad news?”

“There are a lot of competitors, all with the same type of game as ours.”

Chen Lu leaned back in his chair, unconcerned. “That’s not bad news. We thought of this when the game started to gain traction.”

“We just need to maintain our uniqueness and come up with creative ideas for future versions. They may be the same genre, but they can’t be exactly the same. Human imagination is limited, and sometimes bumping into each other is normal.”

“You can’t be a perfectionist in this industry. We’re ahead of the curve this time, but sooner or later we’ll have to learn from others.”

Jiang Chao nodded in agreement. “But there’s one company that’s a bit off. They spent millions to buy a license from someone else, and they’re going to compete with us when we leave the platform.”

Chen Lu’s gaze sharpened. After all, he never intended to stay on the WeChat Mini Game platform forever.

Jiang Chao put the webpage he had found in front of Chen Lu. “This company, it’s a subsidiary.”

The investor… Lin Jingming?

Chen Lu was stunned.

“You know him?”

“He’s Mo Yuqing’s stepfather.”

Jiang Chao cursed. “Damn it, why is he targeting us?!”

“He’s too lazy to target a small company like ours.”

Chen Lu remained silent, focusing his attention on the demo video of the competitor’s game.

A few seconds later, he slapped Jiang Chao on the head.

“Damn it, don’t you see this?!”

To prevent player loss, they released a new character with a unique deck every now and then, making the already addictive roguelike game even more playable.

But in this video, there was a card set that Chen Lu was very familiar with.

Jiang Chao was stunned. “This is the character we rejected during internal testing. It’s exactly the same.”

Chen Lu had rejected this character because it was too overpowered and not suitable for the WeChat Mini Game platform, where players had to watch ads after dying.

But if this was a character you could get for a six-yuan top-up…

It was perfect for the competitor’s game, which was about to be released independently.

Chen Lu put down his phone and smiled as he took a sip of Coke.

“The enemy is within.”