Let Me Meet You chapter 30

Parents

The center of N city has a river running through it, dividing the city into two halves, north and south.

The software park was located on the southern bank of the river, a piece of land allocated by the government more than a decade ago to support the development of electronic information and internet industries. Part of the land was originally a vacant lot on N University’s old campus, and after years of negotiation, the university agreed to exchange double the land in the new university city.

The office Li Xuan rented was in building C of the software park, facing the river. While many programmers didn’t particularly care about the view, it was considered prime real estate within the park.

The location was found by Qi Boyuan, and the landlord was a distant relative of a professor from another department. Initially, their relationship was distant, but Qi Boyuan managed to charm them over several months, and eventually secured a highly favorable rental price, even taking over some of the landlord’s equipment at no extra cost.

Li Xuan had been busy wrapping up another outsourcing project and hadn’t visited the office in person. He only saw the floor plan and photos and signed the lease remotely, with Qi Boyuan handling the contract.

Then, after the soul-swapping incident, Li Xuan didn’t find it convenient to go to the office, so it wasn’t until today that he was finally going there for the first time.

Maybe it was because of the long drive, but the driver didn’t say a word, remaining silent throughout the trip. Li Xuan was glad for the peace, leaning back in the seat to rest, waiting for Qi Boyuan’s call. He remembered something else halfway through and pulled out his laptop, but once they passed the overpass, his phone finally rang.

“Hello?” Li Xuan activated the voice-changing software before answering the call.

“Were you looking for me? I just forgot my phone…” From the other end, the sound of a takeout box opening could be heard. “What’s up?”

“We’re officially moving at the end of the month, right?”

“Yeah.” Qi Boyuan, a well-educated young man, seemed a bit superstitious, “I had someone check the date for us. The uncle who does fortune-telling at the back gate of the school—he gave me a discount, eighty-eight yuan. I didn’t even ask you to reimburse me.”

“Are you going over this week?” Li Xuan, while talking, continued browsing the web, unconsciously furrowing his brows. He sent Yang Xu a message asking for Zhang Zhihua’s contact number.

“Everything’s basically ready. The desks and chairs are replaced, and I ordered the computers to be delivered the day before the move. I don’t have anything this week, so I probably won’t go. You asked me to prepare the paperwork for the game license and copyright; I’ll finish that this week. It’s hard to get the game license now, so we need to do it early.”

The company was already registered, and after several rounds of online discussions with Qi Boyuan, they had decided to use the demo Li Xuan originally wrote for the first game, which was still being modified.

“Anything else? Any other instructions?”

“Yes.” Li Xuan replied briefly, “I might find some time to check it out, does the property management have a key?”

It would be possible to open it with a wire, but he was worried about being seen by the property’s security cameras and not being able to explain.

“You’re going there?!” Qi Boyuan laughed in surprise, “The boss is finally coming to inspect the work? Or is your mysterious task done, so you can come to the office now? Why are you asking about the property management? Just ask me. Whenever you go, I’ll go with you, and I’ll bring the key…”

Li Xuan rested his hand on the car window, helplessly giving him a cold reply, “I’m not finished with my work. I just want to go take a look. No need for you to come. I don’t know when I’ll go, and you might not be free either.”

“How do you know I won’t be free? I think it’s you who don’t want to see me,” Qi Boyuan teased.

“Exactly. I’m going to check if you’ve done things properly or if you’re being two-faced. I definitely don’t want to go with you.”

Li Xuan’s phone beeped as a message from Yang Xu came in, reporting that the food had been bought and was on the way.

“Alright then, you’re going this week, right? Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to see me, I’ll wait for you to go together anyway.”

“You’re crazy.” The car started with a green light, and the laptop on his lap shook. Li Xuan reached out to steady it. “I think you’re too free. I should give you more work to do.”

Qi Boyuan just laughed, “If you want to give me more work, don’t make excuses…”

“Speaking of business,” he continued, “Didn’t we pick a few artists last time? We’re having the final round of interviews next Monday. If you have time, you should come by…”

“Mm, I’m listening.”

Li Xuan had just sent a message to Zhang Zhihua, saying his phone had died, so he borrowed Li Xuan’s. He asked if there were any contacts to delete and why there were still posts related to the video on the forum.

“Let’s discuss this later, as long as you’ve set it up.” Li Xuan replied, feeling a little stuffy in the car. He opened the window slightly. “So, does the property management have a key or not?”

When Qi Boyuan heard this, he figured Li Xuan probably wouldn’t come for the interviews: “The property management doesn’t have one, but there’s a key box on the main door, and there’s a spare key inside. The password is six eights. But it’s only for the main door, not your office.”

“Then forget it. You should have said that earlier. Why go around in circles?” The car entered a tunnel, and the lights suddenly brightened. Li Xuan squinted, adjusting the brightness of his laptop screen.

“Complaining that I talk too much?” Qi Boyuan clicked his tongue. “Alright, fine, I’m hanging up…”

“Wait.” Li Xuan called out to him, “Do you have something to do right now?”

Zhang Zhihua had replied with a message, filled with complaints. He said he had already contacted them, and the website was deleting posts. Some posts might have been missed because they didn’t involve any keywords. He also boasted that he had already given a heads-up to Weibo, ensuring that the related terms wouldn’t trend.

“Right now? What for?” Qi Boyuan asked, “At this time, are you supervising employees working overtime? Don’t worry, it’s not that late. I’ll start working after I eat. I’ve changed the level-up feature in the past couple of days and am adding a social system. After that, I need to work on the files.”

“I’ll take care of the changes. You help me delete some posts tonight.”

“Delete posts?” Qi Boyuan didn’t expect him to say that all of a sudden and was stunned. “What posts? Did you get in trouble? Are you in the news? … Deleting posts is illegal, man. Are you planning to send your business partner to jail? I thought this kind of drama would only happen when our company goes public.”

Li Xuan could tell he was joking but didn’t play along. “The website people have been contacted. They won’t cause you any trouble. You’re not going to jail.”

The taxi driver in the front seat glanced at him through the rearview mirror, puzzled.

“Then why don’t you delete them yourself? Can’t you?”

Li Xuan replied flatly, “Each to their own, I’m slower than you. After all, I don’t have the experience of hacking into school surveillance systems in high school.”

“…Actually, you could’ve just said the first half.” Qi Boyuan pretended to sigh. “Fine, whatever, what posts? Are there a lot? Send them over…”

“There shouldn’t be many. I’ll send you the requirements. You just need to monitor them tonight, be thorough. As long as they keep getting blocked, there shouldn’t be any new ones. I’ll handle the level-up and the chat system, you don’t need to worry about that.”

“All that work? Can you get it done? Didn’t you also have to work on PVE and set up the map…”

“It’s fine.” Li Xuan pinched the bridge of his nose.

Qi Boyuan thought for a moment. “I won’t need that much time to delete posts. I’ll still handle the chat system; the workload’s too much for you. Let me see what these posts are… Sheng Min?”

“You know him?” Li Xuan noticed the odd tone in his voice.

“Of course, he’s quite famous. It’s just you who don’t pay attention,” Qi Boyuan said. “Jia Jia really likes him, she’s a big fan. She was watching his new drama while having dinner earlier…”

Zhou Jia vaguely heard their conversation and asked Qi Boyuan who he liked. Qi Boyuan teasingly answered that he liked her.

“Why would you want me to delete his posts?” Qi Boyuan, having finished teasing his girlfriend, asked Li Xuan, “Is this really your new business? You haven’t been secretly fangirling recently, have you?”

Li Xuan casually responded, “What fangirling? I’m more like worshipping Buddha.”

“Huh?…” Qi Boyuan was puzzled. “What Buddha?”

“Nothing.” The car had reached the entrance of the software park, and the driver signaled for him to get out. Li Xuan opened the door, “You get back to work, I have some things to do. I’ll hang up and contact you later.”

IT companies often work overtime, and it was already nearing 10 PM.  Many of the buildings in the software park still had lights on. The company office was on the ninth floor of Building C, not too large, just a little over half a floor. There was also an internet company and a law firm nearby.

Li Xuan unlocked the door and turned on the lights. The office had a minimalist style, with a clean gray and white color scheme. On the wall opposite the door, the company name and logo “Yuan Yi Technology” were spelled out in silver metal.

Though he wasn’t planning to return to the office regularly, Qi Boyuan had still prepared everything for him. The last door had his name on it. To keep the room ventilated, the door was wide open. The office smelled fresh, with no sign of any recent renovation. The area was around twenty square meters, with a small lounge room separated by glass.

Li Xuan turned on the air conditioning and opened the window for ventilation. The lounge room had a small bed about 1.5 meters long but without any bedding or pillows. He ordered from a shop, but since it was too late, the delivery would come the next day. He wasn’t planning to sleep that night anyway, so he sat on the couch for a while and then took out his laptop to start coding.

Li Xuan worked until the next morning, finishing the level-up changes and setting up the basic framework for the system. He got so focused that when the delivery man brought the bedding, he rang the doorbell for five minutes, disturbing the receptionist at the nearby law firm before Li Xuan finally heard the noise.

Since arriving at the office the previous night, Li Xuan hadn’t left. Whenever he got hungry, he ordered takeout, napped when tired, and then got back to work. After the soul-swapping incident, in order to deal with Sheng Min’s frequent notifications and unexpected situations, his work schedule was a bit affected. Whenever he had complete free time, he always tried to catch up as much as possible.

When he checked in with Qi Boyuan about the progress, the other person replied with a string of ellipses.

“Why have you started being so workaholic again…” Qi Boyuan sent back an exasperated emoji. “I suggest you take better care of yourself. We’re not in that much of a rush. Your progress recently has been fairly normal, and I thought you finally found some other fun outside of work, but now you’re back to this?”

Li Xuan didn’t respond, but that didn’t stop Qi Boyuan from continuing to tease him, suggesting he go back to fangirling, or even praying to Buddha.

Their silly back-and-forth ended with Li Xuan threatening to deduct bonuses.

The next few days followed the same routine. In the meantime, Li Xuan checked with Yang Xu to confirm that Sheng Min had no upcoming schedules. Then, he continued working.

When the map was done that evening, he passed it to Qi Boyuan for testing. Li Xuan finally felt some shoulder pain and decided to get a good night’s sleep. But once he lay down on the bed, sleep wouldn’t come. He suddenly remembered the boy he’d met in front of the elevator, who had mentioned the character played by Sheng Min.

After hesitating for a moment, he went back to his computer, easily found the TV show, a historical drama where Sheng Min played a young master. Originally a wealthy idle man, he unexpectedly inherited a title after his father and brothers died in battle, and was forced into marriage with a princess he didn’t like…

A very clichéd “marriage first, love later” storyline. Li Xuan found it boring by his standards, but for some reason, he didn’t turn it off. He even subscribed to a membership. However, after one episode, it was so dull that he decided to only watch scenes with Sheng Min.

Not wanting to waste time, he left it on as background noise and continued writing code, eventually falling into a drowsy sleep.

When he woke up again, it was already noon. The curtains weren’t fully drawn, and the scorching sunlight illuminated the tiny dust particles floating in the air. Li Xuan rubbed his sore arms and reached for his phone, which had been pressing against his arm all night.

A series of unread messages popped up on WeChat, the most recent one being from Sheng Min, sent three minutes ago.

They hadn’t been in touch for the past few days, and their last conversation had ended on a sour note. Li Xuan frowned instinctively, paused for a moment, and opened the message. What he read next surprised him even more.

“I went to your school today. A man named Li Mingge came to look for you. He claims to be your father and says your mother isn’t doing well. He insisted that you return to see her. I went in your place. I’ve already visited and just left the neighborhood. I thought I’d let you know.”