55: Chapter 55 Zhou Yurou's Strategic Prototype

It was 8 PM, and the lights of Singularity Technology were the only ones still on in the incubator hallway.

Xiao Xu, the artist, rubbed his red eyes and slammed his mouse onto the desk. "I can't do it anymore! No matter how I adjust the particle effects on this loading page, it lags. If I keep working on this, I'm going to drop dead from exhaustion!"

On the screen, the loading interface for "Shanhai Era" showed the phantom of a mythical beast whose mane looked like a slideshow presentation when it unfurled, and the progress bar was stuck at 78%, refusing to budge.

This was the first major outsourcing contract Singularity had taken on. The client offered 500,000, demanding the loading time be cut from 8 seconds to under 3 seconds while retaining the full 3D mythical beast animation—it was called optimization, but in reality, it was a complete remake.

Zhang Fan stared at the code, sweat dripping from his forehead onto the keyboard.

Wang Chengsi had led the technical team through three sleepless nights, cutting the model's polygon count in half, but they were still stuck at the bottleneck of particle rendering.

Gu Jingshen paced around with a cigarette in his mouth. "How about we tell the client to lower the quality requirements? We can just earn a little less."

"No," Zhang Fan said without looking up. "If we compromise on the first contract, we won't be able to survive in this industry later."

Just then, Liu Ruyan, who had been sitting quietly in the corner organizing documents, stood up.

She walked over to the artist's computer, watched for half a minute, and suddenly spoke up. "Lower the particle emitter frequency from 60Hz to 45Hz, replace real-time calculations with frame synchronization, and use impostors for rendering particles more than 5 meters away from the camera."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was as clear as an icicle piercing through the sweltering heat.

Xiao Xu was stunned. He modified the parameters as she instructed, and the moment he clicked run, the progress bar "whooshed" to 100%—loading time: 2.8 seconds. The flow of the mythical beast's mane was as smooth as real silk, and even the reflection on its scales was perfect.

"Holy crap!" Gu Jingshen threw his cigarette butt on the ground. "Ruyan, how many skills have you been hiding?"

A faint blush appeared on Liu Ruyan's face. She lowered her head, crumpling a piece of bread wrapper. "I tried a similar optimization scheme when I was doing my graduation project."

Wang Chengsi patted her on the shoulder and laughed loudly. "We must celebrate tonight! The barbecue stall downstairs, my treat!"

The plastic canopy of the barbecue stall rattled in the night wind. The owner, wearing a tank top, flipped skewers of meat that sizzled with fat, and the scent of cumin mixed with the aroma of beer foam wafted through the air.

Gu Jingshen stood up, holding a beer bottle. "Once we finish this contract, we're moving to a big office in the tech park! My mom said the place is 300 square meters and even has an independent pantry!"

Everyone laughed and clinked glasses, except for Zhou Yurou, who held a glass of orange juice, her gaze resting on Zhang Fan's oil-stained cuff.

"500,000 looks like a lot," she suddenly spoke up, her voice cutting through the sizzling sound of the skewers. "After deducting server rentals, labor costs, and the testing fees for the client, the net profit is less than 200,000."

Zhang Fan paused, his teeth still gripping a meat skewer. "What are you trying to say?"

"I want to say," Zhou Yurou put down her glass, her eyes shining as if reflecting the stars, "we can't survive solely on outsourcing."

She used a bamboo skewer to draw a circle on the greasy table. "We have ten people in the company now. Wang Chengsi can hold down the technical baseline, Old Gu can bring in resources, and you are the core, plus the concept artists, modelers, effects artists, and the art team. We should take on 'outsourcing + joint development' contracts—let the other party provide the IP and distribution channels, and we handle the technical implementation. This way, we can earn service fees and also share the revenue. Once we've saved up enough experience, we'll develop our own IP."

The people on the plastic stools fell silent.

Wang Chengsi scratched his head. "Joint development? Would those big brands even look at a small company like ours?"

"Yes, they will," Zhou Yurou said firmly. "I know the project director at Liwen Group. They helped with motion capture for characters in 'Fortnite' and participated in the development of three TGA-award-winning games. I'll arrange a meeting with him next week; we might be able to negotiate a partnership."

"Liwen Group?" The grilled tendon in Zhang Fan's hand nearly fell to the ground. "How do you know people from there?"

In his memory, Zhou Yurou was the woman who had cried in the hospital, saying, "I can't even understand the divorce agreement," and the person who would get so nervous while delivering white fungus soup that she would screw the lid of the thermal container on backward.

He had always felt that she needed protection, like a plant wilted by the wind and rain. But right now, as she spoke about capital operations, the familiarity and confidence in her eyes didn't look like that of a full-time housewife who had been out of the workforce for years.

Zhou Yurou's smile faded slightly, and she traced the rim of her glass with her fingertip. "I... met them by chance in the past."

She didn't elaborate, but thinking about it now, perhaps Zhang Fan had never truly understood this woman.

Gu Jingshen smoothed things over from the side. "Sister Zhou is really hiding her talents! Liwen is an industry benchmark. If we can connect with them, we'll be considered a professional team from now on!"

The drinking table became lively again, but Liu Ruyan quietly took out her notebook and began writing and drawing by the light of the street lamp.

When Zhou Yurou walked over, she saw that she had drawn a "Joint Development Process Sketch": from IP value assessment to technical revenue sharing ratios, even the "dual-team response mechanism for sudden bugs" was clearly marked, with different colored pens used to distinguish the boundaries of responsibility.

"This is very professional," Zhou Yurou said as she squatted down, pointing to the "Risk Contingency Plan" section on the diagram. "You could add a weighting formula here, including user retention rates and payment conversion rates, to make it more scientific."

Liu Ruyan's pen paused, and when she looked up, there was surprise in her eyes. "I... was just doodling."

"Don't just doodle," Zhou Yurou smiled and ruffled her hair. "At the team meeting next Monday, why don't you present this proposal?"

Liu Ruyan's fingers tightened around her pen, and after a few seconds, she nodded vigorously. "Okay!"

As the smoke from the barbecue stall drifted by, Zhang Fan looked at Zhou Yurou's back and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He had always thought he was the one holding the umbrella for her, but he hadn't realized that she had long since quietly stood in front of him, shielding the entire team from the wind and rain.

That Sister Zhou who always said, "I don't understand anything," actually knew better than anyone else where they needed to go.

"What are you thinking about?" Zhou Yurou walked back and handed him a bottle of iced beer. "I've arranged to chat with Liwen at the AI summit. You should prepare the technical proposal."

"What exactly... did you do in the past?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but ask, his voice kept very low.

Zhou Yurou tilted her head and took a sip of orange juice, the curve of her throat moving visibly under the street lamp. "In the past," she smiled, her eyes hiding some past memories, "I was someone who helped others spend money. Now, I want to earn some money for my own people."

What she didn't say was that back then, Liwen Group had almost gone bankrupt due to a broken capital chain. It was she who led her team through forty days of sleepless due diligence, defying public opinion to finalize the investment, which led to the Liwen that later participated in the development of top-tier global games.

Back then, people in the industry called her "Queen Zhou," saying her eye for business was so sharp it could see through the bones of capital, until she shattered that armor with her own hands for Yang Lei.

"Oh right," Zhou Yurou suddenly remembered something. "Ruyan mentioned earlier that she wants to rent an apartment near the company. Can you ask Li Lu to help her look?"

"Sure," Zhang Fan replied, but his heart felt filled with something. It turned out that true walking side-by-side wasn't about his one-sided protection, but her willingness to put on armor for him again, and his courage to acknowledge her strength.

When the gathering broke up, Liu Ruyan volunteered to stay behind to clean up the mess. She bundled the empty beer bottles into a neat stack, her movements so efficient that she didn't seem like a fresh graduate.

Zhang Fan walked over to help and saw a small line of text written in her notebook: "The particle optimization scheme can be reused for the nebula scene in 'stardust leap'; collision detection logic needs adjustment."

This girl, who always hid in the corner, was already quietly weaving her own talent into the future of Singularity Technology.

The night wind carried the scent of barbecue toward the incubator. Zhang Fan looked up at the lit office and suddenly felt that the 500,000 outsourcing contract was just the beginning.

Zhou Yurou's planning, Liu Ruyan's talent, and the system intelligence in his own hands might really allow this small company, which started in a rental apartment, to grow wings that could touch the starry sky.

He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Yurou: [Sister Rou, let's go home together tonight.]

He received a reply quickly, with just one word: [Okay.]

The light from the screen reflected on his face, as if a star had fallen upon it.