14: Chapter 14 Remote Negotiation

The phone call came at four o'clock in the afternoon.

It wasn't Party A calling Liu Yanran, but Director Wang, the person who had previously negotiated with the Channel Provider, who reached out to her first.

His tone was noticeably more cautious than it had been a few days prior.

"We have reviewed the data set your team released this morning, [the data from that test window], internally."

The other party paused for a moment. "Your Party A's reaction was quite strong, and they proactively contacted us."

Liu Yanran didn't reply, merely uttering an "Mm."

She was well aware that this call wasn't meant to report the situation.

It was a call to confirm.

"We originally only intended to use this window for testing."

Director Wang continued, "But with the results it's achieving now, it's difficult to treat it as a testing slot for the remaining time."

"Understood."

Liu Yanran's tone was steady. "The results speak for themselves; the testing period can be considered concluded ahead of schedule."

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This statement didn't take any specific side, but both parties had reached a consensus.

However, the value of the remaining time needed to be re-evaluated.

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the line.

"Party A's intention is to continue using this window going forward,"

Director Wang said, "Furthermore, they do not wish to see similar resources released externally again."

"Then we will need a different form of cooperation,"

Liu Yanran stated naturally.

First, she didn't discuss the price; second, she didn't offer any guarantees.

She simply returned the power of decision entirely to the Channel Provider.

The other party on the phone quickly understood her stance.

"We can separate the remaining time for you,"

The Channel Provider said. "Five days, full capacity, non-divisible."

"What about the price?"

"I will need to recalculate that internally."

— —

Six o'clock in the evening.

The second call came in.

This time, the other party's tone had clearly changed.

It was no longer probing; it had entered the rhythm of genuine negotiation.

"We have discussed it internally."

"If this window is to continue being used by your Party A, it must be a buyout."

"That works."

Liu Yanran answered crisply.

Her decisiveness caused the other party to pause slightly.

"The price is triple that of the original test period,"

The Channel Provider stated. "And this is a one-time offer."

Liu Yanran did not reply immediately.

She glanced out the window.

The sky had darkened, and the office building's floors lit up one by one, as if being ignited sequentially.

"I will relay the terms to them,"

she said. "But I cannot guarantee they will accept."

"Understood."

The other party nodded. "We await the reply."

— —

The real conversation took place at eight o'clock that night.

The person on Party A's end had changed.

Their tone was even more formal than it had been that morning.

"We have reviewed the complete data,"

The other party got straight to the point. "The performance of this window exceeded expectations."

"The subsequent five days, if stability can be maintained, are very important to us."

"Stability can be guaranteed,"

Liu Yanran replied, "Provided there is exclusive resource allocation."

Silence followed on the other end for a few seconds.

"You name the price."

Liu Yanran did not state a number.

Instead, she repeated the terms offered by the Channel Provider verbatim.

She added neither embellishment nor explanation.

She only added one concluding sentence:

"This is the Channel Provider's bottom line."

The other party was silent for a long time.

So long that Liu Yanran could even hear the sound of documents being flipped on the other end of the line.

"... We need a confirmation."

"Confirmation that the subsequent window will not be split again."

"It won't be,"

Liu Yanran answered.

"And no further external testing?"

"No."

"Good."

The other party took a deep breath. "Then we can accept."

The call ended.

The office fell quiet.

Liu Yanran didn't move right away.

She simply sat in her chair, looking at the now-dark computer screen.

At the same time, the Channel Provider, after receiving the message, began processing the internal procedures.

The window was marked as "Locked."

The remaining five days disappeared from the system.

No longer displayed externally.

. . .

It was past ten o'clock at night.

Qiao Yichen came out after showering. Only one floor lamp was on in the room. The light wasn't bright, just enough to use, carving the small rental room into blocks of quiet shadow.

He didn't turn on the TV or touch the computer.

His phone lay on the corner of the desk, screen facing up.

He wasn't deliberately waiting for a call that night, but he hadn't truly focused his attention elsewhere either.

At 10:23 PM, the phone vibrated once.

It wasn't a ring, but that short, deliberately suppressed notification vibration.

He reached out, picked it up, checked the caller ID, and answered.

"Hello."

The voice on the other end was lower than during the day, as if she had just finished a meeting.

"The Channel Provider replied,"

Liu Yanran said.

Qiao Yichen didn't reply, just uttered an "Mm," signaling her to continue.

"The remaining window has been extracted from the test pool,"

She spoke slowly. "Five days, full capacity, non-divisible."

That was the first confirmation.

"The price?"

He asked.

"According to the terms discussed today,"

She paused slightly. "Party A didn't push back further."

Qiao Yichen leaned back in his chair and let out a soft breath.

It wasn't relief, but a momentary release of tension.

"What about the procedures?"

He asked again.

"The contract goes through tomorrow, confirmation by noon at the earliest,"

Liu Yanran said. "The payment will be in two installments: one to settle the remaining time from the test period, and one for the Party A buyout premium."

That was the second confirmation.

Only then did he nod genuinely.

"Then we'll wait for tomorrow."

There was a second of silence on the other end.

"Mm,"

Liu Yanran responded.

They didn't discuss anything else.

The call ended.

The phone screen dimmed, and the room returned to silence.

Qiao Yichen didn't get up immediately.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

At this moment, he was perfectly clear in his mind—

The matter was highly likely settled, but the money hadn't landed yet; it was still going through procedures.

. . .

March 26, 2025, Wednesday, Sunny, 11 ~ 21°C.

On Wednesday, Qiao Yichen woke up as usual, following his routine of running first, then eating breakfast, and then leaving for work as normal.

He walked to the office, put down his bag, turned on his computer, and started handling his routine tasks.

It was nine-thirty when the first email arrived.

The sender was the Channel Provider's finance department.

Attached was the settlement statement for the test period.

The amount was 200,000, marking the completion of the window's test period settlement.

He stared at the string of numbers for a few seconds, confirmed it was correct, and replied with a confirmation email.

After ten o'clock, his phone chimed once.

A bank deposit notification.

The first installment.

The test period fee had been settled.

Qiao Yichen didn't immediately open the message.

He waited for the complete system notification to pop up before slowly scanning it.

The money wasn't much, but its significance was considerable.

This was the result that had already been settled.

He placed his phone face down on the desk and continued working.

It was 11:40 AM.

The second email arrived.

This time, it was a scanned copy of the formal contract.

Following the attachment was a brief note:

["The payment for the official buyout will be completed this afternoon."]

Qiao Yichen read it and did not reply to the email.

Because at a time like this, replying or not wouldn't affect the outcome.

Besides, the Channel Provider earned more; he had only managed to take a sip of the soup.

. . .

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

The second bank deposit notification arrived.

The amount was noticeably larger.

The buyout premium.

He had used five hundred thousand to secure a certain outcome worth 1.2 million within one week.

In the afternoon, he was attending a routine internal meeting that wasn't important; his phone was silenced on the desk.

He didn't see the notification until the meeting ended.

He tapped it open and glanced at his balance.

That string of numbers made him pause for two seconds.

It was because of an extremely familiar, yet long-absent feeling: the moment of settling an MVP.

The thirty thousand he had previously borrowed from the bank suddenly became an insignificant issue at this moment.

He closed his phone and leaned back against the chair.

There was nothing else left to do.

. . .

That same afternoon.

Director only heard the news near the end of the workday.

It wasn't a phone call or a formal notification.

It was a casual mention in an industry group chat.

"Heard someone directly bought out a test window from XXX; the data ran incredibly well."

"Which one?"

"The one for forty-eight hours."

Director's fingers paused over the keyboard.

He didn't speak in the group chat.

He just leaned back in his chair, staring at the screen for a while.

Confirming that his hesitation at that time had caused him to miss an opportunity.

Director closed the chat window, stood up, straightened his suit jacket, and left work.

. . .

At night.

Qiao Yichen returned home from work and set down his bag.

The rental room was quiet.

He sent Liu Yanran a message:

["The money has arrived."]

Soon, she replied:

["Mm."]

He looked at the screen and didn't pursue the topic further.

Some things, having reached this point, no longer required repeated confirmation.

["System Notification"] Intelligence verification for this matter is complete.

When Qiao Yichen saw this, a thought flashed through his mind: "It seems it's truly over."