Rongxiang Restaurant is a high-end private dining establishment in Jin City, located in the bustling downtown area. There is no main dining hall, only private rooms. It has a good reputation among the upper echelons of society, with top-quality ingredients and two chefs who retired from cooking for state banquets. Moreover, it offers extreme privacy.
This is why Zhou General didn't ask any further questions and decided to come directly.
Reservations are usually required for such restaurants.
However, he had only mentioned the matter of the game license to his wife in the past couple of days.
The incident happened so suddenly, yet the restaurant was booked so quickly.
It must be him.
It must indeed be Sheng Yuxiao!
Zhou General took a deep breath, instinctively adjusting his shirt collar, not underestimating the other party despite his young age.
"Hello," a waitress in a qipao opened the door for him. "Do you have a reservation?"
"My friend is already inside."
"May I ask which private room?"
This wasn't mentioned either... As Zhou General was hesitating whether to call his wife back, another person who looked like a manager came out: "Zhou General, is it?"
"Yes."
"This way, please." The manager personally led him inside.
This further reassured Zhou General, and his steps became lighter.
The private room door opened.
Inside, Sheng Yuxiao was ordering food.
The waitress bowed and asked, "What would the little one like to drink?"
Little one?
Where did a little one come from?
Zhou General was stunned for a moment, then looked over and immediately saw Li Xiaoya sitting in a chair. What a beautiful child!
"Hmm, get her a glass of milk," Sheng Yuxiao decided. "Fresh milk."
Zhou General heard this and then looked at the young man speaking.
Compared to Qin Sui, Sheng Yuxiao had appeared in public a bit more, otherwise he wouldn't have had a group of fans on the internet before the show even started filming.
Zhou General was certain at first glance!
No doubt! It's him!
What's going on here?
Who does Liu Meng actually know, Young Master Qin or Young Master Sheng? Surely not both?
Zhou General's mind was in chaos. As he lowered his gaze, he caught sight of a school uniform jacket on a nearby chair.
The style was very similar to his daughter's.
Is this his daughter's classmate?
"Young Master Sheng," Zhou General called out.
"Zhou Qiang?" Sheng Yuxiao glanced up briefly to ask.
"Yes."
"Hmm, have a seat first." Sheng Yuxiao didn't have time to deal with him yet, continuing to order, "Do you eat shrimp balls? Hmm, this beef is good too, let's also get a steamed white crab... What other dishes do kids like to eat?"
The last question was clearly directed at the waitress.
"We can't eat that much," Li Xiaoya tugged at Sheng Yuxiao's sleeve, trying to calm him down.
"Alright," Sheng Yuxiao knew that waste was something Li Xiaoya couldn't tolerate. He said helplessly, "Even back in Li Family Village, I wanted to pile all these delicious things in front of you."
"It's not like we're only having one meal together," Li Xiaoya said sensibly.
Sheng Yuxiao smiled, "Right, we'll have countless more meals together in the future."
Hearing such familiar and intimate dialogue between them, Zhou General became very curious about the identity of the little girl before him.
The dishes were quickly brought to the table one after another. Looking around, they were all things that children like to eat - not too spicy, but with rich flavors, and some even had cute presentations.
Turning his head again, he saw that the milk had also been served.
The impact of this scene gave Zhou General a sense of unreality, making it hard to imagine that they were here to discuss important matters.
"Young Master Sheng, you asked me to bring the game proposal, I wanted to ask..."
"Let's eat first," Sheng Yuxiao interrupted, then used a spoon to serve some egg custard to Li Xiaoya, saying, "This is nutritious, eat more of it."
Sheng Yuxiao tried his best to recall how people around him encouraged eating when he was a child.
"This is rich in vitamins, have a few more bites," Sheng Yuxiao said as he added some carrots to Li Xiaoya's plate.
That still wasn't enough...
"Shrimp is rich in protein, have a couple of these too."
The waitress couldn't even get a word in edgewise, as Sheng Yuxiao was practically doing all the work himself.
Zhou General watched in a daze, not touching his chopsticks.
When Li Xiaoya's bowl was full, Sheng Yuxiao regretfully stopped, then looked at Zhou General again: "What are you staring at? Eat."
"Yes, yes, you..."
"What? Never seen someone take care of a child before?"
Zhou General choked a bit.
Indeed, he had never seen a young master from such a prestigious family take care of a child like this... using the same tone as his wife when coaxing their daughter to eat.
Moreover, he had never heard that Young Master Sheng had a younger sister.
Zhou General didn't dare to ask further, so he just lowered his head and started eating along with them.
"What classes did you have today?" Sheng Yuxiao asked while eating.
Zhou General thought to himself, it's exactly like how his wife asks their daughter!
"Math, English, violin..." Li Xiaoya answered.
"Was anything particularly difficult?"
"Yes."
"The flower arranging class is very difficult. The teacher said sometimes my arrangements look like frost-bitten eggplants, and other times like tomato plants heavy with fruit, full of the spirit of harvest, but lacking in aesthetic appeal."
Li Xiaoya was very troubled: "What is aesthetic appeal? Isn't being full of the spirit of harvest beautiful enough?"
Sheng Yuxiao said, "That's easy to solve."
Li Xiaoya obediently turned to look at him, waiting for him to teach her.
Sheng Yuxiao continued, "I'll have the school cancel this class tomorrow, and that'll be that."
Zhou General almost spat out the food in his mouth.
Wait, is this how you're supposed to dote on children?
Just because she's not good at this class, they should cancel it???
"That doesn't seem right," Li Xiaoya said with difficulty.
"There's nothing wrong with it. If you want, I can hire ten flower arranging masters to stay at home, so why bother doing it yourself? This class is probably something the school came up with purely to imitate Western education models. They probably also have some cooking classes for you... There's nothing worth learning there. People's energy is limited."
Sheng Yuxiao's last sentence made a lot of sense.
Li Xiaoya nodded.
"In the future, if you encounter any classes that you find difficult to learn or uninteresting, just don't attend them," Sheng Yuxiao said, then hesitated a bit, feeling guilty.
This doesn't count as teaching a child bad habits, right?
"Mm-hmm," Li Xiaoya responded, then picked up her milk and gulped it down. "I'm full."
Sheng Yuxiao pulled out a tissue to wipe her mouth, then turned to Zhou General with a casual demeanor: "Give me the proposal."
Zhou General perked up and quickly handed it over.
But when he looked closely again—
Sheng Yuxiao had the waitress clear away the dishes in front of them, then spread out the proposal in front of him and Li Xiaoya.
"Can you recognize all the words in here?" Sheng Yuxiao asked.
Li Xiaoya nodded, but then shook her head and said, "There are some words I don't understand."
Zhou General: ?
Using his proposal as a teaching example???
Is this how all you top-tier wealthy families educate children?
If Dou Dawei were here right now, he would pat his shoulder and tell him, this is nothing.
"This game... it's quite different," Sheng Yuxiao looked up.
Zhou General smiled bitterly, "Yes, it is quite different, that's why the license has been held up for so long."
Who knows how many games have been killed off like this.
"Currently, the market is dominated by AAA titles like 'The Witcher 3' and 'Red Dead Redemption' with high degrees of freedom, sandbox games like 'Minecraft', social games like 'Werewolf', as well as various competitive, tactical, and card games... but there's nothing quite like this."
"Most game designers seem to assume that women don't play games much, so there isn't a single mobile game on the market that's completely designed for female players."
"But in fact, women have equally high purchasing power and consumption ability, and this market segment is still a blue ocean."
"And this game of mine aims to be the first large-scale female-oriented mobile game in the country."
Zhou General certainly had ambitions.
He disdained to make games that others had already done poorly, and his team had even tried some niche puzzle games, but unfortunately, the market response wasn't very good.
They weren't even as profitable as those asset-flip games made under President Liu's direction to trick people into playing.
After hearing Zhou General's words, Sheng Yuxiao said in a flat tone, "Getting a license is actually quite simple."
"Let's first address the issue of internal discord in your company," Sheng Yuxiao showed some interest and turned to Li Xiaoya, saying, "Do you want to see how a company operates and how conflicts between shareholders are handled?"
Zhou General: ?
Are you treating us like a show?
Sheng Yuxiao asked again, "Who is this President Liu?"
"Liu Meng even mentioned this to you... He's one of our company's shareholders."
"Hmm, get rid of him. My name isn't so easily borrowed, not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can leech off me."
"He's a major shareholder, and also an old friend..."
"So we need to set up a scheme," Sheng Yuxiao said to Li Xiaoya. "I'll teach you how."
Zhou General was both shocked and envious.
He wished he could be seven years old too.