Chapter 148: You Gotta Trust in President Pei’s Judgment!
Chapter 148: You Gotta Trust in President Pei’s Judgment!
Shangyang Games, Office Area.
The atmosphere was a little tense.
Everyone had originally thought that getting a new boss would mark the beginning of a bright new future. They were looking forward to President Pei working together with everyone, pitching brilliant ideas, and creating refreshing new games that would dominate the bestseller charts.
But none of that happened.
President Pei did show up briefly, but he said less than ten sentences before leaving.
He demoted Wang Xiaobin, who was the most senior in the company, from the position of lead executive designer, and promoted the newest guy in the company to that very position. On top of that, he gave him one “no-reason firing quota” per month.
As for the company’s future plans? Even more absurd.
Step one: remove all monetization points from the two existing games.
Step two: everyone writes their own game design proposal.
Other than that, President Pei didn’t offer any opinions or suggestions. As for him personally stepping in to lead? That was completely out of the question.
Given that he handed Ye Zhizhou the "Imperial Sword" of full authority, it seemed he wouldn't be returning for a long time. Ye Zhizhou was effectively his stand-in.
It felt like Shangyang Games, which was just about to come back to life and rise from the grave, had been shoved right back into the coffin—this time with a few extra nails hammered in for good measure by President Pei himself.
Of course the atmosphere was suffocating.
That said, everyone understood that with Tengda backing them, Shangyang Games probably wouldn’t go bankrupt in the short term—their rice bowls were safe, for now.
But how long they’d stay safe... that was anyone’s guess.
Wang Xiaobin glanced nervously at Ye Zhizhou’s workstation. He saw Ye Zhizhou hunched over, tapping away on his phone. Who was he messaging?
Surely he wasn’t about to use his first “no-reason firing quota” already?
Wang Xiaobin was genuinely worried.
Now that Ye Zhizhou was the lead executive designer, it was his job to give orders and assign tasks. That was part of the role.
But since Ye Zhizhou hadn’t said anything, the rest of the team had no choice but to sit at their desks and waste time.
Wang Xiaobin wasn’t sure if Ye Zhizhou was up to the task—but it was out of his hands now. All they could do was wait and see.
At that moment, Ye Zhizhou was messaging Ma Yiqun.
“Brother Ma, I don’t really know how to tell you this...”
Ma Yiqun replied quickly: “Just say it. I’ve got your back. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it together.”
Ma Yiqun hadn’t been assigned any work on the Tengda side—not even writing storyline scripts for the new version—so he was bored out of his mind and replied instantly.
Ye Zhizhou hesitated for a moment, then typed: “President Pei came over for a meeting and promoted me to lead executive designer at Shangyang Games...”
Ma Yiqun: “???”
He spammed over ten question marks in a row.
You could feel his confusion through the screen.
What the hell?
Ma Yiqun was completely dumbfounded.
Back in the day, he and Huang Sibo had both been doing grunt work at Shangyang Games—two unlucky brothers in arms.
Then in the blink of an eye, Huang Sibo jumped ship to Tengda Games and skyrocketed from assistant planner to lead executive designer.
Later, he was working alongside Ye Zhizhou, still stuck in grunt work—same story.
And now in another blink, Shangyang Games gets acquired by President Pei, and Ye Zhizhou also shoots up to become lead executive designer!
Yet here he was, Ma Yiqun, still spending every day studying President Pei’s design philosophy, with nothing to show for it—no achievements he could even remotely brag about.
Ma Yiqun fell into deep self-doubt.
Why is it that every time, the assistant planner gets fast-tracked to lead executive designer?
Could it be... that I’m a lucky charm?
Anyone who suffers alongside me gets promoted to lead executive designer??
Then if I’m the legendary koi fish (symbol of good fortune), why haven’t I seen a single piece of good luck myself?
After a long pause without a reply, Ye Zhizhou typed again:
“Brother Ma, I’m under so much pressure right now. I’ve never been a lead executive designer before. Can you talk to President Pei? See if he can pick someone else instead?”
Ma Yiqun nearly snorted from sheer anger.
This brat’s really pushing it—getting lucky and still acting humble, playing the innocent?!
You got promoted to lead executive designer and you don’t even want it? Are you seriously just here to piss me off?!
“Goodbye,” Ma Yiqun typed, ready to slam the chat window shut.
Ye Zhizhou quickly replied, “Wait, Brother Ma! I seriously don’t think I’m up for it. I’ve only been in the industry for a short while—I don’t know anything! How can I be the lead executive designer?”
“President Pei put such a heavy burden on me. What if I mess it up?”
Ma Yiqun read Ye Zhizhou’s messages and realized—so this kid was just worried about disappointing President Pei’s expectations.
Alright, the kid’s teachable.
Ma Yiqun thought for a moment. As someone who had been around the block, who had spent months studying President Pei’s mindset, he figured it was time to pass on some wisdom to his younger comrade.
“Don’t worry. Just go for it.”
“You know Huang Sibo, right? The guy who left before you joined—he was a good buddy of mine.”
“He was also just an assistant planner at the time, doing the exact same kind of work you were.”
“Then he moved to Tengda Games—and boom, President Pei promoted him straight to lead executive designer!”
“And guess what? Ocean Fortress? That was my bro Huang Sibo’s project.”
“So trust me, you’ve got nothing to worry about. You might not believe in yourself, but you have to believe in President Pei’s judgment!”
“Up to now, President Pei’s promoted a lot of people. At first, no one really understood why, but soon enough we saw it—he’s got a unique eye for talent. Every person he chose had a spark others couldn’t see.”
“So don’t stress. If President Pei says you’re good enough, then you are good enough!”
Reading Ma Yiqun’s reply, Ye Zhizhou fell into deep thought.
So that’s how it is... This kind of fast-track promotion isn’t a first?
And they’ve all turned out successful?
Then… did President Pei see some kind of hidden potential in me?
Why don’t I even know what it is...
But Ma Yiqun had a point—President Pei wouldn’t promote someone for no reason, let alone hand over such huge authority.
Ye Zhizhou thought it over again and again, and suddenly… confidence welled up in him.
If President Pei gave me this much power, then it’s a sign—I’m supposed to go all in. If I chicken out now, I’d be going against everything Tengda stands for. I’d be letting President Pei down.
I’m a proud Tengda employee now!
With that thought, Ye Zhizhou suddenly saw things clearly.
“Thanks for the guidance, Brother Ma!”
He opened a document and started typing with full confidence.
In these past few months since joining, the thing Ye Zhizhou did most in private… was complain about those two trashy games.
Which, honestly, made sense. If those games were feeding crap to players, then Ye Zhizhou was basically spending every day playing with crap in his hands. How could that not be disgusting?
In Ye Zhizhou’s mind—and really, in the minds of most people at Shangyang Games—those two games were riddled with flaws. Just five minutes of playing was enough to find a dozen problems.
But no one ever made changes.
Why? Because everyone was just coasting. Old Liu wasn’t assigning any tasks, and no one wanted to take on extra work for no reason.
As for why Old Liu didn’t make any changes? Simple. The company was under massive revenue pressure.
Back then, the games only barely earned enough to keep the company running. Where would they find the money to buy new art assets or overhaul the gameplay?
Good ideas were everywhere—but implementing them? That took time and money.
Now, with Old Liu and Mr. Du both out of the picture, Ye Zhizhou finally had the freedom to work on things he believed truly mattered.
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