Mr. Dior - Chap 54

They both headed to the CEO’s office when the lift opened. Yu Yuan, who had received the notification that Jiao Qi would be at Shifei Tech today, was already standing at the door waiting for them.

Jiao Qi sat down and started to do his work. He paid no attention to the great Lord next to him who was anxiously trying to get his attention. Big Cock Zhang tried to send many telepathic signals to his little pampered wife, but when he got no response, he eventually gave up and started applying himself to his work seriously.

Thanks to Daddy Jiao’s livestream a few days back, Bajiao’s livestream audience had increased manifold. The platform also added a limited edition gift labelled “Support for Old Comrades” to take advantage of this trend. This limited edition gift cost 23,333 RMB and was a lot more expensive than the most pricey standard gift, which only cost 9,999 RMB. Tossing this gift to the livestream host would cause a special effect – a Daddy Jiao poster would drop over the whole screen, and his voice would boom out the viral tagline, “It has nothing to do with the lady comrade”.

This limited edition gift was only available for a month, and it sold like hotcakes to the rich fans with money to blow. Jiao Qi was very pleased; the financial reports coming in these few days were very gratifying to look at. He decided to give a congratulatory bonus to the Bajiao Inc.’s Livestream Operations Team.

“CEO Jiao, do I also get a congratulatory bonus?” Yu Yuan asked, squatting next to the table and looking up at Jiao Qi with puppy eyes as he accepted the approved document from him.

“Why should you get a bonus?” Jiao Qi asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I’ve had to run over to Shifei twenty times this month alone, and my work has increased 1.5 times. I’ve even lost 3 kilograms,” Yu Yuan said, plonking his chin on the table and trying to look pitiful. His triple chins had indeed been reduced – to a double chin.

“Okay. You’ve had it tough too,” Jiao Qi said, nodding. “I’ll give you a bonus of 5,000 RMB this month.”

“Thank you, CEO!” Yu Yuan said gleefully. He stood up and left with the documents clutched to his chest. Just as he had gone two steps, he realised something was off. 5,000 RMB was what Zhang Chenfei gave him per month in exchange for his “photography services”. Two days ago, CEO Jiao had punished him by clawing back that sum. At the end of the day, he hadn’t made any extra money at all!

“Then, should I give you 4,000?” Jiao Qi said coolly.

“Nonono, 5,000 is great,” Yu Yuan said, wringing his hands anxiously and looking hopefully at CEO Zhang for help.

Unfortunately, the busy Vampire Lord didn’t receive Yu Yuan’s signal. He was only interested in fresh, sweet blood, not streaky pork.

Streaky Pork had just left Jiao Qi’s office when the latter’s phone rang. It was Li Yingjun.

“I couldn’t get through to your secretary, so I just called you directly,” Li Yingjun said by way of explanation. When it was about business, Li Yingjun always went through the relevant person’s secretary to arrange a meeting time, no matter how friendly they were outside work. He was also the boss of a company and he knew how tight time was for them.

“He just went downstairs. He’s probably still in the lift.”

Li Yingjun understood. He asked Jiao Qi if he had time today for a discussion.

“I’m in Shifei today. Why don’t you come over? I don’t have any appointments scheduled,” Jiao Qi said. He felt like someone was staring at him, and he looked up to see Zhang Chenfei towering over him. He mouthed “Li Yingjun” to the towering Vampire Lord.

“Ah, so you’re in Shifei today. That’s great. I have a meeting with Shifei today, so we can just kill two birds with one stone,” Li Yingjun said. He confirmed that he would be there in half an hour, then hung up the phone.

Jiao Qi looked at Zhang Chenfei’s schedule. He indeed had an appointment with Li Yingjun today.

The great Vampire Lord was greatly displeased when he heard this. He had completely forgotten about his appointment with Li Yingjun. “When he comes here later, hide below my desk,” he instructed Jiao Qi.

“… Why?” Jiao Qi said. He looked at Zhang Chenfei’s spacious work desk and the two long legs that were covered by sleekly cut Western dress pants. If Li Yingjun came and saw him kneeling between those legs below Zhang Chenfei’s desk… he refused to think on this further.

“It’s dangerous,” Zhang Chenfei said, frowning. He did not want Li Yingjun to set eyes on his little sacrificial lamb at all. The Li family was also an aristocratic vampire family, and that fellow Li Yingjun was a powerful vampire. Back then, Jiao Qi’s father had considered sacrificing him to the Li family instead…

As they were speaking, the secretary knocked on the door. Li Yingjun had arrived.

The great Vampire Lord had failed to hide his treasured slave in time. He could only hold his pampered little wife’s hand possessively as the three of them sat down on the sofa to have tea.

“You two being in the same office is great for today’s purposes,” Li Yingjun said, smiling. He connected his IntelliBrain to the projector and displayed a beautiful picture of a golden-tailed mermaid. She was looking back with a lovely smile on her face, surrounded by gorgeous pearls and seashells.

This was Handsome Games’ S-class product, “The Pearl of the Sea”. The game had an MC who lived by the sea. The MC met a mermaid by chance and fell in love with her. You could choose whether to play as a girl or a boy. If you chose to play as a boy, the MC would be male and meet a beautiful mermaid princess; if you chose to play as a girl, then you would meet a handsome merman prince.

This game was easy to play, had gorgeous graphics, and a seamless plot. It had been very popular since its launch.

“What, are you in such deep shit that you have to sell your prized product to us?” Zhang Chenfei said, smiling faintly. He was looking at Li Yingjun as if the latter were a pitiful member of the nobility who had fallen on hard times but was doing his best to keep up appearances nonetheless.

“Haha, no way. I’m not selling this,” Li Yingjun said, laughing as he shook his head. He thought Zhang Chenfei was cracking a joke. “I thought to partner Shifei and make ‘The Pearl of the Sea’ into a combat game.”

Previously, when Shifei was fighting with Handsome Games to acquire the Little Jasmine Co., Li Yingjun didn’t think that Shifei would operate the company in this way. Zhang Chenfei did not do things by the book and wasn’t afraid to be a first mover. He was exactly the type of person who would go far in this business. Otome games usually had a short player lifespan, and no one would have thought such games could be made into perennial money trees.

The success of “The Vampire Prince” had been a real lightbulb moment for Li Yingjun. However, Handsome Games had no experience making a large-scale combat arena, and as such, had to look for companies that specialised in fighting games to partner with. Shifei was, without a doubt, the most stable and appropriate one of the lot.

Zhang Chenfei was very disgruntled when he saw Li Yingjun smile at his little wife, and deliberately poured cold water on Li Yingjun’s suggestion. “What kind of versus game do you think we can turn this into? A fishing competition?” he said snidely.

“Fishing?!” Li Yingjun choked, and he nearly vomited blood. “This is a romance game, and the MC falls in love with a mermaid! How can this be about fishing?! The game already has some magical offense elements, just that its focus was not on combat previously.”

The proposed premise of the combat game was that the MC would be a magician who could help lift the curse on the mermaid race. In the farming stage, the MC would have to gather materials and complete quests in order to obtain in-game equipment.

Jiao Qi hid a smile behind his hand, which was placed in front of his mouth as if he were deep in thought. He didn’t interrupt the two.

“Well, it’s not like we can’t do it,” Zhang Chenfei said, flipping through the business proposal. He had more or less come to a decision. “However, as you know, for combat games, the game servers and technical support are key, and the operational costs are much higher than that of an otome game. These costs will mostly be borne by my side, so the profits will be split 80-20, 80 to me and 20 to you.

“That’s daylight robbery,” Li Yingjun said, frowning. He passed Zhang Chenfei the financial turnover report for “The Pearl of the Sea”. It clearly indicated that this game was a very profitable one. “When I spoke to Eyecatch Technologies, they asked for a 60-40 split.”

Zhang Chenfei laughed derisively. He crossed his legs elegantly, leaning back onto the sofa. “Then go ahead and partner with Eyecatch. I guarantee the game they produce for you will be so ‘eye-catching’ that everyone will be horrified,” he said.

“Pfft–” Li Yingjun tried to hold his laughter in but failed and laughed out loud. “It’s not very nice of you to disparage your competitor this way, is it?” he said.

“Eyecatch can’t be considered my competitor,” the Vampire Lord said, a mocking look in his eyes.

Zhang Chenfei’s overconfidence didn’t piss Li Yingjun off at all; to the contrary, it set his decision to work with Shifei Tech in stone. After lengthy negotiations, they finally agreed on splitting the profits 70-30. Zhang Chenfei didn’t make any definite commitments on Shifei’s part, saying that they needed to do the usual risk assessment and credibility analysis before they decided to invest resources in this project.

Li Yingjun indicated that he understood. The matter was thus settled for the time being. He drank a mouthful of tea, then turned to speak to Jiao Qi about advertising. “I wanted to speak with you regarding the advertising for this very product. Your Laogong has agreed to partner with my company, so can Bajiao give me a discount for advertising on its livestream?” he said.

The technicals were Shifei’s responsibility, but the operations and publicity were still managed by Handsome Games.

“It’s even more important to draw financial lines between brothers,” Jiao Qi said, setting his cup down and raising his chin toward his husband. “Why don’t you ask him how much he’s paying me for advertising “The Glory of the Galaxy”?”

The advertising departments of both companies didn’t go easy on each other just because their bosses were married. Shifei managed to get a 1% discount only because it had a strong market presence and that particular game was incredibly popular.

“If you want to livestream the gameplay, like what was done for ‘The Glory of the Galaxy’, I can give you a preferential rate,” CEO Jiao said. He was all business, trying to get this customer to spend a bit more money.

“No need. This is just an otome game,” Li Yingjun said, the corner of his mouth twitching. That sort of gameplay livestream was only done for large-scale competitive games. His game wasn’t so popular that that kind of livestream would attract much attention, so he would have to pay a lot to promote that livestream to begin with. There was no point.

Young Master Li tutted to himself internally, thinking that this pair of spouses were really a well-oiled money making machine as he walked away holding his bleeding heart.

The wooden door shut with a click behind Li Yingjun, and the smile on the great Vampire Lord’s face disappeared immediately. His little sacrificial lamb was trying to escape, and he pulled him into his arms. “He smiled at you just now. Did you feel like you were hypnotized by him in that moment?” he asked.

“No,” Jiao Qi said. His husband was starting to talk nonsense again, and he used a single hand to push his face away.

“I’m not joking,” Zhang Chenfei said severely. “The Li family is also of the nobility, and Li Yingjun is the most outstanding one in his generation. Those peach blossom eyes were made to hook unwary girls and boys. Once you’re mesmerized by him, there’ll be nothing left of you.”

“How do you know? He doesn’t have fangs, you know.”

The Vampire Lord stroked his little bloodslave’s smooth-skinned face, then sighed. “You don’t understand. High-level vampires are all about their charisma. Li Yingjun is so good-looking – weren’t you also nearly taken in by him when you first met?” he said.

“… …” Ah, so that was what it was. Jiao Qi was speechless. It had been so many years now, and this fellow was still nursing this grudge. Back then, all he had with Li Yingjun was a blind date, and neither of them had been interested in each other.

Jiao Qi couldn’t communicate with this Vampire Lord any more, so he decided to just ignore him and go back to his desk to work.

His little sacrificial lamb was refusing to listen to his advice. Zhang Chenfei was rather unhappy about this. He poured a glass of red wine and sat back in his director’s chair. He didn’t do his work, but just sat there, staring intently at his pampered little wife. The more he stared, the hungrier he got.

He picked up the phone and told his secretary to lock the door, with strict instructions not to let anyone enter.

“What’s up?” Jiao Qi asked, looking up at him.

“Come over here,” Zhang Chenfei said. He put down the glass of red wine and hooked a finger at his pampered little wife, beckoning him to come over.

“What is it now?” CEO Jiao Qi asked, slightly exasperated. He got up, walked over to his Laogong, and raised his hands, preparing to defend himself. If Zhang Chenfei was being frivolous, that solid shoulder of his would be marked with a red palm print very shortly.

Of course, the noble Vampire Lord did not summon anyone for frivolous matters. Zhang Chenfei licked his lips, caught hold of his delicate little bloodslave, then picked him up bodily, carrying him over to his work desk and setting him down on it.

Jiao Qi was a good head taller than his Laogong when he sat on the table. His legs were spread open, and he felt… oddly embarrassed.

“This King is going to feed,” Zhang Chenfei declared. The famished vampire needed fresh, sweet blood to sate the ache in his belly.

“Ah, hold on a sec,” Jiao Qi said, flabbergasted. The fellow in front of him, who said he was a vampire, had started to take off his belt. “What kind of bloodsucking technique is this… mmph…”

“I’m not that kind of low-class bat that bites people crudely,” Zhang Chenfei said proudly. He was an elegant, Eastern vampire, and was very particular about being cultured. “The ancient books teach that a drop of ‘essence‘ is equal to ten drops of blood. A mouthful of essence is therefore equivalent to ten mouthfuls of blood.”