Liu Shiyun was a straightforward person, and when she said she would do something she would absolutely do it, so, the very next day, she submitted their names to the drama club.
“There will be casting for a play next Monday! Don’t forget!”
Qian Wei absently nodded her head in reply but was soon back to immersing herself in creating her website that would distribute online legal advice. Although she had spent a long time planning out every detail of the process, when it came to really starting the business she met some unexpected hurdles. She had managed to hire an IT team to develop a prototype of the website without much difficulty and, because of her own practical experience, she was also able to upload a large number of template contracts with relative ease and no sacrifice except for her free time. But what she hadn’t expected was the hardest step was thinking of ways to promote her website to the people. At first, Qian Wei thought of handing out flyers on the various college and university campuses in City A and to advertise on the school forums. However, that method only attracted college students, and the ordinary people who were the most in need of her advisory services weren’t necessarily the type of people to pay attention to things on the internet in the first place, so the issue of how to promote her website to ordinary people had become a big problem.
“Qian Wei?”
Qian Wei was distracted by her thoughts and only subconsciously replied, “Huh?” after a little while.
Lu Xun frowned and, although his tone stayed calm, there was a tinge of subtle unhappiness: “We’ve only been out for ten minutes but you’ve already gone off into your own world six times.”
His tone was actually quite resentful…
Qian Wei immediately started to work to appease Lu Xun*.
When she did that, Lu Xun turned his head away with a ‘hmph’. But his taut face finally loosened up a bit, the corners of his mouth rising up just a little. Clearly, Qian Wei’s efforts more than made up for the grievances he felt at being ignored just now, but he just coughed and put on his usual indifferent expression before saying, “Don’t think that I’m just complaining because you’re acting like you don’t care about me, actually I was just worried about what’s on your mind. After all, normally when we’re together there’s basically nothing that can distract you.”
Qian Wei smirked. Why had she never noticed that Lu Xun, this guy, was actually so confident? She couldn’t help but joke: “You shouldn’t be careless, maybe my heart has suddenly moved on.” She gave Lu Xun an appraising look from top to bottom. “Although your face, waist, and buttocks are all excellent, and you generally stand out in all aspects, human beings are creatures that tend to love the new and discard the old. After all, if a person spends every day eating nothing but five course meals then there might come a day where the thought of sampling a roadside stall instead would start to be tempting!”
Lu Xun smiled: “With me, your heart will have no chance to ever move on.” He leaned into Qian Wei’s ear and murmured, “Don’t even dream about it.”
“Moreover, since I’ve already eaten the five course meal, I really can’t eat at the roadside stall anymore.” Lu Xun looked Qian Wei in the eye and, in a low and sexy tone, murmured, “Besides, aren’t I more delicious than any roadside stall?”
As he spoke, Lu Xun looked at Qian Wei deeply, and probably anyone who was stared at by those eyes would blush and feel their heart flutter.
Qian Wei covered her chest: “Lu Xun, if you flirt with me so casually like this, I’m going to call the police!”
Lu Xun smiled: “Isn’t it just because you’re so easy to flirt with*?”
Like that, the two flirted with each other for a while before entering a Thai restaurant. Actually, Lu Xun had been so frustrated recently that he had turned back into a work-a-holic and, after being paid for all of his translating, he immediately brought Qian Wei out to eat at a Thai restaurant she had never been to before.
However, once they had sat down and ordered, Lu Xun was actually still very concerned about what was going on with Qian Wei: “Anyway, what on earth have you been thinking about so hard about these days?” He paused before continuing reluctantly. “Of course, if you don’t want to tell me that I will totally respect your decision. I just want you to know that no matter what might be bothering you I will always be on your side.”
Qian Wei looked up at Lu Xun across the table and couldn’t help but feel warm in her heart. Although he was usually very cold and aloof on the surface, Lu Xun was actually a gentleman deep down inside. He was very excellent, but he still wouldn’t try to force her to accept his way of doing things.
Of course, Qian Wei wasn’t really trying to hide it, so she immediately spilled the beans and told Lu Xun all about her business plan and her current predicament.
After listening to her describe the situation, Lu Xun mused for a moment before replying: “Have you ever thought of joining hands with the other big law schools in City A and turning the website into a sort of legal aid alliance? You could set up a ‘law clinic’ on the website and, using that, you could bring in the law school professors. Then you could pick out some representative cases submitted by your users and, under the guidance of the professors who can legally practice law, the students could all participate and help by collecting information and writing up the indictments and other legal documents. Actually, to my knowledge, something similar to this sort of ‘law clinic’ has already been set up by law schools in Europe and the United States, and our university would probably be happy to follow their example. After all, when it comes to the law, just learning things from a textbook is very different from actually using that knowledge in practice, that’s something I’ve personally experienced that fact after being asked to participate in several cases by the professors. Unfortunately, that sort of experience is currently only available to a select few of our second and third year students who are directly asked to enter the law firm set up by the professors and then get access to real cases, but for most of our students that sort of practical opportunity is very rare. You should know that many of our students aspire to be lawyers in the future and they would all be very keen on gaining practical legal experience so, if you can actually build this platform, I feel that at the very least our A University Law School would be willing to cooperate with you. Then later on, after our law school agrees to cooperate with you, you will be able to use the students who participate in the ‘law clinic’ to do some grass-roots publicity for your website.”
Lu Xun’s suggestion caused Qian Wei to be filled with new ideas and she quickly added excitedly: “That’s a good idea! First, we can cooperate with all the major law schools in City A, and that will slowly expand our influence among all the local colleges and universities. And, with time, we will be able to reach out to the law schools in surrounding provinces and cities to further promote the website. After all, if we successfully show we can cooperate with the law schools in City A, other provinces and cities should also welcome us with open arms. Moreover, we don’t only have to cooperate with major law schools, right? As the platform becomes more and more mature, we can also reach out to local law firms and ask them to assign their lawyers to provide some online consultations or training. Because our platform is aimed at serving low-income users, we should be able to cooperate with smaller law firms because their target clients are the same as ours. As time goes on and the influence of our platform firms up, we will even be able to invite those small law firms to permanently move onto the site by signing strategic cooperation agreements with them where we will agree to pay them a certain fee for their online consultations or training sessions, and it will be an attractive deal for them because our platform will be providing publicity for them. In the future, when the clients using our platform need to hire a lawyer, they will naturally think of the law firms that they have consulted with on our site, and on top of that we can make targeted recommendations to the users to push clients toward those firms.”
“But how are you going to pay to invite the various law firms to your platform to provide online legal consultations and training? Even if you can form strategic cooperation agreements where you ask for a preferential price, it will still be a lot of money in the long run. ” Lu Xun sipped his tea, “Although I know that the original intention behind setting up this legal consultation website is public welfare, in truth, projects that are purely for public welfare are inevitably expensive. Right now, we don’t have that sort of financial capacity, so we are bound to face bottlenecks. In the end, the platform you’re envisioning will end up being unsustainable unless some sort of profit model is found. At the very least it needs to be self-sufficient enough to keep the website running.”
Qian Wei leaned forward on the table, cupped her face in her hands, and stared at Lu Xun.
Her long stare made Lu Xun feel a little uneasy and he asked: “What’s the matter?”
“I was just wondering why my boyfriend is always so excellent? Always so sharp and spot-on with his analysis?”
Although Lu Xun struggled to keep his face indifferent, his ears were tinged with red. He tried to pretend to be natural as he said, “I’m not so great, just so-so at best.”
Qian Wei gave a heartfelt sigh: “Is there anything in this world that would be difficult for you, ah? It’s a foul that you can know everything and solve all kinds of problems easily.” She continued in a curious tone, “I wonder, do you ever think to yourself ‘How lonely it is, here at the top’? Since nothing is challenging for you, it is hard for you to maintain a lasting interest in something?”
“Not when it comes to you.”
Qian Wei was dazed for a moment before she realized what Lu Xun meant and she couldn’t help but smile. She really couldn’t beat this kind of Lu Xun, who always acted seriously but would then be able to somehow find an opening to casually flirt around. He slipped right past all of her psychological defenses and, before she knew it, she would find that she was already completely defeated.
After Lu Xun joined in, the business plan for Qian Wei’s website suddenly seemed to be getting twice the results with half the effort. Lu Xun went forward and took care of communicating with several of City A’s law schools and Qian Wei was flabbergasted when she saw it. This guy was really able to just rely on his face and his mouth to make things happen. With his proposal and the prototype of the website in hand, Lu Xun was even able to persuade several law schools that were known for their rigorous and difficult processes for finding cooperation partners, and it was the first time that Qian Wei realized just how strong Lu Xun’s network and social circle were. Then, not long after the cooperation aspect was handled, he had unexpectedly already secured several investments from former alumni of their A University Law School, really showcasing all of his terrible public relations abilities and executive power all at once. Seeing it all happen in real-time, Qian Wei felt completely convinced in her heart, after all, if a person like Lu Xun couldn’t become partner, who could?! At the same time, she also vaguely felt a flame of competition lighting in her heart. After all, if the 19-year-old Lu Xun was able to do all of this, then shouldn’t she strive to do even better herself!?
Also, because Lu Xun had joined in, all of these dry and dull business matters, which had always been rather boring, somehow became a little sweet. Other couples would go out shopping or to see a movie, but Qian Wei and Lu Xun’s date nights all involved enthusiastically discussing starting a business together.
“As for the membership fee method that I first mentioned, do you prefer to use the annual fee model or the monthly fee model? How much should it cost? Last night I went and collected information on the fees charged by several similar professional service platforms and compiled a report, why don’t you take a look at it…”
However, before she finished speaking, Lu Xun quickly kissed Qian Wei on the cheek.
Qian Wei blushed and said, “Lu Xun!”
“Hmm?”
“Didn’t we agree to discuss business right now?”
Lu Xun took the report from Qian Wei’s hand and raised an eyebrow: “I’m now working for your start-up project without being paid even a single penny and, despite that, I have to spend my own money running all around the city visiting various law schools every day. Is it really too much to ask for a few ‘employee benefits’?” As Lu Xun spoke, he approached Qian Wei and lifted her chin before kissing her again. Her beautiful, black, and slightly wet eyes locked with his, and his voice turned a little husky, “Hmm? Don’t you think so boss?”
Being called ‘boss’ actually cause Qian Wei’s heart to flutter a bit. Back in her previous life, Lu Xun had always been her boss, but now that they were in this life he had to call her boss instead, it really made Qian Wei feel like she was walking on air. Unfortunately, amidst that complacent feelings, Qian Wei was completely unable to resist her new subordinates ‘vigorous offensive’ and, before she realized it, Lu Xun had kissed her until her lips were slightly red. However, despite all that, his face seemed to still have a trace of dissatisfaction and reluctance when their lips finally parted.
Seeing that expression, Qian Wei hurriedly moved away from Lu Xun, coughed once, and awkwardly tried to control her unstable breathing before saying: “How can this be regarded as you not being paid? As your boss I, Qian Wei, have already promised you that when I rise and prosper in the future, I will definitely bring you with me! I even promised you 50% of the shares in our future company!”
“I don’t want the shares. I just want you.” While Lu Xun spoke, he was also scratching out a paragraph of the research report with his fluorescent pen. “There’s something wrong with this data. I’ve actually registered for this website before and the fee that you recorded is the fee they set after they received their first round of financing. The fees they were charging in their initial stages were different. Because our website has only just been set up we should compare our fee to the fee they were charging during their initial stage, rather than the fee they’re currently charging.”
Qian Wei was dumbfounded. She seriously wondered, was Lu Xun even a human being? Was that really something a human could do? Was there anyone who could flirt around easily while working seriously at the same time? The most terrible thing was… he did such a perfect job at both flirting and working!
It was said that serious men were very sexy. But this Lu Xun, who worked hard and flirted seriously, seemed irresistible! These days Qian Wei had really started to realize that some people didn’t need to take off their clothes to be sexy.
However, Lu Xun seemed to feel that it still wasn’t enough because he quickly wrapped Qian Wei in his arms and kissed her on the tip of her nose: “Since I pointed out the problem with the data, shouldn’t I get a little reward?”
Qian Wei blushed and her heart thumped wildly: “Didn’t you just say that I’m your boss? Then, as an employee, any benefits you want need to be approved by me first, right? So why are you just grabbing them for yourself?”
“I can’t help it. The boss is just too delicious. Besides, us employees haven’t been paid for a long time.” Lu Xun blinked innocently and said, “So I don’t have enough to eat.” He leaned forward toward Qian Wei’s ear and lightly bit her earlobe before murmuring, “I’m already hungry again, I want to eat.”
Faced with this situation, Qian Wei began to desperately recite Buddhist sutras in her mind, trying to banish all the impure thoughts. At the same time, she told herself strictly ‘Focus Qian Wei! Focus on your work!’
*so I sort of butchered this and the previous line since there was a pun in there that doesn’t really translate. Qian Wei tells him to stop 放电 which literally means ‘discharging electricity’ but has the slang meaning of ‘flirting’ (basically) and then he retorts that it’s her fault for being such an excellent conductor (of electricity). So… eh. I just replaced it with something that vaguely has the same meaning.