Before heading home, Cynthia made sure to remind him that she had already cooked dinner—no need to eat out.
"I'm wondering if I should give you a raise."
Cynthia looked up while eating, her big eyes full of confusion. "Why?"
"You cook and clean. Hiring a maid would cost several thousand a month, right?"
Cynthia nodded. "That's true. You make a good point."
"So tell me, how much of a raise do you want?" William asked generously.
"Forget the raise," Cynthia gave a scheming smile. "Just take me out to eat once or twice a month."
"Once or twice a month?"
"Yeah, just now and then. You don't expect me to cook every day, do you?"
William looked at her casual expression and instantly realized her "eating out" wasn't going to be cheap. It would probably mean fancy places like Magnolia Restaurant. A couple of those meals would cost a few thousand—same as hiring a maid.
"How about we actually just hire a maid? Save you from working overtime after work too."
Cynthia saw her plan had been exposed but didn't get upset. She pouted, "Are you saying my cooking's bad?"
"Of course not." William quickly defended himself.
And he meant it. Cynthia could cook way better than he ever could.
"Hehe."
Seeing William panic, Cynthia burst into laughter. "Since the boss is so considerate, fine—let's hire a maid. I'd love to come home and have hot food waiting, without having to drag myself into the kitchen."
"Alright then, we're hiring a maid."
William ignored the fact he'd been played and handed off the job. "I'll leave this task to you."
Cynthia's face darkened.
"I'm starting to think you really should give me a raise. You make me do everything."
William spread his hands. "You're the one who said you didn't want it."
He paused, watching Cynthia's expression. Seeing her look a bit deflated, William couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, how about I take you out for a nice meal once a month from now on?"
"Deal!" Cynthia's face instantly brightened.
After helping wash the dishes, it was movie time.
Before interviewing other people, William and Cynthia wanted to watch all of their works first, at least to get a basic idea of their skills.
After the movie, neither of them went upstairs right away. They were waiting for midnight — tonight's text message would be the company's first income, and maybe the only one for a while.
00:00
"Your account ending in (xxxx) has received a transfer of 3.288.316 dollar."
"Notice: All your company's software now meets the requirements of Regulation No. 97 (earning a profit share of 700.000). From today on, traffic share rewards will no longer be issued."
The two messages together made it clear that the new regulation was aimed directly at Earth Games. Whoever made the rule probably didn't expect one company to take advantage of it so much. After all, in the current software market, only official channels release free software, and any profits from those go straight into the national treasury, so no one thought something like this would happen.
"Wow, wow, wow!"
Seeing the amount, Cynthia jumped up from the couch — ten percent of that was hers. Even before taxes and expenses, that was over 300k dollar, worth several years of her salary.
Overcome with excitement, Cynthia hugged William tightly and said, "I knew teaming up with you was the right choice!"
It sounded a little odd, but William didn't dwell on it. In his eyes, this amount was just a drop in the bucket compared to a real blockbuster. Once the gaming industry truly started running, it would be a trillion-level market — there would be plenty more for Cynthia to be happy about.
Online discussions about Regulation No. 97 kept heating up, and every topic revolved around one keyword: Earth Games.
On Weibo, there was a poll asking whether Earth Games would stick to free games after the new rule, and if they switched to paid games, how many players would be willing to pay.
Hundreds of thousands voted — 18% thought Earth Games would stay free, 61% thought they'd switch to paid, and the remaining 21% said they'd be willing to pay.
On the surface, that 21% would be Earth Games' fans. If you applied that to their total user base, it would mean tens of millions of fans — though in reality, that wasn't possible.
For most companies, a game selling a million copies is enough to keep them running for years without worrying about money while developing new titles. A game selling ten million copies can make a company, not only creating a hit IP but also providing enough funds to expand and develop multiple games at once.
William might not be used to seeing a game's sales not hitting one or ten million in minutes, but going paid was inevitable. The other path would be left for WeChat Games to take.
Back in his room, William entered his personal space.
New folder: "Happy Mahjong."
"Happy Mahjong" would be the first game in the Happy Universe. As its debut title, William planned to personally handle only this one. All future related games would be left to WeChat Games to develop freely, while he'd just take a share of the Happy Bean revenue.
While working on "Happy Mahjong," William realized it might be a good idea to have a computer in the villa — otherwise Cynthia might get suspicious.
Thinking of this, William stopped what he was doing. On second thought, why not make this a trial project for the studio? He could handle the coding, WeChat Games could do the online multiplayer, and the rest of the assets could be created by the other studio members.
If tomorrow's interviews went smoothly, they'd probably hire everyone. Claire would also be coming tomorrow — he'd finally reached her that afternoon and learned she was in Riverdale. After a short chat, he invited her to join the in-person interview as well.
Night fell, dreamless.
Cynthia worked quickly — by morning, there was already an auntie busy in the kitchen. William had no idea where she found her, but the meal was clearly much better than yesterday's, and she'd even thoughtfully prepared lunchboxes for them.
"Having an auntie around is the best," Cynthia said happily on the way to the company.
Without makeup, William could see the dark circles under her eyes — she really had been getting up early lately.
"Chris and Leon are in the morning, Claire and Tina in the afternoon," Cynthia read out the interview schedule for the day.
"Got it."
When they arrived at the company, they saw Marcus already waiting at the door. Without a key, he'd just been sitting there.
"Been here long?"
"N-no." Seeing them, Marcus immediately sat up. He was clearly a little nervous.
"Come on in. No need to arrive early next time."
William unlocked the door.
Marcus smiled awkwardly and said nothing.
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