E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 158: Episode 158: A Rainy Night Walk from Dongdan to Zhongguancun

Chapter 158: Episode 158: A Rainy Night Walk from Dongdan to Zhongguancun

Just as Zhou Xueyin was about to give up, at the flower bed where she was waiting for a bus, she spotted a figure that looked very familiar.

When she approached this familiar figure, she discovered that Wei Jingzhu, sitting on the railing of the flower bed, had already been soaked by the rain.

The rain dripped down from his hair, and his downcast appearance seemed to return to the days when he had been heartbroken, looking so pitiable.

"I’ve come to pick you up..." Zhou Xueyin moved the umbrella over his head.

"Yinyin? You came..." Wei Jingzhu slowly lifted his head, his eyes blurry as he looked at Zhou Xueyin.

"What’s happened to you? How did you get into this state? You reek of alcohol. How much did you drink..." Zhou Xueyin was about to help Wei Jingzhu up when a strong smell of alcohol wafted from him.

"Don’t know... bleh... I need to throw up first. I’m fine sitting here, but if I move, I’m going to vomit..." Before he could finish, Wei Jingzhu turned his head and vomited all the food he had eaten that evening into the flowers.

"In the middle of the night like this, everything’s closed; there’s nowhere to buy you water..." Seeing how miserable Wei Jingzhu was and feeling helpless, Zhou Xueyin truly regretted not bringing a bottle of water with her when she left home.

"It’s okay... I feel much better after vomiting..." Wei Jingzhu, not quite steady, ended up sitting directly on the ground, and now there wasn’t a clean spot left on him.

"Looking at you now, I doubt any taxis would be willing to take you." Zhou Xueyin figured that no driver would want him in their car either and once again regretted not buying a car...

"It’s fine, you go back first. I’ll just slowly walk home..." Wei Jingzhu slowly stood up, "Afterall, during university, I used to walk from campus to Xidan without any problem..."

"How can that be the same? You’re drunk now. I can’t leave you alone on the streets like this..." Zhou Xueyin didn’t mind Wei Jingzhu’s drenched clothes and took his arm, "Come on, I’ll walk home with you!"

"Don’t you have to work tomorrow?" Wei Jingzhu withdrew his arm.

"Are you dumb, tomorrow’s Saturday; of course, I don’t have to work! Otherwise, I would have threatened the driver to take us back," Zhou Xueyin joked, "Come on, let’s go!"

"Oh right, you’re from the group, you really don’t work... huh, it must be nice being in the group! You got weekends off!" Wei Jingzhu sneered disdainfully, "It’s different from us at Zhongonline. They said after the Olympics we would get weekends off, but till now it’s still a regular and irregular week..."

"But Zhongonline’s performance is the best, afterall; all the hard work is worth it!" Zhou Xueyin consoled Wei Jingzhu.

The two talked as they wobbled their way towards Zhongguancun.

"By the way, why did you come to Wangfujing today? For business? Drank too much?" Zhou Xueyin brought up a topic they could talk about for a while to avoid awkward silence.

"Today was a gathering of colleagues from the gaming industry, including game manufacturers and people from the media gaming channel... I was called to join," Wei Jingzhu recalled as he spoke, "Only after arriving did I realize that everyone else had brought their partners, leaving me the only one to come alone."

"Doesn’t sound like a very formal gathering..." Zhou Xueyin commented.

"You don’t need to feel it; it wasn’t a formal gathering! The oldest of them said it was some kind of ’meaty feast’? The ’meaty’ out of meat and vegetables. He also said, ’Bringing girls to dinner and pretending it’s a business meeting?’" Wei Jingzhu spoke with disdain.

"Oh, come on, what are these old LMs thinking? Don’t they see women as human beings? It’s simply disgusting!" Zhou Xueyin felt revulsion just listening.

"It’s just a bunch of LM, all they talk about over dinner are dirty jokes, and they always make fun of the women with them. I didn’t bring a companion, and they even joked about me! If I had known it was this kind of gathering, I wouldn’t have come!" Wei Jingzhu said indignantly.

"But you can’t not go, after all, it’s about expanding connections, right?" Zhou Xueyin said, empathizing with Wei Jingzhu’s helplessness.

"Yeah, everyone at this event is in a high position with control over money. Who they choose to give advertising to or not is entirely up to them, and you’ve got to maintain good relations. After all, the company can’t just support us for nothing..." Even with a sense of bursting justice, when it comes to money, one has to bow down to capitalism.

"It’s tough on you indeed. Why didn’t you bring a salesperson along?" Zhou Xueyin asked curiously.

"It’s a long story... Zhang Lei went independent, right? Zhang Yan applied to follow him to that startup, and she took all the people with game resources with her. Now, there isn’t a single salesperson in the company that’s up to the task..." Wei Jingzhu gave a wry smile, "And none of the salespeople want to take the lead to help a channel with an uncertain future..."

"This couple really have some dark hearts! Why didn’t you ask for my help? At least Wanwan and Jixiang can hold their liquor, and they could have been there for the appearance..."

"No way! How could I let them face such a risky dinner? But if I really want to nail the advertisements, maybe next time I can’t go without bringing someone... Today, because I went alone, everyone took turns forcing drinks on me..." Wei Jingzhu was truly helpless, but there was nothing he could do.

Business these days is just like that, if you don’t drink, you can’t close deals; if you can’t close deals, there’s no money.

It’s not just the gaming industry, it’s the same in all industries, terribly dark...

Zhou Xueyin knew this well, so in cases where she could call the shots in the company, she’d avoid working with those LM businesses as much as possible.

As a result, in the four years since their establishment, the number of times Li Jiniang and Zhang Jingwan had been pressured into drinking could be counted on one hand...

As they talked, they strolled from Dongdan to Xidan, and Wei Jingzhu sobered up quite a bit. The clothes that had been soaked by the rain were also gradually drying.

"Let’s take a taxi back. My clothes aren’t that wet anymore... I probably won’t be snubbed by taxi drivers now," he joked.

But it was hard to hail a cab in the middle of the night, so the two continued walking along the roadside, eyeing for any passing cars.

They walked from Xidan to Xisi before they finally got into a taxi...

The taxi first dropped Zhou Xueyin off at her residential complex, and then took Wei Jingzhu back to Shuangyushu.

The channel was rebranding, with no weekends off, and it was hard to pull in ad revenue... Zhou Xueyin was genuinely worried for Wei Jingzhu.

What was he taking over, a game channel? It was more like starting a channel from scratch, having to fight for everything himself.

Thankfully, the reputation of Zhongonline was there, so maybe it would be a bit easier than expected!

However, Zhou Xueyin was thinking too simply. She didn’t know that Zhongonline’s gaming channel was a joke in the industry, which would disband and rebrand periodically, and many manufacturers had already blacklisted them.

Wei Jingzhu was facing a very difficult path, but fortunately on this path, Zhou Xueyin would offer him the greatest support!

[Until you recruit suitable salespeople, I will unconditionally offer you the greatest support! Don’t be too polite with me!] After getting home, Zhou Xueyin sent a text message to Wei Jingzhu, and then she went to rest.