Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 268 - 264: Insisting on the Punishment of Marriage

Chapter 268: Chapter 264: Insisting on the Punishment of Marriage

October 24th.

Chen Rui, who had been busy for a long time, finally showed up at the company again. The last time he came was the day before the National Day.

The people who had gotten used to Qin Guanglin being in charge were somewhat surprised to see him.

"Not bad, everything’s managed pretty well."

"It’s all because you pay well. Everyone’s working their tails off."

In the office, Chen Rui and Qin Guanglin sat on opposite sides of the desk, casually sipping tea.

"Have you not been resting well lately? You look kind of out of it," asked Chen Rui, noticing the fatigue on Qin Guanglin’s face.

It wasn’t the kind of tiredness that comes from staying up all night. It looked more like the exhaustion from long hours of intense work.

"With so much going on in the company, it’s almost wearing me out. How could I have any energy?"

Qin Guanglin rubbed his face but didn’t tell him that after finishing up at the company each day, he still had to go home and continue painting. He smiled and said, "The company is running so smoothly, is there any bonus or something? I’m planning to buy a house at the end of the year."

"You’re all about the money... Work is important, but you can’t run yourself into the ground. The website’s almost up, just waiting for approval. Once that’s sorted, we’ll be busy for a while, and then we can rest."

Chen Rui shook his head and chuckled, "Once we’ve got our own website, we won’t have to deal with those damn commissions, and you guys will get a bigger cut. Do you want to take a few days off? You look really tired."

The two of them were more friends than business partners. Talking about bonuses was a joke. The website was like a little gold-eating beast, not making a dime yet, all investment. Any bonus would have to wait until it was fully built and stable.

"No need, no need, National Day was just a few days ago, no more holidays... Ah right, that ’big shot’ plan of yours seems pretty effective. The popularity of my past works has slowly climbed by half."

"Now’s the era of traffic. It’s not a problem if your work is mediocre; the problem is if it doesn’t get exposure. The finest wine also fears a deep alley—it’s normal."

Chen Rui was keeping up with the project and was well aware, "It would be crazy if it didn’t work. Any promotion is bound to catch fire, and your works have their selling points. Take it slow."

Qin Guanglin nodded, leaned back in his chair, and let out a sigh before suddenly laughing, "I never thought I’d become a ’big shot’ myself."

"You’d be surprised about a lot of things. I’ve been thinking about implementing a tier system: for everyone who signs with our platform, we can categorize them into levels like Platinum, Big Shot, Master, Pro, Rookie, letting the good painters gain more fame and giving new sign-ups a way to rise."

Chen Rui tapped his fingers on the desk, pondering as he spoke, "The platform’s main goal is to provide readers with a better experience. The inferior stuff has to stay in the stockroom. Studios that like winning with quantity won’t find a way through us; we’re all about quality. The higher the level, the more exposure you get. That way, users won’t have to sift through trash to find treasure, and they’ll be more willing to spend money.

When we get more paying users, the painters will be more motivated to create. That starts a virtuous cycle. If we can grow the platform, the comic industry... heh heh."

Chen Rui laughed slightly then continued, "—Then for painters with independent creativity, they just post their work on our site, we split the profits after deducting operational costs, without profiting off them. Those who are only experts in painting can be recruited to the company; we provide them with scripts and stories, then split the profits based on the situation." He nodded at Qin Guanglin, "What do you think?"

"All fanciful stuff, take your time with it. Just make sure the company doesn’t go under—that’s all that matters to me. I just paint; I can’t come up with stories, so I’m relying on you."

Qin Guanglin couldn’t care less about his grand plans, overwhelmed with current affairs, not wanting to get involved or capable of contributing to the platform issues.

He was just a painter, without the energy to fuss over multiple things unlike Chen Rui, and besides, he didn’t quite understand all that Chen Rui had said.

But he wondered, "So, comics are your lifelong career?"

Wasn’t this guy past the age of such adolescent dreams? With the time and energy he had, why not make more money to get married and have kids, instead of spending money and time on this, where most of the profit was paid out in salaries? It seemed like a thankless task.

"People need to do something meaningful in their lives. You always think about money, but you can’t take it with you to the grave, so what’s the point?" Chen Rui looked at him with disdain.

"You can leave a house for your son."

"Hey, I don’t have a son."

"..."

Chen Rui chuckled, pointing at him with his finger, "You could be enjoying a great life, but instead, you choose to suffer through marriage. You’re the one with an issue."

Qin Guanglin felt annoyed and said, "Go ask around, and see who really has the issue."

"I haven’t built my empire yet, how can I start a family? We’re not the same kind of people."

"Indeed, I don’t want to become someone like you either," Qin Guanglin snarked and then changed the subject, "What brings you here today anyway?"

"Can’t I come to my own company?" Chen Rui leaned back in his chair and pouted.

"Who said you couldn’t... If you have no business, I’ll get back to work. Idle chit-chat can delay production."

As he spoke, Qin Guanglin started to organize the files again. The company’s development was going well; now that Chen Rui had established a personnel department and was continuously recruiting, there was an ever-increasing workload, and he was getting busier by the day.

"By the way, you really need to find someone else to help me shoulder this work. If it goes on like this, I won’t be able to be the ’pro’ I am — hardly any time left for painting, just bogged down with all this mess every day."

In the middle of speaking, his actions suddenly stopped, and he looked up at Chen Rui, suspiciously remarking, "Why do I feel like this is all part of your scheming?"

"What scheming?" Chen Rui was taken aback.

"Look, you said at the start of the year you’d promote me to a director. The new year plan didn’t mention expanding the company so rapidly. Then, once we got more people, you bumped me up, and my workload increased. Now you wash your hands of it, slap your butt, and go off to work on the website, leaving me holding the fort."

Qin Guanglin pondered more and found it all too convenient, "I’m just a poor painter, and you’ve forced me into becoming this quasi-boss figure, while painting has turned into a side job — you claim it’s not intentional?"

"Ah... that... uh..." Chen Rui’s gaze wandered, "There was just no one else available at the time..."

"..."

"Besides, you’ve always been keen on earning money, right? The work you’re doing now isn’t much different from painting in that regard; you’re making money, which is what counts — you’re talented. Once this busy period is over, you’ll go back to your painting, and it won’t take long before you’re back on top."

"An ironworker must be tough first; without my work, I’m no pro," Qin Guanglin weakly rejoined, "Just find someone quickly to take some of the load off me."

Although both pursuits were about making money, painting was a testament to his personal skill; if Chen Rui screwed up the company, he could still make money elsewhere. But being preoccupied with this miscellaneous work daily and not running his own company, accumulating this kind of experience was useless to him.

At best, it might give him an edge if he ever applied for an executive position.

"Alright, alright, I’ve got it on my mind... Actually, you’re doing quite well. Even if I were in your place, I’d only perform at about your level."

Chen Rui nodded and agreed, then glanced at his wristwatch and called out, "You carry on with your work; I need to make a trip for the website backup."

"Sure, try to wrap it up quickly."

"Oh, and one more thing..."

Chen Rui reached the door and grabbed the doorknob, then turned back and asked, "Planning on buying a house by the end of the year?"

Qin Guanglin nodded, "Yeah, are you going to hand out some bonuses?"

"Always with the bonuses... When the time comes, take a look. If the shortfall isn’t too big, I can lend you a bit to cover it."

"Okay, we’ll see when it comes around."

The matter of buying a house wasn’t clear until you actually looked at properties. The type, area, size, and floor of the house hadn’t been decided yet; he could only estimate roughly.

Perhaps at the time of viewing, he might find something that perfectly fits his taste, and the price might shoot up by eighty to a hundred thousand; or maybe the ideal place would be a smaller apartment, and the price could drop by sixty to eighty thousand.

Just before leaving work, Qin Guanglin stretched languidly, checked the time, and realized it was only Thursday — he still had another day of work before he could rest.

He felt a headache coming on.

Work at the company was busy but not mentally taxing. The key issue was the painting he’d been working on at home for the past half a month which was both mentally and physically demanding — art really wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Thankfully, he was nearly finished. He’d wrap it up this week.

...

...

Four Chapters, over ten thousand words.

The lazy author is close to being dried out like a fish.