“Oh?”

Su Wei took out her phone and opened the Grand Zhou Royal Bank app. The balance should’ve been zero, but it had somehow become 13,780,000. Thirteen million seven hundred eighty thousand! In Zhou yuan, no less! Converted to Huaxia currency, that was over a hundred million. Su Wei hadn’t expected her dream of becoming a billionaire to come true this fast.

“H-How... is there this much money?”

“Hahahaha... shocked, huh?”

Zhou Xi was clearly very pleased with Su Wei’s reaction. She even looked like she was waiting for praise. “I managed things so well for you. Shouldn’t you reward me a little?”

“Then I’ll treat you to dinner tonight? Buy you something?”

“Tch, no thanks.”

“Then what do you want?”

“A kiss...”

“Go play somewhere else.”

Su Wei kept refreshing the page again and again, unable to believe it. “How is there so much money? Even robbery wouldn’t be this fast, right? Our software’s only been online for a little over ten days. How could it possibly make this much?”

“Let me explain our business model.”

As Zhou Xi drove, she began explaining it bit by bit. Zhou Xi herself didn’t know much about business, but she had a whole team of business elites under her.

It turned out that after Zhou Xi sent Su Wei’s software to those elites, they tested it several times. Then they were shocked to find that its bug-checking functions were powerful enough to crush every so-called bug detection tool on the market. But the software also had some flaws. The interface was too plain, the functions were too limited, and the operation flow wasn’t simple enough.

After packaging the product, those elites also upgraded it. If the software found a bug and you couldn’t fix it yourself, you could ask for help through the backend. They would provide opinions and suggestions for free. Once all that was done, the software was launched across major websites. The pricing was also tiered. For software under 300MB, one bug scan cost 3,000 Zhou yuan. From 300MB to 1GB, it was 10,000 Zhou yuan. From 1GB to 3GB, 50,000 Zhou yuan. From 3GB to 10GB, 100,000 Zhou yuan. Above 10GB, each additional 1GB added another 10,000 Zhou yuan.

“Mhm...”

Su Wei nodded repeatedly. It made sense. If a few-hundred-megabyte program and a several-gigabyte program cost the same, small developers would feel cheated. Over time, they’d leave. Or they wouldn’t even try it in the first place. After all, the software’s main user base was small teams making their own games.

“At the same time, I also secured a partnership with the Grand Zhou Federal Empire.”

“Huh?”

Su Wei was dumbfounded. “A partnership with who?”

“The Grand Zhou Federal Empire.”

“I... what kind of partnership do we even have with the Federal Empire?”

“The Grand Zhou Federal Empire recently launched a support program for emerging internet industries. Our software counts as one of the benefits under that program. Some new software projects, after passing review, can not only receive support funding, but also get two free uses of our software. Of course, it’s only free for them. We still get paid on our end. It’s just at a fifty percent discount.”

After saying that, Zhou Xi turned and smiled at Su Wei. “You’re not going to blame me for making the decision on my own, are you?”

“I...”

Su Wei instantly got excited and threw her arms around Zhou Xi, planting a hard kiss on her. “You’re way too amazing, aren’t you? You pulled that off too? Forget fifty percent off—even at ten percent, we’d still be making a killing! This is basically money rolling in while we sit still! This is the entire Grand Zhou Federal Empire. How many individuals and companies are there? Oh my god.”

Zhou Xi raised a hand and gently touched the spot Su Wei had kissed. Her little face flushed slightly. Her blood pressure shot up in an instant, and even her vision blurred a little. The car on the road started swerving like it was drawing a dragon, scaring Su Wei into grabbing the steering wheel at once.

“You’re driving! Watch it!”

As if it wasn’t because you suddenly kissed me...

That was what Zhou Xi thought, but she didn’t dare say it out loud. She was afraid that if Su Wei heard that, she’d never bring it up again. “Relax, there’s no car behind us. So? I’m amazing, right? You should start thinking about how to thank me.”

“I really do have some good news to tell you.”

So Su Wei told Zhou Xi about Su Xiu’s idea for short videos. After hearing it, Zhou Xi nodded first. She did think short videos would be a future trend. But she couldn’t agree with Su Wei’s promotion plan.

“You said we should find some influencers and stuff. Isn’t that a little too tacky? Wouldn’t that create a bad image?”

“Whether it’s tacky or not depends on how it’s reviewed, doesn’t it? As long as we strengthen the review system, it’ll be fine. And you don’t need to worry about the government refusing. The government can join our platform too and post promotional videos. We can give some recommendation slots to government agencies and promote positive values.”

“Mhm...”

Zhou Xi nodded after hearing that, but still didn’t state her position. This short video app wasn’t like the bug-checking software Su Wei had made. A short video platform could easily end up in scandals and leave stains behind. When that happened, it wouldn’t just affect Zhou Xi. Su Wei might get dragged into it too.

Seeing that Zhou Xi still wouldn’t say yes, Su Wei got a little anxious. “Xiao Xi, short video is definitely going to be a trend. If we don’t do it, someone else definitely will. Instead of handing this money-making business to someone else, why not do it first? My little brother is just getting started in Huaxia right now. Once he builds up some scale, there’ll definitely be tons of copycats inside and outside Huaxia. By then, it’ll be too late.”

Zhou Xi turned the wheel, pulled into a service area, parked, and opened the trunk. She took out two drinks from the mini fridge inside. “Weiwei, your idea is good. I also think this app could definitely make money if it succeeds. But there’s something I want to discuss with you. I don’t know if you’d agree. Look, we’ve already made quite a bit of money. Why don’t we start a company? As for shares, you take sixty, I take twenty, and Grand Zhou Royal Bank takes twenty.”

“Royal Bank?”

Su Wei froze for a moment. “Why would it invest money? And why would it take your shares?”

Zhou Xi picked up her drink and took a big gulp. Then she looked at Su Wei with a half-smile. “If you’re eating the meat, you’ve got to let others have some soup. With Grand Zhou Royal backing us, all those lurking monsters and shady forces won’t dare mess with us. Think of it as paying to avoid trouble.”

Su Wei fell silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. She understood too. Grand Zhou Royal Bank buying in was definitely a good thing. Just like how their software had been included in the Federal Empire’s support program benefits, if Grand Zhou Royal Bank became a shareholder, good things like that would only keep increasing. Besides, an investment bank wasn’t the same as venture capital. Investment banks usually only invested in listed companies. For one to invest in their still-unformed little company, Zhou Xi must have put in a huge amount of effort.

“I don’t have any objections to that, but those shares can’t come out of yours. How about this—you get forty, I get forty, and Grand Zhou Bank gets twenty.”

“Alright.”

Zhou Xi smiled and nodded. Then she raised her drink. “To Weiwei becoming the richest person in the world one day!”

“No, no, I don’t want to be the richest.”

Su Wei laughed too. “Let’s set a small goal first. Like making a hundred million!”

“Alright, a hundred million!”

This time, Su Wei’s hundred million meant Zhou yuan. But in front of her now, that goal really did seem like a small one.

“As for that short video app you mentioned, we can do it. But you can’t do it, and I can’t do it either. After we set up the company, we’ll create a subsidiary and let that team handle it. In the future, any software or business that might end up controversial, ambiguous, or stained goes into that company. What do you think?”

“Sure, we’ll do it your way.”

Even though Su Wei felt Zhou Xi was making a bit too much of it, these were minor details anyway. They didn’t really matter.