After hearing Su Wei out, Su Xiu felt the pressure on him grow even heavier. Then it hit him. Wasn’t this how a lot of big companies operated?

There was a classic saying in business: all the most profitable deals are written into the criminal code.

Infringement might not rise to that level, but if the profit was big enough, they’d gladly take the risk.

As for reputation, what major company didn’t have a mountain of dirt on it? At that point, one more scandal didn’t even itch.

Very soon, Su Wei had finance transfer fifty million Huaxia yuan over. After getting the money, Su Xiu didn’t rush to launch the app. Instead, he called in his team and started planning promotional events.

At the same time, he also brought in the influencers Su Wei had told him to find. They were all his type. Big chest, long legs, slim waist. As for the face... that could be edited. Everything could be edited.

He also found a few unknown singers and successfully signed them. Then he hired several production teams, bought the rights to a few songs from overseas, “localized” them into Chinese songs, had the singers practice them, and let post-production handle the tuning.

The moment the app launched, they’d start uploading. Then operations would push them hard. At the very least, a seven-day featured slot was guaranteed.

And just like that, under countless watching eyes, Jiucang’s Huaxia branch released its first app—Qinge.

The moment it went live, ads for the Qinge app flooded Weibo, WeChat, and every major social platform. Even subway stations were plastered with them.

Especially that message: “The top ten will split ten million.”

That drove countless talented people crazy.

After all, all they had to do was film a fifteen-second video and upload it. If they actually won, that was instant riches overnight.

Almost everyone was thinking that way. In just one day, submissions on the Qinge app hit thirty thousand.

It was a terrifying, almost despair-inducing number.

Su Xiu’s editorial and review departments combined only had twenty people.

20 to 30,000.

At that rate, when the hell were they supposed to finish reviewing everything?

To speed things up, a lot of videos got only a quick glance before being approved.

There were definitely people padding things out with junk. Some videos were even outright illegal. Those could only be dealt with through user reports and bans.

Luckily, the Su family had strong backing. Otherwise, this newly launched app might’ve been shut down already.

Su Xiu also sped things up. The review staff jumped from a little over ten people to fifty, and the number was still rising.

That put enormous pressure on his company right after the product officially launched.

But Su Xiu’s decision was clearly the right one.

With efforts from Su Xiu and his partners on every front, the app’s user base quickly broke three hundred thousand, with over sixty thousand active users.

That meant one out of every five downloads had been retained.

And this was with the app still having relatively little content in the short term.

Meanwhile, the influencers and unknown singers Su Xiu had signed earlier also started blowing up on the platform.

Overall, everything was moving in a good direction.

But right then, someone suddenly told Su Xiu something.

“We got word that several major domestic internet companies have already started copying our app.”

Su Xiu’s expression changed. He sat in his chair in silence for a long time. Then he got up and went outside to make a call.

Not to Su Wei.

To his grandfather.

A few minutes later, he came back.

“One month. We only have one month. During this next month, no second short-video app will launch domestically. But after that, I won’t be able to do anything.”

“Holy shit, Su Xiu’s a beast!”

“Cut it out.”

Su Xiu gave a bitter smile.

“Hurry up and make the most of this month. Once it’s over, we’ll be arm-wrestling several companies worth hundreds of billions.”

“Then let’s work!”

For that whole month, the entire company was fired up.

And on the other side of the ocean, the short-video app from the Great Britain branch officially launched as well.

This time, Su Wei came in person and specifically called Li Keqin over.

“This is the planning proposal for the Huaxia branch’s app, along with all the data trend charts.”

Li Keqin nodded and took the proposal, flipping through it carefully.

“You’ll be fully in charge of this app. It’s time to show what you can do. As for promotional funding, the company can give you thirty million Zhou yuan. Resources from every department will also support you.”

“Understood, Chairwoman. I’ll definitely complete the task!”

“Mhm. Don’t disappoint me.”

Su Wei patted Li Keqin on the shoulder and left.

After this period of growth, the company now had close to a hundred employees of all levels. A company of a hundred people meant every kind of benefit package cost money.

Relying only on that Tianyancha bug-finding app was enough for now, sure, but it still felt unreliable.

If they were only going to depend on that one app, then what was the point of keeping so many people around? Watching them loaf around all day made Su Wei irritated.

Li Keqin took a deep breath.

This project was tied directly to her future.

She knew this app would absolutely blow up. It would absolutely make money.

If it crashed in her hands, she’d definitely be fired, and she’d probably be done in the industry too.

Su Wei, however, was unusually calm this time.

Things were moving faster on the Huaxia side, and development there was going extremely smoothly. Millions of new users were joining every day now. Quite a few companies had already proposed investing.

Su Xiu had mentioned it to Su Wei before, but she never gave a clear stance. She only said that this company belonged to Su Xiu, so any financing decisions were up to him.

After struggling with it for a while, Su Xiu ultimately decided to hold off and wait.

After all, the company was already profitable. It still hadn’t filled the fifty-million hole from Su Wei’s money, but it could at least sustain its own profits and losses.

And ad prices were still climbing. They’d already risen to two hundred thousand per ad.

Just when both companies were busy to the point of losing their minds, Su Wei and Zhou Xi—the chairwoman and director—actually ran off to Australia.

On a private beach in Australia, Su Wei, Zhou Xi, and several maids walked out of a seaside villa.

Zhou Xi stayed right behind Su Wei the whole time, chattering nonstop.

“Su Wei, let me help you put on sunscreen!”

“I can do it myself.”

“Do what yourself? You can’t reach your back and stuff. Let me help!”

“No! I feel like you’re up to something.”

Su Wei seriously suspected that Zhou Xi had some improper designs on her, but she had no way to verify it.

Come to think of it, Wu Shanshan gave her the same feeling too... emmmm, so weird.

“How could that be! What designs could I possibly have!”

If this had been before, Zhou Xi definitely would’ve looked a little flustered.

But after knowing Su Wei for so long, Zhou Xi had already realized that Su Wei was incredibly slow on certain fronts.

So she’d started getting a little more and more unrestrained.