Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

Lin Ying packed her suitcase the day after she finished her postpartum confinement.

Lin Lanying stood at her bedroom door, watching her pack documents and a change of clothes into her suitcase: "Can't you rest for a couple more days?"

"Mommy, I've been resting for a month." Lin Ying zipped up her suitcase and glanced at Zaozao, who was fast asleep in the crib. The child had been eating and sleeping all day and didn't need any attention.

"Giving birth isn't as scary as everyone says; the pain only lasts for an hour. Taking care of the baby is also simple; all she does now is cry and feel sleepy."

Lin Lanying was speechless at her words: "It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering! Who was watching over you during your postpartum period when you had to get up at night to breastfeed? Zhao Lan and I took turns watching over you! When did you ever lift a finger except when you were sleeping?"

Lin Ying readily admitted, "That's why I said it's simple."

Lin Lanying rolled her eyes and picked Zaozao up from the bed: "Fine, fine, you go ahead and do your thing; Zaozao has me and your dad, and Pusen (the Filipino maid), she won't go hungry or cold."

Wen Xu also came out carrying his bag; he had three days left on his vacation, and the two of them agreed to go back to Shenzhen first, and he would accompany Lin Ying to the factory before leaving.

Zhao Lan and Wen Guoping returned to the mainland ten days ago; the two elderly people stayed for more than a month. Before leaving, Zhao Lan held Lin Ying's hand and talked for a long time, basically telling her to call if she needed anything and to take more photos of the children and send them over.

--------

In Shenzhen, at Yingchuang Technology, He Fangqin was already waiting downstairs when the car stopped in front of the factory's administrative building.

"Boss!" He Fangqin glanced at Lin Ying's stomach first, "You've recovered so quickly, you look like you've never given birth."

Lin Ying got out of the car. "Let's go upstairs and talk."

Wen Xu followed behind, and He Fangqin greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Mr. Wen."

Wen Xu nodded: "Manager He."

He Fangqin led the two to the office on the third floor; Chen Guodong was not there, he was away on a business trip meeting with clients. When Lin Ying arrived at her office, He Fangqin arranged the important documents that had accumulated over the past two months according to priority and handed them to her one by one.

Lin Ying first flipped through two pages of financial statements; the data seemed healthy. Then she asked, "How's the software side? Is everyone here?"

He Fangqin immediately said excitedly, "We're here! Not only are we here, but I've also brought you two treasures."

Lin Ying looked up at her and said, "Speak."

He Fangqin pulled a resume from the folder and placed it on the table: "This is the head of the software team, who has been with the company for a month and a half; his name is Chen Zhiyuan, 28 years old, graduated from the Computer Science Department of the University of California, and spent three years in Silicon Valley, specializing in enterprise-level software development."

Lin Ying picked up the resume and looked at it: "Twenty-eight, American?"

"His parents are Chinese." He Fangqin waved her hand. "His whole family is Chinese, but he was born and raised in the United States and holds a passport from there."

Lin Ying looked at the resume; it was indeed impressive: a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University, and three years of experience as a research and development engineer at a corporate software company in Silicon Valley, where he led small project teams.

"Why would someone like that come back?"

He Fangqin laughed: "This kid's dad retired and wanted to return to his roots, so the whole family moved back last year; after he came back, he kept complaining that he couldn't get used to this or that food, but after three days he was completely used to it, and he even complained that there was no morning tea in America."

Lin Ying laughed: "He doesn't want to go back on his own?"

"I'm not thinking about it anymore! He said the domestic software industry is just starting out, there are many opportunities, and there's more room for development here." He Fangqin pointed to the last line of his resume, "The current annual salary offered to him is 250,000 yuan, and it will probably be even higher with bonuses."

Lin Ying nodded; a base salary of 250,000 is not low these days, but given this person's background, it's worth it.

"How's he doing? Is he capable of doing the work?"

He Fangqin gave a thumbs up: "Reliable! Since joining the company, he has been leading those recent college graduates to build frameworks, write documents, and define coding standards every day; although I don't understand technology, I can tell that he has a way of managing people, and those newbies respect him."

Lin Ying put down the resume: "Okay, this candidate is fine. Who's the other one? You just mentioned two darlings."

He Fangqin pulled out another resume from the folder, but didn't hand it over directly: "Boss, I've been waiting for you to come back and make the final decision on this person until now."

Lin Ying held out her hand: "Let me see."

He Fangqin handed over the resume, preemptively saying, "This person is Japanese."

Lin Ying took it and read it: Tanaka Masaki, 39 years old, worked for a large game company in Tokyo for 12 years, from programmer to lead programmer, and participated in the development of several console games; he resigned from the company last year and came to Shenzhen with his wife.

"Japanese?" Lin Ying looked up at He Fangqin.

He Fangqin quickly explained, "I know you may have a negative view of the Japanese, so I haven't made this decision on my own. I even showed this person's resume to the software department, and they all said that this level of game development experience is very rare in China."

Lin Ying did not immediately express her opinion, but continued reading.

Masaki Tanaka's technical skills are indeed solid; he has practical experience in console game development, PC single-player game engines, graphics rendering, and project management. The reason he resigned was very simple: his wife is Chinese and he wanted to return to China to take care of his parents.

"How much money does he want?"

He Fangqin wasn't very familiar with this industry, and seeing Lin Ying's silence, she was also unsure, so she said, "The base salary is 300,000 RMB! Boss, if you don't think it's suitable, I'll look for someone else..."

"Help! You've brought me all the people who can make games, why should I refuse?" Lin Ying continued, "Right now, if a PC game or console game becomes a hit, it can sell millions of copies; this market is huge, if we don't touch it, someone else will."

He Fangqin's heart, which had been hanging in suspense for several days, finally settled down: "Okay! I'll notify him of the interview later!"

Seeing He Fangqin's relieved expression, Lin Ying still asked, "Ms. He, you're quite capable! How did you find these two people?"

He Fangqin said with pride, "Boss, don't underestimate me. I met Chen Zhiyuan at a talent exchange meeting in Shenzhen. At that time, he was still hesitating about whether to go to a company in Guangzhou. I took him to our factory for a tour, and he came to sign the contract the next day."

"What about Tanaka's?"

"His wife works as a translator in Luohu. Once, she came to our factory to help interpret for a Japanese client. During our chat, she mentioned that her husband was idle at home and worked in game technology. When I heard 'game,' I thought to myself, 'Didn't the boss want to develop software before?' So I asked him a few more questions."

"Later, I met up with Tanaka for a chat. Since I don't understand the technology, I brought Chen Zhiyuan along. Chen Zhiyuan said he was very capable, probably because things got too hectic in Japan, with all the overtime work there! He wanted to come back here to have an easier job."

After listening, Lin Ying said, "You found the right people. I'll give you an extra month's salary as a bonus."

He Fangqin feigned modesty and said, "Boss, I was just doing my job..."

"Not many people can achieve this level of quality in their own job."

Lin Ying pondered that it was 1997, and the game industry was expanding rapidly; PC single-player games and console single-player games were the mainstream, and the global market was huge; the domestic market was almost blank, and there were very few teams that did well.

She has funds, technical personnel, and equipment... If she can assemble a game development team, even if the first product is just a trial, she can figure out how to proceed.

"Mr. He, please schedule a time with Tanaka as soon as possible. I need to have a talk with him."

"Okay, is there anything else planned?"

"What stage has Chen Zhiyuan's internal management system reached?"

He Fangqin opened her notebook and flipped through it: "He reported to me last week that the framework was complete and they were working on the database design. He said that with the current manpower and progress, the first version could be released before the end of the year."

Lin Ying knew that the internal system was the foundation, so she first got Chen Zhiyuan's team up and streamlined the processes; the game line would be planned in detail after Tanaka joined the company.

Wen Xu then asked, "Are you planning to launch two software product lines simultaneously?"

Lin Ying: "Enterprise software and games are two different fields, and the people using them are different. Chen Zhiyuan manages enterprise software, and Tanaka manages game development; they each do their own thing."

Wen Xu thought for a moment: "Game development has a long cycle and requires a large investment, so there may not be any returns in the early stages."

"I know." Lin Ying isn't the type to make decisions on a whim. "So the first project won't be a big production. We'll start with a small-scale PC single-player game to test things out. Once the team is well-integrated, we'll consider moving on to larger projects."

He Fangqin listened from the side. Although she didn't understand the specific technical details, she understood one thing: the boss was going to expand again.

"Boss, do we have enough manpower for both teams combined?"

"Let's maintain the current number of people on Chen Zhiyuan's side for now, and not rush to expand before the end of the year. I need to talk to Tanaka before making a decision. Let him figure out the situation in the country first and write a feasibility report."

Lin Ying flipped through the documents on the table and found a floor plan of the factory: "Are there any vacant rooms on the third floor of the R&D building?"

"Yes, we reserved two rooms as backup laboratories."

"Make room available for Tanaka."

He Fangqin wrote it down and left the office happily; Wen Xu watched the door close and asked Lin Ying, "When did you start thinking about making games?"

Lin Ying leaned back in her chair: "It's been a long time. If Tanaka is really capable, I can save a lot of trial and error costs."