I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

“That’s right.” The woman on the other end of the line sounded pleased that she had finally gained her understanding.

Ayane didn't mind her sister's perfunctory attitude and continued:

"Sister, if my friends are having a hard time finding a place to rent, could you... you know, let them stay with me for a couple of days? They're all girls, and they're very clean."

"no problem."

Ayane was relieved. Although she had only spent a very short time with her older sister, she knew that she had a very straightforward personality.

"By the way, when I went out this morning, I ran into the old lady next door. She asked me who I was, and I said I was her sister. She insisted on giving me a bag of dumplings, and I couldn't refuse, so I accepted them."

"Oh," the older sister said, then after a long pause, she remembered to ask, "Did you thank me?"

"Of course! I'm making dumplings right now. By the way, how do you prevent dumplings from sticking to the pan?"

This question seemed to touch on the other person's area of ​​expertise, and the older sister's words suddenly became serious:

"The main component of dumpling wrappers is starch, which is a polymer material. When starch is heated with sufficient water, it gelatinizes, absorbs water, expands, increases in volume, and becomes looser in structure. This is why dumpling wrappers are prone to breaking or sticking to the pot when cooking."

Ayane broke out in a cold sweat: "I know that..."

"Excessive temperature will cause the dumpling skin to cook too quickly, or the outermost layer of the dumpling skin to suddenly gelatinize rapidly. However, if it does not absorb enough water, the gel formed by the large molecules will be too dense and break down, making it even more difficult for heat and water to conduct inward. This will prevent the inner layer from gelatinizing further. At the same time, boiling water will cause bubbles and water flow to impact the dumplings, which can easily cause the dumpling skin to break."

"And then?" Ayane continued to ask.

At this point, the pot was already sizzling.

"The solution is to add cold water to the pot," the older sister finally said.

Ayane poured a ladle of cold water into the pot with a "whoosh," and immediately a plume of white smoke shot into the sky, obscuring the sun, like a white crane circling in the air, endlessly.

My sister continued, "When cold water comes into contact with the dumpling skin, it stimulates the skin to form a dense, high-molecular-weight structure on the outer layer of the flour. This protects the dumpling skin from the liquefaction of water, making it more elastic..."

While her older sister was rambling on, Ayane said, "Uh, sis, I don't know anything about strength or dense structure, but right now my pot is full of black water."

"Black water? What black water?" On the other end of the phone, Ayane could hear her sister frowning. "Why would it turn into black water? Could it be... that you overcooked the dumplings? Impossible, if there was water in the pot, it would just boil, far from reaching the level required to carbonize dumplings..."

"Huh? Is there water? Wasn't the water just added?" Ayane asked awkwardly.

There was a long silence on the other end, before the question was asked:

Did you not add water when you boiled the dumplings?

Ayane broke out in a cold sweat: "Um... do you need me to turn on the toilet?"

"Of course, the word 'boil' means to heat food using the thermal conduction effect of water."

"Oh, I was a little unclear about the definition of 'cooking' before..."

"..."

"..."

After a long silence, Ayane couldn't help but ask, "Is this still edible?"

"No," the other party replied decisively.

Ayane wanted to cry but had no tears.

The dumpling wrappers and filling were both ruined along with the pot, and the smell was extremely unpleasant.

She really wanted to throw the pot of burnt dumplings out with the pot, but the old lady next door would definitely be unhappy if she saw it, so she had no idea what to do with the mess.

"Sis, um, I've never lived independently before," Ayane whispered, "Could you...?"

The other person decisively replied, "Let your mother take care of you."

“She’s not coming. You know what kind of person she is,” Ayane pouted. “She has to take care of her father, and he plays cards at home every day, so she’s not coming to the capital.”

After hesitating for a while, she finally revealed her true intentions: "Could you come and live with me?"

"No."

I was decisively rejected.

Ayane said with tears in her eyes, "I stepped on a sticky mouse trap and I haven't taken it off yet. Can't you really help your poor little sister?"

My sister's voice came through the phone, sounding like she was talking to someone else. I couldn't tell who she was asking:

"Can I live in your house for the rest of my life?"

A male voice could be faintly heard on the phone: "Is this your way of confessing your feelings?"

Is it possible?

"...Then I'll have to calculate the rent."

Listening to the tacit understanding between them, Ayane puffed out her cheeks.

I thought my sister was a bit of a ditz, but I never imagined she'd already hooked up with a guy!

No, maybe this stranger isn't a stranger at all, but a local from Beijing.

They own seven or eight buildings and just sit there collecting rent, doing nothing but spending their days in love.

Damn it... I, Lu Keke, also want to live a life of leisure!

Ayane tried to get the black water out of the pot, and thought to herself.

……

Ge Dongzhen returned to the pearl factory and told his superiors about the situation. The leaders' evaluation was neither happy nor sad.

Ge Dongzhen was the middle-aged man with gray hair who went to Beichen Company for inspection. He only found out that Gu Yuqing, the young lady of the Gu family, was involved in the company after he went there.

Surprisingly, even the leaders didn't know, so this news became the biggest gain from the trip.

"I don't know how the Gu family is so lucky. They always manage to find some unicorn projects and even get a head start," Ge Dongzhen said with a smile.

Upon hearing his words, the leader laughed and said, "A unicorn? No, no, no. It doesn't have to be a unicorn; we'll have to make it first."

I was referring to potential.

"From what you've said about their gameplay and pricing model, I can't imagine how much potential they have," the leader said, shaking his head vigorously.

Ge Dongzhen smiled but said nothing.

The man in front of me is the head of the game department at Zhuchang. He knows what I know, and he must have something to say.

The leader sat down, slowly lit a cigar, and after a long pause, said:

"First, let me answer your first question: why can the Gu family always find so many projects? It's because they have Gaoshan Capital, and Gu Yuqing is the acting head of Gaoshan Capital."

"Oh!" Ge Dongzhen then remembered this.

"Besides," the leader said, puffing on a cigarette, "their ideas are good, but they're too naive; they haven't figured out the return on investment."

"Oh?" Ge Dongzhen adopted a posture of being willing to hear more details.

"How difficult do you think it is to create an open world in a mobile game?"

Faced with this question, Ge Dongzhen, who does not have a background in game development, couldn't quite answer it.

But his intuition told him that it would definitely be difficult.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be only one "open world" game that can be played on mobile phones right now, and besides, this game is only "open," not really a "world."

"The hardest part is the process," the leader revealed the answer. "You can't plan the player's flow. What do you do if players don't follow the instructions? How do you charge? How do you control the player's playtime?"

Ge Dongzhen nodded modestly.

"The best approach for this kind of game is to make it a subscription-based game, or a buy-to-play model with in-app purchases," the leader added. "Take The Elder Scrolls series, for example; it has been in development for an online game for a long time."

Ge Dongzhen quickly asked, "Can we secure the domestic distribution rights for 'The Scrolls'?"

"It's difficult." The leader shook his head. "The main problem is censorship. Even the original version of their game couldn't pass censorship in China."

Ge Dongzhen nodded, feeling both regretful and relieved.

If games of this quality were allowed into the market, the domestic market would become even more competitive.

"But an open world is indeed a good idea," the leader said. "How's their project progressing?"

Ge Dongzhen didn't know the progress, so he could only give a vague answer: "They expect it to be launched within the year."

"Oh, then it must be almost done." The leader was surprised. "It's unlikely that we can start following up now."

Ge Dongzhen tentatively asked, "How about we proceed cautiously, waiting for him to come out and assess the situation before taking any further action?"

The leader waved his hand: "A trend can change very quickly. You have to eat the buns while they're hot, or it will be too late."

“Then we could also find a competitor to invest in,” Ge Dongzhen said.

The leader looked up: "Is there?"

“There really is one.” Ge Dongzhen took out another project proposal from his bag. “This is Donghuang Qixing’s new project. It’s also an open world project. The team is more mature and experienced than this one.”

The leader was somewhat surprised. He picked up the proposal and looked it over, then examined Ge Dongzhen with great interest: "Did you go and find out about this on the side?"

“Yes. They’re also working on open-world projects, so I went to check them out as well,” Ge Dongzhen said. “They’re interested in accepting investment.”

The leader was immediately pleased.

This is why Ge Dongzhen was promoted so quickly.

He always has a backup plan, and he can consider Plan B in advance.

The leader carefully reviewed Donghuang Qixing's business plan and suddenly frowned.

"How come Takasugi Capital also invested in this project?"

Ge Dongzhen was taken aback and quickly asked, "Where?"

The leader tossed him the proposal and frowned, beginning to think.

Ge Dongzhen had only heard of the Gu family's influence, but didn't know much about the details.

He only knew that Gaoshan Capital had invested in the Donghuang Qixing open-world project. At the time, he hadn't figured out the relationship between the Gu family and Gaoshan Capital, so he wasn't very sensitive to this relationship.

"So..." Ge Dongzhen exclaimed in surprise, "The Gu family is hedging their bets?"

The leader thought for a moment, shook his head, and then suddenly nodded.

"Okay, I understand." The leader slapped the table. "From today onwards, we will do everything we can to secure the Donghuang Qixing project, and ideally, we should get a share that carries weight."

……

Chapter 359 If we could persuade Jiang Xinhai...

After being told she had a tendency to develop flat feet when she massaged Chen Ya Mao's feet in the office last time, Gu Yuqing had been feeling uneasy ever since.

The next day, she went to her usual spa and ordered a foot treatment.

She was shocked to discover how many foot care services there are.

She considers herself to take good care of her feet, at least like a lady, such as regularly trimming her nails, removing cuticles, and applying nail polish.

As a result, this foot care program had a total of twelve items, including not only the ones she usually did, but also rose cleansing, beauty steaming, and anti-wrinkle essence...

They wrapped it in plastic wrap and steamed it, then used various tools to remove the keratin layer, and finally used something like sandpaper to polish it.

After completing a full set of food-grade processes, the freshly baked feet are fragrant, white, and tender, just like ice cream. Even Chen Ya next door was drooling with envy.

The technician who performed the treatment told her that wearing high heels too often can indeed lead to flat feet, and collapsed arches can cause various poor posture.

This is unacceptable to Gu Yuqing, who demands perfection from herself.

So as soon as she got home, she huddled on her phone browsing Taobao, looking for a pair of sneakers with good foot support...

And more than thirty matching outfits.

For most people, shopping can be quite a drain on their energy.

You need to compare cost-effectiveness, combine orders, and assess the merchant's reputation.

But it's different for Gu Yuqing.

If you see something you like, just buy it and take it home.

If you don't like it, ask the maid to help you return it.

It's not that she's short of money for those few pieces of clothing.

She simply doesn't like having things she doesn't like in the closet.

Gu Yuqing wouldn't expend a lot of energy forwarding the clothes she liked to Chen Ya and asking questions like, "Which one do you think looks better?"