The sun set over the city's splendor.

The rising morning sun filtered through the hotel's gauze curtains, transforming into a layer of warm mist that draped over the two figures on the soft large bed like an elegant, gentle veil.

The golden sunlight cast a pinkish hue on delicate fingertips, while the fair and smooth insteps resembled polished white jade, glowing with a gentle luster.

The delicate arches of the feet were slightly red, small enough to hold in one hand, enveloped by the man's warm palm.

Following the pure white ankles upward, the cream-colored wide-leg suit pants were pushed up, revealing smooth, well-proportioned calves resting against the man's waist, cushioning on his arm.

Their even breathing resembled the faint insect chirps of a summer night, soothing and relaxed.

Until.

The first ray of sunlight, like a mischievous child, leaped over the girl's dark hair and eggshell-smooth cheek, gently brushing open the man's sleepy eyes.

Hiss——

Gu Sheng groaned softly, opening his eyes with some difficulty.

But the moment he opened them, he was startled by a lovely pink face right in front of him.

Whoa holy crap!!!

Gu Sheng was instantly wide awake!

Blinking his eyes, he couldn't process what was happening for a moment.

Right now, he and Little Nezha were sleeping face to face, fully clothed.

His left arm passed through Little Nezha's neck hollow, cushioning her neck.

While Little Nezha's left leg was straddling his waist, her foot still held in his hand.

It took a full three seconds!

Gu Sheng finally recalled yesterday's situation——

Yesterday he had a dream where he traveled back to his original world.

He was still that lonely corporate drone who had worked at FromSoftware before joining Ubisoft Chengdu Studio.

Old Lu and Da Jiang had lost contact years ago, and Moriya didn't exist at all.

More terrifyingly, in that world, Shen Miaomiao had never appeared in his life either, like two grains of sand in the vast ocean with no intersection whatsoever.

Fortunately, in his panic, Little Nezha woke him up.

He was truly frightened, holding Little Nezha silently for a long, long time, and then...

He probably fell back into deep sleep.

Thinking of this.

Gu Sheng felt somewhat embarrassed.

And a bit numb.

Oh no.

Not just a bit numb.

Very numb, almost to the point of complete numbness.

Gu Sheng tried to move his left hand that was pinned under Little Nezha's head, only to feel like half his left arm had gone offline.

However.

Just as he was debating whether amputation surgery or holding her a bit longer was more cost-effective.

Buzz buzz—

Shen Miaomiao's phone beside the pillow suddenly vibrated.

The little foot in his hand curled up, then slipped away like a little hamster.

"Ugh—yah—"

The groggy Little Nezha mumbled, turned over, and fumbled toward the pillow.

However, instead of finding her phone, she touched a somewhat cold large hand.

"Yikes!"

"Ouch!"

Screams and cries of pain sounded simultaneously.

Startled awake, Shen Miaomiao opened her round, bright eyes wide, looking at the grimacing, pained Gu Sheng beside her:

"You! Me? Oh—"

After a brief moment of confusion, Shen Miaomiao also came to her senses, smacked her lips, then revealed a row of neat little white teeth with a sly, mischievous smile, immediately grabbing Gu Sheng's numb hand while answering the phone:

"Hey, old man...."

"...Mhm, yes, we're back...."

"Smooth, pretty smooth actually... This week..."

"Let me ask Gu Sheng, we should be going over..."

"...Oh... oh... okay... I'll tell Gu Sheng then... mhm..."

While talking to Shen Wanlin on the phone, Shen Miaomiao deliberately pressed on Gu Sheng's arm, poking his hand.

Starting from the thumb, she poked and pinched, even using her two fingers like little people dancing wildly on Gu Sheng's palm.

Meanwhile, Gu Sheng behind her was sweating on his forehead, grimacing, alternately widening his eyes and twisting his mouth, his whole expression becoming abstract.

"...Mhm, okay, that's settled then, bye."

Beep.

The call ended.

Shen Miaomiao slapped a high-five with Gu Sheng's hand and sat up:

"Old Shen just called asking if we're going back this week, he wants to eat your spicy braised pig trotters."

As she spoke, Shen Miaomiao turned to look at Gu Sheng.

Right now, poor Old Gu looked pale, pointing at his left hand:

"This one...??"

Pfft—

Shen Miaomiao couldn't help laughing, lifting her foot to gently kick Gu Sheng:

"That claw of yours just looks big, not much meat, all bones, better forget about it."

"True,"

Gu Sheng 'gritted his teeth', not willing to be outdone, grabbing her little foot as she kicked:

"This little pig trotter looks pretty good though, otherwise... ow damn!"

Gu Sheng sat up, originally intending to pull Shen Miaomiao over, then lean forward with his left hand on the bed for a dramatic bed pin.

But his left hand was too numb, weak and prickling like needles.

His arm gave way, unable to support his body, and before he could finish his fierce words, he thudded face-first onto the bed, performing an epic faceplant that looked like he was kowtowing to Shen Miaomiao.

This made Shen Miaomiao burst into laughter:

"HAHAHAHA why did my minister suddenly faceplant? Rise quickly, no need for such courtesy HAHAHA..."

Hearing Little Nezha's arrogant laughter, Gu Sheng grunted in frustration, burying his face deep into the sheets like the landlord from Kung Fu Hustle with a flowerpot on his head.

After some playful roughhousing!

Both got out of bed.

Since they had slept fully clothed, there wasn't much dressing to do.

After washing up, they went downstairs to buy breakfast for Moriya and the other two, then the group ate together before returning to Binjiang.

On the way back, Shen Miaomiao asked Gu Sheng:

"So what exactly did you dream about last night? What scared you so much?"

"I..."

Gu Sheng opened his mouth, then shrugged with a smile:

"Secret, I'll tell you later."

"Hmph— so mysterious,"

Shen Miaomiao pouted:

"Did you dream about being chased by ghosts but are too embarrassed to admit you're afraid of them?"

"Scarier than ghosts,"

Gu Sheng's gaze turned to the scenery speeding past outside the high-speed train window:

"It's something I originally thought wasn't too scary, but actually turned out to be much more terrifying than I imagined... a terrifying situation..."

"So this is your explanation?"

At the same time!

In the CEO's office of CloudPower Group in the United States.

Sarah Gascony, Vice Chairwoman of Vivendi Group's board, flashed anger in her eyes, furiously interrogating Konik across from her!

"You thought the impact of selling Ubsoft wouldn't be too terrible, you thought, you assumed?!"

Sarah's brow twitched, and despite her meticulous makeup, the wrinkles on her forehead were now visible:

"So your proposal completely skipped risk assessment and prediction, just relying on your assumptions, and you had the audacity to submit it?!"

As she spoke!

Sarah's gaze fell on the reports on the table——

《Reverse Acquisition? Golden Wind Announces $80 Million Acquisition of CloudPower's Ubsoft Team!》

《Selling Off to Recoup Losses! Absolute Failure of Apex Prime Forces CloudPower to Begin Dumping Its Studios!》

《Official Announcement! Golden Wind Announces Ubsoft Studio Renamed "Melancholy Blues," Setting Sail Anew!》

《The Most Unprofitable Acquisition in History? The Most Profitable Acquisition in History? The Notorious Ubsoft Might Not Be Salvaged by a Simple Name Change》

《CloudPower's Move to Sell Its Studios Undoubtedly Shakes Market Confidence, CloudPower Stock Shows Significant Decline》

《Continuous Stock Price Drops Leave Already Overwhelmed CloudPower Looking Even More Exhausted》

《A Bloodbath Triggered by One Game! How to Restore Market Confidence and Stabilize Stock Prices Has Become CloudPower's Biggest Challenge...

(...)

Indeed!

Right after Golden Wind partnered with three streaming platforms for the major tournament, capitalizing on unprecedented brand heat, Golden Wind officially announced their acquisition of Ubsoft.

The news didn't just shock the gaming circle.

Even the tech and financial sectors were astonished!

After all!

The news of "Golden Wind and CloudPower's discord" was practically common knowledge now.

Although neither side had ever mentioned anything about acquisitions being attempted.

But as they say, walls have ears.

CloudPower's failed attempt to acquire Golden Wind, followed by stealing Golden Wind's project plan only to be counter-schemed by Golden Wind, was now well-known throughout the industry.

Everyone knew Golden Wind and CloudPower were on bad terms, even more so than Golden Wind's previous conflicts with Komera.

So logically speaking.

These two companies would absolutely not engage in any business dealings.

But!

It happened anyway.

No one wanted the trash studio CloudPower put up for sale, but Golden Wind took it!

Golden Wind announced the acquisition of Ubsoft, renaming it 【Melancholy Blues】 as their third studio!

This move undoubtedly caused huge waves.

The day the news broke, the entire industry exploded——

#2 Turkey-Flavored Chips: First! Golden Wind acquired Ubsoft! Mind blown, any experts care to analyze?

#3 Milky Pink Head: Just saw this too, has Little Yellow gone crazy? Why acquire such garbage? (Shocked)

#4 Shocked: You two's IDs... interesting...

#7 Flip Garden Commando Bull Grandpa: Key point is, isn't Ubsoft CloudPower's? Is Little Yellow... reverse acquiring???

#11 Jiang Ziya Hurts: The most fucking absurd part is CloudPower actually agreed, looks like they lost more than the rumored $600 million... (Smirk)

#16 Heroes Never Die: CloudPower really has no shame, as long as the money's right, they'll do anything huh

#17 Litang's Strongest Cloud Convert's Fierce Tiger: Konik I curse your mom, this shameless move awaits stock price drops, all I can say is well deserved

#34 Canned Cola 1: Even though they renamed it "Melancholy Blues," players aren't stupid, feels like Little Yellow's move has some spite behind it, spending $80 million for CloudPower's stock to drop?

#53 Far Ahead: Worth it! Though both sides lose money, Little Yellow spent millions to make CloudPower's assets evaporate by billions, totally worth it (Bull)

#66 Just a Six: 6

#82 Wanting Everything Will Only Harm You: Probably won't be long before Melancholy Blues gets put up for sale by Little Yellow too

#99 oi: Whatever, Little Yellow already had his fun this round...

For a time!

Spectators debated fervently, the reverse acquisition incident causing an uproar.

And just as the spectator with ID "Far Ahead" predicted, CloudPower's stock price began plummeting after Golden Wind's official announcement.

And this!

Was the direct reason Sarah specifically came to CloudPower today to confront Konik!

This time.

Konik didn't even dare sit!

Trembling as he stood before Sarah, the fat on his face quivering slightly, his mind racing.

Had he anticipated this situation?

Of course.

But he had no choice, because the failure of 《Apex Prime》 was too devastating, forcing him to quickly recoup funds to account to Vivendi.

Perhaps these eighty million were a drop in the bucket compared to 《Apex Prime》's losses.

But "having funds recouped" and "having no funds recouped" were two different concepts.

Having funds recouped at least showed you were mitigating losses, taking action, rather than sitting idle like an egg.

rather than sitting idle like an egg.

After all, Vivendi's shareholders wouldn't inspect CloudPower daily to see if they were working.

"This... this..........."

After some hemming and hawing, Konik explained:

"The board can rest assured, the current stock price drop is temporary, we have full confidence in stabilizing the market,"

"And Golden Wind taking Ubsoft is absolutely devastating news for them,"

"Ubsoft was just dead weight for us anyway, exhausted UB won't just fail to generate profit—it'll even damage the parent group's reputation,"

"After Golden Wind acquires UB, they only have two paths—"

"Either resell it, putting UB up for sale again, but then they'll definitely have to accept losses at lower prices, with no guarantee of selling,"

"Or actually treat UB as their studio and develop games, and based on their renaming move, they seem to intend exactly that,"

"If that's the case, it actually works in our favor,"

"After all, UB's reputation is what it is—whatever they release, we can ambush and cripple them,"

"Not only reclaiming lost market share, but even dealing a critical blow to Golden Wind, giving them a taste of their own medicine."

Hearing this.

Sarah fell silent for a moment.

After some thought, Konik's words did make some sense.

After all, currently, not just them, but the entire industry found Golden Wind taking on UB baffling.

Everyone asserted this was just Golden Wind's move of spiteful demonstration.

《Overwatch》 made insane profits!

Eighty million for a "reverse acquisition" against CloudPower to vent, warn them they're not to be trifled with, while also showing partners confidence, signaling they fear neither CloudPower nor Vivendi, solidifying cooperation—it all made sense logically.

But this way, the trash studio that once gave CloudPower headaches became dead weight dragging Golden Wind down.

So looking at the current situation, it seemed somewhat acceptable.

"As long as you can stabilize the stock price,"

After some thought, Sarah took a deep breath, gave another deep look at the various reports on the table, then snorted coldly at the trembling Konik:

"You'd better deliver."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com