Chapter 168 Why Me

A few days before Lu Zhou’s scheduled meeting with Xu Junze, he first arranged to meet with Qi Jiajia.

The two hadn't seen each other since their joint promotional shoot for the brand Bubo Lai.

When Qi Jiajia received the phone call from Lu Zhou, she was quite surprised.

Although they had agreed to remain friends and keep in touch when they had time, everyone knew that once people drifted apart in daily life, maintaining regular contact was practically impossible.

With fewer shared aspects in life, common topics inevitably dwindled. What was there to chat about regularly? It simply wasn't realistic.

How many of those close friends from primary school, high school, or university days could still manage to keep in touch nowadays?

Even former brothers-in-arms usually ended up like that.

Let alone expecting such regular contact with a transient acquaintance made briefly through a reality show.

Therefore, Qi Jiajia had simply assumed Lu Zhou’s words back then were just polite pleasantries.

Even though Lu Zhou had told her during their last meeting that she could come to him if she decided to start her own business, she ultimately hadn't reached out.

Different circles, no need to force one's way in.

Presently, Qi Jiajia had resigned from her job.

Lu Zhou’s initiative to contact her was indeed unexpected.

They agreed on dinner, choosing an upscale restaurant with good privacy this time, and the location was picked by Lu Zhou.

"An idol suddenly asking me out for dinner makes me feel quite flattered," Qi Jiajia joked the moment she saw Lu Zhou.

"When did I become your idol?" Once they entered the private dining room, Lu Zhou politely pulled out the heavy wooden dining chair for her.

Qi Jiajia sat down unceremoniously and thanked him.

"I am utterly defenseless against talented male celebrities. Perhaps back on the show, you unknowingly gained a fan in me."

Lu Zhou smiled faintly at those words. "You certainly know how to be supportive. Is this kind of eloquence a required practice for simultaneous interpreters?"

"Believe it or not, I can now be considered your hardcore fan. When I'm bored, I usually hang out in your major fan sites to browse your edited stage performances," Qi Jiajia chuckled.

"Is that so? Then what are you a fan of? My career? My looks?" Lu Zhou picked up on her thread to continue the conversation.

"Haha, career mostly, I suppose. If you wanted me to simp purely for looks, you'd have to be drop-dead handsome beyond earthly description," Qi Jiajia laughed heartily.

"What's the fun in being a career fan? It's much more interesting to be a business partner," Lu Zhou said, handing her the menu with a smile.

Qi Jiajia froze. Huh? A business partner?

Lu Zhou flicked the menu slightly and said, "Let's order some food first."

Only then did Qi Jiajia snap back to reality. She took the menu he handed over and picked two dishes she hadn't tried before.

"You mentioned resigning last time. Have you quit now?" Lu Zhou asked.

Qi Jiajia nodded. "Yes, just left."

Lu Zhou: "What are your plans next?"

Qi Jiajia looked at Lu Zhou with growing interest for a moment, then smiled. "You seem very interested in my career development. Why?"

Lu Zhou didn't beat around the bush. "I want to try being business partners with you. Wondering if you might be interested?"

"What kind of business partners?"

Qi Jiajia couldn't quite figure it out. She had always harbored deep doubts about the cooperation intent Lu Zhou had previously hinted at.

"The circles we run in are completely different. I don't seem to have anything I can help you with, nor do you seem able to help me in the fields I specialize in."

"Let me guess..."

Qi Jiajia picked up her teacup, took a small sip, and furrowed her brow in thought.

"You wouldn't happen to want to break into the international market, but your language skills are holding you back, so you want me to join your behind-the-scenes team to help you conquer overseas markets?"

The reason Qi Jiajia made this guess was because she had recently noticed Lu Zhou’s movements in the entertainment industry—he had a musical work collaborating with a US film.

With that, she chuckled softly and gave a slight shrug.

"Sorry, though, I'm actually not very interested in that kind of career direction."

"I left a top-tier foreign enterprise for the sake of freedom, not to find a new identity as a wage earner."

Qi Jiajia made her own assumption and then offered her conclusion.

Lu Zhou listened quietly to the end, a smile lingering at the corners of his mouth. When she finished, he nodded and said, "I know. You mentioned this pursuit of yours when we met last time."

He smiled faintly and said, "You guessed wrong."

Qi Jiajia looked stunned. Wrong?

"Then I honestly can't think of how the two of us could possibly be partners in work," she said.

Lu Zhou smiled and said unhurriedly, "How about I try guessing your plans instead?"

Qi Jiajia raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued. "I'm all ears."

"Your translation skills are exceptionally strong, and you've accumulated plenty of experience and client resources from your previous company. Coupled with your desire for freedom, your current online popularity is also quite considerable."

"I'm guessing that after resigning, you plan to start your own studio or company and build your own professional translation team."

Lu Zhou brought up memories from his past life.

Qi Jiajia was slightly startled, but upon second thought, she figured it wasn't that hard to guess.

"That is indeed my current idea," she didn't deny it.

"So, why would you cooperate with me? Could it be that you're interested in the field I want to pursue? Want to invest?"

"The translation market is quite mature now, and the slice of the pie I can carve out on my own right now isn't very big. I'm merely pursuing self-actualization. You want to take a bite out of such a small pie too? If I were you, I'd suggest releasing a few more songs instead; that would be much more practical."

Following his line of thought, Qi Jiajia became even more confused, still failing to understand what kind of cooperation Lu Zhou had in mind with her.

"Indeed," Lu Zhou smiled and said, "The entrepreneurial project you're currently eyeing has a market that's too mature—it's already a red ocean. Since you know that yourself, are you still going to plunge forward?"

If Lu Zhou remembered correctly, in the past life he had experienced, Qi Jiajia had indeed embarked on the exact startup project they were discussing now.

She poured massive amounts of human, material, and financial resources into doing this thing she loved. After bustling about for many years, she was ultimately defeated by the market and exited in disarray.

At that time, she hadn't completely given up when encountering setbacks; she began leading her small team to transform, leveraging online traffic to start online English education and even opening an institution.

But the situation later turned unfavorable, and she couldn't compete with the giants, getting eliminated once again.

The team disbanded, and the company applied for bankruptcy.

During those years obsessed with entrepreneurship, she didn't date, didn't marry, and devoted herself wholeheartedly to her career, yet failed to achieve the success she desired.

In her thirties, she suddenly grew weary of a life busy with career pursuits and wanted to return to the peaceful days of family life. In the end, she married a divorced man with a relatively decent financial background.

The man was neither handsome nor in good shape, falling far short of her dating standards in her twenties.

As for whether she lived happily afterwards, Lu Zhou didn't know at the time, and it had nothing to do with him. After all, back then, he felt he was the most unhappy person in the world.

"Even in a red ocean, there are people who can make it work. I want to try. Besides, I'm starting a business for no other reason than the pursuit of self-actualization."

Listening to Lu Zhou's words, Qi Jiajia expressed her determination with a firm expression.

"Do you have the confidence that you are the one who can carve a path out of the red ocean?" Lu Zhou countered.

The door to the private room was knocked on, and a waiter came in to serve the dishes.

The two fell into a brief silence.

After the waiter retreated, Qi Jiajia spoke up with a somewhat uneasy expression to answer Lu Zhou's previous question:

"I'm not sure."

Yes, her confidence wasn't overwhelming.

What lay ahead on the road, she didn't know; she could only cross the river by feeling the stones.

Yet once she decided to do something, she would undoubtedly give it her all.

She only needed to know that much, and it was enough.

Lu Zhou smiled lightly and took the lead with his chopsticks, signaling Qi Jiajia to eat and talk.

"There isn't only one way to pursue self-actualization."

Swallowing the food in his mouth, he continued the previous topic.

"If there were another entrepreneurial direction that allowed you to be a boss leading a team while also not letting go of the profession you love, and if successful, you'd end up with both the freedom and the so-called self-actualization you desire—though the premise is cooperating with me, would you be interested?"

Lu Zhou asked with a straight face.

Qi Jiajia paused her eating motion. She widened her eyes slightly, taking a moment to digest it before asking, "What project?"

Lu Zhou handed the document bag he had brought over to Qi Jiajia.

Qi Jiajia took it curiously. No longer caring about eating, she immediately took out the documents and began reading them carefully.

"Cultural exports—this is what I want to do."

Lu Zhou dropped a hint while eating, leaving Qi Jiajia to understand the entire project through the contents of the documents.

Qi Jiajia finished reading the entire project file in the shortest time possible. Upon finishing, she felt a slight surge of excitement.

"I can definitely do this, but... have you researched the overseas market for this project?"

She still held some doubts in her heart regarding the project's feasibility.

"If you confirm your cooperation, I'll show you the overseas market research data I had someone compile."

Lu Zhou stopped using his chopsticks; he was currently watching his diet and wouldn't eat a massive amount at once.

"I've already set my sights on a small yet refined internet company. It has some internal management issues and is on the verge of bankruptcy. I'm planning to acquire it."

Qi Jiajia almost choked, looking at him with an indescribable expression.

"On the verge of bankruptcy—doesn't that just prove the company is doing poorly? Aren't you afraid of being stuck with a sinking ship if you acquire it?"

Lu Zhou, however, remained unconcerned.

"What I've set my sights on isn't the company itself, but the website's existing library of works, which can serve as our initial content library for going overseas."

"As for the original team, we can lay off the incompetent ones, then poach one or two capable editors from major platforms to take the lead, and subsequently gather a strong team of authors. The embryonic form of the production team will thus be created."

"If you cooperate with us in good faith, this content-going-abroad project will be entirely under your charge, and you can freely build your translation team."

"This is actually quite similar to you starting your own translation company on your own, but if you do it alone, you'd need to find clients with translation needs yourself—and that very step trips up many people."

"If you start a business by cooperating with us, you won't have to worry about the source of business demand in translation. You only need to worry about your team management and deeply cultivating the quality of your translation services."

"Rest assured, this market won't be small. With copyright, we can also branch into audiobooks, comics, and videos. If your translated works receive good feedback in the overseas market when the time comes, we can roll out audio and short videos as well."

"Earlier on the show, I discovered your English dubbing ability is formidable, and simultaneous interpretation is your specialty. Your comprehensive skills can all be put to good use when the content industry chain goes overseas."

"If you were to struggle alone starting some translation company, you would actually just be limiting yourself."

"Joining us will give you a bigger stage. That is true self-actualization."

"Additionally, I also plan to link it up domestically to form an industry chain. Of course, the planning for this part can be discussed in detail later."

"Anyway, I'm responsible for the investment; I'll figure out how to solve the capital part. You just take charge of managing the company, lead the team to venture out into the world, and achieve brilliant results. How about it? Want to cooperate?"

Lu Zhou laid out his plan step by step, setting Qi Jiajia's heart ablaze with passion.

After Lu Zhou's analysis, indeed, this project was extremely attractive to her—much more alluring than her own unimaginative idea.

To be honest, after listening to Lu Zhou, Qi Jiajia was already tempted.

Yet at this moment, she suddenly felt a sense of unreality.

"I have a question," she said after a long silence of contemplation.

"Go ahead."

"Why did you choose me to cooperate with you? There are many translators on the market who are even more outstanding than me and have richer management experience. They would obviously be much more suitable for this startup project of yours. Why didn't you look for those more reliable people? Why choose me instead?"

"I only know one translator. I feel your professional competence is quite high, and furthermore, since we're familiar with each other, I also feel you are a trustworthy person. As for the others, they are strangers to me. Even if they were more suitable, I'd need to spend time getting to know them, and I don't have that much time."

Qi Jiajia furrowed her brow in confusion. "You don't have that much time? Is this project very urgent?"

"Not particularly urgent, but I have a habit: once I've decided on something, I don't like dragging it out."

Lu Zhou didn't answer her directly.

Actually, he just wanted to make the most of the people around him to cooperate and create maximum benefits, and incidentally, if he could also change their lives for the better, why not?

Yet all of this was something he could only digest quietly by himself.

"Thank you for your trust in me." Qi Jiajia was quite moved internally.

"You can go back, think it over carefully, and give me an answer. Three days should be enough, right?" Lu Zhou smiled.

"You really are impatient, aren't you?"

Hearing "three days," Qi Jiajia couldn't help but chuckle.

"Seeing you take things slow and steady on the show before, I thought you were the slow-paced type. I didn't expect such a contrast."

Lu Zhou smiled. "A week, then?"

"Haha, no need. Just three days. I'll give you my answer after three days," Qi Jiajia said.

Lu Zhou nodded, his gaze falling onto the dining table as he said, "Eat your food; it's getting cold."

The two of them enjoyed a dinner filled with laughter and chatter. Nearing the end, Lu Zhou received a call from Pan Chengyi stating that something had come up requiring him to return to the company temporarily.

"Can I tag along to visit your company?" Qi Jiajia asked on a whim upon hearing he was heading back to his office.

"Sure," Lu Zhou agreed.

He knew she probably wanted to scope things out.

"You agreed so readily? You really trust me that much? Aren't you afraid I'll steal your secrets?" Qi Jiajia joked.

Lu Zhou laughed. "If corporate secrets could be stolen just from a single visit, then you'd truly be wasting your talents if you didn't become a spy."

Qi Jiajia: "Haha!"

And just like that, Qi Jiajia followed Lu Zhou to Legend Entertainment.

It was already nighttime. Some team members were still working overtime, but most had basically left.

Linda was still holding down the fort at her workstation. Seeing Lu Zhou walk into the company with Qi Jiajia in tow, she was struck dumb with shock, her imagination instantly running wild.

What on earth?!

It wasn't Ye Fangfei, nor was it Li Jiayan, but Qi Jiajia?!

Her boss was actually secretly together with Qi Jiajia?!

Wow, wow, wow! The boss's preferences were truly impossible to predict!

Catching the bizarre look Linda was giving them, Lu Zhou immediately knew what was cooking in her mind.

"My assistant, Linda," Lu Zhou proactively introduced Linda to Qi Jiajia, then looked at Linda, giving her an indescribable look.

Qi Jiajia stepped forward warmly to greet her. "Hello, sorry to intrude. I'm a friend of Lu Zhou's; my name is Qi Jiajia."

Linda: "Haha, I know you're Qi Jiajia. I watched the show you recorded with my boss, and I quite like you."

Qi Jiajia: "Thank you! You're too sweet."

"Linda, entertain my friend. I'm going to see Brother Yi," Lu Zhou instructed.

Linda nodded vigorously. "Got it, Boss! Rest assured, I'll take good care of Ms. Qi!"

"..." Lu Zhou shook his head slightly with a speechless expression. "Be serious; don't scare her."

Linda: "Understood!"

Qi Jiajia was amused, inexplicably finding Lu Zhou's assistant rather entertaining.

The girl was around her own age and felt very approachable, instantly giving off a sense of warmth—much like her boss.

Although this assistant called Lu Zhou "Boss," appearing to be a strictly hierarchical title, the atmosphere of their interaction didn't resemble a superior-subordinate dynamic at all; it was more like friends—easygoing and comfortable.

Qi Jiajia glanced around Legend Entertainment's office area. Judging by the number of workstations, the company's team scale wasn't very large.

She suddenly recalled how Lu Zhou had described that online literature company during dinner: small yet refined.

Those three words applied quite aptly to Lu Zhou's own company as well.

It wasn't about the size of the team; it was about being united, streamlined, and capable—which was precisely what Qi Jiajia wanted.

After giving Linda his instructions, Lu Zhou turned and went to find Pan Chengyi.

Pushing open the door to the office, he heard Pan Chengyi snap his fingers excitedly: "Fantastic news!"