Commissioner Ye

Chapter 183

At 7:30 in the morning, Riverside Garden.

The morning mist had yet to dissipate, and a brand-new black Audi A6L was parked in front of the apartment building.

The morning sun hit the car's paint, making the black gleam.

Gu Ran leaned against the building's entrance, twirling the car keys on his finger. With a smile playing on his lips, he watched the amusing scene unfolding not far away with a playful look in his eyes.

Gu Xiangcheng, wearing a crisply ironed administrative jacket and carrying a briefcase, was just about to head out.

His steps, which were originally heading straight toward his workplace, took a sharp detour the moment he spotted the Audi.

Lao Gu walked around the Audi twice with his hands behind his back, looking more meticulous than if he were conducting a crime scene investigation.

First, he bent down to inspect the wheels, then reached out to press on the hood. Finally, his face was practically glued to the window, his eyes seemingly trying to stick to the texture of the interior's leather.

"Tsk."

He snorted through his nose. The unconcealable envy that had just surfaced was instantly suppressed by the majestic aura of Director Gu.

At this moment, the workplace's new black Passat slowly rolled over. The driver, Xiao Zhao, attentively opened the door: "Morning, Director Gu!"

Gu Xiangcheng immediately straightened his back, withdrew his gaze, and nodded in reply to the morning greeting.

Then, he looked at a certain someone by the building's entrance and commented with the tone of someone giving directives on an official document, "Young people nowadays are so flashy! A car is just a means of transportation. Is there any fundamental difference between four rings and a Volkswagen logo? Aren't they both just sofas wrapped in iron?"

After saying that, he got into the Passat.

Before the window rolled up, his eyes couldn't resist sneaking another longing glance at the Audi through the gap.

Gu Ran almost snorted with laughter.

Lao Gu's mouth was truly harder than the interrogation chairs at the bureau.

He was clearly dying of envy, yet he insisted on putting on the facade of a transcendent master who treated money like dirt.

The Passat drove off in a flash, and Gu Ran subsequently got into his car. Right after that came a soft clank from the building's iron door.

Ye Zhenzhen, wearing a blue floral dress bought in Wuzhen, hopped down the steps like a little deer, revealing her fair, straight legs.

Seeing the conspicuous luxury car, she paused her steps and looked left and right like a thief.

After making sure there were no neighborhood aunties standing guard, she blushed, trotted over, pulled open the passenger door, and dove inside.

"You look like you're doing underground work," Gu Ran teased as he helped her buckle her seatbelt. "Mrs. Gu, we are legally dating, not having a secret agent rendezvous."

"Who... who is Mrs. Gu!" The young girl's cheeks burned as she reached out and pinched his arm. "Let's go! This car is too flashy. Everyone looks when it's parked here, it's so embarrassing."

Gu Ran chuckled softly and stepped on the gas.

The 3.0T supercharged engine let out a low roar, and the strong sense of acceleration instantly pressed the two of them into their seats.

"Where are we going?" Ye Zhenzhen gripped the handle tightly, her small face looking a bit nervous.

"Qinglin City." Gu Ran casually rubbed the steering wheel with one hand and smiled lightly. "To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. We're about to start college, so we need to get some gear."

...

At 10:00 AM, Qinglin City Digital Plaza.

As the holy land of trends in 2011, this place was bustling with noise.

Especially the Apple Store taking up the prime center spot; the long line at the entrance was enough to make one dizzy.

In this era, the iPhone 4 was the god of the digital world.

Double-sided glass, Retina display, metal middle frame—Steve Jobs took this thing and completely blew up the mobile phone market.

Countless young people were truly willing to sell a kidney for this kidney machine.

Gu Ran held Ye Zhenzhen's hand, forcefully squeezing a path through the crowd, and made a beeline for the counter.

The several sales clerks behind the counter were so busy they were practically spinning in circles; they couldn't even be bothered to lift an eyelid at the students who were just looking and not buying.

"Hello, um..." Ye Zhenzhen glanced at the price tag of 4999 and gasped. Just as she was about to say, "We're just looking," Gu Ran interrupted her.

"Two MacBook Pros, top specs."

Gu Ran tapped his fingers lightly on the glass counter. "And two iPhone 4s, one black and one white, 32GB versions. Also, give me two iPad 2s, both the 3G cellular versions."

The originally noisy area around the counter suddenly fell into a small radius of silence.

The passersby playing with the demo models, the students haggling next to them, and even the frantically busy sales clerks all froze in their tracks.

There were plenty of people buying Apple products these days, but someone who opened their mouth and ordered two top-spec family buckets like they were stocking up on wholesale goods was definitely a rare breed.

The clerk stared blankly for a full three seconds before reacting, a blooming smile instantly appearing on her face, her voice rising an octave: "Right away, sir! Please wait a moment! Let me calculate... two top-spec Mac computers are twenty-six thousand, two phones are twelve thousand, plus the iPads... the total is roughly thirty-nine thousand eight hundred!"

"How much?!"

Ye Zhenzhen's almond eyes widened abruptly.

Nearly forty thousand yuan!

In this era, this sum of money was enough to pay the down payment for a small apartment in County A!

The young girl's small face tightened, and she instinctively grabbed onto Gu Ran's hand as he was about to pull out his card.

That frugality carved into her very bones burst forth.

"Ah, think about it, it's too expensive!"

"Plus I have a phone, my Xiaolingtong still works! And we don't need such good computers, the school computer labs have them..." The thrifty young girl was genuinely frightened, her words becoming somewhat incoherent.

"Let go first and listen to me." Gu Ran was helplessly dragged a couple of steps by her.

"I won't listen!" The girl pulled him to a corner outside the store and muttered softly, "You just spent hundreds of thousands buying a car! I know it's easy for you to make money, but you can't be this extravagant! And... and..."

She bit her lip, her voice dropping even lower, sounding extremely aggrieved. "And I don't have money to buy things for you anymore... I don't want you to keep spending money on me."

This was what she cared about the most.

That Longines watch had drained all her savings. If she accepted these tens of thousands of yuan worth of gifts, the immense sense of inequality would crush her.

Looking at the young girl's stubborn eyes, Gu Ran's heart softened.

This silly girl.

If it were a gold digger, she would have already taken pictures and posted them online to show off. She definitely wouldn't be like her, almost crying from anxiety just to save him money.

"Comrade Ye Zhenzhen."

Gu Ran put away his smile and suddenly put on a serious, business-like face. He adjusted his collar. "Right now, the person standing in front of you is not your boyfriend, but the CEO of GR Gaming Company, Gu Ran."

The girl froze, teardrops still hanging on her eyelashes. "What... what do you mean?"

Gu Ran grabbed her wrist back, pulled her closer, lowered his voice, and spoke with serious earnestness: "Do you think I'm just spending money? Wrong, completely wrong."

"This is the procurement of strategic materials."

He pointed to the Apple logo inside the store and began spouting absolute nonsense with a straight face: "Do you know what the company is about to develop? 'MicroChat'! This is a social networking nuclear weapon aimed at the mobile internet. And the most high-end battlefield right now is the iOS system."

"If we don't buy these devices, how are our programmers supposed to develop and test? Do you want our software to be full of bugs on the iPhone, crashing and black-screening, only for that copycat Penguin Corporation to swoop in and completely crush us?"

Ye Zhenzhen was completely dizzy from this barrage of terms like "iOS," "bugs," and "strategic materials."

She didn't understand technology and was bluffed into silence for a moment.

"Then... what does that have to do with buying them for me?" the young girl retorted weakly, her momentum already dropping a notch. "Can't you just buy a set for yourself? You're the boss, you test it."

"I'm the chief planner and the core developer. I have to write code, negotiate partnerships, and monitor servers every day. Where would I find the time to do tedious user experience testing?"

Gu Ran sighed, wearing an expression that said "my life is so hard," and reached out to pinch her chubby cheeks. "So, this heavy responsibility can only be entrusted to you. You're a college student, representing the vast majority of our young user base. Only if you use it personally and report bugs to me anytime, anywhere, can our product be perfect."

"But..." the girl was still struggling. Looking at the expensive price tags, her heart bled. "Can we count it as me borrowing from the company? I'll do work-study in the future to pay you back."

"Borrow?"

Gu Ran raised an eyebrow and suddenly reached out, flicking her smooth forehead.

Thump.

"Ouch!" Ye Zhenzhen covered her forehead, her eyes welling with tears.

"Specialist Ye, please get this straight."

With his hands in his pockets, he announced with a touch of bossiness, "These devices are fixed assets of GR Company. The ownership belongs to the company; you only have the right to use them. In exchange, you must be on call at all times during your college years to help me conduct stress tests for features like video calling on MicroChat. Understand?"

The girl covered her forehead, caught in a fierce internal battle between "saving money" and "saving the company."

If they didn't buy them, Gu Ran's company might go bankrupt.

If they did buy them, she was merely "safekeeping" company assets and would have to work as a tester to pay off her debt.

The logic was flawless!

"Then... alright then," the girl finally gave in, but still reminded him anxiously, "Then I need to protect them well. I can't let them get bumped or scratched, otherwise I wouldn't be able to pay for them even if I sold myself."

"Sure, sure. Put a screen protector on it, get a case, you can even put it on a shrine if you want."

Gu Ran held back his laughter and took her hand again, walking back to the counter.

The sales clerk was just worrying that this big deal had fallen through. Seeing the two return, she immediately welcomed them with a beaming smile.

Swipe the card, sign, print the receipt.

As the POS machine buzzed and spat out a long receipt, Gu Ran tore open the packaging of the white iPhone 4 before the girl could even react.

Apple's packaging in 2011 was extremely meticulous. The box, with its excellent damping feel, slid open slowly to reveal the phone that looked like a work of art.

When the screen lit up and the classic black background with water droplets wallpaper appeared, countless envious and jealous gazes were cast their way from the surroundings.

Because PHS cards were different from mobile phone SIM cards, Gu Ran took her to the window downstairs to get a premium number ending in four 9s, while he got one ending in four 8s. Then, he cut the cards, inserted them, and activated the phones.

"Take it."

He stuffed the activated phone into Ye Zhenzhen's hand. The cold, glassy touch made the girl's palms sweat slightly.

"Specialist Ye," Gu Ran leaned close to her ear, watching the way she carefully cradled the phone, a wicked smirk curving his lips. "From now on, your device is under my management, and you... are also under my management."

The girl blushed. She was just about to retort when she noticed that a number had already been saved on the phone screen.

The contact name was: [Creditor], and the number was: 1XXXX8888.

...

As they walked out of the mall, the midday sun was a bit glaring.

Gu Ran walked casually in front, his hands empty.

It wasn't that he didn't care about the girl carrying things, but Specialist Ye had strictly refused his help.

Her excuse was that as a testing specialist, she ought to protect the testing equipment herself.

Ye Zhenzhen tightly hugged the various bags of digital products in her arms like a hamster moving houses, feeling both an ache in her wallet and a heavy sense of mission.

"Gu Ran, can this iPad really make video calls?"

After getting into the car, Ye Zhenzhen carefully placed the "company assets" in the backseat and couldn't help but ask.

"Not right now. We have to wait until our software is developed."

Gu Ran started the car. "Sit tight, Specialist Ye."

With a step on the gas, the Audi A6L merged into the traffic and sped off in the direction of County A. "Let's go home, I'll teach you how to play Fruit Ninja."