Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

The atmosphere was just right, with the warmth of the heating on.

Xie Wangzheng shamelessly buried his head in Su Qinghe's soft sweater, enjoying the hard-won treatment as a legitimate boyfriend, while inwardly mocking the fat cat who had been relegated to the sofa and was now withdrawn.

It was at this incredibly heartwarming and wonderful moment.

"Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!"

The security door was pounded on from the outside with a deafening roar, accompanied by a piercing, hoarse voice:

"You rascal! Sister-in-law! Open the door! I know you're inside! Open the door quickly, something terrible has happened!"

Xie Wang closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Lu Wen, you'd better have something really big to say, like Gu Nan from Tianlong Group has stormed downstairs with three hundred bodyguards.

Otherwise, I would definitely shove you down the sixteenth floor through the sewer and into the deepest part of Jiangcheng today!

Su Qinghe suppressed a laugh: "Judging from the noise, if we don't open it soon, he's going to tear the door down."

With a face full of unsatisfied desire, Xie Wang strode open the door.

Outside the door, Lu Wen's eyes shone brightly.

He swung a bunch of keys in a very ostentatious manner, rambling incoherently:

"You rascal! Sister-in-law! Come on! Get dressed and come downstairs with me! I've found a perfect spot for us!"

"What kind of auspicious place are you looking for? Are you going to become a monk?" Xie Wang leaned coldly against the door frame.

"What do you mean 'go home'? This is our company headquarters!"

Lu Wen grabbed Xie Wang's arm and shouted excitedly, "I ran my legs off this afternoon and finally managed to snag an awesome shop in the old town! Hurry up, my car's downstairs, go and set up the place for me, and while we're at it, let's finalize the partnership details!"

Upon hearing this, Su Qinghe put her hands on her hips.

Wait a minute… does this young master seem to have some misunderstanding about our identities? We are high school seniors! High school seniors with just over two hundred days left until the college entrance exam!

These are underage kids being tortured by the "53" exam and the combined science test every day! What kind of high school senior stays up all night to work on company site selection?

"Lu Wen," Su Qinghe sighed, trying to rouse this hot-blooded spoiled brat, "Xie Wang and I have to go to school for early reading at 6:30 tomorrow morning."

"Oh, sister-in-law! Morning reading is nothing compared to our business empire! Just one glance! I promise I'll bring it back to you afterwards!"

Lu Wen clasped his hands together and bowed frantically, pleading, "Please! I've invested everything I have, I feel so guilty!"

Seeing Lu Wen's shameless attitude, Xie Wang knew that the door wouldn't be closed today.

He sighed resignedly, turned around and grabbed his windbreaker: "Let's go, Teacher Su, let's see what Boss Lu's business empire really looks like."

……

After half an hour.

In the old town, on a dark and dilapidated street.

The fierce winds of early winter in Jiangcheng howled through the empty streets, whipping up two plastic bags from the ground.

Xie Wang and Su Qinghe stood side by side, and the two fell into a long silence.

In front of them was a street-front shop of about fifty square meters that had just been emptied.

With the roller shutters pulled up, the dim streetlights revealed several cheap-quality mirrors on the shop walls, and a mess of loose hair on the floor.

What's most eye-catching are the five large, precariously hanging characters above the shop's entrance:

[Get Rich Hair Salon]

There was also a faded piece of paper pasted next to it: Haircut and blow-dry 15 yuan.

"How about it? Doesn't it have that wild, Silicon Valley garage startup vibe?"

Lu Wen stood amidst a pile of sparse hair, arms outstretched, proudly displaying his empire to them:

"It's a bit out of the way here, but the rent is cheap! I've paid three years' rent, and the remaining money is just enough to buy a few top-of-the-line servers and computers! Wangzi, sister-in-law, what do you think?"

Xie Wang's inner thoughts: I feel like a beggar on the street.

If Gu Nan were to find out our background in this shabby place, he probably wouldn't even bother with business tactics against us; he'd probably just laugh himself to death in the chairman's office of Tianlong Group.

"Lu Wen..." Su Qinghe pulled her clothes tighter.

"Are you sure you want to set up a cybersecurity company here?"

"Sister-in-law, you don't understand. True masters live in the city!"

Lu Wen rubbed his frozen hands, suddenly dropped his playful grin, and pulled a crumpled little notebook from his hoodie pocket:

"Moreover, I haven't been idle these past few days; I actually went back to consult my old man."

Xie Wang raised an eyebrow: "Uncle Lu is currently overwhelmed with problems caused by the Tianlong Group, does he have time to bother with you?"

"He initially thought I was causing trouble and told me to get lost and take Lin Lu out for hot pot, but I slammed the four million bank card on his table and said I wanted to start my own business."

Lu Wen chuckled smugly, then cleared his throat and opened the small notebook:

"The old man looked at me like he'd seen a ghost. He smoked half a pack of cigarettes before he told me everything."

Under the dim light of the streetlamp, Lu Wen pointed to the scribbles on the notebook:

"The old man said that Gu Nan is playing the game of capital and information asymmetry. Our Lu family is now in the open, and we are being attacked everywhere."

"If I really want to do this, I must create an absolutely independent, clean third-party company that cannot use Lu's accounts or employ Lu's people."

He looked at Su Qinghe, his eyes revealing a shrewdness and steadiness he had never shown before:

"The old man emphasized that for a startup, the first thing to prevent is internal friction, and the second is to prevent capital dilution. So, sister-in-law, the financial power must be handed over to someone as rational as you. Every transaction must be clean and transparent. He also instructed me that I must never take control of the core technology."

At this point, Lu Wen turned to Xie Wang and repeated his father's words, word by word:

"The old man's exact words were: 'If Xie Wangzhen has the ability to shatter the Tianlong Firewall, then you should firmly place the technical veto power in his hands! In the battlefield of the Internet, top-level technical barriers are the most important!'"

Lu Wen took a deep breath:

"Wangzi, sister-in-law, would you be willing to be my angel investors? Hehe."

Under the dim streetlights, Lu Wen's eyes gleamed with a stubborn light.

Xie Wang: "Let me make this clear from the start: if the system crashes in the future, don't expect me to get up in the middle of the night to fix it. I'm going to be helping Teacher Su with her studies."

"No problem! I'll do whatever you say!"

Lu Wen was so excited he almost jumped up. He looked around the dilapidated barbershop and seemed to already see the grand scene of ringing the Nasdaq bell in the future.

"Oh, right!" Lu Wen suddenly slapped his forehead, "Our company still doesn't have an official name!"

"We're going to register with the Industry and Commerce Bureau tomorrow. We can't call it 'Get Rich Quick Network,' can we? You two are well-educated, so hurry up and come up with a catchy name!"

Xie Wang glanced at Su Qinghe, who was frozen like a little penguin beside him: "Teacher Su, you decide."

Su Qinghe pushed up his glasses, his eyes clear and bright.

She looked at the old town, which appeared somewhat desolate in the cold wind, and said softly:

Let's call it "Spark".

"A single spark can start a prairie fire."

"No matter how powerful the opponent is, as long as there is a single spark, we will burn them through sooner or later."

"Great name!" Lu Wen slapped his thigh excitedly. "Let's call it Spark Network! I'm going to register it first thing tomorrow morning! From today onwards, our Spark Iron Triangle is officially established!"

Xie Wang couldn't help but chuckle as he listened to Lu Wen's boastful words.

He casually slipped Su Qinghe's frozen left hand into his windbreaker pocket, then pulled her along and turned to leave.

"Alright, Boss Lu, the Iron Triangle needs to go back and work on their '53' practice exams."