Love 020 : Love and family

Chapter 19 - The green monster

Nai's company Zhi Yi was doing amazingly well. There was so much interest in the beta of the game that he had released, that it had surpassed all their expectations. The game was all set to be launched at a big event for games in Las Vegas. Weiwei now spent most of her time at Feng Ventures since it would be a while before some of the other product ideas she had for Zhi Yi would be launched. This was her last year in school and she only had her thesis to work on. She had chosen a hard problem in cryptography to tackle as part of her thesis. Things were all going relatively smoothly when there was an anonymous post on a gossip blog called Ai Channel titled, " Zhi Yi's rise to success- talent or nepotism?" The article threw a lot of questions about whether Zhi Yi got funded because of the close relationship between the founder Nai and Weiwei of Feng Ventures and how it may be unfair to others, whether they had any talent at all etc.

Weiwei was working on her thesis in the library when the story broke. She noticed people staring at her, more than usual.  She asked a random classmate, " Is something wrong? ". He just gave her a dubious look. Just then Xiaoling came running towards her with her phone in had, " Weiwei, see this". Weiwei read the post and sank into her chair. Xiaoling started looking at Weibo, " Oh no Weiwei, it is all over Weibo too".

Weiwei's worst fear of being a harbinger of bad luck had come true. She thought,' I knew this would happen. I knew that my bad luck would touch Nai. I knew it was too good to be true. He has given me so much love and happiness. What have I given him in return? A taint? I can't let this happen. I need to do something.' Xioling shook her, " Are you okay Weiwei? You look as pale as a sheet. Weiwei, say something."

Weiwei had an idea. She looked at Xiaoling and said, " I need to go"

Xiaoling, " Go where? Since you weren't picking up your phone, your Nai asked me to find you and stay with you till he reached campus. You are not going anywhere"

Weiwei smiled at her apologetically, " Can't do that. Time is of the essence. Got to go fix this. Bye" and ran out of the door. She immediately got out of campus, hailed a cab to the airport. She called Director Feng, " Shan shan, I am on my way to our headquarters in Shanghai. I am so sorry about the story. I think I know who is behind it and I have a plan"

Director Feng and President Feng, " We are both here. First off, none of this is your fault in any way. You helped us get through the data breach crisis. I have no doubt that you will fix this too. What do you need?"

Weiwei quickly explained the plan. " Please don't talk to anyone from Zhi Yi till I get there. I will explain everything. Gather the press at our HQ in three hours. I will be there." She turned off her phone and luckily found a plane that was leaving in 15 minutes. She bought a ticket for it and got on the plane just as the doors were closing.

By the time Weiwei boarded the plane, Nai had reached campus only to find is furen gone. Xiaoling had no answers as to where Weiwei was. He then called her but her phone was switched off. He called KO , " I need a favor. Can you track Weiwei's phone? It keeps saying that it is switched off". KO replied, " Lao San. I can try, but shi-mei's phone is well protected. It will take time and I am not sure how long". Nai frantically said, " Just keep trying". As soon as he had seen the article, Nai realized that this was Weiwei's worst nightmare- that she would somehow cause trouble for Nai. He knew her well and was worried she would try to distance herself from him or take some other drastic measure. He knew it was unlikely but he sent Banshan to her house and made his way over to the Feng Ventures office in Beijing that Weiwei worked out of sometimes. It took him an hour and half to get there. The receptionist recognized him as Nai had picked Weiwei up from that office many times and smiled at him. " Hello sir."

Nai: " Hello. Have you seen Weiwei? Is she here by any chance? I am not able to reach her phone and it is urgent"

The receptionist kindly said, " No sir. She is not here. But I think you need to see this" and passed him her phone showing him a Youtube video. This was the video recording of their pitch meeting to Feng Ventures, somehow it had ended up on the internet. ' This must be Weiwei's work', he thought. He passed her phone back to her, thanked her and started walking back to his car.

His phone rang and saw that it was from the Zhi Yi office. Hao Mei spoke, " You're on speaker in the conference room with myself , Houzi and KO . Nai, did you see the Youtube video? It has gone viral and clips from that are circulating on Weibo, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Even some of the local and international tech blogs have picked it up. They are praising the impartiality of the process and how talented we are. They are also praising sansao for her professionalism"

Nai was 100% sure this was all Weiwei's doing, but where she was, was anyone's guess. " Did KO have any luck finding Weiwei? She is not in the office or at college and I jut got a text from Banshan saying she is not home." Everyone could hear how panicked Nai was. KO responded, " Lao San, I can't even tell how many layers of encryption she has. I think we need to to find another way to reach her." Hao Mei had an idea, " Nai, why don't you try calling President Feng? He may have been in touch with Sansao. She may just be busy trying to manage this crisis. I'm sure she is safe and fine" . " Thanks, I'll try that" , said Nai and hung up. He knew in his stomach that something was very wrong, Weiwei would not avoid his calls. He called President Feng who in the midst of prepping for the press conference didn't hear the phone. With a lack of better ideas, Nai went back to his office.

Just as he reached, Hao Mei dragged him inside and faced him towards the TV, " Nai, see this. There's sansao in Shanghai. Feng Ventures is holding a press conference. See, everything is fine" Weiwei took the microphone and spoke stoically, " Distinguished members of the press, thank you for coming here on such short notice. Tonight, some of you may have seen a two things circulating about Feng Ventures and Zhi Yi. Only one of them is news and the other is just baseless gossip. By now, most of you have seen the video of the pitch meeting between Zhi Yi and Feng Ventures. From that it is very clear that Zhi Yi was funded 100% based on merit. If that is not enough indication, the game's enormous popularity while still in beta alone should make it clear to anyone why they were funded. Further more, even though we have no legal obligation, we will be releasing transcriptions of all pitch meetings that were held on the same day we funded Zhi Yi to anyone on demand. For the sake of privacy of the parties, we will redact names and other personally identifiable information of parties involved. I hope this demonstrates how fair Feng Ventures has always been and will always be. Thank you." Nai saw her walk off stage with a blank expression. President and Director Feng fielded most of the questions around who the source of the gossip article was and when Nai and Weiwei were getting married. Nai was already grabbing his passport and keys when Hao Mei asked, " Where are you going? Sansao will come back. See, she is amazing . It only took her a few hours to settle this once and for all."

Banshan yelled, " Nai,wait, see this post. Someone has shut down Ai Channel for good. They have also released identities of all the people involved with that gossip blog. You'll never guess who wrote the article - Cao Guang. There's irrefutable proof that he is the one who published this nonsense about us"

Houzi, " It seems he didn't learn the lesson the first time. Sansao I'm sure has taught him a lesson he won't forget this time". They were all celebrating a crisis averted, only Nai knew that the crisis was far from done. His phone rang a second time that evening as he was driving to the airport, it was mama Lin, " Nai. I followed the news. I am terrified that Weiwei will not come back to us this time. I think she will blame herself for this. This is her biggest fear. I can't reach her. Bring me my daughter back Nai."She sounded terrified on the phone.

Weiwei's expression had scared Nai. He knew her. He knew she would see this incident as her bringing taint on him, his company and his family. He told his mom, " I'm already on my way to the airport ma. I don't know what to do ", his voice broke with fear. It was the first time since he was a little boy that Nai was this scared. " Just get on the flight son. If there's anyone who can do this, its you"