Chapter 77: Chapter 77: The Last Few Days of the Month, Butterfly Wings

Wu Yun had a completely hands-off attitude toward Nebula Media, leaving its development to Wu Ying and Jiang Xinyi. From the looks of it, they were doing a spectacular job.

Wu Yun had promised to buy apartments for the two of them, but they had refused in unison. They reasoned that, given the company’s trajectory, they would soon be able to afford their own homes, and Wu Yun had already done far too much for them.

They had also taken delivery of their Porsches not long ago, but the cars mostly sat in the underground garage. Walking to work every day was faster than driving. They rarely used them except for business meetings or weekend outings.

After staying at Wu Ying and Jiang Xinyi’s place for two nights, he spent the days dropping by Nebula Media. He helped them strategize, solve a few problems, and plan for the future.

Lately, however, Wu Yun’s main focus was still on Nirvana Technology.

「Monday, August 25th」

The employees at Nirvana Technology were shocked to see Wu Yun arrive at a normal hour. It was as if the sun had risen in the west.

Wu Yun looked around at the rapidly growing company, noticing many unfamiliar faces.

Some of the new hires watched curiously as Wu Yun entered the chairman’s office, and a flurry of whispers followed.

Wu Yun’s arrival relieved some of the pressure on Li Qiuliang. Since the launch of Little Red Car, Li Qiuliang had to personally oversee countless matters—everything from promotion and logistics to general company management. It left him feeling run ragged, but he was enjoying the challenge.

Li Qiuliang suggested hiring two more vice presidents to help share the workload. Wu Yun countered with an idea of his own: one VP would be hired externally, but the other would be promoted from among the current department heads. This would help foster ambition within the company.

The process of establishing regional branch offices was also underway, and their legal registration was nearly complete.

Since the branches wouldn’t be responsible for development—focusing primarily on system and bicycle maintenance—they would have a large logistics staff, while other departments would be much leaner.

Wu Yun put Li Qiuliang in charge of staffing the new branches. ’With a loyalty score of 90,’ Wu Yun thought, ’I’m sure there won’t be any issues.’

It was worth noting that Wu Yun had spun off the Little Red Car project from Nirvana Technology, establishing Little Red Car Bicycle Sharing Co., Ltd. as a subsidiary of Nirvana Technology Co., Ltd.

Li Qiuliang’s original 1% stake in Nirvana Technology was converted to a 1% stake in Little Red Car Bicycle Sharing Co., Ltd.

Li Qiuliang understood Wu Yun’s reasoning. After all, Nirvana Technology also counted Kunpeng Network Game Company Limited and Rongcheng Xinghe Network Co., Ltd. among its subsidiaries.

For now, however, the Nirvana Technology headquarters was just an empty shell. Wu Yun planned to properly organize it after the financial update in September.

Over the next few days, in addition to registering and structuring the subsidiaries, Wu Yun paid close attention to Little Red Car’s user registration data.

By the end of the workday on August 31st, the 10th day since its launch, the Little Red Car app had reached 3.6 million registered users, far exceeding the projected 1:8 to 1:10 ratio.

Perhaps it was the novelty of the service, or the fact that Little Red Car was the only shared bike company on the market, but whatever the reason, registrations had far surpassed expectations.

Little Red Car’s growth defied the predictions of online haters and keyboard warriors who claimed the bikes would all be stolen. On the contrary, its popularity skyrocketed. It wasn’t just that bikes were becoming hard to find in Rongcheng; in places like the Capital City and Modu, people were actually lining up for a chance to ride. After all, outside of Rongcheng, these other first-tier cities only had ten thousand bikes each for promotional purposes.

As a result, residents from these cities flooded Little Red Car’s official website and Weibo, demanding the company increase the number of bikes available in their areas.

This made netizens in Rongcheng feel rather smug, while those in other cities looked on with burning envy.

The security deposits from 3.6 million users also meant the funds in Little Red Car’s dedicated account surpassed one billion yuan. This news had Luo Guangrong laughing in his sleep. Luo Guangrong kept insisting on treating Wu Yun and Li Qiuliang to a meal to foster camaraderie, but Wu Yun was always too busy and had to keep postponing.

Wu Yun and Li Qiuliang decided that by mid-September, they would add a total of 500,000 new bikes. This new fleet would prioritize the Capital City and Modu, with 300,000 Little Red Cars to be split evenly and deployed between the two.

Guangzhou and Peng City would split the remaining 200,000.

To capture the market more quickly, Wu Yun had Li Qiuliang lead a team to negotiate with other major bicycle manufacturers and place massive orders.

In the last few days of August, Wu Yun felt like he was being run off his feet. On top of managing his companies, he had to be a true "master of time management." Fortunately, Wen Meng was aware of the other two women, allowing Wu Yun to video chat with Bai Yue and Qi Fei right in front of her without any issue.

The afternoon after Wu Yun saw her off, Qi Fei flew back to Modu. She mentioned that a film crew was holding auditions at her school, and many of the upperclassmen had returned early for it.

Wu Yun wondered if this would be the start of Qi Fei’s path to fame. ’After all, before my rebirth, I didn’t know much about the entertainment industry.’

’All I knew were a few blockbuster movies and the juiciest industry gossip.’

’Still, for me,’ he thought, ’it’s just a matter of spending a little extra money to fund a few movies for Qi Fei to star in down the line.’

During the last few days of August, Wu Yun also fulfilled a promise he had made to Wen Meng. They bought another three-bedroom apartment in Shida Modern Garden, with the deed in Wen Meng’s name.

Coincidentally, the apartment was directly below his other one, in the same building and with the identical floor plan. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It was also fully furnished and belonged to the very same owner who had sold Wu Yun the first apartment.

The owner was astonished that Wu Yun had bought two of her properties in such a short period, but her understanding dawned when she saw Wen Meng sign the contract.

Wu Yun paid the full 1.2 million yuan upfront, leaving Wen Meng and the real estate agent to handle the rest of the paperwork.

While Wen Meng wasn’t materialistic, the gesture of someone buying her an apartment—paid in full and in her name—deeply moved her. Her affection level for Wu Yun reached 99 points, just one shy of maxing out.

Because of this, Wu Yun was treated to a very private dance performance from Wen Meng.

All of this made Wu Yun look forward to September with great anticipation, and for three reasons.

First, he would receive his new monthly allowance. With the rebate, he would become a true billionaire—the kind with hundreds of millions in savings. He would finally have the capital he needed, whether for improving his physical fitness or for executing the next phase of his plans.

Second, he was about to start university. Same person, same school, but this time with a different fate and a different future. A vast, untouched forest was waiting for him to explore.

And third, September was the month Little Red Car was set to take off, further widening the gap between it and any other competing shared bike companies.

He had just received news that Little Yellow Car had accepted ten million in angel round funding. It seemed the flap of his own butterfly wings had caused their initial funding to double.

And so, amid Wu Yun’s eager anticipation, September finally arrived!