Yang Ruoqian had learned one rule from repeated defeat: the smaller a matter looked, the more likely his employees were to turn it into a strategic monument. This time, former Sparkle staff gossiped about Huang Wei and Xplendi. He decided to treat it with proper suspicion.
He reviewed the logic once more with the caution of a man who had been betrayed by success too many times. If the old group chat could still be explained as ordinary process, this could remain a simple branch repair rather than another Xplendi miracle.
He liked the shape of the spending. Rehiring packages, studio equipment, and salaries paid before any useful revenue appeared sounded like exactly the kind of heavy, slow burden that could drag a project below the settlement line.
