After concluding the financing talks with Tencent, Mei Fang felt a significant weight lifted off his shoulders.
Based on the information he had gathered so far, his three major assets were highly attractive investments in Tencent's eyes. Mei Fang could sense that Tencent was equally interested in Ximilu Games.
It's important to note that in this era, Tencent was the most valuable of the three tech giants , with a gaming industry that was thriving.
At this very moment, Tencent was gearing up for the third round of internal core testing for their flagship self-developed MMO, Asura , and had announced plans for public testing in March 2013.
From Mei Fang's current perspective, it didn't seem like his Ximilu Games had much to offer them. The young Mei Fang appeared incapable of leading the upcoming mobile gaming boom or of producing a decent AAA game with his current team-
Maybe it was just that Tencent had so much money that they could afford to take a long-term view and cast a wide net?
Although having Tencent's backing could be advantageous, Mei Fang wasn't planning on relying on them entirely for growth. While continuing to fix bugs and iterate on CLoud Journey, Mei Fang also began leveraging the reputation C Site and Ximilu Games had built to attract new members. His next step was to establish an independent project team-the Coconut Milk Project Team.
The goal of the Coconut Milk Project Team was to generate significant revenue for Ximilu Games. Mei Fang could use the knowledge from his previous life to guide this new team to success.
During this era, popular games like TempLe Run and Fruit Ninja were already on the market. After some consideration, Mei Fang decided to focus on casual match-three or tile-matching games.
With the rise of casual gamers, the market for casual games had great potential. At the moment, even Tencent hadn't yet dominated the tile-matching game market, and the nationwide hit Happy Match was still two years away. This gave Mei Fang an opportunity to showcase his talent.
As for the project team's name, Mei Fang discussed it with Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi. Since the entire studio was called Ximilu Studio (Sago Soup Studio), it was only fitting that the new project team should also be named after a dessert-
Thus, the [Coconut Milk Project Team] was born.
After agreeing on the general terms of the collaboration, Mei Fang left the details to Mei Yue, who was handling the financials with ease thanks to her background in auditing. Mei Fang trusted his cousin wholeheartedly, so he returned to his daily life with Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi.
In the second half of 2012, Mei Fang and Lin Youxi participated in the retest for the NOIP (National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces), where they received second and first-place awards, respectively. Due to her outstanding performance, Lin Youxi became a Category A student and received an invitation to join the provincial team for the national NOI competition.
Although Mei Fang originally needed to pass additional tests for selection, his achievements with Ximilu Games earned him a Category C recommendation, thanks to his teachers' endorsement. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet
In 2012, a NOIP first-place award still carried the qualification for guaranteed university admission. Lin Youxi had already received offers for guaranteed spots at some top-tier universities (985 universities). However, participating in the NOI competition required her to attend training camps, which would take up nearly an entire semester.
After discussing with Mei Fang, they decided that sacrificing a semester of high school life just for guaranteed admission wasn't worth it. They preferred to fully experience all three years of high school together. In the end, they both chose to forgo the NOI competition and continue enjoying their high school life with Xia Yuan.
This NOIP journey also brought unexpected gains for Mei Fang. During the competition, he met several peers with exceptional programming talents.
While Mei Fang marveled at their programming skills, they were more impressed by his achievement of independently releasing a commercial game while still in high school. Many expressed their desire to join Mei Fang's game development team after their competition days were over. These connections would later become part of Mei Fang's future business development team, but that's a story for another time.
During the second half of the school year, Ximilu Studio welcomed two new members.
The first was Zhu Nainai, who had already become a super fan of Mei Fang. After trying her out on some tasks, Mei Fang was pleasantly surprised by her competence. After consulting with Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi, he agreed to let Zhu Nainai join the team, primarily handling secretarial and assistant duties.
The second new member was Wan Chaoxiong, who had been working as a video editor for the team on an outsourced basis. After discovering that Lin Youxi was the real "Miss Shan You Lin Xi" and that Mei Fang was the founder of the site, Wan Chaoxiong was so excited that he stayed up all night out of sheer enthusiasm. The next day, he eagerly applied to join Ximilu Studio and became a part of the team.
Time quickly passed, and before they knew it, it was December 21, 2012-Friday, Winter Solstice -at 3:14 PM, during a class break.
Xia Yuan, Mei Fang, and Lin Youxi were chatting enthusiastically near Lin Youxi's classroom on the second floor when they realized that the supposed Mayan apocalypse time had already passed.
"Ah... so, nothing happened after all," Xia Yuan remarked, slightly disappointed. Lin Youxi, smiling beside her, asked, "Did you actually want the world to end?"
"Of course not! We're so happy now... I definitely don't want that to happen."
Xia Yuan blew warm air into her gloves and then pressed her hands against Mei Fang's face to warm him up. "But even if it did happen, it wouldn't matter. As long as the three of us are together, there's nothing to be afraid of." ŖáΝ𝙤ΒĘs
Watching Xia Yuan and Mei Fang's close interaction, Lin Youxi smiled and asked, "Speaking of which, you and Ah Fang have been in a relationship for almost a semester now. Compared to when you were just childhood sweethearts, do you feel any big changes?" "Changes? Well, aside from Ah Fang becoming more... suggestive, nothing major," Xia Yuan replied.
Mei Fang, feeling a bit annoyed, pinched Xia Yuan's nose. "Who's the more suggestive one between us? You'd better clarify."
"Alright, alright... it's me, it's me. Ah Fang, even though you're so grown up, you always need me to give in to you. Only Youxi and I wouldn't mind that."
Xia Yuan lightly pinched Mei Fang's cheek, then slid her hand into his jacket to warm herself. With everyone bundled up in thick winter coats and huddled close, it was hard to tell what she was doing unless you looked closely.
"By the way, are you and Youxi really okay with not participating in the NOI? It's still a pretty good chance to get guaranteed admission..."
"To get the guaranteed admission, you need to win a gold medal, which would require at least half a year of intense effort."
Mei Fang shook his head with a smile. "In that half a year, who knows how much money we could make with our game?"
"You're skipping the competition just to make money? Ah Fang, you're so shallow."
Before Xia Yuan could finish teasing Mei Fang, Lin Youxi chimed in, "Ah Fang just doesn't want to admit it, but he really just wants to spend more time with you, Yuan Yuan."
"Don't make excuses for him, Youxi. I want to hear it from Ah Fang himself." Xia Yuan placed her hand on Mei Fang's chest. "Ah Fang, tell me honestly, is that what you're thinking? I want to hear the truth from you."
"Isn't it obvious? Of course, I-" Mei Fang suddenly shivered, almost hugging Xia Yuan on the spot.
It turned out that Lin Youxi had also slipped her hand into Mei Fang's jacket to warm up.
"Whoa, Youxi! What are you doing? What if someone notices?" Xia Yuan quietly scolded Lin Youxi while quickly pulling her hand out of Mei Fang's jacket. "I'll keep you warm too."
As Xia Yuan warmed Lin Youxi's hands, Lin Youxi suggested, "It's been a while since the three of us have snuggled together. How about we sleep together tonight?"