When My Wife Let Her First Love Take My Award, I Quit and the Company Collapsed

The day our game won the big prize, my wife, in order to make her first love’s name more famous, secretly let him go onstage to accept the award in my place. I stormed into the company’s celebration banquet, and everyone was waiting to see me explode in silence. But I only smiled and walked up to my wife, stuffing the main planner’s badge in my hand into her arms. “Don’t just take awards for him anymore. Let him be the lead planner too. I quit.” The star producer in their eyes, her first love, Li Yunzhou, and every detail in the proposal in his hands had all come from me. Without me, he couldn’t even make a basic gacha skin game! …… “Today is the day we won our first big prize!” “To celebrate this historic breakthrough for our company, let’s raise a glass to our star designer, Li Yunzhou!” My wife, Guan Yan, lifted her glass and looked at Li Yunzhou with a happy smile on her face. Li Yunzhou drained the wine in his glass, his cheeks red, and looked back at Guan Yan. “Besides everyone’s hard work, the reason this game succeeded is of course also because of Ms. Guan’s strong support!” “Come on, let’s toast Ms. Guan!” The room was full of excitement, and as a rising game company, we had won a world-class award of this level. With the fame from that one award, our small company instantly entered the eyes of players all over the world. Everyone was cheering, wanting the two of them to drink a crossed-cup toast together. Guan Yan’s face was flushed red, but she still didn’t refuse. Li Yunzhou even directly picked up a drink and shoved it into Guan Yan’s hand, then shouted at the crowd below. “You all absolutely can’t tell Mr. Gu about the crossed-cup toast with Ms. Guan!” The employees started booing: “He’s nothing but Ms. Guan’s pretty boy toy!” “Exactly. In our eyes, you’re the one who’s really Ms. Guan’s husband!” “Ms. Guan, get divorced and marry Li Yunzhou!” And my wife, Guan Yan, couldn’t even bring herself to scold them, and shyly buried herself straight into Li Yunzhou’s arms. A late-night rain mixed with cold wind blew into the banquet hall. After listening from outside for a long time, I pushed the door open and walked into the banquet room. When I received the stage invitation from the competition committee at the company, I had only then learned that my game had actually won an award. I was overjoyed and, without even taking off my badge, boarded a plane to the U.S. that very night. Ignoring my exhaustion from the flight, I braved the rain to go looking for them. But when I arrived at the hotel where the company was staying, I found that no one was there. I made countless phone calls, but still couldn’t get through to my wife, Guan Yan. In the end, it was an old employee who had been with me since the company’s founding and who had secretly told me that they were holding a celebration banquet. I came rushing over through the rain, holding flowers in my hand. Hidden in the flowers was the ring I had prepared long ago. I was planning to propose to her on this day. But I never expected that, after coming all this way through the rain in the middle of the night, what would greet me was actually this scene. My wife finally lifted her head from Li Yunzhou’s arms and looked at me. That face, red from both drinking and shyness, had her brows tightly furrowed, as if she were looking at a disaster. “Gu Qiancheng, what are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to stay at the company and work on the proposal?” She seemed to still be reluctant to leave the warmth of Li Yunzhou’s arms, unwilling to come out. She only looked at me and said: “Since you’re here, I might as well tell you something.” “We won the award, and tomorrow is the award ceremony, so let Yunzhou go up and accept it.” “You just came to America. Go take a good look around on your own.” Those few words were even colder than the rain that had just lashed down on me. A week ago, we had received an invitation to the World Game Competition, the holy land of games I had been chasing after all this time. But Guan Yan refused my application to go to America, telling me to honestly stay in the company and work on the proposal, and that when they came back, they wanted to see the full plan for the next game. Even though I knelt down and begged her, Guan Yan still didn’t care, turned around, and walked into Li Yunzhou’s office. She placed the game proposal I had poured my heart and soul into in front of Li Yunzhou and said to him gently: “This is the proposal. Only you, as the star producer, can bring in investment, so I’m leaving it to you.” She clearly knew this was a work I had put everything into, the sum of everything I had learned in my life. But she didn’t even look at it before throwing it into Li Yunzhou’s hands, just so Li Yunzhou’s status as a star producer could be pushed to the next level. I had checked countless materials and stayed up countless nights to write that proposal, only for it to end up becoming something Li Yunzhou “produced.” And this had happened countless times already. Guan Yan ignored my hard work, my dreams, and my love. My passion cooled bit by bit. Then Li Yunzhou spoke up, pretending to be sincere as he said: “That doesn’t seem very appropriate. After all, this proposal was written by Mr. Gu.” “I’ve taken so many proposals from Mr. Gu. Even though I changed a lot of them, the ideas all came from Mr. Gu.” “Mr. Gu is also our company’s lead planner, so let Mr. Gu go accept the award. I’m really not qualified.” Guan Yan spoke to Li Yunzhou gently: “It’s fine, Yunzhou. You’re our company’s director. Who doesn’t know that all those proposals only become good after passing through your hands?” “You’re the one who truly has great talent, so don’t refuse!” Then she turned to look at me, her tone icy: “Gu Qiancheng, besides hanging onto the title of lead planner, what use are you?” “Those ideas of yours could be coming from any few random employees. If you want something, you have to fight for it yourself.” “Didn’t our company become this big because of Yunzhou’s proposals?” “You don’t have ability, so go learn and train. Don’t just sit there every day thinking you deserve to enjoy the results!” The way Guan Yan spoke to me was nothing like the way she spoke to her own husband, as if I really were some pretty boy living off her. Maybe she had already forgotten that I wasn’t really the pretty boy she kept. The company only grew to its current scale because I built it one game at a time. Not a single game ever caused the company to lose money, and both its reputation and sales were far ahead of the competition. Just when the company’s size was finally able to support a big AAA game, Guan Yan brought Li Yunzhou in. Using my proposal, using the team I had put together, but in the end, the game director’s name was Li Yunzhou’s. He had no real ability to begin with and was specially hired in by Guan Yan. He knew nothing about game planning at all, and besides having seen a few of my proposals, he knew nothing else. And she still wanted him to go to the World Game Competition in my place to accept the award? Everyone knew this demand was ridiculous, and there was no way I would agree. But apart from the few employees I had personally hired, who all kept their heads down and said nothing, everyone else looked like they were waiting for a show. I looked at the two people in front of me, leaning into each other, and strode forward. They seemed to have already decided that I would definitely explode, maybe even hit them, and several of their loyal dogs had already raised their phones, ready to record. I strode toward the two of them, and Li Yunzhou hurriedly pulled Guan Yan into his arms. “Don’t be afraid, Guan Yan. I’ll protect you. I won’t let you get hurt!” He said it so naturally. I only took the badge I had been carrying in my arms and hadn’t had time to leave at the company, and shoved it straight into Li Yunzhou’s arms. “What’s the point of only taking my award for me? From now on, he’s the company’s lead planner. I quit.”Li Yunzhou, who had already prepared himself to get hit, touched the badge in his hand and looked at me strangely. All the company employees present froze. Only Guan Yan showed a hint of surprise and anger on her face. I smiled at the two of them and said, “Why would I hit someone?” I patted Li Yunzhou on the shoulder and said, “With this little build, I’m afraid I’d kill him and end up in jail.” Li Yunzhou trembled. Didn’t I already know that those loyal dogs of yours were just waiting for me to hit you? They wanted to leave behind evidence and hand it over to the police back in the country, trying to put a stain on my life path. I wasn’t going to give them that chance. Guan Yan grabbed the badge in front of her and questioned me, “Gu Qiancheng, what do you mean?” “You flew to America just to throw a childish tantrum at me? Take it back!” Looking at her angry eyes, I only wanted to laugh. “Isn’t this what you wanted?” “Give everything, everything, to your first love, and lift him all the way up. Isn’t that what you wanted?” “Now I’m giving him the chance to accept the award, and even giving him the lead planner position too. Why are you unhappy again?” “Who exactly is throwing a childish tantrum?” Guan Yan looked at me, unable to say a word, only muttering “you, you, you” over and over. That green-tea man, Li Yunzhou, stepped forward and stood in front of Guan Yan as he looked at me. “Ms. Guan is only doing this for the good of our company. Mr. Gu, you shouldn’t be throwing a fit either.” “The future proposals still have to be made by you, Mr. Gu!” I quickly stepped back and kept my distance from him. Without answering him, I just looked at Guan Yan. Guan Yan seemed to finally react, and directly stuffed the badge into Li Yunzhou’s arms. “It’s fine. Since he’s given the position to you, just do your best with it.” “You were already going to revise the proposal anyway, and now that you’re starting from scratch, you’ll definitely be able to do even better!” Li Yunzhou smiled and accepted the badge Guan Yan handed over. Li Yunzhou probably still thought he could really make game plans. Game planning isn’t just about coming up with an idea and calling it a day. From level design, story, stats, and gameplay to art style and so much more, everything has to be taken into account. Every time I wrote a proposal, I had to pour out all my effort, just to make the game I had in mind. But Li Yunzhou didn’t care. Every time he got my proposal, he would casually change a few things and then hand it off to his people. No matter what question you asked him, he would claim not to know. Aside from his title as a star producer, he knew absolutely nothing. And yet he actually thought making a proposal was easy, that as long as the art and programming were fine, everything would be enough. He still thought he had finally pushed me out and that all was well, never imagining what was waiting for him. Without the lead planner, the whole company would be headless. He wouldn’t be able to make a single game. Guan Yan turned to me and said, “Fine. Since you’re an old employee, I won’t fire you.” “The company still needs someone to clean, so I’ll give you a $2,000 raise. Go rest a bit more.” Cleaning? Me, the lead planner who won Best Story at the World Game Competition, and she wanted me to go clean? If I wanted to work for a game company, they’d all be fighting to hire me. And she still had the nerve to say she was giving me a raise. That was just another way to humiliate me. No matter how much extra money I got, I’d still be the guy cleaning toilets. As long as I stayed in the company, I would definitely be ganged up on by the two of them, and there would be absolutely no good ending for me. “I already said I’m quitting. You don’t need to insult me by talking about cleaning toilets.” I looked at Guan Yan and said, “I don’t want severance. I only want my last proposal back.” That proposal was the result of all the knowledge I had spent my whole life accumulating, and it was also the most perfect game in my mind. Guan Yan frowned and said to me, “I can give the proposal back to you, if you go apologize to Yunzhou. Then I’ll return it to you.” Apologize? They took my proposal, took my place, and went to the award stage I had dreamed of, and now they wanted me to apologize to her. I walked up to Li Yunzhou and slapped him hard across the face. “This is my apology to you. Like it?”I didn’t care how they shouted behind me. Anyway, no one had been filming at the time. I took a taxi to the airport first, and after the rain stopped, I flew back to the country. First I went to the company and packed up all my things, including my proposal, and took it back. This was my intellectual property. When everything had been packed away, I looked at the empty company and the ring in my hand that I hadn’t given away, and my memory suddenly went back to the past. The year I graduated from college, I couldn’t find a job. No game company was willing to take me in, and I had spent my last cent. An orphanage kid from birth, I had been fighting this world alone since I was little. Until that day, I couldn’t fight anymore. I stood alone on the overpass, looking down at the traffic rushing by, and I lost the will to live. This world was so big, and so many people had a harbor to return to, a shoulder to lean on. But not me. I stood there alone until late at night. Standing alone on the city bridge, unseen by anyone, staring at a single star like the moon for a long time. The surging traffic under the overpass had already stopped, leaving only the black, hard asphalt road. I didn’t want my death to ruin someone else’s car roof and spoil their mood. Just when I was about to take one last look at this world, I saw the most beautiful sight in it. Guan Yan was holding up a bottle of liquor, smiling sweetly. “Don’t think about it. Have a drink instead!” I’ll never forget what that bottle of liquor tasted like—bitter and sharp, with a trace of sweetness. As if there really was still a Guan Yan in this world. That day, we talked about everything under the sky and over the sea, and before leaving she left me two thousand dollars. She told me, “Hang in there. Don’t give up!” Two thousand dollars wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to keep living. And I really did gain the hope of living. Not long after, I found a game company and joined it, gained a lot of experience, and just when I was about to get promoted. Guan Yan sent me a message, saying she wanted to start a game company and asked if I was willing to come. I quit my job without hesitation and even used all the savings I had built up from work as the company’s startup funds. Back then, she told me that she wanted to make the perfect game in her mind, that she wanted to stand at the World Game Competition and proudly say her acceptance speech. At that time, I thought I had found true love, but I never expected that she already had a boyfriend, and that person was Li Yunzhou. I could only bury my feelings and work hard, devoting all my energy to games. And when Li Yunzhou found out that Guan Yan had used all the assets her family had left her to start a game company. He left directly. I knew Li Yunzhou had only been with Guan Yan for money, for those assets of hers, but Guan Yan didn’t know. She had no heart left for games at all and spent every day trying to get back together with Li Yunzhou. And Li Yunzhou completely grew tired of her, sold the house Guan Yan had bought for him, went abroad, and cut off all contact. Because Li Yunzhou left, Guan Yan and I really ended up together. Later we got married, and because we had no money, she smiled and told me we should make up for the proposal when our game won a big award. Back then I thought I was the happiest person in the world, the person I loved, the work I loved, and a company that was thriving. But only now did I understand. Guan Yan had never forgotten Li Yunzhou. The person she truly loved had always been Li Yunzhou, no matter how much I gave her. Ever since Li Yunzhou joined the company, Guan Yan had been completely glued to him. Even though the two of us had already gotten our marriage certificate and were truly husband and wife. I looked at the ring in my hand and gave a self-mocking smile. Maybe now I was the only one still remembering that proposal promise. I tossed it into the company trash can in one motion. That was that. Never again.