The dinner ended rather abruptly. William's performance of "Castle in the Sky" stunned the entire audience. Though they didn't want to admit it, neither Thomas nor Alan's works could match the brilliance of William's.
There were many reasons for this—novelty was one of them.
Because of that, those who performed later didn't get much interest from the crowd. Tiffany's bid also broke the record for the highest auction price. After all, this was an art exchange event, where the artistic value of the works often outweighed their commercial worth, so the commercial rights usually weren't worth much. People were mostly here to show support, not empty their wallets.
"Tiffany." Thomas walked out from the banquet hall and came over to Tiffany and William.
Dallas tactfully stepped away. He had only come to tell Tiffany that her family missed her and hoped she could visit when she had time. He didn't mention Dollas at all.
As for William, Dallas didn't hold back his praise, even suggesting he go back with Tiffany, not minding the age gap between them in the slightest.
"Godfather." Tiffany bowed slightly out of respect.
"You." Thomas chuckled, then reached out to William. "You seem unfamiliar, young man. Who did you study under?"
"I'm self-taught."
William wasn't feeling too warm toward him.
"Impressive."
Thomas nodded, sensing William's attitude. Not wanting to make things awkward, he turned back to Tiffany. "Come by my house sometime. Your godmother hasn't seen you in a long time."
"Alright, I will." Tiffany nodded.
"Okay, take care on your way back. I'm going to see the guests off." Thomas turned and left.
"Don't take it to heart. Godfather treats everyone the same way—he wasn't picking on you tonight," Tiffany explained.
"Yeah, I know."
William was just showing a little temper to make it clear he wasn't someone to be pushed around.
"Let's go, I'll drive you home." Tiffany waved him over, but after taking one step she stopped. "Or we could go somewhere else if you want."
"Let's just go back." William pretended not to hear her second suggestion.
Tiffany glanced back with a smile, her high heels clicking as she walked along the stone path.
They walked all the way to the manor's parking lot, where an uninvited guest stood next to Tiffany's car.
"Uncle." Tiffany's face instantly darkened.
It was clear that from the start, the one who kept pushing her to "marry the right person" and opposing her was this very uncle.
Dollas didn't look good either. He seemed a bit disappointed, a bit annoyed, and maybe even a little lost.
"Tiffany."
"If you're here to apologize, don't bother." Tiffany didn't give him a pleasant look.
Dollas gave a bitter smile, then turned to William and said, "You're really capable. I misjudged you."
William stayed standing, saying nothing.
Seeing that neither of them intended to respond, Dollas stopped trying to make conversation.
"By the way, how did you and Aunt Lisa meet?"
"We were classmates in elementary school, then went to the same university. Later, she came to work part-time at my music shop."
"So you've known each other for a really long time."
"Yeah, I didn't expect it's been over twenty years."
…
Tiffany originally planned to drop William off at his place before heading home, but William insisted on sending her home first. By the time he took a taxi back, it was already past eleven.
"Still up?"
As soon as he opened the door, he could hear the sound of the TV in the living room.
"Well, well?" Cynthia turned her head and froze for a second when she saw William in a suit. "Turn around and let your big sister have a look."
William ignored her and headed straight for the stairs. "I'm going to take a shower and sleep."
"Hold on." Cynthia stood up from the sofa, walked up to William, and sniffed him. "Chanel Chance Eau Fraîche. Must've been a pretty lady, huh?"
"Are you a dog?"
"Just used it before." Cynthia said with a smirk. "So tell me, which gorgeous woman made you put on that suit?"
"A friend's friend."
"A friend's friend?" Cynthia looked suspicious. "I bet it's not that simple."
William said blankly, "If you stop overthinking, it is that simple."
"Tsk." Cynthia curled her lip. "If you start dating, don't hide it from me. I wouldn't want to end up as the third wheel."
"I think we need to go over the rules about workplace harassment again."
William felt Cynthia had gotten bolder lately. At first, she was so righteous and proper, but now she spent the whole day teasing him instead.
Cynthia grinned. "Workplace harassment isn't just about bosses harassing employees. No one said employees can't harass their boss."
When she smiled, two dimples appeared on her face, making her even more attractive.
William realized there was no way he could win this argument, so he might as well go upstairs and shower.
"I'm going upstairs."
Without waiting for her response, he quickly ran upstairs, ignoring Cynthia's calls behind him.
By the time he finished his shower, it was just past midnight, which meant another payment had arrived.
"$59.000."
"$46.000"
There were two sums of money. The first was the profit share from Happy Mahjong. Ever since the Mahjong Association began heavily promoting their partner, Happy Mahjong, the game's popularity had soared. It was just a shame that the profit had been cut in half, otherwise they could have earned much more.
The second sum was from the daily report for Happy Match Mania, showing the game's total earnings for the day. Since Happy Match Mania was run independently by their company, even though it used WeChat's game servers, it had nothing to do with WeChat Games. That meant every recharge from players went straight into their account.
William didn't bother tracking every single transaction, so checking the daily report was easier.
Earning over a million a day was already amazing for a studio with fewer than ten people, including Aunt Oliver. But it was still far from the record William had set in the past. Nothing beat the easy profits from taking advantage of past policies—too bad there would be no such chance again.
Rumor had it that the telecom companies would soon announce the end of their free data subsidy policy. They realized that even hitting five million was easy, so cutting it further was pointless—might as well cancel it completely.
Of course, this was just a rumor. Whether they would actually do it would only be known when the announcement came out.
Monday, a long-missed workday.
William felt this weekend had been unusually long, especially that dinner party, which drained all his stored-up energy.
"Boss, Olivia's virtual model is done."
As soon as he arrived at the studio, Tina brought the good news.
It seemed they had worked through the weekend, voluntarily putting in extra hours—just as William had hoped when he first hired people who loved games.
Because they would eventually realize that spending their free time making games was more fun than being idle, and they naturally chose to work extra hours.