Chapter 376 - 372: How About a Drink at My Place?

His driving exams went very smoothly, and by early June, Jiang Xia had successfully obtained his license.

The very next day, he went with his wife to a dealership to pick up a Lavida. The price wasn't too expensive, and while its performance wasn't anything special, it was more than enough for daily commuting.

The young couple usually just drove back and forth between the company and the university. Their classmates were used to it by now. In fact, ever since Jiang Xia had a lawyer's letter sent to their former class president, Song Qingshu hadn't dared to cause any more trouble. Now, whenever he saw Jiang Xia, he would just lower his head and walk away.

Now that their class had a titan of the animation world among them, Jiang Xia had unwittingly become the center of attention. Sometimes during lectures, the professor would use *Cat and Mouse* as a case study, even asking Jiang Xia to personally explain its core concepts to the students and why it had become a nationwide sensation.

He also took this opportunity to create an account on D Station. He would occasionally upload short, minutes-long tutorials on basic animation techniques, and his follower count skyrocketed.

Although with his current status, Jiang Xia didn't really care about followers, it was still worthwhile since he could drive traffic to his own D Station and earn the goodwill of its users.

Now, *Slam Dunk* had been online for over three months, and the plot was entering the climactic showdown between Tsinghua University (Xiangbei) and Taiyuan University of Technology (Lingnan). Its view count continued to break records, a sign that the anime was only getting more popular.

Meanwhile, the long-awaited fifth season of *Cat and Mouse* finally premiered at the end of May, successively claiming the top spot in the monthly ratings for major television networks.

Among these, the regional dialect version of *Cat and Mouse* garnered extremely high view counts for its unique voice-acting style. This even gave rise to a wave of content creators who rushed to imitate the style with their own dubs.

They created derivative works by dubbing over funny real-life pet videos, and they had now attracted their own loyal fanbases.

It was clear that the ecosystem on D Station was steadily improving.

At seven in the evening, Li Weiya saw that the light in Jiang Xia's office was still on. She quietly pushed the door open to the sound of crisp keyboard clicks. "Ah Xia, why haven't you left work yet?"

He looked up at the doorway, kneading his stiff shoulders and letting out a soft sigh. "The script for the *Cat and Mouse* movie is in its final stages. I was planning to work a little overtime and finish it in one go."

"You're working way too hard," Li Weiya sighed helplessly.

An employee gets a two-day weekend to rest, but Jiang Xia almost never took a break. He spent all his time outside of class on work, shouldering the director's responsibilities for two hit animated series simultaneously. It was a workload that would crush anyone.

In comparison, Lin Yanwan's job was a bit more relaxed. Aside from composing the theme songs in the early stages, her only remaining tasks were voice acting for *Cat and Mouse* and *Slam Dunk*.

"You should get some proper rest this weekend. If you work yourself into the ground, what will happen to the company? Take Yanwan out to a movie, just relax. Don't always put so much pressure on yourself."

"Mm... okay."

Moved by Li Weiya's concern, Jiang Xia nodded in agreement. 'It really has been a long time since I've properly spent time with my wife,' he thought.

"Where's Yanwan?"

"She's probably in the recording studio, writing the theme song for the *Cat and Mouse* movie."

It was called a theme song, but it was really just a rather upbeat piece of music. There were no lyrics, only a lighthearted and cheerful melody—that was the only requirement Jiang Xia had given.

Li Weiya was taken aback for a moment. 'Alright then, this young couple has practically become the company's model workers.'

"Well, you two head home early. I'm leaving for the day."

"Okay. Take care, Godmother."

The door slowly closed. The air was quiet for just a moment before the crisp sound of typing started up again.

After leaving Qitian Animation, Li Weiya went next door to D Station. Almost all the lights were on over there. After all, as a user-facing video website, they needed staff on duty 24 hours a day.

She knocked on Zhou Lu's office door. Hearing a "Come in," she pushed the door open and entered.

"Still busy?"

Li Weiya walked over and stood behind Zhou Lu, seeing that she was working on a detailed development plan for D Station.

"President Jiang just appointed me as COO. I have to show some results, right?" Zhou Lu glanced at her with a helpless expression.

She had personally sworn to deliver results within six months. To make a real impact at the company level in that timeframe, time was incredibly tight.

Right now, D Station was a completely free, legitimate video website. Although it had massive daily traffic, it currently had no sources of profit.

Even adding a few ad placements on the page that didn't affect user experience was just a drop in the bucket compared to the company's enormous monthly expenses.

No matter how you looked at it, D Station couldn't survive forever on continuous financial transfusions from Qitian Animation. It had to find its own viable profit model to ensure healthy, sustainable development.

Zhou Lu had previously suggested implementing a payment system, given that D Station's user base was already massive, but Jiang Xia had rejected the idea without hesitation.

His reasoning was that D Station was still too new and hadn't developed strong user stickiness yet. Furthermore, almost 99% of internet users love to freeload. Once a payment model was introduced and the focus shifted toward commercialization, the "vibe" of D Station would change, and a large portion of the existing user base might leave immediately.

And the promise Jiang Xia had made—that Dili Dili might one day go out of business, but it would never sell out its principles—would become a joke.

Based on her past experience working in television, Zhou Lu believed that for D Station to survive, it had to keep getting bigger. The way to get bigger was through growth and breaking out of its niche, but that required D Station to have stronger organizational capabilities.

Therefore, the key was to focus on creating good content and a strong community.

They had to use high-quality services and creator incentives to attract users and content creators, foster a better community atmosphere, and work hard to increase user stickiness.

Looking at it this way, it was almost impossible for D Station to become profitable in the short term.

Every time she thought about this, Zhou Lu would get a headache. She felt a sense of powerlessness, like she was sitting on a mountain of treasure but had no idea where to start digging.

Seeing her conflicted expression, Li Weiya couldn't help but smile. "If you can't figure it out right now, then don't force it. For a free website, profitability was never going to be easy. Ah Xia never said that making a profit is the only way to show results. You have to remember that D Station's core mission right now is still strategic positioning. As long as you can increase D Station's influence from where it is now, no one will question your abilities."

Zhou Lu was stunned for a moment. "Can a company that isn't focused on profit really survive?"

Li Weiya shrugged. "Ah Xia says the things that are free are often the most expensive. D Station's golden age hasn't arrived yet. Take it one step at a time. For now, if you just focus your efforts on building a harmonious and rich community on D Station, that in itself will be a great achievement."

Seeing Zhou Lu still frowning as she seriously pondered the meaning of those words, Li Weiya forcefully pulled her up by the hand.

"Stop thinking about it. Time to clock out. How about we go to my place for a drink?"