Restart life

Chapter 119 0116 [President Lu not only has unconventional methods, but also extensive connections]

The headquarters of Microsoft Research Asia is located in Zhongguancun. Dong Qianqiu returned to the company after only a few steps.

Chen Guiliang shook hands to welcome him back, then asked curiously, "Even if interns have no human rights, they won't be thrown into menial tasks, right?"

Dong Qianqiu explained, "After the interns arrive, they will be assigned to a team and given a mentor. Currently, there are seven teams working on 16 core projects simultaneously. More than 200 interns are recruited every year, and the competition for interns is extremely fierce. I joined the team relatively late and was let down by an intern."

Chen Guiliang chuckled and said, "Interns play office politics too?"

Dong Qianqiu sighed and said, "I didn't expect this either. The whole team is extremely busy. The old project has entered a critical stage, and most of the interns in the team are working on the old project."

"Only one other intern and I were responsible for the preliminary literature review for the new project. This involved systematically collecting, classifying, analyzing, and refining academic papers, technical reports, industry news, and other materials."

"That intern lied to me, saying that since I was new, I should get along well with everyone. He told me to serve tea and water to the team members so I could become familiar with them and get along better in the future. I actually believed his lies and rushed to do unnecessary chores for everyone, like a sycophantic lackey!"

"And what happened? He went to my advisor and reported me, saying that I was slow and lazy, always trying to curry favor with everyone. He even secretly shredded some of the research materials I had compiled, and I even suspect that he made multiple copies to prevent them from being recovered!"

Chen Guiliang asked, "Don't your advisors care?"

“He’s an alumnus of our advisor’s school,” Dong Qianqiu said dejectedly. “And our advisor is very busy and doesn’t have time to investigate the truth. He reported me first, and our advisor believed him. Our advisor even criticized me and told me to correct my attitude. I got so angry that I started arguing with our advisor. Then, our advisor made me do odd jobs to reflect on my actions and didn’t assign me any work.”

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: This guy is still too young.

They are completely unguarded against others.

Why did that intern try to sabotage Dong Qianqiu?

The real intention was to sideline Dong Qianqiu and have him handle the literature review for the project alone. Even if an intern was brought in later to help, he would still be the primary contributor. This would allow him to showcase his abilities and ensure he would be listed as the first author on any subsequent paper.

After listening to the conversation, Guo Feng scratched his head and said, "Large organizations are so complicated. If I went there, I would definitely get ripped off too."

Dong Qianqiu said, "I never even thought about it that way. As a prestigious Microsoft Research Asia, we should all work together and strive for success!"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "This kind of top-quality item is very rare. Your luck is really bad."

Dong Qianqiu said, "Actually, even before I encountered this situation, I was thinking of coming back. There are too many interns there, and they are all highly skilled, so it's extremely difficult to stand out. If you can't stand out, you can only do some peripheral work. After a year of internship, you will definitely gain something, but not as much as I imagined. Most interns just write a paper and leave."

Chen Guiliang comforted him, saying, "When our company grows bigger, we'll also establish a research institute, and you can be the director then."

“I really took it seriously,” Dong Qianqiu said.

"Absolutely true. Let's go, let's indulge in some corruption!"

This was the first dinner party after moving into the new office, and friends who came to help also joined in.

In the dead of winter, it's the perfect time to enjoy Beijing-style hot pot.

With the cold wind blowing, Wu Meng asked, "It's already December, why hasn't it snowed in the capital yet?"

Deng Chen chimed in, "That's right, I'm still waiting to see the snow."

Ao Yanchen said, "It snowed at this time last year."

Freshmen from the south had been eagerly anticipating Beijing's first snowfall for a long time.

God just won't send rain!
"Who wants to see 'A World Without Thieves'?"

Are there any movie theaters near the school?

"School's been in session for so long, and you still haven't seen a movie?"

"No."

"I'm looking forward to watching 'Kung Fu Hustle,' Stephen Chow hasn't made a new film in a long time."

"..."

They chatted about everything from the snow to movies, and eventually arrived at a hot pot restaurant.

Copper hot pot.

The beer warmed up the bar, and Chen Guiliang raised his glass, saying, "Today the company finally has a decent office. Thank you to all my classmates for coming to help, and thank you to my brothers and sisters for your hard work these past few days. A toast to everyone!"

"Wishing Mr. Chen great wealth and prosperity."

"Wishing our company great success."

"cheers!"

After a few drinks, Ao Yanchen took out his camera: "I'll take some pictures of everyone."

Bian Guanyue leaned towards Chen Guiliang and made a peace sign.

Guo Feng used his right thumb and forefinger to make a gun gesture, striking a classic 007 pose with his chin.

Dong Qianqiu smiled sheepishly at the camera.

Everyone's actions and expressions were different, and they all froze at this moment.

After a hot pot meal, most of the group members were drunk and helped each other back to the dormitory.

Chen Guiliang then took Bian Guanyue to the hotel.

Bian Guanyue had also drunk quite a bit tonight. Even after taking a shower, the effects of the alcohol hadn't worn off, and her face was flushed as she hugged Chen Guiliang.

We agreed to do it at Christmas... We can't go back on our word about romantic things, but we can try other things.

After some sweet talk, Bian Guanyue nestled in Chen Guiliang's arms and said, "Our school has also started a campus beauty pageant."

"Where are you ranked?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Bian Guanyue laughed and said, "Hehe, we're in first place for now. But we have very few votes, and Renren isn't popular at our school yet."

Chen Guiliang said, "That's already quite a lot. I've specifically looked at the data; your school has over a thousand users. And they all started with the initial seven people, and the numbers naturally multiplied after sending out invitation codes. The school beauty pageant can accelerate registration, and I estimate it will reach three or four thousand by Christmas."

“Our school has a little over 10,000 students, but I estimate that only three or four thousand of them have computers,” Bian Guanyue said.

Chen Guiliang said, "You can register even without a computer."

“That’s true,” Bian Guanyue asked again, “Are you going back to your hometown for the New Year?”

Chen Guiliang said, "I can't leave the company; there are still many things to do."

Bian Guanyue said, "Then I'll stay and keep you company." "Next year during the Spring Festival, I'll go with you to visit your grandparents," Chen Guiliang said.

"Mm." Bian Guanyue smiled happily.

"Go to sleep."

"I want to hold you while sleeping."

……

The new week begins, and Chen Guiliang has skipped class again.

He failed English 100% of the time. He never memorized any vocabulary words when he entered university, and he skipped English classes every now and then.

The main reason is that I don't want to learn this stuff.

As for other courses, whether you fail or not depends on fate.

With Li Xunhuan constantly urging him to finish the manuscript, Chen Guiliang's writing speed increased considerably.

Because Li Xunhuan has already started promoting himself.

This guy really has amazing connections. He has connections with a bunch of well-known writers, including Han Han, Guo Jingming, Ning Caishen, Xing Yusen, Annie Baby, Jin Hezai, and Cai Jun, all of whom are promoting "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" on their blogs at the same time.

It instantly attracted the attention of countless netizens and media outlets.

Taking advantage of the situation, Li Xunhuan leaked the news to several newspapers, saying that he had signed a contract for the book and offered an unprecedented royalty rate. He also mentioned that Chen Guiliang's Xiaonei.com had been valued at $500 million by venture capitalists but he refused to accept investment.

This sparked a huge wave of discussion, with the media reporting on it from various angles.

Several publishers protested, contacting newspapers to say that Li Xunhuan was ruining the publishing industry. Offering a guaranteed 15% tiered revenue share leaves no room for profit. Furthermore, "Those Things About the Ming Dynasty" is simply not worth that price!

It was a huge uproar both online and offline.

……

The influence of blogs at this time can be compared to that of microblogs more than ten years later.

Han Han has been busy racing, and since the publication of "Chang'an Chaos", he hasn't been very active online.

He updated his blog without warning, but the content consisted of only one sentence: "I recently discovered a good book called 'Those Things About the Ming Dynasty.' It's being serialized on websites like Tianya Forum and Rongshuxia."

That's so perfunctory.

It's obvious they're being forced to operate.

The comments section is full of all sorts of opinions.

"Wow, Young Master Han has finally shown up."

"You're taking money to help with advertising, right? That's completely absurd."

"The book that Han Shao recommended must be good. I'll go check it out right away."

"What nonsense! Several authors have already recommended this book today."

"I just read a chapter, and it's really interesting."

"Did the sun rise in the west? Han Han and Guo Jingming are actually promoting the same book."

"..."

Compared to Han Han's perfunctory response, Guo Jingming gave Li Xunhuan a lot of face, writing a blog post of seven or eight hundred words.

Moreover, the comments section of Guo Jingming's blog is filled with comments like "I'm going to read it right away," "It's definitely a good book," and "Guo Jingming has such good taste."

With the promotion of numerous authors, a large number of netizens flocked to the serialized post of "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" on Tianya Forum.

Longtime users of Tianya Forum were also drawn in by this commotion, and instinctively clicked on the post to read the novel, wanting to know why it was so popular.

Then, they started arguing.

"Wow, the author is so knowledgeable, he must be a history major."

Keep updating!

Why hasn't it been updated yet?

"This elementary school level writing style is enough to make you think you can write popular science history works?"

"I think it's great. I definitely wouldn't be able to finish reading the History of Ming, but I'm really enjoying this book, The History of Ming Dynasty. It's a good way to brush up on my knowledge of the Ming Dynasty."

"This is terrible. There were many reasons for the uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, but the author just glossed over them in a few words. He's obviously an amateur."

"Upstairs, if you're so great, why don't you write a book about it? Who's going to read a long, rambling piece? This is how you make things interesting."

"I'm a middle school student, and I think it's very well written. Keep it up, author!"

"Some people just like to nitpick."

"Anyone who likes reading this book probably didn't even graduate from junior high school."

"..."

Tianya Forum is actually not too bad; less than 20% of the users are actually criticizing it.

The Peking University BBS was particularly lively because Peking University students have a greater understanding of history. In particular, history majors directly dismissed "Those Things About the Ming Dynasty" as children's literature.

Of course, it also has many fans, with science students generally giving it higher ratings. This is because they don't have time to study official history, and this book provides basic historical knowledge while allowing them to relax and enjoy the story.

Even after all this hype, Li Xunhuan was still not satisfied, so he called Chen Guiliang and asked, "Does your school have any authoritative experts on the History of Ming?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Both the mainland and Taiwan have a systematic version of the Ming Shilu (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty), and the Peking University version is generally recognized as having a more meticulous and accurate collation. The two main collastic collators of the Peking University version of the Ming Shilu are still teaching at the university. One of them will be lecturing to the Yuanpei Class next semester."

“Could we ask them to write a preface for ‘Those Things of the Ming Dynasty’? Their preface would shut up many critics,” Li Xunhuan said, laughing again. “Of course, it might also cause even greater controversy. But either way, it will help us sell books.”

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll give it a try."

(End of this chapter)