Restart life

Chapter 140 0137 [There are games and theme songs on Renren.com, how can you beat me?]

The lecture was held over two consecutive periods, lasting 90 minutes.

Just as Chen Guiliang stood up, intending to go to the company to discuss things with Ao Yanzhen, Senior Brother Long Xiang sent him a text message right on time.

"Go to Director Zhu's office. You've failed too many courses."

"it is good."

I just finished Professor Zhu's lecture, and now I have to go report to Director Zhu.

I hope I won't be asked to quit.

Chen Guiliang rode his bicycle and soon met Director Zhu.

"sit down."

Director Zhu gave a signal and took out Chen Guiliang's final report card.

Chen Guiliang sat down and waited.

Director Zhu said, "You failed six courses. According to past rules, you would be considered unsuitable for the Yuanpei Program. I suggest you transfer to another department."

Chen Guiliang has always had excellent reading comprehension skills: "Just a suggestion, not a mandate?"

Director Zhu said, "Yes, the Yuanpei Class is experimental in nature. It would be irresponsible of us to expel you or force you to change your major in your first year. You have two choices: transfer to another department now, or take the make-up exam next week."

"I choose to retake the exam," Chen Guiliang said.

Director Zhu reminded him: "You can retake the exams now, but if you still fail this many subjects by the end of this semester, you won't even have the chance to retake them. In that case, you'll either be forced to transfer to another department or you'll have to repeat the year."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "When I was filling out my college application, Director Zhu advised me to apply for the Yuanpei Class. He seemed to have said that the Yuanpei Class could be studied for a maximum of six years."

Director Zhu was both amused and exasperated: "So you have more than one chance to repeat a year, and if you can graduate within six years, it might not even be recorded as repeating a year in your file. But I still hope you study hard and can pass the exams normally."

Chen Guiliang is definitely going to repeat his first year of university.

He estimates he'll have to complete two or three freshman years before being forced to transfer departments, or even be expelled.

Of course, if the company develops too smoothly, other situations may occur.

"Okay, thank you for your explanation, Teacher Zhu." Chen Guiliang stood up and bowed, looking like a well-behaved child.

"You'd better watch yourself." Director Zhu put the report card back.

Chen Guiliang respectfully took his leave.

After Chen Guiliang left the office, Director Zhu couldn't help but scratch his forehead.

He didn't know whether recruiting Chen Guiliang was the right or wrong choice. He never expected that this student would start a business in his freshman year, and do so successfully.

He will certainly ask the teachers to be lenient with the make-up exam next week.

But there are limits to leniency!

Damn it, this is the first time we've encountered this situation in the four sessions of the Yuanpei Class.

Ao Yanchen and Guo Feng also failed their exams this time.

However, the number of courses that Senior Sister Ao failed was within an acceptable range; she could simply pass the make-up exams.

Guo, the madman, failed most of his other subjects besides computer science. But he simply switched majors from biology to computer science. Moreover, he had already earned almost all the credits he needed; he could even graduate early as long as he completed his thesis!
Arriving at the company by bicycle, Chen Guiliang called Ao Yanchen over and tossed her a company job allocation plan.

"Recruit employees and expand the company."

"ByteDance has 5 technical developers and 1 customer service representative."

"Game science team: 6 technical developers, 1 planner, 1 artist, 1 customer service representative. 1 person in charge of the physical Three Kingdoms Kill card game inventory and also a Taobao shop assistant."

"One cashier/clerk, who is in charge of two companies at the same time."

"There is one person in charge of community operations, Xie Yang, who is also in charge of two companies. He can temporarily draw on customer service and cashier staff to help out."

"If we're too busy, for example, with art, we'll outsource temporarily."

"In addition, I will serve as the project manager and chief planner for both companies. You will be my full-time assistant and accountant."

"In summary, including myself, there are a total of 20 people in the two companies!"

After reviewing the job allocation plan, Ao Yanzhen exclaimed in surprise, "Is something big about to happen? The number of employees is actually doubling!"

“A new campus network called 5Q has emerged and is competing with us for market share,” Chen Guiliang said. “Next, we will upgrade our servers and bandwidth, and fully open up registration for university students so that they no longer need to enter any invitation codes.”

Ao Yanchen asked, "Why are you adding so much development work to Game Science?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I plan to develop a small game called 'Happy Farm' to increase user engagement on Renren.com. The game will be developed by Game Science, and the game copyright will also remain with Game Science."

Although Happy Farm is very simple, it presented many challenges in 2005.

Because it's a web-based game.

At that time, Flash functionality was limited, server pressure was enormous, and network speed was also extremely slow.

Solutions exist, such as upgrading servers and bandwidth, using low-resolution bitmaps for Flash assets, replacing real-time rendering with frame animation, and preloading frequently used resources for users…

The final product will inevitably have appalling graphics and extremely slow response times. If too many people are trying to steal crops at the same time, it will become incredibly laggy.

Ao Yanchen said, "I'll rent a booth on weekends to recruit people. I'll need to borrow Guo Feng or Dong Qianqiu when I'm recruiting programmers."

“Thank you for your hard work,” Chen Guiliang said. “You should also adjust the salaries of the employees at both companies to be slightly higher than the normal market level.”

Ao Yanchen laughed and said, "You've finally been generous this time."

Chen Guiliang said, "I will be more generous in the future."

Ao Yanchen received the task and started working on it, while Chen Guiliang logged into QQ to chat.

The little boy under the streetlight: "Haven't you made up your mind yet? If you don't come, I'll have to hire someone else this weekend."

About seven or eight minutes later, Akane Tendo replied: "I've already started my internship at an animation company."

The little boy under the streetlight: "What are you drawing?"

Akane Tendo: "I'm assisting a senior colleague at the company by drawing a story about a cat and a rabbit."

The little boy under the streetlight: "Are there squirrels and dogs too?"

Akane Tendo: "How did you know?" (From *Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit: The Seven Swordsmen*).

The little boy under the streetlight: "All children's cartoons are like this, Animal Base Camp. Are you happy at work?"

Akane Tendo: "What do you think?"

The little boy under the streetlamp: "Hahaha, come here. Players of the game 'Three Kingdoms Kill' really love the skins you drew."

A highly skilled illustrator is relegated to assisting senior artists, likely only doing basic tasks like cleaning up drafts and coloring. And this is all for a children's animation.

Akane Tendo: "My senior colleagues at the company have been very kind to me and praised me for my hard work and attention to detail. I've only been here for a few days as an intern, is it really okay to just leave like this?"

The girl was already interested, but she didn't know what excuse to use to leave.

Clear-headed yet foolish, unable to even bring himself to resign.

The little boy under the streetlight said, "Big sister, you're just an intern, your job is to do odd jobs. Do you think that animated film can't be made without you? On the contrary, we can't do without you. There are so many high-quality skins waiting for you to draw. I've practically visited you three times already, how can you bear to refuse me?"

Akane Tendo: "..."

The little boy under the streetlight: "Just tell those people the truth, that a game company has offered you a high-paying job."

Akane Tendo: "Then I'll give it a try."

After ending the QQ call, Chen Guiliang searched for 5Q Campus Network.

He tried registering an account and found that he could actually register directly. He then tried out various functions, and damn it, it was all a copy of Renren!
Is 5Q Campus Network's on-the-ground promotion effective?
It actually worked somewhat at first; those guys went from dorm room to do promotion, offering small gifts to anyone who registered an account.

Another timeline, roughly as follows:

When Wang Xing created Xiaonei.com, the number of users grew too fast, and the company ran out of funds to upgrade its servers and bandwidth before venture capital entered the market.

Chen Yizhou created 5Q Campus Network, which, although unable to compete with Renren.com, is richer than Wang Xing.

So Chen Yizhou acquired Xiaonei.com. The two websites were merged into one, retaining the name Xiaonei.com and abandoning the lousy name 5Q Campus Network.

Wang Xing then joined Chen Yizhou's company, continuing as CEO of Xiaonei.com. However, he resigned less than a year later to create a mini-blog (the Chinese version of Twitter). He then founded HaiNei.com (a white-collar community). Both companies failed, so he then founded Meituan!
Chen Guiliang left 5Q Campus Network. Searching the website's name on Baidu, he found that they focused their advertising on university BBS and related online forums.

Chen Guiliang called Xie Yang over: "Why didn't you tell me about all these promotional posters?"

Xie Yang hunched over the computer and glanced at the screen, then quickly complained, "Brother, I'm all alone. Other colleagues can only be temporarily called up when we're on a mission. I'm busy promoting Three Kingdoms Kill, how can I have time to pay attention to other posts?"

Chen Guiliang thought for a moment and said, "Go find Ao Yanzhen and tell her to hire another community operations person."

"That's more like it." Xie Yang was very happy; he finally had his own personal underling.

After Xie Yang left, Chen Guiliang continued browsing the posts and found that most of the replies were sarcastic.

"You still have the nerve to advertise on BBS? I just checked out 5Q Campus Network, and all its functions are copied from Renren. Have you no shame?"

"This name is hilarious. There are only 4 Queens in a deck of cards, so 5 Queens is cheating. No wonder you're so good at copying and plagiarizing."

"..."

After browsing some of the replies, Chen Guiliang felt more at ease.

However, we must not be complacent. We must despise the enemy strategically, but take them seriously tactically.

He suddenly glanced at a post, which was college students discussing the real-name registration system.

Next month, university BBS forums across the country will require real-name registration, and non-students will be prohibited from registering accounts. The universities will take over the management of the BBS, but student administrators will still be responsible for site administration.

In the related posts, most students were hurling insults, claiming that the school was trying to monitor their speech.

There were even comments like this: "BBS real-name registration? I might as well go play on Renren! Although Renren also requires real-name registration, there are no leaders or teachers there, it's our own community."

Chen Guiliang couldn't help but laugh.

With university BBS requiring real-name registration, campus networks are expected to see another surge in registrations.

Although these two types of communities do not conflict with each other, students may develop a rebellious mentality in the short term and retaliate by registering on Renren.com instead of using BBS.

Once they get used to the real-name system on BBS, they will eventually go back to it, and the two websites can be used together.

At Peking University's BBS, some moderators have already resigned in protest against the real-name registration system.

Chen Guiliang has entered Tsinghua BBS again. Goodness, these people are even more reckless than Peking University students.

The administrators of Tsinghua BBS jointly posted a message claiming that if the university dares to forcibly take over, more than 100 administrators will resign collectively and create a new Tsinghua alumni BBS of a social nature!

Chen Guiliang couldn't help but reply to the post: "Welcome all Tsinghua students to join the campus network."

Just before lunchtime, my phone rang.

Bian Guanyue said on the phone, "I've written the lyrics and music, let me sing it for you."

"Didn't you ask me to write lyrics?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Bian Guanyue said, "It's better to write the lyrics for my first song myself."

Chen Guiliang said, "Then you sing."

The sound of a guitar came through the phone, followed by the song "Bian Guan Yue": "The wind on the back of the bicycle travels through the streets, laughter lingers outside the South Gate. How many sunsets have we counted before the second hand learns to slow down? Time folds group photos into dreams, and we plant hope before the dream ends. When the north wind passes through the Christmas station, snow falls on all the unfinished verses..."

Well, the lyrics to "Bian Guan Yue" describe her time dating Chen Guiliang.

Sometimes sweet, sometimes sad.

However, the melody is too flat and lacks variation, and the composition is still too immature.

Well, for my first time writing a song, it's not bad at all.

Chen Guiliang encouraged, "It sounds very good, but you can still improve."

Bian Guanyue asked with a smile, "Is there still a lot of room for improvement? Just tell me directly, I know my own level."

"Do you want me to write it for you... um, wait a minute." A thought popped into Chen Guiliang's mind.

Bian Guanyue asked, "What's wrong?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's collaborate on a song. You sing it, and we'll release it online for free to promote Renren.com. This is Renren.com's theme song, and it's also a song of youth written for all students."

"Great!" Bian Guanyue was eager to try.

(End of this chapter)