Restart life

Chapter 260 0257 [Giving Each Aunt a Set of Three Kingdoms Kill]

The male executive and the female white-collar worker from last year have become very, very, very good friends.

They became acquainted through Chen Guiliang's book, and instead of choosing Bilin.com, a website popular with white-collar workers, they registered accounts together on HaiNei.com.

They also frequently share their work and life experiences on Haiwainet, occasionally posting their experiences and thoughts on reading, traveling, and playing tennis.

This year, upon hearing that Chen Guiliang was going to sign books again, they decided to come together.

What's going on up ahead?

"I don't know, it seems like someone came to cause trouble."

"You stay here and wait in line, I'll go take a look."

"Be careful, and don't meddle in other people's business."

The male executive left the group and walked towards the middle-aged women, only to see them heading towards the autograph booth. So he continued to follow them until he was stopped by staff.

The male executive was not far from the signing table, and he could hear what was being said over there, so he stood there waiting to see what would happen.

Chen Guiliang glanced up and then continued signing autographs for the fans.

After the middle-aged women and reporters crowded around the autograph table, they chattered incessantly. One after another, they chimed in, like 500 ducks quacking.

Seeing that Chen Guiliang ignored them, an older woman angrily said, "What kind of attitude is this? Why are you ignoring us?"

"That's right, why don't you say something!"

They didn't even glance at us.

"..."

Chen Guiliang turned to look at them, and they started talking again.

There was no organization whatsoever; everyone was just talking to themselves, and at least seven or eight people were speaking at the same time.

Chen Guiliang remained calm and continued signing, no longer looking at them.

How should we communicate in this situation?

Li Xunhuan shouted, "Quiet, quiet! Can you take turns speaking? Choose a representative to speak first! How can we talk like this?"

The older women continued chattering away.

Li Xunhuan felt his scalp tingle and his mind was about to explode.

When an older woman saw that Chen Guiliang was ignoring them, she tried to rush over and snatch the pen from Chen Guiliang's hand.

Yang Shuo, who was already on guard, immediately stopped the old woman.

But Yang Shuo didn't dare to make a move. He just spread his arms to block her, afraid that the old lady would lie down if he didn't do something right.

After five or six minutes, thanks to the efforts of Li Xunhuan and the reporters, the middle-aged women finally agreed to come one by one.

The first woman arrived at the autograph table.

Chen Guiliang stood up, smiled, and shook hands with her: "Hello, elder sister, I am Chen Guiliang."

The woman was taken aback; she hadn't expected Chen Guiliang to be so kind.

She instinctively shook hands with Chen Guiliang, but then remembered the purpose of her visit and said in an unfriendly tone, "Why are you calling me 'elder sister'? I'm old enough to be your mother."

"You look young, I thought you were only 30. Your child is still in elementary school, right?" Chen Guiliang said.

The older woman couldn't help but laugh, her tone softening slightly: "Don't think that just because I say a few nice words, I'll support you game developers."

Chen Guiliang said, "Look at what you're saying. What's wrong with me telling the truth? You really do look only thirty years old. You take such good care of yourself. Your skin is like a young girl's."

Chen Guiliang is quite handsome, and he's also a celebrity.

After a barrage of compliments, the older woman's arrogance subsided considerably: "I just want to have a word with you. You're clearly a student at Peking University, with a bright future ahead of you. Why do you insist on making games?"

Chen Guiliang countered, "The game I made is called 'Three Kingdoms Kill.' Do you know anything about this game?"

The older woman said matter-of-factly, "How could I not know? Just from the name, it sounds like fighting and killing. Kids play as generals from the Three Kingdoms period, killing each other all day long in your game. The children of laid-off workers' families, and the left-behind children in rural areas, whose families are already poor, steal money from their parents to buy equipment in your game. Oh, and they even need to buy game cards."

Chen Guiliang patiently explained, "Sister, 'Three Kingdoms Kill' doesn't sell game cards, and there's no equipment in the game."

"How is that possible?" an older woman standing on the periphery couldn't help but exclaim.

"Exactly! These days, online games all sell game cards and in-game items! My son hasn't eaten breakfast for six months, and he's been spending all his meal money on game cards. I only found out at the end of this semester."

"Standing right in front of you and still trying to argue? You game developers have no shame!"

"..."

The plan was to take turns asking questions, but the older women started talking nonsense again.

Chen Guiliang said to the middle-aged woman in front of him, "Sister, how can I speak to you like this?"

The woman had been praised, so her temper had calmed down. She went over to talk to her companions, and after several more minutes, no one spoke anymore.

Chen Guiliang explained, "There are many types of online games. Just like football, basketball, and table tennis, they are all ball sports, but can the gameplay be the same? Can poker, mahjong, chess, and Go be the same? The Three Kingdoms Kill game was not originally an online game, but a tabletop game."

Chen Guiliang shouted to the fans in line, "Who else brought a copy of 'Three Kingdoms Kill' for autographs?"

"I!"

A student stepped forward.

Chen Guiliang invited the student over, opened his Three Kingdoms Kill card game box, and distributed the cards inside to the older women to look at.

The physical cards and generals are all basic skins, and they are not drawn too explicitly.

"This is the Three Kingdoms Kill game?"

"It seems so, the back of the card has the words 'Three Kingdoms Kill' printed on it."

"Why are they playing cards with little figures drawn on them?"

"Online games are definitely different; they just have the same name."

"..."

These middle-aged women started chattering away again.

Chen Guiliang looked at the student and comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, I'll compensate you if you break it. Leave me an address and I'll send you a signed collector's edition."

"Really?" the student exclaimed excitedly.

Chen Guiliang handed him paper and pen: "Write down the address."

As the student wrote down the address, he said, "Mr. Chen, I admire you very much. Because of the game 'Three Kingdoms Kill' and 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty,' I've come to love history. I want to major in history when I go to university."

Chen Guiliang kindly reminded him, "Actually, you can study history even if you don't major in history. You can apply for other popular majors and read history books in your spare time."

"Don't try to persuade me, I'm definitely going to major in history!" the student said firmly.

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: Is this considered a scam?

The older woman was still making a scene, and Li Xunhuan repeatedly shouted, "Stop arguing! Take turns speaking. Raise your hand if you want to speak, otherwise we won't get anywhere today!"

Many book fans had already stopped queuing and gathered around to watch the excitement, and even the staff could hardly keep them away.

"Are you all crazy? Have you nothing better to do than eat your fill?!"

"If you're so capable, go and cause trouble at Shanda, NetEase, and The9. What's the point of bullying a small company like this?"

"Call the police and get them out of here! They're delaying our autograph session!"

"..." Before the older women could calm down, the book fans started cursing again.

Several middle-aged women were provoked and started arguing with the book fans across from the staff.

More and more people from both sides are joining the war of words.

Chen Guiliang and Li Xunhuan quickly ran to the middle to persuade them.

Li Xunhuan had already called the police, and Uncle Hat arrived at the scene soon after.

With Uncle Hat's mediation, the older women finally agreed to take turns speaking again, and the book fans also promised not to curse anymore.

The reporters on site were thrilled, even though they all came from newspaper supplements and online bookstores. Besides writing culture-related news, they could also write other types of reports.

Moreover, news appearing at the book signing event, especially one related to online games, is the kind of coverage that could be featured in a supplement or book review section.

An older woman was called upon by the man in the hat to ask a question: "I know a lot about online games, don't try to fool me. You guys make money by selling game cards and equipment. How else would you make money? Are you running a company doing charity?"

Chen Guiliang said, "You won't believe me no matter what I say. These are students who are queuing up for autographs, let's have this student explain."

The student was quite excited: "Aunties, the game 'Three Kingdoms Kill' really doesn't sell game cards or equipment. Like me, I also play 'Three Kingdoms Kill' online. But in a year, I only spent 80 yuan to buy powerful generals that require a lot of general soul fragments. There are even people who have played for a year without spending a single penny, and the majority of them don't spend any money."

"Don't team up to fool me, this student is your fan!" The older woman still didn't believe it.

Chen Guiliang sighed and asked, "Have you ever played Dou Dizhu online?"

The woman shook her head: "No."

"Ladies, since you've all joined each other's QQ groups, you're all netizens. These days, it's very fashionable for middle-aged people to use QQ; some of you should have played Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game) in the QQ Games lobby, right?" Chen Guiliang said.

More than just one or two middle-aged women who had played QQ Landlords (a popular card game) were talking at once, disregarding their agreement with Uncle Hat. They said, "QQ Landlords is different from online games. It's something you can play casually without having to pay!"

Chen Guiliang looked at Uncle Hat, who then stepped in to quiet everyone down.

Finally, Chen Guiliang explained: "Sanguosha is similar to QQ Dou Dizhu. Both are card games where you can choose to recharge or not. Just like you, you can play QQ Dou Dizhu without recharging, but you can also recharge to buy Happy Beans."

The older women started talking all at once again, and this time even Uncle Hat got angry.

Uncle Hat yelled, "Stop making noise! ​​You...yes, you. You're the loudest, so you speak and everyone else shut up."

The loudest-voiced woman said, "I've played QQ Landlord. You can't recharge in QQ Landlord, you're lying to us!"

Chen Guiliang was speechless at this: "Sister, QQ Landlord launched the Happy Beans system last year. You can play for free, but others can also pay to play. My Three Kingdoms Kill is the same. They are both card games, and you can pay to play or not. My company makes money from those who pay to play."

“You tell us!” Uncle Hat pointed to another middle-aged woman.

The woman said, "Whether you recharge or not, whether you sell game cards or equipment or not, you're just harming students by making online games. You're luring students to internet cafes, and they spend all day playing games there instead of studying."

"Yes, you game developers are all harming people!"

"The government should arrest you!"

"..."

Uncle Hat was going crazy: "Quiet down! I'll call on whoever speaks first! You come..."

The older woman said, "I'm done talking."

Uncle Hat said, "Then it's Mr. Chen's turn to speak."

Chen Guiliang explained, "Games don't necessarily have to be played in internet cafes. I haven't even sent anyone to internet cafes to promote it. Many internet cafes don't even have 'Three Kingdoms Kill' installed. If students want to play 'Three Kingdoms Kill' in an internet cafe, they have to download it themselves. You can check with any 10 internet cafes in Beijing. If more than 5 of them have 'Three Kingdoms Kill' installed, then I'll admit I'm wrong and the students are being cheated. In other cities, even fewer internet cafes have 'Three Kingdoms Kill' installed."

Uncle Hat spoke first: "Stop arguing, I'll call on someone. Let's stop dwelling on this issue. If you don't believe me, go find an internet cafe right now."

The women looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

"Hahaha!"

The book lovers watching the commotion suddenly burst into laughter.

Chen Guiliang seized the opportunity to say, "According to our company's statistics, the average daily playtime of 'Three Kingdoms Kill' players used to be 45 minutes, but now it has increased to about an hour. Spending an hour a day playing games, that's not considered addiction, is it? Even students play basketball for that long."

This is certainly not entirely the truth.

The average playtime is only 1 hour, but it's normal for hardcore players to play for half a day.

But I've never heard of anyone skipping class to play "Three Kingdoms Kill".

Just as Uncle Hat was about to let the aunties speak, Chen Guiliang continued, "How about this? I'll give each of you ladies who came here today a physical set of 'Three Kingdoms Kill' cards. Go back and study the game yourselves. If you don't like it, just throw it away."

Then she added, "If your children are addicted to other games, you can try letting them play 'Three Kingdoms Kill'. Maybe if they like it, they will stop skipping class to play games and only play it in their spare time."

After saying that, Chen Guiliang called Youke's warehouse manager: "This is Chen Guiliang. Send 20 sets of cards to Oriental Plaza immediately. Once they arrive, just ask at the Chen Guiliang book signing event and you'll find them."

Not only those middle-aged women, Chen Guiliang even planned to give them to Uncle Hat.

Li Xunhuan had his staff bring coffee and stools from a nearby shop, and arranged for the older women to sit down and drink coffee.

Chen Guiliang continued with his book signings.

Uncle Hat didn't dare leave, fearing that trouble would break out here.

The older women chatted over their coffee:

"Could it be that we've really misunderstood him?"

"They probably wouldn't be lying, right? Should we go back to the internet cafe and ask them?"

"I think it's true, otherwise it wouldn't be on 'Xinwen Lianbo' (the evening news program on CCTV)."

"I knew it! How could online games possibly be on CCTV's 'News Broadcast'? I suspected it before I came, but you guys insisted on pushing me to come."

"What do you mean we instigated this? You were also very agitated at the time, and you were even cursing in the QQ group!"

"If it's really similar to QQ Landlord, then it's fine to play it."

"Then today wasn't a waste?"

"Why don't we go line up to buy the books too? I heard they're history and science books, and letting the kids read them can help them develop historical knowledge."

"Buying books? You're giving him too much credit! Even if he's not addicted to 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' he's still in the online gaming industry! He may not be making fighting games now, but he definitely will be in the future."

"Yes, making those kinds of fighting games is more profitable. He'll definitely do it. Once he does, we'll settle accounts with him!"

"..."

The older women are really good at judging.

Unfortunately, they were not well-informed and did not know that Chen Guiliang had invested in "The Emperor's Reign".

After a short wait, the Youke employees delivered 20 sets of physical cards.

Everyone gets a set, including Uncle Hat.

The women then left together, feeling their trip had been worthwhile; at least their visit hadn't been in vain. The Three Kingdoms card game in their hands was like free eggs they'd gotten at a supermarket.

Whether or not it's useful at home, I did receive something anyway.

The box contains instructions that teach you how to play face-to-face murder mystery games step by step. Who knows, maybe one of my aunties will go home today and play 1v1 with her husband tonight.

Of course, a few older women actually went to internet cafes to inquire about the situation.

Li Xunhuan breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally, it's all settled. President Chen, was it someone who dislikes you and deliberately instigated them to come?"

"Only the devil knows." Chen Guiliang was busy signing autographs.

(End of this chapter)