Restart life

Chapter 313 0310 [Ethnic Mobile Game]

"Jingle Bell!"

Chen Guiliang rode his bicycle again, ringing the bell as he traveled through the campus.

He has to go to take his final exams.

I haven't been on campus much this semester, nor have I gone back to my dorm much.

Between the daily affairs of the two companies, ByteDance's IPO preparations, practicing English in his spare time, and occasionally meeting up with Bian Guanyue and Tao Xue on weekends, Chen Guiliang had no time to think about school matters.

I took an exam in the morning, and right after the time was up, Director Zhu called me.

Chen Guiliang then rode his bicycle to Director Zhu's office.

Director Zhu joked, "President Chen, you're usually so busy that I don't dare to call you. I have to take advantage of the time during the final exams."

"Then it would be kind of Director Zhu to check when I took the exam," Chen Guiliang said with a grin, playing the straight man.

"Please sit down. I'll go make some tea for Mr. Chen."

"Thank you for your trouble."

The teacher and student have a good relationship; they've reached the point where they can joke around freely in private.

Chen Guiliang sat there, waiting for Director Zhu to make tea.

As he took the teacup, he handed Director Zhu a cigarette.

Director Zhu put down his cigarette and said, "The Yuanpei Class will soon be upgraded to Yuanpei College. When the new students start school, the college will be officially established. I will be the first dean."

"Congratulations!" Chen Guiliang immediately offered his congratulations.

Director Zhu has finally become the boss after all her years.

His current position is "Deputy Director of the Yuanpei Program Management Committee," and he has been in charge of various tasks related to the Yuanpei Program for many years. As for the Director of the Yuanpei Management Committee, this position is held concurrently by the university president.

Director Zhu was clearly in high spirits, accepting Chen Guiliang's congratulations with a broad smile. He then said, "The college's founding ceremony will be held at the same time as the freshmen's opening ceremony. If you are free at that time, please give a speech on behalf of the Yuanpei students."

Chen Guiliang said, "If it doesn't coincide with a certain event, I will definitely go on stage to give a speech."

What is that thing?
IPO roadshow or listing bell ringing!
Director Zhu was somewhat surprised. Knowing Chen Guiliang as he did, he knew Chen wouldn't refuse such a thing. He asked curiously, "What important matter is happening at your company? Of course, you don't have to tell us if it's inconvenient to disclose it."

Chen Guiliang said, "It's really inconvenient to talk about it; it would be against the rules if I did."

Director Zhu immediately guessed that it might be related to going public, so he smiled and said, "Then I wish you all the best."

"Thank you for your kind words, Director Zhu... no, I mean, I thank you for your kind words, Dean Zhu." Chen Guiliang began to change his form of address.

Director Zhu waved his hand and said, "You should still call him Director and Teacher."

"Will we have to change dormitories after the college is established?" Chen Guiliang asked. He was asking on behalf of other students.

Director Zhu said, "We'll move the whole thing to the 43rd floor. Although other conditions are about the same, after the renovation, there will be shower rooms on each floor, so you won't have to go downstairs to queue for a shower anymore."

The accommodation conditions were still far from what they were like in Yuanpei Dormitory ten years later. Back then, two basement floors were renovated, and a private library, meeting rooms, cinema, gym, coffee bar, music rooms... were built in the dormitory building, and even offices for counselors and professors were provided.

Chen Guiliang continued chatting with Director Zhu for a while, and when it was almost lunchtime, he said goodbye and rode his bicycle to the cafeteria.

It's been a long time since I ate at the school cafeteria, and I really miss it.

Along the way, classmates would greet Chen Guiliang from time to time, and jokingly say that he was making money off graduates.

"Chen Guiliang!"

A girl exclaimed in surprise.

Chen Guiliang looked closely and had no recollection of it at all, but still responded with a smile.

The girl stopped Chen Guiliang and turned around to shout, "Dad, Mom, I've run into Chen Guiliang!"

Immediately, a middle-aged couple walked over from under the trees by the roadside.

Chen Guiliang could roughly guess their identities.

The girl said, "I'm a high school graduate from Jiangsu Province this year, and I really admire you. I also want to apply to Peking University's Yuanpei Program!"

This young lady seems very confident. It's only been a week since the college entrance exam ended, and she doesn't even know her scores yet, but she's already determined to apply to Peking University. And specifically, the Yuanpei Program.

Chen Guiliang wondered if he should apply for the title of "Yuanpei Class Image Ambassador" the next time he saw Director Zhu. With him there to lend his support, Director Zhu would have an easier time recruiting students.

The girl's parents also carefully examined Chen Guiliang, finding the young man increasingly dashing.

They chatted with Chen Guiliang for quite a while.

Chen Guiliang made an excuse that he was hungry and wanted to end the exchange to go to the cafeteria for lunch. However, this family was exceptionally hospitable and said they would treat Chen Guiliang to a meal at a restaurant outside.

They're obviously rich; otherwise, their parents wouldn't have accompanied their daughter to visit the university campus right after she finished the college entrance exam.

Chen Guiliang politely declined and rode his bicycle to the cafeteria.

"This young man is truly remarkable for his age. I heard he's built a very large company."

"And he's so handsome, I wonder if he has a girlfriend."

"Definitely, young men like that are very popular at school."

"That's not necessarily true. I'm too busy with my career to date."

"..." In the eyes of many parents, Chen Guiliang has become "someone else's child," and his image is absolutely positive.

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, Chen Guiliang got his food and found a seat to watch "Today's Talk" with great interest.

Looking at it for a while made me a little annoyed, and it really affected my mood.

The driver repeatedly ran over the elderly man five times, causing his death, and then disappeared after providing 8 yuan in medical expenses. Because it was impossible to prove "subjective intent to kill," he was ultimately sentenced to only three years in prison and ordered to pay 55 yuan in compensation to the family.

Sigh, can't they broadcast some lighthearted news?
Chen Guiliang buried his head in his food, while the cafeteria was already buzzing with discussion, the focus of the debate being whether there had been intentional homicide. The driver insisted he hadn't seen anything, and thought he'd run over a garbage bag while reversing. But why would he repeatedly run over a garbage bag?
"Chen Guiliang, do you think he should be sentenced to death?" asked a student at the same table.

Chen Guiliang didn't recognize this person either, and nodded, saying, "Serves you right!"

The student added, "The fact that the driver could come up with 8 yuan for medical expenses and 55 yuan in compensation to the family shows that he must be a wealthy person. I suspect that the driver used his connections, otherwise he would never have only been sentenced to three years."

Chen Guiliang smiled but didn't reply.

The student then started talking to the other students, all of them filled with righteous indignation.

That afternoon, several blog posts on Haiwainet quickly rose to the top 20 in terms of readership. They were all related to the case reported on "Today's Talk."

Although HaiNei.com has relatively strict censorship, it still gathers a large number of opinion leaders whose articles focus on current hot topics, greatly increasing user activity and website traffic.

With the Zhenglong tiger photo scandal this year and the Sanlu melamine scandal next year, the Haiwainet (a Chinese online forum) is expected to become quite lively.

There were no exams in the afternoon, so Chen Guiliang returned to the company to arrange responses to this round of inquiries. After each round of inquiries, ByteDance has one to two weeks to resolve various issues.

The cell phone rang.

Chen Guiliang answered the call and put it to his ear, but the noise immediately made him move the phone away from his ear.

Several people on the phone were cheering and shouting. Tang Kai, CEO of Dingguo Technology, exclaimed: "President Chen, our 'Seven Nights' has been shortlisted for the IMGA Best 3D Game! This is the first game from all of China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, to be shortlisted for the IMGA!"

Chen Guiliang, who was unfamiliar with early mobile games, was somewhat taken aback upon hearing the news. But he was mostly pleasantly surprised.

The founder sent several emails asking for help, and I casually invested some money. Then, the company's product was shortlisted for the most prestigious international mobile game award.

It’s too outrageous.

Little did he know that if he didn't invest, these seven young people wouldn't even have enough money for their travel expenses to attend the awards ceremony. They posted online everywhere seeking help, but no company was willing to assist them.

Chen Guiliang went downstairs to Game Science and called Qu Guohao over, saying, "Dingguo Technology, which we invested in earlier this year, has had its game 'Seven Nights' shortlisted for the IMGA Best 3D Game."

Qu Guohao looked confused: "What is IMGA?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Even you don't know, so I'm afraid most game companies in China don't know either. I asked Tang Kai carefully, and IMGA stands for International Mobile Game Awards, which is an award specifically for mobile games. This year, the award ceremony was held in Cannes, France, the place where the film festival is held."

"The most authoritative mobile game award?" Qu Guohao asked.

Chen Guiliang nodded: "It is indeed the most authoritative in the world. Even if it's not authoritative, you can still promote it as such. When you promote it, use slogans like 'The Oscars of the mobile game industry.' Just hype it up as much as you can, and then take advantage of that to launch and sell 'Seven Nights'!"

Qu Guohao said, "Sales begin before or after the awards ceremony."

Chen Guiliang said, "It's only a shortlist, winning an award is very difficult. The other four shortlisted games are definitely amazing. So, you also need to promote the strength of the competition to encourage domestic players to buy and support them. If you don't win an award, focus on promoting how great the winner is, giving domestic players a sense of honor even in defeat."

"So that means releasing it before the official awards ceremony?" Qu Guohao understood.

Chen Guiliang said, "Youke will send a few people to cover the awards ceremony and bring over the shortlisted works. There is very little attention paid to this award in China, so we shouldn't have many competitors."

Qu Guohao said, "Isn't it expensive to distribute top-tier foreign mobile games?"

"Just try to lower the price. Tell them that we're the only ones willing to buy," Chen Guiliang suggested.

Although Youke also develops mobile games, it still needs to partner with the HaiNei.com WAP site for actual release. This is because Youke's platform is PC-based, and no one would download mobile games from there.

Currently, only Kongzhong Corporation truly makes big money from mobile games, as it has a massive number of mobile internet users.

However, this nomination can be used to let more netizens know about mobile games, and take the opportunity to develop the mobile game channel of the Youke platform.

A few days later.

Celebratory articles appeared on Renren and Haiwainet, and a large number of online trolls posted on forums and Tieba.

"Seven Nights," a product of Dingguo Technology, a subsidiary of Game Science, has been nominated for Best 3D Game at this year's IMGA... The IMGA is known as the Oscars and Golden Globes of the mobile game industry, and this is the first time a Chinese-language game has been nominated since the award's inception..."

"Chinese game developers are just as good as those from Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea. We can also produce amazing works that will amaze the world... It is understood that before Game Science invested in Dingguo Technology, this small company only had seven young people. They resigned from their jobs to pursue their dreams and worked day and night on development without pay..."

"After the company ran out of funds, they lived on instant noodles every day and kept asking for help from major companies in the industry... Chen Guiliang, the founder of Game Science, received many letters from them asking for help and was moved by their spirit..."

"After 'Seven Nights' was submitted to the IMGA, the judging panel members from many countries around the world were utterly astonished by the game. They could hardly believe that such a good mobile game existed in China... The IMGA's Best 3D Game award carries immense weight, representing the pinnacle of mobile game technology..."

Blow, blow as hard as you can!

The articles were published one after another, moving and inspiring netizens.

A sense of national pride immediately arose.

Industry peers, however, were completely baffled: What on earth is IMGA? How come we've never heard of it before?

By the way, "Seven Nights" hasn't applied for a publishing license yet.

Chen Guiliang called Director Kou, who, upon hearing that the award had been shortlisted for an international prize, immediately instructed relevant personnel to expedite the approval process.

Furthermore, the State Administration of Press and Publication will also send officials to attend the award ceremony.

(End of this chapter)