Restart life

Chapter 373 0360 [Investigator Series]

"Xiao Chen, over here!"

Bian Jingsong stood in the hotel lobby and shouted. Besides Bian Guanyue, there were several other men and women with him.

Chen Guiliang went over to greet him, and then waited for him to introduce his friends.

Bian Jingsong introduced, "This is General Manager Peng Guoquan, and this is his son, Peng Haitao."

"Hello, Mr. Peng," Chen Guiliang shook hands with the middle-aged man first, then with the young man. "I've heard so much about you. Your games are excellent."

Peng Haitao quickly replied, "I dare not accept such praise."

This young man is the one who sold the game company to Shanda for 100 million.

He released another game this year, which saw a peak concurrent user count of over 10 during its summer open beta. This game has now caught the eye of Shanda Games.

Bian Jingsong then introduced other people, all of whom were his business associates.

Not everyone present was a torchbearer; some were low-key and didn't want the limelight, while others were too obese to run. They were mainly accompanying Bian Jingsong and wanted to get to know Chen Guiliang, since they were both entrepreneurs from Sichuan.

"Please wait a moment, everyone. I'll go get my equipment first."

"Yes, business is more important."

Chen Guiliang took out his ID card and quickly received the torchbearer uniform, identification document, and personal relay schedule.

Once he had finished his business, everyone immediately moved from the hotel lobby to the teahouse upstairs for a chat.

The people around me are all billionaires, ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. If you're not in the industry, you'd never even know they existed. They're practically unknown.

Bian Guanyue had nothing in common with her uncles, so she dragged a chair to sit next to Chen Guiliang and played on her phone the whole time.

Chen Guiliang was just chatting idly, keeping up with the bosses' boasting.

The conversation began by praising Chen Guiliang and Peng Haitao, highlighting the difficulties young entrepreneurs face. The discussion gradually shifted to their own entrepreneurial journeys. Each of them sighed with emotion, recounting the losses and mistakes they had made in their early years, and how they had finally overcome these challenges to succeed.

Peng Guoquan said, "Everyone knows I'm in real estate now, but I actually started out selling liquor. Back then, local protectionism was really annoying. If you sold liquor from city A to city B and stole their business, you'd get beaten up. Selling a small amount didn't matter, but selling a lot could get you into serious trouble. Once, on my way back from selling liquor, I was blocked by a car as soon as I left the city..."

What they said was all like this, a mix of truth and falsehood, half true and half false, mostly bragging.

After they had finished their boasting, Chen Guiliang asked Peng Haitao, "The newspapers say you started with 100 million yuan. That's not enough to make games, is it?"

Peng Haitao laughed and said, "I made a fortune running private servers. I was probably among the first in China to run private servers for Legend of Mir, and later I ran private servers for other games as well. While making money through private servers, I was also developing my own game engine."

Indeed, a horse won't get fat without night grass.

"Xiao Chen, how's your game company doing? I heard 'Future Era' is making a lot of money," a boss suddenly asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "It's alright."

Another boss laughed and said, "You're too modest. You're keeping it a secret from us?"

Chen Guiliang smiled, his words still ambiguous: "It's alright."

Peng Haitao asked, "Does Game Science have a monthly revenue of 3 million?"

"More or less," Chen Guiliang mumbled.

The bosses were all amazed.

Game Science's revenue certainly doesn't stop at games like "Future Era" and "Three Kingdoms Kill." The Game Science platform hosts a plethora of card games, single-player games, Flash games, and web games.

Most casual games lose money to gain popularity, but browser games have seen a gradual increase in profits in the past two years.

Even poorly made web games can generate millions in monthly revenue. Slightly better ones can reach five or six million. These small amounts add up to a considerable income.

Of course, the more profitable one is Youpay, which earns a commission by acting as a payment channel.

Because the central bank has never issued payment licenses, and the government has never investigated and punished payment platforms, anyone can operate a payment platform, which has always been in a gray area.

Currently, there are nearly one hundred third-party payment platforms in operation.

Youke's Youpay was launched relatively early, second only to large companies such as Alibaba, Shanda, and NetEase. It attracted many small and medium-sized companies to use it by offering low commission rates.

The business owners present, upon hearing that Youke's monthly revenue was approximately 3 million, began to calculate just how much money Chen Guiliang actually had.

It's hard to estimate.

Bian Jinsong smiled throughout and didn't say much, but he felt particularly important today.

They chatted until evening, then Bian Jingsong treated everyone to dinner, and Chen Guiliang exchanged phone numbers with the business owners.

That night, Bian Guanyue did not go home, but stayed with Chen Guiliang at the hotel where they were receiving their equipment.

After taking a bath, Bian Guanyue smelled wonderful and nestled in Chen Guiliang's arms, saying, "I'm going to the capital to report for duty the day after tomorrow."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Have the specific tasks been confirmed?"

“Hmm,” Bian Guanyue said, somewhat annoyed, “I applied to be an airport volunteer, but the airport only needs 2000 people. Now I’ve been assigned to a bus stop to guide foreign tourists on how to take the bus. If the sun is blazing, I’ll definitely get roasted. Wu Meng is much more comfortable; she’s a Peking University graduate and was assigned to work outside the Olympic venues.”

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Does being a volunteer depend on the school?"

"Of course we should look into it. Graduates from prestigious universities are always in high demand," Bian Guanyue said with envy.

Chen Guiliang comforted him, "It's alright. After you finish your postgraduate entrance exam, you'll be a Peking University graduate student next year."

They became friendly as they talked.

Bian Guanyue mysteriously went to get her backpack: "Guess what I brought?"

Chen Guiliang asked, "Black stockings?" "Not just that. Close your eyes first, and don't peek," Bian Guanyue commanded with a smile.

Chen Guiliang obediently closed his eyes and heard a rustling sound. When he opened his eyes again, Bian Guanyue was not only wearing black stockings, but also high heels and a policewoman's uniform, and even holding a police baton in her hand.

"Damn, where did you get this equipment?" Chen Guiliang was very surprised. It's not easy to get things these days, unlike a few years later when you can just buy it on Taobao.

Bian Guanyue scolded in a sweet voice, "Don't move! Hands up! You're under arrest!"

Chen Guiliang quickly raised his hands and reminded him, "Officer, your hat is crooked."

After filming wrapped, Chen Guiliang asked, "Where did you get this equipment?"

Bian Guanyue chuckled, “My cousin. Her children’s clothing brand is barely surviving, and she recently switched to making this kind of clothing. This outfit was sent to me by her for me to try on. I checked out her company’s Taobao store, and the sales are pretty good, steadily increasing every month.”

"A lot of these are sold on Taobao?" Chen Guiliang asked again.

Bian Guanyue said, "Not many, but there are more and more of them."

Chen Guiliang suddenly remembered the Spider-Man suit and reminded her, "Tell your cousin not to make it too good a quality one."

"Why?" Bian Guanyue asked, puzzled.

Chen Guiliang sighed, "I had to yank your clothes until you cried out in pain before I could tear them. You're too honest!"

"You bad guy!" Bian Guanyue blushed and immediately understood.

The following morning, Chen Guiliang went to participate in the torch relay training, which took place in the Chengdu Export Processing Zone.

Quite a few celebrities were present at the scene.

Pu Cunxi, Lu Yu, Zhang Liangying...

Many celebrities who are not from Sichuan have also become torchbearers in Chengdu; it's unclear how this was arranged.

Like Chen Guiliang, Tan Weiwei was initially a torchbearer in Longdu.

After the route was cancelled, Tan Weiwei's corresponding status was also revoked, and she was instead transformed into a mountain torchbearer for the Tibetan Plateau. She had recently been practicing mountaineering daily, carrying the torch on high-altitude snow-capped mountains.

Hello! Thank you for your hard work!

After arriving at the scene, the torchbearers went to shake hands with the heroes and role models in the earthquake relief efforts.

One policewoman, who lost ten family members, still stayed on the front line of disaster relief and was also assigned to carry the torch in Chengdu.

After talking with the role models, everyone then went to talk to other people.

"Hello, Mr. Chen." Lu Yu went straight to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang shook hands and said, "Hello, Miss Lu."

“My surname is Chen, and I’m from the same clan as you…” Lu Yu was both amused and exasperated.

Is your surname Chen?
Chen Guiliang quickly changed his tune: "I'm sorry, Miss Chen."

Lu Yu put on a smiling face again: "You even got my surname wrong, shouldn't you come on my show to make up for it?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Of course, let's schedule a time later."

"Really?" Lu Yu asked with a look of surprise.

This way of communicating.

Ok……

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll definitely come when I have time, maybe after the Olympics."

Lu Yu smiled and said, "Then it's settled."

The two had just finished talking when Zhang Liangying came over again: "Hello, Mr. Chen."

"Hello." Chen Guiliang nodded.

Zhang Liangying's endorsement contract with HaiNei.com is about to expire.

Although the endorsement fee is very cheap, apart from shooting an advertisement, I only occasionally post some videos and updates, and there aren't many other random activities.

Zhang Liangying is very satisfied with this and is considering renewing her contract with ByteDance, but she wants her endorsement fee to increase.

Her career hasn't been going very smoothly for the past two or three years, mainly because she's been holding onto her management contract. Capital isn't stupid; if you hold onto your contract, I certainly won't promote you. At most, I'll just release albums as usual.

Just then, a group of armed police officers dressed in blue torchbearer uniforms jogged over in neat formation.

One of the officers stood on the highest platform at the front, ordered everyone to line up, and then explained the rules and precautions for the torch handover.

After listening, the students began practicing in groups.

Chen Guiliang was paired with a rural postman surnamed Wang for practice. This was because Wang was a role model in the industry, having made outstanding contributions to the postal service, and was therefore chosen to be a torchbearer.

The sun was blazing, and we were all sweating profusely, but everyone was quite excited about the training.

The following night, Chen Guiliang went to the starting point of the relay to meet up with the torchbearers from similar routes, and set off in a special vehicle.

Traffic control measures have been implemented on many sections of the road, allowing only special vehicles to pass.

The torch relay route was not in the main urban area, but large numbers of people gathered along the roadsides in the outer ring and suburbs. Some people even drove their own cars through the traffic-controlled sections last night.

The roadsides were packed with people—it wasn't even dawn yet!
(End of this chapter)