The younger generation, starting from where the wind blows...

Chapter 197 University of Tokyo Exchange Student Program

"I asked myself this question, as well as all my friends and colleagues: If you had three million when you were eighteen, what would you do next?"

"The answers I received were varied. Some said they would travel the world, some said they would buy a house or a car, some said they would use the money to get married or pursue love. Only a very few people told me that they would use the money to start a business."

"These hypothetical answers may not explain anything, so I then tried to find answers in reality: what did those who won the lottery or became rich overnight from land expropriation do after they got their money?"

"Unfortunately, before I wrote this article, the most common answer I received was that they had spent all the money, and many of them even fell back into poverty. Very few people used it to increase their wealth."

"And what did the protagonist of our article do with his three million?"

"The answer is probably already guessed by everyone. As the title says, he invested the money in the internet and spent more than two million in less than a month."

"The 'Niu Le Ge Niu'/'Yang Le Ge Yang' series of mini-games are probably familiar to everyone, but many people don't know that the development cost of this game was less than 100,000 yuan. In just one month, it earned the game developer more than 20 million yuan in profit, and vividly demonstrated the power of viral marketing to all Internet practitioners."

"Even today, you can still see people online commenting that the cow/sheep mini-game was just a flash in the pan, but it was this short wave of quick money that created the youngest multi-millionaire in China's internet industry."

"At this time, our protagonist had just stepped into the university campus, a year younger than the age at which Zuckerberg founded Facebook, as mentioned in our title. Looking at all the internet entrepreneurs in China, only Li Xiang, the founder of Popo.com, can be compared with him in terms of the age at which he started his business."

"I once had the privilege of interviewing Li Xiang, and I am still deeply impressed by his explanation for giving up school to start a business: 'The Internet is a market with unlimited growth potential. If I don't seize it, by the time I finish my four years of university, it will have already been taken over by someone else.'"

"Even now, Li Xiang's words are very farsighted. Zuckerberg's dropping out of Harvard, a top university, also proves that Li Xiang's choice was correct. However, the protagonist of this article has a different opinion."

"Also starting his business at the age of eighteen, this post-90s generation made a completely different choice from his predecessors between starting a business and going to school. After becoming a multi-millionaire, he still chose to go to school step by step."

"It is a pity that, for various reasons, I was unable to interview the protagonist of this article in person, nor was I able to explore his true thoughts."

"The only thing that can be confirmed is that he did not make a quick buck and disappear from the public eye as many people predicted. In October, Shanye Technology launched its second social game, 'Happy Farm,' following the cow/sheep mini-game."

"Although it did not replicate the explosive popularity of the original cow/sheep mini-game, Happy Farm undoubtedly carries the developers' greater ambitions. They are no longer satisfied with a flash in the pan, but expect the game to operate for a longer period of time."

"I didn't specifically interview those big names or practitioners in the game industry to give their opinions on this game, but when more and more people around me started playing this game and the topics of discussion every day involved planting and harvesting crops, I knew that this game had been a great success."

"As of the time of writing, Happy Farm has not only achieved remarkable success on major domestic platforms, but even Tencent has taken a liking to this startup. Tencent previously bought out the cow/sheep mini-game for 500 million yuan, and now it has bought out the exclusive revenue of Happy Farm on the QQ channel for as much as 1000 million yuan."

"At the same time, Happy Farm and its derivative games have been launched on major overseas social networking sites."

"Taking Facebook as an example, a new game called Farmville, which is an upgrade and development based on Farmville, gained more than 100 million users in just four days after its launch, becoming the most outstanding social game in recent times."

"A colleague familiar with the history of game development at home and abroad excitedly told me that the rise of social games represented by Happy Farm and Farmville will become a milestone in the history of Chinese games."

"When I asked him, 'Don't the cow/sheep mini-games count?' that colleague remained silent for a long time. Although he was very reluctant to admit it, in fact, in less than two months, Shanye Technology, a game company that was jokingly referred to by outsiders as a makeshift operation, had created two milestones in the history of games."

"It was only at this moment that I realized that the protagonist of this article did not give up entrepreneurship to continue his studies, but rather perfectly balanced the two."

"Due to space and topic limitations, this article only lists his entrepreneurial story in the field of internet games. In fact, the protagonist's entrepreneurial direction is not limited to social games, but also involves influencer entertainment, milk tea shops and even the offline logistics industry."

"These industries, whether online or offline, have one thing in common: they are all reshaping the landscape of traditional industries with a brand-new internet mindset. If I have the opportunity in the future, I will write an article to introduce the relevant content in detail."

"At the end of this article, please allow me to introduce the protagonist of this article, an 18-year-old internet entrepreneur and a freshman majoring in Business Administration at the School of Business, Yanjing University of Economics and Business, Yang Muye!"

"Like millions of other internet entrepreneurs, his story is still unfolding, and it's something we can all look forward to!"

……

After reading the entire article, Yang Tao suddenly stood up, took her phone, and walked towards the bedroom.

"Peach, what's wrong with you—"

Duan Xifeng looked up, but before he could speak, Su Qing tugged at his clothes.

Is there even a need to ask?

She must have gone to call Yang Muye.

From this point, Su Qing was certain that the relationship between Yang Tao and Yang Muye was definitely not as simple as Yang Tao herself said, that she was just asking Yang Muye to pretend to be her boyfriend.

Perhaps even Yang Tao herself hasn't realized this problem yet?
Of course, the current situation of the star fruit is not important.

The important thing is that after reading the entire article, Xue Sumei is still sitting in front of the computer in a daze, not saying a word.

Su Qing called out with some concern:
"Auntie?"

Xue Sumei came to her senses and realized that Yang Tao was missing. She hurriedly asked Su Qingren where he had gone.

Upon learning that Yang Tao had gone back to her bedroom to call Yang Muye, Xue Sumei's expression became complicated.

Duan Xifeng began to comfort him:

"Auntie, Su Qing and I only found out about this a couple of days ago. We immediately went to Taozi to find out what happened, and that's why we thought we'd tell you today—"

Before she could finish speaking, Xue Sumei suddenly turned to look at Su Qing.

Did Peach know about what was written in this article before?

Su Qing nodded immediately.

Xue Sumei stared intently into Su Qing's eyes, making sure he wasn't lying, before letting out a sigh.

They say that if a woman is three years older than her husband, she'll bring him good fortune.

But Yang Tao is five years older than Yang Muye. If only she were two years younger!
In the bedroom, Yang Tao had just finished making a phone call to Yang Muye.

Yang Tao was mainly worried that the article might have a negative impact on Yang Muye after it spread online.

I also inquired about Yang Muye's lottery winnings.

Yang Muye told Yang Tao that there was no major problem.

Yang Tao was relieved.

Yang Tao's current headache is how to explain things to Xue Sumei when she goes out.

Yang Muye had just put down his phone when he received a QQ message from Xu Hongdou on his computer.

"You're not really a reincarnated person, are you?"

"Actually, I am Qin Shi Huang. I took the elixir of immortality and have lived to be 2,267 years old. When the time is right, I will resurrect 100,000 terracotta warriors, sweep across the globe, and unify the world! As a unique and super-potential stock in the world, it's not too late for you to invest in me now!"

What returns will you get if you invest now?

"How about I make you my empress?"

"roll!"

Xu Hongdou then sent a bloody kitchen knife emoji.

The fact that he can still make such jokes now shows that the article didn't have much of an impact on Yang Muye.

Xu Hongdou had initially wanted to inquire about the matter, but now she didn't want to deal with him anymore. "Beep beep beep!"

Xu Hongmi sent a message:
"Have you found out what happened?"

Xu Hongdou typed a reply:

"I asked, and there's nothing wrong. Do you think there's anything wrong with this article?"

"The article itself is well written, but considering that the author was just arrested, I strongly suspect that Yang Muyi was also asked for money by the author for public relations fees, protection fees or the like."

"No wonder the article praised him so much."

Do you really think there's anything exaggerated in this article?

Xu Hongdou paused for a moment, then quickly typed a reply:
"You mean this article is deliberately praising someone to kill them?"

"That's why I asked you to ask Yang Muye if he didn't give the other party the money."

Xu Hongdou glanced at her QQ friend list; Yang Muye's avatar showed that he was still online.

After hesitating for a moment, Xu Hongdou couldn't help but send Yang Muye another message.

"What exactly is your relationship with Liu Ren, the author of this article?"

"Plaintiff and defendant."

"?"

“Some time ago, Liu Ren sent someone to see me. I disagreed with them reporting on me, and then Liu Ren asked for 100,000 yuan as a retraction fee.”

"You gave it?"

"Of course I didn't give it to him. I recorded the call and was about to call the police on charges of extortion, but I didn't expect him to be arrested for something else."

"So you never intended to give him money in the first place, right?"

If you want to compliment me on being smart, just say so.

"Yes, a clever, unscrupulous businessman!"

"It's true that I'm a shrewd businessman, but Liu Ren is no better. We had an agreement that I would pay him to retract the article. However, instead of publishing it on the website, he secretly submitted it to Computerworld. The article was written with ulterior motives, and his intention to flatter and kill was very obvious."

It's also thanks to Liu Ren's greed that he didn't expose all of Yang Muye's secrets in one article.

If nothing unexpected happens, Liu Ren's original plan was to first publish an article to arouse curiosity about Yang Muye among industry insiders and the public.

Then, multiple articles will be published to expose Yang Muyi's entrepreneurial progress in several different industries, including online celebrity entertainment, milk tea, and express delivery supermarkets.

He was arrested after only publishing the first article.

"So what are you going to do next?"

Why are you suddenly so concerned about me?

"Who cares about you? It's just curiosity."

Yang Muye was about to tease Xu Hongdou some more when the phone suddenly rang.

When I picked it up, I saw it was a call from Ji Donglai, the secretary of the business school.

Yang Muye told Xu Hongdou on QQ and then answered the phone.

"Secretary Ji, is there something you need?"

"You saw the article that was retracted by Computerworld, right? The school's publicity department has received calls from several media outlets, all wanting to interview you."

"Secretary Ji, here's what that article is about—"

Yang Muye recounted the whole story over the phone.

Ji Donglai understood immediately after hearing this.

“Since you don’t want to expose yourself, I will tell Minister Kim to help you cancel all media interviews, but I think the effect of doing so will be very limited.”

Even without going through the school, the media can still find Yang Muye.

The days when Yang Muyi wanted to experience university life quietly, undisturbed by the outside world, were gone forever.

"Actually, there is another way."

Ji Donglai suddenly spoke up on the other end of the phone: "You know what an exchange student is, right? I don't mean going abroad, I mean an exchange with a domestic university."

Yang Muyi immediately understood what Ji Donglai meant.

Go to another university as an exchange student to avoid the limelight.

Which school specifically?

"Shanghai Oriental University".

"What about your major?"

"This is an inter-university exchange program. Our school's economics and management disciplines are open to exchange students from the University of Tokyo, and vice versa. The exceptions are medical and some science and engineering disciplines with high entry requirements, but computer science is an option."

Although Dongda University, like Yanjing University of Economics and Business, is only a 211 university, its computer science program ranks among the top in the country.

If it weren't for the option of choosing computer science as the field of study for the exchange program, Ji Donglai would never have recommended this exchange student program to Yang Muyi.

Even Yang Muye himself was somewhat tempted.

However, every coin has two sides, and the exchange student program between Yanjing University and Dongda University has not been going very smoothly.

Otherwise, there wouldn't still be spots available more than a month after the start of the semester.

Firstly, this exchange student program lasts for one year. Although it doesn't require an extra year like some exchange programs between universities, only some courses are mutually recognized between the two sides.

Especially when it involves interdisciplinary exchanges, you have to retake the courses you missed that year to get the credits.

If you want to take the postgraduate entrance exam, get a guaranteed admission to a postgraduate program, or win scholarships, participating in this kind of exchange student program will not only be of no benefit, but will seriously hinder your progress.

If you don't care about these things and want to change your environment and experience different academic disciplines, you might consider participating in this kind of exchange student program.

To put it bluntly, it's just going to a school in another city for a year.

Given the current situation, Ji Donglai genuinely believes that this exchange student program is very suitable for Yang Muye.

(End of this chapter)