My son is a reincarnated soul; I overheard his inner thoughts and became the richest man.

Time flies, and it was already mid-January 2001.

Lin Wan is extremely efficient and has already rented the 31st and 32nd floors of an office building in the core area of ​​Lujiazui, Pudong.

With a single-floor area exceeding 1,000 square meters, it is more than enough for the current "Legend Network", "Storm Network Management" and the newly established "Fengtian Technology".

After all, the core staff of internet cafe companies are all in the stores, so they don't need a large administrative office area.

The real space-consuming components are the ever-growing game operations team and the soon-to-be-established hardware R&D center.

As for the administration, finance, legal, and crucial marketing departments, Chen Feng plans to launch a large-scale recruitment drive after the New Year to improve them.

You have to eat one bite at a time, and you have to go step by step.

After all, it will take time for Zhou Hai to produce a prototype, and it's not time to deploy people on a large scale yet.

As late January arrives, primary, secondary, and tertiary schools across the country have begun their winter break.

This is an incredible windfall for "Legend of Mir".

Leaving aside elementary school students, high school and college students are the main users of internet cafes.

As soon as winter break started, the gaming enthusiasm that had been suppressed for a semester exploded instantly.

Today, the legendary daily online player count is visibly soaring.

Even during the day, the servers are often at full capacity, with the number of online users easily exceeding 600,000.

And during prime time in the evening, the data is even more astonishing!

It has steadily remained above 800,000!

Such terrifying traffic and cash flow have made the entire Chinese internet community green with envy.

There are even rumors that NetEase, one of the three major portals that recently went public on Nasdaq, is secretly contacting foreign game developers.

They clearly smelled blood and were preparing to storm into the online game market to grab a share of the profits.

Chen Feng remained calm in response.

With such a large market, if he gets the lion's share, others should at least get some soup.

Competition is inevitable. The only thing he can do is to hold onto his moat—the ultimate gaming experience and the nationwide ground promotion network that Su Qing has in his hands.

During this period, Chen Feng was not idle either.

He instructed his finance department to transfer the remaining two million dollars of investment to Penguin's account, thus completing the final fulfillment of the agreement.

At this point, the 15% stake in Penguin was firmly in his pocket.

......

January 14th.

Zhou Hai, whom Chen Feng had been eagerly anticipating, finally arrived in Shanghai.

Accompanying him was an elite team of more than a dozen people.

Among them are Zhou Hai's former subordinates from his time at BBK Electronics, as well as outstanding recent graduates from the University of Science and Technology of China.

Chen Feng offered very generous compensation.

Full-time staff are generally paid 50% more than their regular salary, and even interns who haven't graduated yet are given a monthly subsidy of 2,000 yuan by Chen Feng.

Keep in mind that the average salary in Shanghai is only a little over a thousand yuan.

A two-thousand-yuan internship salary is enough to make these high-achieving students devoted to their studies.

"Director Zhou, this is our new battlefield."

Chen Feng personally led Zhou Hai and the others on a tour of Fengtian Technology's office area. "The oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and development boards you requested have all been procured. If you need anything else, just let me know."

Zhou Hai looked at the spacious and bright laboratory and the brand-new equipment, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

He turned around, looked at Chen Feng, and said seriously, "Mr. Chen, before coming here, I dug through all the MP3 information on the market. I also took apart and thoroughly studied the Rio PMP300 you gave me."

"I've figured out the technical path, and we can start work at any time."

Chen Feng nodded: "Good, very efficient."

"However," Zhou Hai changed the subject, "before we start, I'd like to confirm the product's specific positioning with General Manager Chen. Also, you mentioned earlier that you have some ideas about the product design, and I'd like to hear your requirements so we can finalize the plan."

Chen Feng had already planned this out.

He pulled up a chair and sat down, gesturing for everyone to make themselves at home.

"I don't understand the technical details. I'll just state the product requirements. The rest is up to you, Director Zhou, to implement."

Zhou Hai took out his notebook, ready to take notes: "President Chen, please go ahead."

Chen Feng held up two fingers: "Our product line is divided into two lines. The high-end flagship is called the F series, and the first one is the F1. The low-end, high-volume line is called the T series, and the first one is the T1."

"The core requirements can be summed up in three words: light, thin, and trendy."

"The size should be as small as possible, and the appearance should be fashionable, so that young people feel that wearing it around their neck is an accessory, not a burden."

At this point, Chen Feng paused, his gaze becoming profound.

"In addition, regarding the user experience, I have a core pain point that I need to address."

"Current MP3 players have small capacities, so selecting a few songs with the buttons is fine. But in the future, when the capacity is larger and hundreds of songs are stored, how will users find them? Press the buttons hundreds of times? Their fingers would break."

"So, I have an idea—"

Chen Feng stretched out his hand and drew a circle in the air. "Could we abandon traditional buttons and design a wheel instead?"

"Use your finger to slide on the disc to navigate through the menu pages: clockwise down and counter-clockwise up. The faster you slide, the faster you flip through the pages."

"Confirm in the middle, control playback, pause, and skip tracks around the four sides."

"Director Zhou, do you think this touch-screen wheel idea is feasible?"

Zhou Hai abruptly stopped writing.

After hearing Chen Feng's idea of ​​the "touch wheel", his eyes lit up instantly, as if he had found a guiding light in the fog.

He adjusted his glasses and couldn't help but exclaim, "Mr. Chen, your idea is absolutely brilliant! I've been struggling with this before; if there are too many songs stored, pressing a few physical buttons one by one would be a disaster for the user experience. But with this swipe gesture, the logic makes perfect sense."

"This solution is very feasible! However, the specific damping and sensitivity still need to be repeatedly adjusted on the circuit board. Once we have a prototype, please take a look at it in person, and then we can work on the details."

"No problem, we'll rely entirely on Director Zhou to get these technologies implemented."

Chen Feng smiled and nodded.

Zhou Hai took a deep breath, got into work mode, and his expression became serious:

"By the way, Mr. Chen, now that we've decided on a two-pronged approach—the F-series high-end and the T-series low-end—I'd like to confirm whether you have any red lines regarding the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost for the high-end products?"

"Or should we go all out and choose only the best?"