Reborn in 2000, starting from the university website

Monday morning, dormitory 206.

Bai Yuhang was awakened by thirst. He struggled to kick off the hairy leg that was pressing against his thigh—it was Liu Jing, the fifth brother, who had terrible sleeping habits. He had drunk too much last night and couldn't get to the upper bunk, so Bai Yuhang had let him sleep in his bed. He sat up, his head still throbbing from the hangover.

Looking around, apart from Jiang Shuo's bed, which was already empty with the blanket folded into a neat square, the other people were lying haphazardly, snoring incessantly, like a symphony.

Clothes were scattered everywhere in the room, and several takeout containers from "Old Chef's" restaurant, specially prepared by the owner Zheng Lan for them before they left, were still on the table. Looking at the mess, Bai Yuhang rubbed his temples, but a smile crept onto his lips.

The smell of alcohol and snoring in this room are testament to Qihang Technology's initial success and its growing market position. Perhaps this is just the first step in a long journey; the real time to expand and establish a foothold is yet to come.

During the long lecture that lasted all day, several people fell asleep. The teacher was lecturing on the subject, while Liu Jing was drooling and daydreaming below.

After finally making it to evening, the group of people, as if resurrected, ate dinner together and plunged into the department's computer lab.

Dormitory 206 is now a legendary building in the Computer Science Department of the university.

As soon as he entered the computer lab, several second-year students greeted him and offered him cigarettes. Even the usually aloof girls couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. Their department was basically all-male, with an extremely skewed male-to-female ratio, and the girls usually didn't treat him like this. Liu Jing was most pleased with this. His hair was slicked back and shiny. While turning on the computer, he waved to the people next to him, looking like a leader who had just finished inspecting work.

"Holy crap!" Zhang Jian exclaimed, breaking the silence of the server room.

"What's wrong, third brother? Did the server crash?" Jiao Liwei went over to ask.

"It didn't just explode, it really took off!" Zhang Jian pointed at the CNZZ graphical data statistics backend on the screen, his fingers trembling. "The IP has exceeded 50,000! PV... 170,000 page views! And this has only been online for two or three days?"

Several classmates nearby heard the commotion and came over. Looking at the red curve that was rising upwards, their eyes were full of envy and shock.

Everyone was cheering, but Bai Yuhang sat on a chair to the side, staring at the data and thinking, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the table.

The data processing is underway, which is to be expected, given that Qihang website services are leading the entire internet and are a game-changer. Now that we have traffic, it's like flowing water – it'll be gone as soon as it's gone.

We must build a pond to store the water.

On Tuesday at noon, after two long classes, Bai Yuhang didn't let everyone go to the cafeteria. Instead, he bought fourteen roujiamo (Chinese hamburgers) and dragged everyone to stay in the dormitory.

"Close the door, let's have a meeting." Bai Yuhang took a bite of his roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) and said indistinctly but seriously.

Seeing Bai Yuhang's posture, Liu Jing, who was about to boast about his girlfriend's dorm room last night and how much he praised their 206 dorm, also shut up. Everyone found a place to sit down, and the atmosphere instantly changed from the previous laughter to seriousness.

"Everyone has seen the data; it's quite stable and looks good." Bai Yuhang swallowed his food, devoured a large roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) in a few bites, wiped his mouth with saliva, and cleaned his hands. "But we can't just live off selling pirated songs and installing systems in internet cafes. The music website is just a tool, a hook. We have to catch the fish and keep them in our own pond."

"Fish farming?" Yang Bo pushed up his glasses. "Sixth Brother, you mean a membership-based paid service?"

"No, we can't do it for a fee yet. We can't do it until the copyright issues are completely resolved, or it will cause problems. I plan to do interpersonal relationships." Bai Yuhang turned around and slowly said five big words: "Qihang Campus Network".

"SNS, Social Networking Services, this concept means social networking services." Bai Yuhang tapped his notebook. "We're going to build a website, and we won't use any of those fancy usernames, like 'Lightly Dancing' or 'Happy Boy.' We're going to create a real-name, real-life social network based on real schools, real departments, and real classes."

"Real name?" Wan Lianghao frowned. "Sixth brother, who uses their real name online these days? Everyone just uses an alias online so nobody knows anyone else, right?"

"You're right. The internet we're using is a social network for strangers. It's a huge public square where everyone's first greeting is, 'Hello, where are you, what's your name?' We want to change that, and I believe we can. What we want to create is a network of connections among acquaintances." Bai Yuhang pulled his notebook from under his pillow, opened it to the middle page, which was covered with drawings. "Third brother, fourth brother, come and take a look."

Zhang Jian and Wan Lianghao leaned over, and after just one glance, their scalps tingled.

It was an extremely complex database ER diagram. Unlike the simple BBS message board structure on the market, each user node here was connected by complex lines: university-department-year of enrollment-class-dormitory.

"This is a tree structure, and you're even adding a chain structure?" Zhang Jian scratched his greasy hair that he hadn't washed in two days. "Sixth Brother, this logic is too convoluted. Are you going to archive everyone like files?"

"Yes. I want this system to automatically calculate—who your classmates are, who your fellow townsmen are, and who your crush's roommate is—after a user registers." Bai Yuhang pointed his pen at the center of the drawing. "This is 'six degrees of separation.' If you want to know anyone in the world, you only need to know a maximum of six people. Once you register, you'll find that there's no one in the entire university, even in the entire Harbin and Northeast China university network, that you can't contact. Note, these are real people, truly real people."

Wan Lianghao's eyes gradually lit up as he looked at the image: "If this were made, the stickiness... would be truly terrifying. But Lao Liu, how should we design the interface? What style should we use?"

"The UI must be clean and unconventional," Bai Yuhang said decisively. "The main color scheme should maintain the calming 'blue' of the navigation system, paired with white space. Forget those messy GIFs; it needs to be clean and have a scholarly feel. Fourth brother, you're in charge of this. If the aesthetics go astray, I'll hold you responsible."

"What about the other features?" Zhang Jian asked, "Just chatting and posting?"

"Of course not." Bai Yuhang's lips curled into a mischievous smile. "We'll open it up to lower grades later. Initially, we'll focus on current and past university graduates, and add a few killer features."

"First, 'Who Viewed My Profile'. Satisfy everyone's voyeuristic desires and vanity. Second, 'Say Hello'. Don't use complicated private messages; just a single button. Click it, and the other person receives a 'So-and-so poked you' message. Isn't that ambiguous? Isn't that ticklish? Third, the class message wall—that's where everyone vents. Fourth, to collect geographical hierarchy and school/class information, we can use a user registration and our correction process. We must ensure the accuracy of the data over a period of time. Let users provide us with accurate data, give them a window of opportunity to correct similar data from others, and the data will become more and more accurate on its own."

The people in the room were stunned. This wasn't just making a website; it was studying human nature.

In the corner, Zhang Qingheng, the seventh brother, held half a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) in his hand, not daring to utter a sound. He stared at the complex logic diagram, his brows furrowed, clearly completely bewildered.

Bai Yuhang noticed Lao Qi's embarrassment, walked over and patted him on the shoulder: "Lao Qi, you don't need to worry about this complicated logic for now. I have a more important task for you."

Zhang Qingheng suddenly looked up, a hint of panic flashing in his eyes: "Sixth Brother, I... I'm afraid I won't be able to write it."

"It's okay, there's another job you can do." Bai Yuhang sat down next to him and lowered his voice. "Our music site has so much traffic now, we need to drive traffic to Renren.com. You need to write a banner script to display during the few seconds that users are waiting to download songs. It needs to have dynamic and random changes."

"What GG? Selling things or something?"

"No." Bai Yuhang shook his finger, his voice laced with temptation. "For the guys who register, I've already thought of the captions—'Want to know if your middle school deskmate has changed now?' 'Where is your first love now?' Make a lot of things like that. Here are two boxes: select your school and fill in your name. As long as they fill it in, they'll be pre-registered and imported into our Qihang Campus Network."

The room was silent for a few seconds, then burst into laughter.

"That's too mean!" Liu Jing slapped his thigh. "Sixth Brother, you're killing me by attacking my spirit! Who wouldn't want to know how their first love is doing? With this pop-up appearing, who could resist clicking it?"

"That's what you call hitting the nail on the head." Bai Yuhang closed his laptop. "Seventh Brother, this task is crucial; all the lead generation depends on it. Can you get it done by tomorrow?"

"Yes!" Zhang Qingheng's face flushed red, but his eyes hardened. "I know how! I'll definitely figure it out!"

"Alright, let's get started." Bai Yuhang stood up, stretched, and said, "Third and fourth will handle the architecture, seventh will help with traffic generation, and I'll work on the algorithm. We need to win this battle as soon as possible, so that Qihang will no longer be just a few students selling software and installing machines, but the 'Social Media Godfather' known throughout the Chinese university student community."

As they were talking, the dormitory door was pushed open a crack, and Jiang Shuo stood in the doorway holding a few books. Looking at the bustling scene inside, his hand that had been pushing the door open froze for a moment. The feeling of loneliness, of being isolated from the world, seeped into his collar like a cold wind.

"What are you chatting about? It's so lively." Jiang Shuo forced a smile and asked casually, "Hey, Lao Liu's notebook is all messed up. Another new project? Need my help?"

Liu Jing didn't think much of it and casually replied, "Old Eight, you should focus on your studies and get your scholarship. This code logic is too convoluted, and Old Six has to come up with an original algorithm. Even we guys have a headache just looking at it, so don't worry about it."

What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener. Jiang Shuo's face instantly darkened. Holding the book, he remained silent, walked silently to his bedside, put the book on the table, and turned to leave.

The moment the door closed, Bai Yuhang glanced at the trembling door, lost in thought, but quickly turned back to his head: "Alright, let's continue talking about the City Esports League."