Free Flow Card

Chapter 285

The cart was soon emptied out.

After hearing Gu Ran's vision for building a massive traffic empire through official accounts, Li Sinan and the rest of the core tech team had their eyes shining with excitement, wishing they could immediately rush back to their desks and fight for another three days and nights.

Ye Zhenzhen looked at the empty cart, her brows furrowing slightly.

Noticing her little expression, Gu Ran sneaked over with a cheeky grin, reached out, and pinched her fair cheeks, pulling them outward.

"Money spent will come back again; out with the old, in with the new. Why does my little penny-pinching wife look more heartbroken than I do?"

"Let go."

The girl swatted his hand away, rubbing her cheeks as she retorted.

"Who's heartbroken? I can't wait for you to go bankrupt. When you end up on the streets, I can be your sugar mommy."

"Sure thing. I've always had a weak stomach; living off a sugar mommy suits me just fine."

Gu Ran shamelessly played along.

"Hmph, yeah right~"

The usually aloof girl turned her head haughtily, rolling her pretty eyes at him.

The employees who hadn't dispersed yet let out a good-natured roar of laughter, feeling like the air was practically reeking with the sweet, sickening scent of young love.

The next morning.

The TVs in the cafeteria were broadcasting the CCTV morning news.

"The rising star of domestic mobile social networking, WeiLiao, has officially surpassed the 100-million mark in registered users."

The entirety of Qinglin University completely boiled over.

Everywhere, people were discussing the legendary founder who attended their very own school.

Gu Ran walked hand in hand with Ye Zhenzhen down the tree-lined path, while gazes from all directions followed them the whole way.

Seeing this, Gu Ran couldn't help but straighten his back, puffing out his chest a bit as he wiggled his eyebrows at the girl beside him.

"See how cool your boyfriend is? Walking down the street like this, people who don't know any better might think I'm a massive celebrity."

Hearing this, the girl gave him an exasperated eye roll and casually delivered a light punch to his chest.

"Stop being so full of yourself, your ego is practically in the clouds. And can you stop swinging your arms on the same side as your legs when you walk?"

"Nonsense! Have you ever seen a CEO walk like that? I could sue you for slander!"

.......

The morning's large Economics and Management lecture was a joint class for several sections, and the tiered lecture hall was packed, with not an empty seat in sight.

A gray-haired old professor stood at the podium, the large projector screen behind him displaying the WeiLiao logo.

"Students."

"The rise of WeiLiao is a textbook example of the 'surrounding the cities from the countryside' strategy."

The old professor spoke with spit flying, his face glowing with excitement.

"From grassroots promotion in universities to sinking down into internet cafes, and finally the dimensional strike of video calling—every step its founder took demonstrated a grand vision and profound calculation far beyond ordinary people."

Gu Ran sat in the very last row, flanked by Zhang Qi and Li Ming.

Listening to the wild flattery from the podium, Gu Ran didn't put on any boss airs. Instead, he covered his face and muttered to his roommates in a low voice.

"This old guy is praising me so much it's giving me goosebumps. At the time, I just wanted to grab some market share as fast as possible. There wasn't any massive game of chess like he's saying."

"Profound calculation? I didn't calculate jack."

Zhang Qi was stifling a laugh beside him.

"Brother Gu, stop humblebragging. Does the professor not need face?"

After the lecture came the classic interactive Q&A session.

The prettiest girl in Economics Class 3 quickly stood up.

Today, she had intentionally put on a full face of makeup, and her voice was sickly sweet.

"Professor, I believe WeiLiao's most impressive aspect is the founder's far-sighted vision."

"He is a chess master, playing his competitors in the palm of his hand. And I think..."

Who knew if she had drafted a script a day in advance, but this girl talked endlessly, praising Gu Ran inside and out.

"Why do I feel like I'm getting goosebumps?"

Hearing the girl's cutesy voice, Zhang Qi shrank his neck and rubbed his arms.

On the other side, Li Ming let out a snort and laughed. "I didn't want to say it, but are those really goosebumps popping up?"

"You motherf..."

While they were bickering, the class beauty finally finished her speech.

As she sat down, her face flushed like peach blossoms, she turned her head and threw a blatantly flirtatious wink at Gu Ran in the back row.

This direct, confession-style praise immediately caused a few girls from Class 3 to cover their mouths, laughing and jeering.

The old professor pushed up his reading glasses, his gaze crossing the crowd to lock onto Gu Ran in the back.

"Student Gu Ran, since you are here in person, why don't you answer for everyone yourself."

"As the founder, when facing the siege of Penguin's billion-level traffic, what was your truest strategic concept?"

Hundreds of pairs of eyes in the entire classroom swiveled around in unison.

Gu Ran stood up and casually ran a hand through his hair.

He pondered for a moment, looked at the expectant eyes of the professor and his classmates, and spat out a single sentence very seriously.

"I really didn't think too much at the time. I only had one thought in my head: just crush them."

The classroom fell silent for a second.

Then, the whole class erupted into laughter and applause that could lift the roof.

The old professor couldn't help but shake his head and laugh, pointing at him to sit down.

The dismissal bell rang.

Gu Ran strolled leisurely toward the medical school, planning to find his older sister for lunch.

But just as he reached the corner of the anatomy building, he heard a fierce argument.

"Isn't WeiLiao just copying Penguin? The interfaces are practically the same."

"And video calling takes up so much data. Once Penguin teams up with carriers to set up a data threshold, WeiLiao will die sooner or later."

"It's been exposed online that WeiLiao's backend is crazily stealing user privacy. What's so great about this trash app?"

These guys had clearly been brainwashed by Penguin's paid trolls on the forums, running over to show off their independent thinking in front of the goddess.

And standing in front of them was the usually soft and gentle Ye Zhenzhen.

Hearing someone badmouth Gu Ran, she activated the sharp-tongued traits she had learned from Pei Susu, firing on all cylinders.

"Saying WeiLiao copied."

"Are your cerebral cortexes completely smooth?"

"When WeiLiao launched voice messaging, WeChat was still kicking around in the womb. You can't even get your timelines straight. You're just a bunch of toads jumping off a cliff trying to play Batman."

The boys were stunned by the scolding, their brains practically frying.

Wasn't she supposed to be an iceberg goddess?

Why did this feel like a fish market shouting match???

But Ye Zhenzhen didn't give them a chance to breathe, continuing her rapid-fire verbal assault.

"Penguin's half-finished product lags like a slideshow just sending a voice message, and they dare to clash with WeiLiao?"

"As for privacy, why didn't you bark when Penguin's pop-ups were scanning your hard drives? You play the double standard pretty well."

"Nine years of compulsory education barely managed to fish you out of the gutter. Read more books, and stop treating your ignorance like a personality trait."

This barrage of insults left the boys flushed red, their mouths hanging open without being able to squeeze out a single word for a long time.

The students watching the spectacle around them collectively gasped.

The combat power of the medical school's unreachable flower was actually this terrifying.

Gu Ran watched from a short distance away, thoroughly amused.

Then, he strode forward, threw an arm around the girl's shoulder, and waved off the boys who were at a complete loss for what to do.

"Break it up, break it up. Stop making fools of yourselves here. Go home and eat some walnuts to supplement your brains."

The boys recognized Gu Ran, turned pale, and scurried away with their tails between their legs.

Then, he lowered his head and reached out to pinch his older sister's cheeks, which were puffed up from anger.

"Oh, whose little tiger is this, protecting her food? With such sharp teeth and a sharp tongue, your bite actually hurts."

Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen's ears turned red. She turned her head to look around first, and seeing that there were still quite a few students nearby, she slapped his hand away.

The young girl stubbornly turned her head away, refusing to admit it.

"Who's protecting their food?"

"I'm just upholding objective facts. A medical student can't tolerate a single grain of sand in their eyes, nor can I stand looking at such brain-dead remarks."

Gu Ran burst into laughter, thoroughly amused by her contradictory, tsundere behavior.

He was just about to continue this sweet moment when the phone in his pocket started vibrating.

It was an urgent call from Li Sinan.

"Mr. Gu, the three major telecom operators couldn't agree on profit distribution internally. Their alliance has fractured."

Li Sinan's voice carried an uncontrollable excitement.

"Executives from China Unicom secretly visited our company to seize the mobile internet market. They are in the reception room right now, wanting to discuss cooperation."

Gu Ran's eyes lit up.

Talk about a pillow arriving just when you're sleepy.

"Keep him steady, serve him our best tea, and I'll be right there."

After hanging up, Gu Ran hurriedly grabbed Ye Zhenzhen's hand and drove straight to the company.

Half an hour later.

In the reception room of GR Company.

An executive from Unicom's marketing department sat on the sofa holding a teacup, still tentatively proposing conventional cooperation plans.

"Mr. Gu, MicroChat's data consumption is indeed a major issue."

"We at Unicom are willing to provide a batch of exclusive discounted data packages. As long as MicroChat can give us a promotional spot on the homepage, it will be a win-win for both of us."

Gu Ran leaned back in his chair and didn't reply.

After a moment of silence, he stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and drew a large circle right in the middle.

"Discounted packages are too conservative. They aren't exciting enough."

Saying this, he turned around, looked at the executive, and threw out an epoch-making business weapon.

"Why don't we create an exclusive free-data SIM card for MicroChat?"

The executive was stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"When users sign up for this Unicom SIM card, all data usage for MicroChat and any future applications within the MicroChat ecosystem will be completely free."

The reception room suddenly fell silent.

This subversive business concept completely floored the Unicom executive.

Completely free?!

This was equivalent to entirely binding MicroChat and Unicom together.

MicroChat currently had 100 million active users. If even one-tenth of them got the Unicom card just for the free data, that would mean 10 million new accounts.

The executive stood up excitedly, completely oblivious to the tea splashing onto the back of his hand.

Gritting his teeth, he made the decision on the spot.

"Let's do it."

"Unicom accepts this partnership. This time, we swear we'll rub China Mobile and China Telecom into the dirt."

At the same time.

In the Penguin Tower in Shenzhen.

The newly appointed head of WeChat, Liang Dong, sat behind his spacious desk, deploying a network-wide internet troll campaign with a stern face.

"Are the internet trolls all set up?"

He tapped on the desk.

"Target the fact that MicroChat's video calls consume a lot of data. Whip up panic among the users."

"Use the high threshold of data fees to completely block them out."

"Rest assured, Mr. Liang. The press releases are already written and will be spread across the whole internet in ten minutes."

The assistant reported respectfully from the side.

Liang Dong picked up his coffee and took a sip.

In the face of an absolute telecommunications monopoly, data fees were your death warrant.

You country bumpkins at GR, let's see how you break out of this situation!

Just then, the office door was violently pushed open.

Another assistant stumbled in, his face pale, tightly holding up a tablet.

"Mr. Liang, something terrible has happened."

"What are you panicking for? Even if the sky falls, I'll hold it up."

Liang Dong frowned deeply and reprimanded him sharply.

"Unicom and MicroChat just released a joint announcement across the entire network."

The assistant swallowed hard, his voice trembling.

"They launched something called a Free Data Card. As long as you use this card for MicroChat, all data is completely free."

Clang.

The coffee cup in Liang Dong's hand smashed directly onto the desk, splashing dark liquid all over himself.

He stood up and snatched the tablet.

Looking at the glaring joint official announcement on the screen, his vision went dark, his legs gave way, and he slumped right back into his executive chair.

A network-wide smear campaign by trolls.

A blockade built on data thresholds.

In the face of absolute, deep-rooted mutual interests, his self-proclaimed brilliant schemes were simply a ridiculous joke.

His proud, surefire killing stroke had gone bankrupt before it even began.