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.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
