I Want to Have a Home with You

Chapter 292

Under the dim yellow streetlights, their shadows were stretched out long.

Gu Ran leaned more than half his body weight on the young woman's slender shoulders.

He deliberately stumbled in his steps, taking advantage of his slight drunkenness to openly act like a rascal.

"Sister, my head is so dizzy, did you feed me some kind of magic potion?"

Ye Zhenzhen was panting under his weight, a faint blush appearing on her fair cheeks.

She extended a finger to push his fluffy head away.

"What nonsense are you talking about! Stop trying to scam me."

Gu Ran not only didn't dodge, but took the opportunity to bury his head in the crook of her neck, which smelled of osmanthus. His warm breath brushed right against the girl's ear.

"If only this road could lead straight home..."

Ye Zhenzhen's neck tickled from his actions. She tilted her head to dodge his restless head and didn't quite catch what the young man had muttered.

"What are you mumbling about?"

Gu Ran lifted his head and stared straight into her beautiful eyes.

"I said, I want to have a home with you."

Ye Zhenzhen's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the tips of her ears instantly turned completely red.

She forced herself to maintain her aloof and proud demeanor, biting her lip as she spoke against her true feelings.

"You had a little booze and now you're flying, huh? If you dare talk nonsense again, I'll throw you on the street to feed the wild dogs."

Gu Ran grinned earnestly, his arms not loosening but instead tightening their grip, wishing he could glue himself to her.

"You wouldn't bear to do that. If I get snatched by wild dogs, where would you find a boyfriend who is this handsome and good at making money?"

Ye Zhenzhen scoffed in disdain, but the hands supporting the young man quietly increased their strength.

"Look at you."

...

The next morning, sunlight spilled into Dorm 404 through the gaps in the curtains.

WeiLiao's Official Account feature officially entered its internal testing phase.

Qin Chaoyang, sporting two huge dark circles under his eyes, jumped up as if pumped with adrenaline and rushed to Gu Ran's bed holding his laptop.

"Gu Ran! Look, look! This is the first gossip masterpiece I stayed up all night to write!"

Gu Ran was munching on a meat bun that Zhang Qi had bought early in the morning. He took the laptop, skimmed the text rapidly, and raised his eyebrows in satisfaction.

"Not bad, Old Qin. Your wording is quite flashy, and the suspense of the gossip is maxed out."

Hearing the praise, Qin Chaoyang beamed so widely his back teeth showed.

"Of course! I dug up all the old, moldy gossip from Qingda University over the past few years."

Zhang Qi, sipping soy milk through a straw nearby, joined in the fun.

"Whoa, you even dug up the romantic affairs of the guys in the dorm next door. You're ruthless."

Gu Ran swallowed the bun in his mouth and changed the subject.

"However, although the content of your article is brilliant, it lacks a soul that can captivate people."

Qin Chaoyang froze, scratching his messy hair.

"Soul? What kind of soul does a fluffy gossip article need? Do I need to elevate its ideological realm?"

Gu Ran pointed to the top of the screen with a finger stained with bun oil.

"Look at your title: Qingda Gossip Forum. It's so dry. Who has the free time to click and read that?"

Qin Chaoyang leaned in, humbly asking for advice, "Then tell me, how should the title be written to catch people's eyes?"

Gu Ran stuffed the last bite of the bun into his mouth and clapped his hands to dust off the crumbs.

His distinct, bony fingers moved nimbly, and the keyboard clattered.

The originally plain title was completely transformed.

"Watch closely. This is called the UC Shock Style, it will definitely catch everyone's attention."

Qin Chaoyang leaned closer to the screen and took a good look.

Shocking! A male student in a Qingda dorm stays awake late at night, secretly doing this in his room!

He gave a thumbs-up and praised it repeatedly, then pursed his lips and voiced his doubt.

"The suspense is there, but nothing is clearly explained. Will people buy it?"

Gu Ran leaned back on the bed and handed the laptop back.

"Curiosity is always the primary productive force. We have to make the onlookers itch with the desire to click on it."

Meanwhile, inside the Penguin headquarters building in Shenzhen.

Liang Dong sat in his spacious boss chair, keenly sensing WeiLiao's recent unusual moves.

He called Brother Hei, his tone gloomy.

"Brother Hei, WeiLiao is doing some internal testing for an Official Account feature. Organize your people immediately."

Brother Hei on the other end of the phone agreed very readily, "President Liang, don't worry! As long as the money is right, we will attack wherever you point!"

Liang Dong slammed his hand on the desk, causing some liquid in his coffee cup to splash out.

"Smear them to death! Spread rumors that this feature is specifically used to spread viruses and spam!"

He lowered his voice, "I want to completely strangle this garbage feature in the cradle! We absolutely cannot let that kid Gu Ran make any more waves!"

Brother Hei patted his chest and guaranteed, "No problem, President Liang! The internet water army has been assembled. Within half an hour, I guarantee the mission will be completed!"

GR Company conference room.

Li Sinan held a public opinion report, reporting to the other end of the phone while sighing anxiously.

"Boss, the internet is full of smear articles right now. They are all driving the narrative that our Official Accounts will turn WeiLiao into a garbage dump."

She placed the report on the conference table, looking at the uniform negative comments on it.

"Those traditional media professionals in the industry have also been led astray, publishing articles mocking us for neglecting our proper business."

Several executives echoed her sentiments, afraid that this wave of public opinion would ruin the soon-to-be-launched Official Account ecosystem.

Gu Ran looked at the pretty face of the young woman studying seriously next to him. He reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

The girl was so absorbed in her studies that she turned a deaf ear to the movement beside her, entirely missing the young man's doting gaze.

"What are you panicking for?"

He propped his chin on one hand and played with the girl's beautiful hair with the other, his eyes bright and confident.

"Those old fossils don't know shit about the mobile internet. Once the data comes out, they'll know who the real clowns are."

At exactly 10 AM, WeiLiao's Official Account feature was officially pushed online to its 100 million users across the network!

Gu Ran used Qin Chaoyang's article as the first promoted content. Through the system backend, he sent a conspicuous pop-up window directly to all online users.

The highly inflammatory title instantly caught the eyes of countless netizens.

Driven by intense curiosity, everyone tapped their screens to enter the article page.

After reading that joking and hilarious gossip article, the comment section completely blew up.

"Holy crap! I took my pants off and this is what you show me?!"

"I've been fooled! This title is too deceptive, but the article does have some substance."

"No way, I can't be the only one tricked! I have to share this on my Moments so my unlucky bros can broaden their horizons too!"

In just one hour, the article's view count smashed through the ten million mark with overwhelming force!

The media professionals and onlookers in the industry who were originally pessimistic stared at this terrifying data in the backend, their jaws nearly dropping to the floor.

"How is this possible?! The water army from Penguin has almost cursed WeiLiao to death, so how is this data still skyrocketing?"

"MicroChat's daily active user data not only didn't drop, but it experienced a vertical surge! Is Gu Ran a god descended from the heavens?"

With this wave of dimensional-strike-like operations, MicroChat completely opened up an absolute gap in user activity compared to its competitors.

Shencheng.

Liang Dong looked at the constantly climbing red line of MicroChat on the screen, anxious as an ant on a hot pan, frantically dialing Brother Hei's number.

"Brother Hei, what the hell are you doing?! I threw so much money at this, so why is MicroChat's data getting better and better!"

At this moment, Brother Hei was sitting in his studio, studying the backend mechanism of MicroChat's Official Accounts with a face full of shock.

He had unexpectedly discovered the traffic revenue sharing and article tipping features that the platform had just launched.

Brother Hei picked up the calculator on his desk and punched in a flurry of numbers.

The moment he calculated the result, he was so excited that he jumped straight out of his chair.

"Holy crap! The traffic revenue from writing these clickbait shock articles is more than ten times what Penguin pays for their pathetic PR fees!"

He turned his head abruptly, looking at his group of subordinates who were still bitterly typing on their keyboards to post smear threads, and roared at the top of his lungs.

"Brothers! Stop fucking typing! We're not doing this black PR anymore!"

The subordinates stopped their movements with blank faces and looked at their boss in unison.

Brother Hei waved his large hand, pointing at the MicroChat Official Account page on the screen, his eyes burning with passion.

"We're going to register Official Accounts overnight and become independent media bloggers on MicroChat to make big money! Who wants to serve that stingy client Penguin anymore!"

Brother Hei was an absolute man of action.

He immediately led the entire internet water army team to defect collectively. To even ride the wave of popularity, he backhandedly concocted a viral article and published it.

[SHOCKING! A certain Penguin factory executive actually hired a water army to do such filthy things in the dark!]

When Liang Dong saw this article in his office, he was completely dumbfounded.

Learning that the dogs he had spent a fortune raising had all run off to work for Gu Ran, he was so furious that he grabbed the keyboard on his desk and smashed it viciously into the computer screen.

With a bzz, the monitor went black and died in a puff of blue smoke.

Liang Dong clutched his chest, feeling his blood pressure soar, nearly spitting out a mouthful of old blood onto the desk.

The executive conference room at Penguin was dead silent.

Everyone collectively lowered their heads, wishing they could shove their heads into their crotches to reduce their presence, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Everyone knew clearly in their hearts that in this life-or-death traffic interception war, Penguin had already suffered a crushing defeat.

...

On the other side, in a dilapidated rented room.

Lao Li was sitting on the floor, drowning his sorrows in alcohol. Because he was unwilling to go against his conscience to write advertorials for Penguin, he had been ostracized at work.

"Sigh..."

He sighed, his face full of gloom.

"If it really doesn't work out, I'll just go home and farm..."

He indeed hadn't been back in a long time. Just as he was thinking about this, a series of text message notification sounds interrupted his train of thought.

Lao Li picked up his phone, and his pupils dilated slightly when he saw the messages.

An eye-catching title instantly grabbed his attention.

[Official Accounts! The new era's traffic benchmark!]

After browsing through the content, a glimmer of hope inexplicably ignited in his heart.

Treating a dead horse as a living one, Lao Li registered a MicroChat account and posted an in-depth article sharply critiquing current events.

He hadn't held out much hope, but to his surprise, thanks to its solid and high-quality content, the article gained a hundred thousand followers overnight!

Early the next morning, Lao Li looked at the generous tipping revenue in his backend account, so excited that tears streamed down his old face.

He specifically posted a long article, thanking MicroChat for giving grassroots creators like them their deserved dignity and a legitimate way to make a living.

The mad influx of bottom-tier creators announced the official arrival of a brand new era of independent media.

At this moment, MicroChat's ecological empire was completely formed and indestructible.

The stormy waves stirred up in the outside world by the Official Accounts did not affect a certain someone's appetite in the slightest.

At noon in the Qingda cafeteria, the aroma of food wafted everywhere.

Gu Ran sat opposite Ye Zhenzhen with his dining tray, triumphantly showing off his achievements to her.

"Doctor Ye, did you see the commotion online today? Now that my clickbait articles are out, the folks over at Penguin are probably crying in the bathroom."

He picked up a piece of braised pork and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing with great relish.

"This is what you call devising strategies within a command tent to win victories a thousand miles away. Your boyfriend is pretty awesome, right?"

Ye Zhenzhen was wearing a white knit cardigan over a light blue slip dress today, naturally exuding an aura that kept strangers at bay, which caused the surrounding boys to frequently cast sidelong glances at her.

She automatically blocked out the surrounding gazes. Looking at Gu Ran's smug appearance, as if his tail was about to point to the sky, she rolled her eyes in disgust.

But her hands were honest. She proudly picked up the biggest chicken leg from her plate and stuffed it directly into Gu Ran's bowl.

"Stop showing off. Even food can't shut your mouth."

Looking at the chicken leg in his bowl, Gu Ran smiled so widely that his eyes narrowed into two slits.

"You're still the most considerate, big sister, knowing how to dote on your little brother."

As soon as he finished speaking, under the table, the tip of the girl's foot wearing white sneakers gently kicked Gu Ran's calf.

Under the table, the young man's leg not only didn't dodge, but moved forward to meet it, gently pressing against the girl's slender ankle.

Ye Zhenzhen's cheeks felt slightly hot from his bold move, but she didn't pull her leg back. Instead, she just gave him a coquettish, watery glare.

......