Chapter 204: Stop pretending

Chapter 204: Stop pretending

Chapter 204: Stop pretending

"Xu Mingyuan, the teacher heard that I was your classmate, so he asked me to come."

Seeing Xu Mingyuan looking at her with a little surprise, Song Xiaowan hurriedly explained.

"Yeah, okay." Xu Mingyuan nodded.

Song Xiaowan wanted to ask more about Lin Jing, but when she saw him turning back, she had no choice but to follow him silently.

Xu Mingyuan and Lin Jing basically became ordinary classmates.

It has been almost two months since our last contact.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival when Lin Jing sent me a message on QQ, saying Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

When Xu Mingyuan sent a group message, he added Lin Jing and replied with a casual "Happy National Day". He chatted with the people online for a few words and then went offline.

Xu Mingyuan had no idea whether the message had fallen on deaf ears, as current QQ messages only last for a week, and messages would not be received after that time limit.

Xu Mingyuan usually logs into his work QQ more often. He only uses his QQ number when he leaves Nanxi and occasionally uses it to video chat with Xiao Yangzhi. He rarely chats with others.

Jiangda and Haizhou Newspaper are cooperative units. The one we are interviewing today is Haizhou Newspaper, which is affiliated with Youth Daily. It is not a large unit, but it is not small either.

In order to promote the reputation of Jiangnan University’s College of Arts, the College would naturally not just invite Xu Mingyuan for an interview.

The school understood that Xu Mingyuan's gimmick was enough, so they asked him to bring a few more Jiang University students to prove that Jiang University is not only strong in science and engineering, but also in the Faculty of Arts.

There were three other people interviewed with Xu Mingyuan, two men and one woman.

However, Jiangnan University's science and engineering departments are still too strong. The two boys are alumni from the engineering campus. One of them is a senior named Wang Dong. Xu Mingyuan has seen people discussing him on the classmates' website. He has formed his own team to engage in import and export trade, and I heard that he is doing well.

The only girl who came, Xu Mingyuan had never heard of her name. She was probably here to serve as a vase.

"Xu Mingyuan?"

"Hey, yes."

"Hello, my name is Li Rui, a reporter from Haizhou Youth Daily. I am also a graduate of Jiangnan University. Thank you for accepting the interview."

"You are so polite, senior sister. It is an honor for me to be interviewed by Haizhou Youth Daily."

When Xu Mingyuan saw her extending her hand, he also stepped forward and shook hands.

"I heard from my colleagues that it's very difficult to make an appointment with you." Li Rui said with a smile.

"My studies are tight and my tasks are heavy. I don't have much time." Xu Mingyuan made an excuse calmly.

Li Rui has been working for several years and it is not difficult for her to see that Xu Mingyuan is just being perfunctory, but she is quite surprised.

Li Rui has met many young people who have made great achievements in their careers, but young people all like to talk big. She has never seen many young people like Xu Mingyuan who have achieved such great results and yet remain low-key.

Media studies at Jiangnan University is not a popular major, mainly because it has too many branches, including journalism, advertising and marketing, radio hosting, etc. There are a lot of subjects, but few of them are outstanding.

Today’s interview was held in the studio classroom of the Third Teaching Building. The lights and cameras had already been set up, and the curtain at the back had “Jiangda Media” written in large letters.

The interview adopted the interview format, with a circle of students sitting below.

Xu Mingyuan had been interviewed by various tabloids before. Although he couldn't say that he was familiar with the subject, he wasn't afraid of it either.

The Youth Daily simply asked questions about studies, entrepreneurship, and future prospects. Xu Mingyuan could have spoken without a script and did not have to prepare a script in advance like the others.

After everyone asked a few questions, Li Rui focused on Xu Mingyuan.

Xu Mingyuan's answer focused on the classmates' network. Even though Li Rui asked specifically about sailing technology, he just blandly shifted the focus to the classmates' network and didn't want to talk about anything else.

Sailing Technology has a special marketing model, and he doesn't need to show up. If he talks too much, it will grab the spotlight of the classmates network. I'm afraid that by the time the deadline comes, the news about the classmates network will probably be summarized in one sentence.

"We don't open off-campus registration for classmates because we are worried that if everyone can register, a large amount of low-quality content will be produced, affecting the community environment. Serving college students is the focus of the classmates network, and we will not easily change our strategy," said Xu Mingyuan.

"Oh? You mean, apart from college students, all Internet users are low-quality users?"

Li Rui was slightly stunned and caught the clue in Xu Mingyuan's words.

"Of course we can't say that, but it is an indisputable fact that college students have relatively high quality. Instead of looking for high-quality users in the vast ocean of the Internet, it is better to set up a gate directly," said Xu Mingyuan.

News always needs an eye-catching title, so why not let Xu Mingyuan give a title directly?

This may offend a group of users, but it doesn’t matter. Although contemporary college students are not as valuable as in previous years, the pride in their hearts has not diminished.

If college students think that registering on Tongxue.com is not an easy thing, they will take a look just to get the title of high-quality users. "As you said, isn't Tongxue.com giving up a large number of users? Is this a good thing for future development?" Li Rui asked.

"I think it's a good thing. In 04 alone, the number of college students enrolled exceeded five million, and there will be more in the future. Classmates.com will have one million users before the Chinese New Year, and by next year, there will be more than ten million college students using Classmates. This is already a huge amount of traffic, and there is no need to consider other aspects of traffic."

Xu Mingyuan briefly explained the future plans of the classmates network and did not say anything further, leaving the remaining time to several other classmates.

The next topic turned to the thoughts of contemporary young people and their outlook on the future. Listening to the extensive talk, Xu Mingyuan also responded with a few perfunctory remarks.

"Xu Mingyuan, I heard that you are also an entrepreneur. What do you think about the future?"

"As for the future, how can I talk about it? This topic is too broad. I will continue what Senior Wang Dong said. I personally think that resource crises are not crises. For example, oil has been said to be running out since the last century. However, more and more oil fields have been discovered. The so-called fourth oil crisis two years ago disappeared without making any waves. It was more like a hype. We just need to continue to maintain multiple channels and not be strangled by others."

At the beginning of the millennium, half of the headlines every year were about these things, but ten years later, with the further development of green energy, no one mentioned them anymore. It is better to pay more attention to high-tech, which is the top priority in the future.

"I don't agree with Mr. Xu's opinion. China's development has entered a high-speed track, and the demand for energy has further expanded. For example, coal is already in short supply and needs to be imported..."

"Yes, Senior Wang Dong is right." Xu Mingyuan nodded.

He's not doing an interview and doesn't want to steal other people's limelight, so just say whatever you want.

……

After the interview, some news websites published the interview, followed by criticism of Tongxue.com.

Are college students high-quality users? Are using Tongxue.com superior to others?
Humility is a virtue. Pay attention to the current public opinion trend among college students...

Various critical headlines emerged one after another, and even Xu Mingyuan's more important vision for the future, which he talked about in order to reduce his personal negative impact, was ignored by everyone.

Fortunately, it was not a video program, and Xu Mingyuan did not allow his photo to be published, otherwise he would definitely be scolded to death.

However, the mentality of college students is easy to understand. Everyone has a sense of pride in their hearts. Registration on the classmates network is only open to college students. Being able to register gives them a sense of superiority.

When Tongxue.com had less than 500,000 users, more than a dozen teams started to run social networking sites at universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Moreover, the effect of ground promotion is also very good, such as giving away books and chartering cars to pick up students from school. The competition is extremely fierce.

Xu Mingyuan wanted to use the funds to maintain the website and had no extra money for publicity, so he had to find another way and seize hot topics.

The website for Classmates.com is easy to make, so Xu Mingyuan simply copied Facebook. Naturally, competing companies would not miss the opportunity and simply copied Classmates.com.

At that time, there was no legal provision on the Internet prohibiting plagiarism. Xu Mingyuan had no way to deal with competing companies and could only seize the market as quickly as possible.

Since then, Xu Mingyuan has not appeared in the studio of Classmate.com, and all interviews have been handled by Li Yunfeng.

Let him, the CEO, come out and explain that the classmate website welcomes any user to register and that the news is all clickbait. Xu Mingyuan actually did not say such things to quell the subsequent negative impact.

However, there are too many small media outlets on the Internet now, and all major news websites will pay to include gossip, so Xu Mingyuan hid outside the school for several days in a row.

"No wonder you didn't let me go. It turns out you knew you were going to be scolded."

Seeing that Xu Mingyuan was nowhere to be seen all day, afraid of being photographed, and even had to hide outside the school to eat, Tao Shuxin felt deeply concerned.

"It doesn't matter. We're all going to have a holiday anyway. Who will care about this next year?"

"You act like a thief every time I see you. Where did you go today?"

"I was in the company during the day, and I went to pack my things after the exam in the afternoon. When did you finish the exam?"

"tomorrow."

"Then let's go and live off campus."

Xu Mingyuan picked up a piece of pork ribs for her and said calmly.

"You think beautiful!"

Tao Shuxin suddenly became like a hedgehog with its fur standing on end, and her face turned red.

"What are you afraid of? No one is checking the dormitory now."

"Stop pretending! Am I afraid of a dormitory inspection?"

Tao Shuxin narrowed his eyes, his eyes gleaming coldly.

However, when Xu Mingyuan raised his head, he saw that she was evasive.

(End of this chapter)