webnovelvip Chapter 421: Construction Begins
Chapter 421: Construction Begins
Before we knew it, it was already the seventh day of the first lunar month.
The two returned to their villa early.
Lu Ran stood by the window of the villa, looking at the gray sky outside, feeling as if this year's New Year had been fast-forwarded.
The fireworks of New Year's Eve still seem like they were just yesterday, but as soon as I open my eyes, it's time to go to work.
Shen Yuege was still huddled under the covers, with only the top of her head showing.
Last night she said she was going to the studio to record a song today and asked Lu Ran to call her early, but she didn't move even after Lu Ran called her three times.
"Yuege, it's 7:30."
The blanket shifted, making a muffled sound that sounded like "sleep for five more minutes," but Lu Ran couldn't understand a single syllable.
"You said yesterday that you were going to record a song today. You've been looking at the sheet music for 'A Thousand Songs' for several days now. If you don't record it soon, there will be competition."
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Shen Yuege's head.
She peeked out from under the covers, her hair a mess like a bird's nest. Her eyes weren't fully open, but her mouth was already moving: "What date were they issued?"
"What date was it issued?"
"Song. What date do you think would be suitable to release it?"
Lu Ran thought for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed: "Nobody releases new songs during the Lunar New Year. Everyone's posting New Year's greetings, screenshots of red envelopes, and photos of their New Year's Eve dinner. If you release a high-quality Cantonese song at this time, it's like a game-changer. Everyone else is posting pictures of dumplings, and you're releasing a new song. Who else will your fans look at if not you?"
Shen Yuege rubbed her eyes, sat up in bed, pulled the blanket up to her chest, and leaned against the headboard.
She reached for her phone on the bedside table, opened the music app, and glanced at the new song chart.
The chart is full of songs released before the Lunar New Year, and the number one song is even one that was released before the Lunar New Year.
The second place went to a TV drama theme song, and the third place went to a remake of an old song.
The entire list looks lifeless, like a still pond.
"There really aren't any new songs," Shen Yuege said. "Then I'll record them today and release them tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow is the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and most people will go back to work. On the first day back, nobody's really in the mood to work, so listening to music while slacking off is perfect."
Shen Yuege glanced at him: "Your theory must have been specially researched, right?"
"No need to study. I come from a working-class background, I know exactly what working-class people are thinking." Lu Ran stood up, walked to the wardrobe, grabbed a sweatshirt for her, and threw it on the bed. "Get up quickly, stop dawdling. You have to record a song today, and I have to go to a meeting at the company, let's each do our own thing."
Shen Yuege took the hoodie, but didn't put it on immediately. Instead, she looked at him and said, "What are you doing at the company today? Didn't we say we wouldn't officially start work until after the Lantern Festival?"
"I'll go check on the progress of Minecraft. Lao Wang hasn't been idle during the Spring Festival; the beta version is already running, so I need to go take a look."
"When are you coming back?"
"Not necessarily. I'll be back when I'm done. If you're done recording, go home first, don't wait for me."
Shen Yuege said "Oh" and didn't ask any more questions.
She got out of bed, walked barefoot on the floor, and took her hoodie to the bathroom.
Before closing the door, she glanced back at Lu Ran and said something that made him pause for a moment: "You're wearing that dark gray sweater today. It looks good on you."
The door closed.
Lu Ran looked down at his black hoodie, then at the wardrobe, and sighed.
He used to be able to wear whatever he wanted, but now Shen Yuege has started to control what he wears.
This isn't a bad thing, but he needs time to adjust.
After the two finished tidying up, they had a simple breakfast in the kitchen.
Shen Yuege fried two eggs, heated two cups of milk, and then took out the leftover steamed buns from yesterday from the refrigerator and steamed them.
Lu Ran found the breakfast combination strange, but he didn't say anything because Shen Yuege seemed to be in a good mood today, and he didn't want to spoil it.
After finishing her meal, Shen Yuege went out first.
She drove that white car to the studio today, and before leaving, she told Lu Ran, "Come back for dinner tonight," and then closed the door and left.
As the sound of the car starting in the yard gradually faded away, Lu Ran stood in the kitchen for a while, washed the dishes, wiped the stove, tied the garbage bag and put it at the door, then went upstairs to change into the dark gray sweater before going out.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year in Shanghai, there were significantly more people on the streets than in the previous days.
Most shops have already opened, selling breakfast, fruit, and tobacco and alcohol. The shop owners are standing at their doors chatting with their neighbors about everyday life during the Lunar New Year.
There are more cars parked on the roadside now, many of them with out-of-town license plates, probably people returning to work.
Lu Ran took a taxi to the company.
Perhaps because of his previous leg injury, Lu Ran no longer likes to drive himself.
Taking a taxi is so convenient; you don't even have to worry about parking.
Besides, I'm the boss myself, so I don't have to worry about being late.
The driver was a man in his forties who was playing the radio the whole way. A relationship advice program was on, and a woman called in saying that her husband had been having an affair during the Chinese New Year. The host asked her what evidence she had, and she said that she saw her husband sending red envelopes to other women, and they were even lucky draw red envelopes.
Upon hearing this, Lu Ran was surprised to learn that there was such a thing as a lucky draw for red envelopes.
So he pricked up his ears to listen to what followed.
The host asked what the lucky draw red envelopes proved, and the woman said that she not only sent red envelopes, but also voice messages, in which she said, "Happy New Year, I miss you."
The host paused for two seconds and asked, "Have you talked to your husband about this?" The woman said she had, and he said it was a mass message.
Lu Ran almost burst out laughing when he heard this.
When Lu Ran arrived at the company, he pushed open the door and found that there were already quite a few people there.
Xiao Yang was chatting with some colleagues at the entrance of the break room when he saw Lu Ran come in. He waved and said, "Happy New Year, Mr. Lu!"
"Happy New Year." Lu Ran walked over. "When did you get back?"
"I got back yesterday. I was planning to rest for a couple more days, but it was so boring staying at home, so I came back." Xiao Yang pointed to the refrigerator in the break room. "President Zhou had someone buy a bunch of snacks and drinks, saying it's to keep everyone energized for the new year. What would you like to drink, Mr. Lu? I'll get it for you."
"No need, I can do it myself."
Lu Ran walked into the tea room and opened the refrigerator to take a look.
Hey!
The refrigerator was crammed with all sorts of drinks: cola, Sprite, iced tea, oolong tea, coffee, milk—you name it.
He took a bottle of oolong tea from inside, unscrewed the cap, took a sip, and thought that this bottle of oolong tea tasted better than any beverage he drank at home.
It's not that the tea is good, it's that I'm in a good mood.
Lu Ran secretly despised himself, thinking that he was destined to be a beast of burden, but he was happier when he was working.
He took the tea to Zhou Mingzhe's office.
Zhou Mingzhe was already there, sitting behind his desk looking at his computer. There was a cup of tea and a pile of documents on the desk, and he looked like he had already started working.
"Brother Zhou, Happy New Year." Lu Ran sat down across from the desk.
Zhou Mingzhe looked up at him, his expression somewhat subtle: "Did you gain weight over the New Year?"
Lu Ran subconsciously touched her stomach: "No, I don't think so."
"Yes. At least three pounds. Her face has gotten rounder."
"That's because I eat well at home. My mom's cooking is so delicious, I can't resist."
Zhou Mingzhe shook his head, pulled a folder from the pile of files, and handed it to him: "This is a data summary from the Spring Festival period. Take a look."
Lu Ran took the folder and opened it.
The first page shows data for League of Legends, with peak concurrent users exceeding 3.5 million on New Year's Eve, setting a new record.
The "Unlimited Firepower" mode accounted for 60% of the total activity, a significant increase compared to before the Lunar New Year.
The ARAM and Ranked modes were severely squeezed, but Lu Ran wasn't worried because once URF was shut down, those people would naturally return.
The second page contains data from TUTU.
Daily active users increased by 20% during the Chinese New Year period, mainly driven by two sectors: gaming, with the discussion surrounding the "Unlimited Firepower" mode remaining consistently high; and the newly launched "Red Envelope" sector.
In less than a week since its launch, the "Lucky Draw" red envelope campaign has attracted over 30 million participants and distributed more than 200 million yuan in red envelopes.
The number of users who have linked their bank cards has nearly doubled in the past few days.
This number satisfied Lu Ran.
He put down the folder, leaned back in his chair, looked at Zhou Mingzhe, and said, "Brother Zhou, you've worked hard. You didn't get a proper rest during the Spring Festival, did you?"
Zhou Mingzhe waved his hand: "Why would I take a break? On the first day of the Lunar New Year, while you were taking Shen Yuege to karaoke, I was at home monitoring the servers. Zhao Yiming called me three times, saying the server load was too high and asking if I could add a few more servers temporarily. I said yes, don't skimp. He said he had already added some, but was worried it wouldn't be enough. I said to add more. He said adding more would exceed the budget. I said, exceed it if you want, don't let the players experience lag during the New Year."
"You, on the other hand, were singing your heart out at the karaoke bar."
Lu Ran smiled.
Zhou Mingzhe is a man who doesn't show off in ordinary times, but he never lets you down when it matters.
"By the way," Zhou Mingzhe took his phone out of the drawer, opened a page, and handed it to Lu Ran, "Take a look at this. EA and Sakura Games did a lot of things during the Chinese New Year."
Lu Ran took the phone and glanced at it.
It's a news website for the gaming industry, and the headline reads, "EA's Wilderness Era Chinese New Year event concludes, with cumulative participants exceeding 50 million."
He scrolled down and saw that the second article was "Sakura Games' 'Samurai Warriors' releases a new Lunar New Year expansion, adding two new generals," and the third article was "Weibo Games reaches a deep cooperation with EA to exclusively broadcast the 'Wilderness Era' Lunar New Year tournament."
In short, during the Chinese New Year period, the actions of those two companies were much more high-profile and effective.
But it only has an effect.
After reading it, Lu Ran handed the phone back to Zhou Mingzhe, picked up his oolong tea, and took a sip: "Fifty million participants sounds like a lot. But you have to look at how they define 'participation.' Signing in counts as participation, logging in counts as participation, clicking on the event page counts as participation. It's all inflated."
Zhou Mingzhe took the phone and glanced at it again: "So, what do you think of the effectiveness of their event?"
"Not so good. Think about it, during the Lunar New Year, everyone has time, spare money, and is in the mood—it's the easiest time for game companies to make money. EA ran so many events, recharge rebates, limited-edition skins, New Year's gift packs, and what was the result? How much did daily active users increase? Less than 10%." Lu Ran paused, a smirk playing on his lips. "We didn't do anything, just launched an Infinite Power Mode, and daily active users increased by 50%. What does that mean? It means EA's approach isn't working anymore. Players aren't buying it."
Zhou Mingzhe nodded and put his phone aside: "So what's next? Infinite Power is shutting down at the end of the month. How will we maintain the hype after that?"
"We'll organize a competition," Lu Ran said. "I talked to Chen Mo before the Chinese New Year, and he's already got people preparing for the internet cafe league. Once the 'Unlimited Firepower' mode is shut down, the competition will start right away. The hype won't die down."
Zhou Mingzhe jotted down a few notes in his notebook, then looked up at Lu Ran, his expression becoming more serious: "There's one more thing. Weibo hasn't been idle during the Spring Festival either. After Wang Huabing signed an exclusive community cooperation agreement with EA, he organized several events on Weibo. He invited several 'Wildlands Era' streamers to broadcast on Weibo, and even promoted the opening screen with 'GG' in the streams. It's hard to say how effective it will be, but they're definitely putting in a lot of effort."
Lu Ran leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.
He hadn't paid much attention to Wang Huabing before.
The gaming section on Weibo has lost its presence. Users have left, content has left, streamers have left, and all that's left are some automatically scraped information feeds and the occasional marketing account that pops up.
But now Wang Huabing is tied to EA. EA has products, and Weibo has traffic. When the two come together, they can indeed make some noise.
"Don't worry about it," Lu Ran said. "Weibo is a good platform for building communities, but not for gaming communities. Because Weibo's core users aren't gamers, they're just casual observers. You can't get casual observers to discuss games. They'll just watch the show and leave. You can't keep them engaged."
Zhou Mingzhe thought about it and felt that what he said made sense, so he didn't ask any more questions.
After leaving Zhou Mingzhe's office, Lu Ran went to the technology department.
Old Wang isn't here; he went back to his hometown and hasn't returned yet.
Zhao Yiming was there, sitting at his workstation staring at three monitors, with a cup of coffee that had gone cold and a bag of unfinished potato chips in front of him.
"Yiming, Happy New Year."
Zhao Yiming turned his head, and the dark circles under his eyes were even more pronounced than before the Lunar New Year, indicating that he had stayed up a lot during the holiday.
He saw Lu Ran, paused for a moment, then jumped up from his chair: "President Lu! Happy New Year! When did you get back?"
"I just arrived today. Didn't you go home for the Chinese New Year?"
"I'm back. I came back on the third day of the Lunar New Year. Staying at home is boring, it's much more comfortable at the company." Zhao Yiming rubbed his hands together, his expression becoming excited. "President Lu, I have something to tell you. I've been studying your code for that lucky draw red envelope for several days, it's so beautifully written. I didn't understand the random allocation algorithm at first, but I drew several diagrams before I figured it out. How did you come up with that method?"
Lu Ran's heart skipped a beat, but his face remained expressionless: "Just something I thought of. Let's not talk about that. Tell me, is the Minecraft beta running?"
Zhao Yiming was unaware that the topic had been changed, and nodded: "It's running. I've been running tests during the Spring Festival, and I haven't found any major bugs yet. There's just one small issue: the world sometimes lags for a fraction of a second when it's generating, and you won't notice it unless you look closely. I'm already optimizing it, and I estimate it will be fixed next week."
"How's Liu's side? Are there any problems with the rendering module?"
"Liu's situation is almost done. He didn't go home for the Spring Festival and worked overtime at the company the whole time. He was still modifying code on New Year's Eve. I asked him to go eat dumplings, but he said he wasn't in a hurry and would eat after he finished modifying that piece of code. Later, Lao Wang called and scolded him before he finally went."
After listening, Lu Ran didn't say anything, but he made a mental note of Liu Gong's actions.
He didn't hold a grudge against Engineer Liu for questioning the source of the code last time, because Engineer Liu was right.
Liu is working overtime even during the Chinese New Year, which shows that he is not only good at finding fault, but also good at getting things done.
This kind of employee is worth training.
...