Baiting the Waters

The front door swung open with a clatter.

Seeing his son return, Chen Xingguo set down his newspaper and teased with a smile, "1,074 yuan—congratulations, congratulations. That's a new single-day revenue record for our family, but it's still a long way from ten times that~"

Chen Hao changed into slippers and washed his face. "I haven't even made my move yet. Today was just a little warm-up~"

"But I'll admit it, kid, you do have some clever ideas. I never expected you to bring in a mini-market."

"Uh, how'd you know?"

"Is there anything your old man doesn't know? Several of my apprentices play at our Internet cafe."

"Fine. The mini-market is just a shift in thinking. The pain points in user demand are where we profit. Meet their needs, and making money will naturally follow."

"Mm, true enough. Looks like you really have grown up, kid! You've got a bit of my old flair!"

"Tch, my son has way more promise than you. Back then, who knows which backwater village you were in, serving as some grunt." Mom came out and immediately shut him down.

Chen Xingguo was choked off by the tyrant of the household. He did not dare talk back and could only awkwardly return to the subject. "Then I'll wait and see just how big a splash you can make~"

"Just watch."

After saying that, Chen Hao returned to his bedroom and turned on his computer. He had originally planned to set up an accounting system at home as well, so his mother could ditch the traditional pen and paper.

But then another thought struck him. Why make things so troublesome? He could just register a domain name and put the system online. They could enter the URL, log in with an account and password, and check the books online. How convenient would that be?

They could look whenever they wanted, saving Mom the trouble of checking the accounts every day.

Mm, tomorrow he would upgrade the system again and put it online.

He surfed the web for a while, complaining as he went. This site was ugly; that site had an awful layout.

It was simply unbearable to look at. Then he dug up something fun from his hard drive: a full-color comic version of The Golden Lotus~

Chen Hao remembered it now. He had gotten it after running into someone selling discs on the street during a trip after graduating middle school.

After indulging in some nostalgia, he felt refreshed and free of distracting thoughts. Chen Hao shut down the computer and went to sleep, dreamlessly passing the night.

The next day.

At the usual morning hour, Chen Hao arrived at the Internet cafe, shoved Old Ban aside, and took over his spot, intending to overhaul the system.

Pang Ban handed him a sheet of paper from between the layers of books beside him.

It was densely packed with writing.

"1. Add a secondary confirmation prompt to the final step of logging on, to prevent misclicks.

2. Add a configuration page to adjust the number of computers if the Internet cafe's setup changes.

3. Add an option on the configuration page to change the hourly Internet fee. It is currently set to 2 yuan by default, but it can be adjusted directly if prices change later.

4. Swap the horizontal and vertical axes on the statistics chart, changing the bar chart from horizontal to vertical. That would make it more user-friendly and intuitive."

There were more than a dozen items in total. He had even covered everything on the flyer and expanded on it to some extent.

Chen Hao looked up, his face full of surprise. "You... thought of all this last night?"

Pang Ban nodded.

Hiss!

Chen Hao sucked in a breath, making a tiny contribution to global warming.

He secretly thought, This kid is terrifying. Not only does he have protagonist template, he was born with a testing spiritual root. And his origins are mysterious. If I can't use him for myself...

I absolutely cannot let him live!

Ahem, just kidding. A guy like Old Ban could take on ten of him with one hand. He could fantasize a little.

Chen Hao gave Old Ban a thumbs-up. "Badass. Watch me."

He crossed out two impractical suggestions and explained the reasons to Old Ban.

Then Chen Hao began optimizing the system. His fingers struck the keyboard like rain on plantain leaves, clattering nonstop.

Pang Ban watched without blinking. Seeing that he was interested, Chen Hao explained as he coded, not caring whether Pang Ban could absorb it all.

An hour later, every issue on the paper had been optimized.

Then he began adding new features.

Chen Hao first added a permission management module, dividing users into three roles: super administrator, finance, and network administrator. Each role could access only the menus within its assigned permissions.

Naturally, the super administrator could operate everything.

Once that was done, he registered the domain name and made another round of configurations in both the domain management panel and the computer.

From then on, the front-desk computer would serve as the server. As long as it was powered on, anyone could enter the URL and access it from anywhere.

Done!

Hm? Domains? Right—there had been several classic domain trading cases in his previous life. Buy low, sell high, and domain dealers made a fortune.

Each of those three domains had sold for an eight-figure price. Oh, and according to rumors, Sina had bought the last one from a college student named Zhang Weibo. They gave the guy two hours and accepted only one offer. In the end, he gritted his teeth and asked for 8 million. Sina agreed without a second word. A few years later, it turned out they had still gotten a bargain.

So sometimes, even coming up with a good name could make money.

Chen Hao had just checked online, and all three domains had already been registered.

Using the email addresses in the domain information, Chen Hao sent three emails asking for prices.

First, he would test the waters. Later, he would find an opportunity to acquire those three domains. That alone would be no small fortune—an investment with enormous returns.

Chen Hao spent the rest of his time shooting the breeze and playing games.

He played some StarCraft with the people here and Counter-Strike with people over there. In both games, Chen Hao was on one side while everyone else was on the other, and he won far more often than he lost.

Every now and then, he helped a few Legend players plan their future leveling and monster-grinding routes, teaching them a few tricks along the way.

Time flew by, and when Chen Hao got off work—

He checked the day's revenue: 1,174 yuan, a little higher than yesterday, thanks to the income from snacks and drinks.

On the third morning.

In the open lot behind Pentium Internet Cafe, a dozen or so fifteen-year-old kids had gathered. They stood in three neat rows, more orderly than during PE class. Excitement showed on every face as they listened to a tall, handsome guy in front of them repeatedly lay out instructions.

"Each of you will get one hundred flyers and a bottle of glue. Put them up in residential compounds, supermarkets, gaming arcades—on bulletin boards and entrances. If there's somewhere you can stick one, stick one there."

"Team One: Sun God Internet Cafe. Team Two: New Century Internet Cafe. Cover the areas around those two first. Remember, don't be idiots and slap them right on the Internet cafes' front doors. Don't hit people in the face!"

"Team Three will hand them out around our Internet cafe. Once you're done, come back here to collect your money. Ten yuan per person. I'll also send people out for spot checks. You can monitor each other too. Report someone, and if it checks out, you get ten yuan. Anyone caught tossing flyers into the trash, or putting several up in one place just to get it over with, counts. Don't worry—Old Ban will handle those cases!"

"Any questions?"

Silence.

Excellent. This was exactly the effect Chen Hao wanted. He handed out the stack of flyers beside him, along with a bottle of 502 Glue for each person.

Like a general about to send troops into battle, Chen Hao swept out his hand and gave the order to move out.

His soldiers broke into scattered groups and headed off in all directions.

Old Ban had always settled conflicts here, and these kids would lean out the second-floor windows to watch. Old Ban's invincible image—fighting many opponents alone and holding the line by himself—had long since taken root in their hearts.

At the time, Hong Kong and Taiwanese Young and Dangerous films were hugely popular. Though Old Ban could not be bothered to hang out with them, these little punks had spontaneously recognized him as their boss. It was this group that had spread the title of Pentium's top dog.

So when Old Ban had merely hinted that morning that he needed some manpower, these kids had gathered more than a dozen like-minded people in no time, all fired up. That was why Chen Hao was not worried they would slack off.

The bait was out. Now it was time to see how many fish would bite!

"I want to go back to the past and try to make the story continue."

Chen Hao hummed Jay Chou's song while swaying his head and headed upstairs.