Six days later, the promotion for Chen Fan's website finally appeared on .
Chen Fan had come up with the ad copy himself. It was just one line.
"You're only one good domain name away from success."
"Domain Name Network-the best domain name trading platform."
It had to be said that in 2000, when the internet was still relatively undeveloped,
advertising on had a powerful effect.
The ad had been up for just one day.
Traffic to Chen Fan's Domain Name Network surged.
It jumped by fifty thousand.
The user registration rate reached an astonishing forty to fifty percent.
The website Chen Fan had built was simply that polished.
Even users who had no idea what a domain name was would register an account to lurk and chat on the forums.
On the second day, traffic to Domain Name Network passed one hundred thousand.
The number of registered users approached fifty thousand.
China had around twenty million internet users in 2000, thanks to the internet cafés that had sprung up everywhere over the past two years, driving rapid growth in the online population.
Just two years earlier, that number had only been a few million.
But Chen Fan also knew that these two years were the heyday of internet cafés. Once a series of policies came into force, especially as some experts and parents began pushing the idea that "games are poison," internet cafés would soon face a harsh downturn.
Still, anyone who opened an internet café now could absolutely catch the last wave and make a fortune.
Unfortunately, Chen Fan knew how to make that money, but he had no money to start with.
Chen Fan's joy did not last long.
A few days later, he spotted ads for Easy Domain Network on Sohu and NetEase.
And they had paid for large banner ads right on the homepages.
Not only that, but several major secondary pages also carried promotions for Easy Domain Network.
They were clearly loaded and happy to show it.
Seeing this, Chen Fan knew.
The real battle had begun.
He could not see Easy Domain Network's data, but he could gauge its performance from the number of posts on its forums.
The ads were clearly working. Easy Domain Network was already showing signs of taking off.
Chen Fan was frustrated by the situation.
Their timing was far too good.
His promotion on was about to expire.
If he wanted to keep competing for users, he would have to pour in more money and keep advertising.
And Chen Fan had no money left.
At this point, there was no way he could borrow more from his parents.
Just as Chen Fan was feeling frustrated,
his good friend Guo Shuai showed up.
While they were playing games at an internet café, Guo Shuai quietly handed him a bag.
"There's eight thousand yuan in there."
Chen Fan froze.
Guo Shuai smiled.
"I don't know exactly what you're working on, but I know you need money badly right now."
"Like I said, being brothers is something you carry in your heart."
Chen Fan gave a wry smile.
"No. I can't take your money."
Guo Shuai glared at him.
"You looking down on me?"
"Relax. I didn't steal this from home."
"My old man gave me this as a reward for passing the cutoff for third-tier universities."
"I was going to buy a phone, but since you need money so badly, I'll just have to wait."
Seeing that Chen Fan still looked conflicted,
Guo Shuai tossed the money onto the table.
"If you still think of me as your brother, take it and use it."
"If you look down on me, then we're done being brothers."
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Chen Fan reached out and picked up the bag of money.
"Thanks."
Guo Shuai chuckled.
"Don't thank me yet. I've got my own little agenda."
"I've got no grand ambitions in life. I just want to coast along and get by."
"I think you're smarter than me, and you're bound to do better than me in life, so I've decided to stick with you."
"When you hit it big, don't forget your buddy."
Chen Fan smiled.
"Don't worry. I won't forget you."
"That's more like it."
Guo Shuai laughed.
"I checked. My school isn't that far from Cloudsea University, so we can still see each other often."
On the day they submitted their university choices, Guo Shuai heard that Chen Fan and Su Ruochu had both applied to Cloudsea University.
He immediately changed his choices and put down a third-tier university in Yunhai.
As far as he was concerned, if he was going to a third-tier university anyway, it made no difference where he went.
He might as well be in the same city as his best friend.
At least they could look out for each other.
Looking at the money in his hands, Chen Fan could not help feeling touched.
After all, in this day and age, someone willing to hand over eight thousand yuan in one go, trusting him completely,
was closer than a blood brother.
"Don't worry, bro. When I make it big, I'll definitely hire you as my driver."
"Fuck!"
Guo Shuai flipped him the middle finger.
"When you can afford a Rolls-Royce, I'll drive for you."
Chen Fan chuckled.
"Don't worry. We'll get there."
With the eight thousand yuan from Guo Shuai, Chen Fan contacted again and signed a second advertising contract.
But they were seasoned capitalists too.
They seemed to have learned that his Domain Name Network was battling Easy Domain Network.
They nearly doubled the price outright.
Faced with this attempt to take advantage of his predicament, Chen Fan had no way to protest.
He could only grit his teeth and swallow it.
After all, Boss Yao's Easy Domain Network had firmly secured the homepages of NetEase and Sohu. If Chen Fan wanted to keep going, he had no choice but to sign with .
After some bargaining,
Chen Fan finally settled on a deal: eight thousand yuan for three days of homepage advertising and a week on two secondary pages.
Even with the advertising contract signed,
Chen Fan did not dare let his guard down for a moment.
Until he thoroughly defeated Easy Domain Network, he might have to keep burning money on promotion.
The only way out was for his Domain Name Network to beat Easy Domain Network and hold on until investors bought it.
His good friend Guo Shuai had already given him more than enough support.
He could not keep borrowing money from him.
So Chen Fan began racking his brains for other ways to make money.
He called Guo Shuai over, and they tracked down internet cafés and computer shops of every size throughout Luo City.
Then they visited them one by one.
They offered their services: freeing up memory, cleaning dust out of computers, reinstalling operating systems, repairing faults...
In short, Chen Fan took on anything related to computers.
At the time, computer repair specialists were still rare in a small place like Luo City.
And Chen Fan's rates were considerably lower than those of his competitors.
So he did make some money at first.
But it was nowhere near enough.
The money barely had time to warm his hands before Chen Fan poured it all into advertising.
During this period, Domain Name Network and Easy Domain Network gradually became better known, and their traffic steadily increased.
And because Chen Fan's Domain Name Network had better website optimization and a better interface than Easy Domain Network, it held a slight lead for the moment.
Of course, Chen Fan knew he still could not relax.
His advantage was only temporary.
If he stopped advertising, the other side would probably overtake him immediately.
As the two sides traded blows in their fierce battle, July 23 finally arrived.
The day the Gaokao results were released had come.
Before you continue