Chapter 38

For several consecutive days, Bian Xuedao had been working on the redesign of my123, striving to add more service functions without compromising the page's neatness.

Bian Xuedao designed several page layouts with different proportions, added a one-click homepage setting function, a calendar function, and a feature to display local weather based on the viewer's IP address. After some thought, he added a news ticker on the left side.

After completing the design, Bian Xuedao planned to find a few people who frequently used the internet and had a good sense of composition to review it, to get their first impressions of the redesigned page, and then he could launch it.

In the first two weeks of the new semester, Yang Hao skipped all his classes again, not just one but all of them.

During the first and second weeks of the first semester of his freshman year, Yang Hao also skipped all his classes. Because of this, despite usually being a diligent student, his grades in several courses hovered around 60 or 70 points.

The guys in room 717 were all curious about what Yang Hao was up to.

Logically, the first class of a new semester would just involve the teacher taking attendance, and a lively teacher might ask everyone to introduce themselves. No matter how much one wanted to skip, the first class was crucial for the teacher's first impression.

But Yang Hao, this guy, only skipped the first two classes of the semester and was otherwise a model student, never leaving the classroom no matter who called him out.

Li Yu was observant. He told Bian Xuedao that, based on his observations, Yang Hao had no problem speaking normally, and he could even chat smoothly with his girlfriend on the phone. However, in crowded places, especially when he had to speak on stage, he would get nervous and stammer.

Li Yu guessed that Yang Hao skipped the first two classes of the new semester because he was afraid the teacher would ask him to introduce himself on stage.

Bian Xuedao asked Li Yu, "What about his English speaking skills?"

Yang Hao, along with the other two, was not in the same English class. Li Yu wasn't sure, but Kong Weize had mentioned that Yang Hao also skipped English speaking classes.

Speaking of this, Li Yu remembered a funny story involving Kong Weize and Yu Jin.

Once, during an English conversation test in their C class, Kong Weize and Yu Jin were paired up to play the roles of a foreign tourist in China and a Chinese volunteer. The teacher required their conversation to be at least 20 sentences long. The result almost made the teacher faint.

Yu Jin (volunteer): Hello.

Kong Weize (foreigner): Hello.

Yu Jin: May I help you?

Kong Weize: Yes.

Yu Jin: Can you speak Chinese?

Kong Weize: Yes.

Yu Jin: Speak up, what do you want to ask?

Kong Weize: ...

The entire English class burst into laughter.

The girls in dorm 603 were from the Landscape Architecture Department, and all eight of them had a background in art. After Bian Xuedao got their feedback on the new version of my123, the new version was officially launched.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the new version of my123 was superior to other navigation websites in terms of both concept and functionality, especially the news ticker. Bian Xuedao designed only one slot for it, and with the scrolling, there were only three news items per day, which linked directly to the websites he connected.

Bian Xuedao put a lot of thought into this position. Initially, the three slots were shared by the three major portals. Later, when similar news appeared, he would choose the most promising headline to link. Eventually, all three news items might come from the same portal.

In those days, portals placed great importance on traffic. Soon, the news directors of the three portals noticed something unusual in their traffic statistics.

Often, the traffic for a particular news item on a certain day would be exceptionally high, far surpassing the second most popular news item. The next day, it would return to normal, and a few days later, another news item would have unusually high traffic.

It didn't take long to trace the source, which turned out to be the news links recommended by the my123 navigation website.

The directors all knew about my123, but they didn't think it was on the same level as hao123. Out of curiosity, they opened it and noticed the differences.

Checking the Alexa rankings, the data showed that my123's ranking had been rising steadily over the past month, improving by more than 40 places. While the current ranking wasn't particularly impressive, everyone in the industry knew that once a navigation page gained traction, its ranking would only improve and rarely decline.

Moreover, such a rapid rise in ranking often indicated that the operator had a powerful promotion strategy.

The news directors told their assistants, "Find the contact number of the person running my123 and tell me."

In recent days, Bian Xuedao had received many calls from strangers, most of whom wanted to place ads on my123 or secure a position on the site. What surprised him the most was receiving calls from the news directors of two major portals, who offered to pay him a certain amount based on the traffic generated by the news items he recommended from their sites. They also mentioned that if my123's Alexa global ranking entered the top 50, they would pay him for every click from my123. Finally, they invited him to visit their headquarters if he was interested.

Bian Xuedao knew that the money offered was insignificant to these portals, but they mainly wanted to establish a connection with him for future needs.

Bian Xuedao was happy to receive the money, but he didn't lose his head. He wasn't swayed by the directors' suggestions to increase the number of news recommendations. He was well aware that his website was still in the growth phase, and anything that might cause even the slightest user dissatisfaction could affect its future.

He decided not to add any more news recommendations. Fewer slots made each one more valuable, a principle he understood well.

As for the ideas he had earlier, such as charging for ranking, changing the color of website names, and placing small ads, Bian Xuedao rejected them all. By the end of 2004, he was determined to keep my123's page as clean as possible, adding not a single extra word or color block.

During this period, a classmate of Teacher Wen took Bian Xuedao and Wen Congqian to an English salon.

Many people noticed the new arrivals and came over to chat with them, successfully dispelling Bian Xuedao's initial nervousness and lack of confidence.

The atmosphere was relaxed and casual. As long as you spoke, the people around you would listen attentively, nodding and agreeing sincerely, without focusing on your pronunciation or word choice, and without mocking your Chinglish or tense errors. If you struggled to express yourself, someone would skillfully change the topic or translate for you.

After just one visit, Bian Xuedao fell in love with the atmosphere of the English salon. The reactions of the people around him told him that they understood what he was saying, which was a huge boost to his confidence.

Of course, Bian Xuedao's enthusiasm also had a component of showing off to Teacher Wen.

He needed a regular, fixed gathering to bind himself and Teacher Wen together, reinforcing his presence as a shareholder in Teacher Wen's mind. Additionally, it helped avoid any suspicious people noticing that he and Teacher Wen met frequently, reducing potential trouble.

Time passed like water, and the freshmen of 2002 arrived at the school.

On the day of the freshmen's registration, the campus was bustling with people. Cars shuttled between the school gate and the dormitories, and freshmen could be seen everywhere, carrying suitcases and holding enrollment forms, looking around and asking for directions.

In mid-September, Bian Xuedao visited Teacher Wen's studio. Before going, he told Teacher Wen not to reveal his identity and to say he was there to apply for a job.

He took a quick tour of the studio, had a meal with Teacher Wen, and then returned to the Red Building with the 100,000 yuan Teacher Wen gave him. He found his bank card and the previous 30,000 yuan, and went to the bank outside the campus to deposit the money.

Bian Xuedao had been considering whether to give Teacher Wen his account number for direct transfers.

But he decided against it. At worst, he could borrow Li Yu's car once a week. In Bian Xuedao's mind, without online transfer records, he could maintain a certain distance from the activities involving Teacher Wen.