As Gu Chuan and the others had just entered the warehouse, they ran into the startup team next door.
Everyone on the other team was holding promotional flyers. Clearly, they had already started promoting their project.
Every team here was brimming with ambition, determined to do better than the others.
The two teams had never had much to do with each other. When they met, they usually just nodded in greeting. But this time, Wang Hao, the other team’s leader, came over with a smug smile, looking down his nose at them.
“I heard your project is almost finished. I also heard it’s a social networking website?”
The others were confused and exchanged glances.
Gu Chuan glanced at the blue interface above Wang Hao’s head. Though Wang Hao was a little rude, Gu Chuan answered his question for the sake of his being a Level 3 talent.
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
Wang Hao burst out laughing. “What a coincidence! Our project is social networking too, and we launched before you. Tsk, what a shame. Want to take a look at our website?”
Wang Hao handed Gu Chuan a promotional flyer. He had expected Gu Chuan to fly into a rage, but Gu Chuan merely accepted it calmly.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I wish you success!”
With that, Gu Chuan led his team back to their studio. Wang Hao snorted. “Putting on an act! Just wait until my project takes off. You won’t get so much as a drop of the profits. You can cry about it then!”
Back at the studio, everyone except Gu Chuan looked rather grim.
Ye Xuchen was the first to speak. “Damn it, I can’t believe they beat us to it. What do we do now?”
The others were all worried, and not without reason. For a small-budget startup like theirs, their main way of advertising was in person. Clearly, the other team had set its sights on the campus too.
Now that the other team had launched and finished a round of promotions, whether they succeeded or not, students would be much less interested when their own project launched.
Gu Chuan smiled mysteriously. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll handle the promotional plan myself. Our most important task now is to finish the website and start testing it.”
A few days passed in the blink of an eye. The closer the project came to launch, the more nervous everyone became.
That day, Ning Lei returned from buying lunch with some less-than-good news.
Wang Hao, who had taunted them a few days earlier, had launched his project just a few days ago, and it seemed to be doing pretty well. He’d attracted quite a few users.
That meant fewer users would be left for them, making their project even more challenging.
After all, users only had so much time and attention. They generally wouldn’t use more than one social networking app at once.
This was hardly good news for Gu Chuan’s project team.
They couldn’t help worrying about their own project.
Gu Chuan and the others quickly wrapped up their project, and a few days later, they began their first round of testing.
But to everyone’s surprise, the website crashed during its very first test.
By this point, everyone had poured countless hours and effort into the project. They were under immense psychological pressure, and the website’s crash was like the last straw.
Everyone was starting to lose it. Ning Lei was the first to voice his doubts. “Ye Xuchen, is there a problem with your core code?”
Ye Xuchen snapped, “Your brain could be wired wrong, and my code would still be fine!”
Ning Lei’s accusation made Ye Xuchen’s face turn livid.
Actually, Ning Lei’s suspicions weren’t unfounded. In a situation like this, the most common causes were code or logic errors.
These were also the problems most likely to show up during functional and stress testing.
Someone else spoke up. “You’re way too confident. There’s a problem, and you haven’t even checked anything yet. You’re just insisting your code is fine?”
Soon, everyone was arguing over one another, and the entire studio turned into a marketplace. Only Gu Chuan remained seated, staring at his computer.
Gu Chuan spoke up. “Stop arguing!”
No one paid him any attention.
At last, Gu Chuan couldn’t take it anymore. He stood up, grabbed the chair behind him, and slammed it hard against the floor.
“I said, stop arguing!”
The deafening bang silenced everyone. They all turned to look at Gu Chuan.
For a moment, everyone fell silent. This was the first time they had ever seen Gu Chuan lose his temper.
Gu Chuan’s expression was cold. “There’s a problem, so solve it. Is venting your frustration here going to help? Is checking for the problem really that hard? Will all this arguing solve anything?”
No one dared argue anymore. They fell silent and began checking their own sections one by one. Even Ye Xuchen, who had insisted his part was definitely fine, got to work.
In the end, they found that the problem was with the database Liu Peng was responsible for. One small issue had brought down the entire system.
After making adjustments, they began testing again.
After several days of testing and fixing a number of issues of varying severity, the website was finally ready for a trial run.
The next step was the most important one: promotion. Everything depended on this!
Meng Ran had been eager to get started for a long time, ready to show what he could do.
He hadn’t played a big role in development; his specialty was operations. Now it was finally his time to shine.
With a smack, he slapped a stack of promotional plans down in front of Gu Chuan, brimming with confidence.
“Boss, what do you think of my plan?”
Gu Chuan skimmed Meng Ran’s proposal. It consisted of traditional marketing methods. There were a few new twists, but overall, it wasn’t particularly original.
Gu Chuan put the proposal back on the table and shook his head.
“These plans are all too conventional. They probably won’t do much for students who’ve already been targeted by Wang Hao’s team’s marketing. Listen to me. Here’s what we’ll do…”
The next morning, Gu Chuan and Meng Ran ran into Wang Hao as they were preparing to head out and promote their project.
Wang Hao looked smug. “Well, your project’s almost ready to launch, isn’t it? Too bad there aren’t many users left for you!”
Gu Chuan and Meng Ran ignored the idiot and walked right past him.
Wang Hao’s expression darkened after they left.
Although their social networking app had attracted quite a few users at first, they had rushed to launch it without adequate testing. The website had crashed once, and it took a full half day to fix.
They lost quite a few users that time.
Active users had been dropping rapidly over the past few days. Now that Gu Chuan and the others were about to launch their project, it could deal a serious blow to his social networking app.
When the last class ended at noon, Gu Chuan and Meng Ran went to one of the busiest areas on campus. Meng Ran followed close behind Gu Chuan, acting furtively.
“Boss, Brother Chuan, is this really going to work? It’s so embarrassing! I’ve never done anything this embarrassing in my life…”
Gu Chuan tossed the megaphone in his hand to Meng Ran.
“Quit whining. Can anything be more embarrassing than a failed project? If it fails, I’ll go bankrupt. How am I supposed to pay your wages then? Do you still want to get paid this month?”
As soon as Gu Chuan finished speaking, Meng Ran raised the megaphone and, without warning, shouted at him:
“Black-Hearted Boss, give me back my hard-earned money!”
The shout startled Gu Chuan so badly that he immediately jumped backward. He stared at Meng Ran, dumbfounded.