E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World-Chapter 63 - Episode 63 The Intricacies of the Internet Wanwan

Chapter 63: Episode 63: The Intricacies of the Internet, Wanwan Twists and Turns, No Room for Negotiation 2

Chapter 63: Episode 63: The Intricacies of the Internet, Wanwan Twists and Turns, No Room for Negotiation 2

Although Xiaoke spoke very quickly, his pace was monotonous, and after listening for a while, it was inevitable to feel drowsy. Moreover, in the warm heated room, the inclination to sleep grew stronger.

Indeed, Zhou Xueyin’s eyelids had begun to wage war against each other, and her consciousness had already drifted away from her brain. Whatever Xiaoke was talking about, she no longer cared…

“Okay, I guess everyone’s tired, right? Let’s take a 15-minute break!” Hearing this, Zhou Xueyin’s wandering soul suddenly plummeted back into her body, and she instantly woke up.

Taking advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention, Zhou Xueyin sneakily stretched.

“I see you haven’t taken any notes, do you even know what he was talking about?” A bespectacled person next to her leaned in and struck up a conversation.

“Ah… more or less.” Not to brag, but Zhou Xueyin truly knew all the things Xiaoke had discussed; otherwise, she wouldn’t have felt sleepy.

The bespectacled man disbelievingly asked Zhou Xueyin a few professional terms, and she answered smoothly. If she didn’t know these things that she often dealt with, what was she doing running a forum?

“Not bad! What do you do? Oh right, here’s my business card!” The bespectacled man handed her a business card: Da Boyi, Internet Investment Advisor Specialist.

“I’m just a forum moderator, and my business cards aren’t printed yet. How about I write my contact information in your notebook?” Zhou Xueyin wanted to find an excuse to decline, but seeing that he was an investment advisor, she wrote down her contact details and the forum’s domain name.

“You’re the moderator of 51buy?” Da Boyi exclaimed in surprise, “I’ve heard a lot about you!”

Zhou Xueyin was puzzled by his admiration, “Our forum… is it that famous?”

“Last month’s fuss over the magazine plagiarism was all over the place. Everyone knows about the competition for market share between the web and paper media. Yet, you ended up cooperating with the paper media that plagiarized from you? That outcome was truly unexpected by everyone!”

Indeed, sometimes you can only learn how the outside world views certain things through the words of others.

In truth, Zhou Xueyin and Ya Rui’s cooperation was simply mutually beneficial. Nevertheless, this partnership became a first-of-its-kind example in the industry—a case of web media reaching an agreement with paper media.

Quite a few investors also saw the potential benefits, but they were all watching to see whether this cooperation would lead to mutual prosperity or mutual loss, or perhaps trigger other effects.

Unfortunately, before Zhou Xueyin could inquire further, Xiaoke announced that the lecture was resuming…

The second half of the lecture was filled with empty content, devoid of any substantive opinions and advice, and lacking any methods on how to improve rankings.

The central theme revolved around: as long as the rankings go up, investments will come, traffic will come, and so on, creating a chain reaction.

“That’s it! That’s all for today’s lecture. If you want to know how to improve your ranking, you can sign up for our courses! 500 yuan per class, a total of 20 classes! They are optional. If interested, you can go to the front desk for more information.” Great, the highlight of the three-hour lecture was concentrated in these few sentences.

This was nothing but a scam, just an utterly useless lecture aimed at attracting people to sign up for their courses.

Three hours wasted for nothing, when I could have written a couple of articles to draw people in, right?

Zhou Xueyin thought angrily.

“That… Ms. Zhou…” As people were leaving, Da Boyi approached her again, “If your company needs investment, consider us as a first choice. I have another client to meet, gotta go! Bye, we’ll be in touch over the phone!”

With his briefcase in hand, Da Boyi squeezed into the elevator.

“Da Boyi…” Better keep the business card, just in case it’s useful…

But forget about the course, 500 yuan per class, for a total of 20 classes.

Even though she had no plans to sign up, Zhou Xueyin still wandered over to the front desk.

She never expected that so many people would actually be scrambling to sign up.

From a gap in the crowd, she picked up a course description: The first lesson, “What is the Alex ranking.”

The second lesson, the importance of improving your ranking.

The subsequent lessons were things like: how to improve your ranking, the benefits of a higher ranking, etc., etc… fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Wasn’t this all a scam? All these people piling up at the front desk to sign up, they couldn’t all be shills, could they?

“How about it? Interested? I noticed you right away! You’re dressed differently from the others, but those intelligent eyes of yours, they have the air of a leader…” Xiaoke had somehow sidled up to Zhou Xueyin without notice, lavishing her with compliments.

“Too kind, too kind. Just stopping by to have a look. Good talk…” There’s no kindness without motive. If he’s working so hard to flatter her, he must have some ulterior motive. “Ah, the elevator’s here. I’m off, goodbye!”

Before Xiaoke could say anything more, Zhou Xueyin darted into the elevator as if escaping.

When out canvassing, she had seen this type of selling too many times.

These cunning salespeople can talk the talk, saying one thing to one person and something else to another, never uttering a word of truth, all just to cajole you into spending money.

You listen to the flattery, but you absolutely mustn’t get carried away and fall for it!

By the time you wake up to the truth, you’ll have been sold out and be counting money for someone else.

Walking down to the street, she still saw people handing out flyers for this Alex ranking seminar, this group really worked hard, apparently unaware that the seminar was already over.

After getting home, Zhou Xueyin discussed the real deal about the seminar with Kang Siyin.

Kang Siyin immediately chewed out Cui Hu on QQ, saying to stop recommending such unreliable stuff from now on, a complete waste of time.

While the seminar Zhou Xueyin attended was unreliable, the art classes that Yao Shanshan was going to were quite the opposite.

She was leaving early and returning late every day, sometimes even practicing sketching until midnight.

The teacher would seriously correct the previous day’s homework the next day. Despite the hardship and fatigue, Yao Shanshan was learning with joy.

As Christmas was approaching, a Japanese client, who had somehow obtained their contact information, abruptly reached out to them, urgently needing an advertisement banner within a week.

However, the client had one request: they wanted to visit their office location.

This request put the group in a difficult position. Although they always watched anime and read manga, knowing some everyday Japanese phrases, it was hard for them to formally reject someone.

Having no other choice, Zhou Xueyin begrudgingly wrote a refusal email in English and sent it over.

Whether it was the phrasing or the fact that the refusal was in English, and perceived as an insult, the client even withdrew the ad order.

“KK, should I… learn Japanese?” Zhou Xueyin pondered sadly, thinking that their income was already so low, and now they had managed to offend the rare client that did come along.

“Why bother with that?” Kang Siyin looked at Zhou Xueyin, puzzled.

“For doing business… What if we get more Japanese clients in the future? We can’t just hire a translator for every uncertain situation, right?” In truth, this was just Zhou Xueyin’s way of finding an excuse to learn Japanese.