Chapter 27: All Funds Used for Promotion

On the first day after the college entrance exam, Chen Fan did not find Guo Shuai or Su Ruochu.

Instead, he went alone to Honghai Computer School.

As soon as he entered, Zhou Honghai excitedly waved him over.

“You came at the perfect time.”

“Quick! Come give them a demonstration.”

After saying that, he explained to the few parents who came to consult about learning computers.

“This Chen student just finished the college entrance exam, and he studied computers here with me.”

“You can take a look at his computer skills.”

Then he pulled Chen Fan over to a computer.

Chen Fan looked puzzled.

“What? Demonstrate what?”

Zhou Honghai said in a low voice, “Just casually show your touch typing.”

So Chen Fan turned on the computer and opened a new text document.

In front of the few parents and children, he opened the document and began touch typing with both hands.

Clack clack clack.

A stream of text appeared rapidly.

Smooth and flowing.

In this era, especially in a small place like Luocheng, Chen Fan’s skills were indeed enough to shock everyone.

After watching Chen Fan’s operation, the few parents were truly greatly shocked.

They immediately expressed wanting their children to study here.

Zhou Honghai smiled so wide he could barely close his mouth, leading the group to the office for detailed discussion.

Chen Fan was left alone sitting in front of the computer. He first opened his Yuming.com website.

In the past few days, traffic had increased again, reaching over two thousand visitors.

The number of registered users had finally exceeded one hundred too.

He then searched and opened Yiyu.com. Since there was no backend, Chen Fan did not know the backend data for Yiyu.com.

However, looking at the number of posts, it seemed Yiyu.com was not doing as well as his site for now.

It appeared Boss Yao had not yet begun to make a move.

But Chen Fan would not wait for the other side to make a move.

He had to take advantage of his current edge and find a way to widen the gap between them.

Chen Fan closed Yiyu.com, then opened Xinlang.com.

In the 2000s, when it came to the highest traffic, the three major portals truly had no rivals.

The reason he ultimately chose Xinlang was that Chen Fan felt among the three portal sites, Xinlang had stronger news attributes.

As for why he did not place ads on all three sites, it was simply because Chen Fan did not have enough money.

At present, all the savings he had totaled only around 5,500 yuan.

Of that, 5,000 yuan was given by his mother today, and the remaining 500 yuan was from when he helped that beautiful woman repair her computer previously.

With such little funds, he could only spend the money on the essentials.

Chen Fan sent an email through the business cooperation contact information written on the site.

The general content was that he wanted to place ads on Xinlang, inquiring about advertising rates.

The other party replied very quickly.

They directly sent Chen Fan a QQ number.

Chen Fan then suddenly realized he did not even have a QQ account yet.

So he hurriedly went to register a QQ account first.

Unexpectedly, it was a 5-digit QQ number.

After logging into the newly registered QQ account, he added the other party’s number.

Once the friend was successfully added, Chen Fan straightforwardly inquired about the promotion fees.

The other party asked Chen Fan what product he wanted to promote.

Chen Fan simply explained his idea.

After hearing that Chen Fan wanted to promote a personal website, the other party quickly gave him a series of quotes.

“Damn! Extortion!”

Seeing the quotes the other party sent over, Chen Fan cursed silently.

Although these prices were dozens of times cheaper than in his previous life, it was still not something the current Chen Fan could afford.

So Chen Fan began bargaining with the other party.

The two sides went back and forth for nearly an hour and a half.

Finally, they settled on the final promotion plan.

In total, Chen Fan chose to place three ads on Xinlang.

One would be on the homepage for one day, and another on the secondary feature pages for ten days.

For this, the total cost was 5,400 yuan.

The other party asked Chen Fan which secondary page he wanted to advertise on. Chen Fan thought about it and chose the internet and business sections.

“Hold on a moment!”

The other party replied, and after about ten minutes, they sent over an electronic contract.

Chen Fan quickly filled it out.

“The contract is in triplicate. Please print out the contract, sign it, and mail it to us. After we stamp it, we will mail you a copy.”

“You need to pay a 500 yuan deposit today.”

“Additionally, please wire the remaining balance to this account within three business days. If exceeded, the deposit will not be refunded.”

Chen Fan indicated he had no objections, and agreed with the other party that the promotion would officially begin the second day after the payment is received.

With that, in less than an hour, Chen Fan had spent every last bit of the over 5,000 yuan he had.

Staring at the QQ chat log in front of him, Chen Fan suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

That’s right.

In 2000, QQ was still struggling to find ways to monetize, far from the behemoth corporation it became over a decade later.

In this era, it was still quite easy to register decent 5 or 6-digit QQ numbers.

If he hoarded a few 5 or 6-digit QQ numbers now, or collected some auspicious numbers and held onto them for a few years, he should be able to sell them for a bit of money.

Thinking of this, Chen Fan immediately got up and went to the front desk to get paper and a pen.

Next, he began frantically applying for QQ accounts.

Within the morning, Chen Fan’s notebook was filled with strings of QQ numbers.

He was quite lucky, collecting 15 five-digit QQ numbers and 10 six-digit ones.

Among them, a few of the numbers were particularly auspicious, estimated to probably fetch some decent money.

Chen Fan carefully put the note in his pocket, bid farewell to Zhou Honghai, and left the computer school alone.

In the afternoon after lunch, Chen Fan didn’t take a nap at home, but rushed to the post office right away.

He waited at the entrance until they opened, then used the account number they provided to wire the full 5,400 yuan.

At the same time, he mailed the completed contract.

Next was waiting for them to place the ads.

July 12th.

The day to submit college preferences.

On this day, Chen Fan saw Su Ruochu again.

This little girl wasn’t wearing her school uniform today, but had purposely put on a beautiful dress instead.

Her ponytail was gone too.

Her jet black silky hair cascaded down like a waterfall, with a light blue hairband adorning her head, looking beautiful and elegant.

When submitting preferences, Su Ruochu filled out the International Trade program in the Economics and Management School at Yunhai University.

After writing it down, she secretly glanced at Chen Fan.

Seeing Chen Fan had not filled it out yet, Su Ruochu’s expression couldn’t help but grow tense.

Chen Fan smiled faintly and pushed the preference form over to her.

Su Ruochu looked puzzled, and Chen Fan said softly, “You fill it out for me.”

“Ah?”

“Your handwriting is nice.”

Su Ruochu’s pretty face immediately turned red. Of course she understood what Chen Fan meant.

It was equivalent to entrusting his most important life decision to her.

“Really let me fill it out?”

“Mm-hmm.”

The corners of Su Ruochu’s mouth curved up slightly, not declining as she picked up the pen and wrote Yunhai University, International Trade program.

After writing it, she pushed it back to Chen Fan with a reddened face.

The two of them exchanged a smiling glance.

At noon, Chen Fan took the initiative to propose that the four friends gather one last time at a small restaurant outside of school.

At the table, Li Na seemed less lively and outgoing as before, appearing somewhat reserved.

In contrast, Guo Shuai seemed completely unaffected, as carefree as ever.

Since it was their last meal, all four cups in front of them were filled with beer.

Guo Shuai proactively raised his cup,

Looking across at Li Na.

“I wish you a brilliant future, and hope you find a caring boyfriend in university.”

Li Na seemed a bit awkward, hesitating before picking up her glass.

“Thank you.”

“I also hope you find a suitable girlfriend in university.”

They clinked glasses, Guo Shuai draining his in one go, while Li Na’s eyes turned reddish.

Seeing this scene, Su Ruochu seemed to empathize, unconsciously reaching under the table to hold Chen Fan’s hand.

Chen Fan understood what she meant, smiling at Su Ruochu.

“We will never part.”

During this meal, the seemingly reserved Li Na recovered the fastest, while the seemingly carefree Guo Shuai drank too much instead.

In the end, it was Chen Fan who supported him on the way back.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep