Chapter 328: The Amazing Journey of a USB Drive

Ask classmates, check Zhihu!

Underneath a 211 university’s female dormitory, a handsome guy waiting for his girlfriend to finish her makeup was looking around aimlessly when he suddenly saw a Zhihu poster on the door. He couldn’t help but take out his phone and open the WAP browser.

Meanwhile, a pretty girl in the cafeteria, between looking up and down, also noted the Zhihu URL.

Some early Zhihu users attracted by ground promotions were bored in class and browsing posts, and eventually, they couldn’t resist inviting their classmates to follow their Zhihu accounts.

Others, squatting in the toilets of the teaching building, looked up at the red stamp on the door and remembered the demonic advertising at the street corner, automatically pulling out their phones.

A more outrageous encounter involves a student named Qiao Shunmin, aged twenty-one, a junior at his college.

Close to the afternoon, after finishing his last two classes of the day, Qiao Shunmin returned to his dorm from the cafeteria and, seeing no one around, pulled a USB flash drive from his drawer and plugged it into the main computer.

He planned to enjoy a small video copied from the local network folder at the internet cafe yesterday, a little treat for himself.

As he clicked on the video and arranged tissues, the screen of his little movie just began to show, and the action had barely started when suddenly, the whole computer screen flickered.

Thinking his main computer had hung, he shook the mouse. At that moment, a string of website URLs popped up along with a rather demonic advertising slogan.

Ask classmates, check Zhihu!

For fun stories, go to Zhihu!

To find a date, visit Zhihu!

College students should be on Zhihu!

“?????”

Holding his pants, Qiao Shunmin listened to this brainwashing ad with a rap rhythm, stunned.

Damn, you hear about ads in TV shows, even before songs on radio stations, but inserting ads in this, he had truly not expected.

Is there no justice left? Is there no law?

Qiao Shunmin didn’t even look at the URL carefully and abruptly pressed the fast-forward button, skipping the ad segment yet finding the rest of the video blank, ending with the words, “Cherish health, stay away from pornography, gambling, and drugs,” mainly promoting legal behavior.

I’ve taken my pants off, and you show me this?

Faced with this, old Qiao cursed and tried another video but as expected, missed the exciting parts, reluctantly using an old favorite again.

Coincidentally, Qiao is also a college student studying advertising and marketing, and had his thoughts about the ad too.

I mean, what’s the most important in media dissemination? It is to moisten things silently, subtly, without causing user aversion.

But you pop up when I’m busy and even hinder my pleasure, won’t this immediately cause resistance from the target audience? How could this possible create a positive dissemination effect under such conditions?

He didn’t know who planned this promotional path, just felt the person was foolish, clueless about what is called promotion and marketing.

After about fifteen minutes, Qiao Shunmin wrapped up and then turned off the video, headed to the bathroom, sat on the chair like a saint, and began to daydream, feeling an immense sense of loneliness inside.

Why was he the only one in the dorm?

Because his roommates all had girlfriends. Their weekends were filled with various activities like watching movies, shopping, and exploring woods, rarely appearing in the dorm before nightfall. Some didn’t even return after dark, truly enviable yet annoying.

Bored, Qiao Shunmin opened his computer’s browser, refreshed it endlessly without deciding what to do, aimlessly clicking around on hao123, but each page’s content was equally dull, not even worth five seconds of his precious life.

Just then, an idea flashed in his mind, and he reopened his USB drive.

“Ask classmates, go to Zhihu, for fun stories, visit Zhihu…”

Unwittingly, Qiao Shunmin found himself reciting a phrase and then opened the video on the drive, skipping the interesting parts, and jotted down the ad’s URL.

So, this interspersed ad wasn’t intended for preshow but for post-viewing emptiness…

Helplessly, Qiao typed the URL into his browser, internally praising the planner, who seemed to have seen through people’s hearts.

But honestly, this website is indeed quite interesting.

Well now, the conservative girl from the class next door dresses so scantily online?

“Qiao, what are you up to?” suddenly, the dorm door was pushed open by the tall guy next door.

“Nothing much, just browsing Zhihu. Have you tried it? It’s pretty fun.”

The tall guy glanced out into the hallway, ensured no one was around, then coughed, “What Zhihu? Never heard of it. Hey, lend me that precious USB of yours.”

Qiao’s heart tightened, and he feigned ignorance, “What precious USB? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the act. Everyone at the internet cafe outside the school knows that you switch internet cafes daily to copy their local network files. You almost caused a collective virus infection at Dream Internet Cafe. If you hadn’t run fast, your legs would have been broken.”

“…”

Qiao Shunmin handed over the USB, “Be gentle with it, don’t dirty it.”

“Got it!” The tall guy took the USB and hurried back to his dorm.

Qiao didn’t mind too much and continued browsing Zhihu, immersing himself in sharing daily photos of the campus belle, feeling as if his college life was becoming richer.

So other people’s college lives are this interesting? Why is mine so bland?

As dusk approached, having browsed through most of the campus belle’s daily posts, Qiao felt a bit hungry and headed next door to invite the tall guy to dine together at the cafeteria.

When he entered, the tall guy had already finished his pleasure and was addictively scrolling through Zhihu posts.

Qiao suddenly had a premonition that this website might really take off and soon become a main part of college cultural life.

Because trends and fashion are like whirlwinds. With efficient means of dissemination, their spread is incredibly fast, like a virus invasion, sure to cause a huge stir at some point. And their site indeed had its big waves!

Meanwhile, in room 207 of Linchuan University, Ma Yubao looked pale and bloodless, lifting his head, “Boss, I’m almost at my limit.”

“I only asked you to do video editing and insert our ads. How did you end up looking like this?” Jiang Qin was puzzled.

“Because, young college students really can’t handle even a little…”

Jiang Qin scolded him for his lack of grit, treating work as a hobby, “Alright, alright, once you’ve finished today’s work, rest for two days. I’ll give you a bonus so you can buy some supplements.”

Ma Yubao sighed in relief, “Got it, thanks for sparing my life, boss.”

“Alright, keep cutting, make the segments juicier, arrange that for me.”

“Juicier ones?”

Ma Yubao was flipping through the folder, “What about this one with the feet?”

Jiang Qin was slightly stunned at first, his expression quickly turned to one of surprise, “You know stuff!”

“?????”

Jiang Qin waved his hand to let him continue working, then called the heads of the city branches instructing them to replace the materials in the university internet cafes’ LAN folders with “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” to avoid criticisms.

As for spreading ads, those private USBs already copied with good stuff were enough. College students always share, and in this group, you never know what weird things might become popular.

Just then, a rhythmic tappity-tap of little leather shoes echoed down the empty hallway, clear and crisp.

Soon, Feng Nanshu, with a cold expression, walked into the entrepreneurship base. Her gaze swept around Room 208, but she didn’t find Jiang Qin’s figure.

“Su Nai, where’s Jiang Qin?”

“Madam, you’re here! The boss is in 207.”

Feng Nanshu left 208 and went to 207, only to be stopped by Jiang Qin emerging from the room, “There are trade secrets inside. You can’t see them.”

The little rich girl spoke seriously and sternly, “Brother, I’m a bit curious, let me have a look.”

“Wishful thinking. I can show you anything but this. Be obedient.”

Feng Nanshu thought for a moment, “Then let me see your spare phone.”

Little girls are like this; they remain curious about things they don’t understand or haven’t seen, especially someone like the little rich girl with a super strong memory who keeps everything bottled up inside.

Jiang Qin looked at the little rich girl and noticed her dark circles hadn’t faded, standing out against her fair, smooth skin. Clearly, she had been secretly staying up late watching his meeting videos again.

Just a meeting video could get her this hooked, not to mention the things Ma Yubao edited and the spare phone. They’d probably mesmerize her to death.

“Let’s prioritize the real work. Come with me.”

“Oh.”

Jiang Qin led the unsmiling, aloof little rich girl back to 208 and then laid a stack of contracts in front of her, handing her a pen.

After all, Feng Nanshu was the owner of the Xitian Milk Tea Shop. Now that Xitian was planning to expand to other provinces, many documents needed her personal signature.

The little rich girl took the pen and signed at the spots Jiang Qin pointed to, then pressed a bright red handprint without any hesitation.

“You really don’t read the content of the contracts at all. I could sell you off and you’d have nowhere to cry.”

“No way, Jiang Qin wouldn’t sell me off.”

Feng Nanshu whispered, her pen moving non-stop until she signed her name on the last contract.