Chapter 43: Rebirth!

  "Hey, when did you become a surveyor for Dream Net?" Qian Ling teased.

  "It was just now!" Su Jin's face was calm, as if it were a matter of course.

  "Hmph! Spit it out, what's going on! I feel like you're plotting against that person!" Qian Ling glared at Su Wen with disdain and immediately leaned in, speaking in a low voice with a mischievous grin.

  "Hey! You can eat recklessly, but you can't speak recklessly! Which eye of yours saw me trying to scheme against him?! I've been conducting a thorough investigation all along, okay?! Didn't you say that the situation at Meng Xiang Network isn't looking good right now? So what's wrong with taking advantage of the opportunity to do some investigating?" Su Jin said sternly.

  "Humph! You're so fat you're panting! With so many people in this store, why do you have to pick him for the survey? And even if you need to do a survey, why do you need his contact information?" Qian Ling said with a pout and a glare.

  "The reason for the investigation has been said, looking for him is because this store only has a hint of cultural atmosphere, investigating him can let us understand how people in the cultural circle view our website. As for his contact information, you're right, at first I didn't have any other ideas, but after talking to this person, I actually did have some intentions. This person is very much to my taste, and their ability is not bad either. If there's an opportunity, I hope he can join us!" Su said seriously.

  "Really?" Qian Ling looked at Su Jin with a bit of doubt, as if she didn't believe things were that simple.

  "You think it's what, I didn't even know him before, what intentions could he have!" Su Zhan said with a seemingly bad tone. But in his heart, he was secretly ashamed: "Little Ling, it's not that I didn't want to tell you, but I really didn't know how to explain it. Should I tell you that I also wanted to be like those main characters and come back again? I'm afraid that by then, you'll think I've completely indulged in the online world and gone crazy!"

  "Alright, alright, let's just say it is. Hurry up and eat your steak, it's getting cold, and once it gets cold, it won't taste good!" Qian Ling shook her head, deciding to still trust Su. After all, what Su said made some sense. As for the subtle unease in her heart, she was directly told that she was being overly sensitive!

  "Hehe, never mind, I don't really like eating this anyway, whether it's cool or not makes no difference to me!" Su said, picking up the fork on one side, spearing a piece of steak and then taking big bites.

  Qian Ling's mouth twitched, her eyes scanned the surroundings lightly, and upon finding no one paying attention to her, she let out a deep breath before pushing her chair back slightly, trying to pretend she didn't know the person.

  Su Jin ate without realizing it, swallowing the not-so-big steak in a few mouthfuls. Then he picked up the napkin on one side and wiped the oil stains around his mouth, stood up and said: "Let's go, I won't send you back, directly to Shangxue, tonight we'll gather Fat Brother and others to discuss what to do!"

  ……

  Su Jian browsed the homepage of Mengxiang Network, but his mind was recalling the development process of "Rongshu Xia" and "Huangjin Shuwu", as well as their threats to himself.

  Suddenly, Su Jing discovered that he had become overly sensitive. In fact, Qian Ling had also said that "Rong Shu Xia" and "Huang Jin Shu Wu", although they were developing rapidly, could not pose a threat to Meng Xiang Wang in the short term! After all, Meng Xiang Wang had the advantage of being first, and it also had the masterpiece "Dou Po" to stabilize the site! It also had hundreds of loyal authors publishing articles on it to enrich the book library! With so many advantages, if they were still instantly defeated by "Rong Shu Xia" and "Huang Jin Shu Wu", then their efforts would be too worthless! At most, they could only be said to have a good development momentum for now!

  It's just that I was intimidated by the prestige of these two masters! For a moment, I seemed a bit flustered! "Under the Banyan Tree" indeed has a large number of excellent authors! But all these authors can be categorized as traditional online writers! As for how to distinguish between traditional online writers and what later generations call new online writers, or internet writers, there is actually a very simple distinction.

  That's to see if his work is commercialized! It can be said that commercialization and literarization are the most clear-cut divisions between the two! The reason why some points in later generations will be called the largest poison nest on the Internet is precisely because of its thorough commercialization!

  From a later generation's perspective, it is difficult to evaluate the pros and cons of commercialization! On one hand, commercialization has further lowered the quality of online works. Authors no longer write about their own ideals, but rather cater to readers' tastes. The relationship between authors and readers has changed from "authors write what they want, readers read what they want" to "readers want to see what, authors write what". Authors now write solely to please readers, without any deep emotions of their own, making it hard to imagine them producing truly classic works!

  On the other hand, people have to eat, if literary creation does not get a reasonable return, who will engage in this creation! Even if the author can rely on his own interest to write, what about those website maintainers and builders? Can't let them rely on interest to sustain themselves too! A certain VIP system promoter once said: "I know it's hard, but not promoting is slowly waiting for death, and must die without a doubt. Promoting may immediately die, but there is still a glimmer of life! Between life and death, we have no choice!"

  So, in fact, Su Jin didn't need to worry about "Rong Shu Xia" because it had a fatal flaw - it couldn't make a profit. It couldn't bring income to its authors and the website, which meant it was doomed to decline! In fact, in later historical records, the glorious period of "Rong Shu Xia" was very short-lived, lasting less than a year. Its founder, Zhu Weilian, also had to sell it to venture capital a few years later because he couldn't find a way to make a profit.

  Compared to "Under the Banyan Tree", "Golden Book House" may pose a greater threat to Dream Net! After all, in history, "Golden Book House" developed to a later stage where its influence was not inferior to that of certain points in later generations! However, Su Jin carefully analyzed the path to success of "Golden Book House" and found that the success of "Golden Book House" is actually the least technically demanding and easiest to imitate!

  Mentioning the "Golden Book House" success, one can't help but mention Sleeping Tiger Residence! In the early days of book stations, Sleeping Tiger Residence's proofreading was very popular. The works they collected were meticulously proofread and became the first choice for netizens to collect. At the same time as scanning physical books, Sleeping Tiger Residence also serialized original works such as "Wind and Grace" and "Water Dragon Humming". It can be said that in terms of work quality alone, Sleeping Tiger Residence should have been the best online book station of that era.

  However, due to the limited number of works, it was always impossible to compare with those comprehensive book cities in terms of traffic. Huangjin Shuwu is a version that uses Woxuejia's scanning and relies on its massive works and detailed classification to become one of China's top ten most influential personal websites. Later, Huangjin Shuwu took advantage of its first-mover advantage to firmly occupy the position of the oldest online book station.

  From a certain perspective, Su Jing can completely replicate the success of "Golden Book House"! When he realized this point, Su Jing immediately felt a surge of energy. He should have found a way to deal with it, and now he doesn't care about "Under the Banyan Tree" and "Golden Book House" at all, because he knows they can no longer have any impact on him. Su Jing looked ahead with his eyes fixed, muttering: "Come on, come more fiercely, I'll let you know what a reborn person is like!"