Chapter 134 Taking the Blame

Chapter 134 Taking the Blame

"Mr. Zhang!" Chen Yizhou burst through the door, his demeanor bordering on hysteria. He braced himself on the edge of Zhang Chaoyang's desk. "Crazy Vegetable Garden will be online soon! As long as it's featured on the homepage, plus site-wide pop-up traffic redirection, I guarantee we can bring users back from HaiNei.com!"

Zhang Chaoyang raised his eyelids and looked at him coldly.

Wu Tao chuckled from the side, then said sarcastically, "President Chen, Sohu's reputation can't withstand this kind of harassment. Besides, Qihang is now playing the parking space game and being a VIP member; who cares about your few worthless cabbages?"

"Wu Tao, shut up!" Chen Yizhou turned his head sharply, glaring at him fiercely. "If you hadn't crammed a bunch of broken machines and junk into my hands, would I have been forced into this situation? President Zhang, please give me another chance. As long as the game goes live, and we observe for two more days, the data can definitely be salvaged!"

"That's enough." Zhang Chaoyang slammed his hand on the table, neither too hard nor too soft.

The sound wasn't loud, but it instantly silenced the office.

Zhang Chaoyang stood up, walked to the French windows, looked at the neat grid of squares under the streetlights, and spoke with deep weariness and annoyance.

"Yizhou, I spent twenty million US dollars to buy your community, to buy your team and experience, not to let you play house at Sohu." Zhang Chaoyang turned around, his gaze sharp as a knife. "Look at yourself now, do you still have any dignity as the founder of the world's largest Chinese community?"

Chen Yizhou opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

"Launch immediately? Let's observe a bit more?" Zhang Chaoyang sneered. "Qihang Technology has already overturned the table, and you're still here talking to me about how to present your products? The Wall Street roadshow team is leaving next week, what do you have to show them? Your daily active users that have fallen below four digits?"

Chen Yizhou's face turned deathly pale, his legs went weak, he took half a step back, and slumped into a chair.

Wu Tao, standing to one side, picked up his teacup, lowered his head to drink water, and concealed the smile on his lips.

Zhang Chaoyang closed his eyes and waved his hand: "Go out. Let me have some peace and quiet."

Having lost both his wife and his army, Zhang Chaoyang no longer even has the energy to curse.

The next morning, in the temporary office area on the second floor of the Sohu Network Building.

Chen Yizhou sat in front of the computer, his eyes bloodshot, staring intently at the backend data of the 5Q campus network, his back like a stone sculpture.

5Q Campus Network's daily active users and retention data curves not only failed to rise, but instead plummeted to the bottom like a kite with a broken string.

"Xiao Chuan, is there a bug in this data interface?" Chen Yizhou tapped the edge of the monitor. "Crazy Vegetable Garden just launched yesterday, and with the pop-up traffic from the main site, how could the daily active users be less than five thousand?"

Wang Xiaochuan stood to the side, his eyes dark from staying up all night. He pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and spoke in a flat tone.

"Mr. Chen, the interface is fine. The data center just checked, and the server network load is less than one percent. Last night, users who clicked in through the pop-up window didn't stay for more than thirty seconds on average."

Old Zhao, who was sitting at the next workstation, slowly unscrewed the lid of his thermos and blew on the steam.

"College students these days have irregular schedules. They're probably all sleeping in right now, but it'll definitely get crowded after lunch."

Chen Yizhou ignored Lao Zhao and irritably loosened his tie.

5Q Campus Network is now as deserted as a deserted village that has just been looted.

"This isn't right, Wang Xiaochuan, tell me, where have all those two million users gone?"

Wang Xiaochuan placed a newly printed retention report on the table, his voice devoid of emotion: "President Chen, from midnight last night until now, the peak number of real-time online users on the 5Q campus network has only been 1,860. Among them, 200 are our own test accounts."

Chen Yizhou suddenly turned his head and pointed to a curve on the screen that was almost touching the ground: "That's not right, it cost more than ten million RMB, all of which was real money!"

"Many students, after receiving their five yuan, immediately went to HaiNei.com to recharge their accounts," Wang Xiaochuan said, adjusting his glasses, a little embarrassed to speak. "Now the HaiNei.com forum is full of thank-you posts, saying that Mr. Chen is a living bodhisattva, specially sending them money to buy sports cars and virtual clothes. They call this—'Yizhou Special Red Envelope.'"

Chen Yizhou felt a tightness in his chest and a metallic, sweet taste of blood rising in his throat.

He slumped into his chair, staring at the cabbage on the screen that could be revived with a simple page refresh, and felt dizzy.

The $20 million ticket he bought and the trust he built up over 10 million RMB have now become a one-way ticket to an abyss.

Bai Yuhang, an eighteen-year-old youth, didn't even show his face, but used an ecological boxing style that Bai Yuhang couldn't understand to turn all Bai Yuhang's pride and confidence into a joke.

The office door was pushed open, and Wu Tao strolled in, carrying several freshly printed IT newspapers.

"Hey, Mr. Chen, good morning everyone." Wu Tao tossed a newspaper onto Chen Yizhou's desk, pointing to a large picture on the front page. "I don't know if the college students are up yet, but the media reporters in Zhongguancun are at work very early."

Chen Yizhou glanced at the newspaper, his pupils suddenly contracting.

The bold black text on the front page was extremely glaring: "Sohu's Social Empire: Pixel-Level Reposting Built on 'Buddha's Light Dog'".

The image is a screenshot of the "Crazy Vegetable Garden" game on 5Q Campus Network. In the very center of the image is the watchdog with a conspicuous white border.

"Mr. Chen's subtle innovation has truly made him a household name in the industry." Wu Tao pulled up a chair and sat down, smiling as he pointed to the accompanying picture in the newspaper. "Look how vividly this report is written. It says that Sohu is considerate of its netizens, pioneering a 'one-less front-end' single-player mode where refreshing the page brings back stolen cabbages. There's also a white-edged guard dog; the reporter praised it for its compassionate heart and its radiant aura. Now the whole internet is talking about this 'Buddha-light dog,' calling it Sohu's new mascot."

Chen Yizhou's face instantly turned bright red.

"It's not just in the newspapers," Wu Tao added, his voice tinged with helplessness. "It's gone viral on HaiNei.com's forums and QQ groups. The white-edged dog from Crazy Vegetable Garden has been screenshotted and turned into memes by netizens, used in QQ and forum chats with the caption 'Sohu's lucky charm blesses you.' Our Crazy Vegetable Garden has now become a laughing stock across the internet."

Chen Yizhou tore the newspaper in his hand in half and slammed it on the table. "Wu Tao, don't gloat here!"

"How could I dare?" Wu Tao spread his hands, looking innocent, and patted Chen Yizhou's stiff shoulder. "Mr. Chen, Teacher Zhang was furious on the top floor this morning. I'm here to deliver a message. He wants you to get up there immediately and start thinking about how to write a self-criticism. The Wall Street roadshow team is leaving soon. Are you planning to use this dog with Buddha-like aura to ring the bell at Nasdaq? You've got to take the blame for this dead site that cost two million dollars."

Wu Tao straightened the hem of his suit jacket, his smile vanished completely, and he strolled away with his hands behind his back.

Old Zhao leaned over and glanced at the two halves of the newspaper, then smacked his lips.

"I must say, this reporter has a pretty sharp eye. When I was cutting out the image yesterday, I felt that the white border had a Zen-like quality."

"Shut up!" Chen Yizhou grabbed the newspaper, tore it to shreds, and slammed it to the ground.

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