"Sister, was that really you, Li Xiaoyao?" When Leng Zhimeng came off stage and the finals officially began, she found another woman sitting next to Huang He.
Frankly, if this woman hadn't been her third sister, Leng Zhiwen, Leng Zhimeng would have gone to complain to her second sister.
"It was me?" Leng Zhiwen nodded with a cool demeanor.
"Sister, I can't believe you look so much like a man when you play a man, I almost want to marry you!" Leng Zhimeng said with a smile, earning her a glare from Leng Zhiwen.
Of course, Leng Zhiwen's acting was convincing, because for the past six months, Leng Zhiwen had been studying non-stop, with more than a dozen teachers around her.
And because she was acting in "Chinese Paladin," one of Leng Zhiwen's training priorities was how to exude masculine气质. According to the teacher who trained her, if a person could play the opposite gender flawlessly without relying on makeup techniques, then their acting skills had reached a great level.
However, Leng Zhiwen's acting skills had not yet reached that peak, so she still needed a certain amount of makeup to look more like a man.
But being able to fool her own sister to this extent showed that Leng Zhiwen's acting skills were quite competent.
"However, brother-in-law, there's something I've never quite understood," Leng Zhiruo said.
"What is it?"
"Why did you go to such great lengths to create this Jiangnan Mall? I feel like this Jiangnan Mall is a complete money-losing venture!" Leng Zhiruo said with a frown. "If your mall allows users to conveniently sell their blind box items on the mall, then many people will surely give up buying blind boxes and choose to buy directly with Jiangnan Coins in the Jiangnan Mall. This will result in us losing a lot of sales, won't it? Aren't you just asking for trouble?"
"Also, although I don't know the current situation of Jiangnan Logistics, once the Jiangnan Mall also opens logistics and express delivery services, the workload of the entire Jiangnan Logistics will increase several times over. This means we'll need to recruit more staff and buy more cars, all of which are costs!"
"Not to mention that to maintain the Jiangnan Mall website, we have to pay an extra million dollars every month. This amount is nothing compared to the losses from the two points above!"
"Brother-in-law, you're giving away your own money. I really don't understand what you're thinking!" Leng Zhimeng muttered, clearly unable to grasp it.
"It's for the bigger picture!" Huang He said with a smile after listening to Leng Zhimeng's complaints.
"Bigger picture? What bigger picture?" Leng Zhimeng retorted.
"First of all, the more money our Jiangnan Blind Boxes make, the more we become a target. Don't you know how many people are watching us Jiangnan now? I heard that someone is already planning to report us under the guise of gambling, saying that blind boxes set probabilities to obtain certain items, which is a form of gambling. If gambling is ever classified as such, won't all our Jiangnan Blind Boxes be gone in an instant?" Huang He's question left Leng Zhimeng speechless. She could only mutter, "Where in the world are there such bored people? Besides, how can blind boxes be considered gambling? It definitely won't be classified as gambling!"
So, although Leng Zhimeng was capable, her foresight and vision were still lacking.
There are plenty of people in the world who can't stand to see others live well and report them for everything. In fact, according to some of Huang He's sources, the relevant authorities have received thousands of reports against Jiangnan Group, all accusing Jiangnan Blind Boxes of gambling.
These included both envious outsiders and customers who had spent a lot of money on Jiangnan Blind Boxes but couldn't get anything. Honestly, if Huang He hadn't insisted that the value of the items in the blind boxes must always be greater than the purchase price of the blind boxes themselves, the relevant authorities would have already started investigating Jiangnan Blind Boxes.
But this sword has always hung over Jiangnan's head, so Huang He launched the Jiangnan Mall to provide a platform for free trading of goods. This can help some users recover their losses, thus reducing the number of reports. On the other hand, it can also further decouple Jiangnan Blind Boxes from gambling, as the purchased items can be resold, which is even more different from gambling.
As for the decline in sales of Jiangnan Blind Boxes due to this, it was unavoidable. However, Boss Huang believed it was a temporary pain.
This is because Boss Huang knew very well that if something was constantly exploited, it would inevitably lead to a downward spiral over time.
But if something can develop sustainably and provide all purchasers with a mechanism for continuous recovery, then the lifespan of the brand and model can be greatly extended.
These are the changes made to ensure that Jiangnan Blind Boxes can survive continuously.
"Yes, brother-in-law, you're right. I'm an idiot, okay!" Leng Zhimeng pouted. Although she was a bit defiant, she understood Boss Huang's intentions and knew that her brother-in-law was doing the right thing.
In fact, Leng Zhimeng didn't know that Huang He had another idea: to wait for the Jiangnan Mall to develop, then expand its business, and at the same time train the Jiangnan Express team.
Once all the procedures with the bank were completed, with just one command, the Jiangnan Mall could immediately become a Taobao Mall.
Of course, it wouldn't be called Taobao then, but everyone understood the idea.
Compared to e-commerce platforms, the lost profits of the Jiangnan Mall were insignificant. This was the true foresight!
Huang He was lost in thought about these matters of the Jiangnan Mall, completely oblivious to the competition on stage. Only Leng Zhimeng was shouting and cheering loudly.
By the time Huang He's attention returned to the arena, the two sides had already reached a 2:2 tie.
The final deciding game had also begun. Xuanwu was still using the Orc race, but Tianqu Moxie had already switched through three races.
That's right, this Tianqu Moxie was a rare multi-race player, playing all sorts of races. The fact that such a person could reach the finals showed how astonishing his talent in esports was.
However, just as most champions in history have persisted with one profession, Tianqu Moxie ultimately could not defeat Xuanwu, who persisted with the Orcs.
Although both sides' development, operations, and micro-management skills were top-notch, in the final fierce battle, one of Tianqu Moxie's riflemen made a positional error, or rather, miscalculated his attack range, resulting in the loss of a round of shooting opportunities.
This round of shooting was fatal, giving Xuanwu a significant advantage in trading damage. Tianqu Moxie could not quickly kill Xuanwu's Sword Master. Instead, he was jumped by the Sword Master. In the end, Tianqu Moxie only managed to retreat with less than 30 population of troops, while Xuanwu still had an army of 60 population remaining.
What followed was a boring period of cleanup. Xuanwu gave Tianqu Moxie no chance, continuously destroying the opponent's economy, ultimately making it impossible for the opponent to turn the tide, and they could only type "gg."
In the end, Xuanwu, a 17-year-old player from Nanjing, won the championship of the first Warcraft 3 National Finals. He was also the only underage player in history.
This is because starting from the second tournament, all minors were not allowed to register for the competition, making this a historical rarity.
"That was amazing!" Thomas, also in the VIP area, watched the match with excitement. At the same time, he deeply felt the immense gap between himself and these top professional players in China. He believed that even if two of him played together, they wouldn't be able to defeat their opponents; their micro-management was terrifying.
"I wonder if our American professional players can defeat these Chinese players!" Thomas mused in his heart, while taking a large number of photos to show his American compatriots the matches of these Chinese players.
"Brother-in-law, I won!" Leng Zhimeng exclaimed excitedly. Huang He rolled his eyes. He actually thought Xuanwu had a better chance of winning, but Leng Zhimeng had chosen Xuanwu first. What could he do?
"Tell me any request you have!" Huang He said magnanimously.
"Let me think. I must make brother-in-law embarrassed!" Leng Zhiruo's eyes rolled. It seemed she had decided to thoroughly torment her good brother-in-law.
Just then, Huang He's phone suddenly rang. He answered it, and a string of English came out.
Yes, very authentic American English, but unfortunately, Huang He couldn't understand it at all. He only knew that this was an overseas call from Allen Adham of Blizzard USA.
"Can you two understand?" Huang He shouted "Sorry, wait" while gesturing to his two younger sisters, asking if they could translate.
"I can't!" Leng Zhiwen shook her head decisively. She was a poor student.
"I can read it, but I can't understand it!" Leng Zhimeng shrugged. She was a programmer, so this was quite normal.
Finally, Hu Jing arrived in time and served as Huang He's translator, relaying Allen Adham's words.
"Mr. Allen, I am currently at the China Global Finals. Would you mind if I put your call on the main speakers so that all Chinese players can hear your voice?" Huang He asked with a smile after listening to Allen Adham's intentions.
"Of course, I have no objection!" Allen Adham replied with a smile. Then Huang He found the on-site director and said a few words, and the director immediately began to get busy.
At this moment, the awards ceremony for the finals was underway on stage. As Xuanwu, the champion, lifted his trophy and the crowd erupted in cheers, the host's expression suddenly changed. He then smiled into the microphone and said, "Dear audience friends, an unexpected situation has occurred. The game developer of Warcraft 3, Mr. Allen Adham, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment USA, has felt our enthusiasm here and wishes to speak with you."
"Wow!!" A cheer came from the audience. They never expected such a surprise.
Then, Allen Adham's voice was connected to the on-site sound system.
At the same time, a translator hurried onto the stage with a microphone to help translate his words in real-time.
"Hello, everyone..."
"Hello everyone, I am Allen Adham. Thank you all Chinese players for your love of Warcraft 3. I also love our game very much, and we are also holding our own competitions in the United States!"
"Therefore, I warmly invite five players from China and five players from the United States to participate in the second WCg competition in December, and incidentally, to have a showdown between China and the United States to see which country is the victor. What do you all think?"