July 17th, the 40th day since arriving in this world, Huang He, accompanied by his younger sister-in-law Leng Zhimeng, flew to China's imperial capital. Although he was quite interested in the capital of 2001 and wanted to explore it thoroughly, in this era where time is life, Huang He didn't have the leisure for such activities. After Leng Zhimeng made contact, they settled into a hotel and then headed directly to Imperial Capital Institute of Technology to meet Chen Shoufu, the author of Coral QQ.
It was hard to imagine that Chen Shoufu, the author of Coral QQ, was working at the Imperial Capital Institute of Technology, and not as a student, but as a teacher in the Computer Center.
Of course, Chen Shoufu had just graduated, but due to his excellent academic performance, he was successfully retained by the university after graduation, becoming a teaching assistant in the Computer Center.
Without Coral QQ, Chen Shoufu would have pursued a double major, taking four years to advance from teaching assistant to lecturer, then associate professor, and finally professor, becoming a respected figure… Well, the reputation of university professors had also been tarnished by then.
But with the appearance of Coral QQ, Chen Shoufu's life underwent a drastic change. He was sued by Tengda, imprisoned for three years, and upon release, couldn't return to university, so he could only start a group buying website.
If it had succeeded, it might have led to a good future, but unfortunately, it failed, and he eventually disappeared without a trace, with no one knowing what happened next.
Chen Shoufu's fate was quite poignant, but his abilities were undeniable. Coral QQ's technology was remarkably advanced, implementing many features that Tengda itself couldn't achieve.
Initially, this wouldn't have mattered much, but Tengda began to focus on controlling its user information and eliminating any potential avenues for its user data to be stolen. Thus, Coral QQ, as an auxiliary QQ client, naturally became a primary target for crackdowns. In fact, all auxiliary QQ clients were targets, and Chen Shoufu was the "chicken killed to warn the monkeys."
Ahem, let's not dwell on that. For now, Chen Shoufu was still a graduate who had just obtained his teaching assistant qualification. He looked at the man and woman before him with a sense of unease.
They had already communicated on the forum, and Chen Shoufu knew that they wanted to hire him to develop something related to QQ, and they were big bosses with a considerable amount of money.
This made Chen Shoufu feel very conflicted. It was fine to secretly develop Coral QQ before, as it wouldn't affect his job. But if he truly cooperated with these bosses, his hard-won retention by the university would definitely be forfeited, and he would lose his stable job. This was the reason why Chen Shoufu was hesitant and unable to make a decision.
"What do you want me to do?" Chen Shoufu asked directly after they exchanged pleasantries.
"We want to make software like QQ!" Huang He said with a smile.
"Like QQ? What does that mean? Like my Coral QQ?" Chen Shoufu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Actually, legally speaking, my Coral QQ constitutes infringement on QQ. For now, my small-scale operations are fine, but if you invest and commercial interests are involved, I could face imprisonment. I'm afraid I can't do this!"
"Heh, I didn't expect Teacher Chen to know so much about these things!" Huang He chuckled. Since Chen Shoufu understood the legal risks of Coral QQ so clearly now, why would he continue to develop Coral QQ into something bigger in the future?
This clearly indicated that Chen Shoufu was someone who was greedy for profit at heart; such people would be willing to do anything if you offered them enough benefits!
Understanding this, Huang He said straightforwardly, "I also know the legal risks of Coral QQ. I am a law-abiding citizen, and I won't do such things!"
"Since Teacher Chen can create Coral QQ, you must be very familiar with instant messaging software. My intention is to have you lead a team to create a brand-new instant messaging software for our company. I am very optimistic about this software. It's too comfortable for Tengda to have all the profits to themselves!" Huang He said with a smile.
"Oh, that's possible!" Chen Shoufu nodded, a smile appearing on his face. "I know many classmates whose technical skills are excellent. Also, I have some students whose abilities are sufficient. I am fully confident that I can assemble a team and deliver a product within six months…"
"Six months is too long!" Huang He interrupted directly.
"Then three months, but that will require overtime!"
"Still too long!" Huang He shook his head. Every day of delay would only consolidate Tengda's market dominance. Huang He couldn't wait for three months.
"Then how much time do you give me?" Chen Shoufu asked somewhat helplessly.
"One month!" Huang He held up one finger. "From starting to gradually assembling the team, to delivering the complete software package, setting up the server, building the website, and officially launching the product, I'm only giving you one month!"
"This is impossible, Mr. Huang He, you think too highly of me. One month, I, as a teacher, simply cannot accomplish this!" Chen Shoufu said agitatedly.
"Then what if you weren't a teacher?" Huang He asked calmly.
"What do you mean?" Chen Shoufu opened his mouth.
"As a teacher in this school, what's your monthly income?" Huang He countered.
"One thousand… no, over a thousand… and if you add some benefits…" Chen Shoufu found it difficult to say.
"2,000 yuan, let's say your salary is 2,000 yuan!" Huang He said dismissively. "But if you follow me and resign to form a team, I guarantee that the day the product launches, your monthly income will be ten times higher!"
"Ten times!!" Chen Shoufu felt as if he had been struck a heavy blow, his chest tightening. Ten times meant 20,000 yuan. A monthly income of 20,000 yuan, even the university president's public income was only a little over 5,000 yuan. He would be four times that of the president. He would be able to buy a house in the imperial capital within three years and live a life envied by countless people.
"I'll do it!" Chen Shoufu quickly made his decision, and Huang He smiled; this was all within his expectations.
"Very good. Recruit the team as much as possible. I'm giving you slots for 30 people. On the day the product launches, everyone's salary will be 2,000 yuan per month!" Huang He continued, "Additionally, we will establish a subsidiary company specifically for you, and invest 5 million yuan as seed capital for this company. You, Chen Shoufu, will be the technical director of this company, as well as the deputy general manager, responsible for all research and development related work!"
"Okay!" A surge of blood rushed to Chen Shoufu's head. A team of 30 people was more than enough. He was absolutely confident he could meet Huang He's requirements within a month.
"Boss!" Chen Shoufu transitioned quickly. "Besides the technical development team, I actually need an art team and an art design team. After all, we are all programmers and can only write code, not handle product UI or art-related work. These require professional personnel to design an interface that is completely different from QQ, so that..."
"Heh, that's not necessary!" Huang He smiled and shook his head, patting Chen Shoufu's shoulder. "No need to be so troublesome. I think all current users are quite satisfied with QQ's art style. Let's not take risks by charting a new course. Just follow QQ's art style and UI interface. Whatever QQ is designed like, we'll do the same. As long as it looks similar to QQ!"
"However, there are some things to pay attention to, such as colors. QQ is white, so we'll change it to blue. QQ is blue, so we'll change it to white. Black will become gray, and red will become orange-red. Just change the colors as you see fit."
"Right, also change the fonts. QQ's fonts seem to be Songti or Heiti, I don't remember. Let's change them to Xingkai… Don't use Microsoft YaHei or Founder fonts, otherwise, they'll extort us every day..."
"Boss Huang!" Chen Shoufu interrupted Huang He in a panic. "Boss, if you do this, aren't we just copying QQ?"
"Ah, how can you say that? How are we copying!" Huang He said righteously. "We are learning from it, learning, do you understand? The law won't rule against learning. It seems we can also recruit a few law students and organize a legal department to study how to copy while calling it learning!"
"Don't worry, I won't let our company have any legal risks. We are law-abiding citizens!"
"Boss, even if there are no legal risks like this, how will people see us in the future? Will we have to wear the hat of plagiarism for the rest of our lives?" Chen Shoufu said helplessly.
"That doesn't matter!" Huang He laughed heartily. "Let alone that hat has no killing power at all. QQ itself learned from QiCQ. If I learn from QQ, what's the problem? What malicious intentions could I have? This is all learned from Tengda!"
"Whatever Tengda can do, we can do!"
"Oh, and I've also thought of our name. It'll be called oo."