“Hmm?” Zhang Xiaolong, having left the Fox Mail CEO’s office, suddenly noticed that the company’s main workspace was still brightly lit.
“Strange, there were no overtime plans today, yet they’re all working overtime collectively?” Zhang Xiaolong found it somewhat peculiar. While overtime was common for programmers, internet companies back then hadn't yet cultivated the corporate spirit of late-stage network companies that actively embraced the 996 schedule, making employees voluntarily working overtime an incredibly rare sight.
Driven by curiosity, Zhang Xiaolong quietly entered the workspace and discovered that more than half of the company’s forty-odd programmers were still at the office, hunched over their computers, typing incessantly.
Zhang Xiaolong looked closer and was even more astonished. All these people were chatting on QQ and typing non-stop, with expressions of infatuation on their faces.
“This is unscientific!” Zhang Xiaolong found it even stranger. What kind of people were programmers? You could discuss games, football, military affairs, sports, or code with most programmers, and they could hold forth eloquently.
However, the moment the conversation turned to women, and the topic shifted to humanities, these programmers would instantly become tongue-tied, unable to utter a single word.
This was similarly true in online chats. In this world, there were few people who couldn’t hold a conversation in person but were adept at flirting online. In fact, if someone was awkward in real life, they were often just as reticent online, let alone communicating with girls. Even communicating with clients online, they would struggle to type a single character for half an hour.
But now, how had all these people become chat experts, internet Casanovas, and were they all so engrossed that they couldn’t extricate themselves?
Li Xiaolong was a keen observer, so he decided not to alert them and instead stood by the side, watching how these people chatted, to observe the key to the problem.
Soon, Li Xiaolong understood.
Firstly, the people on the other side chatting with these programmers were definitely of the opposite sex. This was clear from the expressions of his subordinates, who were all known to be lecherous.
Secondly, these chat partners were likely strangers before, as their conversations contained a significant amount of politeness and self-introductions, which were typical of first encounters between strangers. Familiar people would never chat this way.
Thirdly, he noticed that their chat speed was quite fast—not in typing, but in response. Whether it was his programmer subordinates or the opposite sex on the other end, their response times were quite quick, usually within a minute.
This point greatly surprised Li Xiaolong. He had also been an enthusiast of QQ chats, but when chatting with strangers, especially strangers of the opposite sex, the other party's response speed was extremely slow. It would be considered fast if they replied once an hour, let alone within a minute.
Of course, this didn’t mean that familiar people replied faster; sometimes, familiar people replied even slower.
But a collective phenomenon like this, with replies always within a minute, was even more incredible.
Finally, Zhang Xiaolong observed that when these people chatted, they seemed to be counting. Every time they sent a message, they seemed to be calculating. When a certain number was reached, the chat participants would become very excited, as if they had won a prize.
These findings made Zhang Xiaolong even more curious. At this moment, a programmer finally spotted Zhang Xiaolong, and everyone immediately stood up in unison to greet him. However, even then, they did not abandon their chats on the computers.
“It’s alright, we’re already off work. Everyone, relax. Are you chatting on QQ?” Zhang Xiaolong asked with a smile.
“It’s not QQ; it’s a new chat software called oo!” someone quickly explained.
“oo!” Zhang Xiaolong was even more surprised. He had always thought it was QQ, as the software’s UI layout was identical to QQ’s. However, after his subordinate said it wasn’t QQ, Zhang Xiaolong sat down in front of the computer to examine it closely and realized it indeed wasn’t QQ. This was because the color schemes of the two software were different. The color scheme of this software called oo was much better than QQ’s, prompting Zhang Xiaolong, who also paid attention to colors, to nod approvingly.
But color schemes were not important now. What was important was that there was a second chat software that could make his employees collectively abandon QQ to use it, even to the point of sacrificing their rest and staying late to work overtime. This charm was extraordinary. Subtly, an almost unbelievable fantasy emerged in Zhang Xiaolong’s mind.
“What is the origin of this oo, and does it have any interesting features?” Zhang Xiaolong asked.
“We’re not sure. This software has only been available for less than half a month, but its momentum is quite strong. Initially, it was their oo Farm, which attracted several girls from the company. Later, it was the drifting bottle feature launched three days ago, which is indeed quite attractive!” As he spoke, the person showed an embarrassed smile, as being engrossed in chatting was rather embarrassing.
“Can you find out the background of this oo? Which tech company’s product is it, or is it from a wild card? Or is it an investment?”
“It feels like all of them, yet none of them!” the person shook his head. “Their promotion methods are unconventional, completely unlike the style of regular forces. But their product is made very well, updates are fast, and the technology is very mature. It looks like a product from a large, organized team, like something from a big company.”
“Interesting!” Zhang Xiaolong stopped talking but decided to try the drifting bottle feature. Upon entering the drifting bottle, QQ popped up a new page with a simple animation of an unfolded letter, prompting Zhang Xiaolong to leave a message for a stranger.
Zhang Xiaolong thought for a moment and wrote, “I have wine, do you have stories?”
“Wow!” The spectators behind him let out an exclamation. This single sentence had already surpassed many of their programmers’… you know… by a significant margin.
Awesome!
“What next?”
“Just choose to throw the bottle out!” the people behind him explained. Zhang Xiaolong directly and cheerfully tossed the drifting bottle and saw a system message: “Automatically matching a stranger of the opposite sex who dropped a bottle at the same time as you, with the closest time proximity.”
Immediately after, a new system prompt appeared: “Wow, a successful match! A mysterious stranger dropped their bottle 0.035 seconds before you. You are the most compatible pair of strangers from August 7th, 20:47:36, and a exclusive drifting bottle route is being established for you!”
“System: The route has been established. You can now both see each other’s drifting bottles!” Following this prompt, a drifting bottle floated ashore, was picked up by a hand, and then opened with a simple animation.
“Want to find the right person!” read the note inside the picked-up drifting bottle.
“This is interesting. This first sentence can give me a first impression of the other person!” Zhang Xiaolong thought thoughtfully, then another system prompt appeared.
“Two destined individuals, please roll the dice simultaneously. The one with the higher number can send the drifting bottle first. Please reply within 1 minute after opening the drifting bottle, otherwise, your fate will be directly broken, and you will never have contact again! Please note that the text must be more than 10 characters and less than 100 characters.”
Then, two dice appeared on the screen. Li Xiaolong clicked, and one of the dice began to roll, finally showing a 3. The other party’s dice took a few seconds to appear, and then it rolled a 6.
The right to speak first then went to the other party.
“My story isn’t good, are you sure you want to hear it?” Ten seconds later, the other party’s letter floated back through the drifting bottle. Li Xiaolong smiled faintly and replied, “Good stories can be touching, and bad stories can be good to drink. As long as it’s your story, I want to hear it!”
After waiting for a dozen seconds, the other party’s reply came back through the drifting bottle, “Young man, you’re quite good at pretending to be an intellectual!”
“I am an intellectual, 24k, pure intellectual!” he replied quickly, throwing the message into the bottle. Li Xiaolong’s hand holding the mouse suddenly froze.
“How did I get into a conversation so quickly?” Li Xiaolong’s eyes showed immense disbelief!