A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 355 Ambiguous Gimmick (Bonus Chapter!)

After all the interviews were over, he invited Sui Kuan and Han Xu to dinner that evening.

Li Mu and the other two were already quite familiar with each other, but knowing each other was one thing, but the eldest brother personally hosting the dinner brought them even closer.

At the dinner, the older brother made his point very clearly:

"Keep in touch and share information. Especially you, Xiao Xu, you've just graduated and your experience with newspapers is still a bit lacking. Ask Li Mu and Sui Kuan for advice. They're both shrewd and won't let you suffer."

On the 9th, Guan Yue sent over the interview results around noon.

Among the questions he set, the best performers were Zhang Fanyu and Wang Youzhi.

One of them graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the other from Nankai University.

Wang Youzhi, in particular, graduated in 02 and had been working in society for two years, so his skills were already quite advanced.

This time, he also scored the highest.

I was hired without any problem.

Next, after calling all the people who passed the interview to inform them, the New Media Department, including Li Mu and Bie Yan, was officially established with a total of 10 people.

This includes Bie Yan, the director of the new media office.

Content Editor and Department Head: Li Mu.

Software technicians: Wang Youzhi and Zhang Fanyu.

MMS editor: Fang Xiaofang (transferred from Southern Metropolis Daily), intern editors: Ren Xue, Liu Yang.

Image editing/graphic design: Sun Hanyue.

Operations and Promotion: Wei Jinxue (transferred from Nandu Daily), Xue Xingnan.

Ten people is not a lot.

But if things go well, the office might be able to expand its workforce in less than two months.

Perhaps Li Mu's promotion will take place before the end of this year.

So, when the list was finally finalized, although he wasn't exactly brimming with confidence, Li Mu's excitement was almost overflowing.

Then, all employees of The Beijing News received a mass text message sent by The Beijing News' SP (Service Provider) platform.

On November 10th at noon, a welcome luncheon was held in the banquet hall of the Yanjing Hotel.

So, at noon on the 10th, Li Mu arrived at this hotel, which can be said to be famous throughout the country and has a long history.

It must be admitted that, being a well-established and politically correct newspaper in Beijing, it certainly had a grand presence.

When Li Mu arrived at noon that day, the entrance to the hotel's banquet hall was already filled with various flower baskets and gifts.

From the Chinese community, to Guangming Daily, Southern Metropolis Daily, and Yanjing Daily, almost every newspaper in Beijing, big and small, sent congratulatory gifts.

The kind that's almost too big to fit at the entrance.

When Li Mu and Sui Kuan entered together, they received their own table numbers.

Li Mu was at table number 6, while Sui Kuan was at table number 9.

We can't even sit together.

But after a moment of surprise, the two understood the newspaper's intention.

This newspaper office is a joint venture between Southern Metropolis Daily and Guangming Daily. To help everyone integrate quickly and eliminate the influence of their original work units, the seating arrangement was mixed.

Sure enough... When Li Mu walked in, he saw many familiar faces from his former workplace sitting with other unfamiliar faces.

Everyone is like that.

Soon after, Li Mu spotted Cheng Yizhong walking in with Wang Mian, the newspaper's general manager and former Guangming Daily employee.

The two men each gave a speech at the banquet, the gist of which was simply to introduce themselves to each other and to celebrate the achievements of the newly established newspaper.

Finally, the two jointly announced that the 15th of this month would be the publication date of the first issue of the Beijing News.

The magazine was officially launched on the 11th, and the first issue was published on the 15th. Four days of preparation time was enough.

The meal ended around 2 p.m.

Li Mu drove directly to his workplace.

At 2:40, he received a phone call.

The agent representing Li Xiaomu for the serialization rights of his novel, "I'm a Guide in Kabukicho," is also a childhood friend of his from China named Wang Bin. Wang Bin also brought along a "friend" named Wu Liwei.

"Hello, Mr. Li."

"Hello. Please have a seat, teachers."

In the office, Li Mu smiled and invited the other person to sit down, then took out an authorization document from his desk drawer:

"Teacher Wang, please take a look at the contract. If you think it's okay, you can sign it."

"OK."

Wang Bin responded, but handed the contract to his "friend" Wu Liwei.

Li Mu guessed that this person was probably a lawyer or something.

But he didn't mind; on the contrary, he felt that the other party's caution was only natural.

But there's definitely nothing wrong with this contract. The terms are nothing more than a fee of 150 yuan per thousand words and exclusive serialization, which cannot be reproduced without the consent of the Beijing News.

There were no fancy tricks.

"Li Ji, Xiao Mu asked me to ask you how things are going with the publishing house."

"Yes, I know. I've already discussed it with him. We'll serialize it in our newspaper first and see the reaction. If everyone thinks the response is good, then I'll take the book to Southern Publishing House. You can discuss the specific royalties and such then."

Hearing this, Wang Bin felt more confident.

Then they turned their attention to Wu Liwei.

After spending a few minutes reading through the one-page contract, Wu Liwei simply asked one question:

Who pays the royalties tax?

Seeing Li Mu pointing at Wang Bin, he nodded:

"Okay, that's all."

After he finished speaking, Wang Bin took out a pen and signed his name on both contracts.

From this moment on, the initial serialization rights to the book "The Guide" belong to The Beijing News.

Wang Bin took a USB flash drive out of his pocket.

"Li Ji, this contains the complete electronic version of the manuscript for 'The Insider.' Please take a look."

"Haha, it's okay, I have one too. I still have the one Xiao Mu sent me last time. If there's no problem, we can just wait and see in the newspaper. This is the payment receipt; you can go to the finance department to settle it later."

Li Mu produced a receipt for royalties totaling 18 words.

With this form in hand, the person should go to the finance department to leave their bank account number, and the royalties will be transferred to them within three days.

And so everyone was happy.

After seeing Wang Bin and the other man off, Li Mu plugged in the USB drive and opened the original manuscript of "The Guide" on his computer.

Looking at the title of the first chapter, Li Xiaomu named it "My Childhood, Tricked by Current Events".

Li Mu didn't intend to make any changes.

But... as a journalist, he naturally knew what a gimmick was.

Or, to put it another way, how to use a headline to make the news more attractive and draw in other people.

So, after thinking about it, he added a parenthesis at the beginning of the original manuscript.

It says:

[Title: First published in the Beijing News! A Chinese man's rise and fall in Tokyo's red-light district: from street guide to influential figure, a more absurd real life]

(You think I'm a pimp soliciting customers in Tokyo's red-light district? Wrong. I'm the godfather of the Yakuza, someone even they would give way to, and a guide for political and business elites venturing into this city of desire. I'll dissect for you the nights of Kabukicho, filled with gangsters, lust, dazzling lights, and beautiful women.)

Looking at the two lines he had typed, Li Mu showed a satisfied expression.

This book, "The Insider," is a very important introduction to the MMS subscription plan.

This passage may seem explicit at first glance and could easily lead to suggestive thoughts, but upon closer examination, it doesn't actually cross any lines.

But ironically, its appeal is exceptional.

While surfing the internet recently, he discovered that HAO123 had actually started this kind of attractive and suggestive male-oriented traffic generation a long time ago.

For example, the currently popular online chat rooms.

It's just a regular chat framework, but on HAO123's GG page, the titles of these chat rooms are all sorts of colorful.

It stands out particularly.

At the same time, the name is also full of ambiguity.

Examples include 【Midnight Lonely Chat Room】, 【Emotional City That Never Sleeps】, 【Local Lonely People】, 【We Agreed Not to Meet】, etc.

These ambiguous and alluring names, paired with that exclusive "Local Dating" frame...

Even Li Mu clicked on it several times after seeing it.

The result... the contents were a complete mess.

Even so, he still fell for it several times.

What does this tell us?

This illustrates that... such ambiguous titles are very attractive.

The internet is too new for many people.

A new world, a new sky, and here you can find so much that you can't even encounter in reality.

To attract people in, all you need is a little bit of proper guidance.

The same is true for chat rooms like HAO123, and now it's also true for "Guide".

Having finished crafting this appealing title, which he planned to use as one of the gimmicks in his MMS push notifications, Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief.

Pack up and get ready to leave work.

……

"Brother, I'm back."

"Eh."

Li Mu smiled and opened his arms.

Fan Chengcheng, who had just been released from kindergarten, skipped and hopped into Li Mu's arms, eagerly pulling a sticker from his pocket—a reward from his teacher—and handing it to him.

"Look, brother, this is a reward the teacher gave me!"

"Yes, that's great."

Holding Fan Chengcheng, who reeked of puppy smell, Li Mu glanced at the Calabash Brothers sticker and said to Zhang Chuanmei:

"Aunties, what do you think of it?"

Zhang Chuanmei nodded:

"It's pretty good. Your uncle even brought a friend who knows about renovations to come and inspect it. They marked out any hollow spots and had them redo them. Everything else is fine. Tomorrow, your uncle and I will go check out some cheap furniture. We'll furnish each room with two beds, a table, and a sofa, and then it'll be ready to rent out. I saw that people at Fenglin Oasis have already started posting rental ads; a two-bedroom apartment is 1300 a month. What price should we set?"

"Just do what you think is best."

The houses in Tianjuyuan and Fenglin Oasis have been completed, although the handover time was delayed by half a year due to reasons in the first half of the year.

But for Li Mu, there was actually no difference.

The entire room is simply furnished, and the cost is just over ten thousand yuan.

Lay some floor tiles and paint the walls white, and you're all set.

He entrusted these small tasks to his girlfriend, who then "outsourced" them to her parents.

This puts a weight off my mind.

"You're officially starting work tomorrow?"

"right."

Holding Fan Chengcheng, who had secretly turned on the TV, Li Mu laughed:

"Time to go to work."

(Bonus chapter delivered, please continue to vote!)