I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Chapter 174 Forums can be done like this?

Not far from the east gate of Yangcheng Business School, there is a newly built residential community called "Ningpingyuan".

Some students from Yangshang University rent houses here. Some do so because they have conflicts with their roommates, while others want to have their own little world with their girlfriends/boyfriends.

Unlike these people, Zheng Changhao bought a house here purely for investment.

In the past two years, he has earned several hundred thousand yuan on the Yangbei Forum. He used the money to buy a car and two houses, one in Wudang District and the other in Ningpingyuan Community.

Zheng Changhao planned to use the house in Wudang District as his main residence after graduation. The house in Ningpingyuan, on the other hand, was mainly for investment purposes; he had high hopes for the property in that area and felt it would appreciate significantly in value.

However, shortly after he bought this three-bedroom apartment this year, the price started to fall. Now, with the global financial crisis, the future of housing prices seems even more uncertain, which has left Zheng Changhao very frustrated.

But since I've already bought it, there's nothing I can do about it.

And having a house like this is quite nice.

Zheng Changhao drove his car to the parking space downstairs, and a girl got out of the passenger seat. After Zheng Changhao walked over, the girl took his arm and clung to him like a boneless lump of soft clay. The two went into the building in front of them.

This is a girlfriend that Zheng Changhao just started dating.

Every time he got a girlfriend, once things were going well, he would bring her to this apartment in Ningpingyuan. It was cleaner than the surrounding short-term rentals and saved him the cost of a hotel room.

Therefore, Jung Chang-ho does not regret buying this house.

The two went up to the third floor, opened the door, and the girl looked around curiously. "Changhao, how many rooms are there?"

"Three, a three-bedroom, one-living room layout." Zheng Changhao casually placed the car keys into a dish on the counter by the door.

"You live alone, and you rent such a big house?" the girl asked again.

Jung Chang-ho smiled faintly: "It's not rented, it's bought."

"Bought it?!" the girl exclaimed.

Zheng Changhao didn't say anything, but simply enjoyed the girl's current expression.

He never mentioned buying a house first. Instead, he would bring his girlfriends back there and let them ask before revealing it. He would then see their shocked expressions, which gave him a great sense of satisfaction. It also made him feel that even if the house price never went up again, he wouldn't have made a bad deal.

Moreover, after being shocked at the scene, these girls often become even more enthusiastic later on.

This girl was no exception. After the initial shock, Zheng Changhao took her to see all the rooms. "You can sleep in whichever room you want tonight. When you leave tomorrow, take a set of keys with you. From now on, you'll be the female lead..."

People can come whenever they want. For example, if you can't find a quiet study room at school, you can come here—”

Just like his previous girlfriends, his new girlfriend's eyes softened when she saw the house and heard his words. She said, "I'm going to take a shower first," and then went into the bathroom.

Zheng Changhao was a prominent figure in Yangshang, but his reputation was mixed, and he was known as a playboy.

The girl had heard about some of Jung Chang-ho's romantic escapades, but she couldn't resist his overwhelming charm, and she felt that he treated her differently from other girls.

He had truly fallen in love with her, which was why he had brought her to his secret hideout. This notorious playboy from Yangshang would now be permanently staying with her.

He was always in a good mood at times like this, so much so that he would hum a song softly.

But just as he was setting things up, his phone rang. It was Wei Mingrui, the technical director of Yangbei Forum, calling.

Zheng Changhao answered the phone, but before he could speak, Wei Mingrui's anxious voice came from the other end: "Old Zheng, something bad has happened! Quickly check Xianyu.com!"

"Leisure Network?"

Zheng Changhao certainly knew this website; it was the secondhand website that Shen Kang, the spoiled rich kid from Yangbei University of Science and Technology, had posted on his Yangbei Forum.

At first, out of caution, he actually paid attention to Xianyu.com for a few days. But after observing it, he concluded that Xianyu.com was not fundamentally different from the second-hand website created by the student from Yang University of Science and Technology, and had no future.

Furthermore, the launch of Xianyu.com had almost no impact on the traffic of Yangbei Forum, and the number of daily logins from Yangbei University of Science and Technology remained at the same level as before, so Zheng Changhao stopped paying attention to it.

"What's wrong with Xianyu.com?" Zheng Changhao asked, without moving his feet.

"They've also created a forum, and it looks like it's also for university students. You can directly jump to that forum through Xianyu.com!"

Wei Mingrui's voice from the other end of the phone jolted Zheng Changhao up from the sofa: "They also created a forum?"

He hurried to the study and pressed the power button on the computer.

The computer, which usually booted up quickly, now seemed incredibly slow. After finally getting it to boot, Zheng Changhao immediately opened Xianyu.com and, sure enough, found an entry point to the Beiming Community. He clicked on it and was redirected to the Beiming Community.

On the Beiming Community website, Zheng Changhao clicked on several places and confirmed that it was indeed a college student forum.

"What should we do, Lao Zheng?"

Wei Mingrui's voice came from the other end of the phone, and he started cursing: "That bastard, he said he was going to start a second-hand website, but he secretly set up a forum too, and now it's like our Yangbei Forum is giving his Beiming Forum a piece of cake, it's disgusting!"

Jung Chang-ho was a little irritated. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and said, "He's really disgusting."

As he spoke, he strolled around the square of the Beiming community as a "tourist".

This "square" should be equivalent to the "You Say, I Say" section of the Yangbei Forum, which already has many posts.

Zheng Changhao tugged at the screen, quite surprised—this new forum only went online today, how come there are already so many people posting?

Although most of these are low-quality posts, there are a few popular ones. Judging from the posting time, they received quite a few replies in a short period of time.

Although the Beiming Community currently has far fewer users than the Yangbei Forum, the sheer number of users on its first day still made Zheng Changhao uneasy, sensing a growing threat.

As Zheng Changhao was looking around and talking to Wei Mingrui, footsteps came from outside.

Jung Chang-ho's new girlfriend, whom he brought home today, appeared at the door, still wrapped in a bath towel.

"What are you doing here? I saw you left some wine in the living room; weren't you going to have a couple of drinks?"

Zheng Changhao was no longer in the mood. He forced a smile and said, "I have something urgent to attend to. You should change your clothes and go back to school first. The East Gate is right next door, so I won't see you off."

The east gate of Yangshang is indeed very close to here; there's no need to drive. Zheng Changhao drove here mainly to show off, so he naturally wasn't in the mood to drive her back now.

No.

The girl walked over, tugged at his clothes, and started to whine, "It's so late, let's leave everything for tomorrow—"

"Get out!" Jung Chang-ho suddenly shouted.

He just wanted to focus on dealing with the Beiming Forum issue and had no interest in getting involved with this girl.

The girl was startled. Seeing the horrified expression on Zheng Changhao's face, she finally dared not linger any longer, quickly went back to change her clothes, and left alone.

After the gate closed, Zheng Changhao sat down again, flipping through the Beiming Community website while talking to Wei Mingrui on the other side.

"Should we immediately remove this spare network from the internet?"

Wei Mingrui said on the other end of the line, "Although we signed a contract before, it said that we would support the Xianyu.com second-hand website, but it didn't include the Beiming Forum! By doing this, they've made it so that we're also supporting the Beiming Forum. Can we void the contract for this reason?"

Wei Mingrui is a techie, but he doesn't know much about this area.

Zheng Changhao thought for a moment and shook his head: "If it's just for that reason, I don't think it will work. The main problem is that the contract we signed back then was a standard contract, and many parts weren't specified in detail, so it will probably be difficult to resolve."

The contract he signed with Shen Kang was the same simple, standard contract that other hot pot restaurants and roast chicken shops also used.

For brick-and-mortar food stores, using those contracts is perfectly fine, but for a website like this, using those contracts is somewhat careless.

Jung Chang-ho silently reflected on his actions.

It was probably during this past year that he hadn't encountered any real rivals; everything had been too smooth, and he'd become a bit arrogant. So much so that when he first saw Shen Kang, he thought he was just a spoiled brat, and that his business was a secondhand website—a model he'd previously proven ineffective—he became careless. He hadn't expected this guy to be using a feint while secretly plotting something else—

"So we have to keep posting their names on our Yangbei Forum?" Wei Mingrui said, sounding quite annoyed.

"I'll leave it hanging for now. Tomorrow I'll go ask a few law professors at the university to see if there's any legal basis for us to legitimately remove their names."

After making his decision, Jung Chang-ho asked again, "Are you free right now?"

Wei Mingrui's voice came from the other end of the phone: "It's nothing, what's wrong?"

"I'll pick you up. We'll go to Yang University of Science and Technology together and ask around to see who this Shen Kang really is. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

Less than half an hour later, Zheng Changhao and Wei Mingrui walked on the campus of Yang University of Science and Technology.

Zheng Changhao had also visited Yangke University before and knew about the school, so he led Wei Mingrui directly to Xiaodong Street.

While researching the Beiming Community in Ningpingyuan, he registered again and discovered the points system. He also saw keywords like "Jiahe Laundry Room" and "302 Study Room" on it. He then learned from the Yangbei Forum that both stores were located on Xiaodong Street, so he came to take a look.

They came from outside, and the house and laundry room were at the very end of Xiaodong Street, so as soon as they arrived at Xiaodong Street, they found the house and laundry room, as well as study room 302.

After standing in front of the two stores for a while, the two men could easily tell that both stores were doing very well.

In study room 302, all five tables were full, and in the laundry room, students were constantly dropping off and picking up their clothes.

Their timing was also perfect: previously, because they always got a surge in orders before nightfall, the laundry room hadn't had much foot traffic in the evenings lately, mostly just people coming to pick up clothes.

However, the era of vouchers has officially ended. Laundry rooms no longer offer vouchers, so customer traffic has started to decline. As a result, even at 8 PM now, there are still people coming to drop off their laundry.

"Forum points can be used for reservations and skipping lines in the laundry room, for purchases at this board game cafe, and even for buying milk tea —"

After a long silence, Zheng Changhao finally spoke, his tone grave: "He has integrated online and offline channels into a unified whole."

Jung Chang-ho's eyes were filled with astonishment.

The largest forum in the Beilu District University Town belongs to him. If you were to ask who among the students in the Beilu District University Town knows the most about forums, everyone would definitely say it's Zheng Changhao.

But he never imagined that the forum could be done this way!

He had never even considered this kind of thinking before, not only because it involved online forums, but also because it extended to offline collaborations. After seeing and understanding it clearly just now, he was quite shocked.

Involuntarily, the image of Shen Kang surfaced in my mind: that man, like a classic spoiled rich kid, swaggered in with an unbelievably beautiful woman. When discussing business, he acted just like a classic spoiled rich kid, seemingly indifferent to everything, as if doing business was merely a way to show off in front of his woman.

The result was that this guy, who had left him with the impression of a spoiled rich kid, came up with a business model that he had never even imagined, and on its first day of operation, it was doing exceptionally well.

"Damn it, this kid's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve!"

Wei Mingrui cursed from the side, but his expression couldn't hide his admiration.

Then, Wei Mingrui looked at Zheng Changhao and asked, "Old Zheng, what do we do?"

"It's not like this is the first time there's been a challenger. No need to rush, let's play along for a bit."

Zheng Changhao pretended to be calm.

If even he, as the head of the household, panics, then the battles to come will be even more difficult to fight.

Seeing Zheng Changhao's calm demeanor, Wei Mingrui felt more at ease, thinking that Old Zheng would definitely have a solution.

After looking at the two stores for a while, Zheng Changhao suddenly laughed.

"Got it."

>