Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

A dry summer breeze murmured through the campus, the leaves on the trees swayed gently, and sunlight filtered through them, falling on Zhang Ruiyi and Wen Shuyan beneath the trees.

"Sister Shuyan," Zhang Ruiyi said, "you played so well. Although I don't understand the technical parts very well, the middle part was so tragic and powerful. It felt like someone was struggling to walk out of deep darkness and finally saw the light. I almost cried."

"Your intuition is remarkably accurate," Wen Shuyan said with a smile. "The fact that you can hear this meaning means you're very close to understanding this piece. When Rachmaninoff wrote his Second Piano Concerto, he was actually going through a severe period of depression. The bell-like chords at the beginning of the first movement are like fate knocking on the door; some say they symbolize the heavy pressure he felt inside. But towards the end, the piece is a tragic struggle and transcendence. The entire piece is his journey from despair to healing."

Between the school's music building and the west gate was a grassy area. Zhang Ruiyi followed Wen Shuyan, crossing a dirt path worn into the grass to the other side. Zhang Ruiyi noticed that land planners seemed to disregard the fact that people would always find the shortest route between two points, regardless of whether there was a path at all. At the end of the dirt path was a kicked-over sign that read: "Please do not trample on the grass."

"So music really can tell a story," Zhang Ruiyi said. "No wonder your expression changed when you played that part in the middle."

"Really?" Wen Shuyan smiled, a little embarrassed. "Maybe I was too engrossed in it."

"The teacher you played with is also very good. The two of you have a great rapport. You can tell when to go in with just a glance."

"After all, I've been practicing for almost a month now, and practice makes perfect."

"Don't you get tired of playing the same passages over and over again?" Zhang Ruiyi asked.

"It's not annoying, but the feeling is different every time I play. Sometimes, just to find the right tone, I might spend an entire morning working on that one measure. But the hardest part is that the two of us need to breathe in unison, because music needs to breathe too."

They stopped in front of a small shop. It was more of a makeshift shed made of a few logs and asbestos tiles. A large plastic bucket filled with plum juice sat at the entrance.

"Are you thirsty?" Wen Shuyan said. "The plum juice here is homemade, and it tastes better than what you buy outside. Would you like to try some?"

"Okay." Zhang Ruiyi covered her eyebrows with her hand and looked around. "The school is so quiet during summer vacation. It feels so nice to take a walk in a place like this."

Wen Shuyan bought two cups of plum juice at the convenience store and handed one to Zhang Ruiyi. The two continued walking towards the gate.

"Why didn't Han Fei come today?" Wen Shuyan asked. "Is the publishing house particularly busy lately?"

Zhang Ruiyi took a sip of plum juice and nodded: "He's trying to make the most of every day. I wanted to bring him along, but he said he had to go to town."

"Han Fei is really amazing; he managed to get you all together to do this. Xiao Jie is much happier with him than he was at NetEase before."

Zhang Ruiyi smiled slightly: "He's just too hardworking."

They arrived outside the gate and stood by the roadside waiting for a taxi. Zhang Ruiyi's gaze was drawn to a black car parked next to the school gate.

"Do people at your school still drive this kind of car?" Zhang Ruiyi asked.

Wen Shuyan turned her head and looked at the car. If she had any interest in cars, she would know that it was a Bentley Arnage R, which is extremely rare in China and worth more than 400 million yuan.

"It's probably from one of the higher-ups," Wen Shuyan said.

......

When Zhang Ruiyi entered the conference room, Wen Jie was announcing the real-time conversion rate data for the fourth time.

Total push notifications: 5000

Successfully delivered: 4998

User response: 367

Subscription successful: 323

Conversion rate: 6.5%

"The conversion rate is much faster than during our first test," Wen Jie said excitedly. "It's only been two hours, and it's already at 6.5%, and it's still going up."

Wang Zhe stared at the feedback from the user profiling system: "These users have strong consumption habits. Many of them already have SP subscription records, so their high acceptance rate is normal. The user profiles are also being updated in real time... 76% are male, which is higher than the 68% in the push sample, so it seems the stories are indeed more appealing to men. The age group is concentrated between 30 and 45 years old, and in the consumption habit tags, the proportion of users active at night is significantly higher. These people may like to look at their phones before going to bed at night."

Lin Feng moved his chair closer to Wang Zhe, so he could get closer to the screen and pull up the load system monitoring chart. He was relaxed, but his eyes were very focused as he studied the screen line by line, as if there were things he hadn't noticed yet.

"Hmm, the system load is also perfectly fine." Lin Feng whistled. "The average database query response time is 80 milliseconds, and the cache hit rate is 91%. There are zero errors in the SP interface callback."

"Okay. Which of the two articles has a higher conversion rate?" Han Fei asked.

"Wait a moment," Wen Jie said, bringing up the data display: "The percentage for 'Borrowing Seeds' is even higher, reaching 4.2%."

Han Fei nodded, put a cigarette in his mouth, but didn't light it.

"Once this batch of data stabilizes, let's see what the final conversion rate can be," Han Fei said. "If it exceeds 10%, we can try incremental push. If it's still below 10% by tomorrow morning, then we need to analyze whether it's a content problem or a copywriting problem."

"Okay, Fei-ge," Wen Jie said.

Zhang Ruiyi turned her head to look at Han Fei: "You don't seem excited at all?"

"Of course I'm excited," Han Fei chuckled a few times. "But what's even more exciting is that we finally don't have to sneak around collecting phone numbers anymore. This is the first shot fired by the regular army. By the way, how was the concert?"

"That's amazing!" Zhang Ruiyi said. "Sister Shuyan plays so well!"

"Really? I'm actually quite disappointed that I didn't go."

"Maybe next time you won't be so busy, and then we can go together."

Han Fei smiled slightly: "As long as I'm not busier than I am now, I'll be thankful."

......

At 8:20 p.m., six hours later, with the help of people who had returned home from get off work and finished dinner, the conversion rate of the first batch of 5000 test numbers for Qingniao Reading finally broke through 10%.

Wen Jie's excited screams echoed from the conference room of Qingniao Publishing House, reverberating throughout Fuzhou Road Cultural Street.

"Profile feedback," Wang Zhe said, biting his chopsticks, "among this batch of subscribers, the proportion from urban-rural fringe areas and suburbs is 12% higher than that from the city center."

"Wow," Zhang Ruiyi exclaimed.

Han Fei put down his chopsticks, with noodles still in his mouth: "The rural market is indeed our base."