Reborn not to be a beast of burden, I set the rules.

A girl stood at the door, carrying a black painting tube on her back, her hair tied up high, with her ponytail hanging down her shoulders.

She had delicate features and a slender figure, and wore a navy blue thin sweater. She didn't rush in, but instead glanced around the server room.

Li Yue looked up and saw her, then stood up to greet her: "Junior, over here."

She pulled the girl's arm and led her inside, bringing her to the table. Turning to Ye Ming, she said, "This is Lin Ting, specially recommended by Fang Xiao, the vice minister of the publicity department of the student union. She's a sophomore in the School of Arts and won a national award in the National Advertising Competition."

Then, Lin heard, "This is Ye Ming, the initiator of this project, our boss."

Lin Tingchong and Ye Ming nodded. Li Yue pulled up two chairs: "Sit down and let's talk."

Several people sat down around the table.

Lin took out several sketches from the drawing tube and spread them out on the table.

The drawings are very detailed, with a light gray background, dark gray borders, and a lot of white space. The accent color is dark blue, like annotations in a book.

The header and footer areas are left blank, with the text area in the middle. The borders are aged, like the color of paper that has been stored for a long time.

Ye Ming looked at it for a few seconds: "Can you make it more like a book? The page-turning effect. Tap it, turn a page, just like you're really turning the pages of a book."

Lin Ting didn't rush to reply. She looked down and jotted down a few notes in her sketchbook before looking up at Li Yue.

Li Yue leaned closer to examine the drawings, tapping her finger lightly on the paper twice: "Use CSS3 for the page-turning effect. 2D transformations are fine, but 3D compatibility is questionable. Let's start with a lightweight version, adding fade-in/fade-out and edge shadows, and iterate through it as the user base grows."

Lin Ting nodded and made another note.

Ye Ming then asked, "When drawing cards, could you add a halo or vibration effect to rare cards?"

After Lin finished taking notes, she looked at Li Yue. Li Yue said, "Use box-shadow animation for the halo, and transform: scale for the vibration. That's fine."

Ye Ming thought for a moment: "And then there are avatar frames. Users can choose a default avatar when registering, and unlock new frames after reaching certain achievements. In the forum, a row of frames can be displayed below each avatar, making it easy to see who has what achievements."

Li Yue's eyes lit up: "That's great. We can also do the achievement badges together. Unlocking a hidden achievement will pop up a badge that can be displayed below your avatar."

Lin didn't say anything, and instead started sketching in his sketchbook.

She drew very quickly, sketching out several portrait frames in just a few minutes. They were round with simple patterns around the edges, and the gold one had a halo around it.

I drew a few more badges: shields, trophies, stars—small pictures with clean lines.

She turned her sketchbook around: "Is that so?"

Ye Ming looked at it and said, "Yes."

Li Yue also came over to take a look: "It's okay."

Lin Ting flipped the sketchbook back over and looked up again: "What about when events switch? For each event pop-up, do we need a transition effect? ​​Like a fade-in, or a slide-in from the edge. Do I need to design these visuals in advance?"

Ye Ming looked at Li Yue. Li Yue said, "The transition effect can be done. Fade-in can be done using CSS3's transition, and sliding in is also simple."

These are front-end issues; you don't need to worry about the specific implementation details.

But if you have any visual ideas, such as wanting the slide-in direction to be consistent, or the fade-in speed, you can bring them up, and I'll make it according to your design.

Lin Ting nodded: "Then I'll go back and mark the direction and speed of the transition effect in the design draft. Fade in, falling from directly above, like turning a page and landing. The speed doesn't need to be too fast, 0.2 seconds, just enough for the user to know that the page has been turned."

Li Yue jotted down a note in her sketchbook: "Okay, do it your way."

Ye Ming added, "What about the event options? When the user clicks on a button, should there be feedback? For example, should the button dim briefly or pop up when clicked?"

Li Yue said, "I'll handle this. Button feedback is basic interaction; just change the color or add a shadow when it's clicked so the user knows they've clicked it. Lin Ting, you just need to label the colors of the button's default, hover, and click states."

Lin Ting nodded and made a note in his sketchbook.

Ye Ming thought for a moment and then said, "There are also leaderboards and friend leaderboards. These two pages don't need to be too fancy, but the data needs to be clear. Ranking, username, and points should be arranged in order. We can add pagination so we don't have to load too much at once."

Li Yue chimed in, "Pagination is good. Loading too many items at once puts a lot of pressure on the database. We can create a pagination component on the front end, displaying twenty items per page, which users can then browse through themselves."

Lin Ting lowered her head and made a note.

Ye Ming added, "Borrow My Life and Win-Win Life are interactive features. The interface needs to highlight the 'Borrow' and 'Win-Win' buttons so that users know at a glance what will happen after clicking them. We can also work on the copywriting, such as 'Borrow a friend's life start'."

Li Yue thought for a moment: "The button style can be different from ordinary buttons, the color can be brighter, or an icon can be added."

Lin Ting looked up: "I can draw icons, the simple kind, they won't take up much resources."

Ye Ming nodded: "Okay. That's settled then."

Lin Ting flipped back through her sketchbook and went over the requirements she had just jotted down: "Page-turning effects, card-drawing effects, avatar frames, achievement badges, leaderboards, friend leaderboards, 'Lend Me Life,' 'Win-Win Life,' plus a book-like UI, along with transition effects for event switching and visual labels for button feedback." She looked up. "All of this combined can't be done in a day or two."

Ye Ming asked, "How long will it take to get it out?"

Lin Ting looked down and did some calculations: "Page turning and page structure will be on Sunday, while avatar frames and badges will be on Monday at the earliest."

Ye Ming then asked, "And the price?"

Lin heard: "Five hundred as a minimum, three hundred more if the effect is good. Eight hundred in total."

Ye Ming thought for a moment: "Okay. Give us the page turning and page structure by Sunday, and the avatar frames and badges as soon as possible. Li Yue will handle the image slicing; you just need to focus on the design drafts and visual specifications."

Lin Ting nodded, put the drawings and sketchbook into the drawing tube, and stood up. Li Yue also stood up: "I'll take you."

The two walked towards the door. Li Yue opened it and stepped aside to let Lin Ting go out first. A few low voices could be heard in the corridor, but the words were indistinct. The door closed.

Two minutes later, Li Yue pushed the door open and returned to her seat.

Li Yue glanced at her computer screen, her tone turning serious: "Qiandu Internet Alliance launches on the 13th, and we don't even know how long our registration will take. It's 20 working days; we submitted it on October 2nd, October 8th is only the first working day, and today is only the second. By the time the registration is approved, it'll be too late."

Without even looking up, Zhang Yuan replied, "It's the Provincial Communications Administration's procedure; no amount of urging will change anything."

"The fish head is the best to eat, the belly is okay too, but the tail is all bones." Li Yue sighed, "The time it takes for our registration to be approved is so short that the fish tail won't even be hot yet."

Xu Wei's fingers rested on the keyboard, not moving, but her ears were perked up.

She listened to each of these words, going over them in her mind.

I submitted it on October 2nd, the first working day was October 8th, and today is only the second day. The earliest it will be processed after the registration is completed is November.

The Baidu Union went online on the 13th, and the first batch of early adopters had already taken the lion's share. By the time they could go online, there wasn't even a sip of soup left.

She remembered Li Yue's mention of "fish tail" and felt that the metaphor was unlucky.

She picked up her phone and scrolled to her father's chat window.

He typed a message: "Dad, I need to talk to you tonight. Come home for dinner."

After sending the message, she placed her phone face down on the table, not looking at anyone, her lips pressed into a thin line, her fingers resting on the keyboard without moving.

After a while, she picked up the glass of water and took a sip. Her eyelashes drooped down, casting a small shadow on her face.

The water had cooled down a bit, so she put the cup back, put her fingers back on the keyboard, typed a few words, and then stopped, the weariness still lingering in her eyes.

Ye Ming leaned back in his chair, his fingers resting on the edge of the notebook, without moving.

My mind is racing.

He had done the math.

The 14,000 yuan I brought to school, plus the money my parents gave me later, totaled 14,500 yuan.

The computer cost 5,000, the server 1,800, Li Yue and Zhang Yuan each spent 2,000, the domain name 140, fruit and tea 250, and some other miscellaneous expenses.

I have 3,300 left in my account.

The content team has nine people, and each person receives 100 yuan, totaling 900 yuan.

Lin Ting's UI design fee was agreed to be 800. After paying these two bills, he only has 1,600 left.

One thousand six hundred yuan.

The server renewal is at the beginning of January, costing 1,800.

There is a shortfall of 200.

Most importantly, if he wants the game to spread rapidly after its launch, he has to spend money to hire a team to promote it, and everything costs money.

With the Qiandu Alliance launching on the 13th, he must quickly develop and popularize the game, relying on Qiandu's GG fees to survive until the end of the year.

With this life-saving money, the project can survive.

2010 was the first year of group buying. If you missed this wave, it will be difficult to get in later.

If you don't take the first step properly, the rest will be full of pitfalls.

This cannot be accomplished by simply waiting.

Teacher Zhang said he'd help put in a good word with Baidu, which is a technical way to speed up Google's review process.

However, the filing process is handled by the Provincial Communications Administration. If it gets stuck, even if the GG Alliance goes live, it will be for nothing.

We need to find a way to speed up the registration process!

He thought of Li Guoqiang, the vice dean of the School of Humanities.

Last time he had an accident on Zhujiang Road, Teacher Li rushed to the police station to help him; in his junior year of college, it was also Li Guoqiang who helped him get a scholarship.

He's from Shandong province, and has been at the college for almost twenty years; he must have a wide network of connections.

Does he know anyone at the Provincial Communications Administration?

Li Guoqiang is a kind and honest teacher. If I sincerely report my difficulties to him, he might be willing to help me inquire about it.

We can't delay dealing with the scammers either.

Tomorrow is the briefing session, and Wang Deming and his gang, having already received money, are still recruiting people everywhere.

He has evidence, including recordings and photos, and he needs to settle things this afternoon.

We can't let them swallow Ruan Xing's five thousand yuan.

Both things need to be done today.

I'll go find Li Guoqiang first in the morning, then go to Zhujiang Road. Time is a bit tight, but I should be able to finish.

He closed his notebook and stood up.

"I have something to do, I'm going out for a bit."

Li Yue turned to look at him: "Are you coming back this afternoon?"

"Come back." He stuffed the notebook into his bag without saying anything more.

Ruan Xing peeked out from the corner, her lips moved as if she wanted to ask, but she was too embarrassed to speak.

She saw Ye Ming zip up his bag and walk toward the door, his steps unhurried but quick.

Xu Wei didn't look up. She didn't know where he went, but she knew she had to go home that afternoon and clarify the filing matter.