From Wage Slave to Tycoon

"Can you guys handle spicy food?" Su Chen asked, looking at Wang Yue and the others. After all, he had no idea what their tastes were like.

"Mhm, mhm, we can!" Qin Nan and Zhao Ya nodded like bobbleheads...

Wang Yue also gave a slight nod. She had tasted the spiciness of Sichuan cuisine before—specifically, dishes from the Lower River Sect and Little River Sect. It was a painful pleasure, to say the least.

Her mouth would go unbearably numb, yet she couldn’t stop her hands from reaching for more, eating nonstop.

"Let’s get the Mapo Tofu and Couple’s Offal Slices." Su Chen paused, then turned to the butler beside him. "For your Boiled Fish in Chili Oil and Chili Chicken, what kind of fish and chicken do you use?"

"For the Boiled Fish, we offer two options: grass carp and blackfish. Both are raised by us in mountain spring water. As for the chicken, we use Gushi chicken, hailed as the ’King of Huaxia’s Native Chickens’!"

Su Chen nodded slightly. "Let’s go with the blackfish for the Boiled Fish; it has fewer bones, making it easier to eat. We’ll take the Chili Chicken as well, and add an order of Spicy Rabbit, Kung Pao Chicken, and Yu-Shiang Shredded Pork."

He then turned to Wang Yue. "See if there’s anything else you all want to order."

Wang Yue waved her hand gently. "I’m good. Do Qingya and the others want to add anything?"

Su Qingya and the other two girls also shook their heads, indicating that they had enough.

Su Chen closed the menu and handed it to the butler. "That’ll be all. And please bring some fresh-squeezed juice."

"Right away, sir!" The butler took the menu and left the room.

Once the butler had left, the private room livened up. Su Qingya pulled Qin Nan and the others into a discussion about Hanfu, with Wang Yue chiming in with suggestions from time to time, while Su Chen and Chen Fei could only listen quietly to their conversation.

As he listened, Su Chen identified a problem. Promoting Hanfu culture had become a huge challenge. The most popular platform at the moment was Weibo, but even though they had posted a lot of their work there, the results were underwhelming.

It was the same challenge Su Chen had encountered during his trip to Ice City. All they could do now was subtly influence the people around them, hoping to get more people to understand the rich heritage of Hanfu culture.

But that approach was far too slow. Forget taking it international; they probably couldn’t even get it to spread beyond Shanghai University.

’Zhang Yiming said he’d launch it at the beginning of the year. I wonder if he’s done it yet.’ As he thought this, Su Chen pulled out his phone, opened the app store, and searched for "Douyin"...

A moment later, a black-and-white musical note icon appeared on the screen. It was the very Douyin he had been waiting for.

Without a second thought, he tapped "Download." The app wasn’t very large, only a few hundred megabytes, and it finished downloading and installing in under three minutes.

He followed the prompts to quickly register an account. To his surprise, his Douyin ID was number eighty-eight, meaning that only eighty-something people had registered so far.

Su Chen took another look and realized Douyin had only just launched at noon today!

’The promotional push seems pretty weak,’ Su Chen thought. ’I wonder what Zhang Yiming has planned next.’

He scrolled through it briefly and saw that a few people had already posted videos. They were mostly just casual clips, with the vast majority showing what people had eaten for lunch.

"Big Bro, what are you looking at?" At some point, Su Qingya had sidled up next to him.

"Just scrolling Douyin." Su Chen tilted his phone, and the video playing on the screen came into Su Qingya’s view.

"Huh? Why is it all videos of people sharing their meals? It looks pretty interesting. Is this a new app?" Su Qingya found it rather amusing as she swiped through a few videos; it was a novel thing for her.

"Yep. It just launched at noon today. You can download it and give it a try."

"Mr. Su, what did you say just launched?" Wang Yue leaned over and asked curiously.

"A short-video social app. I recommend you all download it and give it a try."

Wang Yue gave Su Chen a long, searching look. Although she didn’t know what he did for a living, she was certain his background was anything but simple. Earlier, when they were leaving the incubation center, she had seen Chen Fei pull a car key from his pocket and had recognized it at a glance as the key to a Rolls-Royce.

Anything that Mr. Su personally recommended must have something special about it.

After asking for the app’s name, Wang Yue immediately pulled out her phone and started downloading it.

Seeing this, Su Qingya and the others also pulled out their phones; even Chen Fei, who had been silent this whole time, was no exception.

Soon, the room was filled with the sound of videos playing. Unfortunately, since not many people had registered yet, there were only twenty or thirty videos on Douyin in total.

After she finished scrolling through the videos, a thoughtful glint appeared in Wang Yue’s eyes as she seemed to be evaluating the app called Douyin.

After a moment of thought... Wang Yue still couldn’t see the app’s potential. Biting her lip, she said, "Mr. Su, I wonder if you could enlighten me..."

Su Chen smiled and pointed to the phone in her hand. "Smartphones are gradually becoming a necessity in our lives, right? You could even say they’re the one thing that spends the most time with us."

Wang Yue gave a noncommittal nod. With the popularization of smartphones over the past few years, they had become increasingly convenient for everything from shopping to gaming.

"So what if there was an app that let you share the beautiful things in your life anytime, anywhere? Things like landscapes, funny moments, or pets. An app that lets more people see them. Wouldn’t that become the best way to pass the time?"