Living in the mountains, idling every day, time flew by quickly.

More than half a month passed.

Mr. Ma came to report on his work. During this time, Su Yehao asked him to arrange for people to conduct an investigation, trying to find new sales channels for local specialties. They also talked about the transition from aggressive expansion to rectification and standardization.

It wasn't just Taobao; the entire mainland internet was undergoing a transformation.

After the impact of the internet's development in the past few years, users had higher demands for internet products and the environment.

If they didn't actively transform in the right direction, even Su Yehao's products could be defeated by other competitors, losing their dominance in the market.

Nangong Tian also came for a short stay of three days, just missing Zhao Yimeng.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Su Yehao certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to proactively report anything, only mentioning boring little things like fishing, picking tea, and hiking nearby.

Some girls have personalities that are too serious; they won't give up until they get to the bottom of things.

Compared to them, Nangong Tian was the kind of clever woman who would rather not know, and even if she knew, she would pretend not to. Perhaps that's why she was happier every day, with fewer troubles in her life.

No sooner had he seen Nangong Tian off than Nong Qingying accurately timed her arrival, bringing her son, who had just started his summer vacation, to enjoy rural life.

Honestly speaking.

Su Yehao was already a little tired of it. If it weren't for spending time with his eldest son, he probably would have been on his way to other places already.

…

When iPhone 1 began pre-sales, the first batch of goods was swept away.

One hundred thousand phones were put on sale on the official website, two hundred thousand were distributed to various e-commerce platforms, and the rest were sold through brick-and-mortar stores.

Compared to its popularity, the mere one million phones in the first batch, distributed to the global market, were simply a drop in the bucket. Before they could even make a splash, they were all pre-ordered.

Unlike the promotion of electric cars, which didn't yet have many eye-catching advantages compared to gasoline cars, smartphones could inflict a dimensional blow on traditional dumb phones.

It was expected that they would be quickly snapped up.

Su Yehao only regretted that although this product was assembled and produced in the mainland, there were still too few domestic products that could replace imported parts.

In recent years, there were many opportunities to make money, and mainland businessmen flocked to real estate, finance, and other markets that could generate quick profits. They went public and raised funds as soon as they made a little progress, cashing out the gains of the next twenty or thirty years in advance, and then immediately withdrew, either retiring early to live off interest and dividends, or continuing to repeat the process of making quick money.

The number of companies that could calm down and steadily do semiconductor business was too small.

Su Yehao could only try to help them as much as possible, and also persuade the government to step in and help, trying to make products such as LCD screens and integrated circuits through state-owned enterprises, to avoid leaving a weakness that could be completely exploited.

Returning to Hong Kong City from Lin'an Airport, Nong Qingying and her son also came along.

When the car drove to Central, where a building that was only about a third completed could be seen, Nong Qingying said:

"Every time I see this building, I want to laugh. Miss Nangong and Miss Jiang are really innovative. They're actually building such a Fortune Cat Building on the edge of Victoria Harbour. The cost must be much higher than ordinary office buildings, right?"

"It's only one hundred and twenty meters high in total. Even if the shape is a bit strange, the cost won't be that high. They plan to move Sweet Fish Entertainment into it when it's finished."

Su Yehao turned his head to look at the building outside the window. This Fortune Cat Building, located by the sea on the roadside, was next to the Hong Kong City International Finance Centre.

This idea wasn't his; Jiang Yu was responsible for coming up with ideas, and Nangong Tian was responsible for making decisions. They discussed it, and invested as soon as they decided to invest.

When it was completed, the exterior of the entire building would be a rounded and cute Fortune Cat shape, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. It would be cute and very modern artistic, like a fat cat hidden among the city's skyscrapers.

Before deciding to invest, they neither estimated future income nor considered traffic, costs, etc., purely because they found it interesting and liked it.

With Su Yehao helping them shield from the wind and rain, they indeed had the confidence to be willful.

Nong Qingying said, "I like Pikachu and Rogue Rabbit. If I cooperate with Nintendo of Japan, I can just launch some co-branded products for SK-II. Where do you think it would be better to build?"

"... How about Lujiazui in Shanghai? I happen to have a few pieces of land there, but building it into Pikachu is like making wedding clothes for someone else; the copyright image isn't in your hands. So, Rogue Rabbit is more suitable. You can try to acquire its copyright and develop some peripheral products."

After saying this, Su Yehao remembered something and added:

"A few months ago, someone wrote a plan proposing to reduce expenses in the endorsement and promotion process by operating online virtual characters. At that time, you can add that rabbit to make up the number. I'll send a message to ask how the project is going."

"A virtual online celebrity? I feel that the publicity and promotion effect is not as good as real celebrities."

"Not necessarily. It mainly depends on popularity. Publicity and promotion are the top priorities. The key is that celebrities make mistakes and keep raising their prices, but their own online spokespersons are different. Perhaps it can make my internet company more popular, at least it's more distinctive and can save a lot of marketing expenses."

Su Yehao quickly sent a message to Linda Yun, who was sitting in the car behind, asking her to help find relevant information.

After taking Nong Qingying back to Barker Road, he returned to Deep Water Bay to rest for a while. Soon, someone delivered the cartoon images and proposals to Su Yehao.

After flipping through them, he found that there were more than a dozen images of young girls, either youthful and beautiful or sexy and hot.

Considering that the internet company was mainly male, it was easy to understand why they were all girls.

Looking at the character images, they seemed very delicate and exquisite. It seemed that the five million Hong Kong dollars of start-up capital specially approved by Su Yehao was not spent in vain. It was estimated that a lot of money was spent on drawing.

After carefully selecting, he chose four of the images.

They were a handsome girl with silver-white short hair, an older sister type with long hair and black-rimmed glasses, a cute moe girl with blue pupils, and a q version of a little sister holding a rabbit.

Su Yehao waved to Jiang Yu, who had just entered the door, and said with a smile:

"You came at the right time. I've found a new group for you. Get ready and let them debut. First, pick a lively and cheerful song to test the waters."

Jiang Yu was quite surprised. After taking a closer look, she immediately despised him:

"Have you become stupid from living in the mountains? It's more like letting them dance in the Audition game. Since I broke the spacebar on the keyboard, I haven't played that game for three or four years. It seems quite popular now."

Su Yehao then said:

"I'm not kidding. I really plan to let them debut as a group. First, accumulate some popularity online. If someone pays attention, try to develop offline."

"Really?"

"Yes, the idols in your company are miserable. Not only do they have to compete with real people, but now they have more powerful enemies."

"... Ah Hao, you're really stupid. I heard there are many donkeys in the mountains. Have their heads kicked you? What powerful enemies? Our company's beauties are more popular."

…