The middle-aged man saidSu Yang answered the call with lingering doubts.
Li Xianhe’s slightly rough voice crackled through his phone, “Is this Su Yang?”
Su Yang could not help but think of Li Xianhe’s rugged looks that did not match his name and voice. He said, “Yeah, speaking.”
Li Xianhe sounded slightly shy. “I actually...uh...I got into the semi-finals of the campus singing competition and I’ve got two tickets to watch it this Friday. You can bring one of your friends along. I was wondering if you’d be interested or not.”
Su Yang instinctively wanted to reject him, but he quickly thought of Chu Xia. Since he stood her up the last time, he could use this chance to make it up to her.
With that in mind, he said, “Oh my, thank you very much! I’m actually interested.”
Delighted, Li Xianhe replied, “Great! I’m around Shanghai University. Name me a location and I’ll meet you there.”
Su Yang looked around the lecture hall. “I’ll meet you at the East gate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Automation. I’m going there soon.”
“Great.”
After they agreed to meet up, Su Yang headed to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Automation.
The reason he chose that place was that Chen Xiaoyun was supposed to be promoting there.
Su Yang knew Chen Xiaoyun was doing great based on the back-end statistics Deeny provided but since the halo had a side effect, he should drop by and have a look.
When he reached the faculty, he saw Chen Xiaoyun’s bright smile from afar. She looked energetic and confident while she stopped the passing students with the flyers in her hand and she was enthusiastic when she introduced the app.
Under the blazing sun, her confidence and enthusiasm were able to capture a lot of attention, including that of the students.
Most of the students she held up would listen to her for a moment. If they were interested, they would download the app whereas those who were not would politely walk away.
After all, she did not have the [Verbal Canon] and the [Charms of Talking] like Su Yang, but the [Ally Halo] was enough to raise her efficiency.
After watching her for a while, Su Yang walked up to her and told her to go take a lunch break. He also transferred the halo back to himself while he stood in for her while she was away.
However, after a quick thought, before Chen Xiaoyun left, Su Yang gave her 200 yuan as lunch money and told her to eat more for lunch.
Chen Xiaoyun was a little shocked when she got the money. It was a little too much for lunch expenses, but Su Yang assured her it was a small thing to reward her for her hard work. With that, she accepted the lunch money and ran off to lunch happily.
Su Yang prayed for her in his heart and hoped that the money would be enough for whatever restaurant she chose.
Last night, he had eaten a lot because he had activated the halo for a whole day. Chen Xiaoyun only had the halo activated for a single morning, thus even if she was originally a big eater, the increase in her appetite should not be too ridiculous and she might only assume that she was tired and hungry after having worked for a whole morning.
Su Yang knew what to expect from the halo. After Chen Xiaoyun left, he put the halo on and switched it on.
After he managed to secure five new users for the app, Li Xianhe finally arrived at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Automation.
He was breathing heavily when he ran to Su Yang. He said softly, “I’m sorry. I got lost for quite a while.”
Su Yang smiled. “It’s actually my fault. I forgot that you aren’t familiar with the campus.”
When Li Xianhe saw the flyer in Su Yang’s hand, he asked, “Distributing flyers? Are you working part-time? Let me give you a hand.”
He wanted to take some of the flyers from Su Yang, but the latter shook his head and said, “No, no! I’m not working part-time. I’m actually working for my own company.”
“Your company?” Li Xianhe had shock written all over his rugged face.
“Yeah, my company is working on a part-time job app targeting university students and I’m promoting it on my campus.”
Su Yang’s words made Li Xianhe realize something. He scratched his head and said plainly, “If you don’t mind, why don’t you promote it through me as well? Give me some flyers and I’ll promote it back on my campus.”
Su Yang was actually finding a way into SJTU, and since Li Xianhe volunteered to help, he nodded right away and gave him some of the flyers.
Li Xianhe carefully folded them and put them into his pocket. He then took out two tickets to the singing competition for Su Yang. “These are the tickets to the semi-finals. It will be held in your campus gymnasium. Do drop by and have a look if you have the time.”
Su Yang accepted the tickets and thanked him.
...
For the next two days, Su Yang continued promoting the app while attending classes.
The promotion of the app progressed smoothly. After a week of promoting, the active user count finally stabilized at around 400, but it was dynamic. For instance, John Doe accepted a job today and Jane Doe accepted another job the next day, but the numbers did not change in the back-end system.
Su Yang’s Gold Mission count also increased from 607 to 850.
He had a feeling that the potential users might surge during the weekend and that he would likely hit 1,000.
On Friday afternoon, Su Yang and Chu Xia headed to their campus gymnasium with the tickets to the singing competition.
After they had their tickets checked, Su Yang realized that their seats were quite good since Li Xianhe had been able to get them the third row of the center section.
The first and second rows of the section were reserved for the organizers and university personnel, thus the third row was considered the best seat in the house for regular spectators.
Chu Xia was also shocked when she sat down. “Your friend is awesome for getting us these seats.”
“I guess so...We aren’t that close. His name, if I remember correctly, is Li Xianhe.”
“Li Xianhe? I see...then, it’s not that surprising anymore,” Chu Xia responded after her initial surprise.
“What’s wrong?” Su Yang was curious.
“He is one of the popular candidates in the competition. He joined the last preliminary rounds last week, and when he went on stage, everyone thought he was a joker rather than a contestant. Well, I can’t blame them either since Li Xianhe’s bearded look makes him resemble a bodyguard in his 30s rather than a student. Someone even said he joined the competition on behalf of his son or daughter.
“However, the moment he sang, the floor was dumbfounded! The emotion, the wildness, the power, the aura...he was like the God of Singing descended on earth! Everyone was astonished by his performance on stage. It was really, really, good!”
Su Yang scratched his head with a confused look.
‘Wild? Powerful? Emotional? Is she talking about the same guy? The Li Xianhe I know is a shy, polite, and somewhat cowardly guy.’
The lingering question piqued Su Yang’s interest. He was looking forward to Li Xianhe’s performance.
While they were talking about Li Xianhe, more and more people streamed in. Soon, a middle-aged man and a young man sat in front of them.
“The competition is getting bigger. We are running low on manpower.”
“I know, right? We could really use an extra pair of hands. Given the liaising, promoting, and online marketing, we are really tight on manpower. Besides, during the finals, Han Yi and Lin Jia will attend as judges, so we are going to get a lot busier then. We need people to maintain order and settle the menial jobs.”
“Tell the student committee of the three universities to spare more manpower,” the middle-aged man said.
“I asked them for help, but the universities said we are the organizers and the committee has been busy lately, so they can’t spare any more students to help,” the young man awkwardly replied.
The middle-aged man got annoyed. “Those b*stards...”
The young man said softly, “It can’t be helped. We are using their resources to promote our own talents and prepare them for debut after all.”
The middle-aged man nodded and kept quiet.
A while later, the middle-aged man said, “Approach the intermediary companies or find part-timers. Try your best to settle the shortage of manpower in the cheapest way possible. We still need to focus on online marketing.”
“I understand.”
Su Yang actually noticed the two men when they sat down, and after they started talking, he knew what was going on.
‘They are the organizers of the competition, Time Recording Company. It seems like they are running short on manpower. I wonder if they need any part-timers to help. Hmm...Maybe I can pay a little more attention to this.’