Chapter 156 – Crowdfunding
The guqin player is very beautiful. She is wearing a white cheongsam with blue floral patterns, which outlines her graceful figure. The icy and snow-white skin is picturesque. The whole person seems to be like a blue and white porcelain washed by kiln fire, shining with a soft light that can’t be ignored, elegant, gentle and free from dust. (TN: She was wearing something like this: Here)
Such an outstanding figure, Lu Chen recognized her at a glance – Su Daiwan!
Su Daiwan is a native of Taipei, Taiwan. She was once very popular on the island in the past. At the age of 19, she made her debut and won the island’s biggest entertainment award. With her natural voice and outstanding appearance and temperament, she became a rising star.
At the age of 21, Su Daiwan released her debut album “Xiaoxue Chuqing“. At the same time, she pushed her singing career to the peak and was regarded as the future Heavenly Queen of the singing world. (TN: Xiaoxue Chuqing (小雪初晴) can be translated as “Snow starts to clear up”)
However, to everyone’s surprise, just two years after her debut, when her stardom was shining brilliantly, Su Daiwan suddenly left the pop music world and disappeared from the eyes of the public.
Apart from a few insiders, no one knows why Su Daiwan gave up her career. There were many rumors at that time. Some said that Su Daiwan became a concubine of a rich and powerful person, some said that she was suffering from an incurable disease, and some said that she had renounced the world to become a monk.
However, no matter how many rumors were heard from the outside world, Su Daiwan didn’t have any response. Five or six years have passed, perhaps there are only a few die-hard fans who still remember her.
In the Inspur blog, there is Su Daiwan’s fan group V, which has tens of thousands of followers.
Lu Chen never dreamed that Su Daiwan was Li Mubai’s third sister-in-law!
The reason why Lu Chen knows Su Daiwan so well was because his first girlfriend was a loyal fan of Su Daiwan. There were posters of Su Daiwan in her boudoir, and her drawers were filled with various album versions of the album “Xiaoxue Chuqing”.
Lu Chen still remembers the scene when his first girlfriend leaned against his arms and sang the song “Love Snow” in his ear. The sour and astringent taste began to spread in his heart, and for a moment, he was infatuated.
“Love Snow” is the main song of “Xiaoxue Chuqing”, the most moving love song in the whole album.
The sound of the guqin lingers in the air, and the music came to an end. Old friend is still there, and the past time can’t be traced back!
“Mubai. Is this your friend?”
A gentle voice made Lu Chen wake up instantly.
Lu Chen couldn’t help turning his head and his gaze coincided with Li Mubai’s big brother.
Li Mubai’s big brother should be at the age of 30. He has sword like eyebrows, profound facial features, and an indescribably elegant temperament. He wore a set of antique white gown that look incomparably harmonious on him, just like the characters in a book.
His gaze is quiet, with a little curiosity, which unconsciously made people have a favorable impression on him.
A gentleman like jade!
Lu Chen immediately thought of an adjective that was best suited the other party.
Such a character really matches Su Daiwan!
However…
Lu Chen couldn’t help looking at Li Mubai again and wanted to ask him – is he really your biological big brother?
Li Mubai reached out and put his arm around Lu Chen’s shoulder and said, “Yes, he is Lu Chen, my best friend!”
Best friend?
Hearing this, Lu Chen couldn’t help but be stupefied, but he remained calm on the surface. He said with a slight bow, “Hello, Brother Li. I’ve come to visit at night. Please forgive me for taking the liberty.”
Big Brother Li Mubai smiled and said, “You are Mubai’s friend, and that’s a guest of the house. Don’t be too formal. I’m Mubai’s big brother Li Murong. Come and have a sit with us.”
Li Mubai pulled Lu Chen, and the two sat down at the tea table.
At this time, Su Daiwan came over and picked up the teapot to make tea for Li Mubai first. Her movements were like flowing water, elegant and skillful, pleasing to the eyes.
Li Mubai picked up the teacup and smelled it, and showed an exaggerated expression: “Third sister-in-law, the tea you brew is fragrant, and the dishes you cook are more delicious. I want to live in your house every day. It’s a pity that big brother is not willing!”
Su Daiwan chuckled and said, “That’s a nice thing to say. You really want to come and live here, but your big brother won’t let you live here?”
Li Mubai smiled and said, “He, he will drive me out of here in half a day!”
He asked Li Murong, “Don’t you think so, Big Brother?”
Li Murong shook his head speechless. There was obviously nothing he could do about his rogue brother.
Su Daiwan brewed another cup for Lu Chen.
Lu Chen hurriedly said, “Thank you, Su… Ms. Su.”
Su Daiwan smiled and said, “You’re welcome. Just call me third sister-in-law like Mubai.”
Her gentle and kind smile relaxed Lu Chen’s taut heartstrings. He said, “Third sister-in-law, my former girlfriend likes you best. She was sad for a long time after you retired.”
Seeing Su Daiwan, Lu Chen remembered the past and couldn’t help saying it.
Su Daiwan put down the teapot and sat down beside Li Murong. She said with a smile, “if you see her again, apologize for me.”
Lu Chen smiled bitterly.
Su Daiwan turned to look at her husband and said, “In fact, you should blame him. It’s all his fault!”
Although she said it in a rebuking tone, the tenderness in her eyes seems to be overflowing.
Like this, it was Li Murong’s turn to smile bitterly and raise his hand in surrender.
Li Mubai took the opportunity to say, “Big brother, about Brother Chen’s matter, can help him?”
Li Murong showed neither approval nor disapproval. He asked Lu Chen, “Can you talk about your project first?”
The smile on his face was still gentle, but there was a trace of sharpness in his eyes, which has the astute insight into the world!
If people with evil intentions in their hearts are stared at like this, they are bound to feel guilty.
But Lu Chen was very calm: “Okay!”
He had come prepared. He brought with him a copy of the project.
Lu Chen took out the copy and handed it to Li Murong.
Li Murong was a little surprised. He didn’t expect that Lu Chen was so well prepared. He took over the paper and began to read it carefully.
This project that Lu Chen wants to do has been brewing for a long time. Simply put, it is a fundraising platform – online crowdfunding!
His inspiration came from the dream world.
The dream world also has a huge Internet industry, which is not much different from the development of this world. A lot of things also have counterparts, such as QQ to Feixun, WeChat to Fetion, Alipay to Yifubao and so on.1
In China, seven Internet giants firmly control most of the network resources and wealth.
Lu Chen’s major at his university is computer application. He was well aware that the difficulty of starting a business on the Internet today is far from comparable to that in the period of rapid development in the past. Without abundant funds and excellent ideas, trading rashly into this fiercely competitive Red Sea, 99.99% of the result is dying without any burial ground. (TN: Businesswise) (TN: “Red Sea” refers to known, highly competitive market.)
Therefore, after acquiring the memory in the dream world, he focused on making money through original works and singing, and didn’t want to struggle in the IT industry.
However, when Lu Chen decided to produce and release his first album, this inspiration was touched!
As an independent artist, the biggest difficulty Lu Chen faces is that it may be easy to produce and release albums without the support of entertainment agencies, but it is undoubtedly even more difficult not to lose money or even make a profit.
Lu Chen didn’t want to lose money, so he thought of the advantages he had – his more than a million fans!
So how can he make the most of this advantage to boost album sales?
Crowdfunding platform is undoubtedly the best solution!
The so-called crowdfunding refers to the mode of raising project funds from netizens in the form of group purchase + pre-purchase. It makes use of the characteristics of the Internet and SNS communication, so that small businesses, artists or individuals can show their ideas to the public, gain everyone’s attention and support, and then obtain the financial assistance needed.
Compared with the traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is more open, and the ability to obtain funds is no longer based on the commercial value of the project as the only criterion. As long as it’s a project that netizens like, the first fund for the start of the project can be obtained through crowdfunding, which provides unlimited possibilities for more small-scale business or creative people.
For example, an independent artist like Lu Chen.
In this world, the original prototype of crowdfunding has long existed, but there is not a real Internet crowdfunding platform.
Like a small gold mine waiting to be mined.
When this inspiration was touched, Lu Chen keenly felt that this was an excellent opportunity for his career to obtain greater development opportunities, and he immediately began to prepare for it.
The Chinese and English domain names of “crowdfunding”, “zhongchou” and “crowdfunding” have all been successfully registered by Lu Chen. In addition, Lu Chen purchased an independent server with high-bandwidth from a famous Internet service provider, and worked with Chen Xiang to build the website. (TN: The first “crowdfunding” was in Chinese characters “众筹”, while “Zhongchou” and the second “crowdfunding” was in English.)
The structure of the crowdfunding platform is actually very simple. After registration and filing, apply the ready-made website template, add the corresponding functions, and then connect to Yifubao and online banking, and a complete online crowdfunding will be completely declared.
With the memories from the dream to provide reference, Lu Chen didn’t spend too much time and energy in this regard.
As long as he is willing, the online crowdfunding can be put into operation at any time.
But there is a big problem.
From a technical point of view alone, the crowdfunding platform doesn’t have any difficulties. It is just like an ordinary personal website, and anyone who has learned how to make a website can easily handle it.
The key is creativity!
How can Lu Chen ensure that his idea will not be plagiarized, imitated or even embezzled by others?
It is necessary to mention a bill that is commonly used internationally and domestically, that is, the Commercial Creative Copyright Protection Act!
The Commercial Creative Copyright Protection Act was first enacted in 2005.
It was a period of rapid development of the Internet in China, and it was also a period of brutal and violent expansion of the giants. Many promising small companies, under the attack of these giants, either closed down or were embezzled. It was a chaotic scene.
The most typical example is an interactive game called “Thumb Elf”. The Shining Elf Company that it belongs to quickly became popular and made a lot of money.
However, the Shining Elf Company didn’t last long. QQ Games targeted this piece of fat meat, and soon launched the same “Thumb Playing Elf” with the same model. With more sophisticated production and a large user base, it quickly defeated the “Thumb Elf”.
The Shining Elf Company, a promising game company, never recovered, and finally came to a sad end.
And similar examples are numerous in that period!
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TN: Just some clarifications as I’ve also been confused since the first time I encountered this. I just found out that I have been translating QQ and WeChat wrong. I have just been following the previous translation of it. It should have been Feixun for QQ and Feiton for WeChat. Author didn’t clarify this when he first used this. He only clarified this in this chapter.
One more thing, QQ music was supposed to be WeChat Music, but I found that there no such thing as WeChat Music, and WeChat uses QQ music to share music. So, I have been using QQ music since.
But I will still be using QQ or WeChat as to not create confusion and I’ve been used to using these words. Just remember, in Lu Chen’s world QQ is Feixun and WeChat is Feiton.
So, I hope that readers will understand that there will be mistakes and mistranslations as I’m just machine translating it. Thanks for your understanding. Although, this will not greatly affect the story as the only mistake were the names.1
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