Chapter 1397 - 1394: Keep a Low Profile!

Chapter 1397: Chapter 1394: Keep a Low Profile!

"Of course I remember, but there are a few parts we’ve never managed to crack, so it’s been shelved for a long time," Old Ma said. That piece of software was a spur‑of‑the‑moment masterpiece of his, but when he got to the later stage he ran into a technical wall he couldn’t break through, and had no choice but to give up.

"I’m talking about that software. Don’t you think that if our company wants to have a place in the Internet tech world, we can’t do it without a flagship piece of software? There are some things I’ve wanted to say for a long time, and I’ll take the chance today to say them all at once."

Old Zhang said this, then pushed up his glasses that had slipped a bit because he was too worked up. Then he went on.

"Our company has always been taking small contracts and doing little pieces of software. There’s really no future in that. But our capabilities are right here, and I haven’t had any way around it. Today I found out that our company can develop a dedicated killer that can handle that plague that has the whole world at its wits’ end—that means it’s time for a change."

"Uh, let me cut in. That dedicated killer was made by Mr. Jiang, not by our company..." Old Ma had to interrupt Old Zhang, because this was the foundation of all Old Zhang’s ideas, and it was better to clear it up early. "Haha, what’s mine is yours, isn’t it! I’m a shareholder in this company too!" Jiang Cheng said with a laugh. "And stop calling me Mr. Jiang from now on, just call me Old Jiang. ’Mr. Jiang’ sounds really awkward."

Hearing Jiang Cheng say that, Old Zhang relaxed: "If that’s the case, then let me ask you one more question, Old Jiang." Old Zhang looked at Jiang Cheng. "Alright, ask away."

"On antivirus tech, can you give us a hand?" Old Zhang pinned his hopes on Jiang Cheng.

"No." Jiang Cheng said bluntly. Hearing that, the executives present all felt their hearts sink. Especially Old Zhang, whose disappointment was practically written on his face.

"Don’t get anxious, I haven’t finished. I can’t doesn’t mean someone else can’t!" Hearing Jiang Cheng say that, everyone came back to life again.

"Jin? Who is that?" Old Xiao asked impatiently.

"Far away in the sky, right in front of your eyes! " Jiang Cheng pointed at Zhang Mengmeng. "Have you forgotten your own technical director?"

"Her?" Hearing Jiang Cheng bring up Zhang Mengmeng again—once could be brushed off as a joke, but mentioning this woman who looked so young over and over made them have to take her seriously.

"Actually, that dedicated killer was written by her." To get them to start taking Zhang Mengmeng seriously as fast as possible, Jiang Cheng told a small lie. But it didn’t really count as lying, because there was no doubt that Zhang Mengmeng had the strength to write this (NomaGood) dedicated killer.

"What? She wrote it?" Old Ma and the others found it hard to believe.

"That’s right, I wrote it!" Of course Zhang Mengmeng understood what Jiang Cheng meant, and deliberately thrust out her little... big chest.

At this point, the expressions on Old Ma and the others’ faces could no longer be described as "shocked." You really can’t judge a book by its cover.

Old Zhang barely suppressed his curiosity about Zhang Mengmeng and continued, "Since we have a way to solve the antivirus problem, then it gets even easier."

"We’ll bundle this dedicated killer together with our antivirus."

"You mean we sell our antivirus?" Old Ma asked.

"No, not sell. The antivirus will be free too!" A faint smile appeared on Old Zhang’s face.

"Free antivirus too? Then how are we going to make money?" Old Shen was puzzled.

"We’re not making money now. We’re earning customers. Earning customers?"

"Exactly! Our goal right now is to pull customers into our software. As long as we have our own user base, will we ever have to worry about money in the future?"

That might sound nice, but they still felt uneasy deep down—passing up such a huge amount of money to do this, would it really work? That investment of over a hundred million was very tempting, and Old Xiao still couldn’t quite let it go.

"Haha, as long as you have users, how can there be no money!" At this moment Old Zhang was brimming with confidence.

"Old Jiang, what do you think?" Old Zhang wanted to hear Jiang Cheng’s opinion; it was also a way of testing him, to see what kind of person Jiang Cheng really was.

"I think Old Zhang is absolutely right. I’m fully on board. But there’s one thing: I don’t think we need to keep our sights that low. Let’s look even further ahead."

"Further ahead? How much farther can you look, it’s already far enough as it is!" Old Xiao grumbled.

"Of course we can! Old Ma, I remember you guys developed an instant messaging software, right?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Uh—how did you know? We’re only at the very first version and it hasn’t even been used yet!" Old Ma was a bit surprised. There weren’t many people who knew about this.

"How I know isn’t important. What’s important is: do you know what that software means?" Jiang Cheng asked in a serious tone.

"What it means? I haven’t really thought about its meaning. I just feel it’s quite convenient to use."

"Looks like you haven’t realized this software’s prospects. Let me tell you: instant messaging software will definitely be the trend in the near future! No—will be the mainstream! Life is getting faster and faster. Email does satisfy some online communication needs, but it’s still somewhat inconvenient. Instant messaging is different. In a fast‑paced life, which is more efficient—exchanging messages one line at a time, or sending emails one after another? No doubt, it’s the former. And instant messaging can have another core function: social."

"Social?"

"Yeah, social! Look, right now there are only a few ways people communicate: phone calls, emails, and face‑to‑face. Beyond that, there’s nothing. If your software can provide socializing between strangers, between people in different regions, how could that software possibly not have a market?"

Listening to Jiang Cheng, Old Ma’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, while Old Zhang beside him looked more and more shocked, even pleasantly surprised. How had he never thought of this!

"Old Jiang, you’re really something! Before, I was full of hope for our future. Now, I’m full of confidence in our future. I believe it won’t be long before our Tencent Company really takes off!" Old Zhang said. At this moment he was a completely different person from the silent man he’d been earlier.

The meeting went on for almost three hours. Jiang Cheng, Old Ma and the others filled in some of the details, and after that it was down to the technical side. The rest would be up to Zhang Mengmeng. Jiang Cheng and Old Zhang went back to his office to continue discussing some matters.

Zhang Mengmeng sat in front of the computer, with Old Ma, Old Xiao and Old Shen beside her. These three were three of the company’s only five programmers; most of the work was done personally by these three bosses. Right now, they were ready to see how Zhang Mengmeng would solve the problems they had never been able to crack before.

They watched as Zhang Mengmeng opened the program code that Old Ma and the others had written previously. After a rough glance, she spat out two words: "Trash."

Old Zhang and the others immediately flushed red. Even if you’re a goddess of code, you don’t have to hit us that hard, do you! And it’s not bad enough to be called trash, right? They saw Zhang Mengmeng practically delete all of the code, leaving only the framework. The rest really was a bunch of useless nonsense. "This framework doesn’t work either, but if I make it too good it’ll be too shocking, so we’ll just make do with your framework," Zhang Mengmeng said calmly.

The three of them were completely black‑lined at that point. But as time passed, and line after line of Zhang Mengmeng’s code appeared on the screen, they no longer had the mind to think about her evaluation of their work.

"Holy crap, you can write this part like that?"

"Damn! That actually works? And it’s way simpler than what we wrote before!"

"Fuck, what kind of trash were we writing before?"

The three of them were almost dumbstruck when they saw the code Zhang Mengmeng was typing. This perfect logic, this streamlined code—how could it look like something a person could just bang out on the spot? And this was her trying to keep a low profile!

Now they finally understood why the earlier stuff was called trash. It really was trash.

"Alright, I’ve finished the rough part. You guys can fill in the rest yourselves. If you don’t understand something, come ask me." Zhang Mengmeng clapped her little hands—mission accomplished.

"Haha, thanks for your hard work, Mengmeng!"

"Mengmeng, you must be tired, have some water! Mengmeng, have you eaten? I’ll go buy you something."