Chapter 17: The Second Company

Not long after Zeyue Reading received its first reader tip, the news spread throughout the entire online fiction world. Among authors in particular, its impact was no less than a nuclear explosion.

Before that, no author had ever imagined that writing online novels could actually make money.

At the time, online fiction was created entirely out of personal interest and sheer enthusiasm. The overwhelming majority of authors did not earn a single cent.

With practitioners earning nothing, no one regarded online fiction as an industry. The field had yet to find any genuine source of profit, and in the eyes of the mainstream, online fiction was merely a marginal offshoot of the Internet economy, occupying an awkward position.

But the moment Zeyue introduced its tipping function, it opened up a new way for online fiction authors to make money.

When Zeyue Reading broke the sensational news that “the famous writer Blood Cloud earned more than a thousand yuan in tips in a single day,” the site’s fame soared. Almost every online writer came to know its name.

The number of authors registering with Zeyue Chinese Web exploded after the tipping function was launched, growing like a geyser!

Of course, at present, tips alone were nowhere near enough to support most authors. Take Yu Zhe in the past, for instance: he had written hundreds of thousands of words yet had barely a handful of readers. Writers like him made up the overwhelming majority.

Besides, readers willing to spend money on tips were still a minority. Even relatively famous writers with a solid readership could not possibly make a living from tips alone.

But then again, if one wrote for another website, there was no hope of making money at all; it was nothing more than a form of self-amusement. Write for Zeyue, however, and there was at least a chance of earning something.

Even if it was not much—perhaps a few hundred yuan a month, or even a few dozen—that was still supplementary income. Even ten-odd yuan was better than nothing. These days, university students working part-time or tutoring while in school generally earned only three to five hundred yuan a month.

For writers, going to Zeyue meant that a personal hobby could potentially be turned into a part-time job.

The vast majority of online fiction authors were ordinary young people or students. They did not have much money to begin with, so if they could satisfy their interests while earning a little on the side, why would they refuse?

What exploded was not merely the number of authors.

Every new author meant at least one new book in the library. In reality, many authors brought more than one book with them. Quite a few writers who had published several novels before also reposted their old works on Zeyue Reading.

The number of books in Zeyue Reading’s library grew rapidly alongside the number of authors.

And with them came the readers who followed those authors. There were still very few novels on the Internet at the time. Even an author with no reputation at all would inevitably have some readers after writing one or two books. Those with even a modest degree of fame could easily bring several hundred, or even more than a thousand, new readers to the website.

More authors meant more books, and more books attracted more readers. More readers meant more tips, which in turn attracted still more authors…

A single tipping function gave Zeyue Reading astonishing growth potential and sent it into a virtuous cycle of development.

What was more, this “virtuous cycle” required no investment from Zeyue. The tipping function itself served as the driving force behind it.

During this period, nearly every hot topic in the online fiction world was claimed by Zeyue Reading.

“A new Grand Leader appears in a certain novel…”

“A certain author switched to Zeyue and earned more than a thousand yuan in a week…”

“Blood Cloud achieves another milestone with a third Grand Leader, bringing total earnings above five thousand…”

“Zeyue’s book library approaches twenty thousand titles…”

“Zeyue Reading’s domestic traffic ranking continues to climb, closing in on…”

And so on.

In a residential neighborhood less than a kilometer from the University of Science and Technology campus, all three apartments on the second floor of one building had been rented together. A large iron gate had been installed at the entrance to the corridor, and a sign reading “Zeyue Online Culture Communications Co., Ltd.” hung above the door.

In a meeting room converted from a spacious living room, every member of the Zeyue project team sat in a circle.

Because the tipping function involved money, Zhao Zejun had formally established this online cultural communications company within the project group. The company’s temporary office occupied the second floor of the residential building.

At present, the full-time staff consisted of a single accountant. The remaining technicians and editors, including Song Yun, were all students and were temporarily working part-time.

Although they were part-time employees, their compensation was higher than that of ordinary full-time university graduates.

Amid enthusiastic applause, Zhao Zejun personally handed each person present a bulging red envelope.

The moment they received the envelopes, the project members could not resist opening them on the spot for a peek. Their faces immediately lit up with delight.

Boss Zhao was certainly generous!

Song Yun glanced at Zhao Zejun. Seeing him give a slight nod, Song Yun rose with a smile and said casually, “Taking advantage of the official establishment of our Zeyue company, I would like to announce several pieces of good news.

“As of this morning, Zeyue Chinese Web has firmly secured third place in the domestic rankings among websites of its kind. All our major figures are close behind the leaders. Our traffic is essentially level with Origin’s, while the number of books in our library has even edged ahead.

“In addition, since Zeyue launched its tipping function, the website’s income from tips has exceeded one hundred thousand yuan this month. We have not only reached a balance between income and expenditure, but also generated our first profit.

“Everyone has worked hard during this period. I hope you will keep up the good work. Judging from our development trend so far, I am confident that we can overtake them across the board in a short time!”

“Of course we will!” shouted a third-year student, waving the red envelope in his hand with considerable excitement.

These people had previously taken on projects through outside clients and school laboratories to earn money part-time, but the pay had been both meager and unstable.

For an ordinary website project, several people might work together and earn a few hundred yuan for a small one, or two or three thousand for a large one. If they worked on projects in a school laboratory, things were even worse: they might receive three or four hundred yuan a month, merely as a token gesture.

On the Zeyue project, counting the red envelopes they had received that day, the average income of the project members present had surpassed ten thousand yuan. From the project’s formation to the present, only three short months had passed. Calculated monthly, their average income was equivalent to the salary of a graduate student who had completed a master’s degree in the city.

And this was all part-time work!

It was not merely a matter of money. The more far-sighted university students had already realized that what they were doing amounted to launching a business.

Although financial constraints meant that they were not yet formal employees, as long as Zeyue continued developing normally along its current trajectory, it would not be long before they naturally became the first employees—the founding team—of this rapidly rising website.

They had promising prospects in the long term and money in the short term. Financial income and the pursuit of ideals had been perfectly united within Zeyue, filling these young students with hope for the future.

“Next, I’ll ask President Zhao to lay out our plans for the work ahead.” Song Yun handed the microphone to Zhao Zejun.

With more than a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on him, Zhao Zejun switched off the amplifier and joked, “The office isn’t very large, so there’s no need for amplification. Zeyue is only just getting started, and we can afford to rent a place only in a residential building. Let’s not disturb the neighbors upstairs and downstairs.”