"Two hundred thousand pieces of data didn’t seem like much a few years later, but at that moment, it was quite a terrifying amount.
Yet such data had already surpassed the initial estimates of Rong Yu and his team.
But they didn’t know yet that the real explosion in registered users was still to come.
An hour later, it was time for the draw of the first batch of prizes.
Since it was New Year’s Eve, there were quite a few night owls staying up late, so many people were still awake at that time.
Thus, those who had registered were browsing other sections of the Surfing Blog while waiting for the first draw to commence.
What they found interesting was that, although the Surfing Blog was a new site, its features still quite appealed to them.
Especially the contests held in various sections, with the smallest prize being two thousand yuan.
Why not give it a try?
During their wait, many wrote posts of their own, leading to a surge of new posts on the blog in a short period of time.
Some might not have been very interesting, but among two hundred thousand people, there had to be interesting souls.
Moreover, Rong Yu had long arranged for editing, so those who wrote well were quickly highlighted and gained more attention.
After all, this content was what would attract users to stay later on!
Soon, the first batch of winners was determined.
’Congratulations to the following ten users, who each won a grand prize worth ten thousand yuan!’ the website’s top section began to scroll through the winning users’ nicknames.
Seeing this, those who didn’t win either expressed envy, jealousy, and hatred, or secretly cursed that the event was rigged.
At that moment, in a secluded internet cafe in M City, a skinny teenager was hunched over the computer, his eyes red as he ate instant noodles.
His name was Ding Wei, and he was an internet-addicted teenager.
In that year, being addicted to games was considered self-destructive, but Ding Wei believed he was different from other addicted teenagers.
He played games not just for fun but because he was genuinely interested in the gaming industry and wanted to make a career out of it.
In the virtual world, everyone called him a master, but who knew that in reality, he was so poor he could barely afford instant noodles?
This bowl of instant noodles was bought with five yuan given to him by his mother, who was pulling a cart to sell vegetables, when he was so hungry in the afternoon that he tried to sneak home for food.
Although he was fantastic in the gaming world, the sight of his mother pulling the cart with her skinny body made Ding Wei realize how useless he was.
On a whim, for the first time, he didn’t go straight to the internet cafe after getting the money, but secretly followed behind his mother’s cart.
He saw her struggling to walk uphill with a bent posture, and none of the passersby offered her a hand; she was panting from exhaustion. At the vegetable market, to attract customers, she bent over backwards with a pleasing smile on her face.
That scene was the first time he tasted the bitterness in his heart, a thousand times, a hundred thousand times sadder than hearing neighbors and relatives mocking him behind his back!
Clutching the five yuan tightly in his hand, Ding Wei walked numbly toward the internet cafe.
He told himself in his heart: Ding Wei, you can’t go on . Tomorrow is New Year’s Day; give up online games and start anew!
Tonight, go to the internet cafe one last time, as a farewell to the past!"