William Clark couldn’t be bothered with her. If he had more capital, he would have gone for Little Model instead; there was no need to parade around under Mr. Brooks’s name, deceiving people.

Leaving the hotel, he found an internet café, ready to pull an all-nighter.

Neither he nor Brian Clark had a computer, so they could only work at internet cafés or the school computer lab. Brian Clark had already set up a website framework, just waiting to be filled with content.

His camera was digital.

Don’t think digital cameras are a recent thing—they’ve actually been around for quite a while. But now, the pixel counts are all 2 million, 3 million, 4 million, even 5 million pixels is something to brag about.

Since the start of this year, electronic products including mobile phones and digital cameras have all been dropping in price, with technology updating rapidly—dozens or even hundreds of new models come out every year, and the cheapest ones are just over 300 yuan.

That’s where the problem comes in: digital cameras use USB ports, but many mice, keyboards, and computers still use round ports, so you have to specifically look for ones with USB.

William Clark booted up a computer. Brian Clark was already waiting on QQ and immediately said, “Bro, I’m feeling way more confident about our project now.”

“What do you mean?”

“These past few days, besides building the website, I’ve been searching to see if there’s anything similar out there, and there’s not a single one! We’re making a brand new product!!!”

Three big exclamation marks showed just how excited the kid was.

William Clark rolled his eyes and repeated, “It’s only because you’re my brother that I’m bringing you along—other people would beg for this chance! Alright, enough nonsense, get to work!”

Brian Clark gave him access, and he logged into the website to start uploading content.

This thing was called “Friendship Club.”

Simply put, you register with your phone number and join the club to make friends. It’s extremely simple—even if he didn’t do it, the big portals would soon launch something similar, and it would blow up quickly, making a killing through Mobile Dream Net.

Don’t judge the present with the hindsight of the future.

In 2001, there were still so many people who didn’t know what a computer was, so many people who had just gotten their first QQ account, so many people who could spend a whole day just searching on Baidu.

So as long as you put something online, there would definitely be an audience.

If that thing was even a little bit fresh, it would be a hot product.

The two of them worked for quite a while, then took a break to chat. Brian Clark, like a curious kid, had a million questions, and now sent another one: “Bro, after the website goes live, how do we promote it?”

“You go post ads on all the big BBS forums and chatrooms. I’ll print some little cards and hand them out at internet cafés one by one.”

“Huh? That rough?”

“We’re two broke guys, what kind of promotion do you expect? Of course it’s rough—but there’s a difference between rough and rough. Ours is rough but with finesse. Alright, get back to work!”

William Clark looked at the little shabby site on the screen, the photos he’d taken himself—one with a pure, natural style, all candid shots; the other with a sensual, glamour style, obviously posed.

The effect was pretty good. In an era when personal photos were rare and most people didn’t even know how to upload pictures, it was sure to bring in some traffic.

He just didn’t know which would be more popular: pure or sexy.

Once the photos were done, William Clark started creating personas.

“Grace, from Beijing, 19 years old, 167 cm tall, 82 jin, likes reading, traveling, watching movies, looking for friends with certain conditions... online name: Smiling Girl.”

“The older sister is a mature woman, so let’s say 30 years old, 170 cm tall, amateur model, likes making friends... online name, online name...”

William Clark scratched his head.

“Let’s just call her Doll Sister.”

Chapter 11: Today Is a Good Day

September 12, sunny.

William Clark started his internship at the end of August. Unknowingly, it had already been almost two weeks. He’d left the hotline department and was now in the distribution department, where his job was making phone calls.

Yep, one job was answering calls, the other was making them.

That morning, William Clark showed up in his usual style. Most people were used to it by now, knowing there was an intern around who looked like a bootleg DVD seller.

“Hm?”

“The atmosphere feels a bit off.”

From the moment William Clark stepped into the newspaper building, he sensed that in every department, the employees and non-employees coming and going were radiating a faint excitement mixed with shock, accompanied by all sorts of chatter:

“I heard the US president died?”

“I heard it was an earthquake, tens of thousands dead.”

“Wasn’t the White House bombed?”

“No, it was a building hit by a plane. Oh man, it was tragic!”

Oh!

William Clark suddenly understood. Someone saw his expression and tried to pull him into the discussion, enthusiastically saying, “You just found out too, right? Isn’t it unbelievable?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing. How did it even happen?”

William Clark replied perfunctorily, slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked into the distribution department, where people were also animatedly discussing, faces lit up with happy smiles.

That’s right—aside from the “Tonight we are all Americans” crowd, when Chinese people heard this news, their first reaction was to raise a glass in celebration.

Don’t forget, the bombing of the Yugoslav embassy was just two years ago!

The 81192 couldn’t return, and that was only five months ago!

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Sino-US relations had sharply deteriorated. The US was pressing harder and harder, China was on the defensive everywhere, and it looked like full-scale confrontation was imminent. And then, bam, a building gets hit!

After 9/11 happened, the elder statesman called Bush Jr. right away, emphasizing that on the issue of anti-terrorism, the two countries stood together and should jointly maintain world peace and stability.