“You just put up the TOM and NetEase ads, and then you can start running the site. I’ll do some rough promotion on my end.”

　　“That—that’s it?”

　　“What else do you expect? Times have changed! You think it’s still the old days of fighting and seizing turf?”

　　Meanwhile, William Clark was actually a bit excited too. After all, this was a different path from his previous life—or rather, he had already started and was getting ready to overtake others.

　　He started humming a song again: “Today is a good day, I open my door~ and welcome the spring breeze~ ah!”

Chapter 12: Friendship Club

　　There’s a street called College Avenue in the HD district, known for its eight universities:

　　Beihang University, China University of Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Peking University Health Science Center, China University of Petroleum, Beijing University of Science and Technology, and China Agricultural University.

　　A single university can boost the popularity of its surroundings, let alone eight.

　　And each of them has its own affiliated middle and elementary schools, family housing, and so on. So, in this area, a very dense service industry has formed—including internet cafes.

　　This evening, near Beihang.

　　David Parker and a classmate arrived at an internet cafe and got two computers. These days, universities were all building their own campus networks, but the speeds were terrible and there were lots of restrictions, so students usually still went to internet cafes.

　　“Are we really doing this?”

　　“What’s there to fake about going online?”

　　“But I don’t know how!”

　　“I’ll teach you! College isn’t like high school anymore—you’re supposed to eat, drink, play, and have fun. If you don’t know anything, what’s the point of coming?”

　　David Parker acted like a pro, but in reality, he hadn’t been using computers for long.

　　He started going online after the college entrance exam, during summer break. He could read the news, play QQ, use Smart ABC, knew to eat when hungry, and to run home when it rained.

　　At first, coming to Beijing for college made him a bit nervous. Under the shadow of the Imperial City, in the nation’s capital—would surfing the web be different here? But as it turned out, wow, there were plenty of people who didn’t know how to get online!

　　“Use the QQ number I gave you, log in, then search. See, the people whose avatars are lit up are online, the dark ones are offline. Then just add whoever you want.”

　　“Add who?”

　　“Add girls, of course!”

　　“Oh…”

　　The total newbie classmate nervously but excitedly sent a few friend requests to “Sunny Girl,” “Dancing Lightly,” and “Fallen Angel.”

　　People nowadays talk about social networking with acquaintances, or within circles, but back then, there was no such thing. The internet was a newly opened frontier, the first shoots just sprouting. Just chatting online with a keyboard was enough to make people happy.

　　“Oh wow, she accepted!”

　　“Let me see!”

　　David Parker leaned over to look. “Dancing Lightly” had accepted the request. He said, “Say hi, ask where she’s from, how old she is, if she’s a student, blah blah… Just chat!”

　　“Wow, you really know your stuff!”

　　The classmate looked at him with admiration, then stuck out one finger from his left hand and one from his right, and started typing with two fingers.

　　Tsk!

　　In that moment, David Parker felt a surge of superiority. He opened a portal and started reading the news, while his classmate kept asking for help.

　　“What does PLMM mean?”

　　“What does ‘email’ mean?”

　　“What does 7456 mean?”

　　David Parker answered half-heartedly, feeling the news wasn’t that interesting. 9/11 had happened a few days ago, and the media was still discussing its impact. The main focus in China was whether there would be any changes to joining the WTO.

　　After reading the news for a while, he logged onto a BBS he often visited to discuss martial arts novels.

　　As a newcomer to the internet, the biggest draw for him was freedom.

　　Online, you could socialize freely, talk about anything, read whatever you wanted. For students who’d been in closed environments for so long, it was a huge attraction.

　　After a while discussing who was stronger, Ximen Chuixue or Ye Gucheng, David Parker was about to log off when he suddenly saw a new post after refreshing—a promotional post:

　　“The largest Chinese friendship club in all of Asia!”

　　“Passionate men and women, SMS dating, local meetups!”

　　“Here, you can not only find the one destined for you from a past life, but also wait for someone to tie the red string of fate to your hand. You can even post your own info and arrange a date to meet up right away…”

　　“Online romance, a once-in-a-lifetime chance—what are you waiting for? Come and embrace your destined encounter!”

　　Huh?

　　David Parker let go of the mouse, which he’d been about to use to close the window. SMS dating? Local meetups? He’d never seen this before!

　　He refreshed again, and there were already a few replies below:

　　“I kind of want to check it out, anyone else?”

　　“Count me in!”

　　“Let’s go together, everyone above!”

　　David Parker casually replied, then followed the link to a website. The colors were pleasant, the layout simple, nothing flashy. At the top were two stylized characters: “情缘” (Romance), followed by “Friendship Club.”

　　There were ads on both sides, for TOM and NetEase’s ringtone downloads.

　　Back then, finding something new online was like discovering a new continent. David Parker’s curiosity was piqued, and he started exploring this virgin territory.

　　There was a login window in the sidebar.

　　In the center, the main section was called “Star of Popularity.”