Chapter 23: Tiantian Assistant Becomes a Massive Hit!

And at the same time the awards ceremony was underway.

The investigation team sent down by the Hidden Dragon Programming Competition organizing committee finally finished investigating the matter of the dark curtain.

After reporting to their superiors, the organizing committee released an official announcement through official channels:

The Hidden Dragon Programming Competition has no dark curtain; contestant number 18, Su Xin, is an ordinary high school student with no resources or influence, and he did not bribe anyone from the organizers. He achieved a perfect score in the main competition and won the final championship entirely through his own personal strength. Congratulations to student Su Xin!

In addition, the five top universities and Longwei Group simultaneously posted this announcement on their official blogs on various well-known internet platforms, which served to clear the name of the competition and also clear the name of Su Xin.

It was also equivalent to creating momentum and publicity for the Hidden Dragon Programming Competition—they could all see the driving effect of online public opinion on this competition, so naturally, they also quietly added a push behind the scenes.

The joint announcement from several parties, coupled with the stunning performance of the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant, finally completely shattered the claims of a dark curtain.

On the blog trending searches, two new entries appeared consecutively—"Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant" and "Su Xin".

Moreover, they ranked first and eighth in popularity respectively, letting many people who had not paid attention to the Hidden Dragon Programming Competition final know about the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant.

The video of Su Xin demonstrating the operation also made it to the trending list of a certain short video software, piquing the interest of many people and further boosting the popularity of the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant.

The Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant has become a massive hit!

Furthermore, after receiving the news, major top technology companies were the first to dispatch business teams, led personally by executives at the president level, to set off for Jianghai City, preparing to find Su Xin to discuss acquisition or investment.

Originally, they intended to call Su Xin first to negotiate and reach an intention of cooperation in advance, so as to avoid being beaten to it by other companies.

But Su Xin had long been prepared and had set his phone to a whitelist; strangers could not get through at all.

Consequently, they had no choice but to take a flight overnight and rush to Jianghai City to meet Su Xin in person.

……

"I announce that this year's Hidden Dragon National High School Student Programming Competition has come to a successful conclusion. Please leave the venue in an orderly manner, and thank you all again for watching!"

After the host's impassioned closing remarks, the audience in the venue gradually dispersed, and the cameras also stopped broadcasting and began to pack up the equipment.

Su Xin reunited with his mother and Li Tongtian, preparing to wait for the crowd to disperse before leaving.

At this moment, Lv Huaiyuan and the other four judges walked over together and smiled at Su Xin:

"Hello, student Su Xin."

Su Xin looked at them in surprise and also greeted them: "Hello, judges."

"Actually, we wanted to come over and chat with you a long time ago, but we were worried about causing misunderstandings from the outside world, so we waited until now."

Su Xin smiled: "It doesn't matter whether you were worried or not; everyone misunderstood anyway."

Lv Huaiyuan laughed in spite of himself: "That is indeed true."

"Speaking of which, it was my poor phrasing that caused these misunderstandings. I should apologize to you. I am sorry, student Su Xin!"

"It's alright."

Su Xin added a sentence in his heart: "I should be thanking you. If it weren't for the topic of the dark curtain, even if I had won the championship, the popularity of the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant could not have been this high."

In fact, this was indeed the case.

In Su Xin's previous plan, he would use the media to create some topics and try his best to expand his popularity, but after the competition ended, at most only those who usually paid attention to the Hidden Dragon Programming Competition would know about the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant.

Yet, although this competition was touted as the grandest programming event for the high school stage, it was only followed by a specific group of people after all.

Just like the previous Su Xin, he knew nothing about the Hidden Dragon Programming Competition; no matter how monstrous a genius or how astonishing an event appeared in the competition, he would not have known.

There were not a few people like him.

Therefore, according to Su Xin's prediction, the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant would gain fame among this specific group of people, and only after word-of-mouth fermented would it be possible to slowly enter the sight of ordinary people.

But now, the claims of a dark curtain had triggered a crusade by numerous netizens and simultaneously attracted the attention of more people, greatly increasing its popularity.

There is a saying that goes well: bad publicity is still publicity.

The previous Su Xin was at most just "bad publicity," but now, with the reversal of public opinion, Su Xin had become a hit, and the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant had become even more popular across the entire internet.

Next, as long as he waited for the software to go online, he would be able to reap the fruits of his efforts during this period.

In Su Xin's anticipation.

Under the eager expectation of countless netizens.

The next morning, the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant went online on major mainstream application markets as promised.

Su Xin watched the download count in the backend, which was skyrocketing at an exaggerated speed.

Ten thousand.

Fifty thousand.

One hundred thousand.

One million.

Ten million.

By noon, the download count had already surged to twenty million, and only then did it slowly begin to slow down.

Over twenty million downloads in half a day—this speed was terrifying, because many popular software that had been online for a year or two might not necessarily have such an exaggerated download count.

And the Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant had done it.

All of this, besides the software itself being excellent enough, was undeniably aided by traffic and topics, which were extremely important boosters.

"Tsk tsk, Su Xin, is this really software developed by you alone? It's too strong!"

In a luxurious restaurant, Su Xin was having lunch with his mother and Li Tongtian, and Li Tongtian kept trying out the Tiantian Assistant, exclaiming.

"What, do you also suspect that I cheated?"

Su Xin smiled indifferently.

Li Tongtian also laughed exaggeratedly: "I wouldn't dare say that. You didn't see it—as soon as someone mentions the topic of cheating online, they are immediately swarmed and retorted by a group of people. If your fans heard that in reality, they might beat me to death."

Previously, he had been worried that the topic of cheating would cause Su Xin to misunderstand, but now, no one thought Su Xin had cheated, so he could naturally tease him without any scruples.

Just as the three of them were chatting.

Several figures in suits and leather shoes arrived outside the restaurant. They pointed and gestured toward Su Xin's direction from afar for a while, and then the middle-aged man in the lead strode into the restaurant.

Soon, the middle-aged man stopped at the table of the three of them and said politely:

"Hello, may I ask if you are Mr. Su Xin?"

"Yes, what is the matter?"

Su Xin put down his chopsticks and said indifferently.

"Mr. Su Xin, hello. I am Chen Congnan, President of the Business Development Department of Penguin Group. I apologize for interrupting your meal. I came here mainly to discuss a partnership with you. You see, it is not very convenient here; I have booked a private room at Hengxiang Restaurant. I wonder if Mr. Su Xin would do me the honor..."

The middle-aged man said with a face full of smiles.

Su Xin directly raised his hand to interrupt him: "President Chen, I am very sorry, but I am currently eating. Can whatever it is wait until I have finished my meal?"

Chen Congnan's expression stiffened instantly.

He certainly knew that interrupting someone while they were eating was very impolite, and given his experience, he normally would never do such a thing.

However, he also understood how popular Su Xin's Tiantian Smart Phone Assistant was right now; besides Penguin Group, many other technology companies were surely eyeing Su Xin.

Therefore, he had to seize the initiative, and naturally, he had no time to worry about whether it was polite or not.

In his view, with the reputation of Penguin Group, as long as he revealed his identity, this genius youth Su Xin would, if not eagerly beg to cooperate with him, at least not mind this small bit of impoliteness and would decisively agree to discuss with him.

After all, Penguin Group was one of the top internet enterprises in Long Country, and its fame among the public was even greater than that of many state-owned enterprises.

Given Su Xin's ordinary background, he should feel a sense of awe when facing an internet giant like Penguin Group.

But he had not expected that Su Xin would be so dismissive, refusing him on the grounds of eating.

But Chen Congnan had, after all, been struggling in the business world for over twenty years; although he was rejected by Su Xin in public, he did not fly into a rage, but instead quickly restored his smiling face and said:

"Alright, then Mr. Su Xin, please finish your meal. I will wait outside, and we can discuss it after you have finished."

"Excuse me!"