Chapter 88: Three Design Drawings

Zhu Weilian truly could not hold his ground.

In the time that followed, he bargained with Cao Sheng, and the terms finally agreed upon were: Cao Sheng promised to serialize at least 8 million words for free starting from the date the agreement was signed; as remuneration, 15% of the original shares would be gifted to Cao Sheng for free, and furthermore, Cao Sheng would have the right to make additional investments during future financing and share expansion to ensure his shareholding ratio would not be diluted.

They were in no rush to sign the agreement that night, so both parties arranged to sign the next morning.

After the meal, Zhu Weilian and the others went to the hotel where they were staying.

Cao Sheng walked back to his residence as if taking a stroll; the old street was not far from his courtyard anyway.

Upon returning to his place, he brewed a cup of Mao Feng tea and went to the study on the second floor.

He turned on his computer, and as he watched it boot up, Cao Sheng smiled, feeling that this life was quite comfortable—just like that, someone had come to gift him original company shares.

He had never intended to leave before Qidian was established.

It was simply an unexpected joy.

What reason was there to leave?

His memories from before his rebirth clearly showed that in 2003, after Qidian launched its VIP subscription service, all other novel websites would be trampled underfoot and could only struggle to survive.

Therefore, even though he knew more and more novel websites would open in the coming years, he couldn't be bothered to change places.

In any case, going elsewhere would also mean serializing for free without earning any manuscript fees.

It would be better to wait patiently for Qidian to be established, and once it launched the VIP subscription service, go directly to Qidian to save himself the trouble.

As for the limelight being stolen by those other websites in the coming years?

He still felt it didn't matter.

Because he believed that the popularity of works on the internet in the coming years was all superficial.

What truly determined an author's strength and status in the circle was whether they could publish physical books in both simplified and traditional Chinese, and the level of the manuscript fees for those publications.

And his, Cao Sheng's, works had already opened the channels for simplified and traditional publishing across both sides of the strait, and his manuscript fees had also been raised; did other authors think it would be so easy to surpass him in manuscript fees and sales volume?

Was it really that easy?

Besides, the fact that his popularity would be surpassed by other similar websites in the coming years was something that happened in the original timeline.

But in this current timeline, he, Cao Sheng, was about to become a shareholder, and although he only held 15%, he already had a voice.

How did that saying go?

If you think your hometown is not good, why don't you go and build it up?

He had experienced multiple versions of the Qidian webpage.

He knew what the pages of those versions looked like.

He could try to offer suggestions to change the pages and the functions.

It didn't need to be perfect; as long as it wasn't worse than the pages of other novel websites in the coming years, that would be enough.

With that, plus the first-mover advantage, the group of authors already accumulated, and his, Cao Sheng's, works, would they still be easily surpassed by other novel websites?

He wanted to try and see.

If he could completely change the status and development trajectory of the circle through his own efforts, he would feel a great sense of accomplishment.

This was proof of his personal value.

Moreover, if it could develop better than in the original timeline, the shares in his hands would also be more valuable.

This was a win-win!

The computer finished booting, but Cao Sheng took out a draft notebook and a pencil, bowing his head to draw a simple homepage for a web novel site in the notebook.

In the top left corner was the name of the website.

Below that were the categories of works, such as Xuanhuan, Fantasy, Immortal Cultivation, History, Military, Supernatural, poetry, and short essays, etc.

Further down were several rows of recommendation slots, below which was the update list, and on the far right of the webpage were several ranking lists.

From top to bottom, they were the Flower Ranking, Click Ranking, Collection Ranking, New Book Ranking, and New Book Arrivals.

He did not include a Monthly Ticket Ranking.

Because that was a ranking list for after the VIP subscription service was launched.

He also didn't create any Bestseller Ranking, because the current internet environment was not yet suitable for launching a subscription service; without a subscription service, what was there to talk about regarding a bestseller list?

He also didn't intend to set up a subscription service right now.

Firstly, the number of readers was insufficient, and secondly, the current website top-up services were very inconvenient; even if readers were willing to subscribe, the inconvenient top-up services would curb their interest in subscribing.

Therefore, rather than starting to charge for web novels now and earning those peanuts, it was better to continue being free for a few more years and continue cultivating the web novel market.

As a web novel writer, Cao Sheng hoped that this market could grow as quickly as possible.

After drawing the simple diagram of the website homepage, he also drew simple diagrams for the author backend and the page for each book.

He had been accustomed to using Qidian's pages and author backend, so he was not very used to the current pages and author backend.

He just hoped to change them into the way he liked.

While drawing these simple diagrams, a thought flashed through his mind: if the pages could really be changed like this, perhaps in the coming years, other novel websites would all turn into this style, and when Qidian was created, it would likely also borrow from this web design.

Thinking of this, he found it interesting.

He wanted to laugh.

……

The next morning.

Cao Sheng arrived at the hotel where Zhu Weilian and the others were staying to meet with them and sign the contract. Only after the signing was completed did he take out the three simple diagrams he had drawn the night before and hand them to Zhu Weilian.

"Mr. Zhu, please take a look at these three diagrams and see if there is anything worth using."

Zhu Weilian, Wang Jing, and Old Zhang were all very puzzled.

They didn't understand what game Cao Sheng was playing.

Having just become a shareholder, why was he showing them some diagrams?

Zhu Weilian took the three simple diagrams, and Wang Jing and Old Zhang both curiously leaned in to look.

The more they looked, the more surprised they became.

Soon, Wang Jing looked up and asked, "Cao Sheng, this, is this a webpage design for the site?"

Cao Sheng smiled and nodded.

Zhu Weilian and Old Zhang also looked up at Cao Sheng.

Zhu Weilian: "You want our website to look like this?"

Cao Sheng: "Yes! I don't know about doing business or managing a website, but as an author and a reader, I feel that our website's current pages are not very convenient to use, whether it's for publishing works or finding books to read on the site. These three diagrams depict my ideal version; you can use them for reference."

Zhu Weilian nodded thoughtfully and looked down at the design drawings in his hands again.

As he looked, he noticed the subdivided work categories Cao Sheng had designed for the website homepage.

The division of these categories made him feel very uneasy inside.

Because among the categories Cao Sheng had divided, there were Xuanhuan, Fantasy, Immortal Cultivation, Military, History, Supernatural, and poetry and short essays.

And the main categories currently on his website—poetry, diaries, essays, etc.—only occupied one spot in Cao Sheng's classification, and it was the very last spot at that.

Did he see that we have to transform?

This suspicion flashed through Zhu Weilian's mind, and he looked up at Cao Sheng with complicated feelings.

At this moment, he felt that his thoughts had been seen through by this young man, Cao Sheng, and he suddenly felt that Cao Sheng seemed somewhat unfathomable.

There seemed to be two voices speaking in his heart.

One voice said: Cao Sheng is just a novel writer; what the hell does he know about website design?

The other voice said: The webpage designed in these three diagrams really seems much better than our current pages. Is this guy really an accounting major? Did he also study web design on the side?