Chapter 268

"If nothing else, Chen Mo's appearance is truly enough to make Guo Xiang 'fall for Yang Guo at first sight and regret it for a lifetime'."

"Chen Mo is finally going to be in a period drama again!"

"Gu Tianle's 'White Gu' version is too hard to surpass. To be honest, whether Chen Mo can play it well is still a question."

"I hope they don't ruin the original work."

Most fans and viewers were still looking forward to Chen Mo starring in a martial arts drama, even believing that Chen Mo's appearance was very suitable for a young hero.

It's just that Jin Yong's novels are too classic, and there are many book fans.

Quite a few fans of the original work were afraid that the TV adaptation would become a mess and completely ruin the source material, so they were not optimistic about this remake.

This is very normal; basically, every TV drama adapted from a novel will face questioning from fans of the original. The true evaluation can only be obtained after it is filmed.

In short, the discussion online was very heated.

The crew hadn't even finished preparations, and the buzz for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* had already risen.

……

While Momei Company was still preparing the casting and production for *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, the Communication Group, with Chen Fu's investment, had already developed two games.

They were Speed Drifters and Xuanwu.

These two games were actually imitations based on the Korean games *Crazyracing Kartrider* and *Audition*.

The popularity of the two games on the internet was very high.

Especially when entering an internet cafe, one could see young people with dyed, colorful hair sitting inside, frantically tapping on their keyboards.

They were the two most popular games at the moment.

Taking advantage of this heat, Pony Ma launched Xuanwu and Speed Drifters in one go.

He believed that Xuanwu and Speed Drifters would definitely be more popular than *Crazyracing Kartrider* and *Audition* in the future.

After all, *Crazyracing Kartrider* and *Audition* were Korean games; their interfaces and aesthetics leaned towards Korean tastes, and registering and using accounts was quite troublesome.

Especially for in-game top-ups, one had to enter a different interface to recharge.

Speed Drifters and Xuanwu were different.

As long as you had a Communication Penguin account, you could log in directly, which was very convenient. To recharge, you only needed to buy Penguin Coins, which could then be used in all Communication games.

Moreover, the aesthetics were more in line with the Chinese people.

Most importantly, Communication had a larger user base, so more people played the games.

While these two games were called competitive games, to put it bluntly, they were also social games.

Many teenagers were socializing through the virtual avatars in these two games and were willing to spend more money to dress up their virtual characters.

It would just take time to completely compete against those two Korean games.

Once the games were launched, they became huge hits.

But immediately following were reports and controversies from various media outlets.

"Two games under Communication Group resemble Korean games; is it a coincidence or plagiarism?"

"Domestic market finally develops hit games; no need to look forward to foreign games anymore."

"Korean game company accuses Communication of plagiarism."

"Communication's latest games trigger collective obsession among teenagers."

The controversy surrounding Xuanwu and Speed Drifters was very large, with praise and criticism split down the middle...

Even so, the number of registered users for Xuanwu and Speed Drifters continued to grow.

……

"Mo, that Korean game company has started targeting Xuanwu and Speed Drifters with suppression tactics."

The investment in the two games was huge, and Pony Ma was constantly monitoring the movements of *Crazyracing Kartrider* and *Audition*.

Recently, because of the launch of Xuanwu and Speed Drifters, *Audition* and *Crazyracing Kartrider* had launched many activities to increase user stickiness.

It was clearly targeting Xuanwu and Speed Drifters.

"That's simple. We just need to do activities too, buy more music rights, and increase the character design options in the games."

Chen Mo didn't take the Korean game company too seriously.

Pony Ma thought the same.

Communication directly started pouring money and promotion into the two games.

For a music game like Xuanwu, Pony Ma directly bought the rights to hit songs from various countries and added more character designs than *Audition*.

For a racing game like Speed Drifters, they focused directly on the cars; not only were the car models more realistic, but the tracks were also more authentic.

Many young people were indeed more attracted to these two games.

Except for some old players of *Crazyracing Kartrider* and *Audition*, almost all new players jumped straight into Xuanwu and Speed Drifters.

The initial capital invested in the games was quickly recouped, and Communication's stock rose significantly as a result.

……

Chen Mo left all matters regarding Communication to Pony Ma to handle.

*CJ7* entered its final shooting stage. The entire crew was very serious, and Chen Mo stayed on set every day, waiting for the final scenes to be finished.

At the same time, the crew for *The Return of the Condor Heroes* began preparations.

Apart from the two leads, Chen Mo and Liu Yifei, the other actors were all chosen from within Momei Company.

Basically, they selected veteran actors and those with good acting skills.

After casting was finished, the costumes, makeup, and props for the crew were also mostly ready.

They were just waiting for Chen Mo to finish his current work.

The crews for *CJ7* and *The Return of the Condor Heroes* were both working simultaneously.

On set.

In the final shots to be filmed, Xu Jiao had the majority of the scenes, and with Chen Mo's superb acting, they only needed one take to pass.

So, he spent a lot of time guiding others and resting on the side.

"Dad, what's up?"

Chen Mo was leaning on a lounge chair taking a nap when Chen Fu suddenly called.

"Mo, what do you think about the future development of smartphones? Is there any need to invest in them?"

Chen Fu asked out of the blue over the phone.

Smartphones?

Chen Mo was stunned; he hadn't expected Chen Fu to suddenly say something so ahead of his time.

It was still 2007. In reality, the phones everyone used were basically PHS phones, though many mobile companies had started researching and launching more convenient phones.

These were phones like Nokia that were slightly "smarter."

However, on the whole, these phones were still button-based, and apart from being able to download a few more pieces of software and having a few pixelated mobile games, their functions were still very backward.

Mobile phone functionality was still quite primitive.

"Anyway, we have plenty of money now, so I was thinking about whether we should invest in some more industries."

Chen Fu wasn't sure about the investment prospects of smartphones, so he came to ask for Chen Mo's opinion.

Many of the industries he invested in that made money had Chen Mo's suggestions behind them. His ability to become the richest man in China, besides having good luck, was largely due to Chen Mo's contributions.

"Invest!"

Chen Mo smiled.

His old man really was a child of destiny.

If he remembered correctly, the Fruit phone was just about to be launched in 2007, but they were still in the R&D stage, and it was only a trial launch; they wouldn't enter the Chinese market yet.

It would only be released in the United States for now.

It wouldn't be until 2009 that the Fruit phone would be sold in China.

Right now, the Fruit phone was still in a loss-making R&D stage and was very short of money. If they acquired the Fruit phone company at this time...

"Dad, listen to me. Take the money now and go to the United States to acquire a mobile phone company called Fruit. Make them a Chinese mobile phone brand directly."

Chen Mo gave Chen Fu the idea, his tone somewhat excited.

Fruit was a major future mobile phone brand.

That was the true pioneer that brought mobile phones into the world of smartphones.

Acquiring Fruit now was the most cost-effective thing to do.