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Meng Meng is an ordinary girl.
Her family background is ordinary, her academic performance is ordinary, the high school she attends is ordinary, and her appearance and height are also ordinary, she's the kind of person who blends into the crowd without standing out.
Of course, every 18-year-old girl has her own interests and hobbies. Meng Meng loves singing and listening to music, and she can even play a few simple songs on the guitar, although her skill level is also quite ordinary.
The most glorious moment of her 18-year life was when she performed "Edelweiss" at her school's New Year's Eve party last year, earning applause and cheers from many classmates.
Unfortunately, it didn't win the admiration of the senior she had a crush on.
But Meng Meng wasn't sad, because she knew the distance between dreams and reality. She silently liked him without ever confessing, just like how she liked several vagabond singer idols but never went crazy over them or spent money on their merchandise.
It's all a scam!
She told herself that if she liked a vagabond singer, she would just buy his album; everything else was just a way to scam fans out of their money.
Sometimes, Meng Meng was amazed by her own rationality.
Until two months ago, when she saw a video in a WeChat group.
The video was a clip from a university graduation party, where a very handsome boy performed a song called "Those Flowers" on stage.
It was this video, which Meng Meng watched dozens of times, that made her discover Lu Chen!
The girl's heart was suddenly opened.
Meng Meng became a fan of Lu Chen.
She searched for information about Lu Chen online, found his blog, forum, WeChat group, and live streaming channel, and even joined Lu Chen's fan support group, the Lu Family Army!
In the Lu Family Army, where boys made up over 80% of the members, Meng Meng's ID "Mengmeng" gained quite a bit of popularity because she could write some light-hearted articles and song reviews, and she was a girl.
This led Meng Meng to spend most of her free time in Lu Chen's fan circle.
In this virtual big family, she felt confident and beautiful!
September 23rd was a Wednesday, an ordinary day.
At 10:25 PM, Meng Meng finally finished all her homework for the day.
The workload in her third year of high school was already heavy, and although her parents didn't have high expectations for her, Meng Meng herself wanted to get into a decent university, so she took her studies seriously.
She hoped to improve her academic performance in her final year of high school.
But that didn't stop her from loving Lu Chen.
After putting away her homework and test papers, Meng Meng eagerly logged into the Langchao blog.
Checking the blog had become one of her daily habits, and the Lu Family Army's official blog was one of her online homes. She loved chatting about music and Lu Chen's songs with thousands of friends in the discussion area.
This was how Meng Meng effectively relieved the pressure from her studies.
As usual, she first clicked on Lu Chen's personal blog.
Lu ChenFMX, followers: 6,720,056.
The number of followers had increased again!
Seeing that the blog's follower count had risen by tens of thousands, Meng Meng smiled with joy.
Whenever Lu Chen's popularity grew, she felt a sense of accomplishment and genuine happiness.
In the past, she used to secretly look down on those obsessive fans of certain celebrities, but now she felt like she was almost becoming one herself.
Meng Meng stuck out her tongue and shifted her gaze to Lu ChenFMX's latest blog post.
Her eyes suddenly lit up!
The crowdfunding campaign for the "My Old Classmate" album has begun!
Meng Meng had already known about the plan to release a CD for this album, which had sold well on WeChat Music.
She was all for it and had been eagerly looking forward to it.
While downloading the album from the website was cheap and convenient, it lacked a sense of reality, leaving her CD player unused, which was a huge regret.
Like many music enthusiasts, Meng Meng firmly believed that the sound quality of CDs was superior to lossless high-quality audio files.
Now that the long-awaited CD was finally coming out, she was thrilled.
The only thing that puzzled her was, what exactly is "Crowdfunding"?
After reading the blog post, Meng Meng finally understood that "Crowdfunding" meant everyone pooling their money together!
If the fundraising goal was reached, the official CD album would be released; if not...
How could it not be reached?
Meng Meng knew that many, many fans in the Lu Family Army were just like her, waiting for this CD album to come out.
She was determined to do her part.
Meng Meng clicked on the link in the blog post and entered the so-called Crowdfunding website.
The login process was quick, and the website was designed simply and clearly, without any annoying pop-up ads. The central banner displayed promotional images for the "My Old Classmate" album, with Lu Chen looking incredibly handsome while holding a guitar.
Following the website's guide, Meng Meng successfully registered as a member.
Once her account was set up, she could choose how to support Lu Chen's first album.
There were a total of four options.
The first option was a lottery choice, which Meng Meng immediately ignored; she never believed that such low-probability lucky events would happen to her, not even having bought a lottery ticket before.
The second option was to support with 15 Yuan in exchange for a genuine CD, and Meng Meng instinctively wanted to choose this option.
However, the third and fourth support options made Meng Meng hesitate.
She really wanted the signed poster, custom USB drive, keychain, and metal nameplate!
But buying merchandise contradicted her previous habits, leaving her in a dilemma.
Although the amount wasn't much and Meng Meng could easily afford it, she worried about what her classmates and friends would think if they found out that she, who never bought celebrity merchandise, had made an exception.
Forget it!
Meng Meng gritted her teeth and clicked on the fourth support option.
She decided to purchase the 188 Yuan package!
But to her surprise, as soon as she clicked, a prominent message popped up on the screen, [This item is sold out, please choose another support option!]
What?
Meng Meng felt as if she had been struck by lightning; how could it be sold out?
At that moment, she noticed the support count displayed below the button: 1000/1000!
Limited to 1000 sets!
Meng Meng realized she was too late.
Fortunately, the 100 Yuan package still showed 975/1000, indicating that 25 sets were still available.
So, Meng Meng quickly clicked on the third option; otherwise, she would miss out.
[This item is sold out, please choose another support option!]
She received the same message again!
Meng Meng was stunned and quickly pressed F5 to refresh the page, only to find it was now 1000/1000!
The "Support" labels on both buttons had turned gray, indicating they could no longer be clicked.
Both packages were sold out!
"Ah!"
Meng Meng dropped her mouse and held her head in despair.
She was utterly frustrated.
Just moments ago, there were still options available, and in the blink of an eye, they were all snatched up!
If only she hadn't hesitated, she might have secured a set.
This was the limited commemorative edition of Lu Chen's first album!
The first option and the 15 Yuan CD option, had no limit on the number of purchases and could be bought freely.
But Meng Meng felt as if she had lost a beloved treasure.
With endless resentment, she logged into the Lu Family Army's discussion area to vent her grievances.
To her surprise, she found that she wasn't the only one with this experience.
Many people were complaining about not being able to grab the limited edition packages or hesitating and missing out.
Someone even boasted about their success.
This person had opened five accounts and bought five sets of the 188 limited edition!
Meng Meng finally understood why she had missed out and vented her frustrations online.
The other person was quickly overwhelmed by countless comments and disappeared without a trace.
With no other options, everyone rushed to Lu Chen's blog, strongly requesting the reopening of the limited edition support!
This situation was something Lu Chen had never anticipated.
While Meng Meng was venting on the blog, he was on the 29th floor of the same building as his workshop, at the headquarters of the Crowdfunding network, Capital City Mu-Chen Crowdfunding Network Co., Ltd.!
This newly established company spun off from Lu Chen's workshop, occupied 500 square meters, and had cost over a million to decorate, all completed under tight deadlines.
Currently, the company has hired nearly 30 employees, and since the Crowdfunding website was officially launched that night, more than half of the staff have been working overtime to ensure the smooth operation of the site.
They were fortunate to witness the birth of a business legend!
"Both the 100 and 188 packages sold out in just two and a half hours!"
Li Mushi, standing in front of the projection screen, announced to the employees with great enthusiasm, "We have achieved our planned Crowdfunding goal, and our first project has been a resounding success!"
A newly established website and an untested business model had achieved success in just over two hours without any advertising investment.
The 500,000 Yuan crowdfunding goal had been surpassed and was still climbing.
Although a 7% commission isn't much, how many websites can turn a profit right from the start?
Most websites spend heavily in the early stages, relying on free offerings to attract customers.
The Crowdfunding site had completely overturned this conventional model, creating an incredible miracle!
Among the employees were seasoned industry professionals who had been headhunted, and they understood what this meant!
This company had limitless potential!
Everyone was grateful to be among the first batch of employees, as the company had promised that anyone who worked hard and achieved results would receive stock options.
If the Crowdfunding site went public one day, employees with shares could potentially become millionaires!
Such stories are common in the IT industry.
Cheers erupted, and applause filled the room!
Li Mushi turned to Lu Chen, extending her hand with a smile, "Chairman Lu Chen, congratulations!"
Lu Chen shook her hand and replied with a smile, "Congratulations to us!"
(End of this chapter)