Last Love chapter 68
Around 9:30, Fu Xiaoyu and Xu Jiale were already downstairs at the Sega.
When Wen Ke went down and saw a white Bentley, he was a bit surprised because he had never seen Fu Xiaoyu drive this car before. Upon getting in, he noticed a driver in the front, while Fu Xiaoyu sat in the back.
“A friend’s car,” Fu Xiaoyu seemed to know what Wen Ke wanted to ask and quickly explained, “Xu Jiale is driving his own car, behind us.”
“Oh, thanks,” Wen Ke couldn’t help but say softly, “Thank you for arranging the car for me.”
Fu Xiaoyu always considered things comprehensively, even taking into account such details as the choice of the vehicle.
However, Han Jiangque seemed unfazed by this and sat naturally in the front seat. It seemed like he was not surprised at all. Blue Rain’s business district was located in the north of the city, right next to the Twin Towers, so the journey took only about twenty minutes.
During the ride, Fu Xiaoyu continued to share some information with Wen Ke, mentioning that a few days ago, the managers from Blue Rain’s Business Department had a positive discussion with the Far Sky project team, and the internal evaluation of the Far Sky app was quite optimistic.
Having a good discussion with competitors was certainly not a good sign.
Upon hearing this, Han Jiangque, sitting in the front, turned back with a deep and meaningful look.
“It’s okay,” Wen Ke smiled slightly and, looking out of the car window at the busy traffic, said softly, “Do what you can.”
At that moment, sunlight streamed through the car window onto his fair profile. At that instant, Han Jiangque suddenly recalled high school—
Back then, Wen Ke seemed to be just like this, calm when everyone else was nervous about the final exams.
And even if his grades were not excellent, when he was around Wen Ke, there was always a sense of security.
While conversing, the Bentley slowly pulled up at Blue Rain’s company driveway.
After Wen Ke and the others got out of the car, Xu Jiale arrived in his car just in time. The group was then led by Blue Rain’s arranged receptionist to the elevator.
Blue Rain’s building was very grand, but the office area clearly reflected the style of a rising internet company. The central area had several PS4 consoles, and there was even a wine cabinet. It was only when they reached the back conference room that they saw a tall Alpha in a silver-gray suit standing at the door.
“Mr. Fu,” the Alpha extended his hand to Fu Xiaoyu, smiling, “Welcome.”
After Fu Xiaoyu shook hands with the Alpha, he quickly introduced everyone, “Wen Ke, the main person in charge of the app project, Xu Jiale is the academic advisor. And this is the assistant, surnamed Han. Wen Ke—this is Lin Zhongyue, the business development manager of Blue Rain.”
“Hello, Manager Lin,” Wen Ke stepped forward and shook hands with Manager Lin.
Although Lin Zhongyue’s gaze initially politely swept over Wen Ke, after a brief exchange with Xu Jiale and Han Jiangque, he seemed surprised. He couldn’t help but cast a slightly scrutinizing look at Wen Ke.
Although Lin Zhongyue’s change in expression only occurred in an instant, Wen Ke keenly perceived it—
Lin Zhongyue was an Alpha, so it was only when he saw that the consultant and assistant behind Wen Ke were both top-notch Alphas that he felt it was necessary to take a closer look at Wen Ke.
This kind of almost invisible disdain might only be felt by an Omega.
“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to present the proposal, honored to be here,” Wen Ke said with a slight smile, speaking softly.
…
Blue Rain’s conference room was quite large, with a whole wall dedicated to a large screen for displaying PowerPoint slides.
On the left side of the long conference table sat two Blue Rain executives, the other business manager Guan Qian, and the marketing manager Ji Feiyu.
Sitting at the innermost position was Blue Rain’s big boss, Xia Xingzhi.
Among the eight people in the conference room, except for Fu Xiaoyu and Wen Ke, all were Alphas.
Xia Xingzhi looked younger than Wen Ke had imagined, probably in his early thirties. He wore a well-tailored suit with no unnecessary embellishments, only a Breguet watch on his wrist.
Although his appearance was not particularly handsome, his features were very robust, with a slightly hooked nose that carried a strong imposing aura when he looked at people.
Although, in this meeting with two omegas present, all the Alphas politely restrained the aggressiveness of their pheromones, the faint brandy pheromone scent from Xia Xingzhi unquestionably overwhelmed both Guan Qian and Ji Feiyu.
The scent of alcohol pheromones was very rare, and Xia Xingzhi was the second Alpha with this type of pheromone that Wen Ke had encountered, besides Han Jiangque.
Before the meeting, Fu Xiaoyu had naturally briefed Wen Ke on Blue Rain’s big boss—
Similar family background to Zhuo Yuan, he went abroad to study, returned to China to start a business, and in just a few years, built the company into one of the top distributors in the country.
Fu Xiaoyu spoke highly of Xia Xingzhi, saying that there were very few wealthy second-generation individuals with capital who were willing to engage in the game of digital capital and focus on doing business honestly.
The fact that Xia Xingzhi personally attended this proposal meeting also indicated his approach to business.
After a brief introduction, Xia Xingzhi apparently had no intention of wasting any time. He directly said, “Let’s begin.”
The lights in the conference room were dimmed, and Wen Ke walked to the left side of the conference room screen. It was the first time he faced such top industry elites like this. His gaze swept across the faces of these people, and he took a deep breath.
At the same time, Han Jiangque had already connected the computer desktop to the screen.
On the large screen, an endless field of wheat appeared.
The precision of the image on a screen as large as a wall allowed for a comprehensive view. The vast expanse, the loneliness, laid the foundation for an almost poetic atmosphere from the beginning.
A gentle breeze blew, gently lifting the golden grains of wheat, slowly forming two large characters—
Last Love.
Then, they officially entered the first page of the proposal—
On the entire blank PowerPoint slide, only three large numbers were written.
18,114,1.
This was certainly an expression that left everyone puzzled.
Xia Xingzhi furrowed his brows, but his body leaned slightly forward, indicating that he was also puzzled by these numbers. The other Blue Rain managers showed expressions of confusion and bewilderment.
Meanwhile, Wen Ke had forgotten about being nervous.
Fu Xiaoyu had mentioned that a successful proposal must firmly capture everyone’s attention within the first two minutes of speaking, so: concise, concise, and even more concise.
He found a strange inspiration from Han Jiangque’s memorandum, so the first slide of the PowerPoint had only three numbers—three unknown numbers.
“The app I’m introducing today is called ‘Last Love.’ But before talking about the app, let’s discuss three numbers—18,114,1.”
“In the current domestic app market, whether it’s called a dating app or a social app, in short, those apps that have a certain influence in this category and operate online, there are a total of 18. That’s 18. And besides the entire domestic market, in the global market, including the IOS App Store and Google Play Store, there are a total of 114 dating apps that have achieved top rankings in downloads worldwide. That’s 114. 18 + 114, these are the 132 competing products we are most concerned about. During our preparation, my team downloaded all 132 apps, and, please note, each and every one of them uses a pheromone-based matching system as the core.”
“But ‘Last Love’ is different.”
As Wen Ke spoke, Han Jiangque tapped the screen, and the number 1 slowly enlarged until it covered the other two numbers, dominating the entire core of the PowerPoint.
“‘Last Love’ is not one of those 18, nor is it one of the 114. ‘Last Love’ is 1, it is the only one in the market.”
Wen Ke looked at Xia Xingzhi, enunciating each word.
Xia Xingzhi, on the other hand, rested his chin on his hand, his gaze deep and inscrutable, revealing no discernible thoughts.
As the presentation moved to the next slide, it continued to be straightforward and to the point. It featured graphics representing the psychology test module supported by M University, the experiential interest module, and the computation system allowing users to adjust the weights independently.
Opening the psychology test module revealed a meticulously reorganized questionnaire page by Xu Jiale—clean and concise, with only five questions per page, giving it a streamlined feel.
The original hundreds of questions, after multiple revisions by Fu Xiaoyu and Xu Jiale, were broken down into detailed sections. Users could choose to fill in specific sections of interest after completing the basic thirty questions, or they could postpone it.
Wen Ke invited several Blue Rain executives to try filling out the questionnaire immediately. In the end, it was only Guan Qian, the lone female Alpha executive, who volunteered.
“This is the basic module,” Wen Ke observed as Han Jiangque inputted Guan Qian’s answers, “If it’s inconvenient, you don’t have to tell us your true answers, but it’s essential to genuinely feel whether filling out these answers alone would be troublesome for users.”
While nodding, Guan Qian answered each question one by one. When she finished the thirty questions, Han Jiangque immediately displayed a timer—four minutes and 28 seconds.
“That’s quite fast,” Guan Qian smiled, “Really didn’t feel troublesome.”
At this point, the screen clearly displayed questionnaire completion progress at 1/20, Basic Personality: Giver. Basic matching can now begin.
A map then appeared, with a game-like level design UI, and currently, only the basic questionnaire module was illuminated. The rest of the map clearly showed 19 modules yet to be illuminated, including detailed divisions like emotions, family background, career, friendship, subconscious, sexual psychology, and more.
“A questionnaire this complex?” Guan Qian couldn’t help but inhale in amazement.
“Exactly,” Wen Ke confidently said, “This is a comprehensive and authoritative questionnaire library, led by the top-tier institution M University. This is also a core monetization method for us. Once the questionnaire completion progress reaches 5/20, it already enters medium matching. However, if users want to unlock all modules for ultimate matching, they need to pay.”
“Understood,” Guan Qian smiled, but then muttered thoughtfully, “Am I a Giver? What kind of person does a Giver match with?”
“This question… If ‘Last Love’ goes live one day, maybe Manager Guan can try matching herself,” Wen Ke joked gently, lightening the atmosphere a bit.
“I have a question,” Ji Feiyu, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. His eyes were somewhat cold, and his voice was quite husky. “So, basically, your app uses a self-created computational system to replace pheromone matching, right?”
Wen Ke looked at Ji Feiyu, not sure why, but the young man’s face made him feel somewhat familiar. Yet, he couldn’t recall who it was for a moment. He promptly dismissed this thought and nodded, “Yes.”
“You say ‘Last Love’ is the unique 1. I agree, but Mr. Wen, have you ever considered the risks of making this uniqueness? I work in marketing, and I can only say that products on the market are the way they are for a reason. Probably because people in society believe that choosing a mate through pheromone matching is the most correct choice. Going against the market flow is not a good thing. How are you going to market and promote such a disruptive product? Have you thought about it?”
His words were evidently loaded with an attacking tone.
If it were the Wen Ke from a month ago, he might have been nervous and uneasy at this point.
However, a month’s time was enough for Wen Ke’s astonishing growth.
Fu Xiaoyu had said that in such meetings, he must show no hesitation or lack of confidence. He couldn’t afford to display even a hint of insecurity about his product.
“Of course, I’ve considered it,” Wen Ke smiled slightly. “Manager Ji, first, I have to correct you. Not everyone believes that choosing a mate through pheromone matching is the most correct choice. Please look at this data.”
Without needing a prompt, Han Jiangque had already switched the presentation PowerPoint to slide 58, displaying clean and concise data.
Wen Ke slowly read, “M University conducts a global emotional mate selection survey every year. Here, I’ve included three years of data, focusing only on the Greater China region. You’ll find a significant trend in recent years—more and more people are starting to question this so-called correct mate selection perspective. Take a close look. Five years ago, 31.9% of respondents believed that pheromone matching was not the sole indicator for the union of two sexes. Three years ago, this proportion rose to 39.8%. A year ago, this data surged again, now reaching 50.17%, which is already over half, right?”
Wen Ke spoke deliberately, gazing at Ji Feiyu without any retreat or evasion.
He was no longer the naive product manager who only talked about ideals and emotions in front of Fu Xiaoyu a month ago. The current him stood here, and every word he said carried weight.
“Manager Ji, you’re an elite in marketing. You must admit that data can speak for itself. You have to recognize that certain conventional perspectives we thought were universally accepted are gradually collapsing—this is the subtle transformation after years of societal openness. You say I’m going against the market flow; I feel quite the opposite. The market has already given Last Love an opportunity to lead in shaping values. It depends on whether Blue Rain is willing to seize it.”