Chapter 402: Jade

“Yes, that’s right.”

Li Shen nodded.

Once the young man confirmed their identity, he exchanged a few words with the guard in the security room.

Soon, the main gates slowly creaked open.

“Please follow me, you two. Please wear these temporary ID badges. You are required to wear them at all times while moving around the experimental base.”

As the young man spoke, he handed two ID badges to Li Shen and Wu Yu, then led the way inside.

Li Shen and Wu Yu took the badges and hung them directly around their necks.

Since they had come here, they had to follow the local rules.

After about a few minutes, the young man led them to a room and knocked gently on the door.

“Professor Yuan, the guests are here.”

“Come in.”

Hearing the voice from inside, the young man carefully opened the door, then turned to look at Li Shen and Wu Yu.

“You may enter.”

Li Shen and Wu Yu nodded and walked in, carrying the gift boxes in their hands.

“General Manager Li, Manager Wu, you’ve arrived. Please, have a seat.”

As soon as they entered the room, they saw Professor Yuan walking out from behind his desk.

Seeing Professor Yuan, Li Shen spoke up quickly.

“Professor Yuan, please, just call us Xiao Li and Xiao Wu.”

To be addressed as “General Manager Li” by a highly specialized and respected professor made him feel a bit overwhelmed.

“Alright then, Xiao Li and Xiao Wu it is.”

Professor Yuan smiled slightly, not pushing the issue of titles. However, his brow furrowed deeply as his gaze fell upon the gift boxes in their hands.

“What is the meaning of this? I agreed to cooperate with you because I saw a genuine opportunity to promote agricultural knowledge, not because of any gifts.”

“Professor Yuan, please don’t misunderstand. These gifts aren’t for you. They are for all the researchers here at the Orchard Experimental Base who have contributed to agriculture.”

“They work tirelessly and diligently to research agricultural technology for the sake of the industry’s development. They are unsung heroes.”

“We came here today to express our gratitude for their contributions. It isn’t much—just one small box per person. They aren’t overly valuable; we simply wanted to show our appreciation.”

Noticing the change in Professor Yuan’s expression, Li Shen hurried to explain.

Before coming here, he had researched Professor Yuan’s personality in detail. He had also learned a bit more through the students who conducted Agricultural Live Streaming sessions.

Professor Yuan was very fond of jade objects, but he was also extremely upright and never easily accepted gifts from others.

Someone had once tried to curry favor with him by gifting an incredibly expensive jade piece, but Professor Yuan had rejected it outright.

After understanding Professor Yuan’s background, Li Shen had changed his gifting strategy.

He wouldn’t give a gift to just one person; he would give them to every researcher at the base.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Professor Yuan’s expression softened considerably. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke calmly.

“Then I shall thank you on their behalf.”

He then looked at the young man who had led them in.

“Take these gifts and distribute them to the researchers. Tell them it’s a gesture of goodwill from Boring Short Video.”

“Understood, Professor Yuan.”

The young man quickly took the gift boxes from Li Shen and Wu Yu and left the office.

Of course, not all the boxes were taken; two were left behind.

Li Shen looked at the two boxes he had intentionally kept back and looked up at Professor Yuan.

“Professor Yuan, we are thanking the researchers, and you are naturally included in that. These two gifts are just a small token of our respect.”

With that, he handed the two boxes to Professor Yuan.

Yuan Chenghua looked at Li Shen, then at the two boxes. Finally, he gave a helpless smile and reached out to accept them.

“Fine, I’ll accept your kindness this time. But don’t do this again.”

“You’re right, Professor Yuan. I promise it won’t happen again,” Li Shen assured him quickly.

“Have a seat. Let’s get down to business.”

Yuan Chenghua set the two boxes on his desk and poured a glass of plain water for both Li Shen and Wu Yu.

The two men hurriedly accepted the glasses.

Yuan Chenghua sat in the chair behind his desk. Once he saw that Li Shen and Wu Yu were seated, he asked slowly, “I’ve looked into Boring Short Video recently. I noticed that the viewership in the live streaming rooms isn’t very high. It doesn’t seem to be achieving much of a promotional effect.”

Since the partnership with Boring Short Video began, he had started live streaming under his students’ guidance, and those students had also begun their own broadcasts.

However, after observing for a while, he found that the viewership across all the rooms was low. If no one was watching, the goal of spreading agricultural knowledge couldn’t be achieved.

In that case, the live streaming was somewhat at odds with his original intention.

“Professor Yuan, you’re right. The number of people watching Agricultural Live Streaming is indeed not very high. But the reason isn’t that people aren’t interested in agricultural knowledge; it’s simply that the user base of Boring Short Video is currently quite small. We are nowhere near the level of those viral short video APPs.”

“But as the saying goes, the first step is always the hardest. I believe Boring Short Video will improve step by step, and eventually even surpass those popular apps. We are working hard toward that goal.”

“Furthermore, I came here today to discuss with you whether there’s a way to get the word about Boring Short Video into the ears of the farmers who actually make a living from agriculture.”

Li Shen spoke his thoughts directly.

“You want us to help with the promotion?”

Yuan Chenghua’s gaze landed on Li Shen.

Li Shen nodded.

“Exactly. If possible, I hope you can help us with this, Professor Yuan. When we were setting up the agricultural section, we actually managed to jumpstart another category: the Academic Subject Live Stream.”

“In the beginning, the Academic Subject Live Stream had no viewers at all, just like the agricultural section. But now, that category has over 80,000 daily viewers.”

“How exactly did the academic category achieve that?”

Hearing Li Shen’s account, Yuan Chenghua became curious.

At the same time, he felt a spark of anticipation. If the rooms spreading agricultural knowledge could have that many viewers, it would be wonderful.

Seeing the professor’s curious expression, Li Shen smiled slightly.

“To grow to over 80,000 viewers, there was naturally a promotional effort, and the ones doing the promoting were the streamers themselves. Their method was simple: they first sent news about the Boring Short Video academic streams into parent groups for after-school tutoring.”

“After promoting in those groups, they thought of going to school gates to hand out flyers about the Academic Subject Live Stream.”

“…”

“Just like that, the viewership for the academic category grew bit by bit to over 80,000.”

“Of course, I’m not telling you this because I want the agricultural streamers to do the same thing. I just wanted to see if you have any similar promotional methods that could achieve the same effect.”

“And the key to that effect, in my definition, is ‘targeting’.”

“Just like how the target audience for the academic streams was parents who help their children with homework. They have a genuine need for those streams. Because of that, their retention is very high. As long as they find it useful and their children are still in school, they will keep watching.”

“So, what I’m hoping for is to see if Professor Yuan has any channels to get in touch with those farmers. If so, perhaps we could use those channels to promote the Agricultural Live Streaming section of Boring Short Video.”