Chapter 43: Campus Belle Contest?

When Li Yan finished setting up all the QQ group promotions—pinned QQ keywords, pinned forum promotions, red envelope lucky draws...

Looking at the promotional receipts that had cost him a pretty penny, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Right now, the Sichuan University 2023 Freshmen Group had been successfully established, complete with a strict screening and review mechanism. The next step simply required "time" to let it ferment.

This would allow every prospective freshman to successively discover the group during the summer vacation and flood into it spontaneously, thereby forming a massive scale.

Although there were only a few dozen people in the group at the moment, Li Yan was not in a hurry.

As long as there was financial momentum combined with an effective review process, another ten days to half a month would easily push the group's membership past the thousand-mark, heading straight towards two or three thousand.

He understood the truth behind the saying "great achievements take time to mature." None of this could be rushed, nor did it require constant monitoring.

Therefore, he decided to use this window of time to prepare a list of essential tips for freshman enrollment, thereby enriching the group's content.

Li Yan himself was merely an incoming freshman, so if he were tasked with writing a professional "Enrollment Guide," it would inevitably end up with some blank spots.

However, with the aid of the internet, this task was hardly difficult.

He opened his laptop and searched platforms like Baidu and Zhihu for keywords such as "Sichuan University Freshmen Guide" and "Things University Freshmen Should Know," finding numerous experience posts shared by senior students.

For example:
• What documents need to be prepared for enrollment registration?
• What equipment should be brought for military training?
• What is the layout of the campus living areas, and which canteens have the best reputations?
• What are the procedures for the campus hospital and library registration, and so on.

Li Yan methodically copied, pasted, and summarized these experiences: a checklist of registration documents, essential daily living items, dormitory decoration suggestions, anti-sunburn measures for military training, campus card information, and details about various canteens...

He even included trivial details like the general temperaments of the dorm wardents and local bus routes.

As the collected content grew, he cross-referenced some of the uncertain information through other channels, striving to ensure no erroneous news was passed on to the freshmen.

After spending a little over two hours, he compiled the first draft of the "Sichuan University 2023 Essential Freshmen Guide."

While it could not be considered exquisitely polished, it covered the most common questions troubling newcomers, sparing them the trouble of asking around everywhere.

Li Yan read through it once quickly and felt it was pretty good; at least the overall framework had no obvious omissions and shortcomings.

The freshman group was currently in its expansion phase, with a dozen people occasionally popping in to chat, but for the most part, the topics were still not lively enough.

Li Yan planned to post this guide directly into the group chat. Firstly, it would help retain newly joined members, and secondly, it would project a professional image rather than just giving away red envelopes every single day.

He wrote in the group announcement:

[Sichuan University 2023 • Freshmen Handbook]
Hello everyone, I have compiled a list of important enrollment notes, covering information on military training, dormitories, campus cards, the library, canteens, bus routes, club recruitment, and more. For detailed content, please check the group file titled "Sichuan University 2023 Essential Freshmen Guide.pdf".
Everyone is welcome to download and read it. If you have any questions, feel free to discuss them in the group.
———Group Owner: Li Yan

The reason he chose not to append "Li Yan from the Advertising Department" to his name was actually part of his broader vision. His influence shouldn't be confined merely within the Advertising Department; rather, it needed to spread across the entire Sichuan University.

Immediately afterwards, he posted a few screenshots as a preview: a brief overview of dormitory conditions, canteen recommendations, and a schematic diagram of bus routes.

Before long, someone replied in the chat: "This is fantastic, it saves me the trouble of piecing together a guide from all over the place," and "The group owner is amazing, I love this!"

Looking at these grateful messages, Li Yan merely smiled at the corner of his mouth.

The key to retaining people was precisely this combination of practical substance and perks.

Relying solely on red envelopes would only attract freeloaders who left right after grabbing the cash. Now, supplemented by the guide, members would perceive practical value in the group and become much more willing to settle down and stay.

"Alright, that's done and secured!" Li Yan closed his laptop and checked the real-time headcount in the group using his phone.

At this point, the membership was still just over a hundred people, but as the issuance of summer admission notices intensified, he estimated it would break the thousand mark in less than a week.

He thought of his genuine "little selfish desire"—"How can university life be complete without a romance?"

A notion crossed Li Yan's mind: "Novels often talk about campus beauties and how stunning they are, but in reality, universities don't have an officially recognized campus beauty pageant; people just throw the title around casually. Should I organize a large-scale event like the 'Sichuan University Campus Beauty Selection,' and net all the most gorgeous junior girls into the fold..."

The event workflow formed in his mind:
1. First, solicit female applicants within the group by having them submit lifestyle photos or talent showcases.
2. Douyin traffic promotion: Promote the candidates on Douyin to expand influence and host online voting within the group.
3. Selection rewards: Offer an Apple laptop or a cash prize for first place to boost attractiveness.
4. Promotion: Broadcast publicity widely within the group, and pin the voting link at the top of the forum to spark attention on a school-wide or even social level.

By doing this, he could not only satisfy his own pleasure in appreciating beauty but also inject a lively topic of conversation into the group.

However, realizing this goal required a sufficiently large membership base within the group.

Therefore, he needed to first scale the group up to two or three thousand members to give the entire event greater influence and credibility.

With an innocent smile, Li Yan thought, "Let's wait until the headcount grows a bit more, and get the freshman guide established first."

Many people in the group were already calling him "Group Owner," eagerly awaiting more freshman welfare and activities from him.

He made up his mind that in another two weeks, once most of the admission notices had been distributed and the group population swelled, he would release news of the campus beauty audition, which would undoubtedly attract widespread attention.

Just as Li Yan was pondering the details of the event, his phone popped up with a red envelope notification: someone in the group had sent a fifty-yuan small red envelope to thank the "group owner for providing the military training guide."

Seeing this, his mood improved even further. "Now this is a virtuous cycle."

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the afternoon sun looked somewhat scorching, but the city traffic remained as bustling as ever.

In a little over a month, he too would officially begin his new life at this university.

Just think: the apartment was secured, the computer was ready, and the Ferrari was still being expedited...

Coupled with his research into "beauties," perhaps his university life wouldn't be boring at all?

He recalled that the system would sooner or later drop new tasks or cash-back rewards, which could正好 subsidize the QQ group promotion fees and the budget for future events: "Whether it's red envelope lucky draws or campus beauty contest prizes, money has to be spent anyway."

Indeed, early expenses didn't seem like a problem to Li Yan, as long as it allowed the "Sichuan University 2023 Freshmen Group" to gather three thousand-plus classmates in the shortest possible time. Only then could his various ideas be put into execution.

To outsiders, this looked merely like the group owner's enthusiastic hobby, but behind the scenes, it was entirely part of Li Yan's comprehensive grand strategy.

If nothing else, running a legitimate "University Campus Beauty Selection" professionally could turn out quite impressive—so why not?

As for the first-place winner of the campus beauty selection?

Naturally, as the group owner, Li Yan would have to show some initiative!

The prizes wouldn't just be limited to physical items and cash rewards; what if he added a Michelin three-star dining experience in Chengdu to the mix?

And who would he go with?

Who else could it possibly be?