Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 277 - 272 Spending Money to Get Scolded

Yan Ling initially had the heart to advise Yan Yan not to spend money without restraint, as if she had never seen money in her life.

But after seeing this new material, Yan Ling simply surrendered.

"Material" as a word doesn’t sound glamorous, but Stanford’s material laboratory gathers a bunch of elites from physics, chemistry, and biology.

However, it was a material still in the laboratory, not mass-produced, and not market-tested.

Spending millions of US dollars on a patent and then millions more to build a production line required great courage.

The Yan siblings just happened to have plenty of that courage.

Not only did they have courage, but they also had money. While other buyers were still observing, the Yan siblings paid in full at once and started production with the utmost speed.

After utilizing the latest research from one of the top 5 global new material labs, the weight of a size 42 shoe dropped to below fifty grams, with the base shoe weighing 47.16 grams.

The outermost layer of the shoe, due to having several "attachments," weighed "as much as" 2.26 grams.

Even so, the "total" weight of the shoe was still less than 50 grams, while the globally lightest New Balance MRC5000 of the same size weighed 88 grams.

Yan Yan’s designed sneakers, after utilizing the new material, felt "weightless" to an extent far beyond Yan Yan’s highest expectations.

.........

In February 2015, Master Y underwent another upgrade.

All designs approved by Master Y, once submitted, received an email from Master Y, asking the designer if they were interested in condensing their design into an irregular geometric shape.

As for what the geometric shape was used for, Master Y, not being human nor taught by anyone, wasn’t taught the politeness of responding to questions as humans do.

Designers sent numerous emails asking, "What is special about this geometric shape? Is there an extra design fee? Why is there suddenly such an option?" Master Y ignored all of them.

All the e-mails, once sent, vanished without a trace.

Master Y’s whimsy, no one knows whom he got it from.

Master Y’s logic was simple, whether to ask was Master Y’s business, whether to do it was the designer’s business, and whether to respond depended on Master Y’s "mood."

By May 2015, after Yan Ling completed a special interview, Master Y suddenly had a change of heart and collectively answered the series of questions about the geometric shape.

The answers were given, but probably like Yan Yan, Master Y was "limited in language ability"; the response was a direct plagiarism of what Yan Ling had said during the interview, simply and brutally: "In two months, you’ll know."

Without a response, it might have been alright, but with a response, it stirred various criticisms and attacks from the fans.

The "Angry Youth" who had many graffitis previously not chosen, after gaining fame for his top-notch "scolding skills," attracted a large group of rap artists.

These persons have now formed an "interest group" of over five hundred people. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Gathering in this community were those who specialized in writing or singing rap to criticize Master Y.

Yan Yan particularly liked this "interest group"; whether criticizing a person or a brand, continuously "innovating" in criticism, creating new critiques, required a lot of skill.

Without a strong fan culture, it was impossible to produce "new songs" every few days.

There are many ways to "scold," and Yan Yan considered the highest level to be scolding without a single swear word and without repeating "lyrics."

.........

Yan Yan was already busy with haute couture every day, và also needed to design Bao Bao’s wedding, truly leaving no time to manage her illegitimate "brainchild" Y·Y.

In May 2015, after Bao Bao’s wedding, Yan Yan, the nominal and actual creative director of Y·Y, finally managed to take a few days out of her "million" busy tasks to visit New York.

The first batch of shoes was ready, and the first batch of shoe uppers was also completed.

As a perfectionist designer, she certainly needed to inspect the fit of the shoes and uppers on-site.

If Y·Y’s shoes couldn’t cause a sensation, it could lead to failure.

Yan Yan had invested half of her current fortune into Y·Y’s shoes, and it was very likely that she would continue to invest.

Just having haters criticize and true fans reply wasn’t enough to maintain the heat.

Something more substantial needed to be done.

Yan Yan decided to give Y·Y’s fans some benefits.

By July, when Y·Y’s trendy shoes were going on sale, promotional activities had to begin in May at the latest.

In May, all Y·Y stores switched to opening in the first half of the month.

The adjustment at the end of the previous year had fixed 18 stores to open in the first half of each month and another 18 in the second half.

The stores that consistently opened on the first had no abnormalities, but the fans who were accustomed to lining up on the 16th were a bit "furious."

Although Y·Y hadn’t stated it explicitly, for the past six months, every month started on the 16th, changing without any notice was simply unreasonable.

Those who wanted to criticize Y·Y increased, as did those wanting to vandalize the stores with "egg throwing."

However, this time, everyone who wanted to start criticizing was stunned.

The arrogant brand Y·Y, with eyes above its head, actually issued an apology statement.

Apologizing to the fans for never having a normal operating schedule since its establishment.

The last line of the apology statement was very much in Y·Y’s usual style.

It read: This apology is insincere; if apologies were useful, what’s the use of police?

Immediately following, Y·Y very "sincerely" announced its fan benefit plan.

The first item was for the designers; in the past two years, anyone who had at least three designs "employed" by Master Y could choose their favorite work to be voted on by fans.

The top three "All-Time Best" would receive prizes of 200,000, 150,000, and 70,000 US dollars respectively. (Note: Focus solely on popularity, not on the design content.)

Without the note, the first item sounded normal, but with the addition of the note, it became particularly informal.

But compared to the second fan benefit plan, the first could definitely be considered utterly formal.

The second item was to select the "Best Single" with a prize of 160,000 US dollars. (Note: Only popularity matters, whether it’s from haters or not.)

The second benefit didn’t require participants to be Y·Y designers or at least special-invited designers.

With such rules, the voted "Best Single" could only be a critique of Y·Y.

Spending money to hire people to "write songs" that criticize oneself was probably only something a bizarre brand like Y·Y would do.