From Chinese Language Teacher to AI API Provider: An Unexpected Journey

#ai #productivity #beginners

Hello everyone, I'm @xiaoqiangapi.

I have been a Chinese language teacher for over ten years, teaching Chinese to international students. My income is not high, but my job is stable and I enjoy it.

You might be curious: How did a liberal arts teacher without a technical background start providing AI API services? The story begins with a request from a Korean student.

1. The Origin: A Student's Request for Help

At the beginning of this year, a former student from South Korea approached me and said, "Teacher, our school's artificial intelligence project wants to use OpenAI's API, but it's too expensive. We want to try Chinese LLMs, like DeepSeek. Do you know where we can find a reliable supplier?"
At that time, I knew nothing about API gateways or large model invocation, but seeing the student's expectant eyes, I agreed.
I started searching everywhere on Taobao, Xianyu, and domestic AI communities. The results were:

Unstable connections, frequent timeouts and disconnections
High response latency, seriously affecting the development progress
Unclear charging, with additional fees popping up all the time The student finally said, "Teacher, why don't you set up a stable API environment yourself? We trust you." As a liberal arts teacher, I took on the challenge despite my reservations.

2. Process: Learning from Scratch

It took me a few weeks to learn by translating English documents and studying:

How to set up a gateway using Cloudflare Workers
How to register official API accounts for DeepSeek, MiniMax, and Zhishu AI

The document was all in English. I looked up every single word. After staying up for more than ten nights, I finally set up the basic framework and got the test running smoothly. The student project was successfully completed and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

3. Transformation: From "Helping" to "Serving"

A few weeks later, that student came to me again: "Teacher, my classmates and seniors also want to use your API. Can you provide it officially and set a stable price?"
From then on, I gradually started to operate the service. I handled everything myself, from the domain name to the technical documentation and the website's UI/UX (with some help from students). It was busy, but very fulfilling.

4. My Principles

Avoid confusing users with technical jargon; speak in plain language.
No false advertising; the model is what it is.
No exaggerated marketing; focus on stable access to the official APIs of three providers (DeepSeek, Zhipu, and MiniMax). Having been a teacher for many years, I understand one thing: what users pay for is not the complexity of the technology, but the certainty of problem-solving. So, what do overseas developers need most when using Chinese LLMs?
A stable gateway: no need to fiddle with network settings; just plug and play.
Familiar payment methods: such as PayPal, not Alipay or WeChat Pay.
Clear multilingual documentation: in English, Korean, and Japanese.
A responsive support channel: someone to contact promptly when there's a problem. These are our core values.

5. What We Are and What We Are Not

We are not tech experts, nor are we a large company.
We are simply the "model transporters" who deliver China's top LLMs, such as DeepSeek, Zhipu, and MiniMax, to overseas developers in the most stable and transparent way.
Our goal is to help you bypass unnecessary intermediaries, complex configurations, and repeated trial and error.

6. Current Status and Invitation

Currently, the website, PayPal payment, Telegram, and X accounts are all live. The first paying user was a classmate of that student. We have been making improvements based on feedback.
In the future, we will continue to transparently document the entire entrepreneurial process and grow together with the developer community.

If you're interested, you're welcome to: