Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 46: Chapter 45: Registrations Surpass the 30,000 Mark

A cool breeze swept through Room 206 on the second floor of the Innovation Park.

A dozen or so young people sat in a circle. They were dressed casually—some in white T-shirts and shorts, others in button-downs and jeans, and one was even wearing flip-flops. Everyone was holding a popsicle.

”Brother Sen, I came up with one: FoxTao! It fits our website’s brand image, and it makes it obvious we’re in e-commerce.”

Zhuang Rui pushed up his glasses, a flash of inspiration striking him as he spoke.

”Ah Rui, that’s a great idea! I’m on board!” Xiang Pengfei furrowed his brow and mulled it over for a moment before agreeing that Zhuang Rui’s idea was indeed a good one.

”Song Yuncheng, what about you? As the UI designer, didn’t you come up with a name for the brand image you created?”

Chen Yansen wrote ’FoxTao’ on the whiteboard, then turned to ask Song Yuncheng.

”I thought of two,” Song Yuncheng said, well-prepared. ”One is ’Little Fox Saves,’ which sounds friendly and cute while directly highlighting the product’s money-saving feature. The other is ’Foxfit,’ which has a similar reasoning to Zhuang Rui’s idea.”

By now, there were over a dozen potential names on the whiteboard, like ’Fox-Count,’ ’Fox-Treasure,’ and ’Foxciety.’

”Why don’t we vote on it?” Zhang Wenbo suggested.

”Brother Sen, which one do you think is best?” Xiang Pengfei asked, and the others all turned to look at Chen Yansen.

”How about this: we’ll run a poll on the website,” Chen Yansen said after a moment’s thought, offering an unexpected answer. ”We’ll put up all these options and let the votes decide. The users who participate can split a cash prize.”

’This has two benefits,’ he thought. ’First, we can use the event to promote the website, acquiring our first seed users at a low cost and efficiently completing the product’s cold start. Second, university students are very online; their choice will be more in tune with the times.’

Everyone quickly understood the cleverness of Chen Yansen’s plan and readily agreed.

”Wenbo, Pengfei, how long will it take to get this done?”

Jensen clapped his hands and looked at the two of them.

”From a technical standpoint, it’s not difficult. We can just use an existing template, set up the data tracking points to record user IDs and their votes, and it’ll definitely be live before the end of the day,” Xiang Pengfei replied without hesitation.

Zhang Wenbo, who was standing to the side, nodded in agreement.

”We’ll set the initial prize money at ten thousand. We can adjust it later based on the number of participants. Let’s start promoting it at Xucheng Academy. At the very least, we need people to understand what cashback shopping is.”

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and announced in a louder voice.

”Okay, we’re on it.” Zhang Wenbo pumped his fist, looking full of motivation.

”No rush. First, I’m paying salaries!”

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, pulled a black plastic bag from the chair behind him, and with a SLAP, several thick wads of cash fell out.

’University students are so easy to work with,’ he mused. ’They’re cheap and resilient. If you tried to set them up with social insurance, they’d probably get mad at you.’

’Their status as recent graduates is extremely important; it’ll be a huge help later for job hunting, securing household registration, or taking civil service exams.’

”Brother Sen, you miscounted! You gave me an extra thousand!” Zhang Wenbo, the first to get paid, blurted out instinctively after counting his money.

”You guys come to the office every night, mooching off the internet and AC. You think I’m blind? Consider the extra your overtime pay.”

Chen Yansen shot him a look and grumbled.

’Overtime pay?’

Zhang Wenbo was stunned for a moment, then broke into a wide grin. Five thousand a month—no one would believe it if he told them.

”Thanks, Brother Sen!”

”The boss is so generous!”

”...”

After receiving their salaries, the team members all chimed in with their praises. Almost everyone got ’overtime pay’ and a ’bonus,’ and Song Yuncheng was no exception.

”Here’s to a successful launch!” Chen Yansen said to the group, waving his hand. The words were as much for himself as they were for them.

Lines of text floated past his eyes: ’Human Dao Fire +0.5,’ ’Human Dao Fire +0.4,’ ’Human Dao Fire +0.3.’ Before long, the Human Dao Fire section on his panel had increased by 4 points.

Chen Yansen focused his mind on his constitution. A familiar chill washed over him, and in an instant, his constitution stat changed to ’1.42’.

The sensation of allocating the point wasn’t as intense as last time, but he could still feel his physical strength gradually increasing.

’Once I make some money, I’m definitely getting into the food delivery and ride-sharing industries. I’ll provide the full five social insurances and one housing fund, plus commercial insurance and supplementary pensions for everyone. With millions of employees then, won’t I just ascend on the spot?!’

Chen Yansen thought to himself, a new sense of anticipation growing in his heart.

The morning flew by in a flash. Chen Yansen slowly stood up and stretched. Catching Song Yuncheng out of the corner of his eye, he thought for a moment before saying, ”Now that you’ve gotten your salary and bonus, shouldn’t you treat me to a meal?”

”Here’s my meal card. Get whatever you want.”

Upon hearing this, Song Yuncheng expressionlessly pulled out her meal card and placed it on Chen Yansen’s desk.

”What if... I want you to eat with me?” Chen Yansen glanced around, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice.

”Boss Chen, don’t forget, you have a girlfriend.”

Song Yuncheng warned him through clenched teeth, enunciating every word.

”Don’t you have a boyfriend, too? I don’t mind,” Chen Yansen continued to joke.

”Well, I do!”

Song Yuncheng snatched her meal card back and spun around to leave. She moved with a brisk, clean motion, her huffy demeanor making her look just like a little cat with its fur on end.

Chen Yansen shook his head, then called over Zhang Wenbo, Zhuang Rui, Xiang Pengfei, and the others. The large group marched boisterously toward the cafeteria.

They attracted quite a few stares along the way.

A month ago, Chen Yansen had become famous at Xucheng Academy. However, as he threw himself into developing the website, the buzz around him had slowly faded. Still, many people were keeping an eye on him, placing bets on whether his startup could even last until the end of the year.

”Brother Sen, the product is about to go live. Shouldn’t we hire an operations person who’s skilled in SEO and ad placement?” Zhang Wenbo asked as they walked.

He had the most project experience and knew what Chen Yansen needed most at this stage. He only brought it up because he hadn’t seen the boss make any moves yet.

”Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.”

Chen Yansen replied with a light chuckle.

’The internet ecosystem in 2010 is completely different from what it will be a decade later,’ he thought. ’If you don’t have money, you do SEO and keyword research. If you’re even poorer, you post in QQ groups and on Xiaonei Network to promote your stuff. Only the really rich companies can afford to buy keyword rankings on Qian Du and Google.’

’I know traffic is key, but my funds are limited. In the early stages, I can only rely on more budget-friendly tactics.’

’For example, private traffic operations—or as it’s commonly known, spamming QQ groups with ads.’

’Before WeChat became the dominant social media app, QQ was the undisputed king. It had everything: classmate groups, hobby groups, friend-making groups... Instead of spending money on ads with Qian Du, it’s better to spend it on social platforms.’

’In my past life, the much-maligned Pinduoduo got its start by riding the WeChat wave, relying on its viral ”bargain” campaigns.’

’I’ll have Pengfei and Wenbo prioritize the development of the price-slashing feature later.’

Chen Yansen plotted silently.

After lunch, most of the team returned to Rooms 206 and 208 to enjoy the air conditioning. After all, with free drinks and ice cream available, going back to their dorms would be pure torture.

At 4 p.m., after passing testing, the voting plugin officially went live.

The rules of the event were gradually perfected through discussions between Chen Yansen and Zhuang Rui.

The prize pool was dynamic: for every 3,000 new participants, another 10,000 yuan would be added. Winners would split the prize pool, with random amounts ranging from 2.8 to 888 yuan. The prize money would be sent to the user’s account balance and could be withdrawn to their Wealth Treasure account.

To increase user retention and the first-order conversion rate, Chen Yansen added a 5-yuan withdrawal threshold. This meant that in order to cash out, winners would have to place another order.

After confirming there were no bugs, Chen Yansen posted the website link in the freshman exchange group chat:

”@everyone Fellow students, the new product developed in Room 206 of the Innovation Park is about to launch! It’s a deals website where you can get cashback by shopping on Taobao. We haven’t decided on a name yet, so we’d like to ask for your help in voting for the most suitable one. Also, students who participate in the poll can split a minimum of ten thousand yuan in cash, with a top prize of 888 yuan...”

A minimum prize pool of ten thousand!

A top individual prize of 888 yuan!

Driven by the prize money and bolstered by Chen Yansen’s influence among the freshmen, the number of registered users on the backend began to climb steadily.

He then copied and pasted the message into the campus card agent group and his high school class group.

Xiang Pengfei, Zhang Wenbo, Zhuang Rui, and the others also helped share it.

”@Chen Yansen Is this a website you built? It looks pretty legit. Are you starting a business?”

”@Chen Yansen I heard Brother Sen is the main campus card agent for Xucheng Academy. You must be making a killing, right?”

”@Chen Yansen What a baller! You’re really giving away 888 yuan in cash just for a vote?”

”@Teacher Zhang Could this be a Trojan virus? Maybe Chen Yansen’s account got hacked?”

BEEP BEEP BEEP—!

Chen Yansen’s high school class group chat instantly blew up, with his old classmates engaged in a heated discussion.

”The event is real and valid. The prize will be drawn in three days. Who knows, you could be the one who wins the 888 yuan!”

Seeing that Chen Yansen hadn’t replied in the group, Meng Jie stepped up to vouch for him.

”Brother Sen is in a meeting! Whatever Sis-in-law says is as good as Brother Sen saying it himself!” Wang Zihao suddenly chimed in.

”@Wang Zihao You dead rat, Haozi, are you looking for a beating?! Retract that message right now!”

Meng Jie furiously typed back.

’Sis-in-law?’

’Chen Yansen and Meng Jie are together?’

For a moment, the old classmates, now scattered in different places, were all taken aback.

They had all assumed that Chen Yansen would end up with Zhou Keyuan after starting university. The outcome was completely unexpected.

”@Meng Jie @Chen Yansen Congratulations! It’s fine to be in a relationship, but don’t let your studies fall behind. I wish you both the best.”

After a little while, their homeroom teacher, Zhang Li, replied.

Zhou Keyuan, who had been lurking and reading the chat, felt her face flush then pale. Reading between the lines, she could tell that Chen Yansen was doing very well in university—he was not only the main campus card agent but had also started his own company.

’If I’d known, I wouldn’t have given him the cold shoulder,’ Zhou Keyuan thought with a pang of regret. At the same time, she was filled with resentment toward Meng Jie. ’Even if I don’t want him, you’re not allowed to take him.’

With university students and the University City as its foundation, the link Chen Yansen sent out began to spread all across the country.

The number of user registrations broke the 30,000 mark!

Only then did Chen Yansen realize that he had vastly underestimated the dominance of QQ in 2010.

By this point, the prize pool had already grown to 110,000 yuan!

A freshman, an e-commerce startup, and a first promotional event with a prize pool in the hundreds of thousands!

This combination of keywords immediately became a focal point for independent media and gossip bloggers.

There were even reports about Chen Yansen and his startup popping up in obscure corners of the three major web portals: Sohu, Sina, and NetEase.

The registration count began to skyrocket!