Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

It was six in the evening, and the sky was growing dark.

Chen Yansen looked at the first version of the Pinbei UI mockups submitted by the design department, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

Its functional sections were similar to FoxTao’s, with a product waterfall feed featuring individual items at its core. A top-level category bar was added to the top of the page.

The bottom navigation bar on the mobile end was designed with only three buttons: Home, Freebies, and Personal Center. It was minimalist to the extreme.

Users could set their shipping address and complete their purchase directly from the product page, with support for three payment methods: Orange Pay, Alipay, and online banking.

The shopping cart, submission, and payment pages were eliminated entirely to shorten the user’s purchasing journey as much as possible.

After all, every extra step in the process leads to a loss of some users.

Chen Yansen’s initial positioning for Pinbei was a discount group-buying site, so he couldn’t give users too much time to hesitate.

He attached his revision suggestions to an email and sent it to the design department.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

A knock came from the door.

”Come in!” Chen Yansen replied coolly.

”Boss, I’ve coordinated the itinerary for DST’s visit with all the departments. I also found a Russian translator from the foreign languages college.”

Ye Qiuping handed over the proposal, placing it on Chen Yansen’s desk as she explained.

”Alright, got it.” Chen Yansen nodded. He picked up the proposal and skimmed through it. It was a standard reception plan for investors, with no oversights.

Ye Qiuping glanced at him, then turned and left.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen left his office and went down to the first floor. He casually picked an Aston Martin Rapide and drove toward Xuyuan.

The security guards had already registered his license plate, so he had unobstructed access.

After parking the car downstairs from the faculty apartments, Chen Yansen first went to the cafeteria for dinner.

He had planned to go to the library to borrow a few new books, but as he passed the Music Academy, he saw a small stage set up by the entrance, surrounded by a bustling crowd.

Only then did Chen Yansen remember that it was the annual club recruitment season again. The area in front of the stage was packed with underclassmen who had come to check out the legs... I mean, listen to the music.

”Brother Sen, you here to appreciate the music too?”

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind him.

Chen Yansen turned around to see Tang Zhenzhe wiggling his eyebrows, a knowing look on his face that said, ’I get it’.

Song Yang, Meng Xibo, and Zhu Xiaopeng were with him, but Wang Zhengqiang was nowhere to be seen.

”This music isn’t fair enough, nor is it long enough. You guys enjoy it, I’m heading to the library.”

Chen Yansen commented with a smile.

”Ah Qiang went to buy beer and snacks. We’re planning to play cards on the lawn. Brother Sen, wanna join?”

Tang Zhenzhe invited him enthusiastically with a sly grin.

’Play cards?’

Chen Yansen paused for a moment. Realizing they meant the wholesome version, he waved his hand. ”You guys go ahead.”

With that, he walked toward the library.

Tang Zhenzhe watched his retreating figure and clicked his tongue. ”Brother Sen truly is my idol. Not only is he rich, but he’s rich and still loves to study this much.”

After joining the brand department at Orange Technology, Tang Zhenzhe had finally ended his life as a simp.

Now, apart from managing the affairs of the ’10 Journalism class, he spent the rest of his time at the Science and Technology Park and had even resigned from his position as vice president of the student union.

He had learned a lesson from Chen Yansen and Song Yang: school titles are worthless in the real world. A man needs to have money.

When Chen Yansen returned from the library, he saw Tang Zhenzhe and the others sitting on the lawn as expected, drinking beer and chatting idly with a deck of playing cards scattered on the ground.

Chen Yansen walked straight toward Room 0418, not bothering to join in the fun.

「The next morning.」

After finishing the books he had borrowed the previous night, Chen Yansen lay on the sofa scrolling through the news, quietly waiting for 8:00 AM.

Today was November 1st, payday for the employees under Senlian Capital.

Unlike last month, Cloud Speed Express was now included, which gave him something more to look forward to.

Taobao’s Singles’ Day was already in its warm-up phase. The e-commerce department of Orange Technology had completed its registration on Taobao Mall last week.

The store currently had only one product, which would also be part of the promotional event.

Juhuasuan was running a slogan, ”Group Buy a Flight Attendant,” which made Chen Yansen do a double-take. It was only after clicking on it that he realized he’d been tricked by clickbait.

It turned out to be a marketing campaign by Taobao in collaboration with Southern Airlines. Users who spent 517 yuan on a bracelet would get a chance to buy a Mercedes-Benz Smart for 1 yuan in a flash sale and have lunch with 111 flight attendants.

It was practically the originator of risqué marketing. It seemed tacky, but it garnered tens of millions of views and had a remarkable effect.

The competition between Jingdong and Taobao was intensifying. Handsome Dong had publicly declared to Ma Liyun that ”B2C will surpass Taobao within 5 years.”

However, Ma Liyun didn’t respond, most likely out of disdain.

At the same time, Jingdong announced it would participate in the Singles’ Day promotion, an obvious retaliation for Taobao crashing its 618 festival.

”Next year, Pinbei will have to participate in 618 and Singles’ Day too.”

Seeing this, Chen Yansen muttered to himself.

In his memory, Taobao’s sales on Singles’ Day this year would break 5 billion, a 4 billion increase from 2010.

This signaled that the domestic e-commerce industry was about to rocket to its peak!

For the next decade, both the express delivery and e-commerce industries would experience explosive growth.

And Chen Yansen’s Pinbei and Cloud Speed were both ready, just waiting for the great era of e-commerce to arrive.

As soon as 8:00 AM arrived, the Human Dao Fire began to pour in!

A minute later, Chen Yansen pulled up the system panel. Seeing the fire value, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

Orange Technology, Pinbei, the Orange Phone Factory, and Cloud Speed Express had contributed a total of 4,160 wisps of Human Dao Fire. Adding the remaining 83 wisps, he had a total of 4,243.

Chen Yansen synthesized them into 42 wisps of Divine Dao Fire and allocated them to his Spirit.

After just a few breaths, his Spirit attribute rose to 11.25!

Compared to six months ago, it seemed to have increased by only 1.25, but Chen Yansen could clearly feel that the improvement in his memory and comprehension was far more significant than a simple 1.25 suggested.

From an energy perspective, this 1.25 increase had cost over ten thousand wisps of Human Dao Fire. Yet, when he had raised his Spirit from 1.32 to 10, it had only taken him over 800 wisps. The difference was more than tenfold.

Chen Yansen’s learning efficiency was even more terrifying than it had been half a year ago. In his eyes, abstruse knowledge in subjects like mathematics and physics was hardly more difficult than ’1+1=2’.

For a completely new language, he only needed to read through a dictionary once and watch one movie in its original language to deduce the phonetic logic and summarize the grammar, thereby fully mastering it.

It was less like learning and more like an innate talent.

This feeling of understanding things at a glance made Chen Yansen enjoy passing the time by absorbing new knowledge.

「Meanwhile.」

In Yanjing, Lei Yijun hosted representatives from Qiming, Temasek, and Qualcomm Capital. After two days of negotiations, Xiaomi finally accepted the B-round financing proposal, raising a total of 160 million US dollars at a valuation of 2 billion US dollars.

As the news spread, sales of the Xiaomi Mobile Phone immediately rose.

Although the Xiaomi Mobile Phone had many shortcomings compared to the Orange Mobile Phone, it was still an outstanding product in terms of cost-effectiveness.

At least in the 2,000-yuan price range, it had virtually no rival except for the Orange Mobile Phone.

When Chen Yansen heard about it, he didn’t pay it any mind.

His rivals had never been Xiaomi, but Apple and Samsung.

For Orange Technology, this was just the beginning.

Chen Yansen left the faculty apartments and drove to the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

He first went to Building 8 for a morning meeting with Wang Teng, Gao Weilin, Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, and the others, then went downstairs to Building 6, where Pinbei was located.

”Morning, Class President!” Xu Xingxing was on the first floor giving instructions to the new receptionist, Zhang Yi. When she turned and saw Chen Yansen, she greeted him with a smile.

Zhang Yi, a tall and pretty graduate of Xuyuan’s hotel management program, quickly followed suit. ”Good morning, Boss!”

”Morning,” Chen Yansen nodded and walked into the elevator.

”Leader Xu, does the boss have a girlfriend?” Zhang Yi asked in a low voice.

”Don’t even think about it. The boss’s girlfriend is right across the way at Orange Technology.”

Xu Xingxing glanced at Zhang Yi and told her the truth, hoping to dissuade her from any unrealistic fantasies.

Chen Yansen got out of the elevator and went to the design department’s office area, where he found Song Yuncheng was also present.

”It’s work hours. Why aren’t you at your post?”

Chen Yansen walked up and asked abruptly.

”Senior Sister Jiang started today, so I came to say hello.” Song Yuncheng turned, saw it was Chen Yansen, and explained with a smile.

”Pres... President Chen, hello. We meet again.” Jiang Ruoxuan was a little stiff, her words not coming out smoothly.

She never expected that the freshman who was reselling phone cards at school just a year ago would now be her boss.

Honestly, with her resume, it would have been difficult to get into Pinbei Technology if not for Song Yuncheng’s internal recommendation.

”Boss, good morning!” At that moment, the director of the design department, Cai Qiming, came over with a smile.

He was from Taiwan and had come to the Mainland five years ago to make a living. He had previously been the design director at Jingdong before being poached by Xiong Li with a high salary.

”Is Pinbei’s product branding design ready?” Chen Yansen asked, looking at Cai Qiming.

Cai Qiming had a gentle way of speaking, but he was highly competent and had great emotional intelligence. Not long after joining the company, he had already figured out the backgrounds of a dozen or so of the original key employees.

So, when Song Yuncheng recommended Jiang Ruoxuan for the design department, even though Jiang Ruoxuan’s design skills were a bit below standard, Cai Qiming still told the HR department to hire her.

After all, Song Yuncheng was Pinbei’s employee number one, someone the big boss had brought over from FoxTao, and also the general manager of the Major Client Investment Attraction Department.

Cai Qiming was more than willing to give her that much face.

”Boss, I’ve made four proposals and sent them to your email. If any adjustments are needed, just let me know.”

Cai Qiming was familiar with the working style of Mainland bosses and responded with a smile.

”Alright,” Chen Yansen nodded.

He then took Song Yuncheng back to his office and asked as soon as he sat down, ”Have the group buy products for Meiters, Wine God Network, and Semir been decided?”

”A total of 47 items. The prices are 5% to 20% lower than the final price on FoxTao. Also, Cloud Speed sent people to the Meiters Headquarters factory. In the future, for Meiters orders on Pinbei shipped via Cloud Speed, the starting delivery fee will be just 3 yuan.”

Song Yuncheng was currently responsible for all this external liaison work.

”What about Penguin?” Chen Yansen asked.

”The coordination is done. We’re just waiting for the product to go live,” Song Yuncheng answered immediately.

”Yifeng, Yuan Wei, and Li Hui have finished negotiations with the local agricultural association in Xiyue. They’re going to test the waters with navel oranges. For those with a diameter under 7 centimeters, it’s 9.9 yuan for 3 jin with free shipping. For 7-8 centimeters, it’s 13.9 yuan for 3 jin with free shipping. For those over 8 centimeters, it’s 19.9 yuan for 4 jin with free shipping, and the 8-jin option is 36.9 yuan.”

Without waiting for Chen Yansen to ask, Song Yuncheng continued to report on the Investment Attraction team’s situation.

”What’s the lowest price per jin for the lower-grade fruit at the source?” Chen Yansen pressed after listening.

”0.6 yuan per jin,” Song Yuncheng replied.

”The fruit costs 1.8 yuan, the delivery fee via Cloud Speed’s agricultural support channel is 3 yuan, the cost for a three-layer corrugated fruit carton is 2.2 to 3 yuan, plus labor costs for packing... it all adds up to less than 8 yuan. Tell Yifeng to push the price down by another 3 yuan.”

Chen Yansen said after a moment of thought.

It wasn’t that Chen Yansen didn’t want the fruit farmers to make a profit. Rather, Pinbei’s multi-SKU design was perfect for using low-priced, lower-grade fruit as a loss leader to attract traffic, while relying on higher-priced, quality fruit to increase gross profit.

It seemed like they wouldn’t make a single dime and would even lose money on labor costs.

But Chen Yansen knew that as long as sales volume went up, users who bought the low-priced, small-sized option would often account for less than thirty percent of the total.

”6.9 yuan for 3 jin with free shipping?” Song Yuncheng was slightly taken aback. She felt Chen Yansen was driving the price down too aggressively.

In 2011, e-commerce prices were nowhere near as hyper-competitive as they would be a decade later. Throwing a price like this into the market was an absolute bombshell.