Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

It was New Year’s Day.

The homepages of the Luzhou Tieba, Luzhou Online, and other local forums all featured an event poster with the slogan: ”Let Kuai Pao Buy You the First Milk Tea of the New Year.”

Over the past month, Kuai Pao’s reputation in Luzhou had been steadily growing. It had become a must-have food app on everyone’s phone, spreading by word of mouth, especially among university students and young professionals.

”Zhou Yi, look at this promotion!”

In a rental apartment in Yaohai District, Wu Lei was lying on his bed when he suddenly noticed a new promotion on the Kuai Pao app.

New users who signed up would get a free cup of milk tea.

Participating brands included Kawangka, CoCo, Gu Ming, Mi Chao, and Bi Feng Tang. Existing users could also invite a friend to complete their first order, and once their friend’s delivery was finished, they would get a free order of their own.

The mechanics were simple and direct, which really appealed to young people.

”Send me the invite link. I’ll get people to sign up,” Zhou Yi said right away, turning her head to stare at the screen for a moment.

”Okay,” Wu Lei responded.

「At the same time.」

Existing users like Zhou Yi and Wu Lei all rushed to get their family, friends, and classmates to sign up for Kuai Pao.

For young professionals and university students, who would turn down free milk tea?

On the day of the promotion, new user registrations skyrocketed. Normally, there would only be about 1,000 to 1,500 new users by noon, but today, shortly after twelve, the number of new users surpassed 10,000.

In 2012, an era dominated by online forums like Tieba and other BBSs, Kuai Pao’s online marketing campaign effortlessly generated over two million impressions.

Even some Luzhou natives living far away saw the Kuai Pao promotional poster.

Li Zijie was one of them. He was currently attending university in Hu City, while his girlfriend was studying in Luzhou.

He hadn’t been able to get a train ticket back to Luzhou for the day before, so he was taking a train back on the 1st, planning to surprise his girlfriend.

Once he understood how Kuai Pao worked, Li Zijie immediately entered his girlfriend’s dorm address. To his surprise, it was within the delivery range.

After all, Jade Lake was Kuai Pao’s first major market. Even though Kang Guodong and Pei Yi had shifted their operational focus to the city center, they still hadn’t abandoned their business in the University City.

Li Zijie placed an order for a Kawangka Milk Tea and also bought his girlfriend some duck necks, roasted pig’s trotters, and steamed custard buns from Caidie Xuan—all of her favorite snacks.

His girlfriend was always complaining, ”It’s getting cold, and I can’t even hug you,” or, ”You don’t even know when I’m sad,” and, ”You’re never here when I need someone.”

’Now that there’s Kuai Pao, I can buy her milk tea and flowers more often and create little surprises for her.’

Feeling very satisfied, Li Zijie paid for the order.

「Half an hour later.」

When Li Zijie saw the order was marked as delivered, a small smile touched his lips. ’She must be so happy to get all this,’ he thought.

At that thought, he immediately called his girlfriend. ”RING... RING... RING...”

After more than ten rings, his girlfriend finally answered.

”Lin Lin, I bought you some milk tea and snacks. Did you get them?” Li Zijie asked with a smile.

”I... I got them. The duck... duck neck is delicious...” His girlfriend’s voice was choppy and broken.

”What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” Li Zijie asked, concerned.

”N-no, I’m... exercising. I’ll talk to you later.” She sounded out of breath and hung up before Li Zijie could even respond.

’Working out at noon?’

Though Li Zijie was a little puzzled, he didn’t think too much of it. After all, his girlfriend had taken an aerobics elective last semester and had a competition coming up, so it was normal for her to be training hard.

About ten minutes later, the train finally pulled into the station.

Li Zijie walked out of the train station and hailed a taxi to the University City. Gazing at the scenery outside the window, he was struck by how unfamiliar it all felt.

The road in front of the station was fenced off on both sides. The driver told him Luzhou was building a subway.

Li Zijie smiled to himself, phone clutched in his hand. The closer he got to his girlfriend, the more excited he became.

Thirty minutes later, he got out of the taxi. He didn’t call his girlfriend right away. Instead, he pulled his suitcase into a hotel across the street from the university.

He had told his parents that he wasn’t coming back to Luzhou for New Year’s Day.

So, for the next three days, he would have to stay in a hotel.

A jolt of excitement went through Li Zijie as he thought of the box of Durex in his suitcase. Upon entering the hotel lobby, he quickly pulled out his ID, ready to get a room with a king-sized bed.

A couple was checking in ahead of him, so Li Zijie had to wait.

”Lin Lin, this milk tea is pretty good. Want a sip?” the young man said, offering the cup he’d just sipped from to the girl.

”It’s Kawangka’s ’Black All-In’. Of course it’s good,” the girl replied, taking the cup and slurping from it with a wide smile.

’Lin Lin?’

’She has the same name as my girlfriend?’

The thought crossed Li Zijie’s mind.

”Room 8238, on the second floor. Please hold on to your room key.” After verifying the couple’s Group Buy voucher and taking a 200-yuan deposit, the front desk clerk handed over a key card.

The moment the girl turned, Li Zijie froze. His mind felt like it was about to explode!

The girl with the young man’s arm wrapped around her slender waist was, to his utter shock, his girlfriend, Gu Linlin.

”Li Zijie? Aren’t you supposed to be in Hu City?” Gu Linlin faltered, the smile instantly vanishing from her face as she asked in disbelief.

”Who is he?”

Li Zijie pointed at the other man’s face and demanded furiously.

”Since you’ve already seen, there’s no point in hiding it. Let’s break up.”

Seeing that she’d been caught, Gu Linlin decided to just come clean.

”Hey... bro, not gonna lie, this milk tea really is pretty good,” the guy with his arm around Gu Linlin said with a smirk, not passing up the chance to twist the knife.

Seeing Li Zijie frozen to the spot, the two of them paid him no more mind and headed for the second floor.