Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Li Zijie stared blankly. He finally understood what Gu Linlin’s panting meant.

The receptionist barely lifted an eyelid, sneering inwardly. He had seen this kind of thing all the time.

Li Zijie clutched his ID card and walked out of the hotel, utterly dejected.

Most Kuai Pao users were happy on New Year’s Day because the platform was offering crazy subsidies. But for Li Zijie, it was the gloomiest day imaginable.

His girlfriend’s panting and the guy’s voice saying, ”This milk tea is really good,” kept replaying in his mind.

Maybe he was talking about the milk tea. Maybe not.

「Meanwhile.」

Far away in Hu City, Zhang Xuhao was also following Kuai Pao’s recent progress. When he saw their extravagant marketing stunt—treating the whole city to milk tea—he was completely blown away.

’If I could copy that in Hu City, my brand’s reputation would skyrocket!’

But the moment he thought about the required funds, his spirits sank. He had no money!

Eleme was only getting 10,000 orders a day. After deducting costs for delivery, management, marketing, and R&D, he was only making a little over 400,000 yuan a month.

He couldn’t afford a similar marketing campaign at all!

Seeing Kuai Pao’s daily order volume about to surpass Eleme’s, Zhang Xuhao was starting to genuinely panic.

Left with no choice, he took out his phone and called Zhu Xiaohu of Jinsha Venture Capital. He wanted to use their shared Jiaoda alumni connection to make one last-ditch effort.

”President Zhu, this is Zhang Xuhao from Eleme. Yes, that’s right... I’m calling about the financing again.”

Zhang Xuhao’s tone was sycophantic.

”Sorry, Junior Alumnus Zhang, I know Chen Yansen of Senlian Capital invested in Kuai Pao. But you two are in different cities—one in Luzhou, one in Hu City. I think your top priority right now should be to prove your profit model works. It would be better to talk to me about financing after you’ve done that.”

Zhu Xiaohu hadn’t wanted to take the call, but Zhang Xuhao was, after all, part of the Jiaoda alumni circle. If Zhang Xuhao went around badmouthing him, it would more or less affect his reputation as an investor.

Hearing Zhu Xiaohu’s refusal yet again, Zhang Xuhao grew frantic. In a near-begging tone, he said, ”Once Kuai Pao expands its business scope, Eleme won’t stand a chance against them with our current strength! Your initial investment will go down the drain.”

”If that’s what happens, then so be it.” Zhu Xiaohu was slightly annoyed. He offered a couple of patient but dismissive replies before quickly hanging up.

His investment inspection team had already scheduled a meeting with Kuai Pao’s Kang Guodong.

Investing in two companies in the same sector wasn’t a rare practice in the investment banking world.

If one company won and the other lost, Jinsha Venture Capital would win once. If one company became the market leader and the other number two, Jinsha Venture Capital would win twice.

This was similar to what Digital Sky Technology (DST) did in the e-commerce sector, investing in Ah Li one moment and then buying a stake in Jingdong the next.

After all, venture capitalists based their investment evaluations on a project’s financial data and growth prospects; it was hard to be 100% accurate.

When it was impossible to determine who would come out on top, diversifying investment risk was the wisest course of action.

”Moron! Scumbag! You don’t know a good thing when you see it!” Zhang Xuhao couldn’t hold it in, muttering curses under his breath.

It was unclear whether he was cursing Zhu Xiaohu or all the investors who had rejected Eleme.

...

...

After receiving Kang Guodong’s message, Chen Yansen didn’t hesitate. He agreed to let him contact the Penguin Venture Capital Department, but the specific valuation would need Gao Weilin’s final approval.

To put it bluntly, Kang Guodong had the right to negotiate, but the final decision-making power was still in Chen Yansen’s hands.

On New Year’s Day, the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park was deserted. Aside from some business, operations, and customer service staff, most people had gone home for the holiday.

Standing at the window, Chen Yansen had a clear view of Song Yuncheng across the way.

’That woman... she really works herself to the bone to make money!’

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Hearing the knock, Chen Yansen smiled and called out, ”Come in!”

He knew it was Meng Jie just from her silhouette.

”Hee hee, what are you busy with?” Meng Jie pushed the door open, walked in, and sat down on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window, asking with a smile.

”Are the Q4 balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement all done?”

Chen Yansen sat down beside her, teasing with a smile.

”I still have the income statement left to do tomorrow. How about we go see a movie today?”

It was a rare holiday that Meng Jie didn’t go back to Chunshen, so naturally, she wanted to go out with Chen Yansen.

”*Flying Swords of Dragon Gate* or *The Flowers of War*?” Chen Yansen asked in return.

In 2012, the concept of a ”New Year’s Day box office slot” didn’t exist yet. Both of these movies had already been out for almost twenty days.

”I bought two tickets for a preview screening of *The Taking of Tiger Mountain*. Impressive, huh?” Meng Jie said, pulling out two movie tickets.

Online ticketing hadn’t taken off yet in those days. Meituan’s movie division wouldn’t even be established for another month.

But in this life, Meituan’s market share was still lower than Lashou’s and WoWo Group’s. It was anyone’s guess whether they’d have the spare capacity to launch a new business category.

”What time’s the showing?” Chen Yansen asked.

”2:40 PM. We can go for dinner right after,” Meng Jie replied.

Chen Yansen breathed a sigh of relief. He had two other movie tickets in his pocket for an 8:50 PM show—perfect timing to go to a hotel afterward.

His mind raced, trying to figure out how to juggle the two.

After lunch, Chen Yansen drove Meng Jie downtown. They went shopping first, then to the movies, followed by dinner.

After he dropped Meng Jie off at her dorm, he went to pick up Song Yuncheng and headed back to the movie theater.

Chen Yansen ended up watching *The Taking of Tiger Mountain* twice in one day.

”You’ve worked so hard, President Chen,” Song Yuncheng teased in a low voice.

”Why does that sound like you’re mocking me?” Chen Yansen retorted, raising an eyebrow.

”You heard me right.” Song Yuncheng snorted, picked up a piece of popcorn, and stuffed it into Chen Yansen’s mouth.

’Scumbag. He’s the one doing it, but he won’t even let anyone say anything about it!’

”Are you sure you want to talk to your boss in that tone?” Chen Yansen threatened.

”Stop fooling around. Let’s watch the movie,” Song Yuncheng said with a cute pout, grabbing his mischievous hand.

’What’s so great about this stupid movie, anyway?’ Chen Yansen thought. But seeing how engrossed Song Yuncheng was, he didn’t want to bother her.

He then took out his phone and checked the messages in the project group chat.

Right then, the main Kuai Pao project group was buzzing with activity.

”New customer growth: 26,000. Real-time orders: 10,008. Sales volume: 180,400!”

The data was being synced in the main group chat every ten minutes.

”Pei Yi: Let’s go, everyone! Let’s try to break 200,000 in sales today!”

”Kang Guodong: The admin department has ordered a late-night snack for everyone. It’ll be here soon!”

”Kou Zhen: Great work from the guys in the delivery department! I got President Kang and President Pei to approve a special bonus. Everyone gets a share!”

In the early winter of 2012, on New Year’s Night, Kuai Pao was still pushing forward with all its might.

Fortunately, although the weather in Luzhou had turned cold, it hadn’t snowed. Otherwise, the effectiveness of the marketing campaign would have been severely diminished.

By the time Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng walked into their hotel room, Kuai Pao’s total orders for the day had surpassed 13,000.

More than 90 full-time riders and over 80 part-time delivery drivers were busy until 1:30 in the morning before they finally logged off to rest.

After this marketing campaign, Kuai Pao’s fame exploded in Luzhou. The commercial centers in the city and the University City in the suburbs slowly began to accept this new business model of food delivery.

Before long, the search term ”treating the whole city to milk tea” shot up the trending charts.

Although Eleme had been founded earlier, Kuai Pao managed to capture the public’s attention first.