Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

When the conversation turned to the Aurora OS 1.3 operating system, Wang Teng spoke with endless enthusiasm. After all, it was the fruit of his team’s labor for the better part of half a year.

’This kid is really sneaking in a lot of his own stuff,’ Chen Yansen muttered to himself.

A single smartphone, from its hardware to its software, involves vast and complex supply and technological chains, akin to building a skyscraper.

Although he wanted to stop using the communication technology patents held by Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Nokia, Orange Technology had no domestic alternatives.

Chen Yansen was a quick study, but he could only take things one step at a time.

Without the product plans he provided, technologies like the Aurora OS 1.3 system, fast battery charging, memory-cleaning algorithms, AI-powered photo imaging, and even the hardware design would have taken at least another year and a half to even have a chance of being realized.

After all, companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola had been accumulating technology patents in the communications and mobile phone sectors for over twenty years.

And Orange Technology had been founded less than a year ago.

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes, mulling over his New Year’s plans.

He wasn’t trying to accomplish everything at once. But with his Spiritual Power—more than ten times that of a normal person—combined with ample funding and R&D staff, he was confident that if he started with the operating system or a single core component and focused his efforts, he could absolutely reach the top of the industry in an extremely short amount of time.

He had no intention of handing over the majority of his profits to others on a silver platter.

Just as he was lost in thought, Wang Teng announced the launch price: 3,999 yuan.

From 1,999 yuan to 3,999 yuan, Orange Technology’s mainstream model had suddenly jumped by 2,000 yuan.

This was a bit hard for the fans in the audience to accept. At 1,999 yuan, they were all friends. At 3,999 yuan, things suddenly felt distant.

Yu Chendong and the others grinned. ’Chen Yansen is a businessman, after all,’ they thought. ’There’s no way he could keep selling unprofitable products.’

The 3,999 yuan price tag drastically reduced the pressure they were under.

To be frank, with the Orange C2’s specs, the material cost alone was nearly 1,800 yuan. For a company like Meizu, HTC, or Mountain Star, the price would absolutely be set somewhere between 3,500 and 4,500 yuan.

A staff member from YY Live instinctively glanced at the comment section. It was flooded with messages—a torrent of angry comments.

”Heh! A minute ago, he was talking about making phones affordable for everyone, and now he’s already gotten full of himself!”

”3,999 yuan? How dare Orange Technology!”

”Son of a bitch! Without our support, would Orange Technology be where it is today?”

”Profiteer! Screw this! I’d rather buy a Mountain Star!”

Clearly, the 3,999 yuan price tag far exceeded many people’s expectations.

Even though they knew deep down that the Orange C2’s specs were flagship-level, and that with a deeply optimized Aurora OS 1.3 and the new fast-charging feature, a 3,999 yuan price was perfectly reasonable, that didn’t stop them from cursing up a storm.

”Too expensive, isn’t it?”

Wang Teng smiled faintly, then answered his own question. ”I think so too. A regular worker at the Orange Phone Factory earns a pre-tax salary of 7,000 yuan a month, and buying one Orange phone requires half a month’s wages, which is very unreasonable.”

How much?

7,000 yuan a month?

The scrolling comments in the YY Live stream instantly froze. It was as if everyone’s brain had just crashed.

In 2012, the starting salary for most college graduates was only 3,000 yuan, and some earned even less.

To earn a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan, you’d need, first, a bachelor’s degree from a top-tier university, and second, a degree in a high-demand field, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed.

And now Wang Teng was actually saying that an ordinary worker at the Orange Phone Factory earned 7,000 yuan a month.

Then what had they studied so hard for over a decade for?

For the love of learning?

Many college students in the live chat were completely floored. They immediately started typing in the chat: ”President Wang, can you please take that back? A friend of mine saw that, and they’re feeling really down.”

”My friend too!”

”Same here!”

Wang Teng naturally couldn’t see the comments in the live stream. He paused and said, ”I think it’s expensive too. I can’t afford it either. So after careful consideration, I’ve decided to drop the price to 2,699 yuan!”

The audience at the conference and in the live stream were stunned for a moment. They never expected him to pull a move like dropping the price.

The move was so wild it threw both competitors and fans for a loop, catching them completely off guard.

Even Lei Yijun hadn’t expected such a maneuver at a new product launch.

’That’s a good move. I’ll have to remember that,’ Lei Yijun thought to himself.

From 3,999 yuan down to 2,699 yuan—slashing 1,300 yuan in one fell swoop.

The atmosphere in the venue immediately erupted, and many potential customers started seriously considering an upgrade.

Once the discussions in the audience died down, Wang Teng announced the price for the 32GB version was 2,999 yuan, and the 64GB version was 3,499 yuan.

Huang Zhang, who had been composed until now, started to panic. The Meizu MX, which had launched on New Year’s Day, was priced higher than the Orange C2 but had lower specs. How was he supposed to compete?

Xu Zhenhui and his secretary sat in the front row. Although he didn’t understand phones or business, judging by the crowd’s reaction, the Orange C2’s future sales were bound to be strong.

On Weibo, countless users flocked to the comment sections of the official Orange Mobile Phone and Chen Yansen accounts, intensely debating the specs, prices, and other details of the Orange D1 and Orange C2.

At the same time, the press conference was coming to an end.

On the Orange Mall homepage, a banner for the Orange D1 and Orange C2 engineering models finally popped up.

Sales would begin at 12:00 PM sharp.

There were only 300 units of each phone in stock. Even with restrictions on user level, IP address, and shipping address, they still sold out in minutes.

Finally, Wang Teng announced that the official release date for the Orange D1 and Orange C2 was set for January 14th, and they would be delivered to customers’ doors by Cloud Speed Express.

In a single press conference, Wang Teng had promoted three of Senlian’s subsidiary companies.

To Chen Yansen’s surprise, on the list of trending topics, the keywords related to Orange’s new products were completely buried under the topic of ”wages and benefits at the Orange Phone Factory.”

”Seriously? 7,000 yuan a month? These phone companies do nothing but brag all day long.”

”My cousin works on the assembly line at the Orange Phone Factory. He makes over 6,000-7,000 a month. In October, he made almost 8,000. But to be fair, that’s all from working overtime.”

”See? I knew it. There’s no such thing as some magical, perfect factory!”

But as workers from the Orange Phone Factory appeared in the comment section to share their work experiences, netizens slowly learned the truth.

The Orange Phone Factory had a six-hour workday.

They provide free room and board!

Overtime pay is 1.5 times the normal rate on weekdays, 2 times on weekends, and 3 times on public holidays!

Employees who were literate and quick-witted even had the opportunity to train in the maintenance department. Once they completed the training and became official, they could become after-sales service engineers, earning over 10,000 yuan a month for much less strenuous work.

This made netizens cry out, ”Only 10 hours a day?! I’m stuck doing 12 hours a day with no overtime pay!”

Many people started clamoring to go to Shencheng City to work on the assembly line; some were joking, but others were dead serious.

After the press conference came a thank-you luncheon for the guests.

It wasn’t until three in the afternoon that the invited guests began to leave one after another.

After seeing off Lei Yijun and the others, Chen Yansen turned and went back into the hotel, walking into a private room on the top floor with Ye Qiuping.