Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

In their journalism class, many people knew that although Su Meiling and Xu Xingxing were roommates, they never got along. Outsiders assumed it was just a personality clash.

But the residents of Room 8302 knew the real reason: they had both pursued Chen Yansen. It wasn’t a personality clash at all; they couldn’t stand the sight of each other because they were rivals for the same guy.

However, Chen Yansen had announced his girlfriend early on, dashing both of their hopes.

When the group arrived at Fengbao Inn, they gave the restaurant manager quite a shock.

The average bill at his restaurant was just a little over 100 yuan per person.

He usually served university students or white-collar workers. The occasional guest driving a BMW or Mercedes-Benz was considered a rare sight, but today, three luxury cars had shown up.

A Bentley Mulsanne, an Aston Martin Rapide, and a BMW 750—not a single one of them was worth less than two million yuan.

The restaurant manager glanced at the license plates and hurried over to greet them. He saw a tall young man step out of the Bentley’s driver’s seat.

”Mr. Chen, hello, and welcome to Fengbao Inn.”

The restaurant manager said in a fawning tone.

Over the past two years, thanks to FoxTao, Orange Technology, and Pinbei, Chen Yansen had amassed a net worth in the tens of billions and become a household name in Xucheng.

Even if the restaurant manager didn’t recognize him personally, he would recognize his license plate number.

Besides, Chen Yansen had over 20 million fans on Weibo. Every post he made received tens of thousands of shares, likes, and comments, and he occasionally posted photos of himself.

It wasn’t strange that the restaurant manager could recognize him at a glance.

”Find me a large private room, somewhere far from the main dining hall,” Chen Yansen said, giving his instructions.

”Of course, Mr. Chen. Please follow me,” the manager immediately agreed.

Fengbao Inn was a ”wuxia-themed restaurant.” The dishes were all named after wuxia elements like the Nine Yang Scripture, Bone-Softening Palm, and Strength Pill. The decor was also designed to mimic an ancient style, and the servers moved through the main hall in waiter cosplay outfits.

After they were seated in the private room, everyone ordered a dish or two before handing the menu to the server.

After some brief introductions, the group naturally started reminiscing about interesting stories from their university days.

Chen Yansen took out his phone and opened the Kuai Pao app. He switched the delivery address in the top-left corner to Luzhou University City, and only then did the homepage show that he was within the service area.

He swiped through a few screens and found that the selection of registered merchants for bubble tea, food, and flowers was quite comprehensive.

’It seems Kou Zhen’s skills in merchant acquisition and team management are pretty good. His lack of success back at Lashou Network was most likely because his boss didn’t have his back.’

He then opened the Pinbei app and logged into a test account. On the homepage’s main screen, in the icon section, there was now a cartoon-style icon for Kuai Pao.

Currently, only users with a Luzhou IP address could see this module.

Pinbei had over 20 million daily active users, which Chen Yansen certainly wasn’t going to let go to waste. He had sold this small display spot to Kuai Pao for 800,000 yuan a day.

In just three days since going live, it had brought Kuai Pao over a million new customers, roping in nearly all the young people in Luzhou. Paired with a new customer subsidy campaign, Kuai Pao’s daily orders had at one point surpassed 100,000.

The price, however, was that the balance in Kuai Pao’s account had rapidly shrunk by nearly 8 million yuan. At the current rate, the daily customer acquisition cost was over 2 million yuan. In less than a week, their funds would be completely depleted.

However, this was all part of Chen Yansen’s plan.

After lunch, the group headed straight for the city’s largest KTV. Song Yang paid for everything, even choosing an extra-large deluxe suite with dual screens.

Chen Yansen sat down next to Meng Jie. The two of them were like buddies, drinking beer and playing dice.

Xu Xingxing chose the song ”Bad Girl” and sang a few lines with enthusiasm. ’I can do all this stuff too!’ she thought, feeling secretly indignant when Chen Yansen didn’t react at all.

In a corner, Su Meiling accepted the beer Tang Zhenzhe handed her and took a small sip. She had given up on Chen Yansen long ago, but she still refused to accept Tang Zhenzhe.

She wasn’t an idiot; she knew that while pursuing her, he had also been flirting with other underclasswomen. He wasn’t serious, which meant he was probably just another player.

That was why she only treated Tang Zhenzhe as a friend.

”Brother Sen, what do you want to sing? I’ll queue it up for you!” Song Yang asked with a smile, sitting in front of the song selection console.

”’Here or Not Here,’” Chen Yansen replied. He was choosing the song for Meng Jie.

After Wang Zhengqiang finished belting out ”To Die for Love” in his tone-deaf voice, the atmosphere in the room gradually livened up.

After all, aside from Fu Li and Meng Jie, everyone else was from the same class and already knew each other very well.

「Meanwhile, at Kuai Pao Headquarters in Luzhou.」

”Yesterday’s ad spend and new customer subsidy costs totaled 2,739,000 yuan. We saw an increase of 342,000 new customers, and our order volume was 109,000.”

The head of data reported the figures.

Kang Guodong glanced at Pei Yi, then looked toward Kou Zhen and the finance director, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

’He had never imagined a situation with such rapid growth.’

With Chen Yansen’s support, Kuai Pao had indeed reached unprecedented heights.

”I think we can go to President Chen and seek a second round of financing,” Pei Yi said, being the first to speak up.

Exchanging equity for growth was the first choice for most entrepreneurs.

Pei Yi didn’t feel like he was betraying Kang Guodong. In his view, relying on just the two of their abilities, they would never have reached 100,000 daily orders, not even by the time Kuai Pao eventually folded.

”President Kang, President Pei, I have no objection to further financing, but we have a more important issue at hand.”

Kou Zhen said, raising his voice.

”What issue?” Kang Guodong pressed.

”Which city should be Kuai Pao’s next base of operations? We need to prepare the offices, recruitment, training, and logistics teams in advance.”

Kou Zhen said in a serious tone.

He had been through the ”Thousand-Groupon War” at Lashou Network, so the process of ”opening a new city” was nothing new to him. He knew very well that every step forward came with immense management challenges.

After hearing this, Kang Guodong’s brow furrowed.

Kuai Pao’s scope of operations had previously been limited to the area around University City. But after getting on the fast track with Senlian Capital, he was gradually starting to feel overwhelmed by the task of managing the entire company’s business.

To put it bluntly, he lacked the stamina for it. He excelled at development, but he found coordinating matters between various departments to be particularly strenuous.

”Yanjing, Shencheng City, Hu City, or Jinling would all work,” Pei Yi said.

”Hu City is Eleme’s home base,” Kang Guodong reminded him.

”Then let’s go to Hu City. Crush Eleme first, then we’ll talk!” Pei Yi said with a serious expression, not looking like he was joking at all.

’Eleme still hasn’t secured funding. How could they possibly compete with Kuai Pao?’

”I think that’s feasible. Let’s ask President Chen first. If the big boss agrees, we’ll head to Hu City after the New Year!”

Kou Zhen also thought Pei Yi’s idea was a good one. ’Go straight for Eleme’s home turf, take out the competitor, and then wouldn’t the huge cake of the food delivery market be Kuai Pao’s for the taking?’

’This was different from the group buy market, where the competitive pressure was immense. In food delivery, there was only Kuai Pao and Eleme.’

’The big boss?’

Kang Guodong was slightly taken aback. He sighed inwardly and gave a heavy nod.

「The next morning.」

Kang Guodong and Pei Yi had an online meeting with Chen Yansen and Gao Weilin. After a brief discussion, it was decided that Senlian Capital would transfer 200 million yuan into Kuai Pao’s corporate account the following week.

The price was that their equity stakes were diluted once again. Kang Guodong’s shareholding percentage dropped to 4.2%, while Pei Yi was left with only 1.8%.

”By the way, Guodong, there’s something I want to discuss with you. Regarding the CEO position at Kuai Pao, I plan to have Pei Yi take over. I still very much appreciate your R&D capabilities, of course.”

Chen Yansen said, getting straight to the point.

’He had given Kang Guodong a chance, but the man hadn’t lived up to expectations. There was nothing more he could do.’

”President Chen, I... I accept,” Kang Guodong said with a bitter smile. He had wanted to argue, but after seeing Pei Yi, he decided to give up.

”The tech department is in your hands now. I hope Kuai Pao’s ’smart’ delivery system can start living up to its name soon,” Chen Yansen offered as a word of encouragement before ending the video call.

”Brother Dong, actually...” Pei Yi started to explain, but Kang Guodong cut him off. ”Old Pei, maybe President Chen is right. You’re a better fit for Kuai Pao’s CEO than I am.”

Pei Yi fell silent and said no more.

’He knew in his heart that no matter how magnanimous Kang Guodong was being, a crack had quietly formed between them.’