Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Ten minutes later, Lei Yijun gritted his teeth and agreed.

”If it’s too difficult for President Lei, we don’t have to cooperate,” Chen Yansen said with a teasing smile.

”It’s not difficult. I have faith in Orange Technology’s R&D capabilities. Purchasing the patent license for the Yuxi development platform is definitely more than worth the money.”

Lei Yijun rolled his eyes and replied, the pain of the expense written all over his face.

Logically speaking, with Xiaomi Technology’s capital and technical reserves, they could poach a batch of engineers from the labs of Qian Du, Google, and Microsoft, assemble their own R&D team, and develop their own intelligent voice system in a year or so.

But if they did that, they would first miss the golden window for the smart voice market. Second, the performance of a self-developed voice system would be a complete unknown.

The last and most critical point was that in 2012, algorithm theory was still immature, and talent in the fields of voice recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis was scarce.

Chen Yansen’s success, on the other hand, was due to two things: first, his own ability, and second, his ’persuasion’ of over a hundred top-tier programmers in related fields from Europe and America to join him.

For example, Zhou Chuangxi had studied under the father of computer vision design in the Lighthouse Country and possessed extraordinary expertise in voice recognition and algorithm modeling. Then there was Daniel, a future legendary figure in the AI voice industry, proficient in everything from voice recognition tools to the development of intelligent voice systems.

”As long as President Lei is satisfied,” Chen Yansen said with a faint smile.

The two then finalized the signing date for the licensing contract and quickly hung up.

Lei Yijun believed that although the path of self-development was difficult and the R&D cycle was long, he still secretly decided to first build the framework for an Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. While initiating the development of an intelligent voice system, he would also accumulate algorithmic techniques in the field of machine learning.

After dealing with Lei Yijun, Chen Yansen got up and walked out.

”Boss!”

”Brother Sen!”

As he passed through the first-floor lobby, people continuously greeted him. Their June salaries and quarterly bonuses had all been paid, and every face wore a satisfied smile.

”Huh? Brother Sen, are you heading back to school?”

Just as he stepped out the main entrance, he ran right into Wang Zihao, who was about to head inside.

Beside him was a tall, fair-skinned girl with a sweet and innocent look. She wore a red, round-collared T-shirt and tight jeans that showed off her long, straight legs.

She had on a pair of open-toed sandals, revealing her full, rounded toes.

”Yeah. Why is she here?” Chen Yansen frowned, questioning as he looked at Prince Ziyuan.

”Ziyan is on summer break, so Mom and Dad let her come to Xucheng for a few days,” Wang Zihao explained with a grin.

”I’ll give you a few extra days off. Take her to Hu City or Yanjing. There’s nothing fun to do in Xucheng.”

Chen Yansen shook his head and said casually.

After speaking, he planned to get in his car and bolt. His gaze had barely landed on Prince Ziyuan the entire time.

”Chen Yansen, aren’t you going to hang out with me?” Prince Ziyuan grabbed his arm and pouted, displeased.

”I’m busy, you little brat.” Chen Yansen pulled free, slipped into the driver’s seat of the Bentley, and sped out of the Science and Technology Park.

”Bro, Chen Yansen is such a jerk!” Prince Ziyuan cursed under her breath.

”Brother Sen is genuinely busy,” Wang Zihao explained, trying to placate her. ”It’s not like we’re little kids anymore. Come on, I’ll take you to pick out a cold drink.”

Then he led Prince Ziyuan to the breakroom in the Pinbei Mall.

The room was over eighty square meters, lined with freezers stuffed full of ice cream and drinks. All sorts of snacks were also available, and there was even a barista standing in front of a counter.

A flash of surprise crossed Prince Ziyuan’s eyes. She decided to eat several bars of ice cream as vicious revenge against Chen Yansen.

”I heard from Dad that you’re planning to skip a grade,” Wang Zihao asked.

”Yeah. The material in high school is pretty simple, and they don’t cover much. There’s really no need to spend three years on it,” Prince Ziyuan replied as if it were obvious.

’Simple? Not much content?’

In that instant, Wang Zihao, a slacker who had struggled his ass off just to get into a second-tier university, took a critical hit of massive damage.

”So, have you thought about which universities you’ll apply to?” Wang Zihao asked with a dry laugh, changing the subject.

”Hu City Jiaoda or Huake University. I haven’t decided for sure, but definitely not Qingbei. The climate is too dry, and it’s too far from home,” Prince Ziyuan replied.

That might sound like bragging, but given her consistent first-place ranking in her grade, she was just stating a fact.

’Sigh, we came from the same mother. Why is there such a huge gap in intelligence!’

Wang Zihao lamented inwardly.

”Bro, didn’t you say Chen Yansen has a girlfriend? Can I meet her?” Prince Ziyuan suddenly asked.

’Which one do you want to meet?’

Wang Zihao froze for a moment.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen returned to Room 0418, flopped onto the sofa, and summoned his system panel. June’s Human Dao Fire value had reached a new high of 177,049 wisps, which could be synthesized into 1,770 wisps of Divine Dao Fire.

After absorbing personnel from Yunda and Zhongtong, Cloud Speed Express’s total employee count reached as high as 107,000, with labor costs of 1.18 billion;

Orange Phone Factory had 23,000 employees, with labor costs of 220 million;

Kuai Pao had 11,000 employees, with labor costs of 140 million;

The remaining companies—Pinbei, Gaode Map, Orange Technology, Today Technology, Orange Pay, Fast Taxi, and Byte—had a combined total of 9,274 employees, with labor costs of 230 million.

The total number of employees in Senlian Capital’s subsidiaries had reached 150,000!

Express delivery, food delivery, and ride-hailing were truly the sectors that provided the most jobs. If Kuai Pao and Fast Taxi had already entered their main growth phases, the employee count would be at least a hundred thousand higher.