Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

When Song Yang heard her complain about the price, he immediately switched to another poster.

”399 yuan? Senior, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” the naive freshman girl asked, looking tempted but still uncertain.

”Do you know the boss of Orange Technology?” Song Yang asked conspiratorially.

”You mean Senior Chen Yansen? I... I applied to Xucheng Academy just because of him.”

The freshman girl gave a faint smile, her cheeks flushing unintentionally as she spoke.

”Chen Yansen and I are roommates,” Song Yang said, puffing out his chest and holding his head high.

”Wow! Senior, can I add you on WeChat? You have to send me Senior Brother Chen’s contact info,” the freshman girl pleaded sweetly.

”No problem. So, about this phone card?”

”I’ll get it! Senior, here’s my ID card.”

Five minutes later, the freshman girl left the telecom service point, beaming with joy.

’That kid... he’s really been letting himself go ever since the breakup.’

Chen Yansen shook his head and muttered to himself.

Seeing a lull in customers, Chen Yansen strode over, a grim look on his face. ”Are you selling phone cards, or are you selling my WeChat contact?”

”Ah!? Brother Sen, what are you doing here?” Song Yang said, scratching his head and smiling awkwardly.

”Just passing by,” Chen Yansen said, looking at him with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

”Brother Sen, don’t get the wrong idea. I made a burner account...” Song Yang explained in a low voice, giving a sheepish smile.

”...” Chen Yansen was speechless. ’A man’s journey to the dark side always starts with getting a burner account.’

”Abandon. A-B-A-N-D-O-N. To give up, discard, terminate...”

Nearby, Tang Zhenzhe had taken advantage of the lull to pull out a vocabulary book and was now reciting from it with his head down.

”President Chen, long time no see.” Seeing him, Meng Yaqin, the hall manager of the telecom branch, slowly walked over and greeted him with a radiant smile.

She never would have imagined that the general campus agent for telecom cards from two years ago would, in the blink of an eye, become a billionaire worth tens of billions.

Many people said privately that as soon as Orange Technology, Pinbei Technology, or Cloud Speed Express—any single one of them—went public, Chen Yansen’s net worth would surpass one hundred billion.

A twenty-year-old worth a hundred billion!

If someone had told Meng Yaqin two years ago that Xuyuan’s current class would produce someone worth a hundred billion, she would have scoffed at the idea.

Now, with the reality laid out before her, she had no choice but to admit it.

She had grossly underestimated Chen Yansen’s abilities back then. That freshman who had snatched the campus card agency rights from Zhou Ze Kai was a true dragon among men, thriving in water and soaring on the wind.

”The Science and Technology Park isn’t far from Xuyuan. Manager Meng, feel free to come by for tea anytime.”

Chen Yansen said with a faint smile.

”Huh! Brother Sen, you’re here! Didn’t you go to the office today?” Tang Zhenzhe asked, looking up at the sound of his voice.

”You guys carry on, I’m heading to the library.” Chen Yansen didn’t linger, turning and heading toward the library after he spoke.

Meng Yaqin watched Chen Yansen walk away, a smile on her face.

When she drew her gaze back, her eyes swept over Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang, and she secretly envied their dumb luck. With a connection like that, as long as they weren’t idiots, they would never have to worry about their futures.

As Chen Yansen ambled along, his mind was occupied with building out Orange Technology’s offline retail channels.

Although the importance of online channels was steadily increasing with the rapid development of e-commerce and the express delivery industry, offline channels could not be underestimated.

In 2012, users who didn’t shop online or own a smartphone still constituted the mainstream. Even more than a decade later, the market share of offline channels would never dip below 50%.

Currently, the Orange Mobile Phone’s offline sales network relied entirely on China Telecom’s more than 10,000 stores across the country.

The problem was that these 10,000-plus stores sold a wide variety of brands and models, and the managers of both directly-owned and franchised locations would push phones on customers based on their gross profit margins.

The Orange Mobile Phone’s offline sales potential had yet to be unleashed.

’As soon as Lin Qingbai is done with the design for the tablet and laptop, we’ll immediately begin the process of building Orange Technology’s offline sales network.’

Chen Yansen settled this plan in his mind the moment he stepped into the library.

「Meanwhile.」

The 360 N1 phone launched simultaneously on 360 Mall and Pinbei at a debut price of 1,699 yuan. In addition, the first 10,000 customers to place an order on each platform would receive a free 10,000 mAh Orange Mobile Power Supply.

To customers, at a glance, the specs of the 360 N1 and the Xiaomi MI2 were nearly identical, but the 360 N1 was 300 yuan cheaper, which greatly boosted their willingness to buy.

Sales began at ten o’clock sharp. In just 47 minutes, all 20,000 units of the 360 N1 that were bundled with the gift had sold out.

One hour later, total online sales for the 360 N1 had reached 26,000 units.

Zhou Hongyi smugly announced this on Weibo, which thoroughly irritated Lei Yijun.

After all, the 360 N1 was stealing Xiaomi’s customers!

Lei Yijun had originally planned to ignore Zhou Hongyi, but Zhou Hongyi refused to let the matter drop.

Not content with just posting the sales report, he then took a shot at Xiaomi with a passive-aggressive rant. Though no names were mentioned, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that Sect Leader Zhou was once again tearing down Lei Buqun to prop himself up.

”A certain ’millet’ phone brand spends hours bragging every time it launches a new phone, yet on launch day, it can’t even break 20,000 units in the first hour. This just goes to show that customers aren’t stupid. The 360 N1 will never make a single cent of profit on hardware!”

Before Lei Yijun could even respond to Zhou Hongyi’s Weibo post, Li Wanqiang couldn’t hold back any longer. He tagged Zhou Hongyi directly and shot back, ”Sect Leader Zhou, you dare reveal the brands for the 360 N1’s memory, battery supplier, and screen? You should make phones with integrity, not by duping your customers.”

Lin Bing from Xiaomi followed close behind, analyzing the 360 N1’s bill of materials item by item and finally concluding: its BOM cost was under 900 yuan, a clear sign of cutting corners and using subpar materials.

Having a sore spot hit, Zhou Hongyi flew into a rage and posted the material costs of the Xiaomi MI2 as well. The implication was clear: ’Don’t you fucking pretend you’re any better.’

The two sides went back and forth, their flame war showing no signs of stopping!

Seeing this, several other mobile phone manufacturers, including Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Coolpad, were displeased. Argue all you want, but don’t break the rules of the industry.

Who just posts a competitor’s BOM costs at the drop of a hat?

This wasn’t how business wars were fought. It was a classic case of killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of your own soldiers.

Yu Chendong called Lao Zhou, telling him to delete the Weibo post, but Lao Zhou paid him no mind.

Next, he called Lei Yijun.

”I’ll delete it when he deletes it!” Lei Yijun snapped.

With no other recourse, Yu Chendong called Chen Yansen.

”So, you want me to step in and mediate?” Chen Yansen asked with a chuckle, having walked out of the reading room into the library hallway.

Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun might have personal grievances, but this was more about generating buzz and capitalizing on the traffic.

The tactic was identical to the ”815 E-commerce War” between Liu Qiangdong and Zhang Jindong—all thunder and no rain. The customers never saw a single discount.

He’d heard that a bigwig from the Price Development Association was preparing to issue fines to both Jingdong and Sunning for false advertising, just to make an example of them.

”At least get the two of them to delete the bill of materials lists,” Yu Chendong said with a wry smile.