Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

It was an evening in December. The wind was biting, and lead-gray clouds obscured the sun.

Chen Yansen sat on the sofa by the window, gazing at Building Six diagonally across from him. The glass curtain wall of Pinbei’s headquarters was covered in various Christmas decorations, and a Christmas tree over three meters tall stood by the entrance.

He knew perfectly well these people weren’t celebrating some damn Christmas; they were just looking for an excuse to have some fun.

Although Pinbei didn’t mandate overtime, most employees still put in an extra three hours on workdays. They would even take one day on the weekend to work another six.

There was no helping it. Housing prices in 2012 were already on the rise, and the pressure on young people was immense. They had to earn money for a house and save up for a bride price. How could they get by without working themselves to the bone?

Therefore, during every holiday season, the administration department would organize activities where everyone could enjoy some food and drinks and try their luck in a raffle.

Additionally, the annual travel fund provided by the project was also converted to cash and deposited into their bank accounts.

The company didn’t mention it, and the employees kept quiet. Everyone treated the ”travel fund” as an extra bonus.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ—!

The phone on the coffee table buzzed.

Chen Yansen beckoned with his hand, and a 64GB Orange C3 flew into his palm. The caller ID read ”Lao Chen.”

”You’re getting off for the holidays soon, right?” Lao Chen asked hesitantly after the call connected.

”Not for a while,” Chen Yansen replied.

”How have you been lately?” Lao Chen continued, his tone dry.

”Pretty good. And you?” Chen Yansen replied with a faint smile.

This was how his interactions with Lao Chen always went: dry and uninteresting. After a few sentences, they would tacitly agree to hang up.

”Everything’s fine here, too. The county set up inspection posts at the bookstore and the entrance to my residential complex. Not even a fly dares to buzz near me these days,” Lao Chen said tactfully.

”By the way, I’m not coming back for the New Year,” Chen Yansen said suddenly.

Agricultural products from the Chunshen area had generated over three billion in sales for the year on Pinbei’s ten-billion-dollar subsidy channel, creating tens of thousands of jobs for the entire county.

Naturally, Tang Lixin didn’t dare to be neglectful and made sure Chen Guobin was taken care of in great comfort.

Otherwise, if Chen Guobin were to leave Chunshen, who knew if Chen Yansen would continue to support them with traffic.

”Not coming back? Where are you spending the New Year?” Chen Guobin was taken aback for a moment, then frowned and pressed for an answer.

”Either Xucheng or Hu City. I bought a few houses, so I’ll just go wherever I feel like,” Chen Yansen said nonchalantly.

He paused, then added, ”Are you coming?”

”Forget it. I’ll stay home and keep your mother company.” Brother Bin shook his head. Although he was angry, he knew his son was stubborn and that persuading him would be useless.

”Bring Mom with you. Let her come see her son’s new houses,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Chen Guobin’s expression showed he was tempted. His son really had made something of himself. If Hui Zhen were still alive, she would most likely have wanted to see his houses too.

”Send me the address later,” Chen Guobin said after a few seconds of deliberation.

”I’ll send a driver to pick you up,” Chen Yansen said.

”I’ll drive myself,” Chen Guobin disagreed.

”In that big van of yours? The only thing on it that doesn’t make a noise is the horn. Don’t jostle Mom around too much. All right, I’ll get you a new car. Mercedes, BMW, or Rolls-Royce, take your pick,” Chen Yansen retorted irritably, his brow furrowed.

”I don’t want one,” Chen Guobin said sternly.

”It’s for Mom. You’re just the driver, understand?” Chen Yansen lectured bluntly.

’Lao Chen is as stubborn as a mule. He won’t budge without a good prodding. I wonder who he takes after.’

”A BMW, then. Don’t buy anything too expensive! Your mom used to like them when she was younger,” Chen Guobin said gruffly after a long silence.

”Got it. Since you have so much free time, you should find yourself a wife. Otherwise, there’ll be no one to take care of you when you’re old. And let me be clear, once you get old, I’m definitely dumping you in a nursing home to fend for yourself,” Chen Yansen threatened.

”Bullshit! Who the hell needs you to take care of them? Mind your own damn business!” Chen Guobin cursed.

BEEP BEEP BEEP... Chen Yansen immediately hung up, not bothering to listen to Lao Chen’s nagging.

Afterward, he sent a text message to Ye Qiuping, telling her to come to his office.

Less than three minutes later, a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK came from outside the door.

”Come in,” Chen Yansen said softly.

Ye Qiuping pushed the door open and, with mincing steps, slowly walked up to President Chen.

A high-necked sweater hugged her upper body snugly, but it couldn’t hide her stunning curves.

Ye Qiuping hiked up her pant leg slightly, deliberately revealing a section of smooth, white lace stockings.

”Are you going back to your hometown for the New Year?” Chen Yansen asked.

”I don’t have a home to go back to.” Ye Qiuping’s lips turned down as she forced a smile, feigning sadness.

”Perfect. Come to my place for the New Year,” Chen Yansen decided on the spot.

”To your place?” The corners of Ye Qiuping’s mouth turned up, unable to hide the delight on her face.

”That’s right. I happen to need a cook. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you,” Chen Yansen said matter-of-factly.

’A cook?’

’You want *me* to make New Year’s Eve dinner for you?’

’Chen Yansen, you’re a fucking bastard!’

Ye Qiuping froze for a second before it dawned on her. She was so angry her chest heaved violently, and she ground her pearly white teeth with a GRIND.

”You don’t want to?” Chen Yansen asked.

”I’d love to,” Ye Qiuping replied, looking aggrieved.

”Good. Off you go, then. Draw up a menu first.” Chen Yansen waved his hand, indicating that she could leave.

”I got you a ’peace apple.’ I wish President Chen a safe, peaceful, and prosperous 2013.” Ye Qiuping’s head hung low as she offered him a bright red apple, reciting the well-wishes in a bitter tone.

”Thanks,” Chen Yansen said, taking the apple and flashing a grin.

’He just wanted to mess with Ye Qiuping. He had to pay her back for every little trick she’d ever pulled on him.’

Ye Qiuping turned and walked straight out of the office.

A moment later, a hint of a smile appeared on her fair, beautiful face. ’At least he likes my cooking.’

Chen Yansen took a short break, then returned to his desk. He switched his computer screen to an assembler window and immersed himself in designing the instruction set compiler.

As the end of the year approached, all the holding subsidiaries under Senlian Capital were busy compiling data for their year-end reports.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Shencheng City, Cao Dahua and Zuo Hongyu sat facing each other, chatting over tea.

”We can finally go back to Xucheng. Old Zuo, would you say this counts as me returning home in glory?” Cao Dahua said smugly, puffing out his round belly.

It was easy to see from his visibly smaller paunch just how much effort he had poured into the daily operations of the Orange Phone Factory over the past year or so.

”You don’t even have your title as an advisor at the Xuyuan Entrepreneurial Park anymore. I doubt you can even get onto campus,” Zuo Hongyu teased with a light laugh, picking up a cup of hot tea.

”You think I spent all those years at Xuyuan for nothing? I’ll get in just by showing my face,” Cao Dahua said, shooting Zuo Hongyu an unconcerned glance.

After the Orange Phone Factory got on track, he had resigned from his job at Xuyuan to avoid causing any trouble for Tang Qingshan and Chen Yansen.

”The production plans for Q1 and Q2 of 2013 are done. As for the 2012 data on production capacity, costs, quality, and shipment volume, we’ll have to wait until New Year’s Day to get the most accurate information,” Zuo Hongyu said, smiling and changing the subject.

”No problem, there’s enough time. It doesn’t start until next Friday,” Cao Dahua grunted in acknowledgment.

He never would have thought that the trajectory of the second half of his life would be completely changed by a student.

The dream he couldn’t fulfill in his youth had actually come true in his forties. The total annual shipment volume for Orange Mobile Phones was approximately 49 million units, 12 million more than Mountain Star, firmly securing the number one spot on the sales charts.

His nickname in the Shencheng City tech scene had also changed from ”Flop Hua” to ”Bossy Hua.”

Although some people mocked him behind his back, saying he only knew how to ride on coattails and had just gotten ridiculously lucky, Cao Dahua didn’t care in the slightest.

’After all, luck is a part of strength!’

At the same time, Xiao Jun of Gaode Map, Zhang Yiming of Byte Technology, Pei Yi of Kuai Pao, Cheng Weixing of Fast Taxi, Hu Weiyi of Xingchi Technology, Qu Fang of Xingyin Technology, and others were also hard at work preparing for their year-end reports.

「Meanwhile.」

At six in the afternoon, Chen Yansen got up to leave work. He got into the driver’s seat of an Aston Martin Rapide and changed his route, heading to Master Ye’s place for some sweet soup.

In reality, the sweet soup wasn’t important. The main reason was that he had bought Ye Qiuping two new Christmas-themed ”skins,” and the festive mood would be gone after the next couple of days.

...

...

The next morning, Chen Yansen drove to the Science and Technology Park and took the elevator to his office on the top floor.

He had just sat down when Pei Yi called.

”Boss, Liang Changlin has reported for duty.” There was a hint of surprise in Pei Yi’s voice.

”He sold Yaya Network and Dingdong Community? Don’t tell me he found buyers before he even came to Xucheng?” Chen Yansen said, slightly surprised.

”Apparently, Yaya Network was sold to a major education company, and Dingdong Community was shut down,” Pei Yi replied.

”That’s a decisive way of doing things. He’s all yours now. How far the business can go will depend entirely on how well you two cooperate,” Chen Yansen said casually.

”Understood, Boss,” Pei Yi replied.

Combining fresh produce with the front-end warehouse model and leveraging the instant delivery capabilities of Kuai Pao Riders would allow them to continuously expand Kuai Pao’s range of business categories, thereby increasing profitability.

This would create a business moat against competitors like Meituan, Lashou, and Dianping.

In short, a wider variety of categories on the platform would cover a broader user base. This would attract more organic traffic. It would also increase user stickiness, retention, and order density, ultimately lowering the cost per delivery.

”Let’s talk more when we meet next week,” Chen Yansen said, keeping it brief.

Pei Yi immediately understood what Chen Yansen meant. He exchanged a couple of pleasantries and ended the call.

Chen Yansen opened his computer and finished up the final development work on the compiler.

Generally speaking, when companies like Intel or ARM develop an instruction set and its corresponding compiler, they first need to determine its intended use case—for example, high-performance computing, mobile devices, embedded systems, AI acceleration, or the Internet of Things.

Different instruction sets have different requirements for power consumption limits, chip area costs, and compatibility.

The instruction set Chen Yansen was designing was geared more toward mobile and embedded systems. It used a minimalist parallel instruction structure to provide extreme energy efficiency.

Because a reduced instruction set decreases the number of transistors in the processor core, the chip area is smaller, which in turn lowers mass production costs.

Ten minutes later, he typed in a string of characters and named it ”Orange Z1,” or OZ1 for short.

Letting out a long breath, Chen Yansen leaned back. This period had been torture for him. Activating his ”Planck Clock” talent for two or three seconds every day had nearly exhausted his Spiritual Power.

A few days ago, Old Gao had secretly slipped him a bottle of medicinal liquor, insisting it was some good stuff from the north that was highly restorative.

’What a joke. Did I need supplements?’

Chen Yansen had refused on the spot.

”Mike, get Lao Wu and come over.”

Chen Yansen pulled up a chat window and sent a message to the chief designer of the Celestial Craft T100.