Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

In late February, the sky over Xucheng was almost always shrouded in leaden clouds.

A fine, misty rain fell without end. Through the glass, the entire Science and Technology Park was barely visible in the downpour.

After finishing his routine work, Chen Yansen rose and walked to the window. He could just see Song Yuncheng in the building diagonally across, sitting upright at her workstation, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

Compared to Ye Qiuping, Song Yuncheng’s innate professional aptitude wasn’t particularly high. She had relied entirely on deliberate practice and applying past experiences to build her ability to deconstruct and reorganize logic, which in turn allowed her to form a highly effective work methodology.

She was the type of person who made up for a lack of natural talent with sheer diligence.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! A rap sounded at the door.

”Come in,” Chen Yansen replied.

The Director of Human Resources, Wang Xueting, led in a woman dressed in a navy blue business suit and introduced her. ”Boss, this is Chen Jie.”

”Hello, Boss,” Chen Jie greeted respectfully.

As she spoke, she covertly sized up Chen Yansen. He looked to be around twenty, dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, with a Patek Philippe on his wrist.

Aside from that, he wore no other accessories.

Her new boss was tall and stood straight, nearly a full head taller than her. He was even more handsome in person than in the photos online—his features were exquisite, his face sharply defined, and his dark brown eyes were exceptionally bright.

”Have you familiarized yourself with the company and the heads of each department?” Chen Yansen asked.

”Boss, I took Chen Jie on a tour of the Pinbei, Orange Technology, Today Technology, and Orange Pay headquarters. She’s also greeted Mr. Huang, President Liang, President Zhou, and President Zhang,” Wang Xueting immediately explained.

”Boss, I’ve committed the core management personnel of all four subsidiaries to memory,” Chen Jie quickly replied.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and instructed Wang Xueting, ”Put Chen Jie’s workstation on the top floor.”

Then he looked at Chen Jie. ”From now on, you will be in charge of scheduling my meetings and business negotiations.”

”Yes, Boss,” Chen Jie and Wang Xueting replied in unison.

Wang Xueting breathed a silent sigh of relief. ’I’ve finally completed my mission,’ she thought.

Over the past two months, she had interviewed more than thirty candidates. They included top students from Qingbei University’s management program and even overseas students from Harvard and the Cambridge School of Business, but the big boss wasn’t satisfied with any of them.

’Hiring an assistant for the chairman is harder than poaching a P9-level employee from Ah Li!’

Thankfully, Chen Jie had lived up to expectations. Not only was her résumé impressive, but her appearance was also outstanding.

She was five-foot-seven and of one-half Western Regions descent. To put it simply: beautiful and capable.

Chen Yansen waved his hand.

Wang Xueting and Chen Jie took the hint, excusing themselves and leaving the office.

As company matters and external business dealings grew, Chen Yansen found that while he could manage the workload, there were certain people and issues he couldn’t even be bothered to feign interest in.

Having an assistant to handle the initial screening would make his life much easier.

He hadn’t actually paid any mind to Chen Jie’s looks or figure.

Given his worldly experience, he had seen far too many beautiful women.

In his last life, the number of streamers, short-drama actresses, and naive college girls fresh on the scene that he’d... ’reviewed,’ would fill at least seven or eight soccer teams.

He had hired Chen Jie purely for her professional capabilities.

Chen Yansen leaned against the sofa, holding a cup of warm tea. He took a small sip, his mind already turning to the two factories Pei Yi had purchased.

Including the original staff, the total number of employees now exceeded two thousand, providing him with another stable channel for acquiring Human Dao Fire.

In fact, during the fourth quarter of last year, Cloud Speed Express had also acquired a large cardboard box factory and two plastics factories.

After all, with an annual parcel volume exceeding four billion, the demand for packaging alone could create over 3,000 jobs and generate one billion Hua Yuan in gross profit.

Why let the profits flow to outsiders? Rather than enriching suppliers, it was better to hire from the couriers’ own families. This would save costs, generate additional revenue, and earn him more Human Dao Fire—killing three birds with one stone.

Ten minutes later, the rain outside gradually let up.

「It was exactly 10:00 AM.」

Ali Baba publicly announced it would be making a strategic investment of 500 million US Dollars in UC Browser.

The move seemed baffling, but if one viewed Ah Li as an advertising company, everything would fall into place.

Over the past year, Ma Liyun had been focused on increasing his platform’s GMV, upgrading Tmall Mall, buying back Ah Li’s shares, and preparing for an IPO. In doing so, he had fallen behind in the race for mobile gateways.

Investing in UC Browser was his way of shoring up this weakness on the wireless front, a full-throated push to bring Ah Li into the mobile internet age.

The moment the news broke, Li Yanhong was furious.

He had met with He Xiaopeng twice and had even signed a letter of intent to invest, only for Ma Liyun to swoop in and snatch the deal at the last minute.

But all he could do was fume in private; he didn’t even dare complain to Lao Ma.

This was because just two weeks ago, Ah Li and Qian Du Network had restarted their advertising partnership after a five-year suspension.

Ah Li was firmly seated on the throne of domestic e-commerce, with the platform’s annual transaction volume reaching as high as one trillion Hua Yuan.

To put it bluntly, Ma Liyun was now Li Yanhong’s key account advertiser—a bona fide sugar daddy.

Did Li Yanhong dare to badmouth his own biggest client?

Of course not. He was counting on Ah Li’s advertising revenue to help Qian Du stabilize its stock price.

「At the same time.」

Wealth Treasure version 7.0 was released, adding an entry for ”Profit Treasure” to the first screen of its homepage. The seven-day annualized yield was 5.1%, on par with Yu’e Bao and 0.1% higher than WeChat’s Change Treasure.

New users only had to open an account to immediately receive 18,888 yuan in trial funds. The funds were valid for three days, with an estimated return of 7.5 yuan.