Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Meanwhile.

In Delta No. 108 Villa, Chen Yansen was lying on a soft sofa, his head resting on Teacher Ye’s lap. He breathed in her faint, milky scent, enjoying her massage.

”Harder!”

Chen Yansen ordered.

”Your head is so hard.”

”What part of me isn’t hard?”

Ye Qiuping pursed her lips into a faint smile, increased the pressure slightly, and kneaded President Chen’s head.

”That feels good. A little higher,” Chen Yansen said.

”On your forehead?” Ye Qiuping knew he was being mischievous. Her hands complied readily, but she couldn’t resist teasing him.

”Make sweet fermented rice balls for tonight,” Chen Yansen casually requested.

”With brown sugar or rock sugar?” Ye Qiuping confirmed.

”White sugar.” Chen Yansen chose neither, giving a new answer.

”Total sales for the Xingyao Card just broke 20 million units. The delivery rate is 96%, and the activation rate is 89%. Of those, 47% made an initial top-up of 100 Hua Yuan, 21% topped up 300 Hua Yuan, and 8.6% topped up 500 Hua Yuan. The projected revenue for April is 560 million Hua Yuan...”

Seeing Chen Yansen’s eyes half-closed, Ye Qiuping began reading him the latest data she had received.

Chen Yansen rolled over, pressing his face against Master Ye’s stomach, and said lightly, ”Save the report for next week’s meeting.”

”I finished my task two months ahead of schedule. Is there an extra reward?” Ye Qiuping asked softly.

”I’ll reward you with an extra half hour tonight,” Chen Yansen replied.

”That’s clearly a punishment,” Ye Qiuping retorted, a blush quickly spreading across her neck as she feigned a scoff.

”Then I’ll reduce it by half an hour,” Chen Yansen said, changing his tune.

”No.” Ye Qiuping lowered her head and said coquettishly, ”Are you saying that on purpose? Or maybe I should add some goji berries to your sweet soup?”

”Who are you looking down on? Let me add an hour for you first.”

Chen Yansen scoffed, switching positions with Ye Qiuping. With a slap of his large hand and a CLICK, Master Ye felt her clothes loosen.

Immediately after, the spacious, bright living room was filled with the sound of THUMPING.

Outside the window, two dragonflies, one on top of the other, rested quietly on a treetop.

...

...

「At Luzhou University of Technology, inside a men’s dormitory.」

Fang Mingzhi had a Qingcheng D2 phone mounted on a stand. He held a guitar and began to slowly play and sing.

”♫ Why were you so good to me then, and why have you grown so cold now ♫”

”...”

”♫ A downpour of red rain stirs memories, how can I dive in? Your beautiful eyes, just as they were then, linger in my heart. Our last meeting by the ferry crossing was the final full stop. If only we had just met, why feel the sorrow of parting... ♫”

When the song ended, he picked up his phone and watched the recording. ’Not a bad performance,’ he thought.

’I’ll post it on Douyin! If I get a few thousand followers, maybe I can even get some ad deals.’

Fang Mingzhi grinned, then clipped the best 15 seconds from the chorus and uploaded it to his Douyin account.

He was a loyal fan of Chen Yansen. Ever since hearing the line, ”Give the overtime pay back to the young people,” he had become a staunch supporter of products like Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, Kuai Pao, Pinbei, and Gaode Map.

He had bought the Xingyao Card and registered for Douyin.

”Ah Zhi, this is Dragon Scale Horse. What time is it? We agreed to meet at Madam Luzhou at 7. Where the hell are you?”

A message suddenly popped up in his WeChat group chat.

’Crap, I got too caught up in recording,’ Fang Mingzhi thought, slapping his thigh. He quickly grabbed his phone and keys and rushed out the door.

As he ran, he typed back, ”Brother Chai, I’m almost at the door. I’ll be up in a second, just waiting for the elevator.”

Meanwhile, because Douyin had just launched and had little content, his short video was pushed to local Luzhou users within a single minute.

In the video, Fang Mingzhi was shirtless, his head-banging, charismatic singing posture immediately grabbing users’ attention.

”♫ A downpour of red rain stirs memories, how can I dive in? Your beautiful eyes, just as they were then, linger in my heart... ♫”

Fang Mingzhi sang his heart out, completely lost in the music.

To be fair, his skill was quite good, creating a stark contrast with his humble dorm room.

”Dude, did you just get dumped?”

”That was beautiful! Is it an original song, big bro? This little sis loves it.”

”The love-struck idiot above me, this is a damn Xu Song song! Have you never heard it?”

”Not bad, giving you a little heart!”

”You can’t sing with that much feeling unless at least ten wives have run off on you!”

Netizens flooded the comment section.

One thousand impressions had resulted in 83 comments, 274 likes, and 29 shares for the video.

It won its PK round and was immediately promoted to the next traffic pool.

The algorithm then assigned it another 5,000 impressions. After breaking through that traffic pool, Fang Mingzhi’s amateur cover of ”If Back Then” finally made it to Douyin’s trending videos.

The song, released four years prior, had a strong traditional Chinese flavor. Its melody and lyrics were filled with a sense of regret and remorse.

In the video, Fang Mingzhi sang as if his ’wife had run off with another man,’ which made it all the more heartbreaking, causing netizens to reminisce about their own first loves.

Countless people started to follow the trend and imitate him.

On its fourth day online, Douyin saw its first viral video.

In just three hours, Fang Mingzhi’s video surpassed 500,000 likes, and he gained over 40,000 followers.

When he returned to his dorm after dinner and took out his phone, his eyes filled with disbelief.

”My sons, your daddy is about to blow up!” Fang Mingzhi danced around in excitement.

Although internet celebrities in 2013 had far less earning potential than influencers a decade later, it was still no problem to get a few ad deals and make some money.

”Holy crap! Almost fifty thousand followers!”

”510,000 likes!”

”If you get rich, don’t forget us!”

His roommates were equally stunned.

To them, aside from Fang Mingzhi’s excellent singing and playing, the video’s simple setting and dim lighting made it look like it required no technical skill at all.

’I could do that too!’

After watching Fang Mingzhi’s video, many people had the same thought.

The next day, the variety of content on Douyin increased dramatically.

Some imitated Jay Chou’s ”Hong Chen Ke Zhan,” others did comedic covers of ”Can’t Afford to Be Hurt,” and some even edited ”Most Dazzling Ethnic Style” and ”Gangnam Style” into bizarre, memetic videos, gaining countless followers.

Editing experts, special effects masters, and other technically skilled creators also found their niche on Douyin.

More content led to higher user stickiness, which led to higher retention, which in turn led to more new content creators.

Without hiring any celebrities, Douyin still blew up and broke into the mainstream.

In fact, it was precisely because there were no celebrities that most videos were rather unpolished and casual. This made users think that making videos was simple—that anyone with hands could do it.

By May 3rd, Douyin’s registered users reached 10 million, with daily active users approaching 1.5 million.

As long as they could guide users to consistently produce high-quality content, the product would be considered to have secured its footing in the market.

Douyin’s explosive popularity also drove sales of the Xingyao Card.

After all, data was too expensive, and having data for specific apps be free was a huge plus.

And as the number of Xingyao Card users grew, products like Pinbei, Kuai Pao, Gaode, and Toutiao also received an extra stream of organic traffic.

The phone card and the apps formed a complementary ecosystem.

Although Senlian Capital didn’t make much money from this particular venture, the potential long-term benefits were immeasurable.

Ma Liyun and Ma Wenteng were green with envy, wishing they could launch their own internet phone cards immediately.

「At the same time.」

Cheng Wei sat in his office, fuming at the heads of the tech and risk control departments.

On May 1st, DiDi Bike’s ”red envelope” promotion cost 4.7 million.

On May 2nd, 8.9 million!

He wasn’t an idiot; he immediately smelled a crisis.

Someone was fleecing him. These numbers had to be wrong.

But what infuriated him was that, aside from banning a batch of accounts, the risk control department still couldn’t get a lead on the Gray Studio.

And accounts were something the studio had in endless supply!

In other words, the Gray Studio personnel developing the corresponding software were technologically a step ahead of DiDi Bike’s anti-cheating measures.

’This can’t go on! I need to find outside help!’ Cheng Wei was getting anxious. A loss of five million a day—who could withstand that?

He would rather offer a 10 million bounty than just hand over the money to the Gray Studio.

Just as he was looking for technical assistance, Chang Wei was also wearing a troubled expression. Little Yellow Bike’s promotional spending had reached 20 million a day.

Anyone with half a brain could tell something was wrong!

They could either suspend the promotion or completely block the cheating software!

Chang Wei was left with only two choices.