Chapter 702

The cold wind blows by the river, but there are still quite a few pedestrians. Some are braving the biting wind to walk briskly, some are strolling with their hands in their pockets, and there are even those who, perhaps on a sudden whim, are out running by the river at night.

The retractable leashes for the dog and cat are extended quite far, with A-Mao and A-Gou trotting ahead, the leashes tangled up several times. The one leading the way is naturally A-Gou. Because A-Gou runs with Wang Yan every morning and has seen many people, it is not shy. In this regard, A-Mao is much worse; once outside, it sticks close to A-Gou, completely forgetting how it bullies A-Gou at home—it is just a little cat that acts tough only within its own walls.

Wei Lan is bundled up tightly, wearing a hat on her head, a mask on her face, and a scarf wrapped around her neck. With her hands tucked into her pockets, she follows slowly by Wang Yan's side.

"Sun Yi just mentioned the New Year, and it reminded me: when does our company go on holiday? How is the year-end bonus calculated? Do we need to hold an annual meeting or something?"

"What do you think?"

"Let's start the holiday a few days early. When I was working, I always found the New Year annoying; it was hard to get leave, hard to buy tickets, and there were so many people. Tossing and turning on the journey twice is more tiring than working. Now that we have our own company and have made a good profit this year, and since we don't have any clients to answer to and no performance pressure, we might as well do a favor for the employees. Why not? How does that saying go online? Oh, right: 'Because I have been rained on, I want to hold an umbrella for others.'"

Wang Yan nods with a smile: "Who says you don't have awareness? Let's do as you say and start the holiday seven days early. Together with the statutory holidays, that makes a half-month long break, with full pay and benefits. Except for Ma Zichen and the others, the rest of the people are new and haven't even been here for two months, so I think an annual meeting is necessary so everyone can get to know each other. If nothing else, it can at least deepen the relationships among the project team members."

"As for benefits, let's give an extra month's salary, plus half a month's salary as a bonus. Although they haven't been here long, the company has made so much money, so we should share some. We're also giving them an extra week of holiday, which is more than enough when you add it all up. Besides that, let's go buy some other prizes—mobile phones, computers, keyboards, mice, cosmetics, and so on—and hold a lucky draw. Later, I'll contact the factory to get a batch of speakers as a participation prize for the annual meeting."

"For the annual meeting venue, you arrange it as you see fit. Let's hold it a day early; we'll come to the company in the morning to chat, then charter a bus to go to a restaurant for lunch together. After the meal, let them go; don't delay them from going home for the New Year. As for the program, just ask them; if anyone has a talent they want to show, let them perform, but don't force it—the main thing is to eat and drink well. Anyway, there are only a hundred or so of us, so just arrange it properly. I estimate there won't be any new people coming at this time; everyone is waiting until after the New Year to make plans. If anyone new does come in, just give them a speaker as a participation prize; other rewards won't be necessary. You can finalize this with the finance department later."

"Oh, and for the factory that produces the Strengthening Pills, it's a bit far away, so let them organize it themselves. Keep the speakers and such in mind; their side should be the same as here."

"If we do that, won't it delay work?"

"The company's framework has only just been set up, and work has only just begun, so how could there be any delay?"

Wei Lan nods: "So much of the loan money hasn't been used yet; what are your plans?"

"Of course, the main focus is on the development of the game engine. With this, even if we don't make games in the future, we can make a lot of money just by relying on the new game engine. After all, our engine isn't just for making games; it can also be used for realistic film and television special effects. I am confident that what I produce will be much better than foreign ones, and making money will be very easy."

"The secondary focus is to build up the team for researching computers and mobile phones to construct our own technology empire."

"In addition, we need to increase investment in Yi Yi and continue to deepen and iterate it; it's still too slow with just Zhang Xu doing it alone. We also need to find more people for the intelligent outbound calling system to expand the business. We've sold nearly 300,000 speakers now, and the level of artificial intelligence in them is obvious to all. I think there will be a big improvement in intelligent outbound calling next."

"Furthermore, Zhi Xiang also needs further iteration. After all, our previous products were too rudimentary; without high-level software, that thing of ours is just industrial waste. It didn't matter before when we had no money and no fame, but in the future, we must strive for excellence to be worthy of the money consumers spend."

"There's also what I told you before about entering the smart home market. Now that our Zhi Xiang has opened the doors to thousands of households, we should naturally take the opportunity to further develop products and talk to other home appliance manufacturers about cooperation. We will make high-end products ourselves and cooperate with manufacturers for low-to-mid-end products to build our reputation for smart home solution integration. The profit in this area is also very considerable."

"Our loan looks massive, but the things I've mentioned are not nearly enough with the money we have now. Only when the state-owned capital shareholding is implemented next year will we truly be like fish in the sea. However, we are now on the right track, so just keep moving forward steadily."

Nothing is achieved overnight, especially Wang Yan's grand vision, which requires taking it one step at a time. Reaching this point in two years is already very good; just keep a steady pace and don't be impatient.

In fact, the achievements he has made now are already at light speed in the eyes of ordinary people, it's just that they seem slow relative to the career he wants to pursue.

Wei Lan nods: "Yes, money just disappears. Before, you earned tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands a month, which was already a lot, but compared to houses that cost tens of millions, it's nothing. Now our smart speakers have sold over 100 million in just over a month, and we've also taken out a loan of over 200 million with our patents, but compared to the engines you want to make and the computer research, it's even less. I used to be so happy earning over 10,000 a month, but now with so much money in the account, I don't feel anything. I remember when the speakers first became popular, I was so excited every day..."

"This is experience, this is perspective. It's the chasm between the you of the past and the you of the present. Now that you have a house and a car, food and drink are enough, and even to a high standard. If you want more material life, it's nothing more than luxury houses, luxury cars, playing with yachts, buying planes, and so on. If you really want to be elegant, it's about setting up a winery or a manor. It won't be long before we can achieve that too. Money is already just a number to us. When we talked about this last time, what did you call it? That contradiction?"

"The contradiction between backward money views and ultra-high income."

"Now you don't have that contradiction anymore." Wang Yan raises his eyebrows and says with a smile, "Now your main contradiction is the contradiction between an ultra-high material life and your spiritual realm. Comrade Wei Lan, you still need to adapt, improve, and further raise your awareness."

"Whatever."

Wei Lan also can't figure out how Wang Yan has managed to remain as immovable as a mountain in the face of money from the time she met him until now. No matter how much he earned, and no matter how excited she was, Wang Yan always accompanied her with a smirk that begged for a beating. The only time she felt Wang Yan had a huge emotional fluctuation was when she was pregnant and had her first prenatal check-up, looking at the ultrasound image. Other than that, Wang Yan was like a deep pool, with only slight ripples on the surface, and no waves inside.

It was only through long-term contact and personal experience that she felt this. She had always known that Wang Yan was different, and what she had fallen for back then was that natural specialness...

Wang Yan switches his hands back and forth, untangling the leash that had twisted because A-Mao and A-Gou were running around, and asks: "How is the charity fund operating?"

"I was just about to tell you about this." Wei Lan takes her phone out of her pocket, opens the office software dedicated to the Long Teng system, operates it a few times, and hands it to Wang Yan: "Here, take a look. The primary schools they've found during this period are all here. They said they knew the situation from when they worked there before, so they reorganized the materials this time, all from Qian Province and Gan Province."

Wang Yan holds the leash in one hand, takes the phone, and scrolls through it casually. What is written above is the situation of the schools, very detailed, from location to environment, from the number of teachers to financial appropriations, the source of students and the number of students, the standard of meals, the students' way of attending school, and even an analysis of why this place is poor. The daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual expenses are all listed clearly, and the charity budget is also written clearly. The text wasn't enough, so it was accompanied by various photos, clearly showing the difficulty of the children there in seeking education.

After a while, having read through it once, he hands the phone back to Wei Lan: "I won't say much more; you make the decision yourself."

Wei Lan lets out a long breath: "If I don't see it with my own eyes, I'm always worried."

"Don't suspect those you use, don't use those you suspect. Every industry has its circles. I've also looked at the materials of the people you recruited; they have all worked on the front line of charity for many years, and they know the situation in various places very well. This document alone is much more convenient than the hard searching you did on the internet yourself before. Don't be afraid of problems; what you are worried about is nothing more than the situation of embezzlement, where the money we give cannot be implemented in place."

"But this kind of worry is unnecessary. Remember one thing: no one can take our money away; it's just passing through them. This kind of thing can't be hidden. And you have to believe that many people are silently running around for the poor children. Don't be hesitant in doing things; what you should do more is to discover problems and solve them."

"You have plenty of time, after all, the children are on winter holiday now, so think about it slowly yourself. However, I suggest you look at those photos less; excessive emotional fluctuations are not good for the baby. Before you feel sorry for other people's children, you should cherish your own child well."

"You have the most principles, one set after another."

"Fine, I'll shut up. But if you want to go over, it's definitely not possible; you have to wait until the baby is born and you've finished breastfeeding before you can go and see it on the spot."

"I know..."

Blowing the wind by the river, walking the naughty A-Gou and the timid A-Mao, occasionally chatting with curious passersby, Wang Yan and Wei Lan, the couple, just strolled along, slowly changed direction, and returned home...

After resting for another day, the next morning, Wang Yan still got up early, took A-Gou, and went out to brave the cold wind to run and practice martial arts by the river. Afterwards, he bought groceries and returned home, first washed up, and then started cooking.

Because of the pregnancy, Wei Lan is a bit sleepy. Moreover, for the past two days, Wei Lan has been flipping back and forth through the materials from the charity fund, calculating how to do charity well, so she went to sleep a bit late.

Wang Yan won't wake Wei Lan up. Since Wei Lan resigned, unless Wei Lan has something to do, she basically sleeps until she wakes up naturally. After all, they have reached this point, so it would be meaningless to get up early. Dreams are dreams, life is life, don't look for trouble for yourself.

So he cooks a bit later, finishes eating first, and then pokes the cat and teases the dog while watching TV and the news, waiting for Wei Lan to get up.

After eight o'clock, Wei Lan wakes up in a daze, eating the nutritionally balanced and reasonably matched breakfast Wang Yan prepared. Then she goes to wash up, dresses up simply, and the couple drives the BMW 5 Series purchased with the father-in-law's money, drives onto the Xiexing Bridge across the Qiantang River, and arrives at the company on the other side to start a new day of work.

The first thing upon arriving at the company is, of course, to hold a meeting. All the small leaders of the two companies attended. Wang Yan went but didn't speak; Wei Lan presided over it. The content of the meeting was nothing special, just to remind everyone about recent things on the internet, that company employees should not get involved and should do their own jobs well. The second thing was to announce the news of the half-month holiday for the New Year, and then arrange the annual meeting, purchase prizes, choose the venue, determine the catering standards, arrange for people to develop the lucky draw program for the annual meeting, and so on.

Wei Lan's progress is very fast; she has already transitioned from physical labor to intellectual labor, and is simultaneously improving her ability to manage. This, of course, has to do with Wang Yan's personal teaching; otherwise, Wei Lan, a product manager with two or three people under her, would actually be unable to handle the current work. However, this is also inseparable from Wei Lan's own efforts to improve; if you don't make progress yourself, no matter how much others teach you, it's useless.

After the meeting, the news spread. Along with the suddenly noisy office environment, people were laughing and joking, mostly saying, "Damn, I bought a ticket for the 28th, and I was wondering how to ask for leave," and then they all simultaneously took out their phones to cancel and rebook, and they also had to call their wives, girlfriends, and so on to communicate the time, which was also a troublesome thing. While thanking Wang Yan and his wife, they were also secretly cursing them: "Tell us earlier..."

The main reason is that the average age of their company is on the older side; these employees mostly have three or four years of work experience, and quite a few have more than ten years. People in middle age have no choice, and there are too many ties...

Wang Yan watches the employees outside with a smile, says nothing, and turns to flip through the company management system on the computer.

Influenced by recent public opinion, the sales of the company's only two products have both increased.

Zhi Xiang is already heading towards 400,000, and this is only after just over a month.

There are four companies occupying the smart speaker market: Baidu, Xiaomi, Tmall, and Huawei. These four companies together occupy 96% of the entire smart speaker market. Baidu, with the highest market share, sells more than 9 million units a year, occupying 35% of the market share.

By comparison, the Zhi Xiang he developed is currently not very good, the main reason being that it is expensive. Unlike other companies, it doesn't have a rich product line, and products costing eighty or a hundred yuan make up the majority. Just in terms of products at the same price point, it is still quite competitive, and in the future, it will be a crushing victory, the kind that has no comparability.

And the sales of the Strengthening Pills have increased by leaps and bounds. The highest before was more than 3,000 orders, which was when he just built the factory two months ago. Now the number of unshipped orders is more than 11,800.

Because at the beginning, his product was considered to be "crazy for money" and "unscrupulous products that cheat the elderly."

No one is a fool, and the target users of the Strengthening Pills are even less so. They are relatively sensitive to various news, and they also know deeply that the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be the most rigorous in the world. So before such a statement, it must have been carefully investigated and confirmed. Under such circumstances, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stands on the side of the Strengthening Pills, what does that mean? It means it is truly effective!

So some people with extra money placed orders first, for no other reason than to taste the saltiness and see the curative effect.

At the same time, there are also foreign devils. The target users of a bottle costing more than 6,000 dollars clearly also understand what "confidence" means. So there were also people who were concerned who silently placed orders on the official website, holding back their disgust, and paying more than 6,000 US dollars with "fuck, fuck." However, there are not many such people, only a few hundred orders, either from Washington or New York.

And whether it is Zhi Xiang or the Strengthening Pills, they all require full payment first. Adding in the loan that hasn't been spent yet, there are now more than 400 million lying in the accounts of the two companies...

A living father, an ordinary person who has never stopped learning and progressing, two years, more than 400 million...

Although looking at the numbers on the computer screen, there are no waves in his heart. But Wang Yan is still grateful for the living father's care; otherwise, he wouldn't even dream of such an unrealistic dream of having hundreds of millions, and would only think about buying a lottery ticket and winning millions. Because by comparison, winning the lottery is more realistic.

Wang Yan shakes his head with a smile, continues to fiddle with the computer, handles various technical problems from his subordinates, and starts a new day of work...