Chapter 101: Mama Ali's Little Schemes, Commemorating the Breakthrough of Human Limits

Late at night in Hangcheng, Mama Ali's headquarters remained brightly lit.

After Zhang Yong finished reporting work to the man opposite him, he suddenly mentioned Chen Yansen and Fox Tao.

"The people below have strong objections; even Hu Zhilong wants to find an excuse to shut down Fox Tao's CPS interface and accounts."

Zhang Yong shook his head, clearly disapproving of this approach.

"What does the Eastern Evil of Yitao think?" Ma Liyun turned around and fixed his gaze on Zhang Yong.

Eastern Evil is the nickname of Wu Ming, the person in charge of Yitao; Yitao and Fox Tao share the same model, both being shopping guide e-commerce platforms, except one is Mama Ali's biological son and the other is an adopted son.

In terms of profit models and marketing plans, Juhuasuan and Yitao are both copying Fox Tao; the key is that these bastards are copying while simultaneously cursing.

"About the same attitude as Hu Zhilong." Zhang Yong gave a sheepish smile, feeling like crying from the stupidity of his subordinates.

Actually, these people aren't stupid; they are just bad, and their stances differ; in their view, they must start from the alliance policy to kill Fox Tao.

"How much GMV did Fox Tao contribute to Taobao last year?" Ma Liyun asked with a smile, looking thoughtful.

"620 million. But it secured 560 million in funding from Penguin, IDG, and Siwei Capital; with Chen Yansen's aggressive personality, that kid will probably double Fox Tao's daily active users within half a year; I predict total sales in 2011 will exceed 6 billion."

Zhang Yong tilted his head back, closed his eyes to recall the data, and spoke slowly.

"2010 was one and a half thousandths; according to your logic, 2011 will be one percent; the scale doesn't look big, but as more players enter the shopping guide e-commerce field, the GMV share will also get higher and higher."

Ma Liyun's words made his stance on Fox Tao and shopping guide websites clear to Zhang Yong.

"The Mama Ali Alliance brought 17% of sales to the group last year; we cannot suppress shopping guides; instead, we must vigorously support them."

Zhang Yong said with a smile.

He knew clearly in his heart that once Mama Ali used its referee status to restrict the development of shopping guide e-commerce, capital would force them to switch to self-operated models.

Even if Mama Ali dominated the e-commerce field alone, it understood the principle that many ants can kill an elephant; whether to want friends or opponents was a question that hardly needed much thought.

For Ma Liyun and Mama Ali, with the assistance of shopping guide websites like Fox Tao, only after launching the listing plan in the future could they tell more stories to investors in the Land of the Lighthouse and push for a higher market value.

Wu Ming of Yitao and Hu Zhilong of the Mama Ali Alliance opposed it because Fox Tao stole their performance metrics.

These employees only have their own KPIs in their eyes.

"Tell Hu Zhilong that from now on, he must fully cooperate with Fox Tao's channel business."

After Ma Liyun thought it through, he made the final decision.

In 2011, he wanted to support shopping guides and strive to break through 1 trillion in annual group GMV within two years.

"Good, I understand." Zhang Yong nodded; on this issue, his thoughts aligned with Ma Liyun's.

The next morning.

Chen Yansen drove Chen Guobin to Beishan Cemetery, with the trunk filled with spirit money and firecrackers.

Kneeling before his mother's tombstone, Chen Yansen muttered: "When you have time, send a dream to Old Chen; let him find me a stepmother while he's young; otherwise, when he gets old, I'll be too lazy to take care of him."

"Son is making money now; after the New Year, I'll pick a good day to change you into a bigger room; by then, there will be a river in front, a mountain behind, and cypress and pine trees planted on both sides..."

Hearing his son's unorthodox eulogy, Chen Guobin's mouth twitched; he took several deep breaths before recovering.

"We haven't met, so I don't know what kind of daughter-in-law you like; but rest assured, I'll date one of every type; if you like any of them, send me a dream."

Chen Yansen was still talking nonsense there.

"Get the hell over there! Don't disturb your mother here." Chen Guobin finally couldn't hold back, kicked Chen Yansen on the buttocks, and drove him aside.

He was truly afraid that if Chen Yansen said two more sentences, his wife would climb up from underground.

Chen Yansen brushed off his buttocks, didn't argue with Chen Guobin, threw down a stack of spirit money, and instructed Old Chen: "Burn more for my mom."

Chen Guobin rolled his eyes at him, picked up the gold paper and spirit money, burned them bundle by bundle, and mumbled: "Huizhen, don't listen to this kid's nonsense; in this life, I only like you."

Hearing Old Chen speak such sour words, Chen Yansen frowned and stepped back several paces.

He was very familiar with the process behind; ten minutes later, Old Chen would start shedding tears; thirty minutes later, he would burst into loud weeping; one hour later, Old Chen would wipe his tears dry and urge him to go home.

For over ten years, it was always like this; he had long been tired of it.

Seeing Old Chen get into the zone, Chen Yansen turned around, returned to the car, turned on the heater, took out his phone, and started teasing the young girl.

"Brother Yansen, when are you coming to my house for a meal?" At this moment, a text message popped up.

"In a few days." Chen Yansen briefly brushed it off, then switched the page back to WeChat.

As soon as this app launched, he dragged Meng Jie and Song Yuncheng over to switch platforms; there was no choice; who else but Lei Busi threw all the money into the R&D and production of Xiaomi phones, causing Mi Talk to have network anomalies constantly, seriously affecting his experience in flirting with girls.

Although Zihao's mom's cooking was good, the moment he thought of Wang Ziyan, he immediately dispelled the thought of going to mooch a meal.

One hour later, after Chen Guobin vented his emotions, he silently sat in the passenger seat.

Chen Yansen dropped him off at the bookstore entrance, then turned the car around and drove to the side of Dongjindu Bridge.

From afar, he saw Wang Zihao and his father, wrapped in thick down jackets, sitting on small stools by the shore, holding fishing rods, staring intently at the floats.

"Uncle Wang! Long time no see; you've gotten quite rounder."

Chen Yansen approached and teased.

"Ho! You kid have grown taller again; you're almost half a head taller than Zihao; not bad." Wang Zhajun turned his head and praised with a smile.

Chen Yansen and Wang Zihao were childhood friends; since childhood, Chen Yansen often went to their house to mooch meals.

Usually, in such situations, either a friend is mooched out, or an enemy is mooched out; Chen Yansen was clearly the former.

In the previous life, he almost mooched away Old Wang's precious daughter.

Wang Zhajun had been a soldier and gone to the battlefield; naturally, he wouldn't care about a few meals; during festivals, he would even give Chen Yansen red envelopes.

"I heard from Zihao that you made him a lot of money; I don't understand business and can't give much advice, but everything must be done cautiously; when opportunities arise, you must dare to fight and struggle."

Wang Zhajun patted Chen Yansen's shoulder and whispered his admonition.

"I know; rest assured." Chen Yansen smiled, took a fishing rod out of the equipment box, and joined the fishing team.

The three sat by the riverbank, chatting while blowing in the cold wind.

Only then did Chen Yansen realize that a 2.63 constitution was no joke—the cold wind whistled past, yet he honestly felt nothing.

"I made plans with a few old buddies to come here for winter swimming tomorrow morning. You two want to join?"

Wang Zhanjun asked out of nowhere.

"Dad, I'll just join the second round." Wang Zihao said with a sheepish grin.

Winter swimming in the dead of winter—he truly couldn't handle it. Only retired veterans like Wang Zhanjun's bunch enjoyed torturing themselves, never mind how old they were.

That's what Wang Zihao thought, but he didn't dare say it out loud, afraid of getting a beating.

The so-called second round meant heading to Qipan Street for beef soup, picking up some cold cuts to nibble on, and having a bit of morning liquor to warm up.

Seeing his own son wasn't biting, Wang Zhanjun turned to look at his "godson."

"Uncle Wang, I have to visit a classmate's house tomorrow." Chen Yansen didn't want to suffer in the freezing cold and quickly made up an excuse.

"What a coincidence?" Wang Zhanjun didn't buy it.

"We arranged it yesterday." Chen Yansen said with an earnest face.

"Sen-ge, you're not going to Meng Jie's place, are you?" Wang Zihao's eyes lit up, the fire of gossip burning fiercely.

"Oh, girlfriend?" Wang Zhanjun caught on instantly, then said, "Bring her next time so I can have a look."

"Dad, you've met her—that tomboy from our class." Wang Zihao said with a wide grin.

"Huh!?" Wang Zhanjun was stunned. He didn't have a deep impression of the two's classmates, but that short-haired girl in particular—he'd only seen her once, yet remembered her for years.

She was just too memorable!

Back then, Meng Jie had been chasing a boy with a table leg, beating him up!

"Little Sen, Uncle Wang told you to be more manly before, but I never told you to find a girlfriend this manly."

Wang Zhanjun frowned, thought for a moment, and carefully advised.

"Uncle Wang, that was in the past. Let me show you what Meng Jie looks like now."

Chen Yansen pulled out his phone, found a photo of Meng Jie, and handed it to Wang Zhanjun.

"Oh! This is that tomboy? Well, I'll be, you really can't tell—she's grown into a beauty. A girl really does change eighteen times between childhood and adulthood, ha ha..." Wang Zhanjun looked at the phone and burst out laughing.

"You kid, take a page from her book. When I was your age, I'd already beaten several Annan monkeys to death, but you—can't even get a girlfriend."

After laughing, Wang Zhanjun looked at Wang Zihao beside him and started nagging with a look of utter disdain.

"Uncle Wang, you don't know, Zihao he..." Chen Yansen was about to spill Wang Zihao's secret and tell the story of him and Teacher Liu.

But before he could, Wang Zihao abandoned even his fishing rod, darted over in a single bound—his speed completely at odds with his build—and frantically clamped a hand over Chen Yansen's mouth.

Wang Zihao stared at Chen Yansen, his eyes brimming with the will to survive, looking as if he might drop to his knees and call him "daddy" any second.

"What's up with Zihao?" Wang Zhanjun asked with a smile; he'd noticed something was off.

"Nothing, just that Zihao met a Miss he likes, and she's a little older." Chen Yansen looked at Wang Zihao with a half-smile, deliberately keeping it deliberately vague.

"Junior or senior year? A woman three years older is a gold brick—your mom's even two years older than me, no problem..." Wang Zhanjun said with a laugh.

"Oh! Got a bite!"

Before Wang Zhanjun could finish, he felt a tug on the rod and happily reeled it in.

An afternoon passed; the sun had half set, and the air turned gloomy and cold. The three of them headed back with a few palm-sized crucian carp.

"Keep me company for a drink tonight?" Wang Zhanjun asked.

"Let's eat out. Have the restaurant cook this fish for us." Chen Yansen spoke up first—either way, he wasn't going to Wang Zihao's place.

"Uh, that works too." Wang Zhanjun didn't overthink it, stuffed the gear into the electric scooter, told Wang Zihao to ride on the back and follow, while he himself got into Chen Yansen's BMW.

The three of them entered the old city district, picked a familiar little restaurant at random, ordered a few hot dishes and dumplings, and ate heartily.

Chen Yansen looked at Wang Zihao, a flicker of envy passing through his eyes.

Boss Chen had his own regrets. From Old Chen, he hadn't felt much fatherly love—as a child, all he remembered was Old Chen kicking him.

Zihao might be a bit slow, but both his parents were around, accepting and understanding of their child, and the family atmosphere was especially warm.

Unlike Chen Guobin, whose life had only three things: running the bookstore, beating his kid, and missing his wife.

Over the next few days, Chen Yansen completely relaxed. During that time, he mooched meals at Meng Jie's place and also went splashing back and forth a few times in the Dongfei River with Wang Zhanjun and the others.

The result was that nothing happened to him, while Zhanjun and those old comrades were shivering from the cold. Not wanting to lose face in front of the younger generation, they said: this winter in Chunshen is really cold, it's never been like this in past years, I wasn't like this before, back when I was in the army, when I was young, and so on.

Chen Yansen just smiled and didn't bother arguing.

The twenty-ninth of the lunar year, which happened to be February 1st.

Fox Tao's February wages arrived on time, with over a hundred notification messages popping up one after another, blocking Chen Yansen's view.

In just a few minutes, the Human-Civilization Spark had increased by 148 wisps. This included wages, commissions, social insurance and housing fund, rent subsidies, and transportation subsidies—the core reason he was so keen on adding benefits for his employees.

"Add to Spirit or Constitution?" Chen Yansen hesitated for a second.

He turned his head and dumped all the Human-Civilization Spark into Constitution—max out the kidney attribute first.

This time the sensation was even more intense. In an instant, Chen Yansen felt his tendons, bones, skin, and flesh all contracting, tightening and loosening, like breathing.

But upon closer inspection, he felt this was just an illusion.

After the reaction from the stat boost subsided, Chen Yansen had a completely different feeling this time. He could clearly read the price list of the shop across the street, and the faint sounds around him all came through clearly.

"Since there's a Talent column on the panel, it means the current stat boosts aren't enough yet. I still need to keep making money and building the business."

Chen Yansen pressed his hand to his kidney, thinking to himself.

The Constitution column on the panel changed from 2.63 to 4.11. Over the next few days, he tested his strength, speed, reaction, and endurance—every metric exceeded the normal human range.

The hundred-meter dash took only 7.6 seconds; Bolt could only eat his dust, coming close to the fastest land creature.

Standing at the intersection, he could see the couplet on the Xihu gate—eight hundred meters apart—and even the wingbeat trajectory of a hummingbird was crystal clear to him.

Ten hours of continuous high-intensity exercise only burned through half his stamina.

Deadlift over 700 kilograms; the Chevrolet Spark on the roadside, he could drag it away single-handed.

"4.1 is already this amazing. What if I push it to 100, 1000, 10000, or even a hundred thousand, a million, ten million? Won't I become an immortal?"

Chen Yansen recorded the data in his notebook, stared at it for a while, then erased it all.

(End of Chapter)