Chapter 111: Why So Many Wang Teng? Cao Dahua's Past Memoirs

Chen Yansen put his luggage in the living room, turned, went downstairs, and walked toward the Entrepreneurship Park.

With Fox Tao leading the way, the development of each channel has entered the right track; at the company, he only controls the general direction, while execution-level work has been delegated.

Passing the courier station, he happened to see Song Yang sitting at the entrance, holding a phone and reading a novel.

"Yangyang, what are you busy with?"

Chen Yansen nudged him with his elbow and asked with a smile.

"Chen Dong's new book 'Zhetian'; I've been chasing it recently. Let me tell you, this book is written so damn cool; just a few lines of showing off make people unable to stop."

Song Yang came to his senses, looked up, saw it was Chen Yansen, and introduced it enthusiastically.

In his previous life, Song Yang had also, just like this, handed his phone to Chen Yansen, insisting he experience the charm of the Five White Authors of the Central Plains.

But at that time, Chen Yansen was busy being a simp; where did he have time to read any web novels? Naturally, he refused Song Yang.

As for this life, never mind; no matter how cool the book writes, it can't compare to President Chen's daily life; without immersion, how could one feel cool?

"Not to become an immortal, only to wait for you to return in this red dust."

"I am the Heavenly Emperor; I should crush all enemies in the world!"

"My son Wang Teng has the bearing of a Great Emperor!"

Song Yang chuckled; classic lines from the novel came straight from his mouth.

Sigh, being young is truly good; both stupid and chuunibyou!

Chen Yansen thought to himself, patted Song Yang's shoulder, said nothing, and prepared to go up to the second floor.

Wait!

Chen Yansen suddenly remembered something, turned his head, and asked: "Say that last sentence of yours again."

"My son Wang Teng has the bearing of a Great Emperor!" Song Yang smiled and retorted: "Isn't it full of style?"

"Yangzi, thanks."

Deep in Chen Yansen's memory, a trace of impression finally surfaced: the future General Manager of Redmi and head of Xiaomi's marketing department was also named Wang Teng, and his abilities seemed quite good.

Since he couldn't dig up Li Wanqiang, then he would dig up his successor.

Just as he lifted his foot to go upstairs, he suddenly thought that besides knowing a name, he knew nothing about Wang Teng's resume, nor was he clear whether the other party had joined Xiaomi yet or where he was working.

"Forget it, leave it to the headhunters; with a name plus the corresponding industry, they should be able to dig the person out."

After thinking it through, Chen Yansen went up to the second floor; passing Cao Dahua's office, he saw him still sitting at the desk rushing to finish a report, so he knocked on the door.

"Come in! Haven't seen you in a few days, and you're getting estranged with me."

Cao Dahua sat still, smiling and joking.

"I'm afraid that as soon as I enter, I'll bump into you watching an educational film; then we'll both be awkward."

Chen Yansen pushed the door open, walked in, plopped down, shook the teapot; there was still half a pot of tea. He didn't stand on ceremony, poured himself a cup, and sipped it in small mouthfuls.

"I heard from Wang Zihao that you went to Yanjing to discuss cooperation with Xiaomi?"

Hearing him say this, Cao Dahua discreetly turned off the player, closed his computer, and then slowly opened his mouth to chat.

"Yeah, Lei Yijun used investment as a pretext to trick me to Yanjing, but I had my own ideas; this trip wasn't in vain; I brought two B2C platforms to Shangcheng for rebates."

Chen Yansen put down the tea and said slowly and deliberately.

"He probably wants to make mobile phones?" Cao Dahua picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup, slurped a mouthful, and asked with narrowed eyes.

"Definitely! In this day and age, selling mobile phones is like running a money-printing machine; after earning the hardware money, you can still earn software profits; eating one fish twice."

Chen Yansen responded with a light laugh; for him, the large number of jobs manufacturing could provide was what moved him most.

"Not just that! Once the brand is built, accessories like chargers, earphones, phone cases, and screen protectors, even branded peripheral products, can all become important profit points."

Cao Dahua waved his hand and added.

"You actually understand these things?" Chen Yansen was stunned, his face full of surprise.

"Damn! What do you mean, you brat? I told you about my days wandering in Shencheng; so you didn't believe a single word?"

Cao Dahua frowned, slightly losing his cool, and cursed in a low voice.

Chen Yansen smiled awkwardly; last time he was too busy drinking, treating Cao Dahua's words as mere bragging, so of course they went in one ear and out the other.

"I believe you! Between us brothers, who is who? I previously thought you were messing around in the internet industry; I didn't expect you to know so much about the mobile phone industry." Chen Yansen made light of it and brushed it off.

"Hmph! When I started my business, you hadn't even graduated from elementary school."

Cao Dahua snorted, muttered dissatisfiedly, then asked again: "From what you say, you don't also want to make mobile phones, do you? Let me tell you, real industry isn't like the internet; the waters inside are very deep."

"Last time I asked what projects you started, you never said; tell me; maybe I can summarize some useful experience from your failures."

Chen Yansen, indifferent, asked curiously.

"Damn! When have I ever failed?" Cao Dahua turned sideways, stuck his head over, hesitated for a moment, then whispered: "Sigh, then don't tell anyone outside! Hao123, have you heard of it?"

"You are the founder of Hao123? I heard seven years ago, Qiandu spent 12 million cash, plus 40,000 shares of Qiandu web options, just to acquire it."

This time it was Chen Yansen's turn to be shocked; he never expected that the slacking immortal Cao Dahua had such a highlight moment.

You must know, Qiandu's stock price at this time was over 100 US dollars per share; 40,000 shares equaled 28 million Chinese yuan; adding the cash, Cao Dahua's net worth was at least over 40 million.

But Old Cao usually drove only a Haval H6; quite low-key.

Hearing Chen Yansen's flattery, Cao Dahua's old face couldn't help but turn red; he coughed twice and said: "I just asked if you had heard of it; I didn't say I was the boss of Hao123."

"Uh, Old Cao, don't hold your breath when you speak; I was even thinking of treating you to a meal tonight; you wouldn't be unwilling to spend money on a meal, would you?"

Chen Yansen joked.

"The product I made back then was called 991 Navigation; it couldn't compare to Hao123, but it was somewhat famous in the southeastern region; later I sold it to Google; didn't earn much, but it was enough to spend."

Cao Dahua looked proud, his expression full of nostalgia.

991 Navigation?

Hearing this, Chen Yansen thought it was some kind of improper navigation website, but seeing Cao Dahua's expression, he could guess it was probably a second-tier shopping guide website, selling at most for several million.

"Long time no see, my apologies! When I was in middle school, I actually used this navigation website to find some study materials."

Chen Yansen spouted off casually.

"Is that so? That's all in the past, let's not talk about it. Tell me about you instead — do you really want to get into the phone business? Running a shopping-guide e-commerce platform, making money the easy way — isn't that good enough?"

Cao Dahua's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly changed the subject, offering earnest advice.

Back in the day, to drive traffic and boost user stickiness, he'd pulled no end of flashy stunts on the website — Chen Yansen's words made him feel utterly ashamed.

He muttered to himself: no wonder this kid is smart but only got into a second-tier university — turns out he'd been hunting down "study materials" since middle school.

"Too easy, no fun making money that way — I just love to hustle." Chen Yansen said with a wide grin.

If he had to live an honest and straightforward life his whole life, he'd rather drop dead sooner. Chen Yansen's dictionary only had two words: play, and money!

A man can't be without money, and he can't help but play around!

"If you say that out loud, aren't you afraid someone'll put a bag over your head and beat you? You're way too hated!"

Cao Dahua burst out laughing at his teasing, jabbing a finger at Chen Yansen as he cursed.

"I'm heading out first, so you won't be able to resist and ambush me after work." Chen Yansen stood up, dusted off his rear, and left.

"Young people, always love to hustle — just like me back in the day." Watching Chen Yansen's retreating back, Cao Dahua shook his head and chuckled. Then he opened his computer and went back to the video he hadn't finished.

Chen Yansen had just stepped into Room 206 when Wang Zihao came over, laptop in his arms.

"Yesterday's new-user growth broke 800,000, daily active users topped 1.75 million — but the burn rate is flying so fast, my heart can barely take it."

Wang Zihao spoke as he gestured for Chen Yansen to look at the ad-placement data.

Chen Yansen gave it a cursory glance. The CPM and CPA numbers were both within controllable range, and pulling over 100,000 volume on the channel meant the ad team had put real thought into the creatives and plans.

"Looks like the 2 million DAU target — we won't have to wait until June. We can hit it now."

Chen Yansen pulled his gaze back and nodded, satisfied.

His initial plan was to push Mama Ali's daily active users to 3 million and annual sales past 10 billion — only then could he talk to investors about a Series B, or find some sucker to buy out Mama Ali whole.

Outsiders didn't know, but he was well aware: once Mama Ali and JD went public and stabilized their stock prices, they'd most likely come after Mama Ali first.

Who would sit by and let a third-party external channel grow?

Put in Chen Yansen's shoes, he'd make the same call.

"The telecom side's API should be ready by next week — we'll put the entry point in the user center, daily exposure around 1 million-plus." Wang Zihao continued his report.

"Just keep an eye on it, ping me when it goes live — no need to report every step."

Chen Yansen said with a faint smile, giving Wang Zihao instructions.

"Got it, I'll head back then. Last week's ad-placement analysis — I sent it to your email." Wang Zihao grinned, hugged his laptop, and went back to his seat.

Chen Yansen leaned back, propped his feet on the desk, pulled out his phone, and started playing Temple Run. He'd played the game before, but that was over a decade ago.

But after just ten-odd minutes, Chen Yansen put down his phone. With his current reflexes and hand speed, playing this game felt like everything was slowed down ten-odd times — the original tension and excitement were completely gone, and instead he found it utterly boring.

Looks like stronger physique and spirit aren't entirely a good thing.

Chen Yansen sighed inwardly.

He stayed at the startup park until six o'clock when work ended, but 90% of the project team was still at their desks. After all, working overtime came with 1.5x pay — nobody felt they were slaving away for Chen Yansen for free.

A company whose performance was rocketing upward, with generous overtime pay — nobody would feel any pain working at the startup park.

Chen Yansen called over Meng Xibo and Zhu Xiaopeng, and on the way past the first floor picked up Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang. The group headed off campus — they got together at least once a month. Tang Zhenzhe had already ordered dishes at Shuangqing Restaurant, just waiting for them to arrive.

Along the way, the guys' talk inevitably drifted to girls. Zhu Xiaopeng said Zhe-ge had confessed to Su Meiling and been rejected, and had been in low spirits lately.

Song Yang scratched his head and said an art-major senior was chasing him.

That remark immediately piqued everyone's interest — they pressed him on her looks, height, and most importantly, how far things had progressed.

"Vulgar!" Chen Yansen yanked Song Yang over, jabbed a finger at the others and cursed. The moment the words left his mouth, he asked with a wicked grin: "How many bases?"

"Piss off!" The others all flipped him the bird, laughing and mocking him.

……

……

The next morning, Chen Yansen—for once—grabbed his books and went to a specialized course class.

The teacher saw this unfamiliar face, assumed he was an auditing student from another department, didn't think much of it, and had no idea this person was the very Chen Yansen he'd never laid eyes on.

After lunch, Chen Yansen walked into Room 206. Xu Dan, seeing him, stepped forward to report: "Sen-ge, the headhunter pushed a few candidates named Wang Teng. I think this Wang Teng currently at OPPO best fits your requirements."

As she spoke, she handed over five or six résumés. The top one — Wang Teng — was a Huazhong University of Science and Technology grad who joined OPPO in 2008 as a product manager.

Chen Yansen flipped open the second résumé — another Wang Teng.

Damn, why are there so many Wang Tengs?

And they're all in phone-related industries.

Chen Yansen frowned — for the moment, he really couldn't tell which one was the person he was looking for.

"You do the initial screening first. For the technical round, get Director Cao to recommend a teacher in the relevant field. Whoever's strongest — take them."

Chen Yansen made the call decisively.

(End of chapter)