Chapter 114: Big Pineapple's Zuo Hongyu, the Great Emperor Comes Knocking (Beg for Monthly Tickets)

After Chen Yansen left, Cao Dahua took out his phone, scrolled to a number, and dialed.

"Brother Hua, what do you need me for?"

Zuo Hongyu looked at the familiar caller ID, smiled, and pressed answer.

"Old Zuo, are you settling in okay at Big Pineapple?" Cao Dahua leaned back on the sofa, chuckling as he asked.

"Shanzhai phones are just assembly production—no challenge. But these past two years haven't been as comfortable as '08 and '09."

Zuo Hongyu took it as an old friend checking in on him and chatted casually.

"Thinking of jumping ship?" Cao Dahua wrapped up the small talk and got straight to the point.

"Brother Hua, are you making a comeback?" Zuo Hongyu froze, hesitated a moment, then his mind clicked and he hurriedly pressed.

"You think this is a movie? I don't have time to play the triumphant return for you! I've got a student who wants to get into the phone business and needs a procurement director who knows the supply chain inside out—so I figured I'd ask if you're interested?"

Hearing his old pal's excited tone, Cao Dahua dumped a bucket of cold water on him, annoyed.

"Huh?! Like that? Brother Hua, is your student a rich second generation?"

Zuo Hongyu didn't rush to agree, nor did he refuse, and kept probing.

"I mentioned it to you last time—that kid Chen Yansen."

Cao Dahua grinned, looking smug; to outsiders he always said Chen Yansen was his pride and joy.

"Oh, isn't he in e-commerce? Why suddenly make phones?"

Zuo Hongyu was puzzled—the gap between those two industries was huge.

"Lei Jun used to do software too, and now he's making phones. Anyway, this kid's loaded—he won't treat you badly. Coming or not?" Cao Dahua pressed.

"Brother Hua, I'm no spring chicken, don't want to keep grinding. If it were you starting over, I'd throw these old bones in and play one round with you."

Zuo Hongyu thought it over and still turned Cao Dahua down.

Shanzhai phones' momentum wasn't as hot as the past two years, but the domestic market had potential—if they couldn't sell in tier-one and tier-two cities, they'd go to tier-three, tier-four, even backwater counties; they'd always get a full meal.

But following Chen Yansen, the future was uncertain; for a man in his forties, the risk was too high, not worth it.

"Old Zuo, you're blind! Shanzhai phones took off because MediaTek provided chipsets and operating systems, but in touch and smartphone tech, MediaTek has no edge anymore—it's a dead end next."

Cao Dahua said with conviction; though he was at school, he wasn't slacking off every day.

His failed startup back then had always stuck in his craw, so naturally he kept close tabs on industry news.

"That can't be, can it?"

Zuo Hongyu wasn't convinced; in his view, Big Pineapple was still pretty popular in the low- and mid-end market.

"Hmph! The e-waste from your factory can't even beat the smartphones carriers give away for topping up—how are you going to compete with Huawei, ZTE, and Ku Sect?"

Cao Dahua was frustrated at his inability to live up to expectations, thinking: Old Zuo's only fit for support; let him hold the line alone and it's mostly a mess.

"Brother Hua, how about you be the procurement director and I'll be your deputy?"

After thinking a moment, Zuo Hongyu proposed.

"Why do you have to drag me into this?" Cao Dahua didn't know whether to laugh or cry—he drank tea and watched shows every day, living like an immortal; why suffer the hardships of starting a business with Chen Yansen?

"Heh heh, without a big shot like you holding down the fort, I don't feel secure." Zuo Hongyu laughed freely.

"What big shot am I? If I had the chops, I wouldn't have slinked back home from Shencheng back then. Give me a straight answer—are you in or not?"

Cao Dahua said impatiently.

"Then I'll have to make a trip to Xu City and meet your student." Zuo Hongyu sobered up, his face serious.

"Fine, it's been a while since we got together anyway—clay-pot chicken on me, as much as you want." Cao Dahua sighed and agreed readily.

"Deal, this Saturday—I happen to have a business trip to Hui'an." Zuo Hongyu checked his schedule and set the meeting time with Cao Dahua.

After hanging up, Cao Dahua stood up, gazed at the darkening sky outside, and was suddenly seized by an impulse—Old Zuo's suggestion didn't sound bad either.

Chen Yansen was mature and steady, riding high in e-commerce, even venture capital wrapped around his finger, but manufacturing was deep waters; Cao Dahua worried he'd end up like him back then—one misstep and the whole board lost.

"Forget it, I'll go home and discuss it with the wife."

Cao Dahua was somewhat tempted, mulled it over, and decided in his heart.

The next day before work, he made a point of going to the principal's office and mentioning to Tang Qingshan Chen Yansen's idea of expanding the number of off-campus hires.

Tang Qingshan, hearing Fox Taobao wanted to hire sixty more off-campus people, predictably frowned, his face troubled.

"Principal, I don't think we should agree. Fox Taobao's already valued at over two billion, and they're still using the college student startup banner to take advantage of the school—pretty shabby. Better to have them move their project team to the nearby tech park."

Cao Dahua said it on purpose, face stern.

Move to the tech park?

Tang Qingshan paused slightly—if Fox Taobao wasn't on campus, could it still count as a college student startup project?

His gaze fell on the document on the desk—the very invitation to the College Student Startup Competition.

"Teacher Cao, as head of the startup park and instructor, when students have difficulties you should help solve them—what's the meaning of chasing them away? I approve this. Tell the security office to register them and tighten safety controls."

Tang Qingshan waved his hand, first criticizing Cao Dahua's "pass-the-buck-ism," then with a grand sweep of his arm, gave his assent.

Cao Dahua smiled apologetically, nodded in agreement; the instant he lowered his head, a flash of smugness crossed his eyes.

He hummed a little tune, and when he arrived at the startup park with the invitation, Chen Yansen hadn't come yet.

"If this kid had half my hustle back then, Fox Taobao would've been worth four billion by now." Cao Dahua bragged to himself.

He walked to Xu Dan's workstation, set down the invitation, gave a few brief instructions, then puffed out his belly and strolled leisurely back to his office to keep slacking off.

It wasn't until half past ten that Chen Yansen arrived; after hearing Xu Dan's report, the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.

Old Cao's reliable—every time he says he'll try, it basically gets done.

He tossed the invitation to Zhuang Rui, telling the product team to pick a glib product manager to represent Fox Taobao at the competition.

He didn't want to waste time on this—better to grab Meng Jie and go to the grove by Pearl Lake for some fresh air.

Then Chen Yansen handed the keys to a few downstairs startup spaces to Xu Xingxing, telling her to find some part-time students to clean up, and to get Cao Dahua to sign off on pulling some office desks, chairs, and a water dispenser from the warehouse.

Xu Xingxing nodded and went off to handle it.

Chen Yansen returned to his seat, checked the data as usual, then pulled together a few team leaders for a ten-minute short meeting.

"Sen-ge, about the database drop last night — I warned the recruitment side and notified them of the disciplinary result." Zhang Yifeng reported proactively.

"Mm, got it." Chen Yansen didn't pay it much mind.

He wasn't afraid of the recruitment staff leaving at all — if someone walked, he'd just have an editor step in right away.

You have to know that, apart from product selection and setting commission rates, the people who deal with merchants most day-to-day are the editors.

From setting commission ratios to confirming main images and product titles, all of it is handled by editors liaising with the merchants' operations staff.

Once a recruitment staffer leaves and an editor takes over, at least 90% of the merchant resources can be retained.

By month's end, Chen Yansen would select another two to three recruitment team leaders based on performance, and recruit a few recruitment assistants.

Nominally the assistants supported the team leaders' work; in reality they dispersed the team leaders' authority, letting him firmly keep control of the recruitment team.

"Sen-ge, since Zhuang Rui's crawler emails went live, the merchants launching simultaneously on Meilishuo, Mogujie, and Superfan have dwindled to almost none. We've got the traffic and the first-mover advantage — we can absolutely crush those competing sites."

Yuan Wei said with a smile.

"Have the recruitment staff check the competing sites every day to stop those sneaky merchants who swap a single product to a different link, or use shops on other platforms to join the promotion."

Chen Yansen nodded and reminded casually.

"Got it, that's all part of the recruitment team's daily work." Yuan Wei smiled confidently, then added.

"March is still half left — I hope everyone can hit their Q1 targets. This is also the first time our Fox Tao is handing out quarterly bonuses. The money's all ready — don't let me down."

Chen Yansen tossed out a big date and said with a smile.

"No problem!" The team leaders' faces immediately lit up with smiles.

The quarterly bonus was one to three times the monthly salary, with a guaranteed minimum of one month's wages. Apart from the recruitment staff, everyone else was thrilled.

Chen Yansen smiled, called out "Meeting adjourned," and led the way out.

Meanwhile, the moment Wang Teng got back to Dongguan, he submitted his resignation.

The department manager didn't take it seriously — after OPPO announced its entry into the smartphone industry, with the capital accumulated from the BBK project, they weren't short on talent.

Wang Teng had expected it would take at least a month to leave, but unexpectedly the last day set by upper management was just one week away. He felt a little lost — after all, three years at OPPO, some feelings were still there.

But on second thought, he could start earning a 36,000 yuan monthly salary this month, and that little unhappiness vanished in an instant.

At the same time, Xu Dan also received the hiring plan Wang Teng had drawn up, and immediately continued the recruitment work according to what R&D needed.

Chen Yansen was willing to throw money around — generous subsidies, benefits, and quarterly bonuses — and soon poached a batch of system development engineers from Xiaomi, OPPO, Meizu, and other companies.

On another ordinary weekend, Chen Yansen had just gotten out of bed when he received a call from Cao Dahua.

"Interview? Now? Sure."

Chen Yansen listened, put down his phone, dressed neatly, and drove to a restaurant off campus.

Interviewing at a restaurant was nothing new for him — after all, in his previous life, he had often interviewed female streamers at hotels and villas.

(End of chapter)