Chapter 119

In the following days, Chen Yansen spent his days reading in the startup park and continued reading in his bedroom at night.

Meng Jie felt that her bond with Chen Yansen had advanced by leaps and bounds over these two days, warming up rapidly; the faint unease she once felt had vanished completely.

Both were young, at the prime of their abilities.

Often they stayed up all night, sleeping until eleven or twelve the next day; after adapting for two days, Meng Jie shifted from passive to active, and her driving skills grew increasingly proficient.

Only when school resumed on the 6th did the teachers upstairs and downstairs realize the spring cat had finally quieted down—they could finally sleep soundly.

Chen Yansen wasn’t idle; during these days he finished reading *The Android Heroes*, *Deep into Linux Kernel Architecture*, *Android Design Patterns: Source Code Analysis*, *Clean Code*, and *Android System Source Code Contextual Analysis*, and even thoroughly understood the new book recommended by Wang Teng.

These textbooks all came with source code files, making it convenient for him to practice hands-on.

His spiritual force of 8.43 made his learning feel like he had a cheat code.

Chen Yansen discovered that with his extraordinary spiritual force, learning languages, history, literature, and social sciences became even more effortless.

Yet he didn’t do that; instead, he poured immense energy into operating system principles, programming languages, data structures, and algorithms, advancing at breakneck speed.

The code produced by the Aurora R&D team became his best learning material; whenever he encountered confusion, he could simply ask the relevant engineers.

Through repeated refinement between theory and practice, Chen Yansen’s experience and technical skills soared; previously he could only track R&D progress through product documentation, but now he could grasp project status just by reviewing the code.

In the second week after the holiday, Chen Yansen walked into Room 206.

Song Yuncheng greeted him with a broad smile: “Lashou has allocated 20 million yuan in marketing expenses to sign an exclusive cooperation agreement with Fox Taobao.”

20 million?

Lashou had always been generous, but never this extravagant.

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and immediately realized—he turned to Song Yuncheng for confirmation: “Has Lashou completed its C-round financing?”

Only this reason could explain why Lashou was willing to spend 20 million to buy out its cooperation with Fox Taobao.

“Yes! The announcement came last night—seven institutions, including Madon, Lifeng, and Jinshajiang Venture Capital, jointly invested 110 million U.S. dollars for a 10% stake in Lashou.”

Song Yuncheng nodded slightly, watching Chen Yansen with eager anticipation.

If this deal went through, after deducting half the fees as commission, the remaining half would still amount to 10 million yuan in performance—just from commissions, she could earn 500,000 yuan.

But only if Chen Yansen agreed to the cooperation.

“How much gross profit did Lashou, Gao Peng, Meituan, and WoWoNet generate together in March?”

Chen Yansen asked.

“About 13.7 million yuan, with new-user rewards around 7.2 million, totaling just over 20 million,” Song Yuncheng replied—she had prepared thoroughly before coming to discuss this with Chen Yansen.

“Agree to them. Sign the contract monthly,” Chen Yansen said after a moment’s thought, nodding.

“Got it, I understand.”

Song Yuncheng exhaled in relief; Lashou had also insisted on monthly renewals—long-term contracts would strain their cash flow too much.

The other side was spending 20 million to seize market share; once Lashou crushed its rivals, it wouldn’t want to keep pouring money into guide websites.

That’s why they specifically emphasized to Song Yuncheng that the contract must be renewed monthly.

"If I do this, will I change history? Maybe Lashou will win the year-end group-buying war instead of Meituan?"

As Chen Yansen walked toward Room 206, he mused idly.

Meituan’s ground team was formidable, but under financial and traffic pressure, they might not survive to the end—especially since Wang Xin was short on funds and hadn’t yet secured Ali’s support.

“Who cares! Whoever pays more gets Super Return.”

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, dismissed his distractions, and returned to his seat to read.

On the other side, Gao Peng, Meituan, and WoWoNet, who had planned to sign up for Super Return in April, suddenly received word that April’s schedule was full—they’d have to wait until May.

But the group-buying market was volatile; next month, whether their projects would even survive was uncertain.

Everyone was now surviving on venture capital funding; Fox Taobao, with over two million daily active users, had become the key battleground.

Zheng Yun, Gao Peng’s marketing director, reacted fastest—he immediately called Chen Yansen to ask.

Chen Yansen bluntly said Lashou had spent 20 million to lock up April’s entire schedule.

He had no choice but to agree, to satisfy his investors.

Zheng Yun naturally didn’t believe him—he cursed inwardly: Fuck, they just want money!

You, Chen Yansen, took over a billion from Tencent—you’re practically one of us—and yet for money, you’re willing to turn your back on loyalty.

Zheng Yun, helpless and seething, hung up and went straight to his boss for funds.

Meituan and WoWoNet soon called too; after learning of Lashou’s move, they couldn’t help muttering, “Rich bastards.”

At this point, no one could match Lashou’s financial strength.

Wang Xin of Meituan was actively seeking financing—on one hand approaching the Fujian Business Association, on the other hand courting Ali, who was then riding high in venture capital.

After weighing his options, Wang Xin proactively contacted Ji Gang from Ali’s investment department; he expected a long negotiation, but Ma Liyun personally met him and generously invested 50 million U.S. dollars.

Wang Xin was deeply moved!

Of course, this didn’t prevent him from later betraying Ali and turning to Tencent’s embrace.

Chen Yansen hadn’t expected that, with his interference in this life, Meituan’s B-round financing would be accelerated by two months.

With the money in hand, Wang Xin immediately spent 24 million to lock up Fox Taobao’s May group-buy schedule, catching Lashou completely off guard.

He didn’t waste the remaining funds on advertising; instead, he used them to expand his ground sales team.

His logic was simple: the platform connected users and merchants, and ground sales were the rope linking merchants—this deserved priority investment.

So Wang Xin poached talent everywhere, while other platforms focused on traffic—hiring celebrities for endorsements and flooding subways, buses, TV, buildings, and outdoor spaces with ads.

The group-buying platforms competed fiercely, pouring venture capital into massive spending; Chen Yansen benefited too, selling June’s schedule at a record-breaking price of 30 million yuan.

Fox Taobao only needed to plan two brand group-buy events and allocate some resource slots—earning this money with remarkable ease.

On April 10, Fox Taobao announced publicly that its registered user base had reached 120 million (actually just under 110 million), and planned a Super Special Sale Day on April 22.

Users ranked F3 and above would receive additional rebates.

For example, a pair of Nike sneakers originally priced at 399 yuan normally returned 79.8 yuan; F3 users got an extra 5 yuan, F4 got 15 yuan extra, and F5 got 40 yuan extra.

This effectively returned to F5 users the entire commission difference after deducting Ali’s technical service fees and taxes.

Upon this announcement, orders surged—entirely from existing users trying to upgrade.

Because Chen Yansen had instructed the event team to preheat some products on secondary pages.

These were brands collected during Q1’s recruitment drive that needed to clear inventory.

Ponds face masks at 10% off, Metersbonwe clothing at 20% off, knockoff phones at 30% off, HanShu skincare sets at 40% off, induction cookers, rice cookers, and electric kettles at 50% off, sportswear, luggage, and snacks at 60% off, lighting and furniture at 70% off, air conditioners, TVs, and computers at 80% off.

All categories, major brands, massive discounts!

Some of these products were flash-sale items negotiated by the recruitment team; others were advertising projects secured by the major client recruitment department.

For example, Acer Computers paid 5 million yuan for the right to sell 15 million yuan in sales volume, and was inserted into the Super Special Sale Day event.

As Chen Yansen sat reading as usual, Liao Wei called.

“Boss Chen, this business is viable. I’ve assessed it—the U.S. warehouse costs are low, but labor is expensive; still, we can distribute those costs to users.”

Liao Wei reported his findings immediately after landing.

Over the past ten days, he visited Amazon’s major warehouses and several U.S. logistics and warehouse leasing companies; after weighing options, he confirmed Chen Yansen’s proposed path was indeed sound.

Little competition, high profits.

Just through packaging, repackaging, reinforcement, warehousing, and exchange rate arbitrage—excluding freight differentials—he could make a fortune.

And he didn’t have to worry about orders—Chen Yansen promised to give him all of Fox Taobao’s cross-border orders.

“I suggest you spin this business off from Yunsu Express. Also, Fox Taobao should take a 40% equity stake—it’s not unreasonable, right?”

Chen Yansen, with no capital invested, demanded 40% equity outright.

Liao Wei was stunned—he hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be this ruthless: no investment, yet such a high stake.

But he couldn’t refuse; Chen Yansen could find anyone else to do this project—he was just the runner.

“Not unreasonable. I’ll handle it,” Liao Wei gritted his teeth and agreed.

“Put it under Senlian Capital,” Chen Yansen added.

Liao Wei’s heart jumped—he understood Chen Yansen’s clever maneuver, and suddenly grasped why this young man had built such a thriving business; his mind alone made Liao Wei feel utterly outclassed.

“Boss Chen, rest assured—I won’t talk,” Liao Wei quickly pledged.

“Liao Zong, stick with me, and you won’t be shortchanged. When the cake grows bigger, your share will be worth even more.”

Chen Yansen reminded him with a smile.

“I understand. I’ll arrange the new company registration immediately. In the U.S., I’ve identified two warehouses; preliminary preparations will take two to three weeks. Once all details are settled, I’ll report back to you.”

Liao Wei was smart—he knew how to read the situation, kept his posture humble, and genuinely wanted to follow Chen Yansen this time.

Chen Yansen smiled and hung up.

In 2011, overseas forwarding companies were still a blue ocean market; in the future, they could support several logistics firms, some with annual revenues reaching billions—far more promising than Yunsu’s current prospects.

Under the encirclement of SF Express and the “Three Throughs and One Reach,” Yunsu would die unless it adapted.

While Chen Yansen was busy studying system development, competition among group-buying websites intensified dramatically—so much so that it escalated to physical fights over merchants.

WoWoNet poached 200 people from Lashou in one go, paralyzing Lashou’s East China operations.

Even Fox Taobao’s users reported that their group-buy vouchers weren’t being handled for after-sales service.

Lashou hastily transferred staff from other cities to rush to the East China market.

Each side accused the others; scandals never ceased.

After investing in Meituan, Ma Liyun announced that JuHuaSuan was officially entering the group-buying business, aiming to carve out a share of the O2O market.

This sent both Lashou and Meituan into panic.

Perhaps at this moment, Wang Xin sensed uncertainty from Ma Liyun and grew wary of Dan Jiawei, the head of Alibaba’s China Supply Iron Army.

He wanted to be the top dog himself—he naturally refused to submit to anyone; in his view, Dan Jiawei wasn’t there to work, but to seize power.

Tensions between Meituan and Alibaba were growing.

(End of chapter)