Chapter 128: Chaos, Change, Chen Yansen's Money Bag (Seeking Monthly Votes)

On the return journey, Chen Yansen scrolled to news of JD and Zhifu Bao's breakup.

Simply put, Liu Qiangdong thought the fee rate was too high and felt Ma Liyun took too much of a cut; from now on, JD shopping would no longer support Zhifu Bao payments.

"This guy probably plans to shift from offline thinking to online thinking from now on, realizing that without his own payment license, he'll always be restricted everywhere."

Chen Yansen muttered softly and smiled.

In 2011, JD still used that offline playbook, didn't see itself as an internet company, loved playing cash-on-delivery with customers, and later gradually discovered users preferred online payments.

Only then did it start developing its own payment method, starting several years later than others, and even ten-plus years later, it still couldn't gain real traction.

"Brother Sen, Gao Peng's Weibo Apple 4 giveaway was exposed as fake; will this affect upcoming brand group collaborations?"

Wang Zihao held his phone, pointing at the trending search to ask Chen Yansen.

"By the time Gao Peng launches its event, the negative impact of this will have long passed; just proceed with normal cooperation."

Chen Yansen glanced over and didn't take it seriously.

He read more news on the group-buying industry and asked Gao Peng's Zheng Yun for an industry analysis report.

Juhuasun surpassed Lashou in just one month, with monthly sales exceeding 1 billion; backed by Mama Ali, leveraging tens of millions of daily active users and hundreds of thousands of merchants, doing group buying was basically a dimensionality reduction strike.

But Mama Ali lacked offline merchant management experience and had poor service quality; within two years it was overtaken by other platforms, and in the end could only spin off its O2O business to focus on online flash sales.

Lashou ranked second, with monthly sales of 330 million.

Gao Peng ranked third, with monthly sales of 170 million.

Meituan and Nuomi tied for fourth, with sales of 150 million, of which 30 million in performance was contributed by Li Tao's users.

"Following this trend, the winner of the Thousand Group Wars might be either Mama Ali or Lashou."

Chen Yansen chuckled; Li Tao's brand groups had turned these group-buying sites upside down.

Meituan, which should have surpassed Lashou, still hadn't squeezed into the top three.

Chen Yansen didn't care about any of this; anyway, these rich dogs didn't treat money like money, so what if he helped them spend a bit?

Take Nuomi: first-quarter operating costs were 30 million, and the second quarter would need another 30 million more, because that "sucker" who booked the Super Rebate June schedule was Nuomi.

Who could blame it? Its parent company, Renren, had just successfully listed in the Lighthouse Country, raising a lot of foreign money.

Spending money naturally went hand-in-hand with extravagance!

After all, everyone saw Lashou's event results: over 200,000 new customers added in one month, sales nearly 60 million—who wouldn't be tempted?

At that moment, an announcement chime sounded over the broadcast.

The three picked up their suitcases, walked across the jet bridge, and found their seats to sit down.

Song Yuncheng sat by the window, Chen Yansen in the middle, and Wang Zihao by the aisle.

Song Yuncheng looked at Chen Yansen, recalling the last time she returned from a business trip to Yanjing when Chen Yansen had held her; a smile naturally appeared on her face.

With Wang Zihao present this time, Chen Yansen definitely wouldn't dare act recklessly.

Relieved, she took out her phone and replied to work messages.

Having flown several times, she wasn't as nervous as the first time; back then she had kept her eyes closed, gripping Chen Yansen's hand tightly, as if letting go would make her fall from ten thousand meters in the sky.

Her palms were covered in cold sweat!

Now she was long accustomed to it; even before takeoff, she could leisurely reply to a few work messages.

She had just sent a set of Li Tao's B2C Shangcheng entry rules to Suning's channel business team and was about to find the CPS interface technical documentation in her phone to send it together.

Her right hand was suddenly pulled into Chen Yansen's palm.

Song Yuncheng turned to look; Wang Zihao was still staring down at his phone, so she dared not make a sound, fearing discovery.

Then, operating with one hand, she finished sending the technical documentation, gave clear instructions, and only then switched her phone to airplane mode.

In this cramped space, two hands—one like a mouse, one like a cat—played quietly.

Wang Zihao secretly glanced over, then simply closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, thinking in his heart: "Brother Sen, you're too scummy. I thought you said chasing the senior sister was just a joke, but actually... ah... couldn't you two avoid people? I'm in such a dilemma."

He and Meng Jie were iron brothers, classmates for three years, and his relationship with Chen Yansen was even more unquestionable.

Wang Zihao felt stuck in the middle, torn between a brother and a best friend.

"Forget it; I'll just pretend I'm blind and saw nothing."

After struggling for a long time, Wang Zihao finally decided to help no one and just pretend not to see it.

After playing for a while, Chen Yansen, unsatisfied with simple moves like Lashou's, suddenly pulled Song Yuncheng into his arms.

"Stop it, someone will see," Song Yuncheng struggled, trying to sit up.

"Don't be afraid; he's sleeping like a dead pig, unmoved by thunder."

Chen Yansen grinned wickedly; his hearing was extraordinary, he had already discovered Wang Zihao was pretending to sleep, but said this on purpose.

"Damn Chen Yansen, I'll sell you out when we get back."

Wang Zihao's mouth twitched as he angrily cursed in his heart.

Two and a half hours later, the plane landed safely.

The three found Chen Yansen's BMW 750 in the airport parking lot; after getting in, Wang Zihao continued as driver, heading toward the Void Courtyard.

"Brother Sen, how about hiring a driver?" Wang Zihao suggested.

"No need; your driving is quite steady."

Chen Yansen joked with a smile.

A driver follows you around all day; without someone trustworthy, he really wouldn't dare use one.

Besides, he was under twenty, had few daily travel needs, and keeping a driver was too wasteful.

Wang Zihao sighed and gripped the steering wheel helplessly.

When they returned to school, it was only three in the afternoon.

The three hadn't eaten lunch, only having some simple meals on the plane; Wang Zihao parked the car in front of QQ-E Home: "Haven't had their ground-pot chicken in a long time; shall we eat lunch first before going back?"

"Sure." Chen Yansen patted his stomach; he was indeed hungry.

Song Yuncheng got out of the car and followed behind the two of them, the scene of their first meeting involuntarily surfacing in his mind—they had also had lunch at QQ-e Home that day.

Last time, the three of them had just met, calling each other "senior" and "junior" at every turn; this time, now colleagues, all they talked about over the meal was work.

"I won't go to the Startup Park. Tell Xu Dan to hold a full-team morning meeting tomorrow, set the time at 9 o'clock."

Chen Yansen said to Wang Zihao after eating and drinking his fill.

"Got it, I know." Wang Zihao nodded.

He still had to make a trip to the Startup Park, to finalize next week's advertising materials and strategy with the advertising group, and to confirm with finance the channel payment process.

Walking out of the restaurant, Chen Yansen got into the driver's seat, dropped the two of them off at the Xuelin Road intersection, and headed straight back to 0418 himself.

With the founding of Sister Chengzi Tech, the number of companies under Forest Capital was growing, and Chen Yansen was in urgent need of a chief steward to manage his money.

But such a person had to be both exceptionally capable and of reliable character—finding one in the vast sea of humanity was like fishing for a needle in the ocean.

Chen Yansen walked into the bedroom and leaned against the pillow for a short rest.

After quite a while, he suddenly sat up, a name surfacing in his mind—Gao Weilin.

CFO of Feiyu Tech, a Hong Kong native, who had single-handedly maneuvered Feiyu to a main-board listing.

In his previous life, he could be considered Chen Yansen's right-hand man.

Gao Weilin held a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, dual master's degrees in Law and Financial Management, and was well-versed in international financial regulations, tax law, and budget control.

The reason Chen Yansen hadn't thought of him right away was that in the year Feiyu went public, Gao Weilin had been diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer.

In Chen Yansen's subconscious, this man had long been gone.

But Old Gao was probably still serving as CFO at Zhaoye at this point, not yet come to the mainland to mix in the internet business circle—wonder if a headhunter could poach him over?

"Shit, with Old Gao's money-grubbing look, just toss him an extra twenty or thirty thousand a month and he'll come running for sure."

Chen Yansen thought it over and said in a tone of certainty.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen called Xu Dan and had the headhunter proactively reach out to Gao Weilin to sound him out.

On the other side.

Gao Weilin stepped out of the MTR, briefcase in hand, and walked briskly toward a high-rise in Central.

Thanks to his outstanding education and abilities, he had joined a mid-sized trading company three years ago, with a monthly salary of 60,000—a mid-to-upper income level locally.

He was quite satisfied with this job; from the office he could gaze out at Victoria Harbour.

At this moment, Gao Weilin had no idea that in the future, to make money, he would run to Hucheng to seek employment.

"Ring ring—"

The phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

Gao Weilin pulled out his phone and saw an unfamiliar number; based on the "86" prefix, he judged it was a mainland call.

After a brief hesitation, he pressed the answer key anyway.

"Hello, I'm Gao Weilin from Zhaoye Group, who is this?" Gao Weilin asked proactively.

"Hello Mr. Gao, I'm a staff member from Shangde Headhunting Company. On commission, I'd like to invite you to join a new company…"

The other end of the line explained politely.

"Sorry, I have no plans to change jobs for the time being." Gao Weilin cut in directly and refused.

"Mr. Gao, the conditions offered by the other party are very generous. Are you really not going to consider it?"

The headhunter didn't mind Gao Weilin's refusal—after all, the commissioning party had offered a monthly salary of 80,000, and he didn't believe Gao Weilin wouldn't be tempted.

Generous?

Gao Weilin caught only that key word and hurriedly pressed, "What are the terms?"

Because his father was from the mainland, his Mandarin was still fairly decent.

"A monthly salary of 80,000. This is an investment company focused on the internet track. Besides the base salary, there's also an additional 20% of the monthly salary for housing allowance, meal allowance, supplementary commercial medical insurance, quarterly bonuses, and so on…"

The headhunter had a smile at the corner of his mouth, confident he could persuade Gao Weilin.

Before making the call, they had already commissioned a consulting firm in Hong Kong to investigate Gao Weilin's income—at most 50,000 to 60,000 HKD.

A monthly salary of 80,000!

Plus a housing subsidy equal to 20% of the monthly salary?

And quarterly bonuses every three months.

Adding it all up, it exceeded 100,000!

Gao Weilin froze for a moment, instantly tempted—this was fully double his current income.

Still, he didn't rush to agree; after clarifying the company's name, he planned to investigate first.

After all, he'd heard that many mainland internet companies had a life cycle of only one or two years. If the project wasn't solid, no matter how high the salary, it wouldn't last.

Discovering that this investment company was registered in Hucheng, Gao Weilin breathed a sigh of relief—at least it was a first-tier city.

The actual controller of the company shared the same name as the founder of Fox Tao, which matched what the headhunter had said.

After some research, Gao Weilin figured out the strength of Senlian Capital.

Its most valuable asset was Fox Tao; earlier this month, following an investment from Augusta, its valuation had at one point reached 16 billion.

If the information was correct, the other party was indeed strong—more impressive than the company he currently worked for.

After agonizing for two days, Gao Weilin finally called the headhunter back, deciding to head north to seek his fortune.

(End of chapter)