Chapter 129: The Most Absurd Experience of My Career

The next morning, just before dawn.

The birdsong outside the window, as summer drew near, grew more and more urgent, every now and then mixed with a few cicada cries.

Chen Yansen walked to the balcony; not far off, golden wheat waves stretched as far as the eye could see, swaying gently in the morning light.

Suddenly!

Chen Yansen's eyes narrowed slightly—over a thousand meters away, he could actually see a young couple hiding deep in the wheat waves, kissing each other without a care for the world.

He instinctively glanced at the time—only five-thirty. The dormitory doors weren't even open yet. Could the two of them have been kissing in the wheat field all night?

Even Chen Yansen, who had seen plenty in his life, couldn't help clicking his tongue inwardly, thinking: young people really are tough—aren't they afraid the ground would be uncomfortable to lie on?

The little hotel across from school wouldn't cost much for a night.

Chen Yansen glanced twice, then turned and went back inside, picked up a copy of *Advanced Financial Management*, sat down on the sofa, and started flipping through it.

Ever since his spiritual power broke through 10, his sleep time had grown shorter and shorter. Now he could only sleep four hours a day. With nothing to do after waking, besides watching movies, he would flip through books that interested him.

During the development of the Aurora System, Chen Yansen had offered many practical and effective suggestions, and often pulled the system architects aside to use the complete development environment to demonstrate live with code.

Only then did everyone realize that Chen Yansen not only understood theory, but was also quite skilled at programming.

A few engineers on the team who had previously delayed development progress were panicking inside, terrified that Chen Yansen would give them low Q2 performance scores, and immediately changed their work attitude.

For the originally set development cycle, they actually went to the team lead and proactively shortened the timeline by 20–30%, and during overtime no one dared to slack off anymore.

After all, the boss understood the technology and knew the workload for every module and component—if they slacked off too much, their jobs would be on the line.

Although the base salary Sister Chengzi's Tech offered wasn't much different from other domestic smartphone manufacturers, the monthly rent subsidy of 20% of salary still made them exclaim: "So worth it!"

Moreover, overtime pay here was calculated by the minute—1.5x on workdays, 2x on weekends, 3x on holidays—leaving the Ku Sect, Jin Li, Meizu and dozens of others in the dust.

To put it bluntly, before joining Sister Chengzi's Tech, they had never even seen what an overtime pay slip looked like.

As for overtime?

Isn't that just you staying voluntarily because you didn't finish your own work?

Chen Yansen quickly flipped through a dozen or so books, then watched a movie to kill time.

It wasn't until seven-thirty that he went downstairs to the cafeteria.

After finishing breakfast, he strolled leisurely toward the startup park.

To recruit smartphone hardware and industrial design engineers, Xu Dan had specifically hired two more professional HR supervisors.

One was from an electronic information background, formerly HR at Xiaxin Mobile; the other was from an industrial design background, poached by her from ZTE Mobile.

Over a dozen offer letters had already been sent out, yet Chen Yansen was still mulling over the site selection for the R&D center.

Unlike operating system R&D, smartphone hardware and industrial design required various testing equipment—logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, laser cutters, CNC machining centers, 3D printers, and so on.

Adding in the office area, meeting rooms, rest area, and pantry, they needed at least 500 square meters of office space.

The startup park simply couldn't fit it all!

Unless they cleared out the milk tea shop and print shop on the first floor, along with Song Yang's courier station, it would barely be enough.

"Looks like we'll have to rent an office building."

Chen Yansen calculated in his mind, then made up his mind on the spot.

Walking into the startup park, on the left side of the first floor was the Aurora System R&D team—barely a few people at their workstations.

Going up to the second floor, a dozen or so people had arrived, mostly customer service.

Chen Yansen sat down, opened the Eclipse software with the ADT plugin already installed, created a new project, and quickly began typing code, setting to work on designing the file storage architecture for the Aurora System.

After 8:40, more and more Fox Tao members gradually came up to the second floor; many of them held their breakfast, sat at their desks, and checked data while eating.

Once everyone had arrived, Xu Dan called over a young HR Miss and told her to gather everyone for a meeting at the open ground outside the door.

The layout of the startup park's second floor: offices on the left and right, with a corridor and rest area of over 100 square meters in the middle.

Hearing Xu Dan's reminder, Chen Yansen stood up, stretched a bit, and walked outside.

Now the total number of Fox Tao members was about 160, standing in a dark mass shoulder to shoulder, only leaving Chen Yansen a spot to speak.

"Next month is 618. Taobao will also be participating this time—the scale of the event is on par with Double Eleven. Everyone must take this seriously, especially the merchant recruitment team. I can tell you clearly: if you want to make money, just look at June."

Chen Yansen smiled slightly and first laid out the project team's June plan.

After securing 1.5 billion USD in financing, JD. com began to declare war on Taobao and Suning.

Zhang Yong certainly wouldn't indulge Liu Qiangdong—you want to grab market share?

Then I'll keep you company!

He specifically chose 618 to go head-to-head with JD. com.

One must understand that 618 is JD. com's exclusive major promotion day. Taobao's move this year was heavily provocative.

Chen Yansen didn't care about the 'cat-and-dog war'; he only knew that the fiercer the competition between the two, the better a deal-hunting site like Fox Tao would thrive.

Hearing Chen Yansen say this, the members of the Super Return merchant recruitment team and the key account merchant recruitment team exchanged smiles, their eyes full of excitement.

Top recruiters like Zhang Yifeng, Song Yuncheng, Li Hui, and Yuan Wei earned at least 50,000 a month.

Upon learning that both Taobao and JD. com were participating in 618, they immediately realized this was a perfect chance to break a monthly income of 100,000.

"When June ends, we'll be doing the Q2 quarterly review. The maximum bonus is three months' salary—it all depends on everyone's performance! Also, those rumors online about Fox Tao being up for sale—I can tell you clearly, they're all lies."

Chen Yansen first talked about the quarterly bonus, then briefly debunked the rumors.

His tone was so certain that many people breathed a sigh of relief.

After working for a while, these people gradually discovered that Fox Tao's benefits were simply worthy of being called a heavenly company.

Positions like editors, merchant recruiters, and category managers dealt with merchants frequently. Through chatting, they learned that brand-side operations staff, channel heads, and platform store managers often worked overtime for free.

And not a single cent of overtime pay.

In addition, Fox Tao implemented an 8-hour workday, which included 2 hours for lunch and rest; while other companies also had an 8-hour workday, it didn't include meal and lunch break time.

Calculated this way, the gap in hourly pay was very obvious!

If Chen Yansen sold the project, could a new company still offer such good benefits?

Everyone knew perfectly well that things definitely couldn't stay this comfortable!

After Chen Yansen finished speaking, he gathered the heads of each department and walked into the conference room to continue the weekly business meeting.

The others gradually dispersed, returning to their seats with smiles on their faces.

The options they held vested 25% every six months, so naturally they were hoping that two years from now the company could successfully go public, letting them get rich overnight and become millionaires or even multi-millionaires.

Unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed.

Not a single word out of Chen Yansen's mouth was true — he not only planned to sell off Fox Taobao, but also wanted to bundle the team and the project together and sell them for an even higher price.

……

……

One week later.

On the second floor of the startup park, Chen Yansen once again met Gao Weilin after a gap of two years.

Counting Wang Zihao, this was the second "dead man" he had seen since his rebirth.

Chen Yansen sized up Gao Weilin — at this point Old Gao was just over thirty, hadn't yet put on weight, his hair was slick and shiny, he wore an expensive-looking suit, and had the air of a Jingyingzuo Sect elite.

Gao Weilin was also observing Chen Yansen.

As far as he knew, Chen Yansen was nineteen this year, a freshman studying journalism at Xucheng College, and had earned his first pot of gold by acting as an agent for campus phone cards.

Then he built an e-commerce website, and in the very first week after the product launched, he dared to throw in his entire net worth, and within a few days pushed the site's registered users to the 100,000 level, successfully completing the product's cold start.

Next he rolled out the 0-yuan bargain and super cashback plays — one for traffic, one for profit.

Every step was precise and flawless, correct down to the tiniest margin of error!

In less than a year, he pushed the company's valuation to 16 billion!

Gao Weilin thought about it, his gaze unconsciously drifting toward the door. Just these college students and a handful of socially-recruited employees, fewer than 200 people, were somehow selling a billion in sales a month — it left him utterly astonished.

At the same time, he really wanted to ask Chen Yansen why, out of so many financial professionals in Hong Kong Island, he had chosen him specifically.

"I'll just call you Old Gao. As for salary and benefits, the headhunter should have mentioned them to you. I hope you can start as soon as possible — do you have any questions?"

Chen Yansen spoke in a familiar tone, skipping the interview process altogether.

"Huh!?" Gao Weilin was stunned. He hadn't expected Chen Yansen to be so direct and straightforward — were bosses at inland internet companies all like this?

Although HR had already done one round of interviews, he knew full well that for a position like CFO, the boss's round of interviewing was the real key.

"Chen Zong, actually I have an English name — just call me Dylan." Gao Weilin wasn't used to the "Old Gao" address and stubbornly offered up his English name.

"Alright, Old Gao, any other questions? When can you start?"

Chen Yansen nodded and continued asking.

"Chen Zong trusts me just like that?" Gao Weilin's expression stiffened; after holding it in for a long time, he still couldn't help asking.

"What do you think of yourself?" Chen Yansen countered.

"Top-tier professional ability, absolutely reliable character." Gao Weilin habitually sang his own praises.

"You're already this outstanding — how could I not hire you?"

Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow, looking at Gao Weilin with a teasing gaze.

He knew this guy — his skin was thicker than the city wall by several degrees.

Generally speaking, a company's CFO would be filled by someone with both solid professional ability and solid character.

Chen Yansen was fairly clear about Gao Weilin's ability and character — greedy for money, but only making money in a lawful and legitimate way.

In the short term, he really couldn't find a replacement for Gao Weilin.

"Chen Zong, this is the most outrageous interview of my career, but I'm honored to be joining Senlian — thank you, boss, for the recognition."

Gao Weilin extended his hand and said solemnly.

"I have a task for you right now. Southeast of Xuyuan there's a tech park — I want to rent a 2,000-square-meter office space. Get it done for me."

Chen Yansen acknowledged it and, using the tone he'd had when they worked together in his previous life, immediately assigned Gao Weilin work.

"Boss, I haven't officially started yet?" Gao Weilin reminded him.

"Salary counts from today." Chen Yansen glanced up at him, his tone flat.

"You got it, boss, I'll get right on it." Gao Weilin immediately changed his tune.

He grew up in Hong Kong Island, and the principle he lived by was "you give me money, I do your work."

Since Chen Yansen was willing to pay, Gao Weilin naturally didn't care whether he'd formally started or not — he just treated it as making extra cash on the side.

"Then sorry for the trouble." Chen Yansen stood up and patted Old Gao on the shoulder.

Gao Weilin was 1.8 meters tall, yet in front of Chen Yansen he was still a few centimeters shorter.

……

Not long after.

Tang Qingshan received word that Chen Yansen planned to move Sister Chengzi Tech's R&D team to the nearby Zhuxianzhuang Tech Park. He breathed a sigh of relief, yet felt a touch of melancholy.

He knew that Cao Dahua had stayed behind in Shencheng to help Chen Yansen contact equipment vendors, and putting two and two together, he guessed that Chen Yansen had plans to make phones.

It was just a pity that the startup park was small and located inside the school — there really wasn't room to spread out.

As the number of socially-recruited staff grew, Tang Qingshan was under considerable pressure, afraid that if something went wrong he wouldn't be able to clean up the mess.

Fortunately, the Aurora System R&D team would only occupy the startup park for a little over a month.

"Fox Taobao in the left hand, Sister Chengzi Tech in the right — from now on, the provincial college student entrepreneurship competitions, won't the grand prizes be ours for the taking?

Just based on how I've looked after him, if in the future I ask him to hire 100 Xuyuan graduates every year, could he possibly say no?"

Tang Qingshan's face was full of smiles, feeling that investing in Chen Yansen was an incredible bargain.

(End of chapter)