Chapter 147

August 31, the day before registration at Xu Yuan.

A year passed in the blink of an eye; the six residents of Dorm 8302 had transformed from freshman newcomers into second-year veterans.

Tang Zhenzhe put on a light beige suit and combed his hair until it gleamed with oil.

"Brother Zhe, aren't you hot?" Song Yang stared at Tang Zhenzhe with a strange expression.

Today's high temperature was 28 degrees Celsius—he still felt stifled even in a short-sleeve shirt.

"If I stand at the campus gate in this outfit, the freshman girls will be utterly bewitched."

Tang Zhenzhe grinned, his eyes brimming with anticipation.

Chen Yansen glanced at him, thinking: Hopefully the girls aren't the ones bewitched—it's their mothers you'll end up charming.

"Aren't you still chasing after Secretary Su?" Zhu Xiaopeng chimed in from the balcony.

"Don't mention it—I've been kissing cold ass and it won't warm up. I think Sen-ge is right; I'll only get a girlfriend from the freshmen."

Tang Zhenzhe chuckled, turning to look at Chen Yansen.

"Enough nonsense. Get packed. There are plenty of freshmen who arrived early—this afternoon, you two go to the telecom office and distribute the second-tier agent SIM cards."

Chen Yansen put away his phone and stood up to urge them on.

He'd slept until 4: 0, got up and read for four hours, ate breakfast, then wandered over to 8302 to pick up the others for an off-campus meal.

"Sen-ge, don't worry! Yesterday Zihao already split the second-tier agents between us—we won't mess it up."

Song Yang quickly assured him.

Zhu Xiaopeng and Wang Zhengqiang exchanged glances, secretly envious of Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang taking over the campus SIM card business.

After all, they'd only need to work three days to earn over ten thousand in commissions—over four thousand a day.

To be honest, many Xu Yuan graduates earned less than four thousand a month in their first jobs.

But their own lives at Xu Yuan weren't bad either.

Zhu Xiaopeng had worked nearly a year in Fox Tao 's customer service team; with quarterly bonuses, he earned three or four thousand a month as a part-timer.

Over the year, after daily expenses, he'd saved two or three ten thousand.

For this semester's tuition, Zhu Xiaopeng hadn't asked his parents for a cent—he even gave each of them a five-thousand-yuan red envelope.

Wang Zhengqiang helped Song Yang run the courier station and earned two or three thousand a month, so busy he'd stopped playing soccer altogether.

Since Song Yang started dating, he'd become a hands-off boss, handing the courier station entirely over to Wang Zhengqiang.

His salary rose by five hundred—he now earned three thousand a month, and with his parents' allowance, his bank balance kept growing.

Both knew that all these changes in Dorm 8302 were thanks to Chen Yansen.

Even Tang Zhenzhe becoming class monitor was the result of Chen Yansen's vote-pulling.

"Old Guo didn't even treat us to dinner before leaving—so stingy," Chen Yansen joked.

Guo Dongchen had successfully passed his PhD entrance exam, just like in his previous life—he was probably in Shanghai, waiting to register at Jiaotong University.

So the counselor for Class 10 News had been replaced by a new PhD named Zhang Shun.

"Sen-ge, do you think the new counselor will re-elect the class monitor?" Tang Zhenzhe frowned, whispering as the topic came up.

He'd been class monitor for a year and had tasted the sweetness—he no longer resisted it.

"Don't worry. As long as you don't point your finger and curse him, Zhang Shun won't care. I've checked—he's even more laid-back than Guo Dongchen, completely hands-off."

Chen Yansen smiled.

"Hehe, good." Tang Zhenzhe exhaled, finally relaxing.

"Chengzi Tech's brand department needs an intern—if you're interested…"

Chen Yansen looked at Tang Zhenzhe and spoke slowly.

"Sen-ge, I'm super interested! As soon as I finish these two days, I'll report in!"

Before Chen Yansen could finish, Tang Zhenzhe's face lit up—he grabbed Chen's arm and agreed instantly.

"Come on, let's go! If we wait any longer, we won't get a table." Song Yang slipped on his shoes and pushed Wang Zhengqiang toward the door.

Zhu Xiaopeng locked the dorm door last and hurried after them.

"Sen-ge!"

"Yang-ge!"

As they passed the male dorms of the School of Literature and Communication, people kept greeting them.

Dorm 8302 was extremely well-known among the Class of 2010; Song Yang's courier station, though tiny compared to Fox Tao and Chengzi Tech, was like an ant beside an elephant.

But to ordinary students, Song Yang—who netted seventy or eighty thousand a year—was a campus celebrity, otherwise how else would a sophomore senior have chased him?

Chen Yansen needed no introduction—Chengzi Phone's terrifying pre-sale of two million units had made him more famous than the university president.

Many freshmen who hadn't even registered yet knew of a senior named Chen Yansen who, in just one year of entrepreneurship, had amassed over ten billion.

Chen Yansen's tall, handsome, and young-rich image still sparked fantasies among many naive girls.

It would be so romantic, they dreamed, to have a chance encounter with him along Xu Yuan's cherry blossom walkway.

The six reached the first floor, but Chen Yansen didn't drive.

They walked south along Xuelin Road, heading toward the campus gate.

As usual, they chose Shuangqing Restaurant; after eating their fill, Chen Yansen, Meng Xibo, Wang Zhengqiang, and Zhu Xiaopeng headed to the Entrepreneurship Park.

Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe went together to the campus telecom office to coordinate tomorrow's SIM card promotion with Meng Yaqin.

Ten minutes later.

Chen Yansen stepped onto the second floor—he hadn't been to the Entrepreneurship Park in a while, having been busy designing the new phone and staying mostly at Chengzi Tech; even Fox Tao 's morning meetings had switched to online reports.

"Sen-ge!" Xiang Pengfei greeted him with a smile as he entered Room 206.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, sat down, and noticed the desk was spotless—someone clearly cleaned it regularly.

Across from him, Song Yuncheng seemed to sense his presence and looked up.

Chen Yansen said nothing, turned on his computer, logged into the data backend, and checked the latest core metrics.

Fox Tao 's total August sales reached 3. billion, with Chengzi Phone contributing over 2 billion—the remaining 1. billion represented Fox Tao 's true performance.

Daily active users rose from 4 million at the end of July to 4. million, just one step away from the 5 million mark.

Even after ad spending was halved, growth remained steady, thanks largely to traffic from Chengzi Phone users.

After buying phones, these users had to wait 21 days for their rebates to arrive; during that time, they occasionally opened Fox Tao to browse Super Rebates, Nine-Yuan Deals, or the Mall's rebate section, generating second and third purchases.

Data showed that roughly 40% of Chengzi Phone users completed a second purchase on Fox Tao.

From a financial standpoint, though they lost 1. % in gross margin, they gained 2 million new customers for Fox Tao and boosted Chengzi Phone's pre-sales—it was worth it.

"Ding-ding-ding—"

The message window in the lower-right corner of his computer screen suddenly flickered.

Chen Yansen opened it, saw it was from Meng Jie, stood up, and went downstairs to pick up his car at the faculty apartment building.

Song Yuncheng glanced subtly, guessed what Chen Yansen was about to do, and sighed: "It's still more reliable to focus on making money. Handsome guys are unreliable anyway—let alone rich and handsome ones."

With that, she opened a business PowerPoint and reviewed the latest trends in the group-buying industry.

Lashou. om's IPO attempt failed, and it refocused on expanding market share.

Meituan. om, after securing 80 million U. . dollars in funding from DST and Alibaba, was pushing hard to enter the top three.

Gaopeng. om faced repeated brand crises; even with Fox Tao and Tencent backing it, its market share plummeted sharply.

Excluding Juhuasuan, the current top three in the group-buying sector were Lashou, WoWoTuan, and Nuomi. om; Meituan ranked fourth, while Gaopeng barely clung to tenth place.

Song Yuncheng thought for a moment, picked up her phone, and called Lashou and WoWoTuan to discuss September's group-buying promotions.

…

…

Early the next morning, Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe, dressed neatly, sat at the telecom campus SIM card booth, busy selling cards.

"Sir, could you tell me where the School of Literature and Communication registration point is?"

Tang Zhenzhe was bent over organizing SIM cards when a clear, bright voice sounded beside him.

Sir?

Around here, besides him and Song Yang, all telecom staff were female—where did this "sir" come from?

"Hahaha…" Song Yang burst out laughing, pointing at Tang Zhenzhe: "Brother Zhe, I told you not to wear that suit—you already look too old."

Tang Zhenzhe finally realized the girl was calling him "sir."

Korean dramas had recently popularized terms like "sir," "little brother," and "little sister."

Young girls loved calling men over ten years older than them "sir."

"Miss, how am I a sir? I'm only a second-year student!" Tang Zhenzhe replied, annoyed.

"But you're wearing a suit and your hairstyle is so mature—you really look like a handsome sir."

The girl, backpack slung over her shoulder, grinned.

Tang Zhenzhe's face darkened at the first half, then brightened at the second.

He looked at her: high ponytail, fair face, cheeks flushed pink from the heat.

"I'll show you the way? Are you in Journalism or Chinese Language? Why didn't your parents come with you?"

Tang Zhenzhe set down the SIM cards, stepped out of the booth, and offered to guide her to the Literature and Communication registration point.

"I'm local—home's only ten minutes away, no need for my parents to come."

The girl smiled.

Tang Zhenzhe smiled back, but his heart sank—he realized he wouldn't sell her a SIM card.

On the other side.

Chen Yansen picked up Meng Jie from the bus station and brought her back to Xu Yuan.

Two months apart, the two didn't even bother grabbing their luggage, heading straight for Room 0418, rolling from the bathroom into the bedroom.

This door bolt's insertion hole, whether used for the first time or after long disuse, requires a period of re-matching.

Fortunately, Chen Yansen had studied the Yingzao Fashi and understood the structure and use of door bolt craftsmanship intimately; soon, he grasped the thickness and path of the insertion hole and began tugging back and forth.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Shencheng.

Zhou Jin Ling, accompanied by two market expansion staff, boarded a flight to Abyssinia.

Chen Yansen hired over thirty overseas channel managers like Zhou Jin Ling, most of whom had offline sales experience in African markets.

Some could even speak fluent Arabic or French.

These people were like seeds Chen Yansen had casually scattered, each flying toward the African market.

(End of Chapter)