Chapter 148

The next morning, in the Sister Chengzi Factory dormitory.

Zhu Ge, still half-asleep, heard the noise in his ears, struggled to open his eyes, saw the clock read 8:20, and instantly jumped up, grabbing his toothbrush cup and sprinting for the bathroom.

"Zhu Ge, it's your day off—why get up so early?"

A fellow worker lying on his bed, scrolling on his phone, asked curiously at his frantic rush.

Li Yunzhu, just reaching the door, froze suddenly—he remembered he'd worked seven straight days and had been forced by his team leader to take one day off.

"Fuck! I fell asleep too hard—I thought I was still at Big Strawberry Factory. What were you guys just chattering about?"

Li Yunzhu slapped his own head, suddenly realizing.

Big Strawberry Factory was his previous job, where he twisted screws, earning ten yuan per hour, with overtime pay also ten yuan whether on weekends or weekdays.

To earn five thousand a month, you really had to risk your life.

"Of course we're talking about wages—damn, pay's coming on the 1st, this boss deserves to get rich!" the worker grumbled even as he praised.

Li Yunzhu turned, walked to his bed, set down the toothbrush cup, picked up his knockoff Big Pineapple phone, and opened his messages.

Sure enough, one unread message from 8:05: Your account 4178 received 5136.40 yuan on September 1 at 08:05; current balance 42846.70 yuan.

After deductions for social insurance and housing fund, he took home just over five thousand.

Last month he worked 27 days, rested only four—but this five thousand was far easier to earn than at Big Strawberry Factory.

Under Big Strawberry's base pay and overtime rules, Li Yunzhu would have had to work eighteen hours a day to earn this amount.

"Zhu Ge, how much did you make last month?" the worker asked, smiling as he noticed Li Yunzhu staring blankly at the message.

"Not much—definitely under ten thousand," Li Yunzhu smiled, slipped his phone into his pocket, and didn't tell the truth.

Honestly, Sister Chengzi Factory's benefits were only a thousand or so better than other factories, but the workload was nearly halved.

The young guys hung around the dorm a bit, then agreed to head into the city to wander.

They used to work sixteen hours a day, with no energy left to go out; now that their hours were cut, they were slowly regaining the vitality of youth.

Li Yunzhu and the others walked out, laughing and chatting.

Outside the Sister Chengzi Technology Factory gate, a long line still waited for interviews.

"Zhu Ge, wasn't the second round of hiring already over? Why are people still lining up?"

The worker scratched his crotch, puzzled.

"Probably the boss wants to expand production. I heard we've sold over two million of these phones already, but only shipped four hundred thousand last month. With just our crew, when will customers even get their orders?"

Li Yunzhu thought fast and spoke sweetly—he always liked to chat up his team leader, so he had better info than regular workers.

"True! More sales mean more job security."

Like them, assembly line workers feared empty orders more than the boss did—no orders meant machines stopped, and they earned nothing.

…

…

Chen Yansen sat on the sofa and summoned his system panel.

August's Human Dao Flame had 1847 strands, plus 19 leftover from July, totaling 1963 strands.

After synthesizing 19 strands into Divine Dao Flame, he invested all of it into his Spirit attribute.

The familiar sensation washed over him—a relaxing warmth like soaking in a hot spring; the burning ache in his brain vanished completely.

These recent attribute boosts had made him feel clearer-headed and more refreshed than ever.

Seeing his Spirit value rise to 10.49, Chen Yansen sighed—he felt the progress was too slow.

Though Sister Chengzi Technology had grown from sixty to two hundred people, and another six hundred had been hired at the factory, the rate of Human Dao Flame acquisition remained unsatisfactory.

"For the first time ever, I'm thinking low labor costs aren't a good thing."

Chen Yansen let out a quiet, helpless laugh.

A Sister Chengzi phone priced at 1999 yuan—even fully compliant with labor law on overtime—gave each worker just twelve yuan per unit.

Less than one percent of the retail price!

"No good—I need to raise their wages. As my Chen Yansen employees, earning so little makes it look like Sister Chengzi Technology can't even turn a profit."

Chen Yansen frowned, then decided.

Without delay, he called Cao Dahua: "Hey, Cao, starting September, raise worker hourly wage to twenty yuan."

"How much?" Cao Dahua, just entering his office, thought he'd misheard.

"Adjust the overtime pay rate from fifteen to twenty yuan," Chen Yansen repeated.

Last month, total labor costs—including the factory, R&D, marketing, branding, and e-commerce departments—came to just thirteen million.

Gross profit from over four hundred thousand Sister Chengzi phones reached sixty-six million; additional software-layer profits (ads, game partnerships, tech licensing, etc.) added at least eighty to one hundred million more.

Overall, Sister Chengzi phone gross margin hovered around twenty percent.

Chen Yansen claimed he didn't want to make so much.

"That'll raise factory labor costs by forty percent this month—you're sure?"

Cao Dahua did a quick calculation and warned seriously.

So little?

Forty percent more meant only two or three hundred more Human Dao Flame strands.

"Do as I say. Also, how's hiring going for Factory No. 2?"

Chen Yansen's tone was firm, then he asked.

Factory No. 1's output clearly couldn't keep up with sales speed; when pre-orders broke one million, Chen Yansen had already ordered Cao Dahua and Zuo Hongyu to begin preparing Factory No. 2.

"About three hundred hired so far—we limited overtime hours, or more would've applied. But with the hourly wage raised to twenty, we'll fill all spots in three days."

Cao Dahua thought Chen Yansen was wasting money, but said nothing.

Twenty yuan per hour, overtime paid per labor law, meals and housing included—this was heaven on earth in Shencheng; no one would hesitate to fight for it.

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now." Chen Yansen hung up the phone.

"I knew this kid was a spendthrift — twenty yuan an hour, overtime paid in full. The workers over in Huaqiangbei are probably going to worship him like the God of Wealth."

Cao Dahua laughed and shook his head.

After briefing Cao Dahua, Chen Yansen headed straight downstairs toward the startup park.

The campus was full of new students reporting in and their parents — driving would be inconvenient, and besides, it was only a few hundred meters.

Chen Yansen reached the startup park in two or three minutes. From a distance he could see the entrance packed with people; Song Yuncheng stood off to the side, unable to squeeze in at all.

"What's going on?" Chen Yansen stepped forward to ask.

Song Yuncheng turned and saw him, quickly pulled him aside in front of a nearby dorm, and only after making sure no one was watching did she breathe a sigh of relief and say, "These are all this year's freshmen — the moment they finished registering, they came to the startup park with their roommates to take a look around."

"Take a look around? Fox Taobao?" Chen Yansen caught Song Yuncheng's meaning.

"Yeah, a lot of the younger students only came to the Virtual Academy because of you."

Song Yuncheng gazed at Chen Yansen, a flicker of admiration in her eyes.

Chen Yansen was a year younger than her, yet in the space of a single year he'd taken Fox Taobao from nothing to a valuation of tens of billions.

Even she, employee number one, felt like she was dreaming — let alone those prospective college students at the gate.

"Alright, got it." Chen Yansen shook his head and called Zhan Guowei from the security office, asking him to bring some people over.

Visiting the startup park and Fox Taobao was fine, but it couldn't disrupt the normal operation of the projects.

Zhan Guowei listened to Chen Yansen explain the situation and agreed readily.

Within a few minutes, Zhan Guowei arrived with a group of security personnel.

"What are you all crowding around here for? Break it up, now!"

Zhan Guowei shouted at the crowd through a megaphone.

He had a square face, bushy brows and big eyes; he'd served in the military, and his shouts carried real authority.

The freshmen saw the posture and obediently parted to make a path.

Only then did Chen Yansen get a clear view — the first-floor lobby was packed, and quite a few people were queuing to go up to the second floor.

The stairwell wasn't very spacious; if a stampede broke out, Zhan Guowei would absolutely be the first to suffer for it.

Zhan Guowei immediately realized how serious things were and led his men in shouting, "Which school, what major are you from? Get out, all of you! Otherwise it's a major demerit for everyone!"

A few girls had been reluctant to follow orders, but the moment they heard "major demerit," they fell right in line.

The people on the second floor also began filing out one after another.

Zhan Guowei's face turned ashen — only now did he realize just how many people had crammed into the startup park.

Fortunately, Chen Yansen's timely call kept anything from going wrong.

Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei and the others, seeing these people finally leave, let out a long breath of relief.

"Are you Senior Chen Yansen?"

A little girl in the crowd stared at Chen Yansen for a few seconds, then walked up and asked.

Chen Yansen stood 1.86 meters tall, so even from a fair distance he was recognized.

"Senior Chen!"

"Wow! He looks even more handsome in person than in photos!"

"Senior Chen, can I take a photo with you?"

"Senior, I want to join Fox Taobao too — where do I sign up?"

A group of girls came chattering and crowding around.

The crowd surged, and it looked ready to swallow Chen Yansen whole.

"Break it up! Want to get a demerit?" Zhan Guowei roared.

"Everyone quiet! Stay where you are, don't move around. I'm Chen Yansen. If you're interested in Fox Taobao, go back and contact the website's customer service, and book a visit under your class's name."

"Students looking for part-time work, keep an eye on the recruitment section of the website, the bulletin board at the startup park entrance, and the campus BBS forum."

Chen Yansen announced loudly.

With so many people, Chen Yansen could only turn down the requests for photos and autographs one by one.

But he kept a smile the whole time, his tone warm and approachable, and the girls who were turned down didn't really mind.

Under Zhan Guowei and Chen Yansen's persuasion, most of the crowd gradually dispersed along Yixing Bridge.

"Senior, I'm one of the first users of the Sister Chengzi phone — could you sign the back of my phone for me?"

At that moment, a little girl came over with a marker and a Sister Chengzi phone in hand — clearly she'd come prepared.

"Uh… alright then."

Chen Yansen agreed with a smile. Facing a loyal user of the Sister Chengzi phone — and a junior student to boot — he really couldn't refuse.

Chen Yansen took the phone and signed his name on the silver back cover.

"Thanks, Senior. My name is Ge Hui — the Ge from 'cease war for arms,' and the Hui from 'wisdom.'"

Ge Hui's eyes crinkled into slits, her heart bursting with joy.

Over those three months of summer break, she'd gone from an old user of Fox Taobao to a new user of the Sister Chengzi phone, and she was full of curiosity about this senior who was a year older than her.

After getting the signed phone, she felt very much like a celebrity-chasing fan who'd succeeded.

"Hello, thank you for your support of the Sister Chengzi phone." Chen Yansen gave a perfunctory greeting.

"Aren't you going to ask what my major is?" Ge Hui shot back.

"Next time."

Chen Yansen gave a faint smile, tossed out a "next time," and headed up to the second floor, with Song Yuncheng close behind.

"Brother Sen, you're finally here! These little brats are treating our place like a tourist attraction — some of them are even taking photos, it's ridiculous!"

Xiang Pengfei, seeing Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng come up, couldn't help but complain.

Chen Yansen thought to himself, what was this — over a decade from now, there'd still be people squatting with their hands over their heads at the inspection station's door to take a commemorative photo.

One could only say each generation lived more abstractly than the last.

"Tell Xu Dan — in one hour, gather all the team leads to discuss the second-half salary adjustment."

Chen Yansen instructed, gesturing for Xiang Pengfei to go find Xu Dan.

Fox Tao hadn't opened salary adjustments in the first half of the year; aside from a few who got raises through promotion, most people were still earning last December's monthly salary.

"Brother Sen, I'm on it! By the way, you look really sharp today."

Xiang Pengfei froze for a beat, then bolted for the door; at the doorway he turned back with a grin and tossed in one more line.

"Scram!"

"You got it!"

Chen Yansen laughed and cursed.

Gao Weilin was already in talks with Letta, SoftBank, Mama Ali, and Augusta — this might be his last time arranging a salary adjustment for Fox Tao.

From the very start, Chen Yansen had never planned to treat Fox Tao as a long-term project.

Now that a suitable buyer could be found, he could take the chance to pull out and focus on the phone business, opening up a new track.

(End of chapter)