Chapter 155: Hanging with Mama Ali, Three Days Without Nine Meals! Brother Ma's

The next morning.

Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng drove to Star Sky Helicopter Company, paid eighteen thousand, and signed the contract.

Then, guided by the pilot, they made their way to the outdoor helipad.

A sightseeing helicopter with white livery was parked there; the pilot was a local named Zhao Yi with over a dozen years of flying experience.

Facing Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng, he was extremely polite.

After all, suckers willing to spend eighteen thousand just to fly over Hu City for an hour were rare.

Although Star Sky Helicopter Company had opened civilian experience projects, its main profit came from commercial rescue; clients like Chen Yansen numbered only a handful per week.

"Mr. Chen, after takeoff, we'll circle Pudong first, then fly toward the Bund. A couple of years ago residents complained about noise, so once we enter the city, our altitude will increase and the sightseeing may be slightly affected. We hope you'll understand."

Before takeoff, Zhao Yi gave the standard reminder.

"No problem." Chen Yansen nodded, paying it no mind.

Song Yuncheng was a little nervous, but she followed Chen Yansen into the back seat anyway.

The bubble-style cabin wasn't large, seating only four.

"Mr. Chen, shall we take off then?" Zhao Yi confirmed once more.

Chen Yansen fastened his seatbelt and gave an acknowledging sound.

The ten-meter rotor, driven by the engine, let out a tremendous roar, and the helicopter slowly lifted off, flying toward the distance.

The helicopter circled Pudong for over ten minutes, skimmed along the East China Sea past Chongming Island, passed the Bund, and finally returned to Star Sky Helicopter Company's helipad.

This kind of low-altitude flight felt completely different from riding a commercial airliner.

After getting off, Song Yuncheng's little face was flushed red; she clung to Chen Yansen's arm, her legs gone weak, yet her eyes were full of a little girl's excitement.

"Mr. Chen, here's my business card. Thank you for your support of Star Sky." Zhao Yi politely handed over a card.

Chen Yansen took it without a word and led Song Yuncheng outside.

"Where are we going this afternoon?" Song Yuncheng asked curiously.

These past two days following Chen Yansen, everything she experienced was something she'd never encountered before, and it had stirred up her playful side all at once.

Ever since her brother's accident, Song Yuncheng's mood had been suppressed; aside from studying, she worked part-time jobs to earn money.

But when all was said and done, she was only a twenty-year-old girl; under Chen Yansen's guidance, Song Yuncheng was noticeably much happier.

"We're going to look at houses this afternoon." Chen Yansen said casually.

"You're buying a house?" Song Yuncheng looked utterly surprised.

"It's just a house—you can afford one too." Chen Yansen shrugged, his tone relaxed.

At that time, housing prices on Hu City's outer ring still had plenty of communities in the ten-thousand-plus range; with Song Yuncheng's bank card balance, paying cash for a unit wouldn't be hard.

"To buy a house in Hu City, you have to be married." Song Yuncheng looked at Chen Yansen and said softly.

"You sure know a lot." Chen Yansen smiled; he wasn't bound by that restriction.

Because Senlian Capital was registered in Hu City, buying a house under the company's name would do—no need for that hassle.

After lunch and a short rest, the two drove to a villa development in Pudong.

Chen Yansen stepped out of the car, took a look, and thought: For the same house, I actually paid twice.

The Yunjin Villa District No. 116 before him was precisely his residence in Hu City in his previous life.

It was a three-story standalone villa with a building area of 760 square meters, plus a basement and a garden of over 200 square meters.

In his previous life, he'd spent over forty million to take it.

This time the purchase was cheap—only half that price.

Chen Yansen planned to relocate Chengzi Tech to Hu City in the future; on later business trips or travels passing through, he couldn't always stay in hotels.

After some consideration, he bought this villa as well.

After Chen Yansen signed the purchase contract, he gave Old Gao a word on WeChat, and the follow-up procedures were left to Gao Weilin to handle.

"There's an extra key—want it?"

Chen Yansen held out his hand and asked with a smile.

"Then I'll hold onto it for you." Song Yuncheng didn't hesitate; she took the key from Chen Yansen's palm and carefully tucked it into her pocket.

"Tomorrow we go to Qin Island, the day after that to Shuangqing. Next time we head back to Lujiang, remember to get your passport ready—I'll take you farther in the future."

Chen Yansen rested his hand on Song Yuncheng's head, gently ruffled it, and said with a smile.

"Oh, okay." Song Yuncheng obediently agreed.

Throughout the entire National Day holiday, Chen Yansen visited three cities, playing until the late night of the 6th, when the two finally took a car back to Xu Yuan.

By then the dormitory gate had long been closed; the two silently agreed and returned to 0418.

The next morning, Song Yuncheng pushed her suitcase and walked toward the girls' dormitory.

After resting six days straight, Chen Yansen sat on the sofa and finally recalled the launch plan for the new project.

Unlike when he had built Fox Taobao, this time he had his own insights and programming ability for front-end, back-end, and mobile development.

He spread his laptop across his lap, fingers flying across the keyboard, sorting out the product requirements for "Pinbei" from scratch.

Before Mama Ali took over Fox Taobao, Chen Yansen had copied all the merchant CRM database materials.

Of course, from a business standpoint, Chen Yansen's move wasn't exactly decent—but he was never a decent person to begin with.

Although most of the merchants inside were distributors and agents, with not many genuine source factories, they were enough as Pinbei's first batch of merchant resources.

He didn't plan to fully copy Pinduoduo's business model; instead, he combined some e-commerce tactics from over a decade later to bring out a mature business model in advance.

In an extremely short time, push Pinbei's order volume to ten thousand a day—even a hundred thousand or a million a day.

On one hand, he needed Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Li Hui, and others to help him communicate with source factories in the industrial belts to get first-hand supply and rock-bottom prices; on the other hand, he needed Penguin's traffic entry point.

Neither could be missing!

Both hands must grasp the traffic side and the supply side—both hands must be strong!

In the afternoon, students gradually returned to campus, and Chen Yansen went to the bus station to pick up Meng Jie.

"Sorry about that, my cousin got married; next holiday, I'll definitely take you out."

Meng Jie felt guilty—every holiday, either her father pressured her to go home, or some relative got married, and she couldn't get out of it.

"Alright," Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

After all, one must always have a backup plan; otherwise, wouldn't Boss Chen have to spend this National Day alone, just like all those single dogs, in 0418?

…

…

In Shencheng, a thousand miles away, Penguin HQ.

Ma Wenteng, Liu Zhiping, and several senior executives sat in Little Ma's office, chatting in small groups.

"Tap-tap-tap—" Ma Wenteng knocked on the table; seeing them talk endlessly without reaching any conclusion, he immediately reminded them.

"Martin, you speak first." Ma Wenteng, still met with silence, directly called out a name.

"I have no objection—if Chen Yansen is willing to give up equity, what's wrong with giving him a Level 1 traffic entrance? As long as he can build up Penguin's e-commerce module."

Liu Zhiping shrugged, looking indifferent.

Gao Peng and QQ Group Buy had received massive funding and resources from the group, yet now one was nearly dead, the other barely alive.

Chen Yansen's remark that "Penguin lacks the gene for e-commerce" seemed painfully accurate—these people couldn't even figure out local life services.

It would be better to hand the money and traffic over to someone more reliable to run.

"Boss Ma, I disagree! WeChat is just starting—I don't want to overload it with commercial elements; it'll ruin the product." Zhang Xiaolong raised his head, showing no respect to Liu Zhiping, leading the opposition.

"I think we can give it, as long as the other side brings sufficient benefit to Penguin."

Zhang Zhidong, head of the QQ division, spoke calmly.

"I heard the E-commerce Ma plans to join Pinea's angel round," Liu Zhiping added.

He advocated that Penguin abandon its own e-commerce strategy and instead deepen its influence in the industry through investment.

Chen Yansen was a young man he highly favored; after several interactions, he believed the man had the ability to secure a place in the e-commerce arena.

After all, the man had stormed into the smartphone industry without hesitation—why wouldn't he succeed in e-commerce?

Ma Wenteng was torn—Pinea Tech wasn't a subsidiary of Penguin; why should it get a Level 1 entrance?

How would the heads of QQ Hard Drive, QQ Notes, and QQ Weibo feel?

Was the adopted son better than the biological son?

If Chen Yansen were willing to let Penguin take controlling equity, Ma Wenteng wouldn't hesitate—he'd give it immediately.

But he understood the kind of person Chen Yansen was—if he'd been willing to give up independence, he'd have joined Penguin outright and taken over Paipai back then; why start his own company?

"Martin, have Lin Chenfeng sound him out—if he's willing to give up 30% equity, I'll approve the Level 1 entrance."

After a moment's thought, Ma Wenteng made his decision.

"OK," Liu Zhiping nodded, understanding.

On the other side.

After hanging up with Mama Ali, Chen Yansen couldn't help but laugh.

He started Pinea to compete with Taobao and JD. com; he never expected Old Ma to be the second person to express investment interest.

Zhang Yong opened with a $500 million valuation; Mama Ali was willing to invest $100 million for a 20% stake.

You have to understand that today's PinBei, apart from a company name, is actually just an empty shell, not worth a single cent.

【96】 At this point, Pinea was nothing but a shell—worth zero yuan beyond its company name.

Old Ma truly had faith in him!

But Chen Yansen wasn't interested—Mama Ali, like Pinea, was a traffic-consumption platform that needed to buy traffic itself.

Following Mama Ali meant starving nine times in three days!

Has any company acquired by Mama Ali ever grown bigger?

Either it collapsed, or it barely clung to life!

Chen Yansen just wanted to say: Sorry, please don't come near!

After refusing Mama Ali, IDG, Thinking Capital, and Sequoia Capital all called in turn, offering valuations between 1 and 2 billion Huayuan.

Everyone wanted a bargain—how could such good luck exist?

Chen Yansen declined them one by one, citing the reason that the project hadn't launched yet.

Based on his forecast of the e-commerce industry's trajectory, building up Pinea was inevitable—he wouldn't sell equity cheaply.

But Penguin was different—if they truly agreed, the annual advertising cost savings alone could reach billions.

October 8th, the first workday after the holiday.

Building 6, Zhuxianzhuang Technology Park.

Chen Yansen sat in the first-floor conference room, watching each person walk in.

Meng Xibo, Zhu Xiaopeng, Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, Xu Xingxing, Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Hu Yun, Zhuang Rui, Li Hui, Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Chen Xu, and Hu Li—only fourteen people in total.

"How was your break?" Chen Yansen asked with a smile once everyone had arrived.

"Boss Chen, let's get started! I'm ready!" Xiang Pengfei said eagerly.

"Don't you want to hear about your position's salary and benefits?" Chen Yansen teased.

Xu Dan didn't come—Pinea didn't even have an HR manager; currently, the HR department of Sister Chengzi Tech was handling recruitment.

"Boss Chen, let's talk about the project first," Zhang Yifeng suggested.

"Yeah, Boss Chen, no matter how much you offer, we're all sticking with you," Xiang Pengfei grinned.

They'd all given up million-yuan salaries—why care about a little delay?

"Team leader compensation matches Mama Ali's P7 level; additionally, Pinea Tech adopts all welfare policies from Fox Taobao. Xu Xingxing and Sister Chengzi Tech's HR department will sign contracts with everyone this afternoon—monthly salary will be as stated in the contract."

Chen Yansen understood the principle of paying a thousand gold for a horse's bones.

Besides, these impetuous youths have already given up million-yuan annual salaries; if he were to be stingy, wouldn't that chill people's hearts?

"Holy crap! Brother Sen, are you not joking?" Wang Zihao paused, then immediately pressed on.

Including the housing allowance of 20% of the monthly salary, if they calculate based on a monthly wage of thirty thousand, that equals an extra six thousand in income per month.

Yet housing prices in Xu City are only three thousand yuan per square meter; this is hardly a housing allowance—it is clearly a home-purchase subsidy.

"Furthermore, each person receives one hundred thousand stock options, with twenty-five percent vesting every six months, at an exercise price of 0.01 yuan."

Chen Yansen intended to make up for all their losses.

"Brother Sen, how about I keep you company for another night? Otherwise, I feel uneasy taking this money," Zhuang Rui said with a grin.

"Get lost!" Chen Yansen scolded in a bad mood.

Everyone burst into laughter.

In this empty office building, everyone seemed to have rediscovered the passion they had during Fox Tao's startup days.

The entire morning was spent discussing product development, gameplay mechanics, supply chain management, and more; it was not until 12:30 that they gradually left the conference room.

(End of this chapter)