Chapter 207: Boss, You Don

The next morning, Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng flew to Shencheng.

Xiao Li drove alone to return Chen Yansen's Bentley to Xucheng.

In first class, before takeoff, Chen Yansen scrolled through Weibo and saw a photo of Liu Qiangdong in a red robe riding a delivery tricycle, and couldn't help laughing.

"Is he copying you?" Song Yuncheng glanced over and asked with a smile.

"Probably just a coincidence."

Chen Yansen shrugged and added a word of defense for Brother Dong.

After all, he himself had learned this trick from Liu Qiangdong—only he never expected Liu Qiangdong would turn around and copy it back.

Song Yuncheng smiled faintly, not believing it for a second.

Who wouldn't see through such an obvious thing?

At that moment, Liu Qiangdong sat in his office, staring blankly at the Weibo trending topics.

He hadn't expected that after attending Yunsu Express's annual meeting, Chen Yansen had gone to Lucheng to deliver takeout.

One delivered takeout; the other delivered packages.

Netizens joked that these two e-commerce giants must have planned it together to collude in hype.

Liu Qiangdong read several highly-upvoted comments and felt deeply conflicted.

The good news was that JD's platform organic traffic rose by six percent thanks to this trending wave.

The bad news was that most netizens believed he was stealing Chen Yansen's tactics, imitating KuaiPao's hype strategy.

Although it was true, did truth have to be spoken aloud?

Just as Liu Qiangdong was about to close Weibo, he saw another headline: On January 18, Alibaba's B2C platform Taobao Mall was officially renamed "Tianmao Mall."

"Damn, this is aimed at me!"

Liu Qiangdong instantly sensed danger—it looked like nothing more than a name change, but in reality, Ma Liyun was executing a brilliant move to shape his brand image.

This way, he could escape the C2C quagmire of counterfeit goods and fully build a B2C platform, using Taobao's traffic to fuel Tianmao Mall's superior quality and service.

In fact, Liu Qiangdong guessed perfectly.

Since last October, Taobao Mall announced an upgrade to its merchant management system, favoring large sellers in its traffic allocation mechanism.

Combined with revised search rules that restricted exposure for Taobao C-store products, traffic plummeted and orders sharply declined for countless small and medium sellers.

Now, they weren't even pretending anymore—Tianmao Mall's official launch was clearly Alibaba's major move before its IPO.

Meanwhile,

Many Taobao C-store merchants found their traffic halved again; when searching for their own products, which normally appeared on the first or second page, they now had to scroll to the fifth page to find them.

Yet those lower-selling Tianmao equivalents all ranked higher.

Even a fool could tell Taobao had altered its search algorithm again.

Merchants in online forums asked Alibaba's customer service, who replied: Search weight now includes product descriptions, merchant comprehensive ratings, and service quality.

Tianmao stores, which pay sixty thousand yuan annually in technical service fees, clearly have superior "service quality."

Upon hearing this, the small merchants were so furious they wanted to grab shovels and dig up Ma's ancestral graves in Hangcheng.

Alibaba was clearly leaving them no way to survive!

"I'm shutting down tomorrow! Ma Liyun treats us like toilet paper—used and thrown away, so fucking cruel!"

"What can we do? Alibaba dominates everything—if not Taobao, where else can we go?"

"I doubt it! Pinbei Mall isn't bad, and they even have their own courier company—their warehouse delivery rates are as low as 1. yuan per package!"

"No more Taobao! Any bosses want to join Pinbei together?"

Small and medium merchants from all over kept cursing in the group, and some even proposed opening stores on Pinbei.

Although Pinbei's entry threshold was higher than Taobao's,

Over the past two months, rumors had spread constantly about someone who joined the billion-subsidy channel, bought a BMW in a month and a villa in two.

This tempted many, and despite Pinbei's harsh penalties for low-quality fakes, countless small merchants flooded into Pinbei driven by the prospect of monthly incomes of hundreds of thousands.

The recruitment team was swamped; over three hundred new merchants joined that day alone, and preliminary document reviews kept them busy until past one in the morning.

Alibaba's maneuver was channeling a steady stream of small merchants straight to Pinbei.

These merchants didn't go to JD because JD's POP store traffic was no less than Taobao's C-store traffic.

On the other side,

As Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng stepped off the plane and exited arrivals, they saw Cao Dahua and Zuo Hongyu waving at them with seven or eight security personnel.

"Old Cao, isn't this a bit excessive?"

Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

"Excessive? Boss, you have no idea how many bosses in Shencheng want to run you over with their cars!"

Cao Dahua spoke seriously.

The Orange Phone Factory No. 3 is about to begin production, with twelve thousand employees.

Every time Orange Phone recruits workers, nearby electronics factory owners curse.

Facing an hourly wage of twenty yuan and up to triple overtime pay, experienced assembly-line workers, when quitting, wouldn't even bother saying goodbye.

As for unpaid wages stuck in the factory, some just gave them up.

Compared to Orange Phone's job, those two or three thousand yuan were just medicine money for the boss's whole family.

"You're kidding me?"

Chen Yansen rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"Heh, I knew you wouldn't be scared—but someone really did threaten to break both my legs."

Cao Dahua chuckled, showing no sign of fear or anxiety.

"So you hired five, six, seven… eight bodyguards?"

Chen Yansen looked at him with a half-smile.

"They're mainly protecting Old Zuo, and just incidentally me—don't misunderstand, Boss."

Cao Dahua waved his hands, quickly explaining.

Chen Yansen turned to Zuo Hongyu, who looked utterly exasperated; he gave up on teasing Old Cao and got into a Mercedes SUV with Song Yuncheng.

"The doors and windows are reinforced—bullets won't penetrate."

Cao Dahua tapped the door with his hand, proudly boasting.

"Who wants to break my teacher's legs? Tell me—who dares be so arrogant?"

Chen Yansen's smile vanished, his tone filled with concern.

"Song De, boss of Guanxing Electronics—but he can't bother me anymore."

Cao Dahua spoke slowly, deliberately teasing Chen Yansen.

Zuo Hongyu kicked his friend and added: "Two weeks ago, Song De was slit across the throat by workers demanding back wages—I'd guess he's already drunk his Meng Po soup."

Chen Yansen paused slightly, then asked Cao Dahua: "Why didn't you mention this in calls or work emails?"

"I thought it had nothing to do with work, so I didn't report it," Cao Dahua replied.

"Old Cao, you've really worked hard—look, your belly's shrunk a bit."

Chen Yansen reached out and patted Cao Dahua's round belly.

Cao Dahua sighed: In six months, Orange Phone Factory expanded from ten thousand square meters to over a hundred thousand, and staff grew from two to over ten thousand.

Just imagine how much effort that took.

"Last week, three electronics factories in Sai Ge Tech Park went on strike, demanding higher hourly wages—basically, we sparked this whole thing, so even though Song De is dead, I still have to be careful when I go out."

Cao Dahua explained slowly.

In other words, in Shencheng's manufacturing industry, Cao Dahua himself was a hated figure.

Orange Phone's hourly wage is twenty yuan; many similar electronics factories pay less than ten yuan, let alone overtime as required by labor law.

Ever since Orange Phone emerged as an anomaly, many factory owners have been under immense pressure.

Raise workers' wages, and you feel the pain;

Don't raise them, and your head aches.

"Can't Secretary Shi from the Central Office protect you?" Chen Yansen frowned, asking coldly.

Orange Phone Factory provides over ten thousand jobs with social insurance, generating over twenty billion yuan in annual industrial output—if Shencheng can't be relied on, he'd rather move the factory to Huadong or shift production to Lucheng.

"Secretary Shi has been very supportive of Orange Phone Factory."

Cao Dahua replied succinctly, glancing at the driver and bodyguards up front.

"Recommended by Secretary Shi?" Chen Yansen asked.

From these two men, he sensed the same aura as Xiao Li—he guessed they were likely retired soldiers.

Cao Dahua nodded with a smile: "Secretary Shi personally intervened—these security personnel protect the factory's safety and deter anyone from taking desperate risks."

The factory's equipment is worth billions; any damage would be catastrophic.

Originally, Zhongsha Village Industrial Park had no police inspectors, but after Orange Phone's output surpassed three million units, the Central Office swiftly added one.

Chen Yansen nodded, relieved.

The convoy sped along Binjiang Avenue, passing Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center and Tian'an Digital City, finally arriving at the destination.

In the distance, the factory's exterior bore a towering Orange Tech logo.

Cao Dahua led Chen Yansen on a tour of Factories 1 to 3; everyone rode a shuttle bus for over an hour.

Chen Yansen had only visited once when leasing the factory; this time, he saw that under Cao Dahua's management, Orange Phone Factory was orderly and thriving.

Workers they passed greeted Old Cao warmly and curiously sized up Chen Yansen.

With high pay and great benefits, these workers wanted to worship Cao Dahua as their adoptive father.

The factory's year-end banquet is simpler—we just hired a local caterer, and the food is no worse than a five-star hotel's.

Cao Dahua pointed to the chef team bustling about on the square.

"The quarterly bonus system for Yunsu and KuaiPao has been finalized. Starting in 2012, the Orange Phone Factory will align with headquarters."

Chen Yansen said.

"I understand—it's just this one year-end bonus, tied to January's salary."

Cao Dahua nodded in response.

To be honest, ordinary workers earn only 2, 40 yuan per month, and most get only three or four thousand yuan as year-end bonuses.

After the quarterly bonuses are announced, employees will gain at least ten thousand yuan extra in annual income—some might even start worshipping Cao Dahua like a father.

As dusk fell, bright spotlights rose across the square, illuminating the dining area and stage as brightly as daylight.

As factory manager, Cao Dahua officially declared at exactly six p. .: the Orange Phone Factory year-end banquet is now open.

After briefly offering a few New Year wishes, he handed the microphone to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen stepped onto the stage and looked out at the sea of workers seated below.

"That's the big boss? So young!"

Li Yunzhu gazed up at Chen Yansen on stage, unable to help but marvel.

Chen Yansen knew these people cared most about what prizes would be drawn tonight and when dinner would be served.

So he didn't give a long speech—he simply announced that, starting with Q1 2012, the Orange Phone Factory would follow headquarters' policy and offer four quarterly bonuses per year.

Chen Yansen's words were simple, but the response below was extraordinarily strong.

More than ten thousand people instantly remembered Chen Yansen.

An extra ten to forty thousand yuan in annual bonuses was hard not to excite.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen stepped down and sat at a table beside the stage, joined by Song Yuncheng, Cao Dahua, Zuo Hongyu, Zhang Jing, and others.

This year-end, Chen Yansen's schedule was packed solid.

For him, the banquet was secondary; the core was inspecting the progress of each project and checking whether middle- and upper-management were scheming behind his back.

With his exceptional observational skills and spiritual sense, Chen Yansen spoke briefly with each senior executive at the Orange Phone Factory—and within minutes, he grasped the factory's overall situation.

The next morning.

Chen Yansen met again with Shi Secretary of the Central Office, chatting until noon before taking his leave.

In the afternoon, he returned to Xucheng.

Xiao Li drove Chen Yansen from the airport to the Sky Garden in the city, seamlessly transitioning into Orange Tech's year-end banquet.

At this point, only three days remained until the New Year.

(End of Chapter)