Chapter 208: Total Sales Reach 50.7 Billion; Lei Yijun: You're Not Unwilling

"Grand Prize! Employee ID 97, Employee ID 261, Employee ID 519! Congratulations to the three of you, please come up to receive your awards!"

Wang Teng stood on the stage of the Sky Garden Banquet Hall and announced loudly.

"Wow! General Ye, your luck is exploding today! Congratulations, congratulations!"

"Wenwen, you won the big prize!"

"Brother Bin, you must treat us to a meal tomorrow!"

As soon as the Grand Prize list was released, a cheer erupted from the crowd.

Chen Yansen glanced at Ye Qiuping; he hadn't expected this woman's luck to be so good. With only three spots available among over 700 employees, she managed to draw one.

The second person to win the 200,000 grand prize was Zhou Yuwen from the Customer Service Department of Chengzi Technology, a freshman in the 2011 cohort of Journalism at the School of Literature and Communication, her small face flushed with excitement at this moment.

You should know that the total tuition and living expenses for four years at Xuyuan would not exceed 80,000 yuan.

In other words, this girl had easily earned four years' worth of tuition and miscellaneous fees tonight, and the remaining money could buy a commuter car worth over 100,000.

The third winner was Wu Jiabin, an event operations specialist in the E-commerce Department, who also wore an expression of wild joy as he walked onto the stage together with Ye Qiuping and Zhou Yuwen.

Wang Teng held a bundle of cash, a full twenty stacks, and handed it to Ye Qiuping with a smile.

He then turned around, picked up two more bundles of cash, and stuffed them into the hands of Zhou Yuwen and Wu Jiabin respectively.

Ye Qiuping maintained a perfectly appropriate smile throughout; for her, 200,000 was a lot, but it was merely two and a half months' worth of salary.

Zhou Yuwen and Wu Jiabin, standing nearby, had long lost control of their facial expressions, grinning foolishly the whole time, their heads spinning as if they were dreaming.

"After the New Year, communicate with the park management to rent Building No. 9 next door as well."

Chen Yansen turned his head and instructed He Shuang, the Administrative Department Manager.

Now, the number of employees at Chengzi Technology's headquarters has reached over 700; Building No. 8 is merely a medium-to-small office building, and as the headcount grows, the workstations are becoming increasingly crowded.

Building No. 9 has 1,600 square meters per floor, a ceiling height of 4.4 meters, and a total of eight floors, capable of accommodating over 2,000 people working simultaneously, which is sufficient to support Chengzi Technology's expansion needs in 2012.

"Understood, Boss." He Shuang nodded in agreement.

Chen Yansen raised his hand to check the time, said hello to Gao Weilin, Yan Peng, Zhang Cong, Zhou Ze, and others, then took Meng Jie and left the banquet hall, walked into the elevator lobby, and headed straight for the guest rooms on the eighth floor.

President Chen hadn't planned to return to Xuyuan tonight; he would sleep until noon tomorrow, just in time for the Pinba Annual Meeting.

On the other side.

Song Yuncheng clutched the car keys Chen Yansen had given her, sitting alone on the library stairs, staring blankly at the road opposite the school.

Unconsciously, the scene of her first meeting with Chen Yansen floated into her mind: that day the rain had poured down like a bucket, and she had been wearing a raincoat, dragging her suitcase toward the East Gate.

When Chen Yansen drove over that puddle, he splashed mud and water all over her.

"If I hadn't thought you looked good, I would have definitely smashed a brick into your face."

Thinking of this, Song Yuncheng couldn't help but laugh out loud.

She knew clearly in her heart that if she hadn't met Chen Yansen, she would most likely still be doing part-time jobs at the library and cafeteria, eating only free seaweed egg drop soup with rice every day to save money.

He had pulled her out of the quagmire and elevated her from a workplace novice who knew nothing to the position of Major Client Investment Director; this was the reason Song Yuncheng liked to call Chen Yansen "Master."

"Master, you taught me to be so capable; aren't you afraid I might leave you someday?"

Song Yuncheng sighed and muttered softly.

A cold wind blew, snapping Song Yuncheng back to her senses; she suddenly stood up and walked toward the dormitory.

At the same time.

No. 28 Xueyuan Road, Xihu District, Hangcheng, Guanlan Building.

Cheng Weixing sat in a chair, holding a test phone, trying out version 1.0 of Kuaidi Dache; with no drivers or customers currently available, he could only conduct simulations in a virtual environment.

"President Cheng, the performance test and compatibility test have both passed, but there are still some security loopholes. I suggest implementing a dual-verification mode by obtaining IMEI and UUID numbers to prevent black-market practitioners from exploiting virtual machines and fake registered accounts to siphon off new-customer subsidies."

Xu Jianming sat opposite Cheng Weixing and said with a stern face.

According to the original development schedule, Kuaidi Dache could have launched on the App Shangcheng before the Spring Festival, but after Cheng Weixing sent the technical documents to Chen Yansen for review, they were returned shortly afterward.

"The security issues are riddled with holes; once black-market organizations target us, for every 100 yuan of marketing expenditure on Kuaidi Dache, 50 yuan could be siphoned off."

Chen Yansen commented without any hesitation.

Only then did Cheng Weixing realize that while he had been busy developing the user and driver registration and login systems, as well as basic functions like positioning, ride-hailing, order acceptance, payment, and reviews, he had neglected the most critical modules for user privacy protection and data transmission encryption.

Prompted by the boss, Cheng Weixing immediately established an anti-cheating team and a data security center, requiring team members to understand various cheating methods better than the black-market organizations themselves.

The goal was to ensure that Kuaidi Dache would not make elementary mistakes after going live.

If any user modified GPS location information, published fake trip records, or registered a large number of new accounts, the account would be frozen immediately and handed over to the inspection office for processing.

"Sharpening the axe does not delay the woodcutting; our previous versions were indeed too rough."

Cheng Weixing chuckled self-mockingly, secretly feeling relieved in his heart.

"President Cheng, then I'll go back to work." Xu Jianming let out a dry laugh, stood up, and said.

"It's almost 10 PM; tell everyone to get off work quickly. Tomorrow..."

Cheng Weixing glanced at the sky outside the window; several nearby buildings were pitch black, and the streets were deserted, so he hurriedly urged them on.

"President Cheng, I understand."

Xu Jianming responded, hugged his computer, and left the conference room.

The Kuaidi Dache development team had originally worked in a residential building to save costs, but after securing financing from Senlian Capital, they immediately upgraded their facilities, moving into a bright and clean office building.

Everyone's salary and benefits were also adjusted, including a 20% monthly housing allowance, meal subsidies, transportation subsidies, and quarterly bonuses, as well as overtime pay strictly issued in accordance with the Labor Law.

Therefore, the development progress of Kuaidi Dache advanced by leaps and bounds, with Cheng Weixing urging employees to get off work every day.

Otherwise, this group of programmers would absolutely stay up until dawn before leaving.

The next morning, Chen Yansen slowly opened his eyes.

Having traveled through Hucheng, Luzhou, Shencheng, and Xucheng, attending four annual meetings in a row, he felt no trace of fatigue.

His extraordinary constitution and spiritual force had stripped away most of his negative status effects.

Chen Yansen threw off the blanket and walked over to sit on the sofa.

He opened the computer and logged into the data backend.

Sister Chengzi Tech's two new products had been on the market for six days, with cumulative sales of 3.57 million units — of which the Chengzi d1 sold 2.56 million units and the Chengzi c2 sold 1.01 million units — for a total sales volume of 5.07 billion.

But during this period, sales of the Chengzi c1 had begun to drop sharply, with only 273,000 units sold over the six days.

Compared with Xiaomi, Meizu, and Oppo, that figure was still something they could only look up to, yet the downward trend had already appeared.

After all, the price difference between the Chengzi c1 and the standard version of the Chengzi c2 was only 700 yuan; users who demanded more from a phone's performance and camera quality naturally preferred to buy the higher-spec Chengzi c2.

Just then, the phone on the bedside table suddenly buzzed.

Meng Jie was quickly woken by the noise; she poked her head out from under the covers, looking bleary-eyed.

She picked it up and saw it was a call from Meng Zhengguo.

In an instant, all her sleepiness vanished.

She gestured a "shh" to Chen Yansen, then pressed answer: "Dad, I'm not awake yet."

"When are you coming back? Grandpa and Grandma both miss you."

Meng Zhengguo sat in his own living room and asked with a smile.

Before heading to work in the morning, he had thought of his daughter and couldn't resist giving her a call.

"Probably tomorrow afternoon, getting home. You don't need to pick me up. Right, I'm driving back with Wang Zihao, and Chen… Chen Yansen."

Meng Jie replied.

The moment Meng Zhengguo heard the name Chen Yansen, the smile on his face froze, and his heart was a tangle of mixed feelings.

In terms of EQ, experience, conversation, and earning ability, Chen Yansen was unquestionably the best candidate for a son-in-law.

But as far as Meng Zhengguo was concerned, his daughter simply couldn't keep him in hand.

"Have all your roommates gone? It sounds pretty quiet here." Meng Zhengguo asked again.

"Yeah, the Empty Courtyard went on break two weeks ago. That guy Chen Yansen keeps forcing me to do profit statements and cash-flow statements — yesterday, if the company hadn't had its New Year party, I'd have had to work overtime."

Meng Jie lied without blushing, then began to complain about Chen Yansen's exploitation of her.

Those reports had clearly already been done by the finance department, yet Chen Yansen insisted she redo them, grandly calling it training her independent financial-analysis ability.

"That kid's quite the rascal, then. Tell him to come by the house during New Year, I'll teach him a lesson for you."

Meng Zhengguo said deliberately, keeping a straight face.

From his daughter's few words, he could tell that Meng Jie had truly learned something real at Sister Chengzi Tech.

"Dad, I was just kidding — actually, Chen Yansen treats me pretty well."

Meng Jie, hearing her father's stern tone, thought she had overdone the act and hurriedly explained.

Meng Zhengguo gave a wry smile and shook his head helplessly. With his daughter's attitude like this, the day Chen Yansen sold her off, she'd still happily count the money for him.

He thought for a moment, then cautioned uneasily: "Keep your eyes open. This kid right now doesn't lack money, and he doesn't lack looks either — you need to keep a tight hold on him, or some other young girl might snatch him away. Your dad can't bear to see you hurt and sad."

"Dad, you don't get it — he's not like other guys." Meng Jie didn't take her father's words in at all, and instead started putting in a good word for Chen Yansen.

Meng Zhengguo clutched his chest, took quite a while to recover, and finally instructed: "You two can see each other, your mother and I don't object — but some things shouldn't happen too early, understand?"

Meng Jie's cheeks flushed red at this; she looked up and met Chen Yansen's mischievous grin. She hurriedly said: "Got it, I'm hanging up now — I'm almost late for work."

Without waiting for Meng Zhengguo to react, Meng Jie hung up the phone.

"Tsk tsk, so Class Monitor Meng's lying skills are this good."

Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

"It's all because of you!" Meng Jie shot him a look, then leaped up with all her might, hanging on Chen Yansen, and asked in a soft voice: "So, if you met a pretty girl, would you be led away?"

"Of course not."

Chen Yansen held her and walked toward the bathtub, saying firmly.

In his heart, he added a line: usually, it's the pretty girls who get led away by me — like you, for instance.

At this moment.

Far away in Yanjing, Xiaomi's headquarters was also busy organizing its New Year party.

After Xiaomi's phones went on Pinle, Jingdong, Taobao, and Suning Shangcheng, every channel pushed hard, and total sales finally reached 2 million units.

Lei Yijun was in a great mood; sitting in his office and looking at the business report, he was for a moment brimming with confidence.

"Knock knock knock—!"

A knock came from outside the door.

"Come in!" Lei Yijun wiped the smile off his face and called out in reply.

Li Wanqiang pushed the door open and walked in, starting his report before even sitting down: "President Lei, just received news — 360 and Haier are planning to team up and make a smartphone, targeting Xiaomi and Chengzi phones."

"Zhou Hongyi is making phones too?"

Lei Yijun gave a slight start, then caught on and muttered to himself: "Didn't you say you weren't making phones yourself?"

"Strictly speaking, the phone is just a Haier product — 360 is in charge of marketing and sales."

Li Wanqiang continued.

This kind of play was common among the three major carriers, but it was a first for an internet company.

Put plainly, it was a carrier-exclusive phone!

(End of chapter)