Chapter 220: Lei Yi Refuses; Chen Yansen: You Don

In the dusk of February in Beijing, the twilight was heavy and the cold wind howled.

In the ground-floor lobby of Xiaomi headquarters, Lei Yi, Lin Bing, Li Wanqiang, and others kept glancing outside.

Unlike Chen Yansen's last visit, nearly all of Xiaomi's senior management had turned out to wait below.

In just one year, Chen Yansen had transformed from a leader in e-commerce retail into a top player among internet smartphone brands.

His weight in Lei Yi's eyes had instantly increased severalfold.

Lei Yi stared at the unmelted snowflakes by the roadside and fell into thought; in his original plan, Xiaomi's sales after launch should have matched those of Sister Chengzi phones.

But now Sister Chengzi phones were far ahead, while Xiaomi couldn't even compete with Oppo, Meizu, or Ku Sect.

Two million total sales looked impressive, but with the launch of Sister Chengzi D1 and Sister Chengzi C2, Xiaomi's sales were steadily weakening.

According to market and data department forecasts, the potential ceiling for Xiaomi's first-generation phone was around three million units.

In short, before all major phone manufacturers launched their autumn new arrivals, Xiaomi could sell at most another one million units.

For this reason, Lei Yi had to accelerate the new product launch schedule.

"Lei Zong, Chief Chen has arrived," Li Wanqiang whispered.

Lei Yi snapped back to attention and followed Li Wanqiang's gaze—he saw Chen Yansen striding forward, followed by Gao Weilin, CFO of Senlian Capital, and Song Yuncheng, General Director of Big Clients at Pinbei.

He quickly adjusted his demeanor and smiled to greet him: "Sorry, Chief Chen, I was tied up last night; I'll arrange dinner tonight."

"Lei Zong, you're too formal—next time don't make such a big show, or I won't dare come again."

Chen Yansen joked, nodding to Lin Bing, Li Wanqiang, and others in greeting.

"Chief Chen is Xiaomi's honored guest—I dare not be careless."

Lei Yi smiled warmly.

His right cheek had swollen less than yesterday, but the redness and swelling were still clearly visible.

Chen Yansen noticed at once; though he found it amusing, he showed no sign of it.

After a few pleasantries, the group took the elevator to Lei Yi's office.

Chen Yansen sat down and asked: "When is Xiaomi M2 scheduled to launch?"

On the first workday after the New Year, Xiaomi's marketing department released the concept art for the M2, but aside from the front camera at five million pixels and rear camera at twelve million pixels, all other details remained undisclosed.

Lei Yi looked at Chen Yansen, seeing his calm expression, and sighed: "The Xiaomi M2's exterior design hasn't been finalized yet. Honestly, I never planned to launch a new product this soon."

The implication was clear—it was Sister Chengzi Technology that had forced his hand.

"Launching sooner is still a good thing. Smartphones are the future mainstream; more products mean more market share."

Chen Yansen naturally caught the subtext and smiled.

"Is the cooperation you mentioned yesterday referring to the memory cleanup algorithm on AuroraOS 1.3?"

Seeing Chen Yansen still hesitating to get to the point, Lei Yi cut straight to the chase.

"We can also discuss licensing that patent, but today I came to you mainly to secure Xiaomi's manufacturing order."

Chen Yansen stated frankly.

Once Factory No. 3 in Shencheng and Factory No. 4 in Luzhou begin production, capacity will far exceed Sister Chengzi phones' current sales.

To ensure worker income stability and production line utilization, securing contract manufacturing orders is the best option.

Lei Yi froze—he had imagined many possibilities, but never this one: Chen Yansen wanted Xiaomi's manufacturing order.

He involuntarily furrowed his brow, looking troubled.

Xiaomi's current contract manufacturer is Yinghua Da, the same Taiwanese electronics manufacturer as Foxconn, with yield rates and contract prices within Lei Yi's acceptable range.

According to Q4 last year's data, Xiaomi's return rate for repairs was only 1.5%, clearly demonstrating Yinghua Da's stable production quality and excellent delivery capability.

But to hand Xiaomi's manufacturing order to a competitor—even if Lei Yi had a big heart—he dared not risk it.

What if, at a critical moment, Sister Chengzi's factory stabbed him in the back? Xiaomi's losses would be enormous.

Thinking of this, Lei Yi shook his head:

"Chief Chen, it's not that I don't trust you—it's just that Xiaomi's manufacturing price is low. Including SMT mounting, testing, assembly, and packaging, it's only thirty-two yuan per unit; after deducting equipment depreciation and labor costs, profit is only four to five yuan per unit."

His meaning was clear: with Xiaomi's sales volume, even if Sister Chengzi's factory took the entire order, it would earn only about twenty million yuan per year.

To reject Chen Yansen, Lei Yi even revealed Yinghua Da's exact manufacturing fee structure.

"I don't mind."

Chen Yansen said calmly.

But I mind!

Lei Yi laughed helplessly—he wanted to shout: "We're competitors!"

Handing Xiaomi's production and manufacturing to Sister Chengzi's factory was like standing naked before a rival.

At that point, Xiaomi's core industrial and hardware designs would be fully exposed.

"Chief Chen, this cooperation is impossible," Lei Yi said firmly.

"If you agree, I can grant Xiaomi exclusive licensing of a better memory cleanup algorithm patent to alleviate lag and overheating issues."

Chen Yansen revealed his card, smiling.

Lei Yi's face flickered with embarrassment—he knew Chen Yansen spoke the truth, and truth was often the most painful.

To be honest, he had long coveted AuroraOS's memory cleanup algorithm.

He had tested both Sister Chengzi C2 and Sister Chengzi D1, especially the D1 with its MediaTek MT6573 processor and 512MB RAM; even after six hours of heavy use, though it still overheated and lagged, its performance slightly outperformed Xiaomi's phone.

Yet Xiaomi's processor and memory specs could easily outmatch the Sister Chengzi D1.

This proved AuroraOS's hardware resource management, memory allocation, and battery management far surpassed Xiaomi's MIUI system.

"Chief Chen, though we're on good personal terms, when it comes to core corporate interests, I truly can't agree—it's like we're both selling buns, and you ask me to hand over my filling recipe, let you handle all production, and I only sell them—is that fair?"

Lei Yi forced a bitter smile, resisting the temptation.

"What filling recipe does Xiaomi even have?"

Chen Yansen was slightly stunned and couldn't help but complain inwardly.

Perhaps in ten-odd years, Xiaomi would hold some patents in 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, camera hardware design, image signal processing, and photography algorithms.

But this is 2012; Xiaomi has just started. What is there worth coveting?

"In that case, let it be." Chen Yansen smiled carefree; after all, there were still Meizu, OPPO, Ku Sect, and Newman as backup phone manufacturers.

Seeing this, Lei Yi sighed with relief and quickly changed the subject: "It seems the Nokia era is about to end. Last year, its domestic smartphone shipments ranked second, but this January, it dropped to seventh."

"Every era has its king. The next might be Apple, perhaps Huawei, and of course, it could also be Xiaomi."

Chen Yansen shrugged and said lightly.

"Has Sister Chengzi Technology never thought of becoming that king?" Lei Yi paused, then asked with a smile.

"Sister Chengzi Technology's goal is to cultivate more trend-leading king brands like Nokia."

Chen Yansen raised his eyelids slightly and replied in a flat tone.

Lei Yi gave a forced smile, thinking: Why does this kid speak so arrogantly?

Chen Yansen's words reminded him of last year's Internet Open Conference, where Mama Ali's Ma Liyun said on the spot: "Mama Ali's mission is to cultivate more Jingdong."

Lin Bing and Lei Wanqiang looked at each other, understanding Chen Yansen's meaning.

Sister Chengzi Technology does not view Xiaomi as a competitor!

Isn't this looking down on people?

Although Sister Chengzi phones sold over 10 million units last year, Xiaomi also had 2 million units.

To put it plainly, your Sister Chengzi phones have not formed an overwhelming advantage!

Lei Yi felt the atmosphere becoming somewhat stagnant, deliberately raised his hand to check the time, which happened to be five-thirty, so he hurriedly said: "President Chen, let's go eat first."

"No, I have a date tonight. Another time."

After speaking, Chen Yansen stood up, preparing to leave.

Lei Yi's face stiffened; he forced a smile, suppressed his anger, and politely escorted Chen Yansen out of the building.

Only after the car drove away did Lei Yi, with a gloomy face, turn and walk back toward the company.

"Ah Li, what do you think?" Back in the office, Lei Yi turned his gaze to Lei Wanqiang and asked with a frown.

"President Lei, I think we can agree. To be honest, whether in hardware or software, Sister Chengzi Technology's technology far surpasses Xiaomi's, so I believe Chen Yansen has no deep ulterior motives," Lei Wanqiang said tactfully.

"Is there really such a pure businessman?" Lei Yi retorted, clearly disbelieving.

"Sister Chengzi's phone factory in Shencheng pays ordinary workers a base salary of 2,640 yuan, overtime pay strictly according to the Labor Law; workers' average monthly income reaches over 7,000 yuan. He is young, indeed easily idealistic."

Lei Wanqiang explained with a smile.

"Someone too idealistic cannot earn hundreds of billions in wealth." Lei Yi sneered.

He started in the software field, then entered the mobile phone industry; he knew better than anyone the true nature of those electronics factory bosses in the country.

"Although I cannot figure out why Chen Yansen does not outsource the production process to contract manufacturers, as far as I know, Sister Chengzi's No. 3 factory is about to start production. He wants to secure Xiaomi's contract manufacturing orders; the logic behind this makes sense."

"Therefore, I support Ah Li's view; we can choose to trust Chen Yansen and Sister Chengzi Technology."

Lin Bing, who had been silent, suddenly interjected.

Lei Yi raised his head, seriously observed the expressions of both, and after receiving affirmative responses, he began to think seriously.

He knew in his heart that Lin Bing and Lei Wanqiang had one more unspoken sentence: If Xiaomi did not agree, there was a chance Chen Yansen would immediately turn to cooperate with 360, Meizu, and OPPO; under such shifting dynamics, Xiaomi's phone sales would inevitably be affected.

After all, piling up materials requires little technical skill; Xiaomi's greatest advantage now is the MIUI system.

If, as Chen Yansen said, he did not care about software technical patents and would license the AuroraOS operating system, memory cleaning algorithms, and battery management technology to other phone manufacturers.

Then Xiaomi's situation would become even more difficult!

Lei Yi fell into deep thought; he was not a manager who ignored advice, and the persuasion from Lin Bing and Lei Wanqiang made his heart waver.

On the other side.

After leaving Xiaomi's headquarters, Chen Yansen immediately dialed a strange number: "?"

(End of this chapter)