Chapter 224: Zhou Hongyi: Hey, Mr. Chen, Me? You Didn't Save My Number

At ten in the morning, a 'knock-knock-knock' sound came from outside the door.

"Come in!"

Chen Yansen replied softly, his hands never stopping as he turned two more pages of "Speech and Language Processing."

Not until Gao Weilin led a middle-aged man to sit opposite did he put down the book in his hand.

"Boss, this is Fan Junyan from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, whom I mentioned to you last time. He is proficient in accounting, finance, tax, and international commercial law. He was formerly the CFO of Nanfeng Group and has considerable hands-on experience with Hong Kong stock market listings."

Gao Weilin introduced him in detail.

"Mr. Chen, hello. I am Fan Junyan. I have long heard of your fame. You may call me Joseph."

Fan Junyan stood up again and said with complete seriousness.

Gao Weilin held his forehead and gave a bitter smile; he had specifically told this old classmate not to mention his English name in front of the boss, as it was useless anyway.

Yet this fellow simply wouldn't believe it!

"Old Fan, do you mind being addressed that way?"

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, gesturing for him to sit and talk.

Old Fan?

Fan Junyan, thirty-two years old this year, stiffened in the face; in his entire life, this was the first time anyone had called him "Old Fan."

He looked at Chen Yansen, then glanced at Gao Weilin from the corner of his eye, seeing the other man covering his mouth, barely suppressing his laughter.

"I don't mind; as long as the boss likes it." Fan Junyan finally understood Gao Weilin's intention; by this logic, when the boss usually called Dylan, he was most likely calling Old Gao?

Thinking of this, Fan Junyan couldn't help but smile inwardly.

"Although Kuaide Taxi is a subsidiary of Senlian Capital, the importance of this project in my heart is in no way inferior to Chengzi Technology. Since you are someone recommended by Old Gao, I trust him, and I trust you too."

Chen Yansen said this lightly.

In reality, he had already investigated Fan Junyan's resume, comprehensively evaluated the other party's ability and character, and only after feeling satisfied did he not refuse.

After all, if he couldn't even trust himself, how could he possibly trust Gao Weilin?

"Thank you for the boss's trust; I will definitely work with dedication."

Fan Junyan nodded heavily and replied cheerfully.

Compared to his salary and benefits in Hong Kong, serving as the CFO of Kuaide Taxi meant his base salary alone had increased by 25%, plus a housing allowance of 20% of his monthly salary, and a quarterly bonus every three months.

Therefore, Fan Junyan was very satisfied with the new job; just now downstairs, he had even seen Gao Weilin's Porsche Cayenne.

Although it was only for use, to put it plainly, as long as he kept working at Senlian Capital, the person using this car would not change.

"Work hard; the boss said there will be a car allocation benefit at the end of the year." Gao Weilin had said to him with a smile at the time.

A luxury car worth two million; of course, he wanted it too!

"Alright, report to Hangcheng as soon as possible. Cheng Weixing is relatively weak in financial management and risk control; sending you to Kuaide Taxi is to help him make up for this shortcoming. I am not afraid of spending money, but the use and destination of every penny must be traceable."

Chen Yansen looked straight at Fan Junyan and said with a Solemn tone.

This was both an instruction and a warning!

"Boss, I understand." Fan Junyan responded hurriedly.

Chen Yansen picked up the book again and flipped it open casually.

Gao Weilin and Fan Junyan exchanged a glance, understood in a second, and hurriedly stood up to take their leave.

Outside the office, Fan Junyan couldn't help but sigh with relief and asked Gao Weilin in a low voice: "The boss has such a strong oppressive aura; I even feel a bit short of breath."

"Is that just because you feel unwell? Do you want to go to the hospital for a comprehensive checkup? I meet with the boss every day, yet I feel nothing."

Gao Weilin sneered, not taking Fan Junyan's words to heart at all, and instead made a teasing remark.

At the same time, he could understand Fan Junyan's feelings; facing a young boss with a net worth of tens of billions, nervousness was inevitable.

Even for him, occasionally when a mistake occurred in his work, Chen Yansen merely frowning lightly was enough to make him feel a pang of heart palpitations.

However, Gao Weilin attributed this inexplicable emotion to nothing more than awe of the strong.

"Perhaps it was just an illusion." Fan Junyan didn't think much of it and quickly put it out of his mind.

"When are you leaving?" Gao Weilin asked.

"This afternoon." Fan Junyan was a decisive person; in his previous job, to push through the company's listing process, he had gone a whole year without rest, either on a business trip or on the way to one every day.

This was also the reason Gao Weilin strongly recommended him; he worked hard, possessed energy that was abnormally high compared to ordinary people, and could help him relieve a lot of pressure.

"Alright, meet me at the park canteen in half an hour; I'll see you off." Gao Weilin raised his hand to check the time on his wristwatch, then walked towards the Finance Department.

Fan Junyan still had to go to the Human Resources Department to sign the labor contract and the option agreement; by the time he finished, it would be lunchtime.

"You are really stingy!"

Hearing this, Fan Junyan laughed and cursed.

"Tch!" Gao Weilin didn't turn around but raised his middle finger in a gesture.

On the other side.

After finishing a book, Chen Yansen walked over and sat on the sofa by the window; Chengzi Technology's current layout in the mobile phone industry focused mainly on batteries, screens, operating systems, and artificial intelligence.

To defeat Apple and Shanxing, one not only had to put effort into the software layer but also needed the art of extreme supply chain management.

As Chengzi phone sales increased, Chengzi Technology's bargaining power on the supply side also grew stronger and stronger.

On one hand, it could reduce material costs and increase the gross profit margin; on the other hand, it could integrate its own unique supply channels, and when manufacturing for third-party phone manufacturers, it could also earn extra price differences on electronic components.

Take Xiaomi, for instance; Lei Yi agreed to hand over the manufacturing orders to Chengzi phone factories starting from the Q2 quarter. After some exchanges, he found that the procurement prices for Xiaomi phones' batteries, storage chips, and screens were far higher than those for Chengzi phones.

But he knew in his heart that the quoted price he saw was definitely higher than Chengzi Technology's procurement price; however, he had no choice, because Xiaomi's sales volume determined the suppliers' attitude.

Last year, when he negotiated with Shanxing, the other party directly quoted an outrageous sky-high price, which could even be said to be completely without sincerity.

Helplessly, the screen for Xiaomi's first-generation phone had to choose Xia Pu as the supplier.

Therefore, after thinking it over repeatedly, Lei Yi still changed the suppliers for batteries, storage chips, and screens to the channels of the Chengzi phone factory.

As for supply chain management issues, it wouldn't be too late to solve them once Xiaomi ranked in the top three of the shipment list and held sufficient speaking power.

Otherwise, it would seem like hard work, but the final price obtained would still be lower than the second-hand value of Sister Chengzi Technology, causing all the manpower and material resources invested in the early stage to go to waste.

The next morning, news that Xiaomi Technology signed a contract with the Sister Chengzi Phone Factory instantly caused an uproar in the industry.

The media scrambled to report, speculating whether both sides would launch deep binding in areas such as technical R&D, production capacity allocation, and supply chain integration.

But contrary to everyone's expectations, this contract, besides authorizing the memory cleaning algorithm and battery management technology, was merely a simple OEM cooperation.

"Can we find Sister Chengzi Technology to cooperate on a special supply phone?"

Zhou Hongyi of 360 had a sudden flash of inspiration, wanting to ride the heat of Sister Chengzi Phones; the failure of the Haier W910 taught him a lesson: the partner must be a professional mobile phone manufacturer.

Recently, he had turned off the comments section on Weibo; otherwise, every time he posted a product promotion, hundreds of people would chase him down to scold him.

"Haier has really screwed me over!"

Zhou Hongyi felt he was also wronged; the phone was designed by Haier and produced by Haier, so why should they scold him?

Finally, the Haier W910 went online for a week, sold only 2,000 units, and was then hastily taken offline.

The remaining 8,000 units were piled up in the warehouse, unsellable and un-giftable; Zhou Hongyi didn't know what to do.

360's first special supply phone ultimately ended with a loss of 10 million.

But Zhou Hongyi was not yet giving up; after finalizing cooperation with Huawei, he set his sights on Sister Chengzi Technology again.

"Hello, Mr. Chen, it's me? I'm Zhou Hongyi! You didn't save my number?!"

But when Zhou Hongyi called Chen Yansen, he was stunned first, then stomped his feet in anger.

This kid Chen Yansen is too damn arrogant!

"Sorry, Mr. Zhou, I changed phones last time and lost all my numbers," Chen Yansen said with a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth.

Zhou Hongyi knew the kid was talking nonsense, and Chen Yansen knew Zhou Hongyi could hear through it, but he just wanted to needle him a bit; after all, that damn thing had put on a look of disdain and sidelong glances in front of him when they first met.

"Mr. Chen, I want to discuss special supply phone cooperation with Sister Chengzi Technology." Zhou Hongyi didn't bother beating around the bush and went straight to the point.

"President Chen, I'd like to discuss the special-edition phone collaboration with Sister Chengzi Tech," Zhou Hongyi said, skipping the small talk and getting straight to the point.

Chen Yansen sneered and decisively refused: "Mr. Zhou, the Sister Chengzi Phone Factory only accepts OEM orders."

If it were someone else, he might have agreed, but not 360.

He had studied the Haier W910; Zhou Hongyi had embedded a series of 360 software, such as 360 Mobile Security Guard, 360 Browser, and 360 File Manager, directly into the phone.

Every time a user woke up, they would see 360's system pop-ups, weather plugins, and mobile wallpaper ads; this wasn't a phone, it was clearly an ad player.

"What if we use the 360 brand name?" Zhou Hongyi chuckled dryly; he was a smart man, how could he not know Chen Yansen's concerns?

"That can be considered, but 360 must handle the industrial and hardware design of the phone themselves."

Chen Yansen answered cautiously.

In short, he was willing to cooperate and willing to earn this money, but Zhou Hongyi shouldn't try to drag Sister Chengzi Technology out as a shield.

"Alright, Mr. Chen, I'll contact you again later."

Zhou Hongyi wasn't satisfied with this result, but he wasn't disappointed either; Chen Yansen's refusal actually sparked the idea of making his own phone.

3C certification, radio transmission equipment model approval, and mobile phone production license; for others, these were troublesome matters, but for him, it was a piece of cake.

After all these years, he hadn't been idle in Yanjing; he could even talk to the big shots of the Information Industry Association; handling the paperwork was just a matter of attending a few social events to get it done easily.

After all these years in Yanjing, he hadn't been idle — he could reach the bigwigs at the Information Industry Association too; it was just a matter of handling some paperwork, and at most a few rounds of socializing, and it could be wrapped up easily.

Where couldn't he find people from Xiaomi, Meizu, OPPO, ZTE, and Huawei?

Wasn't the R&D department of Sister Chengzi Technology all poached from competitors?

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yansen smiled faintly.

It seemed Lei Yi had beaten Zhou Hongyi into a frenzy; he was determined to fight Xiaomi.

Ten minutes later, Yu Chendong from Huawei called, asking directly: "Mr. Chen, I'm giving the Sister Chengzi Phone Factory an OEM order for 10 million units, but Sister Chengzi Technology must authorize the latest version of the memory cleaning algorithm patent for Huawei to use."

Compared to Zhou Hongyi's, Yu Chendong's negotiation style was more straightforward.

He stated the cooperation terms clearly!

"I only want OEM orders for smartphones."

Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

"No problem." Yu Chendong agreed immediately.

Huawei's total global smartphone shipment volume for the year was over 50 million units; 10 million units accounted for less than 20%.

Moreover, the mobile phone OEM model wasn't some high-end business; handing over some mid-to-low-end models to the Sister Chengzi Phone Factory was fine.

And the memory cleaning algorithm patent wasn't a core technology patent for Chen Yansen either; if he could give it to Xiaomi, he could give it to Huawei.

And for Chen Yansen, the memory-cleanup algorithm patent was likewise not exactly a core technology patent — if he could give it to Xiaomi, he could give it to Huawei.

(End of Chapter)