Chapter 232

February 27, Monday.

Youku and Tudou jointly announced that they had signed a final agreement on February 24, merging entirely through a 100% stock swap, with Tudou delisting and Youku rising to become the leading video platform.

Sohu Video held the second position in the industry with a 13.3% market share.

iQiyi, LeTV, and Tencent Video occupied third through fifth places respectively.

This stood in stark contrast to the market landscape over a decade later, when Youku, then at its peak, had become the industry's youngest player by 2026, even lagging behind Mango TV in monthly active users.

Chen Yansen glanced at the news, a faint smile on his lips—he had no interest in long-form video platforms.

At that moment, the phone on the table suddenly rang.

Chen Yansen picked it up and saw it was Zhang Chaoyang; without hesitation, he pressed answer: "Hello, Charles, let's get this straight—drinking's fine, but acting in a drama is out."

After growing close to Zhang Chaoyang, he had originally called him "Old Zhang," but Zhang had said, "The security guard at Sohu is called Old Zhang," so Chen Yansen had no choice but to use his English name.

Last week, Zhang Chaoyang called to say Sohu Video was planning to produce a sitcom called "Diao Si Man Shi," and the director specifically wanted Chen Yansen to play a doctor.

For any other director or short drama, Chen Yansen might have agreed.

It would repay Zhang Chaoyang's favor and simultaneously promote Sister Chengzi's phone—a win-win.

But he knew clearly that if this short drama were made, it would become an indelible black mark on his record.

So he came up with a compromise: he pushed Wang Teng forward.

After all, Wang Teng had hosted the launch event for Sister Chengzi's phone, held the position of General Manager of Chengzi Technology, and had 1.3 million Weibo followers—he could still deliver strong promotional value.

"But you're not even in Beijing! I won't beat around the bush—when is Kuai Di's Series A funding round launching? Macquarie Capital is extremely bullish on the ride-hailing sector."

Zhang Chaoyang explained with a smile.

Macquarie Capital was Sohu's third-largest shareholder; they had previously communicated with Gao Weilin, but Chen Yansen had rejected their funding request.

Of the six venture capital firms preliminarily screened by Senlian Capital, five were domestic firms—this was an intentional control measure.

Yet he still owed Zhang Chaoyang a favor, so he couldn't flatly refuse when the man brought it up.

He thought for a moment, then spoke plainly: "I don't plan to bring in too much foreign capital, so even if Macquarie Capital makes it into the Series A round, I'll strictly limit its future participation."

Zhang Chaoyang was a smart man—he immediately understood Chen Yansen's funding strategy and replied: "I'm just delivering a message. Whether this deal happens or not, I don't care."

Chen Yansen smiled and agreed readily: "Since you mentioned it, giving them a spot won't hurt."

"By the way, are you coming to the Beijing Internet Conference in September? I'll introduce you to a few new friends."

Zhang Chaoyang nodded contentedly, then asked.

"Then you'd better bring plenty of good wine," Chen Yansen teased.

"No problem. Let's leave it at that—next time you're in Beijing on business, just come find me," Zhang Chaoyang replied directly and decisively.

After exchanging pleasantries, both hung up.

"Old Zhang's life is so comfortable—under fifty, already living the retired life of drinking, bar-hopping, and doing yoga."

Chen Yansen put down his phone, opened the windows and doors, letting the crisp air rush in.

He took a deep breath, recalling the second piece of news he'd seen: the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Vipshop's IPO application.

Unfortunately, this listing plan was doomed to fail—the offering price was slashed by 23.5% before opening, reducing the fundraising amount to $70 million, with total market cap barely surpassing $200 million.

Vipshop's bloodied IPO cast a shadow over domestic e-commerce firms and sent a clear signal: investors across the ocean had no confidence in China's e-commerce sector.

But this incident had little impact on Pinbei; instead, Mama Ali got caught in the crossfire—Ma Liyun had planned to immediately pursue an IPO after completing the equity buyback.

Yet Vipshop's lukewarm debut forced Ma Liyun to become more cautious; after weighing options, he signaled Cai Xin to delay the IPO timetable and wait for a better opportunity.

Near noon, Chen Yansen went downstairs to the cafeteria for lunch.

On the way, he encountered Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel, walking together, chatting and laughing.

"Daniel, are you getting used to life in Xucheng?"

Chen Yansen asked casually.

"The water's a bit hard," Daniel adjusted his glasses, then pulled a handful of hair from his scalp—over a dozen brown strands lay in his palm.

"I'd recommend drinking bottled water," Chen Yansen said with a smile.

"Thank you, Boss, for your concern—I ordered a water dispenser on the Shangcheng yesterday and hope to receive it soon," Daniel replied, shrugging.

With Zhou Chuangxi's help, he had quickly adapted to life in Xucheng and learned to shop on Pinbei.

"When will Yuxi go live?" Chen Yansen asked seriously.

"Around mid-March—the voice data standards from iFlytek should be finished tomorrow; then Daniel will integrate Gaussian mixture and neural network models to further improve acoustic model training efficiency," Zhou Chuangxi replied.

"Yuxi is just the first step Chengzi Technology takes toward artificial intelligence; only when we develop an advanced AI interaction engine using Yuxi will we reach the second step."

Chen Yansen said calmly.

Daniel nodded slightly—he had seen Yuxi's recognition framework and underlying code, and in his view, Chen Yansen's technical ability far surpassed his own.

This was why he willingly stayed at Chengzi Technology; on the other hand, Chengzi Technology's research environment also deeply satisfied him.

As the three walked and talked, Zhou Chuangxi suddenly added: "Daniel and I are still visiting professors at Xucheng College."

Chen Yansen paused, then laughed aloud—Tang Qingshan really knew how to leverage connections.

Although Johns Hopkins University wasn't a traditional Ivy League member, its academic strength and global influence were no less than Tsinghua or Peking University.

Though he doubted how many students in Daniel's class—none of whom spoke Chinese—could understand him, seeing Daniel's bright expression, Chen Yansen didn't ask; perhaps this job gave him the same feeling as teaching at Johns Hopkins, outside of work.

Some people are simply born with an intense need to speak and express.

The three entered the cafeteria; Chen Yansen looked around and realized he didn't recognize half the employees.

Pinbei, Chengzi Pay, and Chengzi Technology each welcomed forty to fifty new hires daily—not because he couldn't remember them, but because business was so busy he had no time to meet them all.

Chen Yansen finished lining up for his meal, took his tray, and had taken only two steps when he saw Wang Teng waving at him, sitting beside Wang Zihao.

He then walked over with Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel.

Meanwhile.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Chunshen, in a warehouse of Shaopei Grain and Oil Company, over three hundred staff were working feverishly.

The five-jin and ten-jin packs of rice were first placed into foam packing bags with shock-absorbing function, then sealed and wrapped tight with tape, before being sent to the next procedure.

Two young men pasted the courier waybills on one by one.

A Yun Express delivery van was parked at the door, and the forklift operator inside the factory kept loading the packed parcels into the van.

The factory owner stood on the second floor, watching this busy scene, the corners of his mouth almost splitting all the way to the base of his ears, the whole man floating on air.

"Boss Zhu, how many orders did you sell yesterday?" Zhao Siyuan, the chief secretary of the Central Department, asked.

"Four-point-three ten thousand orders for the five-jin pack, two-point-five ten thousand for the ten-jin pack. Compared to early February, it's dropped quite a bit." Though Zhu Debao said this, his face was full of smiles.

After deducting labor costs for the day, he could earn over a hundred thousand in pure profit.

A bag of rice only had a little over one yuan of pure profit—looked small, but the volume more than made up for it!

Thinking of this, Zhu Debao turned around and said to Zhao Siyuan: "Secretary Zhao, everything I have today is all thanks to you and Boss Tang."

"You must keep a firm grip on quality. Boss Chen gave you the chance to make money—if you drop the ball, no one can help you."

Zhao Siyuan chuckled lightly, not forgetting to remind him once more.

As far as he knew, plenty of merchants on Pinbei had been punished for selling counterfeit and substandard products; several had not only had all their payments deducted but also received lawyer's letters from Pinbei's legal department.

Zhao Siyuan certainly didn't want Zhu Debao to do something foolish!

The Guangshaopi Grain and Oil Factory alone provided over three hundred jobs—admittedly on the low end, but it genuinely increased income for the surrounding residents.

"Secretary Zhao, don't worry. The principle of one full meal versus every meal full, I can still tell which is which."

Zhu Debao slapped his chest and vowed.

In the past, to open up sales channels, he'd spent all day begging this uncle and that auntie, wining and dining and laughing along, catering to grain and oil wholesalers, supermarket and convenience store owners, farmers' market stallholders, as well as the procurement managers of restaurants, hotels, school cafeterias, and corporate cafeterias—only after making every single one of them comfortable could he have a prosperous year.

Now it was much easier—no more having to beg anyone!

Over a hundred thousand in net profit a day; as long as this momentum held for two or three years, his influence in the county would climb at least several more rungs.

To be honest, he really had thought about mixing new rice with old rice to sell—each bag of rice would earn an extra 0.5 to 1 yuan that way—but after weighing it over, he still didn't dare do it.

Mainly because Pinbei's penalty rules were too brutal!

Every time, it was fake-one-penalize-ten!

"Come by the county later—Boss Tang is personally hosting the agricultural products exchange meeting. Don't forget."

Zhao Siyuan said.

Merchants like the Shaopi Grain and Oil Food Factory, Pinbei had supported a total of thirty-seven; by sales, the Shaopi Grain and Oil Food Factory could only be considered middling.

In Shanjue Town there was a major breeding household who, every day on Pinbei's Hundred-Billion Subsidy channel, could sell two million in sales—mainly promoted products were shelducks and white geese, with both fresh cold-chain-transported goods and cured preserved products.

Extremely popular in the eastern market!

Tang Lixin and Zhao Siyuan had originally thought this agricultural product support plan was just Chen Yansen's excuse to brush them off, but upon seeing these thirty-plus companies generating an extra ten million-plus in sales every day, they suddenly realized Pinbei's influence in the e-commerce industry.

Thirty to forty billion in annual revenue—it really might be achievable!

During this period, whenever Chen Guobin was holding down the bookstore, big bosses driving BMWs and Benzes would often show up carrying big and small gift bags to pay visits.

Some looked more than ten years older than Chen Guobin, yet every word out of their mouths was "Uncle Chen, Uncle Chen"—you couldn't imagine how enthusiastic they were.

It left Chen Guobin utterly speechless; after inquiring around, he finally learned it was that kid Chen Yansen pulling the strings.

These prominent figures in the local Spring-Shen scene all treated Chen Yansen like the God of Wealth.

Then Chen Guobin was naturally the God of Wealth's father!

At some point, a patrol checkpoint was forcibly set up at the door of Guobin Bookstore, ostensibly to protect the students of Spring-Shen Middle School.

Yet this patrol checkpoint was still three or four hundred meters from the school!

Who's it trying to fool?

For a time, in Spring-Shen's local power-brokers circle, Chen Guobin's name slowly grew prominent.

Whether you go by the dark path or the legitimate one—don't mess with the owner of Guobin Bookstore, that's the rule!

Upon learning this, Chen Guobin didn't know whether to laugh or cry, thinking: So this counts as a father rising on his son's coattails, huh?

(End of chapter)