Chapter 233: Employees: 660,000, Spiritual Power! Annual Budget: 260 Billion

On the first day of March, leaden clouds hung thick, and fine rain wove a dense curtain.

Chen Yansen put down his copy of Analytical Mechanics, glanced out the window, exhaled heavily, then summoned the system panel.

With the rapid growth of Yunsu Express, Orange Tech, Pinbei, and KuaiPao, the number of employees under their umbrella had steadily increased; by February 29, the total number of employees contributing humanistic fire to him reached 66, 00.

Among them, Yunsu Express and the Orange Mobile Factory accounted for the majority, making up 89. %.

Orange Tech had 1, 37 employees, with a labor cost of 36. 8 million;

Pinbei Tech had 985 employees, with a labor cost of 20. 8 million;

Orange Pay had 311 employees, with a labor cost of 5. million;

Yunsu Express had 43, 92 employees, with a labor cost of 345. 3 million;

KuaiPao had 3, 39 employees, with a labor cost of 31. 3 million;

The Orange Mobile Factory had 16, 34 employees, with a labor cost of 139. 9 million;

Kuai Di Taxi had 563 employees, with a labor cost of 7. 8 million.

Once Gao Weilin completes the acquisitions of Gaode Map and Quanfeng Express, he will add at least several thousand more strands of humanistic fire each month.

Adding the remaining 43 strands from February, the current humanistic fire count on the panel stood at 58, 32, sufficient to synthesize 587 strands of divine fire.

At the current growth trend, the spiritual value might surpass 100 within half a year, greatly increasing the chance of gaining a brand-new talent ability.

Given Chen Yansen's status and wealth, he could choose not to use these talents, but he absolutely could not be without them.

In fact, the development of patent technologies such as speech recognition tools, AuroraOS 1. , camera algorithms, power management systems, heat dissipation technology, phone structural design, and circuit layout all relied on the 【Photographic Memory】 talent.

Otherwise, relying solely on the R&D department, each technical patent would likely take three to six months to complete.

"Synthesize! Allocate points!"

Chen Yansen focused his will.

A vast golden mist spontaneously formed, darting instantly into his third eye; within moments, it strengthened his brain and spirit.

Soon, Chen Yansen keenly sensed his spiritual sense had expanded—previously only slightly over ten meters, now roughly twelve meters.

The surrounding buildings, furniture, and each person's silhouette now revealed far more fine lines; though still resembling stick-figure sketches, he could now read the titles on book covers. The main text, mostly in size 4 or 5 fonts, appeared as a blurred mass he could not distinguish.

Chen Yansen thought: if he simplified the expression of his spiritual sense, it was like a person with no color vision and 500-degree myopia, who had removed their glasses and perceived the world.

The only difference was that he could 'see' farther—everything within a hundred square meters fell within his perception.

His spiritual value rose from 18. 6 to 24. 3!

Deep down, Chen Yansen felt something was off; he instinctively opened the window and saw that the fine raindrops, high up at ten meters, had strangely formed a barely perceptible arc.

This change was too subtle.

Had it not been for his superior eyesight and observational ability, Chen Yansen himself would have missed it.

Was this because his spiritual power had grown too strong, interfering with reality?

He instinctively closed his eyes; under his spiritual sense, countless dust particles in the air, as if caught in a gale, were being 'blown' farther away.

Chen Yansen's heart jolted—he realized this might become a problem. If his spiritual power broke through 100, then 1, 00, wouldn't every object within dozens of meters be unconsciously pushed aside?

At that point, unless he hid deep in some remote mountain, everyone would notice his anomaly.

No, he must find a solution quickly!

Chen Yansen thought silently.

His mind raced, drawing on accumulated knowledge—every method, whether scientific or mystical, that had even a shred of plausibility, he isolated and examined.

In summary, only three directions emerged: consumption, suppression, or control.

The first direction treated spiritual power as energy: if he consumed part of it, he could weaken his influence on surrounding people and objects.

But Chen Yansen knew clearly: his physique and spiritual value were fixed—there was no such thing as expenditure.

The second direction was simpler: diazepam, lorazepam, phenobarbital, and haloperidol could all suppress the spirit—but these were all psychiatric medications.

Chen Yansen worried that even with his 10. physique, taking too much would drive him mad.

Or he could find a substance that absorbed or interfered with his spiritual power—but that was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

The third direction had two approaches: scientifically, one could train by imagining one's spiritual power as a thread, coiling it repeatedly around a fixed object; mystically, one could visualize an object in the mind and pour spiritual power into it, achieving spiritual inwardness.

After organizing his thoughts, Chen Yansen pulled a toothpick from a jar on the coffee table and held it between his fingers.

He stared intently at the toothpick, imagining an invisible force winding around it.

One loop, two loops, three loops, four loops…

As he silently counted the fifth loop, he faintly felt a minuscule force tugging at the toothpick.

It worked!

Chen Yansen's heart leapt; he maintained intense focus. By the thirtieth loop, the tugging force grew stronger.

At the hundredth loop, the toothpick trembled violently.

Chen Yansen tried releasing his grip—the toothpick floated midair, as if held by an invisible hand.

After several seconds, Chen Yansen finally felt spiritual exhaustion—lifting this toothpick was more exhausting than performing hundreds of squats with a 1, 00-kilogram barbell.

Try the perception ability again!

Chen Yansen activated his 'spiritual sense' and was delighted to find the rain outside was now affected far less.

He then lifted the toothpick again and held it steady for sixty seconds straight.

The effect was clear—but Chen Yansen quickly realized: this was not worth it. In less than two minutes, he was utterly drained.

The side effect of interfering with reality was gone, but if he had to spend every day exhausted inside his room, what was the point of living?

Fuck!

This damn system, at least give me a control method!

What the hell, it kills you but won't bury you!

Chen Yansen muttered a few curses, sighed helplessly, and picked up his last hope, letting his mind wander aimlessly.

What should he visualize?

A phone?

A refrigerator?

A Taiji diagram?

Chen Yansen snorted and shook his head, then closed his eyes—the stick-figure sketches in his mind refused to fade, like an instinct.

He forced himself to concentrate, imagining a black hole above his head, swallowing all matter, light, and even his spiritual power.

But after much thought, nothing changed.

Chen Yansen had a sudden insight: he imagined his spiritual power itself as a black hole, forcefully devouring everything around him.

The moment this thought arose, the stick-figure outlines within his spiritual sense, like caught in a vacuum cleaner, instantly vanished into the black hole.

His mind turned utterly dark, leaving only a deep, spiraling black hole.

It worked!

Chen Yansen rejoiced wildly!

He snapped open his eyes and glanced around—right in the crack of the living room door, he spotted an ant trying to crawl inside.

He knew: ever since awakening his 'biological suppression' instinct, not even a single beetle dared enter 0418.

Chen Yansen checked his watch—only half an hour had passed.

He opened the door, went downstairs, and left the faculty apartment.

He got into the driver's seat of the Ghost and headed toward the tech park.

Students from Xue Lin Road paid no attention; this eight-million-yuan Rolls-Royce passed by like a second-hand Changan, drawing no notice.

He arrived at Conference Room 8 precisely at 9 a. ., not even missing Pinbei's morning meeting.

Soon, department heads began filing in.

Xiong Li from HR suddenly looked up, secretly studying Chen Yansen—she felt something was different today; the boss's usual intimidating aura had vanished, replaced by a more approachable demeanor.

"Hu Yun, report February's data."

Once everyone was present, Chen Yansen instructed Hu Yun.

Zhang Yifeng's envy flickered briefly—Hu Yun had been appointed Director of the Data Department in February, while Zhang's long-desired position as Director of Merchant Operations remained unassigned.

"Yes, Boss. Pinbei's total registered users: 270 million. Daily active users: 41 million. February's average daily orders: 8. million. Single-day sales: 760 million. Average order value: 91. yuan, up 13. % from January.

Food, home goods, and women's wear are Tier One categories; maternal and infant, underwear, men's wear, and digital appliances are Tier Two; cosmetics, automotive products, bags and accessories, and footwear are Tier Three."

Hu Yun opened his laptop, set up the projector, and began his presentation with a PPT.

Chen Yansen nodded in satisfaction—on sales metrics, Pinbei's volume was nearly equal to JD. om's, but still far behind Taobao.

Taobao's C-stores and Tmall generated at least 2. billion, even 3 billion, in daily sales.

He turned to Zhang Yifeng: "How's the merchant onboarding situation for Pinbei?"

"Boss, including factory white-labels from production zones and fruit vendors from farms, we have 9, 20 merchants total. C-grade brands: 47%. B-grade: 31%. A-grade: 19%. S-grade: 3%. B-grade contributes the most output; S-grade the least."

Zhang Yifeng answered quickly as soon as the boss called his name.

S-grade brands offered weak discounts, so sales naturally suffered; B-grade brands had high production capacity and little brand premium, so they could offer maximum discounts—no A-grade brand could match their sales power.

"If I recall correctly, Yifeng was among the first employees of Fox Taobao, and in the merchant acquisition team, your performance has never dropped out of the top three." Chen Yansen said.

"Yeah, that's right." Zhang Yifeng's eyes lit up, grinning.

"Running merchant operations for Pinbei is far harder than hitting sales targets. You've spent a year and a half as head of the acquisition team—I trust your ability. Don't let me down."

Chen Yansen patted Zhang Yifeng's shoulder.

"Boss, rest assured—I'll make Operations the number one department in the industry!" Zhang Yifeng's heart soared; after six months of waiting, the Director position was finally his.

"Industry number one? Then you'll have to beat Taobao!"

Chen Yansen chuckled, then added: "Brands, products, and metrics matter—but you must also understand market trends and competitor moves. Get out there, talk to merchants in the production zones, and think hard about how to leverage platform resources to create more success stories."

"Alright, boss, I understand," Zhang Yifeng quickly replied.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and turned his gaze toward Wang Zihao.

"The total new user growth for February was 87. 3 million, averaging 3 million per day; internal referrals accounted for 44%, QQ and WeChat as primary traffic entry points accounted for 19%, external channel advertising accounted for 28%, organic traffic accounted for 9%, and last month's total ad spend was 170 million…"

Wang Zihao reported methodically.

Chen Yansen glanced at the visualization chart on the large screen; clearly, the acquisition team was finding it increasingly difficult to bring in new users, and the CPA price was rising steadily.

After all, the total number of internet users in China was less than 600 million, and after excluding those who disliked online shopping, Pinaibei's 270 million registered users were already nearing the traffic ceiling.

To maintain the pace of new user acquisition, they would need to extend their channels into fifth-tier cities and rural markets.

"Zhuang Rui, focus on user retention and engagement. Compared to last year's acquisition cost, it has clearly risen by 30%. Traffic will only get more expensive; keeping users is more important."

Chen Yansen looked at Zhuang Rui.

"I've discussed this with Zihao—we'll send out reactivation red packets worth 5 to 10 yuan each to inactive users starting on the 10th," Zhuang Rui replied.

Then Zhuang Rui moved on to discuss March's product optimization direction, primarily targeting registered users who hadn't placed orders and those who hadn't ordered in 15 days, using additional subsidies to recall them.

After he finished his report, the heads of the Big Client Acquisition Department, Technology Department, Customer Department, and HR Department each gave their work summaries.

Pinaibei's rise had exceeded everyone's expectations.

Based on sales figures from January and February, Pinaibei's annual sales would exceed 260 billion, nearly accounting for 25% of Ali's share.

Before the meeting ended, Chen Yansen instructed the Operations and Marketing departments to collaborate and prepare in advance for Pinaibei's June 18 mega promotion.

Meanwhile,

Suning announced it would host an electronics shopping festival on April 18, offering the lowest prices across the entire internet.

Liu Qiangdong immediately responded on Weibo: JD's home appliance prices will definitely be lower than Suning's.

Instantly, the two e-commerce platforms, whose core product lines were digital and home appliances, reignited a price war.

Liu Qiangdong knew time was tight, yet he still convened a late-night meeting with procurement and sales managers from East China, North China, and South China, determined to compete for traffic on April 18.

Seeing this, Chen Yansen felt his earlier decision had been brilliantly wise: using Pinaibei's traffic to attract Suning and JD to join, thereby avoiding direct competition.

The next morning, Gao Weilin returned from Yanjing, having, after a week of negotiations and mediation, finally finalized the acquisition price and process for Quanfeng Express.

(End of Chapter)