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, Sister Chengzi Tech, Pinbei, and Kuai Pao, the number of employees under their umbrella had surged; by February 29, the total number of employees contributing humanistic fire to him reached 66,000.

Among them, Yunsu Express and Sister Chengzi Phone Factory accounted for the majority, at 89.8%.

Sister Chengzi Tech had 1,137 employees, with labor costs of 36.38 million;

Pinbei Tech had 985 employees, with labor costs of 20.68 million;

Sister Chengzi Pay had 311 employees, with labor costs of 5.9 million;

Yunsu Express had 43,192 employees, with labor costs of 345.53 million;

Kuai Pao had 3,739 employees, with labor costs of 31.03 million.

Sister Chengzi Phone Factory had 16,034 employees, with labor costs of 139.49 million;

Kuai Di Taxi had 563 employees, with labor costs of 7.88 million.

Once Gao Weilin completes the acquisition of Gao De 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 number of humanistic fire on the panel stood at 58,732, sufficient to synthesize 587 strands of divine fire.

At the current growth trend, perhaps within half a year, his spiritual value would break through 100, at which point he would very likely gain a brand-new talent ability.

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

In fact, the R&D of analytical recognition tools, AuroraOS 1.4 operating system, 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 mere breaths, it strengthened his brain and spirit.

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

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

Chen Yansen thought: if he simplified the expression of his spiritual awareness, it was like a person with no color vision and 500-degree myopia, seeing the world without glasses.

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

His spiritual value rose from 18.96 to 24.83!

Deep within, 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 awareness, countless dust particles in the air, as if caught in a gale, were being 'blown' farther and farther away.

Chen Yansen's heart jolted—he suddenly realized this was troublesome. If his spiritual power broke through 100, then 1,000, wouldn't every object within dozens of meters be unconsciously pushed away?

Then, unless he hid himself in the remote wilderness of Dashan, 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 with even a shred of basis, whether scientific or mystical, he isolated and examined.

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

The first direction: treat spiritual power as energy—by consuming 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 suppress human spirit—but all were psychiatric medications.

Chen Yansen feared that even with his 10.1 physique, taking too much would drive him mad.

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

The third direction had two approaches: scientifically, there was a method of spiritual winding—imagine your spiritual power as a thread, coiling around a fixed object again and again; mystically, visualize a mental object in your mind and pour your spiritual power onto it, achieving spiritual inwardness.

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

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

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

When he silently reached the fifth loop, he faintly felt an extremely weak 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 shook violently.

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

After a dozen or so seconds, Chen Yansen finally felt spiritual fatigue—lifting this toothpick was more exhausting than doing hundreds of squats with a 1,000-kilogram barbell.

Try his perception ability again!

Chen Yansen extended his 'spiritual awareness'—to his delight, the rain outside was affected far less.

Then he lifted the toothpick again and held it for sixty seconds straight.

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

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

Fuck!

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

Dammit, it kills you but won't bury you!

Chen Yansen couldn't help muttering a few curses, sighed helplessly, and picked up his last hope, letting his mind wander aimlessly.

What should one visualize?

A phone?

A refrigerator?

The Taiji diagram?

Chen Yansen sneered, shook his head, then closed his eyes—the simple sketch in his mind refused to fade, like an instinct.

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

But after pondering for a long time, not a single change occurred.

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

The moment this thought arose, the outlines of the simple sketches within his spiritual range, as if encountering a vacuum cleaner, instantly vanished into the black hole.

His mind turned pitch black, leaving only a deep, swirling black hole.

It worked!

Chen Yansen erupted in wild joy!

He snapped open his eyes, glanced around, and spotted an ant trying to crawl into the living room through the door crack.

You should know that since he awakened the instinct of "Biological Suppression," not even an ant, let alone a single mite, dared to crawl into 0418.

Chen Yansen raised his hand to check the time—only half an hour had passed.

He pushed open the door, went downstairs, and left the faculty apartment.

He got into Gu Site's driver's seat and drove toward the tech park.

The students at Xuyuan on Xuelin Road were already used to it—this Rolls-Royce worth eight million yuan passed by like a second-hand Changan, drawing no attention from anyone.

He arrived at Room 801 just as it was nine a. m., not even missing Pianbei's morning meeting.

Soon after, department heads began entering one by one.

Xiong Li from Human Resources suddenly looked up, secretly observing Chen Yansen—she felt something was different about the boss today; the usual intimidating aura was gone, replaced by a more approachable demeanor.

"Hu Yun, report the February figures."

Once everyone was present, Chen Yansen instructed Hu Yun.

Zhang Yifeng's envy flashed across his eyes—Hu Yun had been appointed by the boss as Director of the Data Department in February, but the position of Director of the Merchant Operations Department, which he had long coveted, remained unfilled.

"Yes, boss. Pianbei's total registered users now stand at 270 million, daily active users at 41 million, average daily orders in February at 8.3 million, single-day sales at 760 million yuan, average order value at 91.6 yuan, up 13.7% from January."

"Food, home goods, and women's apparel form the first-tier categories; maternal and infant, underwear, men's wear, and digital appliances form the second-tier; cosmetics, automotive products, luggage and accessories, and Footwear form the third-tier."

Hu Yun opened his laptop, set up the projector, and began presenting a PowerPoint.

Chen Yansen nodded in satisfaction—on sales data alone, Pianbei's volume was nearly equal to Jingdong's, but still far behind Taobao.

Taobao's C-stores and Shangcheng generated at least 2.5 billion yuan in daily sales, sometimes even 3 billion.

He turned to Zhang Yifeng: "How is the merchant onboarding situation for Pianbei currently?"

"Boss, including factory white-labels from production bases and fruit vendors from agricultural origins, we have 9,720 merchants total—47% are C-tier brands, 31% B-tier, 19% A-tier, and 3% S-tier. B-tier brands contribute the highest output, S-tier the least."

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

S-tier brands offered weak discounts, so their sales naturally suffered; B-tier brands had high production capacity and little brand premium, so they could offer maximum discounts—in sales power, even A-tier brands couldn't match them.

"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.

"That's right," Zhang Yifeng replied, grinning as his heart leapt.

"Being Director of Merchant Operations for Pianbei 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 on the shoulder.

"Boss, rest assured—I'll make the Operations Department's performance the number one in the industry," Zhang Yifeng said, ecstatic—after six months of waiting, the Director position had finally gone to him.

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

Chen Yansen chuckled, then added: "Brands, products, and data metrics are important, but you must also understand market trends and competitor moves intimately. Get out there, talk more with merchants on the production belts, and think harder about how to leverage platform resources to create more success stories."

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

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, then turned his gaze to Wang Zihao.

"Total new user growth in February was 87.13 million, averaging 3 million per day—44% came from internal referrals, 19% from QQ and WeChat primary traffic channels, 28% from external ad placements, 9% from organic traffic; last month's total ad spend was 170 million yuan…"

Wang Zihao reported methodically.

Chen Yansen glanced at the visualized data on the big screen—clearly, the acquisition team was finding it harder and harder to bring in new users, and CPA prices kept rising.

After all, China's total internet users were under 600 million; once you subtracted those who disliked online shopping, Pianbei's 270 million registered users were already nearing the traffic ceiling.

To maintain new-user growth, they'd have to extend acquisition channels into fifth-tier cities and rural markets.

"Zhuang Rui, focus on user retention and reactivation—compared to last year's new-user acquisition cost, it's risen another 30%. Traffic will only get more expensive; keeping users matters more."

Chen Yansen said to Zhuang Rui.

"I've discussed this with Zihao—we'll send returning users who've been silent 5 to 10 yuan red packets starting the 10th," Zhuang Rui replied.

He then went on to discuss March's product optimization direction, mainly targeting registered users who hadn't placed orders and those who hadn't ordered in 15 days, using additional subsidies to recall them.

After his report, heads of the Key Client Acquisition Department, Technology Department, Customer Department, and Human Resources Department each gave their summaries.

Pianbei's rise had exceeded everyone's expectations.

Based on January and February sales, Pianbei's annual sales would reach over 260 billion yuan, nearly 25% of Mama Ali's share.

Before the meeting ended, Chen Yansen instructed the Operations and Marketing Departments to collaborate on preparations for Pianbei's June 18 Mega Sale.

Meanwhile,

Suning announced it would hold an Electronics Shopping Festival on April 18, slashing prices to the lowest on the entire internet.

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

Instantly, these two e-commerce platforms, whose lifelines were digital and home appliances, reignited a price war.

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

Seeing this situation, Chen Yansen immediately felt that his previous decision had been extremely wise—using PinYue's traffic to attract Suning and JD. com to set up shop, thereby avoiding head-on competition.

The next morning, Gao Weilin rushed back from Yanjing. He brought his team, and after a week of negotiation and matchmaking, finally finalized the acquisition price and process for Quanfeng Express.

(End of this chapter)