Chapter 292

At ten-thirty at night, a Bentley sped along the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway.

Chen Dejun sat in the back seat, eyes closed, recalling the scene from his afternoon meeting with Ma Liyun—warm and courteous, but when money came up, he dodged and changed the subject.

"Fucking bastard, worse than Chen Yansen—thinking you can sneak a bargain? Not a chance!"

Chen Dejun snorted coldly, unable to resist venting inwardly.

After thinking it through, he let out a faint sigh: the Tonglu courier companies had taken over a decade to grow, yet collapsed in just one year.

Business warfare is merciless; without money or power, there is only death.

To Chen Yansen, Shentong was no different from Quanfeng, Sufeng, Guofeng, or Tian Tian Express—mere ants.

If there was any difference, it was only that Shentong was slightly larger, requiring a bit more effort to crush.

Traditional courier companies were no match for Senlian Capital; Pinbei provided order resources, Yunsu seized market share, and together they struck from both sides—Shentong simply couldn't withstand it.

After careful consideration, Chen Dejun gradually made up his mind to sell his company to Yunsu.

At that moment, ten kilometers behind him on the highway, Yu Weijiao held his phone, pouring out his grievances to Nie Tengyu, CEO of YuanYunDa Express: "Ma Liyun is a sneaky bastard—Yuantong's volume has dropped by seventy percent, yet Mama Ali still wants to sit back and watch the tigers fight, refusing to spend a single cent."

Nie Tengyu had no intention of listening to Yu Weijiao, but out of years of friendship, he endured the complaints, suppressing a smirk as he casually asked: "So, you and Old Chen both plan to sell your companies to Yunsu?"

"Six or seven out of ten of our franchisees and couriers have fled—what else can we do but sell?" Yu Weijiao replied with a bitter laugh.

"Too bad—if you'd sold two months ago, you could've made two or three hundred million more." Nie Tengyu's lips curled slightly in a cold sneer.

His words sounded concerned, yet carried a hint of mockery.

After all, he knew that when Yunda was the first to surrender, Yu Weijiao had called him a coward and a wimp behind his back.

Upon hearing this, Yu Weijiao's eyes turned red, his chest tightening with rage, and he cursed Liao Wei, Chen Yansen, and Ma Liyun—and everyone else—over and over.

Nie Tengyu chuckled, the sound of Yu Weijiao's furious curses pouring through the speaker, filling him with deep satisfaction.

On the other side.

Hangcheng, Mama Ali headquarters, Peach Blossom Island.

Ma Liyun stood by the window, gazing at the brightly lit office building, a faint, self-satisfied smile on his face.

He had finally completed Mama Ali Baba's equity buyback plan; though the cost was high, it was worth it compared to future gains.

"Boss Ma, Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao's offers aren't high—1.4 billion each, 1.05 billion each—less than 2.5 billion total would fill Mama Ali's logistics gap."

Lu Zhaoxi stood beside him, his expression shifting slightly; after careful deliberation, he cautiously spoke up.

"I don't care about the price, but I know Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao's nature—if I agree, they'll take Mama Ali's offer straight to Chen Yansen to inflate their value, then haggle again—Shentong and YuanTong aren't at their limit yet."

Ma Liyun waved his hand, turned to Lu Zhaoxi, and answered casually.

Although Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao had told him Chen Yansen had already made an offer, their back-to-back visits immediately raised Ma Liyun's suspicions.

He assumed they were playing games with him—and he didn't believe them for a second.

Based on his understanding of Chen Yansen, the acquisition price for Shentong alone would be crushed below one billion.

Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao think they can fool him? Dream on!

…

…

The next day, dawn was fading, the distant sky turning pale with the first light.

Chen Yansen slowly woke, his vision meeting the face of a young girl—rosy and pale—Song Yuncheng lay curled in his arms, eyes half-closed, sleeping deeply.

Sleeping alone is boring; Boss Chen prefers sleeping with two.

He waved his hand, and his phone flew automatically into his palm.

5:03 a. m. —he'd slept barely four hours.

Chen Yansen sat up, leaning against the headboard, opened an electronic scan of "Perelman's Proof," and flipped through it idly to pass the time.

Within a ten-meter radius, any insect approaching the spiritual awareness perimeter of Room 0418 would sense imminent danger and flee in panic.

All summer, teachers living on the third to fifth floors of the faculty apartment building were astonished: this year, mosquitoes were nearly nonexistent—even mosquito coils went unused.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen switched to "The Complete Guide to Cosmic Laws," his idle left hand slipping into the air-conditioned blanket, groping toward its target.

Song Yuncheng, still asleep, let out a soft whimper, instinctively clamping her thighs together, her pink lips parting slightly, brows furrowing, her breathing quickening.

Soon, Song Yuncheng opened her eyes sleepily, dazedly asking: "What time is it?"

"Half past six," Chen Yansen lied with his eyes open, his hand never pausing.

"Don't play—let me sleep another hour, I have a morning meeting." Song Yuncheng clutched Chen Yansen's left hand, trapping it tightly.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and kept flipping pages.

Only at 8:30 did they finally dress and step out the door.

"Go back to Luzhou sometime and get your passport sorted."

As they went downstairs, Chen Yansen reminded Song Yuncheng.

"Got it," Song Yuncheng nodded, asking no further questions.

At the first floor, Chen Yansen got into the driver's seat of the Bentley and drove toward the tech park.

Song Yuncheng strolled slowly to the entrance of the startup park, pressed her key fob, and a white Porsche Panamera nearby unlocked with a beep.

Pinbei, Sister Chengzi Tech, and Sister Chengzi Phone Factory provided each mid-to-senior manager—director, general manager—with a car worth about two million RMB retail; Song Yuncheng, as Head of Major Client Acquisition, was no exception.

At year-end tax time, managers from Sister Chengzi Pay, Today Tech, ByteDance, Yunsu, KuaiPao, and KuaiDi Taxi would also enjoy this benefit.

Ten minutes later.

Chen Yansen parked, entered Building Nine, took the elevator to the top floor, and opened the office door.

Checking data, processing emails, approving workflows—he finished all work in half an hour.

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair, pulled out his phone, and began his daily slack-off routine.

"UC Browser users surpass 200 million!"

"KuaiDi Taxi expands: covers multiple cities in East and North China, daily orders exceed three million."

"Meituan Takeout makes its debut, splashing out a fortune to invite Yanjing citizens to a free feast!"

Meituan Takeout has launched?

Chen Yansen's brow arched — under his interference, Wang Xin had entered the takeout industry a full year ahead of schedule.

The other side had chosen Yanjing as its first operating city, most likely after careful deliberation. Because the cities where Kuaipao held the highest market share — Hucheng, Luzhou, Jin Ling, and Hangcheng — had been in operation for a long time, with abundant merchant and user resources and ample delivery capacity.

If Meituan Takeout dared to set foot there, it would simply be courting death!

But Yanjing was different — Kuaipao had only been there less than half a month, and its advantage wasn't enough to crush Meituan.

If Meituan Takeout could defeat Kuaipao in the Yanjing market, its momentum would surge, and it could also open up an entirely new profit model for Meituan, drawing the attention of investors.

One had to remember that it had already been a year and two months since Meituan's second round of financing.

Dianping had received sixty million US dollars in financing three months ago from institutions like Zhixin Capital and Today Capital.

Lashou had latched onto Qiandu's thigh — it lacked neither traffic nor capital.

Only Meituan had shown no movement for ages. Wang Xin had worried several hairs white over it, but the investors were all of one mind — no additional investment for now.

Mama Ali was short on funds, having to plan Cainiao Logistics while also throwing money into ride-hailing and takeout.

Moreover, Meituan's foray into takeout had not received Ma Liyun's support.

Privately, the two had quarreled quite unpleasantly.

In Wang Xin's view, Kuaipao could do group-buying, but Meituan couldn't do takeout — Ma Liyun's bias was just too obvious.

Isn't this bullying an honest man?

And Meituan's core investors — Sequoia Capital and Google — having also invested in Dianping, had developed the idea of "breeding gu."

Whoever wins, they support!

Wang Xin knew it perfectly well, but he had no choice — when you're weak, what can you do even if you're unwilling to be someone's pawn?

The takeout business might just be Meituan's best chance to break through!

……

……

Yanjing, Teacher Wang Jing East Road No. 6, Meituan headquarters.

Wang Xin raised his hand, ran it over the top of his head, looking thoughtful.

"Meituan Takeout's first operating area — east to Wuyuan Bridge, west to Wanghe Bridge, north to the Fifth Ring Road, south to the Third Ring Road. The range isn't large, but nearby there's the Teacher Wang Jing International Business Center, Hesheng Qilin Xintiandi, Xiaoyun Road Meishijie and Teacher Wang Jing Meishijie, as well as more than thirty residential communities including Poly Central Park and Australia Kangdu, which can fully meet our initial development needs."

Sitting across from him, Wang Huiwen spoke at length.

"How many delivery riders are online?" Wang Xin lowered his hand, picked up his water glass, and took a big gulp.

"Forty-six," Wang Huiwen replied immediately.

"Too few," Wang Xin sighed.

Kuaipao Takeout had deployed over four hundred delivery riders across Yanjing's Chaoyang, Haidian, and Dongcheng districts, with daily orders reaching thirty thousand.

"Kuaipao's benefits for riders are too generous — it's very hard to poach experienced delivery personnel from them. Most of these forty-six are former employees of the three-tong-one-da delivery services."

Wang Huiwen shrugged helplessly.

Even if Meituan offered riders better treatment, Kuaipao riders wouldn't give them a second glance.

First, Kuaipao had more orders, so income was more stable;

Second, Kuaipao issued stock options to its riders — not many, but still a valuable sum;

Third, Kuaipao had plenty of hidden benefits — beyond base pay, commissions, and order-completion bonuses, there were also quarterly bonuses, holiday red packets, bad-weather subsidies, supplemental medical insurance, and accident commercial insurance.

Last Spring Festival, a Kuaipao rider in Jin Ling was hit by a car while delivering. The company's legal team stepped in immediately and negotiated compensation to the maximum limit, and during recovery, the rider not only received lost-wage pay but also a subsidy.

To put it bluntly, even if a rider were killed by a car, Kuaipao's delivery Xiong Xiaoge would still trust that the company wouldn't treat them unfairly.

Meituan trying to poach people from Kuaipao's delivery team was no different from a fool's daydream.

Wang Xin's brows knit tightly as he considered a strategy to break the deadlock.

Suddenly, a method popped into his head, so he smiled and said: "If we can't poach full-time riders, we'll use part-time riders — win by numbers."

Wang Huiwen didn't catch on at first, her eyes full of confusion.

"We can put idle delivery capacity to use — only recruit part-time riders. These people's delivery capacity might only be a dozen or so orders a day, but as long as there are enough of them, we can still guarantee delivery timeliness."

"Cut out the base pay and the five social insurances and one housing fund, then raise the per-order rate. On one hand, it saves costs; on the other, it attracts more part-time riders."

Wang Xin explained slowly.

Cut out base pay and the five social insurances and one housing fund?

Only raise the per-order delivery rate?

Can this actually work?

Wang Huiwen's thinking was still stuck inside Kuaipao's model and hadn't broken free. He considered Wang Xin's proposal a "raise on the surface, cut underneath" tactic — would those delivery riders really be that stupid?

Wang Xin glanced at Wang Huiwen's expression and immediately understood what the other was thinking. He smiled disdainfully and said: "A lot of people, after getting through today, don't even know where they'll be tomorrow — you think they'd care about the five social insurances and one housing fund? Pull the per-order delivery rate up, lower the cash-out threshold, increase the number of cash-outs, and riders will join Meituan in an endless stream."

This tactic was shameless, but it precisely grasped human nature.

Wang Huiwen deliberated for over ten seconds, nodded heavily, then replied: "We can attach the part-time riders' labor relations to a third-party company to save a lot of trouble."

"You arrange it," Wang Xin responded.

Delivery riders were a high-incidence group for traffic accidents. Outsourcing the riders would save on work-injury and medical expenses, and they wouldn't even have to bear the costs of the five social insurances and one housing fund, paid annual leave, sick leave, and so on.

Conversely, while reducing labor costs, Meituan could also boost labor flexibility and order-response efficiency, and reduce employment risk and management pressure — three birds with one stone.

"Understood, Boss Wang." Wang Huiwen smiled, and in a few brief words completely rewrote Meituan riders' income mechanism.

As for the negative impact?

That's the third-party company's problem — what does it have to do with Meituan?

At this moment.

On the outdoor open space of the Teacher Wang Jing International Business Center, Meituan riders and Kuaipao riders had split into two camps, chatting idly.

"Bro, why bother with Meituan? Come ride for Kuaipao!" a Kuaipao rider asked.

"Meituan's pay isn't bad either — base salary, five social insurances and one housing fund, order-completion bonuses, all included." The Meituan rider sat on his e-bike and answered with a grin.

Business competition is the big bosses' business; it has nothing to do with working stiffs like them.

"Then do you guys have hazardous-weather subsidies, quarterly bonuses, free physicals, commercial medical insurance, third-party liability insurance, and holiday red packets?" the Kuaipao rider asked again.

"What's third-party liability insurance?" The Meituan rider asked, bewildered and curious.

"Like say we're delivering and accidentally hit a pedestrian or a car — we call the cops on the spot and let the insurance handle it, that's all." The Kuaipao rider replied, then pressed on: "You guys can't possibly not have any of that, right?"

The Meituan rider froze for a moment, instantly stumped.

(End of chapter)