Chapter 295: Price Hike! Yunsu Enters Profit Era! Her Boldness Keeps Growing!

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhu Technology Park, Building 9.

Dusk deepened; a faint crescent moon climbed into the sky, and the evening breeze, cool and crisp, rustled the camphor tree branches.

Chen Yansen stood by the window, gazing at the brightly lit Building 6 across the diagonal, and pressed the answer button on his phone.

"Boss Chen, the 360 new phone is done: MediaTek MT6577 dual-core 1. GHz processor, 4. -inch IPS LCD touchscreen, 2GB RAM plus 16GB ROM, Sony IMX145 8-megapixel rear camera, running AuroraOS 1. , priced at just 1, 99 yuan—do you think sales will explode?"

Zhou Hongyi shouted, rattling off all the core components in one breath.

"You're afraid Xiaomi Mi2's sales are too good, rushing to give Lei Yijun a black eye."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, lips curling slightly, teasingly ribbing him.

Anyone with eyes could see Zhou Hongyi's hidden agenda: avoiding the price ranges of Orange C3 and Green Orange D1S, directly confronting the Xiaomi Mi2 head-on.

Yet it was priced 300 yuan cheaper than the Xiaomi Mi2!

Of course, Zhou Hongyi downgraded the chip, screen, casing, and battery; with Orange Tech's supply chain strength, he could bring material costs down to around 900 yuan, including motherboard, RF, sensors, and interfaces.

Even at 1, 99 yuan, after deducting marketing, production, after-sales, and logistics costs, there was still a 10% hardware profit margin.

"Boss Chen, don't blame me—because 360 and Haier teamed up on a special model, Lei Bugun hired trolls to smear me; as a result, the Haier W910 sold only 2, 00 units, and the remaining 8, 00 still sit piled up in 360's warehouse. Xiaomi can make phones—why can't 360? It's too tyrannical!"

Zhou Hongyi snorted, openly revealing the truth behind his falling out with Lei Yijun.

Haier W910?

Chen Yansen chuckled silently, thinking: Does Lei Yijun even need to smear you?

The Haier W910 has poor battery life, high system memory usage, and a black screen rate over 10%—before the 360 G800 Pro launched, didn't you see all those users online screaming at you?

Businessmen need thick skin and a black heart; Zhou Hongyi clearly understood this well—his tone revealed he'd even lie to himself.

Chen Yansen had no interest in their Jianghu grudges, so he changed the subject: "Are you using Cao Dahua's parts list?"

He only cared how much money Orange Tech could make from 360's phone project—beyond assembly fees, the markup on parts distribution, after-sales repair services, and patent licensing fees were all substantial.

"Yes, that's right."

Zhou Hongyi nodded.

He knew that even if he bypassed Orange Tech and bought components directly from suppliers, 360's bulk purchasing wouldn't reduce costs much.

Because Orange Tech, thanks to its scale advantage, had long become the leading buyer in China's smartphone industry.

Though he knew Chen Yansen was making hefty margins on parts, he had no recourse.

Unless 360's annual phone sales reached the ten-million-unit level, suppliers like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Sony, BOE, and Sharp would still charge high prices.

"Send the documents to Cai Jingming at the Lucheng factory—you can coordinate the ODM order details with him," Chen Yansen said casually.

"Boss Chen, 360 wants to join Pinbei," Zhou Hongyi added.

Selling only on the 360 Mall would inevitably hurt overall sales; 360 Shine didn't make money, but he intended to profit from this 360 N1, so he wanted to expand third-party sales channels.

"I'll set up a group later and have Pinbei's people handle the coordination," Chen Yansen agreed without hesitation.

"Thank you, Boss Chen. When the Internet Conference kicks off, come to Yancheng—I'll properly thank you then."

Zhou Hongyi beamed.

In his view, the battle for mobile internet access was a battle for smartphone market share—the higher 360's phone sales, the greater its voice in the mobile era.

"No problem."

Chen Yansen smiled, dismissed Old Zhou, and hung up.

He wanted to boost user stickiness for 360's products and capture mobile traffic; he wanted to create more jobs and earn more humanistic dividends—both sides were perfectly aligned, with bright futures ahead.

"Knock knock knock!" A knock came at the door.

Chen Yansen snapped back to attention and murmured, "Come in."

The door slowly opened; Ye Qiuping stepped in, holding a file pressed against her chest.

She wore a V-neck long-sleeve blouse and a black skirt, her makeup dazzling, radiating the scent of ripe fruit.

"Boss, this is the Brand Department's September promotional budget. Please review," Ye Qiuping leaned forward and handed the file to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen's gaze never left Ye Qiuping; a flash of white caught his eye—her intentions were obvious, and she'd even sprayed the palmarum mist lily, his favorite, its sweet, milky fragrance slowly spreading.

"Come here, bend over!"

Chen Yansen glanced at the document, signed his name, tossed it onto the desk, and ordered Ye Qiuping.

Ye Qiuping smiled faintly, her lovely face flushing pink, eyes glistening with quiet delight, then obediently bent over the desk, back to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen waved his hand—the curtains fell instantly, completely blocking the room from view.

Ye Qiuping, hearing the sound, instinctively turned her head.

"Don't look back."

Chen Yansen lowered his voice, placing his hand on her waist—not slender, but full and shapely, wonderfully tactile.

The pen holder on the desk wobbled; several pens clattered together, making a soft rustling sound.

Two hours later, the clear moon hung high, the night as dark as ink, all fell silent.

Chen Yansen plopped down in his chair and let out a long sigh.

He leaned back, smiling, watching Ye Qiuping tidy up, as if transported back to their days together in his past life.

"I made sweet soup."

Three minutes later, dressed neatly, Ye Qiuping spoke softly.

"Next time."

Chen Yansen waved his hand, signaling Ye Shi-fu could leave.

Ye Qiuping's expression froze; she silently spat inwardly: Put on your pants and turn cold—worse than an animal.

"Yes, Boss," Ye Qiuping replied.

Just as she was about to step out of the office, a light voice came from behind: "I like Sichuan pickles."

Ye Qiuping turned to Chen Yansen and smiled. "I can make pickles too."

Chen Yansen said nothing, only nodded slightly.

Ye Qiuping's spirits lifted; she walked proudly toward the elevator, leaving a trail of "tap tap tap" footsteps.

"Mom, this is the third one—you've never appeared in a dream to tell me which one you liked best. Guess I still need to try harder."

Chen Yansen lowered his eyelids, murmuring softly.

After a moment of reflection, he rubbed his stomach, opened the door, and headed for the cafeteria to eat a bowl of beef noodles for energy.

He took the elevator to the first floor and strolled casually toward the cafeteria.

The meal hour was long past; the noodle chef was just about to clock out when he saw his boss approaching. "Boss Chen, haven't eaten yet? Want a bowl of 'erxi' noodles?"

The chef immediately stopped what he was doing and greeted him cheerfully.

He'd once worked in a city hotel kitchen, exhausted daily, earning barely enough; by chance, he saw Orange Tech's cafeteria job posting.

He'd only come to take a look, but during the interview, HR listed a long string of benefits: base salary, overtime pay, quarterly bonuses, housing allowance, meal subsidies, transportation allowance, five insurances and one fund, holiday red packets, travel fund—over ten perks.

He'd dumbly asked: "Do cooks get a travel fund?"

HR laughed: "It's just the boss's excuse to give us money—like the housing allowance: whether you rent or not, you still get paid. Everyone gets it."

He signed the labor contract on the spot, terrified of missing out on a heavenly job.

"Go with 'jiuye'—too thin, not satisfying," Chen Yansen replied.

He sat down at a table.

"Got it! Right away!" the noodle chef responded immediately.

Chen Yansen pulled out a 64GB Orange C3, opened Today's Headlines, and scrolled through trending news.

"iPhone 5 is here! Orange C3 sales may suffer!"

"Big list of continuity errors in Love Apartment 3!"

"Behind-the-scenes footage of Lost in Thailand leaked!"

"Dangdang CEO Li Guoqing attacks JD: Funds only last until September!"

"The Vanished Three Expresses: Shentong and Yuantong Express to follow YunDa and Zhongtong, merging into Yunsu Express!"

"JD cancels CPS rebates, confirming cash crunch rumors!"

Did Pretty Boy Dong run out of money?

Chen Yansen pondered briefly, then dismissed Li Guoqing's baseless speculation—without bringing in OTPP's investment, could Zhao Yingchun have become vice president?

Ma Wenteng had told him this himself—Li Guoqing either didn't know, or was trying to poison Liu Qiangdong's reputation, using public opinion to harm JD.

Chen Yansen kept reading—updates on group buying and food delivery. At 10 a. ., Baidu announced it would soon launch Baidu Food Delivery, officially entering the food delivery war.

Meituan and Dianping immediately followed KuaiPao and Lashou's promotional policies, desperately issuing coupons to retain market share.

A cup of Shanghai Auntie's bubble tea normally cost 7. yuan; with coupons, the final price was 2. yuan—selling seven to eight thousand cups a day, with long queues outside the shop of users waiting to redeem vouchers.

Pei Yi went even harder: four daily one-yuan flash sales, covering most tea brands like Happy Lemon, Coco, and Bifengtang.

Plus, countless 9. -yuan group-buy flash sales: haircuts, KTV, teeth cleaning, billiards, internet cafes, and more.

After absorbing Nuomi's resources, KuaiPao also targeted hotels and movies, slashing prices to rock bottom.

Wherever Meituan and Dianping had high-margin categories, Pei Yi attacked them.

Wang Xin and Zhang Tao cursed in frustration, forced to follow suit and slash prices.

When no one was making profit, whoever delivered the best service and strongest after-sales support would win users' hearts.

Chen Yansen had told Pei Yi: if a merchant or group-buy item under a field rep's responsibility had three cases of users unable to redeem vouchers, fire them immediately!

The less you profit, the more you must nail user experience!

"Boss Chen, your noodles."

The noodle chef placed a steaming bowl before him—the broth floated thick with beef.

Chen Yansen picked up chopsticks and began eating heartily.

Meanwhile.

Far away in Hangcheng, Ma Liyun paced anxiously in his office, his face tense.

"Impossible! Chen Yansen has no reason to offer such a high price—it's completely unlike his usual style."

"It's all Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao's fault. If they had both shown up, I would've paid to buy Shen Tong and Yuan Tong."

"What do we do about Cainiao Logistics?"

Ma Liyun frowned, muttering to himself; due to his misjudgment, he had personally handed Shen Tong and Yuan Tong Express over to Yun Su.

Now, the only courier companies that had verbally agreed to join Cainiao Logistics were SF Express, Best Express, Tian Tian, Guo Feng, and a few others; apart from SF and Best, whose parcel volumes ranked in the top ten of the industry, the rest were obscure small players.

Their industry standing and delivery efficiency had sunk so low that buyers openly complained: "If you ship with Tian Tian or Guo Feng, leave a bad review!"

"Ma Zong, actually, this situation benefits both Cainiao and Best Express," Lu Zhaoxi said suddenly from beside him.

"Perhaps. The courier war has finally ended."

Ma Liyun sighed deeply, smiling bitterly.

He had refused to invest in Shen Tong and Yuan Tong partly to pressure them on price, and partly because his funds were indeed tight.

To ensure his own "Best Express" survived this price war, Ali had poured in massive amounts of capital.

From the shareholding ratio, Ali Baba had long become Best Express's largest shareholder.

In fact, Ma Liyun and Lu Zhaoxi had guessed correctly.

Three days ago, Liao Wei had received Chen Yansen's directive: Yun Su's small-package shipping rates, based on region and distance, would rise from a minimum of 1. yuan to 3. yuan.

Merchants sending fewer than 2, 00 parcels per month would face a minimum rate of 5 yuan.

In short, the courier price war, lasting nearly a year, had temporarily come to a halt.

Yun Su Express was shifting from losses to profitability; everyone could finally breathe easier.

Of course, for merchants on Pinbei, especially those supported under the rural assistance program, Yun Su introduced preferential policies: packages under one kilogram would cost between 2. and 3 yuan per parcel.

Upon hearing this news, Taobao and Jingdong merchants rushed to sign up and open stores, treating Pinbei as their second most important online sales channel.

The bosses of Tian Tian and Guo Feng, upon hearing of Yun Su's price hike, felt a sense of relief, as if they had survived a disaster.

They had at least survived; over twenty private courier companies like Su Feng, Guo Tong, Kuaijie, Su Er, and Fei Bao had vanished without a trace, leaving not even a ripple.

On the other side.

After dinner, Chen Yansen drove back to Xu Yuan. Along the way, he saw many students carrying suitcases, gradually entering the campus.

September was coming—another academic year was beginning!

The contract plans for Orange C3 and Green Orange D1s had been finalized last week with Zhao Maolin; unlike in other provinces, the prices in Hui'an Province were lower and the packages more generous.

The Bentley drove into the campus.

One minute later, Chen Yansen parked and walked upstairs; as he reached the fourth floor, he spotted a familiar figure and thought: Her nerve is growing bolder by the day.

(End of Chapter)