Chapter 297

August 31, the day before Xuyuan College's semester begins.

Qian Du proposed the "Mobile Cloud" strategy, officially established the LBS Division, and began deploying O2O services centered on map services.

Kuai Pao launched a "5-yuan breakfast, 6-yuan lunch, 7-yuan dinner" plan in Yanjing, offering meals previously priced at 20 to 30 yuan at fixed rates with free delivery, limited in time and quantity, leaving Meituan Waimai utterly powerless.

Since most Meituan riders were part-timers and demand outstripped supply, during a single lunch rush, a rider could only deliver three or four orders.

Everyone's here to earn money, not to drink cold wind.

After some Meituan riders became familiar with local residential and commercial areas, they switched without hesitation to Kuai Pao Waimai.

Suddenly, Meituan Waimai became a "proving ground" for riders; any rider with even a little experience used it as leverage to quickly jump ship to Kuai Pao's delivery department.

Many Yanjing netizens complained that although Meituan Waimai was cheap, the delivery staff had terrible service, often just throwing food on the ground without calling.

It made ordering takeout feel like begging.

What they didn't know was that a few days later, those Kuai Pao riders smiling and handing meals personally were the very same Meituan riders from just days before.

They merely changed their uniforms and became full-time Kuai Pao riders.

Base salary, five insurances and one housing fund, rush-order bonuses, quarterly rewards—all maximized, plus comprehensive coverage including accident insurance, medical insurance, and third-party liability insurance; riders could earn three to four hundred yuan a day, easily surpassing ten thousand yuan per month.

Even in Yanjing in 2012, a monthly income of ten thousand yuan was unquestionably top-tier.

You get what you pay for—this principle was vividly demonstrated by the riders.

Meituan continuously supplied Kuai Pao with high-quality delivery capacity, leaving behind only riders with low efficiency or bad tempers.

If users dared to complain, the riders would show up at their doors to "argue."

At 9: 0 a. ., WeChat version 4. was released, adding shake-to-send-images, voice search, and video chat functions.

Half an hour later, Suning announced it would invest 66 million U. . dollars to acquire the maternal and infant e-commerce platform Red Baby, further accelerating its category expansion.

JD. om, Suning, and Gome—the three largest online digital appliance giants—after finishing their "418 Appliance Festival" and "815 Appliance Festival" battles, simultaneously expanded their business boundaries and turned toward Alibaba.

This e-commerce cake, with annual sales exceeding one trillion Huayuan, had seventy percent seized by Alibaba—who wouldn't be envious?

During the rapid growth of e-commerce, Today's Headlines and Lingxi Browser gradually became key advertising channels for major e-commerce platforms, including Taobao, Tmall, and JD. om, all becoming KA advertising clients of Today Tech and ByteDance.

…

…

At ten a. ., Chen Yansen slowly left the faculty apartment.

Walking toward Xuelin Road, he had no intention of going to the company, so he didn't even drive a car.

Second- and third-year students had returned to campus, busy with dormitory dinners, student union gatherings, and club banquets; fourth-year students rushed straight to the library upon return, mostly preparing for graduate entrance exams, while the rest drifted aimlessly, hiding in dorms playing games or studying biology.

At a second-tier college like Xuyuan, some students each year got into 985 graduate programs, while others couldn't even earn their diplomas.

It seemed magical, yet it was perfectly consistent.

The bigger the forest, the more kinds of birds there are.

Recently, rumors spread that if you didn't pass the College English Test Band 4, the school wouldn't issue your diploma.

Zhu Xiaopeng, Song Yang, and Tang Zhenzhe—the most patriotic trio in 8302—were terrified, carrying their Band 4 vocabulary books everywhere, reciting words even while eating or on the toilet.

Chen Yansen originally wanted to tell them the rumor was true—that Tang Qingshan had indeed issued the order.

But the "threat" had little effect; the Band 4 pass rate for Class 10 News was only around 80 percent.

Across the entire campus, seven or eight hundred students hadn't passed Band 4—could they really withhold diplomas?

But seeing Zhu Xiaopeng, Song Yang, and Tang Zhenzhe studying so earnestly, Chen Yansen didn't want to dampen their enthusiasm.

In late August, the weather in Xucheng remained hot.

Chen Yansen glanced casually; his vision was filled with tank tops, micro-miniskirts, and pale, slender legs.

Most were second-, third-, and fourth-year students; newly enrolled freshmen hadn't yet adopted such bold styles.

Of course, those with exceptional physiques were an exception.

Soon, Chen Yansen spotted the Telecom campus card sales point, with a banner hanging above the canopy: "Qingcheng D1S, as low as 399 yuan!"

Clearly, this was a contract phone package created by Telecom and Orange Tech.

Chen Yansen stepped forward and saw Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang sitting side by side, holding up promotional posters to introduce campus card services to younger students.

"Little sister, how about the Orange C3 for 999 yuan? Buy the phone, sign up for a 129-yuan monthly plan—don't think it's expensive! We'll refund you 70 yuan, so your monthly fee is only 59 yuan—super value!"

Song Yang chattered endlessly, his eyes gleaming with cunning—completely unrecognizable from his socially anxious self two years ago.

After two years as a campus express agent, he'd seen all kinds of people and mastered interpersonal interactions effortlessly.

"Too expensive? Try the Qingcheng D1S instead—it's cheaper, only 399 yuan! Sign up for a 46-yuan plan, get 23 yuan back monthly, plus 500MB data and 200 minutes of talk time."

As soon as the customer complained about the price, Song Yang immediately switched to another poster.

"399 yuan? Senior, are you tricking me?" The naive freshman girl looked tempted but asked skeptically.

"Do you know the boss of Orange Tech?" Song Yang asked mysteriously.

"You mean Senior Chen Yansen? I chose Xucheng College because of him."

The girl smiled faintly, her cheeks flushing slightly as she spoke.

"I share a dorm with Chen Yansen," Song Yang puffed out his chest, head held high.

"Wow! Senior, can I add your WeChat? Can you send me Chen Senior's WeChat ID?" the girl pleaded sweetly.

"No problem. What about this SIM card?"

"I'll get it! Senior, here's my ID."

Five minutes later, the girl left the Telecom card counter beaming.

"This kid, since his breakup, has become increasingly unrestrained," Chen Yansen muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

Seeing no one around, Chen Yansen walked over, frowning: "Are you selling SIM cards—or my WeChat ID?"

"Huh!? Sen, how'd you get here?" Song Yang scratched his head, grinning awkwardly.

"Just passing by," Chen Yansen said with a half-smile.

"Sen, don't misunderstand—I made a small account…" Song Yang smiled sheepishly, lowering his voice to explain.

"..." Chen Yansen couldn't help but laugh and sigh—when a man starts going bad, it always begins with a secondary account.

"abandon, a-b-a-n-d-o-n, to give up, to discard, to terminate…"

Beside him, Tang Zhenzhe seized the break to pull out his vocabulary book and recited quietly.

"Senior Chen, long time no see," said Meng Yaqin, the branch manager of the Telecom service hall, walking up with a smile.

She never imagined the former Telecom campus card distributor had become a billionaire.

Many privately said that if Orange Tech, Pinbei Tech, or Yunsu Express listed even one company, Chen Yansen's net worth would surpass one hundred billion.

A one-hundred-billion-yuan billionaire at age twenty!

If someone had told Meng Yaqin two years ago that this year's Xuyuan cohort would produce a billionaire, she'd have scoffed.

Now, the facts were before her; she had no choice but to admit it.

She had vastly underestimated Chen Yansen's ability—the freshman who had seized Zhou Ze's campus card agency rights was truly a dragon among men, flourishing in water, soaring in wind.

"The tech park isn't far from Xuyuan, Manager Meng can drop by anytime for tea."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly.

"Hey! Sen, you're here? Didn't go to the company today?" Tang Zhenzhe looked up, asking.

"You guys keep busy—I'm heading to the library." Chen Yansen didn't linger, walking toward the library.

Meng Yaqin watched him go with a smile.

When she turned back, her gaze lingered on Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang, secretly envious of their luck—with this connection, as long as they weren't stupid, their futures would be bright.

Chen Yansen walked slowly, thinking about Orange Tech's offline channel construction.

Although e-commerce and express delivery had rapidly increased the importance of online channels, offline channels remained significant.

In 2012, users who couldn't shop online or didn't own smartphones still formed the majority; even ten years later, offline channels never dropped below 50 percent.

Currently, Orange Phone's offline sales network relied entirely on Telecom's ten thousand-plus stores nationwide.

But the problem was, these ten thousand stores sold many brands and models, and managers of both company-owned and franchise outlets promoted phones based on gross margins.

Orange Phone's offline sales potential had yet to be unlocked.

"Once Lin Qingbai finishes designing the tablet and laptop, immediately begin setting up Orange Tech's offline sales network."

As Chen Yansen stepped into the library, he silently planned.

Meanwhile.

The 360 N1 phone went on sale simultaneously on 360 Mall and Pinbei, with a launch price of 1, 99 yuan; the first ten thousand buyers on each platform received an additional 10, 00mAh Orange power bank.

To users, the 360 N1's specs looked nearly identical to Xiaomi Mi2's, yet it was 300 yuan cheaper, greatly boosting purchase enthusiasm.

At exactly ten a. ., within just 47 minutes, all 20, 00 units—including the free gifts—were sold out.

One hour later, total online sales of the 360 N1 reached 26, 00 units.

Zhou Hongyi proudly announced it on Weibo, which infuriated Lei Yi.

The 360 N1 was stealing Xiaomi's users!

Lei Yi had planned to ignore Zhou Hongyi, but Zhou Hongyi refused to let him off.

After posting his victory report, he went on to mock Xiaomi sarcastically—though he didn't name names, everyone knew Zhou Jiaozhu was again belittling Lei Buqun.

"A certain coarse-grain phone brand spends hours hyping every new release, yet on launch day, it fails to sell twenty thousand units in the first hour—this proves users aren't fools. The 360 N1 never makes a single yuan from hardware profit!"

After reading Zhou Hongyi's Weibo, Lei Yi hadn't even started his rant when Li Wanqiang couldn't hold back—he directly @Zhou Hongyi: "Zhou Jiaozhu, dare you reveal the memory brand, battery supplier, and screen brand of the 360 N1? Making phones requires honesty, not deception."

Xiaomi's Lin Bing followed up, analyzing the 360 N1's material costs one by one, concluding its BOM cost was under 900 yuan, with severe cost-cutting.

Exposed, Zhou Hongyi flew into a rage and revealed Xiaomi Mi2's material costs, implying: "You're no better."

The two sides exchanged insults nonstop!

Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Coolpad, and other phone manufacturers were furious—they could fight among themselves, but not break industry norms.

Who ever just keeps exposing each other's competitor's BOM costs out of nowhere?

Business warfare doesn't work this way—it's purely killing a thousand to lose eight hundred.

Yu Chendong called Zhou Hongyi and asked him to delete the Weibo post, but Zhou ignored him.

Then he called Leiyi Army.

"He deletes, I delete!" Leiyi Army snapped.

Helpless, Yu Chendong called Chen Yan.

"You mean I should step in and mediate?" Chen Yan stepped out of the reading room and asked with a light laugh on the library's corridor.

Zhou Hongyi and Leiyi Army may have personal grudges, but mostly they just want to stir up hype and grab traffic.

This tactic is identical to Liu Qiangdong and Zhang Jindong's August 15 e-commerce war—loud thunder, light rain, users felt no discounts at all.

It's said the big shots at the Price Development Association are preparing to issue false advertising fines to JD and Suning as punishment.

"At least make them delete the list of material costs," Yu Chendong said with a bitter smile.

(End of Chapter)