Chapter 299: September First, Great Battle Begins—Face Off Against Apple

On the first day of September, a gentle breeze stirred, carrying the faint chill of autumn.

At the eastern gate of Xu Yuan, an inflatable archway had been erected, bearing a prominent banner: "Open Your Warm Embrace, Welcome the Class of 2012! Xu Yuan Welcomes You!"

Lanterns hung, decorations abounded—the atmosphere was thick with festivity!

Compared to yesterday, far more freshmen arrived today to register.

Outside the gate, private cars lined the curb; inside campus, first-years pushed suitcases everywhere, their parents trailing behind, laden with bags, glancing around, silently sizing up this second-tier university in northern Hui'an.

Upon entering the main gate, the library stood directly ahead, the lab building to the left, the teaching building to the right.

"Senior, what's the meaning of that big ball on the roof?" asked a freshman girl in a pleated skirt and white T-shirt, curious.

"That ball isn't simple—it represents Xu Yuan's global vision and universal educational ethos."

The senior ahead made it up on the spot, but his mind was already racing: how to steer the conversation toward phone cards? He'd worked his ass off greeting newcomers—not to be a nice guy.

First, sell cards for commissions; second, find a sweet, innocent freshman girl to end his two-year bachelorhood.

As for the ball on the lab building, it was actually a passive wind cap, designed to improve indoor air quality, lower temperature, prevent mold growth, and extend the building's lifespan.

Of course, most Xu Yuan students explained it as: "Studying? What's the point!"

Starting in 2012, China was stepping into the golden decade of mobile internet development, where opportunities for entrepreneurship and growth seemed everywhere.

That year, university students' enthusiasm for civil service exams and graduate school had not yet peaked.

The mainstream dream for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds was to land a job at a big tech firm, mine wealth from the internet, and achieve financial freedom.

It felt as if stepping into society meant instantly dominating the field, rising to become an industry elite, becoming general manager, marrying a rich, beautiful woman.

All things flourished, brimming with vitality!

Youthful spirit soared straight to the clouds!

Chen Yansen stood on the balcony, taking in the entire Xu Yuan scene, smiling faintly: Another batch of quality workers has arrived.

A semi-transparent system panel floated before him—the Human Dao Firewood meter read 156,127 strands, enough to synthesize 1,561 strands of Divine Dao Firewood.

Chen Yansen did not rush to strengthen himself, for this time was different: his mental strength was about to break past 100, and he feared causing a commotion, so he gritted his teeth and waited until midnight.

The only downside: Chen Zong would sleep alone tonight.

"I've got it so hard!"

Chen Yansen shook his head and walked straight out; his phone and car keys on the desk, as if alive, raced after him without pause, automatically sliding into his pockets.

He went downstairs, got into the driver's seat of his Bentley, and drove toward the tech park.

Xuelin Road and Xuehai Road were packed with people, so he drove slowly; as he passed the New Student Reception Point of the School of Literature and Communication, he spotted Tang Zhenzhe in a red vest from afar.

Beside him sat a middle-aged man, forty-something but under fifty, wearing a herringbone shirt and black dress pants, his advisor aura so thick it nearly spilled over.

"Teacher Zhao, Ahzhe, you're busy?"

Chen Yansen rolled down his window and greeted casually.

After Guo Dongchen was admitted to Fudan University's PhD program in Journalism, the school assigned a new advisor to Class 10 Journalism—this very man.

Zhao Jinfeng looked up, saw Chen Yansen, and nodded with a smile.

"Senior Chen, are you going to the company?" Tang Zhenzhe dropped his work, hurried over, and asked.

He'd intermittently interned for nearly a year in Chengzi Tech's branding department, but today was Saturday, and as class president of Class 10 Journalism, he'd been drafted by Zhao Jinfeng to help the School of Literature and Communication's student union with new-student registration.

"Have you spotted any pretty freshmen?" Chen Yansen cut straight to Tang Zhenzhe's other goal.

"A few girls—I can already feel the romance," Tang Zhenzhe whispered, afraid Zhao Jinfeng might hear.

"Fix the quantity first, then worry about quality—keep at it," Chen Yansen teased.

At that moment, Zhao Jinfeng also walked over, hesitated a long while, then forced a nervous greeting: "Student Chen."

He was even busier than Chen Yansen; Zhao Jinfeng had only briefly met Chen once, at the ceremony awarding Outstanding Students and National Scholarships.

Sometimes he wasn't even sure whether to call him by name, or "Chen Zong," or "Boss Chen."

"Teacher Zhao, is there anything I can help with?"

Chen Yansen asked casually, like a genie offering a wish.

Zhao Jinfeng froze slightly; in Chen Yansen's presence, he always felt like a primary school student or a raw recruit.

"Senior Chen, there actually is! Only 40% of freshmen have completed registration, but six have already applied for financial aid loans—probably most of the Class 2012 Journalism students come from poor families."

Tang Zhenzhe frowned slightly and spoke up.

"Pinebe is planning to hire another batch of part-time customer service reps—I'll give you ten slots. Send me the list later."

Chen Yansen arranged it outright.

"Sure, thanks, Senior Chen!" Tang Zhenzhe's frown vanished instantly; he grinned gratefully.

This guy genuinely wanted to help freshmen, and he genuinely lusted after them too—both were true, and they weren't contradictory.

Beside him, Zhao Jinfeng opened his mouth, unsure what to say—this man had solved the problem of insufficient aid slots with just a few words.

The school did offer some work-study positions, but they were pitifully few; when scaled across the entire Xu Yuan, they were far too few for too many.

With that, Chen Yansen waved goodbye and drove off.

The sleek body of the Bentley Mulsanne faded into the distance, leaving a lingering afterimage that left many secretly startled.

"Senior, who was that guy just now?" asked a sweet-voiced freshman.

Tang Zhenzhe turned to look—his heart leapt instantly. This was his fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth heart flutter today. He enthusiastically explained: "Chen Yansen, founder of Chengzi Tech, our Xu Yuan legend. Want me to send you his WeChat?"

"Wow! He's Senior Chen Yansen? Even handsomer than his photos—I didn't recognize him!" The freshman lowered her eyelids, looking slightly disappointed, but upon hearing "WeChat," she immediately pulled out a Chengzi C3 and added Tang Zhenzhe.

On the other side.

Chen Yansen exited the eastern gate and sped straight to Zhuxianzhuang Tech Park.

Parked the car, stepped into Building No. 9.

Took the elevator to the top floor, pushed open the office door, and plopped down.

Turned on the computer, logged into the backend data, and first checked Pinebe's daily metrics.

Cumulative registered users reached 390 million, with 249 million on PC and 141 million on mobile, accounting for a high ratio of 36%, indicating that Huang Zheng strictly executed the strategic plan for mobile entry points.

The average daily sales in August were 870 million, up 5.3% month-on-month from July; seemingly not much, but if the month-on-month growth rate of 5% can be maintained every month, before the end of the year, Pinbai's daily sales could break the 1 billion mark.

Meanwhile, the former e-commerce runner-up, Jingdong, has seen its recent daily sales data drop to 400 million yuan, less than half of Pinbai's. Thus, one can see how much psychological pressure Liangzai Dong is under.

In Chen Yansen's view, Jingdong's transformation was too late.

In previous years, they stubbornly focused on the 3C digital and major appliance categories, creating consumption scenarios that were all low-frequency and low-repeat purchase; by the time Liu Qiangdong fully reacted and wanted to expand business boundaries and increase profitability levels, it was already too late.

Although in the recent half-year, Jingdong has invested heavily in maternal and infant, alcohol, snacks, books, and home furnishing categories, the results have been minimal.

After checking Pinbai's core data and finding no anomalies, Chen Yansen opened Sister Chengzi Technology's business report; the total sales volume of Qingcheng D1S and Sister Chengzi C3 in August was 6.017 million units, seizing almost 35% of the market share.

Shanxing's low-to-mid-range market was shattered by the impact of Sister Chengzi Technology; even the sales of the iPhone 4S were affected, with daily sales numbers dropping lower and lower.

After some thought, Cook moved the scheduled release date of the iPhone 5 up by one week, expecting to hold the new product launch at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on September 6.

Chen Yansen did not take this to heart; given the nature of people in the Lighthouse Country, from the launch event to the official sale, at least three months of preparation time would be needed.

After all, Apple doesn't even have its own production base and still has to negotiate production plans with Foxconn; the supply locations for the first batch of goods will mostly be in Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea.

By the time the iPhone 5 is released, the total sales volume of Sister Chengzi C3 and Qingcheng D1S will likely have already broken the record of 20 million units.

Next, Chen Yansen processed work emails one by one, then immediately started the writing work for AuroraFutureOS.

At 10:30 AM, Pei Yi called to report the investigation progress on the leak of the Yanjing residential building distribution map.

After locating the original screenshot, based on the invisible watermark on the screenshot, the corresponding Kuipao rider was found very easily.

After collecting and securing the evidence, Pei Yi did not report to the Municipal Supervision Association nor sue Meituan; instead, he pretended to be completely unaware, lowering Wang Xin's guard.

At the same time, more than a dozen reserve management personnel cultivated through the "Thousand People, Hundred Cities" plan successively obtained interview opportunities with Meituan through headhunters and social recruitment channels.

"Fire him, void the equity incentive, add to the blacklist, never hire again," Chen Yansen instructed in a flat tone.

In other words, this food delivery rider who exchanged Kuipao's core data for money could not only not enter the Sister Chengzi mobile phone factory, but could not even work at Yunsu Express.

In the future, as Senlian Capital grows, the scope of influence of the blacklist will also increase accordingly.

"Yes, Boss," Pei Yi responded hurriedly.

In fact, he planned that when Meituan fell, if the person sent by Kuipao had not yet been exposed, he would reopen the old account, not only pursuing this delivery worker's responsibility but also beating the drowned dog Wang Xin.

Thinking of this, Pei Yi laid out the plan in full.

"For matters like this, decide on your own in the future, understand?" Chen Yansen said lightly after hearing this.

"Understood." Pei Yi was a smart person, understanding at a glance, and replied with a smile.

He paused and added, "People down below saw the storefront sign of Qiandu Waimai in Yanjing."

The implication was that Qiandu was also about to enter the food delivery war in the Yanjing market.

"So, whether it is group buying or the food delivery industry, the competition has only just begun; when you defeat Meituan and Qiandu, I will distribute equity incentives to Kuipao again, for everyone."

The pie Chen Yansen painted came out of thin air.

After chatting for ten minutes, the two hung up the phone successively.

On the other side.

Yanjing, Qiandu Headquarters.

The Qiandu Waimai app had been completed and a channel entry point was added to the homepage icon area of Laoshou Wang.

Using Laoshou Wang's merchant resources, they recruited the first batch of food delivery merchants.

Regarding capacity construction, 100 riders were carefully selected from unemployed couriers.

Wang Zhongpu believed that Kuipao's strategy of focusing on full-time riders with part-time riders as a supplement would easily lead to a passive situation during industry competition; while Meituan Waimai's practice of using only part-time riders was too extreme, relying solely on penalty policies made it difficult to improve delivery timeliness and user satisfaction.

He then combined the advantages of both companies to design a capacity cultivation plan with part-time riders as the main force and full-time riders as a supplement.

Kuipao's ratio of full-time to part-time riders was 9:1; Qiandu would reverse this, aiming for 1:9.

Li Yanhong listened to Wang Zhongpu's work report, smiled slightly, and nodded in approval.

"Launch on the 3rd; at that time, Qiandu Search, Tieba, News, Maps, and the Browser port will all drive traffic to Qiandu Waimai. Yanjing is the first stop for Qiandu Waimai, and the South China region is the second stop."

Li Yanhong said with a smile.

Because Kuipao's strength in the southern market was weakest and its operating scope had not yet fully covered the area, Qiandu Waimai would develop from the south, first accumulating strength before engaging in a decisive battle with them.

Temporarily avoid the sharp edge, gather strength, and move!

"Boss, no problem," Wang Zhongpu answered with a determined gaze.

He understood in his heart that if he won this battle, he could step into the decision-making layer of Qiandu Wang; if he lost, a lateral transfer would be the best outcome.

But the most likely outcome was still being marginalized!

At the same time, Wang Xin also learned of the news that Qiandu Waimai was about to launch and immediately felt his pressure double.

Facing Senlian Capital and Qiandu Waimai, Meituan was undoubtedly a ant trying to shake a tree; to win this battle, funds could not be short.

Therefore, he immediately dialed Ji Gang's number, but to his surprise, the other party's attitude was ambiguous, neither agreeing nor refusing the investment.

When pressed further, Ji Gang said he had no authority and needed to consult.

Wang Xin's heart sank; he secretly pondered Ma Liyun's attitude, knowing that Mama Ali had invested in Kuipao, perhaps Ma Liyun had not yet decided who to ultimately support.

Helplessly, he dialed Shen Nanpeng's number.

"Sequoia Capital can follow up with investment, but you must promise me that once the timing is mature, you must merge with Dianping," Shen Nanpeng took the opportunity to make a demand.

"I have no objection," Wang Xin gritted his teeth and forced himself to agree; he had no choice.

Mama Ali had rejected him; if Sequoia Capital rejected him again, he could only seek other financing opportunities.

However, the group buying market in 2012, after a year of fighting, was not favored by investment institutions; even if financing was obtained, the conditions would not be more lenient than those of Sequoia Capital.

The sunk costs in the early stage were too high; Shen Nanpeng either had to cut losses in time, letting the 40 million US dollars previously invested go down the drain, or add investment, believing in Wang Xin's management level.

In early September, the great battle began; the chaos in the food delivery industry was no less than that in the group buying and ride-hailing markets.

(End of this chapter)