Chapter 316: India Investigation Team, Annihilated

October 1st, the Orange Intelligent Life Store officially opened.

Zhou Shouzhi completed the first-phase layout across 32 core business districts, covering major cities such as Yancheng, Jin Ling, Lu Zhou, Hu Cheng, and Jiang Cheng, reaching over 30 million consumers.

At 8:40 a.m., before the flagship store opened, a long queue had already formed at the entrance, mostly young people gathering in small groups, chatting and laughing while they waited.

“Sister Ling, there are so many people up front—let’s go take a look.”

Zhang Peng tugged at his boss’s hand as they strolled along Jin Ling Road, and when he saw the dense crowd ahead, his youthful curiosity could no longer be contained.

“Sure.”

Chen Fengling smiled warmly, feeling the warmth of his palm, her heart fluttering slightly.

She was ten years older than Zhang Peng, successful in her career, mature and refined, and with good skincare, she remained plump and alluring—how could a fresh college graduate possibly resist an older sister’s gentle charm?

One was thirty, fierce as a tiger; the other twenty, wild as a wolf. After watching a movie together, they ended up sleeping in the same bed without realizing it.

But Ping’an forbade office romances—even across departments—and so, at work, they had to carefully play the roles of manager and subordinate.

Yet back at their rented apartment, their hierarchical dynamic instantly flipped.

“Sister Ling, this is Orange Tech’s offline flagship store—it’s open today, shall we go in and take a look?”

Only when they drew closer did Zhang Peng realize the queue led to the Orange Intelligent Life Store.

“You like the Mos Smart Speaker, right? I’ll buy you one.” Chen Fengling nodded slightly and offered willingly.

“Actually, I don’t really love it that much, Sister Ling—I can’t keep letting you spend on me.” Zhang Peng scratched his head, politely declining with embarrassment.

She was truly wonderful—thoughtful, varied in her ways, always buying him gaming laptops, sneakers, and clothes, and even covering most of his rent, meals, and travel expenses.

“What if I want to spend money on you?”

Chen Fengling leaned close to Zhang Peng’s ear and whispered softly.

Zhang Peng’s lips curled slightly—twenty-something and living off a woman’s money didn’t seem so bad.

At nine sharp, store staff slowly opened the glass doors, and customers streamed in; the two followed the queue and entered the shop.

On the brand-new display stands sat Orange Tech’s various products—phones, speakers, headphones, power banks, digital accessories. Though the selection was small, each color variant of the Orange phone was arranged neatly by model.

Li Yunzhu stood before the repair counter, watching the crowded store, a bright smile spreading across his face.

Six months ago, he was working in Shen Cheng; after struggling, he moved to Hu Cheng, and though still employed, his circumstances had changed utterly.

“Mos.” Zhang Peng stepped up to a Mos Smart Speaker and spoke the wake word.

“Master, I’m here! What can I do for you?” Mos responded immediately.

“Will it rain in Hu Cheng tomorrow?” Zhang Peng eagerly tested it.

“Hu Cheng’s weather tomorrow: light rain turning overcast, high 24°C, low 1°C, relative humidity 60%, weakest UV index, air quality 24. Light rain expected between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Please bring an umbrella when going out.”

Upon receiving the voice command, Mos converted it to text, analyzed the results via AI algorithms from Lingxi Search, then delivered the answer back to the user via voice synthesis and speakers.

The process seemed long, but in practice, this “thinking” took only two or three seconds.

Seeing this, Chen Fengling called over a staff member and asked them to fetch a brand-new Mos Smart Speaker, intending to gift it to her boyfriend.

“Orange C3 64GB version, 2,899 yuan. Order now and receive a free 99-yuan Bluetooth headset—limited quantity, first come, first served!”

“Qingcheng D1S 8GB RAM, 999 yuan. Order today and get a phone case and tempered glass film!”

“Orange D1 4GB RAM, 799 yuan. Order now and receive a phone case!”

“...”

On the display stands, alongside the products, promotional posters were posted. Though most freebies were cheap, they at least gave customers a reason to buy on the spot.

“Give me an Orange C3 64GB version—can I swap the Bluetooth headset for a power bank?”

“I want a Qingcheng D1S!”

“Do you have a white version of the Mos Smart Speaker?”

Store manager Xu Hao and six sales assistants were instantly overwhelmed—Qingcheng D1S and Orange C3 were the bestsellers, selling over a hundred units in just one hour.

Even the Orange C1, on sale for over a year and now priced at 1,399 yuan, and the Orange C2, on sale for over half a year and now priced at 2,399 yuan, still drew eager buyers.

Orange Tech’s marketing and branding teams had pre-arranged with bloggers in the digital, tech, and internet circles to generate buzz for the launch of the Intelligent Life Store.

High-definition photos of the queues, selections, and purchases were gradually posted on Weibo, Youku, and Toutiao, creating an atmosphere of explosive sales.

Even if the reality was true, good wine still needed a good location—increasing exposure was never a bad thing.

On the other side, Lei Yi Army, after months of intense work, brought Xiaomi’s founding team to Qiong Island for a vacation.

At this moment, he lay on a beach chair, feeling the sea breeze.

“Lei Zong, Orange Phone has opened offline flagship stores.” Suddenly, Li Wanqiang, dressed in floral shorts and a tank top, spoke up.

“Let them open—they should’ve opened long ago.” Lei Zong replied indifferently.

Xiaomi had already opened its first Xiaomi Homes in Guan Zhou, Xing Sha, You Xi, Dong Guan, Qi Zhou, and Lü Da back in March.

While Xiaomi started making phones a year earlier than Orange Tech, Orange Phone launched two weeks ahead of Xiaomi Phone and, thanks to DST’s investment and supply chain resources, became the number one internet phone brand.

In the domestic market, not just Xiaomi, OPPO, and Meizu—even Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, and Lenovo—were no match for Orange Phone.

“Lei Zong, Orange Tech’s flagship stores will definitely steal some of our offline orders,” Li Wanqiang continued to warn.

“I know, but I can’t stop Chen Yansen from opening offline stores,” Lei Zong shrugged, looking helpless.

“That’s true!” Li Wanqiang plopped down, leaning back on the chair, staring blankly.

Some dirty tricks worked on Zhou Hongyi, but not on Chen Yansen.

After all, in the industry, Chen Yansen was famously “vindictive”—when Meituan loudly entered the food delivery race to challenge Kuai Pao, Chen Yansen relentlessly crushed Wang Xin.

Meituan, which should have turned a profit in Q3, was dragged into a subsidy war and lost over 60 million again.

It even lost its number-one title!

Under Kuai Pao’s “internal competition,” nearly half of the remaining group-buying websites vanished, leaving only Dazhong Dianping, Meituan, Lashou, and Kuai Pao; WoWoTuan barely clung to life, while all other competitors were in their death countdown.

Li Wanqiang dared to curse Zhou Hongyi, but he wouldn’t dare provoke Chen Yansen even slightly.

“By the way, when will the India market research report be ready?”

Lei Zong sat up abruptly and turned to Li Wanqiang.

Hearing this, Li Wanqiang froze, embarrassed: “Five colleagues from marketing went to India—four got acute diarrhea and were hospitalized, the other one suffered food poisoning, so I hired two third-party consulting firms instead. It’ll take another week.”

Acute diarrhea?

Food poisoning?

Lei Zong blinked, then realized: “Didn’t I tell them to eat and stay only in the hotel?”

“They don’t know how it happened—maybe it was unavoidable,” Li Wanqiang spread his hands, smiling bitterly.

“Lei Zong, I have a friend working at Micromax in India—he gave me a rough overview of the local market, but the data’s incomplete and not necessarily reliable.” Lin Bing, returning from the beach, overheard and spoke up.

“Go ahead—I heard India’s smartphone market is similar to ours.”

Lei Zong nodded, signaling Lin Bing to continue.

He’d heard of Micromax—it was India’s largest local smartphone manufacturer, with 9.1% market share.

“India has a total population of 1.23 billion, with 840 million mobile users, of whom 29 million use smartphones—a penetration rate under 3%, equivalent to China’s level three years ago—just starting, with huge market potential.”

Lin Bing sat on the beach chair, speaking calmly.

“29 million? Less than 30 million!” Li Wanqiang was astonished.

“China’s smartphone market went from zero to full-scale in just two or three years. If we can successfully enter India, Xiaomi might bloom overseas even if it struggles at home! In Q1 2011, India shipped 2.6 million smartphones; this year’s Q3, it jumped to 4.4 million.”

Lin Bing nodded.

India’s local brands—Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice—held low market shares; over 30% belonged to Shanxing, while Nokia, Sony, and others held 5–10%.

In his view, India was like China two years ago—full of potential!

After hearing this, Lei Zong’s expression softened—he was suffocated at home by Orange, Shanxing, Apple, and Huawei; perhaps expanding overseas could become a crucial turning point for Xiaomi.

The three talked by the beach until dusk fell and the sea breeze turned cold.

Back at the hotel, Lei Zong immediately called an emergency video meeting, planning to pull staff from marketing, operations, and tech to open a market in India.

Meanwhile.

In Oslo, the northernmost city in the Northern Hemisphere, it was still noon.

In a premium suite on the top floor of the Radisson Blu Hotel, Chen Yansen sat on the sofa, gazing at the Oslo Palace and the National Gallery, planning his afternoon itinerary.

From Hu Cheng to Copenhagen, then transferring to Oslo, it had taken him a full day.

He felt nothing; Song Yuncheng collapsed on the bed the moment she touched it and fell asleep.

Outside, autumn was in full swing—maple and ginkgo leaves intertwined, painting the view in gold and crimson.

The scenery here was nice, but the people were truly few.

Even though the Radisson Blu stood in central Oslo, passersby were scarce.

“Vibrating—!”

The phone on the coffee table suddenly rang.

Chen Yansen picked it up—it was Liu Zhiping from Tencent.

“Martin, what’s up?” Chen Yansen asked directly.

As their wealth, status, and industry influence had grown, he’d gradually shifted from calling Liu Zhiping “Liu Zong” or “Martin-ge” to simply “Martin.”

“WeChat is about to develop a payment feature and may draw inspiration from Orange Pay in design and promotion.”

Liu Zhiping spoke with extreme tact.

Given the strong cooperation between Tencent and Senlian Capital, Ma Wenteng decided to notify Chen Yansen before copying.

For any other company, Ma Wenteng wouldn’t have hesitated—he’d have copied first and notified later.

“No problem—I’m just copying Ma Liyun anyway.”

Chen Yansen replied coolly.

“I knew you wouldn’t mind, Chen Zong,” Liu Zhiping sighed in relief, smiling as he flattered.

Do you think I care, so you won’t copy anymore?

Chen Yansen scoffed; they were all adults, Penguin wasn’t willing to tear up the facade, so it chose a more dignified form of competition—he had no need to expose it.

Otherwise, both sides would end up embarrassed.

After all, Kuai’s Series C funding and Kuai Pao’s Series B funding both depended on Penguin’s financial support.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Liu Zhiping, upon learning Chen Yansen planned to visit Spotify’s headquarters, immediately patted his chest and said he had a good relationship with CEO Daniel Ek and would introduce him.

Chen Yansen smiled and did not refuse the offer.

In fact, Orange Tech’s collaboration with Spotify was no less significant than Penguin Music’s.

The Alexa smart speaker had sold nearly three million units in Europe and America, effectively adding three million paying users to Spotify, which greatly aided its fundraising.

Upon receiving news of Chen Yansen’s visit, Daniel Ek immediately returned from the Lighthouse Nation to Spotify’s Stockholm headquarters.

The Nordic market was too small; to break into the Lighthouse Nation’s music streaming market, Daniel Ek had shifted his focus to Europe and America two years ago and usually resided in Manhattan, New York.

This showed how crucial the Alexa smart speaker was to Spotify.

At this point, Spotify had gone eight months since its last funding round.

Daniel Ek urgently needed capital to purchase music rights and compete with iTunes and Pandora for market share.

Thus, the ecological licensing cooperation with Orange Tech was especially vital; signing a long-term contract would allow Daniel Ek to inflate Spotify’s valuation and secure more funding from investors.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen hung up the phone.

“Chen Yansen, be good, call Mom!”

Song Yuncheng, lying in bed, suddenly mumbled in his sleep, his voice very soft.

Ordinary people couldn’t hear it at all, but Chen Yansen’s hearing was too sharp—he caught every word.

He scowled, thinking to himself: “What the hell is this guy dreaming about?”

On their first day in Norway, Chen Yansen read to pass the time while Song Yuncheng slept soundly in bed.

Only at 7:30 p.m. did Song Yuncheng slowly open his eyes, still drowsy.

“Had a dream?” Chen Yansen asked, sitting beside the bed with a smile.

“How did you know?” Song Yuncheng asked in surprise.

“You talked in your sleep all afternoon and called me Dad seventeen times,” Chen Yansen said with a serious face, making it up on the spot.

“Hehe, you just love to make things up—you’re the one who called me...” Song Yuncheng instantly realized his mistake and quickly fell silent.

“I called you what?” Chen Yansen asked with a half-smile.

“Nothing, I forgot it all! I remembered it just now, but as soon as you spoke, I couldn’t recall it anymore,” Song Yuncheng muttered, his earlobes turning slightly red.

Chen Yansen smiled and didn’t press further.

After dinner at the hotel, they drove to the nearby Sognsvann Lake to watch the aurora.

At the same time, Liu Qiangdong, after securing a $400 million investment from OTPP, began actively preparing for JD’s Double Eleven promotion, determined to reclaim his position as the number two e-commerce player!

(End of Chapter)