Chapter 331: Ma Liyun Has Lost His Mind

In late autumn, the streets of Xuelin were carpeted with yellowing plane tree leaves.

A sudden gust swept through, sending the leaves spinning wildly through the air.

As Chen Yansen drove past, he could still hear the sanitation workers grumbling: “We have to sweep this every single day—when will these leaves ever stop falling?”

The man swung his one-meter-long broom, looking up at the sky; to students, the plane trees were beautiful, but to him, they were a tormenting “instrument of punishment,” filling him with misery.

No wonder Chunshen had replaced its plane trees with camphor trees after just a few years.

Chen Yansen glanced out the window, silently pondering.

Soon after, an Aston Martin Rapide slowly emerged from the eastern gate of Xu Academy and sped toward the tech park.

The autumn in Huian’s north was bleak and barren; the birch trees lining the streets stood bare, their branches holding only a few scattered leaves.

In no time, Chen Yansen parked his car and walked straight into Building No. 9, taking the elevator to his office and sitting down.

The October human-path firewood had been credited, plus the remaining 49 strands from September, totaling 163,146 strands—enough to synthesize 1,631 strands of divine-path firewood.

“Add more!”

With a thought, a golden mist as thick as a wrist materialized out of thin air and shot instantly into his third eye.

Unlike human-path firewood, divine-path firewood brought no sensation of heat or cold when strengthening physique or spirit—only pure, ultimate comfort.

Within mere breaths, his physique stat rose to 47.47!

Externally, no change was visible, but Chen Yansen knew his basic physiological functions—strength, speed, endurance, and physical resilience—were rapidly transforming.

His senses evolved again: vision, smell, and hearing underwent massive changes; standing by the window, he could clearly see the antennae of an ant three kilometers away.

His weight reached 134 kilograms!

Yet his physique still looked like that of an 80-kilogram man!

The density, toughness, and hardness of his tendons, bones, blood, and flesh were all increasing!

Chen Yansen reached out and grabbed at the air—sharp sonic booms cracked through it; his fingers moved so fast that to an ordinary person, they’d appear as little more than a blur.

“Throwing in hundreds of thousands of human-path firewood really does make a difference.”

Feeling his abundant energy and vitality, Chen Yansen murmured contentedly.

Then, he wrapped several loops of spiritual force around his waist, reducing his apparent weight to 87 kilograms, before strolling back to his seat.

He opened his computer, logged into the data backend and email, and handled the company’s daily operations as usual.

Half an hour later, he finished his tasks.

Chen Yansen stood up, stepped out the door, and headed to the floor housing the chip design department.

Meanwhile.

Lei Zong sat in his office at Xiaomi’s headquarters, face grim, silent and sullen.

The Xiaomi Box’s engineering test version had been launched for only eight days before being shut down.

Although Xiaomi hadn’t obtained the internet integrated broadcasting license, it had indirectly achieved compliance through cooperation with Huashu Media.

Yet it was still ordered to rectify for violating rules on content sourcing and connection uniqueness.

In plain terms, Xiaomi Box wasn’t allowed to pull content from Sohu, Tencent, and Youku to compete for users.

“Damn it! Nobody said anything when Xiaomi started this!”

Lei Zong, seething with rage, muttered under his breath.

Only now did he realize: when the big shots needed him, they treated him with respect; when they didn’t, they didn’t care if Xiaomi lived or died.

Xiaomi Box hadn’t tasted the crab—it got punched in the face instead, leaving him dazed.

“Boss, I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s just a rectification. The timing was off—that’s all. Let’s wait a bit longer.”

Li Wanqiang, sitting across from him, heard Lei Zong’s curses and quickly tried to comfort him.

“It’s fine. I know what to do. The Xiaomi Box launch is postponed. Focus all efforts on preparing for next year’s Spring Festival product launch.”

Lei Zong waved his hand.

After five cumulative months since the Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi Mi2 releases, total sales reached 5.7 million units—but as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Coolpad rolled out their own mid-to-low-end models, sales growth clearly slowed.

Thus, Lei Zong had to accelerate the development of the new phone.

“Understood, boss. But are Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S really going to run AuroraOS? The MIUI development team is strongly opposed.”

After a few seconds of thought, Li Wanqiang frowned.

“Who’s opposing it? Hong Feng? Tell him to come speak to me face-to-face!” Lei Zong snapped, face cold.

To boost sales and meet user demands, Lei Zong decided to add an AuroraOS version alongside the MIUI version for the Xiaomi 2A and Xiaomi 2S.

In short, users purchasing the Xiaomi 2S or Xiaomi 2A could choose between AuroraOS or MIUI.

Due to different built-in operating systems, some electronic components were slightly adjusted; configurations were similar, but each version had its own flavor, primarily to improve software-hardware compatibility.

Yet the Xiaomi 1S with MIUI had consistently underperformed compared to the AuroraOS version—an outright insult to the MIUI development team.

“Uh… I understand.” Li Wanqiang nodded helplessly.

As Lei Zong’s right-hand man, no one understood better than him how the boss’s mindset had changed over the past half-year.

Losing to Orange Phone was one thing—but now, Xiaomi’s cumulative shipments were lower than 360’s phone sales, even falling behind NetEase Phone, which had sold over two million units.

Lei Zong had once wanted to be China’s Jobs; now, he couldn’t even reach Chen Yansen’s sleeve.

“How’s the Xiao Ai Tongxue development progressing? Can it make it for the spring launch?” Lei Zong asked.

“Final debugging is underway, but in performance and user experience, it still lags behind Mos Voice Interaction Engine—likely because they’re using a more advanced algorithm model.”

Li Wanqiang answered immediately.

“No problem. Compared to Orange C3, Xiaomi 2S and 2A aren’t priced high anyway. A few missing features won’t make them unusable.”

Lei Zong dismissed it.

At that moment, his desk phone rang. He leaned forward, saw the caller ID, and instantly pressed answer.

“Lei Zong, has Xiao Ai Tongxue’s development wrapped up?” Chen Yansen skipped small talk and asked bluntly.

“Almost. I plan to launch it at the spring product launch.”

Lei Zong didn’t hide it—after all, Xiao Ai Tongxue existed only because of the Yuxi Development Platform.

“Does Xiaomi have plans for a smart speaker?” Chen Yansen asked next.

Hearing this, Lei Zong froze, unsure how to respond.

In fact, Xiaomi’s industrial and hardware design teams for the Xiao Ai Tongxue smart speaker were already preparing—but the tech came from Chen Yansen. He couldn’t bring himself to tell Chen he wanted to compete with Orange Tech in the smart speaker market.

So Lei Yi, face unwavering, boldly denied: “No.” “That’s a shame. Orange Tech is developing a dedicated AI chip that can reduce hardware costs by 20%. We were hoping to ask if Lei Zong might be interested in collaborating.”

“That’s a shame. Orange Tech is developing a dedicated AI chip that cuts hardware costs by 20%. I was going to ask if you’d be interested in collaborating.”

Chen Yansen leaned back on the sofa, speaking casually.

As for Lei Zong’s words—he didn’t believe a single punctuation mark.

“AI chip? Has Chen Zong set up a chip design department?” Lei Zong’s eyes widened in disbelief.

In 2012’s mobile industry, only Huawei—the giant telecom player—had chip R&D capability.

Though Hisilicon’s K3V1 three years ago and K3V2 this year hadn’t gained strong market traction, they’d at least opened the door for domestic smartphone self-developed chips.

How long had Orange Tech been in the game?

“The procurement cost of the Tiomap3630 is too high; general-purpose chips waste too much performance and cannot unlock the full potential of the Mos Intelligent Interaction Engine. Building a dedicated chip integrating CPU, NPU, DSP, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication, and audio codec would cut costs and enhance performance. Lei Zong, since you don’t produce smart speakers, you may not fully grasp the difference.”

“The Tiamo P3630’s procurement cost is too high. General-purpose chips waste too much performance and can’t unlock the full potential of the Mos Voice Interaction Engine. Building a dedicated chip integrating CPU, NPU, DSP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio codec would cut costs and boost performance. Since you’re not making smart speakers, you might not grasp the difference.”

Chen Yansen smiled teasingly.

I know this better than anyone!

Lei Zong nearly blurted it out—but held himself back.

He’d researched smart speakers: material costs alone were no less than 350 yuan; even after factoring in manufacturing, logistics, sales, and operations, pricing under 600 yuan left almost no profit margin.

In other words, Orange Tech’s dedicated AI chip could cut costs by around 70 yuan—Lei Zong was instantly tempted.

“Chen Zong, I’ve reconsidered—I think Xiaomi can make smart speakers too. You wouldn’t mind, would you?” Lei Zong could no longer pretend, testing the waters.

“Of course not.” Chen Yansen replied instantly.

Selling Xiaomi a Tiangong T100 chip for 40 U.S. dollars wasn’t unreasonable, was it?

Plus, Xiaomi has no manufacturing plant—Orange’s factory could earn extra assembly fees.

Win twice—how could he lose?

Besides, would Lei Zong really stop making speakers if Chen Yansen refused to supply the Yuxi Platform and AI chip?

Better to have a friend than another rival.

Alexa smart speakers are exploding in Europe and America—do Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, and NVIDIA really not see it?

Orange Tech’s real rivals are in Europe and America, not domestically.

“Thank you, Chen Zong, for supporting Xiaomi. I’ll definitely visit you soon.” Lei Zong felt warmth in his chest; suddenly, Chen Yansen seemed far more honorable than Zhou Hongyi.

“Alright, let’s leave it there. Once the Tiangong T100 chip is designed and produced, we’ll discuss further cooperation.”

Chen Yansen ended the call.

“No problem, talk later,” Lei Zong said cheerfully, hanging up with a smile.

The negative impact of the Xiaomi Box crackdown vanished instantly.

“Ah Li, speed up preparations for the Xiao Ai Speaker—try to launch it alongside the spring product launch.”

Lei Zong ordered Li Wanqiang.

“Boss, is Chen Yansen really this generous?” Li Wanqiang felt something was off.

“He just wants to sell chips and earn assembly fees. As long as the price is fair, Xiaomi can cooperate with Orange Tech.”

Lei Zong waved his hand.

Can’t keep letting outsiders profit forever?

[101] Now, relying on Orange Tech’s supply chain, Xiaomi has switched its screen supplier to JD Display—also supporting domestic industry.

Previously, Zhou Hongyi had relentlessly criticized Xiaomi on Weibo for sourcing its screens from Sharp, accusing him of profiting from Chinese consumers while refusing to use domestic suppliers.

As a result, Zhou Hongyi lost his grounds to attack Xiaomi.

On the other side.

Chen Yansen had just put down his phone when a sharp knocking came at the door.

“Enter!” Chen Yansen said.

Huang Zheng rushed in, grinning: “Ma Liyun’s gone mad!”

Chen Yansen leaned back, waiting for an explanation.

He didn’t believe Ma had suddenly fallen ill and been taken to a psychiatric hospital.

“Here’s the latest announcement from Mama Ali. The bosses of Taobao Alliance, Meilishuo, and What’s Worth Buying are all furious.”

As he spoke, Huang Zheng handed over a document: the new rules released by Taobao Alliance at noon.

Starting January 1, 2013, the alliance will abolish the Taobao Ke cash-back model within Taobao (including Tmall), permitting only non-cash rewards such as points, physical goods, coupons, and shopping vouchers.

In other words, directly giving users cash rebates is now a violation; Mama Ali has the authority to deduct points and freeze platform reward accounts.

Perhaps to avoid disrupting the 2012 Double Eleven promotion, Ma Liyun set the effective date for New Year’s Day 2013.

Ma’s move officially ended the honeymoon between Ali and guide-commerce platforms.

Chen Yansen glanced at it and wasn’t surprised.

He knew Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong both held the same attitude toward guide-commerce: disdainful, dismissive, yet unwilling to let go of the traffic and orders from third-party external channels.

At their core, Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Jingdong were all secondhand traffickers of internet traffic.

They bought traffic cheaply, repackaged it as marketing tools, and sold it to merchants on their platforms.

“This is nothing. Guide-commerce will only suffer temporarily. If Ma truly removes guide-commerce’s sales weight entirely, that’s when Meilishuo, Taobao Alliance, and What’s Worth Buying will be doomed.”

Chen Yansen set down the document and smiled lightly.

“That shouldn’t happen, right?” Huang Zheng didn’t believe it.

“If Ali strengthens cooperation with guide-commerce, Ali will lose market share—and Pinduoduo Alliance will swallow it all.”

Chen Yansen looked at Huang Zheng and warned him.

The relationship between guide-commerce and comprehensive e-commerce is delicate: there’s cooperation, but also competition.

And Ma Liyun’s reason for suppressing guide-commerce sites is simple.

First, a shift in traffic strategy: Taobao Ke’s PC-era promotion model doesn’t align with Ali’s mobile traffic strategy; Ma wants to focus business efforts on the mobile side.

Second, protecting Tmall and Taobao’s interests: while Meilishuo, Taobao Alliance, and What’s Worth Buying bring traffic to Ali, they also siphon off part of merchants’ advertising fees, reducing investment in ad products like Direct Train, Diamond Display, and Juhuasuan.

You can make money for Ma, but try to take money from Ma’s hands?

No way!

Third, building an industrial closed loop: replacing cash rebates with the ZhiFuBao points product—JiFenBao—to bind user consumption within Ali’s e-commerce ecosystem, forming a transaction loop.

Fourth, supporting proprietary guide-commerce products: Fox Taohua cost Ma tens of billions. Why give the benefits to outsiders when you can keep them for your own son?

After confirming Chen Yansen’s stance, Huang Zheng continued using the cash-back model, causing Pinduoduo’s external traffic to surge rapidly.

From November 1 to November 3, Taobao-affiliated guide-commerce plummeted, while Pinduoduo’s guide-commerce output exploded, maintaining daily sales of 1.2 to 1.4 billion Huayuan during the Double Eleven pre-sale phase, far outpacing Jingdong.

(End of Chapter)