Chapter 333

Hu Weiyi and Wang Zihao, leading a team, traveled from East China to North and South China, visiting twelve bicycle factories in just six days.

Only Fushida and Phoenix met ofo's procurement requirements for pricing, production capacity, and defect rate, with a total vehicle cost of 390 yuan per bike.

Upon returning to Hangcheng, Wang Zihao rested briefly before continuing his search for smart lock suppliers.

Meanwhile.

A spreadsheet containing license plates and passwords for Didi bikes quietly spread across Beijing, listing passwords for 1,600 bikes—all collected and compiled by netizens.

Didi's daily revenue plummeted from 10,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan, a sharp 30% drop.

Upon learning this, Cheng Wei had no choice but to strengthen his resolve to replace the smart locks.

"Boss, the maintenance staff are demanding a salary raise," said the heads of HR and Operations, entering together and knocking on the door.

A raise?

Cheng Wei frowned slightly—he remembered clearly that maintenance workers were paid 6,000 yuan, which was not low for Beijing in 2012, and the company even paid their social insurance.

Why were they dissatisfied?

"The steel frames, pneumatic tires, and chains used in Didi bikes are all extremely ordinary, resulting in too high a failure rate."

The head of Operations explained slowly.

After all, the first-generation Didi bike cost only 190 yuan—how good could the quality be?

After half a month of sun and rain, one-third of the handlebars were damaged.

Rust marks appeared on frame joints; bells didn't ring, tires blew out, and chains kept falling off.

Hearing this, Cheng Wei's expression softened—he immediately realized the salary structure for maintenance staff was flawed.

After a moment's thought, he told the head of Operations: "Set the base salary at 3,000 yuan, with a monthly minimum of 500 bikes repaired. Beyond that, pay 5 yuan per bike."

Switching from fixed pay to performance-based pay resolved the conflict and boosted staff motivation.

The HR and Operations heads exchanged glances, then left the office immediately after receiving the boss's conciliatory policy to announce the new plan.

Although the base salary dropped, most maintenance workers accepted the new scheme and signed fresh employment contracts.

Cheng Wei's operational style grew increasingly seasoned—he easily defused this minor crisis.

This incident reminded him that shared bikes left outdoors had drastically reduced lifespans; cutting costs upfront felt good, but maintenance costs later would soar.

Thinking of this, he immediately called the bicycle factory in Tianjin and halted production of the first-generation Didi bikes.

At this moment, Didi and ofo simultaneously raised their total vehicle cost standards to around 400 yuan.

At this time, a senior student from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management mounted a Didi bike at a subway exit; at an intersection, the light turned red, and he intended to brake.

Unfortunately, the bike's brake was faulty—the bike shot across the zebra crossing and was flung two or three meters by a speeding electric scooter.

Chang Wei's head buzzed; it took him a while to recover. His whole body ached. Before he could check his injuries, the old man on the electric scooter pointed at him and yelled: "Hey, kid, are you colorblind? You dare run a red light?"

"The brake's broken."

Chang Wei was furious but had no one to blame—he knew the old man was right.

"Alright, get off the ground. I won't pay your medical bills. I won't hold you responsible for running the red light—let's just call it even."

The old man finished speaking and rode off on his scooter.

Although Chang Wei was fully or mostly at fault, he'd been badly injured—the old man feared Chang Wei would extort him and vanished instantly.

"Damn it, do you think I'd extort you?"

Chang Wei, seeing this, couldn't help but laugh bitterly and muttered under his breath. Then, gritting his teeth against the pain, he dragged the bike to the side and sat down on the curb.

His palms, arms, and thighs were scraped raw, oozing bright red blood.

"Didi bikes? This junk raised 300 million yuan and is valued at 2 billion? Are investors insane?"

Chang Wei laughed bitterly—he'd heard from classmates that the Didi bikes now appearing on Beijing's streets had just raised 300 million yuan and were valued at 2 billion. Intrigued, he decided to try one out.

Who knew that within ten minutes, he'd crashed face-first.

"Is internet money really this easy to make? Just put a few bikes on the street and fool people into handing over hundreds of millions?"

Chang Wei narrowed his eyes, pondering silently.

He was from Hui'an too—he'd heard Chen Yansen's name until his ears were tired of it.

As someone his age, who would admit he was inferior to another?

Though his family background ensured he could thrive without business, he wanted to compete with Chen Yansen in commerce.

What bullshit king of the internet!

He's just caught a few industry trends!

Leaning against the roadside, Chang Wei glared fiercely at the Didi bike, abandoned his idea of teaching in the northwest, and developed a strong interest in shared bikes.

Cheng Wei had no idea that his relentless cost-cutting had just created a competitor.

On the other side.

At Zhu Xianzhuang Tech Park, though it was already 10:30 p. m., Building Six, home of Pinbei's headquarters, remained brightly lit.

Tomorrow was Pinbei Shangcheng's first participation in Double Eleven!

From October 14 to November 9, during the presale phase lasting 27 days, total sales reached 29.43 billion Huayuan, with a single-day peak of 2.06 billion and an average daily sales of 1.09 billion, a 26.7% month-over-month increase.

Pinbei's daily sales fluctuated wildly—there were highs of 2.06 billion and lows of 500 million to 600 million daily.

From November 4 to November 9, performance hit rock bottom, with daily sales under 400 million.

Users suppressed their purchasing urges, waiting for Double Eleven.

Everyone knew that prices would be lowest on the big promotion day—this was the opposite of e-commerce promotions a decade later.

Chen Yansen exited Building Nine and walked straight into Building Six.

On the first-floor LED screen, real-time data scrolled: daily active users, order volume, average order value, conversion rate, and sales figures.

One and a half hours remained until midnight, yet cumulative sales stood at a pitiful 340 million—less than half the average daily sales. But this was normal during a major promotion.

Whether merchants or e-commerce platforms, everyone's mindset was the same: November depends entirely on tomorrow!

"Class monitor, want some barbecue? I'll go get it for you." Xu Xingxing saw Chen Yansen and immediately approached with a smile.

"Beef, tofu skin rolls with cilantro, medium spicy, send it up to the second floor for me." Chen Yansen didn't stand on ceremony and started ordering from Xu Xingxing.

"Another bottle of beer?" Xu Xingxing suggested.

"If I get drunk, will you drive me home?" Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow and asked back with a smile.

"Sure, I'm just afraid President Chen won't be willing." Xu Xingxing said, holding her head high.

"Good to know you understand." Chen Yansen changed the subject, turned his head, and walked upstairs.

"President Chen!"

"Brother Sen!"

"Boss!"

As soon as he reached the second floor, greetings rose up in waves.

Preparations were long complete; employees from the Investment Operations Department and the Key Account Investment Department were basically eating barbecue and drinking beer, openly freelancing the company's overtime pay.

Chen Yansen lifted his foot and walked toward Zhang Yifeng and the others.

Li Hui immediately moved a chair over and placed it in front of the boss.

Chen Yansen sat down naturally, took a bottle of beer handed to him by Zhang Yifeng, took a light sip, and said, "This beer feels nothing special when drinking it normally, but during a big promotion, you can taste the malt aroma. Isn't that strange?"

"Brother Sen, does the higher our sales performance, the stronger this malt aroma gets?" Yuan Wei was also an old employee personally recruited by Chen Yansen; like Zhang Yifeng, Li Hui, and the others, he called him "Brother Sen" and dared to make a joke.

"Yifeng, how much do you think we can sell tomorrow?"

Chen Yansen asked casually.

"We sold 2.79 billion in the two days of 618; Double Eleven should be at least double that!" Zhang Yifeng chuckled.

"Mama Ali sold over 6 billion last Double Eleven; let's sprint for that number." Li Hui chimed in.

"Go, go, go! The target my boss and I set is 5 billion. If we don't make it, will you guys pay the difference?"

Huang Zheng happened to be patrolling the second floor; seeing the boss was there, he hurriedly approached.

Hearing the 6 billion slogan from Zhang Yifeng, Li Hui, and the others, he immediately spoke up to interrupt.

The transaction volume of Double Eleven relates to everyone's Q4 performance bonus; the goal can be ambitious, but it can't be absurd.

"Yifeng and Li Hui were just joking. Don't worry, President Huang; I'm not someone who changes orders in the morning and evening."

Chen Yansen saw through Huang Zheng's pretense and said with a light smile.

Li Hui said nothing, silently walked to the side, and moved a chair for Huang Zheng.

"Boss, you misunderstood me; I didn't think that way." Huang Zheng's old face turned red as he sat down and explained.

"Is that so? Then let's make a bet: if the final sales figure for Double Eleven is 5 billion, the Pinbei Q4 quarterly bonus coefficient will be multiplied by 1.2; for every additional 1 billion above that, the coefficient increases by 0.1, with no upper limit."

Chen Yansen said slowly and calmly.

"No problem." After hearing this, Huang Zheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, because the reward for the 5 billion target was already a 1.2 times quarterly bonus coefficient.

Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Li Hui, and the others, though looking excited, could do nothing at that moment.

The rhythm of the big promotion was set; they just had to wait for the results.

Not long after, Xu Xingxing brought over a plate of barbecue.

Time ticked away second by second; in the blink of an eye, it was already dawn.

The Double Eleven big promotion officially began!

Today happened to be Sunday; users stayed up until the middle of the night just to wait for the final payment moment.

Snack food, women's clothing, cosmetics, 3C digital, home appliances, and general merchandise, among more than a dozen venues, instantly flooded with tens of millions of buyers submitting orders at the same time.

Every second saw hundreds of millions of submission data points; this was a severe test for both Pinbei and Sister Chengzi Payment.

Fortunately, preparations were thorough; the servers didn't crash, but page lag and slow loading still occurred.

Everyone at Pinbei was in a state of excitement, eyes staring fixedly at the data backend, fingers pressing F5, constantly refreshing.

10 million!

60 million!

90 million!

In less than a minute, platform sales broke the 100 million mark!

One hour later, the cumulative sales reached 1 billion!

Chen Yansen raised his hand, glanced at his wristwatch, and signaled the Administrative Department to come out and clear people out; fifteen minutes later, whichever department hadn't finished leaving would have their Q4 quarterly bonus directly cancelled.

Outside the park, over a hundred buses were parked, responsible for safely returning employees to hotels or residential compounds in the city.

Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng walked into the guest rooms of the Sky Garden, one after the other.

"I bought you a new gift." As soon as they entered the room, President Chen couldn't wait to take out a set of light blue one-piece cosplay clothes.

"You just like to tease me." Song Yuncheng, her cheeks red, fiddled with the tail on the cosplay clothes and gave Chen Yansen a pretty, reproachful glance.

"Be good, change into it!" Chen Yansen stared straight at Song Yuncheng and said.

Song Yuncheng picked up the cosplay clothes and obediently ducked into the bathroom.

Yanjing, Jingdong Headquarters Building; outside the window, the night was as black as ink, yet the office area was bright as day.

Liu Qiangdong held a wine glass, clinking it one by one with the heads of the procurement and sales departments for each product category.

"Brothers! Raise your glasses! Win Double Eleven, and the year-end bonus will double!"

Liu Qiangdong smiled freely and raised his glass to invite them.

On the large screen behind him, Jingdong's cumulative sales for the first hour of the day were fixed at 310 million Hua Yuan!

(End of this chapter)