Chapter 352: Shit, Me and Little Ma Are Taking the Bullets

The next dawn, the sky outside the window was gloomy.

Chen Yansen leaned against the headboard, checked the time on his phone—he’d slept only two hours, his sleep duration shortened again.

An ordinary person has sixteen hours left after sleep; he had twenty-two, six hours more.

Song Yuncheng lay on her side, eyes half-closed, small hands clasped protectively before her, like a sleeping kitten.

A Pikachu cosplay suit, torn open along the back, was carelessly tossed on the floor.

A faint fragrance lingered in the air.

Chen Yansen pulled back the blanket, slipped on slippers, and walked toward the study.

He turned on the computer, launched the assembler, and his fingers flew across the keyboard.

To circumvent ARM’s conditional code patents, Chen Yansen used predicate registers to record operation results.

When stuck, he simply activated the 【Planck Clock】, instantly putting his brain into overdrive and effortlessly tearing through technical barriers.

From 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., he used it twice, totaling two seconds.

The foundational architecture, composed of eight global registers and twenty-four window registers, was preliminarily complete.

At that moment, a crisp knock came at the door.

The study door stood open; Song Yuncheng stood at the threshold in a cartoon-patterned pajama set, eyes still sleepy. Seeing Chen Yansen turn, she softly asked, “Insomnia again?”

Chen Yansen waved her over.

When she drew near, he opened his arms; Song Yuncheng obediently pressed against him, hugging his head.

“I’m hungry,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

“Want me to cook porridge? And fry two sunny-side-up eggs?” Song Yuncheng replied instinctively.

“Just you will do.” As he spoke, his hand slipped like an eel through the gap in her hem.

Soon, Song Yuncheng’s fair, smooth oval face flushed with a intoxicating blush.

…

…

On the third day of the apocalypse, everything remained unharmed.

At 10:30 a.m., Liang Changlin slowly opened his eyes—he’d barely slept until past 3 a.m.

Fight desperately, or remain under someone else’s roof working for Chen Yansen?

This question was extremely hard for him to decide.

He stood beside the hotel’s glass wall, gazing down at pedestrians like ants and cars the size of matchboxes, lost in thought.

After a long while, Liang Changlin suddenly realized: perhaps Chen Yansen saw him the same way he now saw the street below—similar feelings, perhaps.

It’s good to shelter under a big tree!

Liang Changlin squinted, his gaze gradually hardening.

Half an hour later, he called Chen Yansen—but the line only emitted a continuous “beep-beep-beep,” no one answering.

Liang Changlin grew anxious, fearing Chen Yansen might change his mind and withdraw the offer.

On his third attempt, the call was finally answered.

“Chen Zong, I’ve decided—I want to join Senlian Capital,” Liang Changlin blurted out eagerly.

“I’m interested in your fresh delivery business. Wrap up your current work quickly and report to the Kuaipao Shanghai branch.”

Chen Yansen replied.

In his view, Liang Changlin’s abilities were more than enough to lead a product line or division alone; for now, assign him as Pei Yi’s deputy—how high he climbs later depends entirely on his performance.

“Yes, Boss Chen!” Liang Changlin quickly corrected himself, smiling in response.

“That’s all for now, we’ll talk later,” Chen Yansen replied briefly and hung up.

Though Liang Changlin would one day amass a fortune of billions, to Chen Zong he was utterly insignificant—just a disposable tool to make money.

Liang Changlin didn’t delay—he immediately set off for Shanghai to sell Yaya Network to Xueersi and shut down Dingdong Community.

Meanwhile.

Before Liu Qiangdong left the country, JD again clashed with YiXun.

Tencent, waiting in vain for Liang Zihao’s cooperation request, poured one billion yuan into YiXun, launching the “Pay More, Get Refunded” service, pushing hard in digital appliances to compete with JD, Suning, and Gome for market share.

Kingsoft Leopard and 360 successively launched browser ticket-booking plugins targeting Spring Festival travelers.

Zhang Yiming, eager to join in, led his R&D team day and night developing traffic-splitting software, hoping to carve out a share of the train ticket business.

Sina inserted information-stream ads into Weibo to boost monetization, provoking furious user backlash.

“Lost in Thailand” grossed over 700 million yuan in thirteen days, shattering the Chinese-language box office record set by “Painted Skin 2.”

Industry insiders predicted “Lost in Thailand” would become the first Chinese-language film to surpass one billion yuan in box office.

Pei Yi won!

With exclusive online ticketing rights, “Lost in Thailand” brought Kuaipao over six million new users, increasing daily active users by 2.6 million.

Meituan, which bet on “1942,” and Lashou, which backed “The King’s Banquet,” lost everything—spent money and got scolded too.

After tasting success, Pei Yi turned his attention to “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.” As the largest online ticketing platform, Kuaipao effortlessly secured an exclusive agreement with Huayi.

Both parties jointly funded subsidies to lower pre-sale prices to 19.9 yuan per ticket.

That year, Stephen Chow’s box office draw was at its peak—even at 19.9 yuan, users flocked to buy tickets.

The next day, December 24, Christmas Eve: WeChat 4.6 launched, adding WeChat Pay, payment and receipt functions, and the Zero Balance Treasure feature, officially announcing user numbers had surpassed 300 million.

Ma Liyun heard this and was stunned: “You call it Zero Balance Treasure? Then what do I call mine?”

The original product name was “Zero Balance Pass”—if launched now, wouldn’t it look like a copy?

“Boss Ma, what about ‘Surplus Pass’?” Lu Zhaoxi suggested.

“Sounds like a rip-off of Zero Balance Treasure,” Ma Liyun shook his head.

It’s already a rip-off of Zero Balance Treasure!

Lu Zhaoxi froze, silently grumbling.

The boss wants to copy but also save face—“Zero Balance Pass” probably can’t stay.

“What about ‘Surplus Profit Treasure’?” Zhang Yong suddenly said.

“Still falls short compared to Zero Balance Treasure,” Ma Liyun frowned, eyes blazing with frustration.

Blame the IP department—they failed to cover all bases during defensive trademark registration. Why didn’t they block “Zero Balance Treasure”?

“Surplus Profit Treasure isn’t bad—catchy and smooth,” Lu Zhaoxi, seeing Ma Liyun’s expression, immediately agreed.

“Then change it to Surplus Profit Treasure,” Ma Liyun sighed, waving his hand. Then added: “What are your ideas for offline promotion of Wealth Treasure? Outsource to third-party teams, or build our own?”

“This year, roughly five thousand group-buying sites collapsed—thousands of offline promoters are unemployed or near-unemployed. I believe building our own team better serves Ali’s interests.”

Lu Zhaoxi frowned, thought deeply, then spoke with certainty.

Previously, Ali had partnered with third-party promoters, but tracking data like material costs and conversion rates proved impossible.

Better to spend money ourselves than hand it over to others.

“Daniel, what do you think?” Ma Liyun turned to Zhang Yong.

“Combine offline and online: for merchants familiar with digital payments, offer free mailing of payment codes; for others, promote face-to-face.”

Zhang Yong spoke calmly.

In fact, this was exactly the strategy Orange Pay was already executing.

Implicitly, they must build an offline promotion team.

“Speed up the pace—Wealth Treasure is already behind Orange Pay, and now WeChat Pay has caught up. We can’t afford to wait!”

Ma Liyun warned sternly.

Lu Zhaoxi nodded slightly, signaling understanding.

Meanwhile, merchants in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Fujian, and elsewhere, after being introduced by promoters, began sticking payment codes on their cash registers.

When customers paid, they simply pulled out their phones, scanned the code, and with a “ding,” the payment completed.

It looked simple, yet cool.

For users, the more merchants used payment codes, the more convenient their payment became.

“QR code payments are rapidly growing—the cashless era is coming!”

“Make counterfeit bills vanish!”

“Wealth Treasure, Orange Pay, WeChat Pay—internet giants are all jumping in, fighting for offline payment scenarios.”

Suddenly, print media, online media, and TV channels launched overwhelming coverage.

Logically, the news traffic should benefit Orange Pay and WeChat Pay.

But Chen Yansen sensed an unusual danger.

Knowing Ma Wenteng well, after several hard punches, his style had become extremely cautious—he’d never pay for promotional articles to hype QR code payments.

Especially with current policy unclear—any day now, a knife might fall. Better stay low-key.

“Damn it! Me and Little Ma are taking the bullets!”

Chen Yansen leaned back on the office sofa, muttering quietly.

Bank and financial interests were tangled; someone wanted to cut out the rot but lacked a knife—then Orange Pay and WeChat Pay appeared.

Chen Yansen pondered, then thought again: if the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up—why should he care?

Fortune favors the bold!

To be the first to eat the crab, you can’t hesitate!

Thinking this, he messaged Zhang Yinjia, instructing him to use Kuaipao’s offline team to ramp up promotion—first seize the market.

As for later risks? Swords meet, shields rise; water comes, earth blocks.

……

……

"Pony, I confirmed with Zhang Xiaolong—he never gave any media interviews, nor did he authorize the marketing department to buy traffic."

Liu Zhiping explained with a serious expression.

"Could it be Chen Yansen? Young and reckless, with no restraint?"

Ma Wenteng lifted his eyelids slightly and immediately asked.

"Chen Yansen is young, true, but where is the frivolity and arrogance of a youth?" Liu Zhiping firmly denied.

"Then someone must be trying to exploit WeChat Pay."

Ma Wenteng frowned, took a deep breath, and silently cursed: Why wait until WeChat Pay launched to strike? Are they afraid Orange Pay’s influence isn’t strong enough?

Little Ma was both amused and exasperated—being taken seriously was good, but being dragged out to take the blame was not.

Fortunately, Chen Yansen was with him, offering some comfort.

(End of Chapter)