Chapter 355: Don't Rush to Deny, Nor Rush to Affirm! 260,843 Threads of Human Torch!

At dawn, a gray-white halo rose on the horizon against the ink-blue sky; the first morning light appeared, weaving cold and warm together.

The wind chimes on the balcony chimed with a ding-dong.

Chen Yansen sat beside the sofa; outside the window, everything was a blinding white, with cold wind swirling snowflakes across the sky.

The phone screen remained on the Jinri Toutiao interface.

WoWo Tuan announced the server shutdown three days early; this group-buying website, established for nearly two years, met its end in the final competition.

The 16th navigation satellite of the Beidou system was launched, completing the network plan for the entire Asia-Pacific region.

eBay returned to the Huaguo e-commerce market, jointly launching the "eBayStyle Show" channel with Zouxiu Wang, focusing on overseas shopping goods.

WeChat's Lingqianbao went online five days ago; its fund scale broke through 3 billion Huayuan, once again verifying the feasibility of internet finance after Yu'e Bao.

Chen Yansen glanced quickly, pondering the phone call from yesterday evening; Hu Ruihui of the Huake Association wanted to visit Chengzi Technology, likely because news of the OrangeZ1 had already spread.

Huake was the first fish he had hooked.

Who would be the second?

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen came to his senses, stood up to get his laptop, opened the editor, and began writing logistics algorithms targeting Yunsu's transport trunk lines and sorting efficiency.

For President Chen, twenty-two hours a day was far too long; he had to find something to do.

At ten in the morning, Ali Baba announced to the media that the Cainiao Express Alliance was established on December 28, with members including Baishi, Tian Tian, Shunfeng, and Guotong Express.

In the future, it will serve millions of sellers on the Tmall Mall and Taobao.

Industry insiders generally believed that the Cainiao Express Alliance would hardly form a significant force; after all, the Yunsu Express Alliance stood ahead as a roadblock tiger.

The Cainiao Alliance didn't even have a self-developed electronic waybill system; it still had to obtain patent authorization from Yunsu, and with the lack of a terminal delivery plan, it was even less of a match.

Furthermore, Tian Tian, Shunfeng, and Guotong joining the Cainiao Alliance while already members of the Yunsu Express Alliance was purely fence-sitting behavior.

But Ma Liyun didn't care!

His original intention in setting up Cainiao Logistics was to borrow a chicken to hatch an egg; he just wanted to secure the data and resources of the express industry first.

At three in the afternoon, Chen Yansen left Ye Qiuping's residential compound and took a car to the Science Park.

Halfway there, Xu Minggang from Luzhou Xincheng International called; while exchanging pleasantries, he also updated him on the construction progress of the Chengzi Technology headquarters.

Chen Yansen made a few perfunctory replies and then hung up the phone.

On the other side.

Cheng Wei sat in the office at Digital Valley, staring slightly blankly at last week's business data.

Nowadays, Didi Bike's deployed vehicles in Yanjing exceeded 50,000, yet daily revenue was just over 10,000, unable even to cover the wages of maintenance staff, let alone turn a profit.

"Why doesn't that mad dog Chang Wei go to the southern markets to challenge ofo single-handedly? Why must he go all-out against Didi? His brain is simply sick!"

Cheng Wei sighed and couldn't help muttering quietly.

He had heard that ofo Bike had cumulatively deployed 80,000 shared bikes in seven cities of East China, with daily revenue exceeding 300,000 Huayuan; with absolutely no competitors, they neither spent huge sums on ads nor lost money on marketing, yet their market share still soared straight up, truly making him envious.

Cheng Wei continued looking down; the product deployment numbers for Jinmen, Ance, and Tang Cheng were 30,000 vehicles; since the local markets were exclusively enjoyed by Didi Bike, daily revenue stabilized at 100,000 Huayuan.

In other words, shared bikes were not a fake demand; they truly solved the travel difficulty of the last mile.

The current problem was that Xiao Huang Bike stubbornly clung to Didi Bike; although Yanjing was the headquarters of both companies, its profitability level was actually inferior to that of surrounding second and third-tier cities.

Thinking of this, Cheng Wei took out his phone, found an unfamiliar phone number, hesitated briefly, and then dialed it.

He didn't want to fight Chang Wei anymore!

"Ding... Ding... Ding..."

After about ten seconds, the prompt tone in the receiver suddenly stopped, followed by a young male voice: "Hello, who is this?"

"I am Cheng Wei from Didi Bike," Cheng Wei introduced himself.

"Oh? What does President Cheng want? Has Didi Bike finally run out of steam and wants to admit defeat?" Chang Wei teased with a laugh.

In his view, Cheng Wei was a piece of trash; besides having a somewhat sensitive business nose, his operational ability was shattered; not only had he been crushed by Kuaidi Dache, but he had also been kicked out of the management of Didi Dache by Qian Du Wang.

Thus, it was clear that Cheng Wei understood neither business operations nor financial common sense; he didn't even know the simplest dual-class share structure; being kicked out by Li Yanhong was purely what he deserved.

"President Chang just loves to joke; with Didi Bike's capital scale and deployment size, what can Xiao Huang Bike use to win? I just feel that the subsidy activity of five ride coupons a day benefits no one; in the long run, it will only let ofo Bike in the south reap the benefits."

Cheng Wei suppressed his anger and advised with patience.

"Are you teaching me how to do things? If Didi Bike can't handle the game, just cancel the subsidies."

Chang Wei snorted coldly, giving Cheng Wei no face at all.

Actually, he understood Cheng Wei's meaning, but he did not want to stop.

At this time, Xiao Huang Bike and Didi Bike were just getting started; the marketing costs required to suppress competitors were not high; if they waited until the scale grew larger in the future, it would both waste funds and increase the difficulty tenfold.

He wanted to crush the threat in the cradle!

Absolutely no chance for Cheng Wei to grow big!

"I'll just see how long Xiao Huang Bike can last!" With no common ground, half a word was too many; after Cheng Wei finished speaking, he ended the call with a "Pa-ji" sound.

"Song Tianlu, come in!"

Cheng Wei stormed to the office door, stuck his head out, and shouted at the head of the Marketing Department.

He wanted to make sure Xiao Huang Bike got absolutely no orders!

"Boss, your orders," Song Tianlu said, jogging over, dodging the desk, and immediately rushing up.

Entering the office, Cheng Wei plopped down and looked at Song Tianlu, saying: "Have the product team modify the old customer subsidy policy, increasing the daily five ride coupons to ten. Also, imitate the Kuaidi Dache red packet function; add a 'grab a red packet by luck' activity on the order completion page, giving away cash directly."

Ten coupons a day?

Ride for free, plus get cash?

Song Tianlu was slightly stunned, feeling that the boss's marketing strategy was a bit ruthless.

"The coupon quantity issue is easy to solve; just have operations adjust the parameters in the backend, but the luck-based red packet requires development."

Song Tianlu replied immediately.

"No problem; adjust the issuance quantity of the ride coupons first; the red packet function can come slowly," Cheng Wei said, waving his hand.

"Alright, boss, I'll coordinate with Haibo." Song Tianlu nodded and left the office, heading toward the R&D department's workspace.

"Stabbing Wood Maiden, having connections is something to be proud of? You really think your family background lets you run roughshod over the business world?"

Cheng Wei cursed under his breath.

He admitted he couldn't match Cheng Weixing, but that didn't mean a newcomer like Chang Wei could shit all over him.

If he had zero skills or ability, how could he have landed the position of General Manager of the Zhifubao B2C division?

That afternoon, Didi Bike users in Beijing noticed five additional ride vouchers had been added to their accounts, prompted by pop-up ads.

"Hey, these internet companies spend investors' money like it's garbage—never think about making profit, just chasing flashy gimmicks. How can you run a business like this?"

"In my opinion, things were better back then. When Kuai and Didi were competing, you'd get picked up and dropped off just to buy groceries."

"No problem! Shared bikes are free, but in this freezing winter, riding one is pure torture!"

"These internet folks really know how to play it. If shared bikes exist, why not shared cars? Shared wives?" "Aren't shared wives already a thing?"

At the alley entrance, a few gossipy uncles chuckled as they played chess, their faces twisted into smirks only men could understand.

"Hey, gentlemen—if there were shared cars, would you use them?"

At that moment, a middle-aged man standing nearby watching the game asked.

"Of course! Why not?"

"If it's free, I'll use it!"

The middle-aged men playing chess answered indifferently.

Wang Fengli listened, lost in thought, then turned to watch pedestrians riding bikes past the roadside.

Driven by Didi Bike and Yellow Bike, shared bikes had become a fashion staple in Beijing: pull out your phone, scan, ride anywhere, stop anywhere—no cost at all.

This thing can raise hundreds of millions in funding? Valued at billions?

Wang Fengli smiled and shook his head; a business plan in his mind gradually sharpened.

Shared wives are illegal, but isn't a shared car just the internet version of car rental?

The more Wang Fengli thought about it, the more excited he became—he felt he'd found a brand-new business lane.

At the same time, upon learning Cheng Wei had increased subsidies, Chang Wei refused to be outdone and raised his daily voucher distribution to twelve per user.

But Yellow Bike's coupons could only offset thirty minutes of usage, and users still had to pay a 199-yuan deposit.

Thus, Yellow Bike password lists on QQ groups, WeChat groups, BBS, Renren, and Baidu Netdisk remained wildly popular and hot.

"Boss, our maintenance staff and taxi drivers have come to blows!"

As Chang Wei was pondering his city expansion plan, a subordinate burst in and reported urgently.

"Why?" Chang Wei looked up, asking calmly.

"Preliminary guess: taxi drivers believe Yellow Bike is hurting their business, so they've been dumping our bikes into rivers," the subordinate explained slowly.

Fuck!

These idiots!

Chang Wei instantly lost his cool, then paused and asked: "Only Yellow Bikes?"

"They didn't spare Didi Bikes either," the subordinate added.

"Then what the hell is left to talk about!" Chang Wei's anger surged—he ordered the subordinate: "Send legal affairs over. Show zero leniency. Give these people a Shenkede Sect lesson."

Otherwise, everyone will copy them—how will my company even operate?

"Understood, I'll handle it right away," the subordinate nodded.

"By the way, have frontline maintenance staff tally the losses," Chang Wei added.

But to his surprise, the maintenance team reported only 6,700 damaged bikes—where were the other 1,300?

Remember, Yellow Bike had deployed 8,000 bicycles in Beijing total.

All of them in the river?

Or had someone broken the mechanical locks and stolen them as private bikes?

Must replace the smart locks immediately!

Chang Wei opened his mouth, bewildered, then silently resolved.

…

…

Hangcheng, Xingchi Technology Headquarters.

"317,000—not bad. Enough to buy tens of thousands of new customers on Pinbei Mall."

Wang Zihao smirked bitterly.

From spending millions a day to earning only thirty-some thousand a day, Brother Hao naturally felt a psychological drop.

But his title had risen from Placement Director to COO—so maybe he'd gained something after all.

"Wang Zihao, Ofo Bikes can't compare to Pinbei Mall. Only by capturing the entire national market can you achieve profitability through economies of scale," Hu Weiyi said with a smile.

Having worked with Wang Zihao for months, she had gradually understood his temperament and recognized his business acumen.

Though young, Wang Zihao acted with extreme efficiency and calm decisiveness.

"Once the year-end report is done, immediately open the Ofo Bike funding window. Tencent, Gao Ling, and Sequoia Capital all have interest. We'll expand after the New Year."

Wang Zihao grunted and changed the subject.

Didi Bike had completed two funding rounds, Yellow Bike one—only Ofo Bike remained unfunded.

Chen Yansen wasn't short on money, but he didn't want to pour too much into shared bikes; as long as he retained controlling stakes, why not use VC money—it's free if you don't spend it.

It's not cutting-edge tech—no need to hoard it all.

Better to bring in a few suckers to share the burden!

OrangeZ1 and Tiangong T100 were different: for projects that promised him massive returns, Chen Yansen always used a spin-off strategy, separating them from Chengzi Technology.

Therefore, although Mike Keller and Wu Zheng Shengyu's chip design department shared the same office building as Sister Chengzi Tech's employees, the entity signing the labor contracts was not the same company.

Two days later, the last working day of the year.

At a quarter past eight in the morning, as the December salary arrived in his account, Chen Yansen's system panel also gained 260,843 strands of Human Dao Salary Fire.

"Synthesize, add points!"

He was already used to the enhancement process. In just a few breaths, his constitution rose from 64.48 to 90.56, only one step away from breaking through 100.

His skin grew increasingly resilient, the density of his muscles and bones rapidly increasing. Blood surged from his heart and brain, instantly flowing through his limbs and bones.

The qi, blood, and strength throughout his entire body seemed so full they were about to overflow.

"Huh? What's this?"

Chen Yansen stood before the full-length mirror, staring closely at his own eyes. A ring of metallic luster had appeared on his iris — had his observation not been sharp enough, he truly would not have noticed it.

It faintly radiated a dark golden glow.

After fiddling with it in various ways for a while, he found nothing remarkable.

Chen Yansen couldn't be bothered to care — as long as his kidneys performed, that was enough.

Afterwards, he pushed open the villa's courtyard gate, got into the Bentley Mulsanne's driver's seat, and sped off toward Zhu Xian Zhuang Tech Park.

At the same time.

Hu Ruihui, accompanied by over a dozen R&D engineers from the Loongson team, drove toward Xu City.

"Engineer Hu, I think Sister Chengzi Tech is probably going to disappoint you," one of the R&D personnel said dismissively.

After all, Sister Chengzi Tech was merely a smartphone assembly company. Perhaps it had some technical breakthrough in voice interaction engines, but instruction set technology was far more difficult than the former.

"Don't rush to deny it, and don't rush to confirm it either," Hu Ruihui said calmly.

(End of chapter)