Chapter 44: On the Eve of Launch, The First Meeting (3k)

Chen Yansen had no desire whatsoever to be the vice monitor; since Guo Dongchen never approached him, he simply pretended to know nothing about it.

Over the following days, he continued busy with recruitment, refining the development plan with Zhang Wenbo and others, and sorting out the most urgent development requirements for the first step.

Rooms 206 and 208 in the Entrepreneurship Park rapidly expanded from an initial seven-person team to eleven, and the development progress advanced steadily.

"Song Yuncheng, optimize the website brand logo again; create three versions of icons for user registration, login, homepage, rebate list, and order details; we will review them together next Monday."

Chen Yansen tapped the table and said to Song Yuncheng across from him.

"Okay, my lord!"

Song Yuncheng hung her head and nodded helplessly.

She had thought that once recruitment ended and she returned to the UI position, work would be easier; she never expected that for a single requirement, Chen Yansen would always make her produce three versions—A, B, and C; at one moment, she even wanted to go back to the cafeteria to get food.

"Pengfei, how many more weeks for the development of registration, login, personal information management, and rebate withdrawal functions?"

"Wenbo, browser compatibility issues; I give you three days; if you can't solve them, don't come back."

"Zhuang Rui, is this the requirements document you wrote? You haven't even clarified the logic for rebate arrival; if this happens again, you're out!"

Chen Yansen's roar echoed through the second floor of the Entrepreneurship Park.

Seeing this scene, Song Yuncheng secretly felt relieved; at least Chen Yansen had never scolded her like that.

Chen Yansen had a domineering personality; before the project launched, he would not tolerate even a single mistake; however, he did not merely urge them on; occasionally, he would pull a few people together to clarify development difficulties.

Or he would treat them to a meal to deepen team bonds.

Having experienced the golden decade of mobile internet and witnessed the prosperity of e-commerce empires, he knew clearly in his heart what product he wanted and what kind of product could stand firm in the market and achieve fame!

"After the project goes online, I will re-determine salaries based on everyone's performance during development; those who are unqualified will be eliminated directly."

Chen Yansen said with a cold face and a serious expression.

After speaking, he turned and went downstairs, walking with small, slow steps, leisurely crossing the Yixing Bridge, standing under the tree shade by the basketball court, eating an ice cream while gazing at the student formation undergoing military training.

"One-two-one, one-two-one!"

Neat footsteps rang out, and dust flew into the air!

September in Huibei was still stiflingly hot; within a short while, some boys were already sweating profusely under the scorching sun.

Chen Yansen squinted and saw Wang Zihao from afar, his face full of pain.

The instant their eyes met, Wang Zihao immediately read his lip movement: "Feeling good?"

"Sigh, I should have known better than to pretend to be cool; holding a sick leave note and enjoying the fan in the dorm would have been so much more comfortable."

Wang Zihao lowered his head, feeling somewhat regretful in his heart; sweat droplets on his forehead slid down his neck, and his chest itched unbearably.

Whenever it itched, he wanted to scratch; just as he raised his hand, he heard the instructor's roar: "Sixth column, second row, step out! Twenty push-ups!"

"Instructor, I—"

Wang Zihao was about to explain.

But the instructor did not bother arguing with him at all; he glared at him and shouted: "Thirty!"

"Damn it, Brother Sen really had foresight!" Wang Zihao, helpless, knowing that as monitor he really shouldn't oppose the instructor, finally could only obediently step out, stick out his buttocks, and do push-ups.

Chen Yansen watched with malicious glee for a while until his phone rang, only then turning to walk back.

The two air conditioners he bought had arrived!

In the entire Entrepreneurship Park, except for Cao Dahua's office, all other startup rooms could only rely on fans for cooling; summer could be barely endured, but Huibei's winters are cold; without heating, it would truly be life-threatening!

"Master, over here!" Chen Yansen waved to the two delivery workers, then led them up to the second floor.

"Your building hasn't reserved air conditioner spots; we need to install two brackets on the outer wall..."

One of the thin men opened the outer window and said after checking carefully.

"Money is not an issue; install it as soon as possible."

Chen Yansen waved his hand, cutting off the other's preamble.

"My lord is straightforward! Old Liu, let's get to work!"

The thin man grinned, quickly unpacked the boxes to reveal the outdoor and indoor units of the air conditioner, and called his partner to start work.

"Brother Sen, are you installing air conditioning for us?" Xiang Pengfei dropped his keyboard and hurried over.

"Yeah, the room is full of your sweaty smell!"

Chen Yansen glanced at him and joked with a smile.

"Hehe, Brother Sen, can I discuss something with you? Tonight I'll bring a bamboo mat; can I sleep in 206 from now on?" Zhuang Rui squeezed in and asked with a mischievous grin.

The dormitories at Xucheng Academy have no air conditioning; in summer, it is truly unbearable.

"Up to you." Chen Yansen naturally wouldn't care about that little electricity cost and said indifferently.

"Thanks, Brother Sen; I want to sleep here too; I happen to have a camp bed." Zhang Wenbo, the sneakiest of all, only hurriedly agreed after hearing Chen Yansen's acceptance.

In the eyes of the others, the desire was clearly stirred as well.

Chen Yansen fully realized that his unintentional act of installing air conditioning greatly increased the development speed.

These eighteen- and nineteen-year-old young people, after coming at night with their bedding, also knew it was embarrassing to freeload on the broadband and air conditioning; instead, they gathered together to write code.

Approaching noon, just as Chen Yansen was about to go downstairs for a meal, he saw Wang Zihao and Meng Jie walking up from the corner of the stairs.

"Holy crap! Brother Sen, when did you install the air conditioning? Oh my, this is so damn cool!"

Wang Zihao pushed open the glass door of 206; a gust of cool air rushed at him; before his words even finished, he rushed a few steps under the air conditioner, blowing and humming at the same time.

"Chen Yansen, not bad! I thought you only had a couple of cats here; I didn't expect it to be this scaled up."

Meng Jie stood on tiptoe, patted Chen Yansen's shoulder, acting like a little adult.

"Not bad, right? If military training tires you, come rest anytime; I'll buy a refrigerator later and fill it with your favorite cold drinks." Chen Yansen said with a smile, a hint of doting in his eyes.

"Brother Sen, I want one too!" Wang Zihao grinned and shouted, turning his head.

"Let me introduce everyone; this fatty is my brother by different fathers and different mothers; next time if you see him coming to steal ice cream, just don't treat him as a thief and arrest him."

Chen Yansen pointed at Wang Zihao and joked mockingly.

"Brother Gou Sen, saying that makes you seem like a stranger. Hello, seniors. I am Wang Zihao, class monitor of the 2010 E-commerce class. Nice to meet you all."

Wang Zihao was about to curse, but seeing that everyone in the room was Chen Yansen's employee, he swallowed the swear words and introduced himself with open-minded confidence.

"As for this one, my girlfriend, Meng Jie!" Chen Yansen held Meng Jie's hand and introduced her seriously.

Upon hearing this, fireworks seemed to explode endlessly in Meng Jie's mind, and her heart pounded. She lifted her head and subconsciously looked at Chen Yansen. His eyebrows raised slightly, a roguish, mischievous smile on his face, yet his expression while speaking was exceptionally solemn.

This was the first time Chen Yansen had formally introduced her as his girlfriend to outsiders.

"Girlfriend? So he has a girlfriend."

Song Yuncheng's expression stiffened in the crowd. A bitter smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, then vanished quickly, replaced immediately by a gentle smile.

An indescribable discomfort filled her heart. During the time the two had spent together, every move Chen Yansen made had left a deep impression in her mind, more or less.

When he ate shrimp, he had even deliberately bitten her finger.

She had never been in a relationship, but to say she had no affection at all for a roguish guy like Chen Yansen would clearly be self-deception.

But now, even that tiny bit of feeling was completely crushed by Chen Yansen's words.

"Good thing I wasn't fooled; Chen Yansen is just a scumbag." Song Yuncheng took a deep breath and warned herself silently.

"This is Zhang Wenbo, our Senhai front-end engineer; Xiang Pengfei, back-end; Zhuang Rui, product manager; and Song Yuncheng, UI designer..."

Chen Yansen introduced the existing members of Senhai one by one to Wang Zihao and Meng Jie.

"Senior Song, you're here too?"

Wang Zihao felt slightly surprised, looked at Chen Yansen suspiciously, and then made polite conversation.

"Eh? Zihao, do you know Senior Song?" A hint of curiosity flashed in Meng Jie's eyes.

"Um, yes, the first time we met..." Wang Zihao subconsciously wanted to tell Meng Jie about the scene when the three of them first met.

"Nothing special. Song Yuncheng is our campus card agent." Chen Yansen rolled his eyes at Wang Zihao and cut in.

"Hello, Senior Song. I am Meng Jie from the 2010 Accounting class. Nice to meet you."

Meng Jie stepped forward gracefully and extended her hand.

"Hello."

Song Yuncheng replied briefly, unable to help but secretly size up Meng Jie.

The other person was petite, under 1.6 meters tall, half a head shorter than herself. She wore a blue-and-white military training uniform, frameless glasses, had a palm-sized face with delicate, small features, and the most striking thing was her short hair, just past her earlobes.

Her expression was lively, her personality carefree, and she looked more like a boy.

"Seems she isn't even prettier than me!" Song Yuncheng inexplicably had this thought, but immediately felt the idea was ridiculous and quickly extinguished it in her heart.

After the pleasantries ended, the group chatted and laughed as they walked toward the cafeteria.

In the following days, except at the Entrepreneurship Park, Song Yuncheng did not say a single extra word to Chen Yansen.

Every step Chen Yansen took closer, she took a step back; their relationship instantly returned to those days when she was a campus agent.

Chen Yansen didn't mind and didn't take it to heart; instead, he devoted all his energy to his work.

September 17: The user login system went live, supporting email or phone number verification;

September 19: The Zhi Fu Bao API interface was successfully integrated, and the cash-out function for rebates went live;

September 24: The order system testing went live, integrating the Tao Bao Network API to synchronize order data;

September 29: The product library module went live. The data source came from the Mama Ali and Ali Baba product pool, allowing independent modification of main images and titles in the backend to achieve one-click push functionality.

By this point, Chen Yansen's first-phase development work was fully completed; the core merchant management system was left for the second phase.

Only a suitable product name remained before launch.

(End of this chapter)