Chapter 57: The Penguin

The next morning, after breakfast, Chen Yansen strolled up to the second floor of the startup park.

There, Zhuang Rui, Zhang Wenbo, and Hu Yun lay on a single bamboo mat, clinging to each other in awkward poses, fast asleep.

“Fuck! You three are unstoppable!”

Chen Yansen chuckled softly but didn’t rush to wake them; instead, he pulled out his phone and started snapping photos furiously.

“Hey! Wake up! Put some clothes on—the customer service girls are coming soon, don’t scare them!”

After taking the photos, Chen Yansen smirked and kicked Hu Yun awake, shouting loudly.

“What the hell! I was fully dressed before I went to sleep!” Hu Yun blinked open his bleary eyes at the noise, then instinctively yelled when he realized he was shirtless.

“Zhuang Rui, you bastard, why the fuck were you poking me with a stick in the middle of the night?” Zhang Wenbo rubbed his ass, clearly annoyed.

“Pfft! Who poked you with a stick? You must’ve dreamed it!” Zhuang Rui yawned, grabbed a black short-sleeve T-shirt at random, then immediately snapped at Hu Yun: “You’re such a slob—you threw your dirty clothes on me!”

“….”

Hu Yun was momentarily speechless, almost laughing from anger, but he himself wasn’t even sure whether he’d taken off his clothes or if someone else had.

Chen Yansen glanced at Zhuang Rui, stepped back a pace, and urged: “Go wash up quick—this room smells awful.”

“Heh, Sen-ge, guess how the numbers turned out last night?” Hu Yun asked with a grin as he pulled on his clothes.

“Can’t guess. Just tell me.”

Chen Yansen pulled over a chair, sat down, poured himself a glass of water, then asked calmly.

He could’ve checked the data by logging into the backend, but these three had stayed up till dawn in the startup park—he couldn’t just ignore their effort.

“New user growth: 81,000. Orders: 6,459. Total sales: 200,160 yuan. Gross profit: 32,800 yuan.”

Hu Yun blurted it out instantly—he clearly had the numbers memorized.

“Not bad! Keep it up!” Chen Yansen smiled faintly, offering a casual word of encouragement.

To these college students, these figures were astronomical—an unimaginable achievement—but to Chen Yansen, they meant little; after costs, it was barely enough to cover noise.

Fox Tao ’s real growth potential depended on new user retention, first-purchase conversion rate, and repurchase frequency.

Hu Yun sighed softly—he could sense Chen Yansen’s indifference, his lack of genuine reaction. Though Chen Yansen was a freshman and he was a junior, he’d never once seen panic or surprise on Chen Yansen’s face.

They were all eighteen or nineteen—how could the gap be so huge?

The three dressed, rolled up the bamboo mat, and trudged slowly back to their dorm.

Ten minutes later, Song Yuncheng walked into Room 206 carrying her laptop. Since Fox Tao had provided her with a work computer, she’d stopped borrowing her roommate’s notebook—her design skills had skyrocketed.

“Chen Zong, good morning!”

Song Yuncheng glanced up and saw Chen Yansen. She hesitated two or three seconds, then finally greeted him.

“Since the zero-price cut-price feature went live, how’s the influx of customer inquiries? Can Meng Xibo, Zhu Xiaopeng, and the others handle it?”

Chen Yansen acknowledged her, then asked.

Handle it?

Song Yuncheng paused slightly. She didn’t fully grasp the term, but from context, she guessed its meaning. After thinking, she replied: “It gets a bit overwhelming during lunch and evening peaks, but during low-traffic hours, we’re still managing.”

“Tell Zhuang Rui to add the most common user questions and standard replies to the inquiry interface—that’ll reduce the workload. Then have Xu Xingxing post a job ad to hire three more part-time customer service reps.”

Chen Yansen frowned, thought for a moment, then instructed her.

“Three more customer service reps?”

Song Yuncheng froze, confused by his request.

“Plan ahead! Do we wait until the customer service team is completely overwhelmed before hiring? Training takes three days.”

Chen Yansen gave her a look like she was an idiot, then patiently explained.

“Oh, I get it.”

Song Yuncheng’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. She nodded, pulled out her notebook, and jotted down the two tasks Chen Yansen had mentioned.

“B2C e-commerce site, website search, CRM merchant management system, payment license… damn, nothing’s rushing. With just a handful of us, getting this far without total chaos is pure luck.”

Chen Yansen leaned back, muttered under his breath, feeling both frustrated and hopeful about the road ahead.

While competitors were still running product discounts, he was already doing rebates. When rivals copied him with rebates, he’d launch brand bundles to elevate platform prestige; when they started building brands and negotiating with merchants, he’d dive into supply chains.

Always stay one step ahead—so no one ever gets a chance to copy him.

Soon, more than half of Fox Tao ’s team arrived. Each startup room had six desks, plus a fridge and water dispenser—space was nearly gone.

If they hired more people, even the newly rented Room 204 would be full.

Since everyone was a student with different class schedules, people came and went at different times.

Of course, seniors like Zhang Wenbo, Zhuang Rui, and Hu Li spent nearly all their free time in the startup park, aside from finishing their graduation theses.

After the first user who received an iPhone 4 went viral, Fox Tao finally gained some recognition in the circle. The daily ad spend rose from an initial 4,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan—a tenfold increase.

Daily new website users surged like weeds.

October 24: Fox Tao gained 97,000 new users in a day!

October 25: Fox Tao gained 115,000 new users in a day!

October 26: Fox Tao gained 141,000 new users in a day!

October 27: Fox Tao gained 171,000 new users in a day!

October 28: Fox Tao gained 163,000 new users in a day!

October 29: Fox Tao gained 149,000 new users in a day!

October 30: Fox Tao gained 93,000 new users in a day!

In less than two months, Chen Yansen, through the name-voting campaign and zero-price cut-price promotion, plus over 300,000 yuan in ad spending, pushed Fox Tao ’s cumulative registered users to 1.09 million!

Daily active users stabilized around 60,000!

Daily orders hovered near 9,000!

Single-day sales peaked at 280,000 yuan—just one step away from the monthly million-yuan target.

But Chen Yansen knew: these results might be fleeting. If users weren’t retained, the numbers would plummet fast.

October 31—the last day of the month.

On the second floor of the startup park, gloom hung thick. Everyone looked like defeated roosters compared to yesterday.

“Zhuang Rui, what did Tencent say?”

Chen Yansen’s eyes narrowed, barely holding back his anger.

“I spoke with their security team. Sen-ge, the scripts you gave us—they ignored them completely. They insist our links pose data-leak and account-theft risks and refuse to unblock our IP and domain.”

Zhuang Rui, rarely swearing, snapped back in fury.

“Fuck!”

Chen Yansen slammed his fist on the desk, tugged at his collar. Shenzhen’s Tencent was ruthless—block and done, and he had zero recourse.

“How many new users today?” Chen Yansen sighed heavily, asking Hu Yun.

“Seventy-three percent of our new users come from QQ. If we can’t fix this, new user growth will cap at around 50,000. And the attitude from campus networks, Weibo, and Baidu is still unclear—they might block us too.”

Hu Yun answered seriously.

They knew their own situation: Fox Tao ’s cut-price links were like a digital skin disease, clinging stubbornly to every major social platform.

“For now, use IP and domain switching to wage guerrilla warfare against Tencent.”

Chen Yansen tapped the desk rhythmically with his fingers, thinking long and hard, then came up with a helpless solution.

“That’s all we can do.” Zhuang Rui nodded and turned to act.

“Damn it, if only I knew Hao Rui back then—I could’ve had him drop a word and this’d be solved in minutes.”

Chen Yansen thought to himself.

Hao Rui was an executive director at Tencent’s investment and acquisition division. In his past life, he led Feiyu Tech’s Series A funding. They’d been close—bros who’d walked the same path.

But even if he knew Hao Rui, it wouldn’t matter—2010, Hao Rui was still at Accenture, not yet at Tencent.

“Fuck! For now, we just grit our teeth and wait. When Fox Tao ’s DAU climbs another level and catches investors’ attention, then we’ll find connections.”

Chen Yansen closed his eyes, thoughts swirling.

Across from him, Song Yuncheng stole glances at him. She’d never seen Chen Yansen like this—helpless, frustrated, irritable. She’d always assumed that even if the sky fell, he’d still wear that same cocky, indifferent smirk.

“Ding-ding-ding—”

The office landline suddenly rang.

Xu Xingxing, sitting nearby, picked up the receiver and greeted smoothly: “Hello, this is Fox Tao , may I help you…”

Xu Xingxing fell silent. She looked up and waved urgently at Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen didn’t want to answer, but Xu Xingxing kept waving. Reluctantly, he stood, walked over, and said: “I’m Chen Yansen, head of Fox Tao …”

But when he heard the caller’s introduction, his brow furrowed, his face darkened, and he listened in silence.

Three minutes later, Chen Yansen hung up.

He leaned against the desk, staring out at the campus scenery. He never imagined Fox Tao would so quickly catch the eye of a top predator.

“Xu Xingxing, book two tickets to Shenzhen.”

Chen Yansen took a deep breath—he had to go.

“Class rep, besides you, who else is going?” Xu Xingxing asked eagerly, her face bright with anticipation.

“Song Yuncheng.”

Chen Yansen replied briefly.

“Me?”

Song Yuncheng pointed at herself, stunned. She’d never heard of UI designers, part-time operators, or customer service team leads being sent on business trips.

(End of chapter)