Chapter 66: Bin-ge, Our Big Nephew Is in the Papers! (31k Followers)

The second floor of the startup park was lit up bright as day, the noise of voices reaching a fever pitch.

The conference screen from Room 206 had been pushed into the middle of the corridor. At this moment, the entire membership of Fox Tao—Tang Qingshan, several deans, and Cao Dahua among others—were all gathered around.

With only ten minutes left until midnight, Chen Yansen hadn't expected that Fox Tao's first time participating in a major e-commerce platform promotion would create such a huge sensation.

He had originally wanted to head back early to rest, but Tang Qingshan and several deans wouldn't hear of it, insisting on staying up with everyone until midnight to witness the complete Singles' Day data firsthand.

"Class monitor, the hotel is booked. After work, we can head straight there to check in." Xu Xingxing squeezed into the crowd, leaned close to Chen Yansen's ear, and whispered.

"Post it in the project group chat." Chen Yansen gave a slight nod, then instructed.

The dormitory gate closes at ten. With Tang Qingshan and the deans around, naturally they could return to their rooms anytime. Going back to the dorm was fine anytime, but showering was the problem—surely they couldn't expect everyone to wash with cold water.

So Chen Yansen had given Xu Xingxing instructions in advance, asking her to book more than twenty rooms so everyone would have a comfortable place to rest.

Xu Xingxing acknowledged him, took out her phone, and began composing a message.

"Order volume: 297,000 orders!"

"Total sales: 18.69 million!"

The instant midnight struck, the second floor erupted in cheers.

Everyone was in high spirits. This terrifying sales figure far exceeded the limits of their imagination, and at the same time gave them a deep sense of pride in having taken part.

"Chen Yansen, well done! At next year's college entrepreneurship competition, if you take second place, no one will dare claim first." Tang Qingshan patted Chen Yansen on the shoulder, praising him with a beaming smile.

"Thanks to Principal Tang's support and cultivation, Fox Tao will certainly keep up the effort and bring more glory to Xucheng College…" Chen Yansen handled it with practiced ease; in just a few words, he hit every note Tang Qingshan wanted to hear, leaving him very satisfied.

After Chen Yansen saw Tang Qingshan and the others out, he turned back to the second floor. Seeing everyone staring at him in unison with expectant looks, he knew that if he didn't say something, these greenhorns probably wouldn't sleep a wink.

"Hu Yun, what's the gross profit margin looking like?"

After a brief pause to think, Chen Yansen asked Hu Yun.

"Sen-ge, gross margin is 3.9%. Yesterday's gross profit was 729,000!" Hu Yun answered immediately..

"It's late, so I'll keep it short. Tomorrow morning is off. Also, at the end of the month I'll set aside 200,000 as this month's bonus. Our next target: 100,000 daily orders and monthly sales over 100 million. Hit it within the month, and the bonus doubles!"

Chen Yansen crossed his arms and tossed out the line casually, but it landed like a heavy bomb, startling everyone into a collective cheer.

"Shh!"

Chen Yansen made a silencing gesture, then waved his hand, signaling everyone to shut down their computers and head to the hotel to sleep.

"Sen-ge, are you going back to the dorm or to the hotel? I asked Wenbo, Pengfei, Zhuang Rui, and Xu Xingxing to go for barbecue—want to come?" Wang Zihao walked over with a grin and asked.

"Forget it, you guys go." Chen Yansen raised his hand to check the time—it was already 12:30 a. m. Hang out and eat barbecue with a bunch of idiots? He wasn't interested.

"Ahh, I already promised them you'd definitely come. Give a bro some face, will you?" Wang Zihao lowered his voice and pleaded ingratiatingly.

"Unless you call me 'daddy'!" Chen Yansen said with a straight face, completely serious.

"Daddy!" Wang Zihao hesitated for a moment, then shamelessly called out. Judging by his look, if Chen Yansen wasn't satisfied, he could call it out even more affectionately.

"Shameless mutt, I really can't with you!" Chen Yansen froze, caught between annoyance and amusement.

In this life, under his deliberate cultivation, Wang Zihao had already developed a thick-skinned streak. In the future, if he ran into a manipulative woman again, he probably wouldn't be cowardly enough to jump off a building.

As the lights in the startup park went out, a huge crowd of people streamed toward the area outside the school.

The gate guard had long been tipped off by Cao Dahua—he asked no questions, raised no objections, and cheerfully opened the gate for them.

"Ring ring—"

At the barbecue stall, Chen Yansen had just sat down when the phone in his pocket rang. The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number.

Who could it be?

Calling me in the middle of the night?

Chen Yansen thought for a few seconds, then pressed answer: "Who is this?"

"Mr. Chen, I'm a staff member from Mama Ali Alliance. First, on behalf of the group, I'd like to thank Fox Tao for its support of the Singles' Day event. Are you free on November 16th? We'd like to invite you to attend Mama Ali's channel recognition conference?"

The voice on the other end was young. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they got straight to the point.

Channel recognition conference?

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes, his mind turning it over, and immediately understood their intent. For anyone with ambition, this kind of industry gathering was absolutely a good opportunity to expand resources and connections. Without much thought, he agreed on the spot.

"Sen-ge, who's that? Come drink!" Wang Zihao called out.

Chen Yansen put down his phone, returned to his seat, took a bite of a meat skewer, and lightly clinked glasses with the others.

The Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Zhuang Rui, and Xu Xingxing in front of him, compared to his past-life startup team, were a far cry in terms of work experience and worldly wisdom, but in terms of enthusiasm and resilience, they had given him a pleasant surprise.

"Sen-ge, I'll hand you the requirements document for the merchant CRM management system tomorrow." Zhuang Rui downed the beer in his glass in one gulp and spoke up.

"We'll guarantee it goes live before month's end." Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei chimed in agreement.

"No work talk. Let's talk about girls. Wenbo, four years of college and you never got a girlfriend?"

Chen Yansen waved his hand, indicating he didn't want to talk about work, and deliberately changed the subject.

He was clearly only a freshman, yet the aura he carried was like that of an upperclassman.

"Sen-ge, stop teasing me. Pengfei's the one with experience in that area." Zhang Wenbo's face reddened as he pushed Xiang Pengfei forward.

"Judging by that look, you're probably a little Chu Nan. There are plenty of girls in college. While you're young, you should date around a bit—otherwise how will you know what type of girl suits you?"

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, his eyes glinting with mischief as he teased.

"Sen-ge, you look like a seasoned pro at romance. Share some wisdom, will you?" Zhuang Rui raised his glass and said with a grin.

"It's pretty much like writing requirements docs—date a few, and the experience comes naturally." Chen Yansen brushed it off casually.

What experience could he possibly have?

With his tall, handsome looks, plus his identity as a Shanghai bachelor entrepreneur, plenty of young girls threw themselves at him. The good ones and the bad ones, he'd tried them all.

In the end, he found that bad girls were the most fun!

Xu Xingxing gazed at Chen Yansen, taking small sips of beer, and thought to herself: boys are more interesting when they're a bit scummy. A guy like Chen Yansen—who has the ability and is a bit of a player in romance—held an enormous attraction for her.

As for the fact that he had a girlfriend, she had long since automatically ignored it.

An hour later, Chen Yansen wrapped up the drinking session, and the group staggered off toward the hotel.

……

……

The next day, Chen Yansen slept until half past ten. He went down to the hotel lobby and saw Xu Xingxing checking out at the front desk.

"Class monitor, you stay in a hotel and still deadbolt the door at night?" Xu Xingxing turned and spotted him, asking in a low, aggrieved voice.

"What else? A guy out on his own has to protect himself too. But how did you know I deadbolted the door?"

Chen Yansen answered instinctively, then pressed her.

"I guessed!" Xu Xingxing's face flickered, and she hastily offered an excuse.

"You weren't planning to do something to me last night, were you?" Chen Yansen asked with a mischievous grin. "You should've said so earlier—I wouldn't have locked the door."

"No way! Class monitor, I'm done talking to you—I need to head back to the dorm first." Xu Xingxing finished and hurried off.

Chen Yansen didn't give the matter a second thought. He handed his room card to the front desk, ate a bowl of chicken shredded rice at the door, and then strolled back to 0418.

At that moment, on the three major portal websites, news about Taobao's Double Eleven sales figures was everywhere.

A single-day sales figure of one billion!

That number might be nothing to speak of a decade or so later, but in 2010, it shocked four hundred million netizens—they hadn't expected e-commerce to have already developed to such a level!

Among these news stories, one could occasionally see reports about Mama Ali. As the leading domestic guide-purchase e-commerce platform, it had contributed twenty million in sales the day before—a result that left people wide-eyed.

Especially upon learning that the founder of Mama Ali was merely an eighteen-year-old college freshman, every major news website instantly erupted.

That very afternoon, even the Youth Daily ran a feature on Chen Yansen and the entrepreneurial story of Mama Ali.

An eighteen-year-old male college student, tens of millions in venture capital from Penguin, going from zero to several million users in two months, and raking in twenty million in sales on Double Eleven—these pieces of information, combined, quickly pushed Chen Yansen onto the trending searches.

In those days, Cheng Ou and his "I speak for myself" hadn't yet appeared, so Chen Yansen's inspirational story was clearly more representative, and for a time he became the object of media adulation.

College students across the country, because of Chen Yansen, grew increasingly receptive to the guide-purchase e-commerce model and Mama Ali. Users who had previously registered but never placed an order all completed their first rebate order in mid-October.

One afternoon, Chen Yansen sat at his desk, the phone ringing nonstop—one moment a reporter from the Hui'an Daily calling to arrange an exclusive interview, the next the editor-in-chief of the Hui'an Youth Daily inviting him to be on the cover, and even the Hui'an Economic Channel called, asking him to come on a talk show.

Chen Yansen wasn't one to put on airs. This kind of positive publicity from print and television media was, for Mama Ali, a wave of free traffic. Without hesitation, he agreed to all of them.

A decade or so later, even some top business tycoons, chasing buzz and traffic, couldn't resist getting in on the act with Douyin.

Therefore, he felt no psychological burden at all.

Chen Yansen first did the reporter's interview, then shot a set of cover photos. The economic channel's talk show he scheduled for late November—after all, he had already promised Mama Ali that he would go to Hangcheng on the 16th to attend the channel awards ceremony.

Several hundred li away, in Spring-Shen Town, the Guobin Bookstore.

"Bingo, our big nephew is in the newspaper—take a look!" The owner of the photo studio next door walked in holding a copy of the paper.

On the cover of the Hui'an Youth Daily was a half-length portrait of Chen Yansen—upper body in a black shirt, three-quarters of his face showing, a roguish smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

Just on the strength of Chen Yansen's face, that issue of the Hui'an Youth Daily sold an extra six thousand copies.

Founder of Mama Ali?

Business genius earning tens of millions a year?

Chen Guobin took the paper, his face blank: they're talking about my son?

(End of chapter)