Chapter 76: Zhongguancun's Handsome Guy Dong, Song Yuncheng Switches Roles (35k begging for monthly votes)

Chen Yansen turned his head to look—oh, it was Zhongguancun's handsome guy Dong.

"President Liu, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Chen Yansen, CEO of Fox Tao. President Chen, this is…"

Ye Qiuping was startled at the words, and once she saw clearly it was Liu Qiangdong, she hurriedly rose and said,

"President Liu, pleasure to meet you!" Chen Yansen rose as well, cutting off Ye Qiuping's introduction, and reached out first to greet him.

Liu Qiangdong, just over thirty this year, up close had quite a few crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, a tuft of white hair in his bangs, and a deeply worried look between his brows—but his presence was commanding.

Compared with the entrepreneur he would become more than a decade later, Liu Qiangdong carried a heavy air of the jianghu; his accent was thick too, and he wore a short windbreaker over a royal-blue shirt—a look that suited his bearing perfectly.

Chen Yansen had a good impression of Old Liu; the two shared similar tastes, both liking pretty young women in their twenties.

"President Chen's name, I've been hearing around the circle these past two days—three days, one brand, 34 million in sales. Quite a few people were stunned."

Liu Qiangdong clasped Chen Yansen's hand and said with a smile.

"President Liu, you're too kind—lucky break, that's all. Please, sit." Chen Yansen gave a faint smile and gestured for everyone to sit and chat.

"I heard President Chen say earlier that both Jingdong and Taobao will succeed in the future, but also fail. Since President Chen puts it that way, there must be a reason." Liu Qiangdong sat down, frowning as he asked.

"President Liu, it was just a casual remark, don't take it seriously." Chen Yansen didn't want to explain and kept brushing it off.

The reason had to do with the future economic tide—say it and Liu Qiangdong wouldn't believe it either, unless the man trusted one hundred percent that he could foresee the future.

That'd be no different from fortune-telling!

Liu Qiangdong gave a small start at his words, then caught on—the business world was ever-shifting, after all; who could speak with certainty about the future?

Learning that Chen Yansen had reached an exclusive commission deal with Jingdong, Liu Qiangdong's heart leaped. Fox Tao's performance was outstanding—even a few-hundred-yuan clothing item could sell out; Jingdong's few-hundred-yuan small appliances would naturally be no problem, and even the several-thousand-yuan big-appliance category might be worth a try.

"How does President Chen view the big-appliance market? Any interest in running a category campaign with Jingdong?"

Thinking this far, Liu Qiangdong couldn't wait to speak up.

In 2010, what Jingdong lacked most was money. On top of the 618 promotion flop and winter arriving late, stocks of big appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners piled up severely, hugely straining Jingdong's cash flow.

"President Liu, big appliances cost at least a thousand yuan apiece—different from apparel and general merchandise. These kinds of products almost never see repeat purchases; they depend heavily on new customer traffic. Fox Tao is willing to cooperate with Jingdong, but how much sales we ultimately make depends on how much gross margin President Liu is willing to give up."

Chen Yansen hadn't expected Liu Qiangdong to be so proactive; after a moment's thought, he understood the key.

The root cause was still a lack of money!

Besides, one needed impressive performance numbers to convince investors.

After April next year, once Liu Qiangdong completed the 1.5-billion-USD Series C funding, Jingdong would take off like a rocket, and if he wanted to chat casually with Liu Qiangdong like this again, there'd hardly be a chance.

"The manufacturing cost of big appliances is right there—I can't offer as high a commission as Metersbonwe." Liu Qiangdong shook his head and said with a wry smile.

"For users, 'worth it' is what matters. If President Liu truly wants to run a category campaign on Fox Tao, we can take our time discussing the specific commission ratio, ad fees, and campaign format."

Chen Yansen said lightly.

The big-appliance category—he'd done it before; he had a ready-made mature plan in his head.

Still, whether Fox Tao's existing users could accept products priced over a thousand yuan was hard to say.

He leaned toward finishing the first phase of the Super Rebate campaign first and pulling out even more impressive results; only then would Liu Qiangdong invest more resources in this category campaign.

Rather than treating Fox Tao as a platform to just give a try.

"Alright, then let's make a verbal agreement for now, and have Ye Qiuping follow up later." Liu Qiangdong caught the meaning behind Chen Yansen's words.

He then introduced the two people beside him to Chen Yansen—one was the general manager of the North China region, the other was Zhang Limin from the delivery department, all core figures at Jingdong at present.

After exchanging business cards, Liu Qiangdong took his people and left, heading toward Yinfeng Tower.

"Sister Ping, your President Liu sure keeps a low profile—eating at a little diner for lunch?" Song Yuncheng, who hadn't said much all this time, asked in a surprised tone.

"Then you'd be wrong. Even its cheapest set meal is 48 yuan—ordinary office workers really can't bring themselves to eat here." Chen Yansen flipped open the menu and said with a light laugh.

Let alone 2010—even in 2026, white-collar workers willing to spend 48 yuan on a quick meal were few and far between.

Song Yuncheng gave an "oh" and thought to herself: looking at it that way, Amazon's Zhang Hanhua really was greedy—one meal and he wanted to fleece Chen Yansen for ten or twenty thousand.

The three of them finished lunch at an unhurried pace, then headed back.

After signing the contract in the afternoon, Chen Yansen rose to take his leave. As for the category special campaign with Jingdong, they'd have to wait for Jingdong's operations department to pick the products and the warehouse staff to finish inventory before pushing forward to the next step.

Yanjing Airport, departure hall.

"This trip wasn't for nothing—Jingdong is way bigger than Amazon, way more efficient. Isn't Amazon a foreign company? Why does it act like a shell company?"

Song Yuncheng, sitting in her seat, asked in confusion.

"It has nothing to do with being a foreign company. Some people are just greedy and lecherous—a cheap flaw baked into their bones, can't be changed."

Chen Yansen recalled his past-life experience and gave a contemptuous cold snort.

Channels, business development, and operations secretly skimming money—wasn't that just an unspoken industry rule?

Lucky ones walk away clean; unlucky ones end up behind bars.

As far as he knew, plenty were greedier than Zhang Hanhua. Take a certain internet giant, for instance—the head of its home-goods category, to line his pockets, colluded with a third-party supplier to run a scam: passing off domestic latex mattresses as imports, with a single-item price difference of over five hundred yuan.

They bought up 30 million yuan worth of goods in one go, pocketing 5 million in kickbacks. Hadn't it been for users later discovering the latex mattresses they received were a centimeter shorter than the genuine article, the scheme probably never would've come to light.

The company's big boss was so furious he decided on the spot to send every single person who'd handled the home-goods line away for a few years behind bars.

"Will Fox Tao have people like that in the future too?" Song Yuncheng asked.

"What do you think?" Chen Yansen smiled and countered.

"Boss, can I switch positions? After these few business trips and visits, I've realized I'm better suited for a channel or business-development role." Song Yuncheng bit her lip, as if she'd made a huge decision.

Changing careers sounded easy, but was hard to do.

"Not afraid of running into another Zhang Hanhua type?" Chen Yansen leaned back in his seat and teased.

"You said it yourself—these interpersonal dealings look complicated, but at the core it's all human nature. Once you grasp that, everything you do gets twice the result with half the effort." Song Yuncheng replied, brimming with confidence.

"Alright! I want to see Zhang Hanhua ruined and disgraced. You take care of him, and once it's done, I'll transfer you."

Chen Yansen nodded and agreed readily.

"Me?" Song Yuncheng's face stiffened—she'd only wanted a transfer, yet Chen Yansen had handed her such a daunting task.

"As an employee, you've got to prove your ability first, right?" Chen Yansen said matter-of-factly: "No rush, take your time thinking it over."

Song Yuncheng raised her head and looked at Chen Yansen seriously: "I can."

Chen Yansen said nothing, muttering to himself: Does this count as leading someone astray?

Heh, who cares! These days, being a good person is useless as hell!

Chen Yansen sneered inwardly.

……

……

Zhang Hanhua stewed in his office the entire day, but still couldn't come up with a way to teach Chen Yansen a lesson.

Playing dirty would easily blow things up; going head-on, at most he could only cut off Amazon's cooperation with Fox Tao.

What he didn't expect was that he'd taken a beating for nothing, and the one who beat him was still plotting how to deal with him further.

Meanwhile.

When Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng got out of the car, the sky was already pitch black; checking his watch, it was already 11:10 PM.

"The sofa?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Mm." Song Yuncheng didn't refuse.

The suitcase wheels rolled across the cement ground, emitting a 'screech screech' friction sound, especially jarring in the empty campus.

"Are you really planning to switch positions? Design is your specialty." On the way, Chen Yansen suddenly asked again.

"Business positions pay more." Song Yuncheng was concise and direct.

"Tomorrow have Xu Dan recruit another designer; just hand over your work properly." Chen Yansen said softly.

"Didn't you say—" Song Yuncheng's face was full of confusion; along the way, she had racked her brains thinking about how to 'get back' at Zhang Hanhua.

Before she could even come up with a plan, Chen Yansen had changed his mind again.

"Only in a business position will you have the chance to deal with him. Could a drawing kill Zhang Hanhua with laughter?" Chen Yansen teased.

"Chen Yansen, thank you." Song Yuncheng said sincerely.

"Just saying thank you is enough? No practical gesture?" Chen Yansen pointed at his own lips, his meaning obvious.

Song Yuncheng rolled her eyes at him and pushed her suitcase along behind.

The late autumn wind was cold and desolate; the parasol trees on both sides of Xuelin Road rustled, occasionally letting a few withered yellow leaves drift down.

Seeing her stay silent, Chen Yansen said nothing more; the two walked leisurely, from the school gate to the faculty apartment—just a few hundred meters, yet it took them over ten minutes.

Song Yuncheng's view of Chen Yansen had changed; aside from his bad habit of taking advantage of her, in both life and the workplace, Chen Yansen was quite considerate of her.

Especially since Chen Yansen was also 186 centimeters tall, with outstanding looks—saying she wasn't moved would be a lie, but thinking of her own situation, and that Chen Yansen had a girlfriend, she firmed up her own thoughts again.

"Don't be too good to me, okay?" Song Yuncheng gazed at his back and murmured softly.

……

……

The next morning, Startup Park Room 206.

Chen Yansen logged into the data backend, exported the order data for the Metersbonwe products brand team; the spreadsheet columns included product ID, title, link, order volume, total order amount, gross profit, and other information.

Total sales came to 34.69 million, gross profit was 5.97 million, with a gross profit margin close to 20%.

This is the benefit of doing brand flash sales!

You have to know, Fox Tao's daily gross profit margin is only 14%, and as industry competition grows fiercer, this number will continue to drop.

But doing brand flash sales is different; merchant and brand resources are an invisible competitive barrier, raising the industry threshold.

In the future, someone will definitely imitate Fox Tao's business model!

But by then, Chen Yansen will have long since made a fortune and switched careers to get out.

After reviewing the data and holding the morning meeting, Chen Yansen picked up the resumes of candidates who had passed the initial screening and walked straight into the interview room.

At the same time.

Several hundred li away, in Hu City.

Gu Yaozhong and his startup partners finally met Siwei Capital's venture capital director Zhang Jiancheng at a coffee shop.

"Sorry, your business plan—both my boss and I have read it. Whether it's the profit model or the profit level, neither meets Siwei Capital's standards. Moreover, there's already a leader in your industry; we have no reason not to invest in the number one, and instead invest in the second or even third-tier competitors."

Zhang Jiancheng spread his hands and rejected Gu Yaozhong's funding request.

In an instant, Gu Yaozhong's heart turned to ash, his head grew dizzy, and his limbs stiffened.

Four years of effort, ultimately in vain—even someone else couldn't have performed much better than him.

Chen Yansen didn't expect that a future unicorn company would be nipped in the bud because of him like this.

But even if he knew, he wouldn't take it to heart.

In China, there's never a shortage of competitors and imitators; lose one Gu Yaozhong, and there'll be another Li Yaozhong, Wang Yaozhong.

Meanwhile, Chen Yansen sat in his office, looked at the young man opposite him, and asked casually:

"Have you used Fox Tao? Is your user level f1 or f2?"

(End of chapter)