Chapter 78: Go Big or Go Home! Dragged Into the Grove! (35k begging for monthly votes)

"Bro, what's your squat numbers?" Hu Yongfan handed over a bottle of mineral water, asking curiously.

"No idea, let's give it a try." Chen Yansen took the water, deliberately glanced at the bottle mouth, saw it was intact, then twisted off the cap and tipped his head back to gulp down nearly half a bottle.

"I'll spot you, you rest a bit first!" Hu Yongfan suggested.

"No need." Chen Yansen waved him off.

Saying that, he walked toward the bench press, aggressively adding counterweight to the barbell, starting straight at 120 kilograms, which scared Hu Yongfan into hurrying after him, afraid something might go wrong.

Chen Yansen lay down on the bench, gripped the bar, and didn't rush to exert force, first getting a feel for the weight.

The onlookers saw this and assumed he wouldn't be able to lift it, but the moment that thought arose, they heard Chen Yansen let out a low growl and steadily hold the 120-kilogram barbell at his chest.

"Clang!"

Chen Yansen returned the barbell to the rack, let out a breath, and slowly sat up straight.

"Still adding weight?" Hu Yongfan watched his move and felt his scalp tingle—he'd trained for three years and could only press 100 kilograms.

Of course, his short stature and light weight capped his potential.

"Never tried 140 kilograms, doesn't seem like a problem." Chen Yansen clipped on the collars and said it casually.

"Alright! I'll spot you from behind." Hu Yongfan urged.

"Thanks." Chen Yansen nodded slightly and lay back down.

He took a deep breath, his arm and chest muscles engaging at the same time, veins bulging on his neck, his wrists trembling slightly.

Scared, Hu Yongfan quickly reached out, hovering his hands near the bar.

Nearly 300 jin of weight was lifted bit by bit, until held high in the air.

Chen Yansen's hands trembled not from lack of strength, but because he hadn't found the right point of exertion; once he adjusted, his arms quickly steadied.

"Clang!"

Chen Yansen returned the barbell to its place, sat up gasping for breath, his arms somewhat spent.

"Bro, with your level you could be a trainer—let's exchange contacts, train together sometime." Hu Yongfan praised.

"Next time." Chen Yansen refused again.

He had no spare time for this stuff; squeezing in a stat point was tens of thousands of times better than pumping iron.

"I'm really straight." Hu Yongfan figured Chen Yansen had misunderstood him, which was why he refused to exchange contacts, and explained with a wounded look.

"Bro, I believe you." Chen Yansen's face was dead serious, not a trace of a smile.

Rule One of the mentally ill: never admit you're sick.

By that logic, Chen Yansen naturally didn't buy Hu Yongfan's explanation—mainly because that look in his eyes was way too on the nose.

Just then, a girl in a striped sweater squeezed over and said: "Handsome, can I get your QQ?"

"Sorry, I don't have a QQ account." Chen Yansen gave a slight smile and turned to walk out.

This girl wasn't his type—looking all gentle and cute, the kind that cling the most when dating; Chen Yansen had zero interest.

Chen Zong had his own unique xp; anyone who didn't catch his eye, he couldn't be bothered to deal with.

"No QQ account!" Du Yaoyao stared at Chen Yansen's back, grinding her teeth in anger: "So what if you're good-looking! What a lazy excuse—scumbag!"

Walking out of the gym, Chen Yansen thought: only 1.67 and already this impressive—I need to recruit more people and speed up my power growth.

Back at the startup park, Chen Yansen was full of energy during interviews and hired 10 part-time customer service reps in one go; counting the original 10, they'd be able to fill two rooms in the future.

Apart from Meng Xibo and Zhu Xiaopeng, the rest were all girls, which made those two ecstatic; they secretly texted Chen Yansen with endless thanks, almost falling to their knees to call him daddy.

Chen Yansen replied with a contemptuous emoji and continued interviewing.

"Huh? Why is it you!" Du Yaoyao walked into the interview room with her resume and recognized Chen Yansen at a glance.

"Why couldn't it be me?"

Chen Yansen crossed his arms and replied with a half-smile.

He hadn't expected that just two hours later, the two would meet again.

"So you're Chen Yansen? No wonder." Du Yaoyao murmured, the second half of her sentence left unsaid.

Chen Yansen's name was even more famous than Tang Qingshan's at Virtual City College, but not many people had actually seen him.

After all, he usually stayed at the startup park—never attended required courses, never attended electives, didn't even go to PE.

Relying on the "skip-class" permit the principal had given him, the semester was already past halfway and Chen Yansen still didn't even know the surnames of his instructors.

"Still interviewing?" Chen Yansen saw her standing there in a daze and tapped the table to remind her.

"Yes, of course!"

Du Yaoyao came back to herself, sat down with a light smile, and began her self-introduction: "I'm Du Yaoyao from the '07 Chinese Language cohort, interviewing for the editor position—I'm proficient in writing all kinds of styles…"

"Monthly salary 3,000. If you can accept that, report here tomorrow at 9 a. m."

Chen Yansen saw she expressed herself fluently and logically, so he didn't ask further.

Simply put, after investment promotion and merchant communication, brand group-buy registration forms are submitted; once the category operations team reviews them, they're handed to editors to enter into the backend, and editors must uniformly replace product titles and main images.

This job was repetitive, mechanical, with no real technical threshold—anyone could do it!

"Um, is that okay, Chen Zong—can you stamp the internship certificate and provide the five social insurances plus housing fund?" Du Yaoyao asked carefully.

"We're a proper company." Chen Yansen rolled his eyes.

"Oh, thank you, Chen Zong." Du Yaoyao stuck out her tongue, politely took her leave; after learning Chen Yansen was the big boss of Fox Tao, she immediately lost her earlier casualness.

"Next!" Chen Yansen called out.

The next three who came to interview for editor were all pretty girls; after a brief exchange, Chen Yansen decided on the spot to hire them.

Xu Dan was a top student in Human Resources; these people had all passed the first round of interviews, and as long as there were no major issues, Chen Yansen would basically approve them.

Afterward, two operations staff responsible for product push notifications were also confirmed.

In the UI interface of Fox Tao version 2.0, the core consists of four major sections: Mall Rebate, Super Rebate, Nine-Nine, and Search Rebate.

From 9.9-yuan low-priced goods to brand-name products worth hundreds or thousands, Fox Tao planned to cover them all.

He would not learn from Fox Taobao, severing the traffic of small C-store vendors to force the upgrade of the Fox Taobao Shangcheng, blindly handing the opportunity over to Pinduoduo.

The lower-tier market and its users have always existed; they will not vanish just because low-priced goods are no longer sold.

Only by following the trend can one go further!

Having lived two lifetimes, Chen Yansen would not make such a basic error; since the launch of the 2.0 plan, he had clearly defined the responsibilities of each module to meet the needs of users across different price ranges.

The final few candidates had all come to apply for the investment promotion position.

Chen Yansen focused on assessing communication and logical expression skills; among the nine candidates, he kept eight, eliminating only one who looked shrewd but spoke without any logic or ability to grasp the main points.

After finishing work, he turned around and saw the sky outside the window darkening, night about to fall.

Chen Yansen returned to Room 206 and saw Song Yuncheng sitting by the window, making a phone call on her mobile.

Notebooks were scattered on the desk; the open page listed the names of dozens of e-commerce websites such as "Dream Basha," "Zouxiu. com," "Jiatiaw," and "Haolemai," with the progress of each connection marked behind every name.

"People who want to make money really fight hard!"

Chen Yansen chuckled softly and did not disturb Song Yuncheng.

He raised his hand to check his watch and walked downstairs.

In early winter in Huibei, the cold wind was bone-piercing, dry and urgent.

Many people had put on fleece-lined hoodies, and some were even wearing thin down jackets; only then did Chen Yansen realize he was wearing only a long-sleeved shirt yet felt no cold at all.

Soon, he arrived downstairs at the girls' dormitory.

Meng Jie had already been waiting for a while; as soon as she saw Chen Yansen, she took his arm and pulled him toward the school gate.

"What are you doing?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Drink, chat, fall in love, then kiss you." Meng Jie's reply was short and powerful; she giggled as she spoke.

"Alright."

Chen Yansen smiled in response; this was an interesting Miss, calling him "brother" by day and having her "brother" call her by night.

As for girls like Su Meiling and Du Yaoyao, he had grown tired of them in his past life; say a few more words and they would cry and wail, truly boring.

"Sister treats!" Meng Jie lifted her chin, smiling with narrowed eyes.

"Then I'll have to fleece you good."

Chen Yansen placed his hand on Meng Jie's shoulder and joked.

He was thirty centimeters taller than Meng Jie; seen from behind, it looked like a father holding his daughter's hand.

Arriving at the school gate, Meng Jie pointed at a row of restaurants across the street and said generously, "Pick any one."

"Shuangqing Chicken Pot, I heard from Tang Zhenzhe that the one across the street tastes pretty good."

Chen Yansen was not particular about food and said casually.

Meng Jie hummed in agreement; the two crossed the road and walked forward, going up to the second floor before spotting a restaurant with a Chicken Pot poster pasted on it.

"Eh? That looks like your roommate!" As soon as Meng Jie pulled open the glass door, she saw six people sitting at a round table by the entrance, one of whom was Tang Zhenzhe.

Before Chen Yansen could greet them, Tang Zhenzhe spotted him, hurriedly stood up, and shouted, "Brother Sen! We just arrived; why not add some dishes and eat together?"

Chen Yansen glanced over; besides him, there was Su Meiling, and he did not recognize the other four people at all.

Hearing Tang Zhenzhe's invitation, Chen Yansen turned his gaze toward Meng Jie.

"More people means more liveliness, and we can meet new friends." Meng Jie showed no timidity and agreed generously.

"Fine, tell the boss to add more dishes, settle the bill first, and I'll reimburse you later." Chen Yansen leaned down and whispered in Meng Jie's ear.

Meng Jie nodded, turned, and walked toward the cashier; Chen Yansen took the opportunity to sit down.

"Brother Sen, is that Meng Jie? So you like tomboys." Tang Zhenzhe, familiar with Chen Yansen, pulled him close and teased with a wicked smile.

Meng Jie's hair, though grown for a few months, was still much shorter than most girls', just reaching her shoulders.

"Stop talking nonsense! Her temper is bad; be careful she doesn't hit you with a beer bottle." Seeing the beer on the table, Chen Yansen warned half-jokingly.

"Hey, pretend I never said it." Tang Zhenzhe believed him and quickly shut his mouth.

Su Meiling, standing nearby, introduced the others to Chen Yansen; they were all from the Student Union of the School of Literature and Communication. Chen Yansen nodded in acknowledgment but did not even remember their names.

A university student union was of no use whatsoever, especially at a second-tier university.

After Meng Jie returned from adding dishes, the group raised their glasses and drank.

Su Meiling's glass contained fruit juice; seeing Meng Jie drinking beer in large gulps alongside several boys, showing no feminine reserve, she couldn't help but think inwardly: Does Chen Yansen like the wild girlfriend type? But I can't drink alcohol.

Remembering the white stockings hidden in the dormitory, Su Meiling felt a wave of discouragement.

She looked at Tang Zhenzhe, then at Chen Yansen; she had intended to give Tang Zhenzhe another chance, but instantly discarded the thought.

Tang Zhenzhe was not bad; he cared for her deeply, asking about her health and comfort all day, but he could not compare to Chen Yansen.

"For this month's New Year's Eve gala, every class must put on a performance, but our class has few who can sing; only Xu Xingxing signed up for 'Bad Girl,' and the teacher rejected it, saying it didn't fit the spirit and temperament of the School of Literature and Communication." Tang Zhenzhe held his wine glass and helplessly complained.

"So is there a performance now?" Chen Yansen asked.

"I found a senior from the Music Conservatory to help; we'll rehearse a poetry recitation, get thirty people up there directly; without even discussing the effect, just the momentum alone can win the Best Performance award."

Hearing Chen Yansen's question, Tang Zhenzhe grinned widely and smiled proudly.

Chen Yansen gave a thumbs-up in praise.

Don't underestimate recitations; such performances have strong emotional impact and are the easiest award-winning acts at university.

"I've signed up for the Business School's New Year's Eve gala; you must come then." Meng Jie tapped Chen Yansen and earnestly reminded him.

At the last welcome gala, she had prepared for a long time, but Chen Yansen had stayed late at the Entrepreneurship Park with Zhang Wenbo and others, making her furious.

"I will definitely go." Chen Yansen raised his hand and solemnly promised.

After the meal, the group parted ways on Xuelin Road.

Meng Jie pulled Chen Yansen, aimed for the small woods beside Pearl Lake, and dove right in.

Chen Yansen's expression was strange; he thought: Isn't this a bit wrong?

(End of this chapter)