Chapter 80: 【Important! Must Read!】Wine God Network Joins, 1,000 Bottles

The first phase of Super Return launched on its first day with total sales reaching 10.37 million!

The next day: 5.37 million!

The third day: 2.48 million!

But on the second day, the second phase of Super Return launched simultaneously; the limited-quantity flash-sale items from the first phase sank to the bottom of the product pool, freeing up traffic.

The first day of the second phase of Super Return achieved sales of 8.93 million!

The second day: 4.92 million!

The third day: 3.01 million!

Both consecutive Super Return campaigns delivered outstanding results, and soon, more and more merchants came knocking on their door.

Li Hui and the others were swamped on the second floor of the startup park, phones ringing nonstop without a single pause.

Though exhausted, the thought of generous commissions kept everyone energized.

“Boss Zhang, I’m Li Hui from Fox Tao . Regarding the commission rate we discussed earlier for the hit product, I believe 60% is more suitable—the Nine Yang campaign last time used this ratio. You offered 50%, but the category operations team rejected it. Aren’t we just wasting time?”

Li Hui sat at his desk, holding his phone, negotiating with merchants.

Everyone else was equally busy: chasing merchants to sign up, selecting products, setting commission rates, submitting them for category review, and once approved, having editors import the data into the backend.

Everyone was swamped—after Super Return launched, over 100 flash-sale products were needed daily, at least 30 brands, totaling 3,000 flash sales and nearly 1,000 brands per month.

Coupled with Chen Yan’s repeated emphasis on expanding the variety and quantity of Super Return products, the merchant acquisition team bore the heaviest pressure: they had to coordinate with category-assigned merchants (those who voluntarily registered on the website) and also cold-contact them via WangWang.

Though officially a six-hour workday, Li Hui and the others arrived at 8 a.m. and didn’t leave until 9:30 p.m.

Each brand group generated gross profits ranging from 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, or as little as 50,000 to 60,000 yuan; launching one meant they earned at least 2,000 yuan.

Is this any different from picking up money?

Hu Li and Xu Kun, the category operations staff, watched enviously, desperate to ask Chen Yan for a transfer to a more lucrative position.

Chen Yan noticed this and sighed inwardly: after December, he’d need another salary adjustment—keeping pay at the current level would inevitably cause problems.

But he wasn’t worried: the four pillars—Nine Yuan, Search Rebate, Mall Rebate, and Super Return—brought him nearly 2 million yuan daily in revenue; after deducting technical and advertising costs, he still had around 1.2 million left.

How much could salaries possibly cost?

No company in this world has ever gone bankrupt because it paid its employees too well.

As Chen Yan was pondering this, Xu Dan approached with a resume: “Brother Sen, there’s an interviewee in the conference room—he’s from Yixun.com, not deeply experienced in the industry, but he has all the merchant resources needed, mainly focused on home and daily necessities.”

“Can’t you hire a Taobao Xiao Er?”

Hearing Xu Dan’s words, Chen Yan instinctively asked.

“We offered a base salary of 10,000 yuan, but no one wanted to come,” Xu Dan replied with an awkward, helpless smile.

“Alright, use this resume to find some alternative candidates,” Chen Yan nodded slightly, understanding.

He realized he’d underestimated the issue—these e-commerce Xiao Ers controlled product listings and had some influence over promotional resources.

Managers could pocket tens of millions a year; even junior staff could make hundreds of thousands. Naturally, they looked down on Chen Yan’s meager offerings.

But Chen Yan didn’t care. Though the category assistant role paid less and involved more work, it offered frequent merchant contact, which met his needs—he didn’t need to poach a category manager.

After all, Chen Yan only wanted to rinse the resources once; lower costs better served his interests.

“Got it, Brother Sen,” Xu Dan replied, set down the resume, and turned to leave.

“Yuan Wei, Hua Ke Mathematics Department, joined Yixun in 2007…”

Chen Yan glanced at the resume, recognized the name, thought for a moment, and walked straight toward the interview room.

At that moment, Yuan Wei, waiting in the interview room, was curiously scanning the second floor of the startup park.

He’d heard Fox Tao ’s founder was a freshman, and thought it was media hype—but now, standing inside the virtual city college’s startup park, he began to believe it.

A freshman? Eighteen years old? Built an e-commerce platform with daily sales in the millions?

Yuan Wei inwardly marveled—he remembered when he was in college, tutoring for 60 yuan a day, and a plate of braised pork could make him happy for half a day.

Are today’s young people really this impressive?

“Tap-tap-tap—”

A brief knock echoed.

Yuan Wei looked up and saw through the glass wall a boy in a black turtleneck sweater, holding a file, stepping inside.

“Yuan Wei?”

Chen Yan called out tentatively.

“Interviewer, hello. I’m Yuan Wei, graduated from Hua Ke Mathematics Department, with three years of category operations experience, specializing in home and daily necessities…”

Yuan Wei reflexively launched into his self-introduction.

Ha, young Yuan Wei was so nervous during interviews!

Chen Yan found it amusing and couldn’t help muttering.

This was his second former colleague—he and Yuan Wei had once worked together at the same company.

Later, Chen Yan left to start his own business; Yuan Wei jumped between Zhiyao, Meituan, Kaola, Taobao International, then Pinduoduo, always in operations or merchant management roles.

After Chen Yan’s Feiyu Tech took off, he brought Yuan Wei to Feiyu as Head of Home Products—a mid-level position.

Outside work, they were old friends.

When Chen Yan first entered the industry, Yuan Wei often told him industry gossip—like the case where someone passed off domestic latex mattresses as imported ones to pocket kickbacks—that was something Yuan Wei told him privately.

“Your last job was in Shanghai. Can you adapt to Xu City?”

After hearing the self-introduction, Chen Yan smiled and asked.

“Don’t worry, Interviewer. My hometown is Jingchu, not Shanghai. I believe Fox Tao has great potential—it’s worth relocating for,” Yuan Wei replied earnestly, eyes locked on Chen Yan, hands clasped tightly.

“When can you start?” Chen Yan asked.

“Yixun requires a one-month notice, but I’m on good terms with my manager—I can probably start two weeks early.”

Yuan Wei’s heart leapt; he hurried to explain, afraid his start date wouldn’t suit Chen Yan.

“I’m Chen Yan, founder of Fox Tao . Welcome aboard.”

Chen Yan stood up abruptly and extended his hand to shake Yuan Wei’s right hand.

This scene felt familiar.

In his past life, nearly forty-year-old Yuan Wei, exhausted from overtime at Pinduoduo, reached out to Chen Yan; Chen Yan, moved by old ties, brought him into Feiyu.

To be fair, Yuan Wei’s work ability was exceptional—he’d worked at nearly every major Chinese internet firm, had sharp insight, and was more than capable as a merchant acquisition officer at Fox Tao .

“Thank you, Boss Chen! I’ll submit my resignation right away,” Yuan Wei eagerly promised.

“The HR department will discuss salary with you—you’ll be satisfied,” Chen Yan patted his shoulder and walked away smiling.

Watching the life path of his past-life colleague shift, Chen Yan felt a strange unease.

Who cares!

Chen Yan shook his head, pushing aside the chaotic thoughts—Yuan Wei’s past-life career wasn’t that great anyway; at his age, he still lived crammed with his parents and kids in a two-bedroom apartment.

Working with him, Yuan Wei could earn at least tens of thousands a year!

At least he’d live better than in his last life!

Back at his desk, a chat window popped up with Song Yuncheng’s message: “The Wine God Network application form?”

“Yes,” Song Yuncheng replied.

“Run it by Hu Li first—she’s handling the food category now.”

Chen Yan didn’t look at the form—it didn’t follow procedure.

“Sister Li reviewed it, but she doesn’t understand Maotai’s market, so she wants you to double-check.”

Song Yuncheng understood Chen Yan’s meaning and quickly explained.

“Maotai again?”

Chen Yan’s interest sparked—he opened the Excel sheet. All limited flash-sale items were marked in red text on yellow background, glaringly obvious.

The first item was 53-degree Feitian Maotai liquor, retail price 1,499 yuan, commission rate 40%—meaning Wine God Network’s base price was around 900 yuan, 199 yuan below official retail.

Compared to the secondary market, the profit margin was substantial!

Chen Yan switched pages, checked prices from several secondhand sellers—this year’s 53-degree Feitian Maotai was priced between 1,500 and 1,600 yuan by scalpers.

“Too bad inventory is only 200 units—limited traffic potential,” Chen Yan muttered, then turned to Song Yuncheng: “Tell them to increase inventory by 800 units, raise commission rate on regular items from 20% to 40%, and offer them a 500,000-yuan resource package.”

“I’ll try,” Song Yuncheng said without question, nodded, and left with his phone.

Chen Yan kept scrolling.

43-degree Fenjiu Lao Bai Gan, price 89 yuan, commission rate 50%;

French Château Lafite Red Wine, two-bottle set, price 99 yuan, commission rate 70%;

Australian Barton Estate Red Wine, single bottle, price 39 yuan, commission rate 80%;

Including Maotai, there were twelve limited flash-sale items—four launched daily, each guaranteed homepage exposure for three consecutive days.

Wine God Network likely thought like Bang Shopping: better to invest in partnership with Fox Tao than spend on ads—if ROI was good, they could make a big profit.

Soon, Song Yuncheng returned and whispered: “They agreed. They want me to draft a resource package description.”

“Modify Meite’s plan, put together a 500,000-yuan package, and send it,” Chen Yan said simply.

“Understood,” Song Yuncheng replied.

Chen Yan stretched, his gaze sweeping across the second floor—over seventy people filled six startup rooms; the other two rooms were a sample room Jian conference and interview room.

Half the second floor was used by Fox Tao .

Chen Xu and Zhang Yifeng had returned from their Meite business trip; after talking with Chen Yan, Chen Xu decided to stay in the category operations team, while Zhang Yifeng transferred to merchant acquisition.

“At Super Return’s current growth rate, next month’s merchant acquisition labor cost alone will exceed one million yuan—I’m actually looking forward to it.”

Chen Yan thought to himself.

One million yuan equals 100 points of Humanitarian Flame—enough to raise his physique from 1.67 to 2.67, a value nearing the human limit!

(End of chapter)