Chapter 93: 96 Threads of Humanity's Torch, the 2011 Salary Adjustment Plan (Subscribe Please)

On the first day of the New Year, the second floor of the startup park was extraordinarily lively.

Chen Yansen stood guard at the stairway landing, and every Fox Tao member who passed by, he handed them a red envelope.

"Humanity's Torch +0.05!"

"Humanity's Torch +0.05!"

"..."

System prompts kept flashing before his eyes, but Chen Yansen didn't mind — after all, a mosquito's leg was still meat.

"Wow! Thanks, class president, there's even a New Year's red envelope!" Xu Xingxing took the red envelope, her face beaming.

Chen Yansen just smiled, waved his hand, said nothing, and moved on to hand the next person a red envelope.

By nine o'clock, only half of Fox Tao's employees had shown up; the other half had gone home for the holiday.

Suddenly, someone whispered that wages had arrived, and immediately a rustling of sounds spread — everyone was looking down at their phones.

"Humanity's Torch +5.3!"

"Humanity's Torch +3.9!"

"Humanity's Torch +2.4!"

"..."

Watching the text messages before his eyes, Chen Yansen inwardly cried 'So satisfying.' Dense with several dozen prompts, in the blink of an eye, the Humanity's Torch value on his panel jumped from 31.7 to 96.

"System! Hold on!"

Chen Yansen was just about to add points, but recalling his previous experiences, he forced himself to hold back, afraid of causing any commotion in the startup park.

He took a deep breath, adjusted his mindset, and casually opened the team members' salary list.

Starting with the customer service group, the hourly wage was raised from 10 yuan to 12 yuan; editors' original monthly salary was raised from 3,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan; testers and designers were raised to 5,000 or 6,000 yuan.

The recruitment base salary was changed to 3,500 yuan.

The category group had the biggest change, jumping directly from 5,000 yuan to 6,000 or 7,000 yuan; for senior category operators like Chen Xu and Hu Li, the monthly salary soared to 8,000 yuan.

Chen Yansen did this for two reasons: first, to recruit from society; second, to balance the mindset of the category group employees.

Otherwise, seeing recruitment earn seven or eight thousand a month, or even forty or fifty thousand, who would still be willing to do category work.

Chen Yansen checked it once over, confirmed it was correct, sent the spreadsheet to Xu Dan, and asked her to send out email notifications one by one.

After finishing, he got up and headed toward 0418.

Song Yuncheng turned her head to glance at Chen Yansen's back, then lowered her head to stare at the thirty-nine thousand yuan that had just arrived in her account, silent.

Ten minutes later.

Chen Yansen lay in the 0418 bedroom, staring at the ceiling, his mind focused on his physique.

"System, add points!" Chen Yansen said softly.

A wisp of white mist as thick as a chopstick appeared out of thin air, forcibly drilling into his brow; a bone-piercing chill swept in, nearly freezing him into an ice block.

Every sinew, bone, and bit of flesh across his entire body seemed to come to a halt — his heart was no exception.

"Thump— thump—!"

A warm current, like a volcanic eruption, suddenly surged out from his heart, like a runaway wild horse, charging recklessly through Chen Yansen's body; every inch of skin and flesh it washed over trembled.

Cold and heat alternated, followed by a soul-deep sense of pleasure!

Chen Yansen couldn't help but let out a soft hum; this strange sensation came quickly and left just as quickly.

He felt as though two or three hours had passed, but when he picked up his phone to check, only three minutes had gone by.

"That short?"

Chen Yansen was stunned.

He sat up, stepped barefoot onto the floor, stretched his sinews a bit, and lightly clenched his fist, feeling he could easily crush a stone.

This full-bar sense of power was more intoxicating to him than several hundred million in wealth.

At this moment, his physique value was 2.63!

Just one step away from the human limit!

Chen Yansen grabbed an unopened bottle of mineral water, walked into the bathroom, pressed his five fingers together; the plastic bottle creaked and groaned under his grip, but the expected scene of it bursting didn't appear.

"Looks like my current strength can't crush stones at all — what I felt earlier was just an illusion from the sudden surge in power."

Chen Yansen sighed, listlessly tossing aside the mineral water.

He also measured his height and weight — no major changes.

"Let's go try it out at the gym."

Once this thought popped up, he could no longer hold it back.

Chen Yansen grabbed his jacket, got in the car, and drove toward the off-campus gym.

The trial week card the front desk had given him last time had long expired; this time the front desk staff had changed — that was common, these bosses especially liked hiring cheap college students, so staff turnover was crazy.

Chen Yansen simply bought an annual card, planning to toss it to Wang Zihao later — wouldn't be a waste.

Walking into the gym, he saw there were only three people inside in total.

During the New Year's Day holiday, those with partners were mostly out playing, the studious ones were all in the library, and those who came to the gym were probably all single dogs.

Chen Yansen thought this as he walked toward the barbell.

"Hey! Last time I already felt the name Chen Yansen sounded familiar — turns out you're the boss of Fox Tao, what a pleasure, what a pleasure!"

Hu Yongfan had originally been working on his chest; the moment he saw Chen Yansen, he immediately put down the equipment and came over with a smile.

"Uh, hello." Chen Yansen was taken aback for a moment — this guy had lent him equipment before, but he'd long forgotten his name.

No choice — Chen Yansen only had deep impressions of pretty, well-figured girls.

"Deadlift?" Hu Yongfan asked proactively.

"Mm." Chen Yansen had doubts about his orientation and didn't really feel like chatting.

"I'll help you load the counterweight!" Hu Yongfan acted as if he hadn't seen the refusal on Chen Yansen's face and busied himself on his own.

After a while, he turned and asked: "Start from 140 kilograms?"

"220 kilograms." Chen Yansen said lightly.

His physique had grown by nearly 60%; if he weren't afraid of startling Hu Yongfan, he would have even wanted to start from 300 kilograms.

"Holy crap! Badass!" Hu Yongfan gave a thumbs-up, looking at Chen Yansen with eager eyes.

Seeing that look in his eyes, Chen Yansen instinctively took a step back.

"Alright! I'll get you a belt and knee pads." Hu Yongfan stood up and walked toward the seat beside them.

Chen Yansen grunted an acknowledgment, walked to the barbell—five 20-kilogram plates on each side of the bar, plus the bar itself, roughly the weight of three grown men.

He glanced at Hu Yongfan, who was still rummaging for equipment, then bent down and gripped the bar firmly with both hands.

"Up!"

Chen Yansen gave a low shout; the four-hundred-plus jin of weight felt weightless in his hands, pulled past his knees with ease.

Hearing the sound, Hu Yongfan turned around, instantly stunned speechless—a barefoot deadlift of 220 kilograms?

Is Chen Yansen's body made of iron?

"Boom!" The barbell slammed heavily onto the ground.

Chen Yansen reflected carefully; summed up, there was no feeling at all—about the same as last time's 140-kilogram deadlift, even easier.

"Chen Zong! Don't go messing around! If the gym owner saw this, he'd cancel your membership on the spot!"

Seeing that Chen Yansen still wanted to add counterweight, Hu Yongfan hurriedly grabbed the protective gear and ran over to dissuade him.

He had plenty of fitness experience; one look told him Chen Yansen weighed no more than 85 kilograms. Last time he'd pulled 260 kilograms, and Hu Yongfan had just chalked it up to Chen Yansen having a big frame, high density, and extraordinary talent—but today's barefoot deadlift had genuinely startled him.

"Mm, thanks." Chen Yansen took the belt and knee pads, put them on, and looked at the barbell on the ground.

After a moment's thought, he added another 20 kilograms to each side, bringing the weight to 340 kilograms.

"Chen Zong, you're not joking, right?" Hu Yongfan couldn't believe it—professional athletes can only deadlift a little over twice their own body weight; over three times is top-tier athlete territory.

Chen Yansen said nothing, gripped the bar, adjusted the details of his stance—he was searching for the most comfortable point of force, a feeling he couldn't quite describe, as if he'd known it instinctively.

"Get up for me!"

Chen Yansen's arms bulged with veins, blood surged along his arms, and his upper body, lower body, and back muscles all engaged at once.

Seen from a distance, the nearly 700-plus jin of weight was pulled up without so much as a pause.

"Shit! Is this even human?" Hu Yongfan swallowed hard and muttered softly.

Deadlifting four times his own body weight—terrifying!

"Boom!"

The ground gave out a dull thudding sound!

Chen Yansen's face didn't flush, his heart didn't race; he flicked his wrist and felt he still had plenty of strength left.

Keep adding!

The barbell weight broke past 380 kilograms!

Chen Yansen still used the same alternating grip; this time it was clearly much harder, veins popping out on his forehead, but the movement remained fluid—he clearly hadn't hit his limit yet.

When he pushed the barbell to 420 kilograms, Hu Yongfan finally snapped out of it and hurriedly pulled out his phone to record a video.

"Bro, put the phone away."

Seeing this, Chen Yansen waved him off.

Normally, Hu Yongfan might not have listened, but facing Chen Yansen, he didn't dare utter a peep, forcing a dry laugh as he stuffed the phone back into his bag.

He knew perfectly well that one punch from Chen Yansen could kill him several times over.

"Creak—creak—!"

The bar was pressed by the plates until it groaned and bent into an arc.

Chen Yansen found the right moment to exert force, his sinews and bones instantly taut; the eight-hundred-plus jin of weight was somewhat taxing for him.

Blood surged; his arms, thighs, and face all flushed red, muscles engorged with blood once more, their striations clearly visible.

Chen Yansen felt only a scorching-hot breath stifled in his chest; he suddenly exerted force and, with great difficulty, pulled the barbell up.

"Thud!"

Chen Yansen let go, white breath blasting from his nose, his forehead a sheet of red, gasping for air in great gulps—clearly somewhat exhausted.

"Chen Zong, at your level, you could steamroll every domestic strength competition—absolutely badass!"

Seeing him stop and showing no intention of adding more counterweight, Hu Yongfan hurriedly handed over a bottle of mineral water and praised him.

"Where do I find the time to enter competitions? So what if I'm strong? Times have changed—having money is what makes you a big shot."

Chen Yansen scoffed, took the water, covertly checked the cap, saw nothing wrong, then took big gulps.

"Ha! I forgot you're the big boss of Fox Taobao. Someone as good at making money as you really doesn't need to train that hard."

Hu Yongfan flexed his pectoral muscles and said with a smile.

"By the way, how do you train this kind of strength? What supplements do you normally use? I heard there's some new stuff from the Lighthouse Country—effects are wicked." Without waiting for Chen Yansen to reply, Hu Yongfan kept talking.

"Born with it." Chen Yansen grinned and said arrogantly.

He couldn't care less whether Hu Yongfan believed him or not.

Hu Yongfan laughed, said nothing on the surface, but in his heart ranted madly, slapping the label of "chemical warrior" on Chen Yansen.

Last time a 260-kilogram deadlift, and now, just one month later, up to 420 kilograms.

Honestly, Hu Yongfan really wanted to ask what drugs Chen Yansen was on—he wanted to try them too.

"Um, Chen Zong, actually I submitted my resume to your company, for the investment promotion position—what do you think of me?" Hu Yongfan sat across from Chen Yansen and asked with a smile.

"Communication skills are fine, pass the first interview and we'll talk." Chen Yansen brushed him off casually.

This guy's orientation still hadn't been figured out—if he brought him into the project team, Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei would be in trouble; the two of them were fair-skinned and gentle-looking, exactly the type these muscle guys liked most.

"Mr. Chen, how about next time for the interview, I bring my girlfriend?" Hu Yongfan suggested helplessly.

The suspicion in Chen Yansen's eyes was too obvious; he truly had no words to explain, wishing he could even drag Chen Yansen along when he went to the hotel with his girlfriend.

"That works!" Considering the other party had lent equipment twice, Chen Yansen couldn't keep refusing.

"..." Hu Yongfan's face stiffened; he sighed inwardly: Prejudice in people's hearts is a great mountain. Just because I've built big muscles doesn't mean there's something wrong with me.

On the other side.

The Fox Tao members who received the salary adjustment emails were naturally overjoyed; many were still juniors or seniors, and facing a pre-tax monthly income of over 8,000 yuan, they were ready to treat the company as their home and respect Chen Yansen as a father.

The joy on the faces of the Investment Promotion Team grew even stronger; among their dozen or so members, the highest salary was over 50,000, while the lowest was still 7,000 to 8,000.

In 2010, this income could instantly outshine over 95% of white-collar workers.

For a moment, everyone was full of energy; even though the Investment Promotion Team had no overtime pay, they worked from morning till night, either making cold visits to merchants or communicating about product selection.

The variety of categories, brands, and products for Super Rebate began to improve significantly; after all, every brand group going online represented a commission income of several thousand yuan—who wouldn't be tempted?

Chen Yansen left the gym and wandered all the way to the stadium.

He tested his 100-meter speed, 10,000-meter endurance, and reaction speed again; the final result was that he was equivalent to a combination of Bolt, Anthony (the person with the fastest reaction), and Devon (the endurance king).

In a single event, he was slightly inferior; but combining all three, he could leave those three in the dust.

"Buzzzzzz—"

Chen Yansen took out his phone; seeing it was Zhang Jiancheng from Thinking Capital again, he pondered for a moment and then pressed the answer key.

(End of this chapter)