Chapter 92 - 88: Better a Villain Than a Pushover
The next day, Chen Yansen woke up bright and early. He had a bowl of savory tofu pudding in the cafeteria, then bought a glutinous rice cake and ate it as he walked.
When he reached the intersection, Song Yuncheng was already there, waiting for him in a pink down jacket.
The early winter morning was chilly, and the mist from their breath was clearly visible.
"A sample from Meiters?" Chen Yansen stepped closer, pinching the logo on her jacket and giving her a teasing smile.
Song Yuncheng lowered her head, saying sheepishly, "The hem was damaged during the quality check, so Sister Li just gave it to me."
Sure enough, there was a pink patch on the hem, but it was hard to notice if you weren’t looking for it.
Chen Yansen said nothing.
Most samples sent by vendors, aside from the high-value ones, either collected dust in the office or were given away to other students by the category operations team.
’I need to create a detailed policy for this,’ Chen Yansen mused. ’Even small issues like this can’t be overlooked.’
"What are we going downtown for? I have class this morning." When he didn’t answer and just kept walking, Song Yuncheng had to jog to catch up.
"To buy a car," Chen Yansen replied simply.
When he didn’t have money, he could force himself to make do. But now that FoxTao was netting a million a day in profit, it was only natural for President Chen to buy a luxury car and a high-end watch.
He had no quirk of pretending to be poor. If you had money, you should enjoy it. Otherwise, what was the point of working so hard?
On the other hand, buying the car in the company’s name would allow for some tax deductions. For him, it was a win-win situation.
’But why drag me along to buy a car?’
Song Yuncheng followed behind him, complaining internally. All she wanted was to go back to the Innovation Park. She still had several B2C platform partnership contracts that needed Teacher Wang’s review.
But she knew this asshole, Chen Yansen. If she refused, he’d probably just threaten to dock her pay again.
After leaving campus, they hailed a taxi and headed for an auto mall known for its cluster of luxury car dealerships.
"Why didn’t you ask Meng Jie to come with you?" After they got out of the taxi, Song Yuncheng, who had been stewing the entire ride, couldn’t hold back any longer and blurted out the question.
"She has class this morning," Chen Yansen replied.
"???"
Song Yuncheng was speechless. ’She has class, so that means I don’t?’
His answer felt like a bucket of ice water, chilling her heart to the core. She almost turned and walked away right then and there.
’Chen Yansen, you son of a bitch! You’re a real piece of work!’
Song Yuncheng cursed him viciously in her head. ’How could I possibly like such a scumbag?’
"I’d rather have you with me."
Chen Yansen, who was walking up ahead, suddenly added.
As soon as Song Yuncheng heard that, her heart, which had just hardened, immediately melted. The corners of her lips curled up, and her eyes curved into smiling crescents.
After walking for a bit, Chen Yansen stopped and looked around. The nearby dealerships were all for brands like Buick, Volkswagen, Nissan, and BMW. None of the ultra-luxury brands he was looking for were in sight.
Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce—he couldn’t even find a hubcap from any of them. He walked into the BMW dealership and asked an employee, only to find out the reason.
In 2010, Xucheng didn’t have dealerships for those brands at all. You had to go to Luzhou or Hu City.
The only other option was to buy a used car.
What a joke!
’I, Chen Yansen, never drive used cars!’
"Forget it. A BMW will do. I’ll just make do for now. Show me the most expensive car you have."
Chen Yansen muttered the first part to himself, then directed the latter half at a salesperson.
’Are you kidding me, buddy?’ the salesperson thought. ’Coming in here first thing in the morning to act all high and mighty, saying you’ll just ’make do’ with a BMW? I’d love to slap some sense into you.’
The salesperson plastered on a professional smile and led the two of them inside, all the while ranting internally.
Chen Yansen was wearing a wool trench coat with no obvious brand, but one look at Song Yuncheng’s outfit made it clear they were just college students. ’Where would they get the money to buy a car?’
"Hello, sir. This is the latest 750Li model. It’s equipped with a 4.4T twin-turbo engine, so it has powerful performance and fast acceleration. It features an LCD center console screen, heated seats, xenon headlights..."
Although the salesperson didn’t think they were serious buyers, he decided to use it as an opportunity to practice his pitch. He continued with a smile, essentially ignoring them as he rattled off the car’s specs and features, treating it as a rehearsal.
"It’s a bit ugly."
Chen Yansen shook his head, his face full of disdain as he commented.
"The MSRP is 2.058 million..." Hearing Chen Yansen’s comment, the salesperson almost laughed in exasperation.
’Buddy, can you even afford it? And you’re complaining it’s ugly?’
’The car isn’t even complaining that you’re poor!’
The salesperson looked at Chen Yansen and sighed to himself. ’It must be nice to be young,’ he thought. ’You can act like a big shot without a care in the world.’
’Once he grows up, he’ll realize how hard it is just to buy a 100,000 yuan commuter car.’
Chen Yansen ignored the salesperson and sat right in the driver’s seat. He shifted around to test the cushion’s comfort. "The seat’s not bad."
The salesperson smiled, speechless.
"I’ll take this one. Can your dealership handle the license plate registration?" Chen Yansen asked casually.
"Huh?! You’re... you’re really buying it?" The salesperson was completely stunned, the question slipping out reflexively.
"What’s wrong, you don’t want to sell it?" Chen Yansen teased.
"Yes! Of course, we’ll sell! Sir, this way, please! Xiaozhou, go make two cups of tea with the leaves from my drawer."
The salesperson, face wreathed in smiles, eagerly led the two to the lounge area.
Enthusiasm x10!
He then took out an order form and started helping Chen Yansen select accessories.
Before Chen Yansen could even say anything, he offered a 170,000 yuan discount and threw in a bunch of freebies: maintenance vouchers, car wash coupons, a dashcam, seat cushions, a folding umbrella, and more.
In addition, he even included a mechanical watch with the BMW logo.
"Mr. Chen, we do offer a service to handle the license plate registration. Just tell me what you need, and we can have it done for you as soon as today," the salesperson said with a smile.
"What’s the final price?" Chen Yansen waved his hand, getting straight to the point.
"2.028 million!" The salesperson’s heart pounded in his chest, worried Chen Yansen would find the price too high and back out.
"And all those freebies are worth 140,000?" Chen Yansen let out a soft laugh, leaned back in his chair, and asked noncommittally.
"Mr. Chen, you’re right, they wouldn’t be worth 140,000 on the open market, but that’s just how it is at the dealership. There’s nothing we salespeople can do about it. How about this? I’ll throw in three major services and six minor ones. And for the first year, we’ll replace any broken parts under 1,000 yuan for free."
The salesman gritted his teeth, acting as if he was making a huge sacrifice.
"Lower the price a little more, and I might just be sold." Chen Yansen took a sip of his tea, continuing to press the price down.
"Well, let me go ask my manager. Please wait here for a moment," the salesman said, putting on a troubled expression as he stood up.
"Alright, go ahead." Chen Yansen didn’t call his bluff. He knew the guy was probably just going out for a smoke and would be back by the time he finished his tea.
He cared about the result; the process was unimportant.
Ten minutes later, the salesman returned with a price of 1.988 million.
Chen Yansen knew that if it wasn’t the off-season in December, he’d be paying at least another hundred thousand. Seeing no more room for discounts, he readily signed the contract. The all-inclusive price came to 2.26 million. He had the finance department wire the money to the dealership’s account.
"Mr. Chen, we’ll contact you as soon as the license plate is ready." Having received the payment, the salesperson’s attitude became even more enthusiastic.
Chen Yansen gave a nod and led Song Yuncheng out of the dealership. "I haven’t been to a hot spring in a while," he said. "There’s a decent resort in Shidu."
The last time he went, he’d taken Meng Jie.
"I’m not going. I want to go back to work," Song Yuncheng refused.
"Don’t you like me? Don’t you want to spend a little more time with me?" Chen Yansen stared at her, asking with a smile.
"I also really like all the cats and dogs at school," Song Yuncheng said, already regretting her confession as she scrambled for an excuse.
"Well, you can at least have a meal with me, right?" Seeing her firm attitude, Chen Yansen didn’t insist and changed his offer.
"Okay," Song Yuncheng nodded, not daring to refuse Chen Yansen twice in a row.
The two took a taxi to the city center and chose a teppanyaki restaurant.
The private room was about thirty square meters, and through the glass curtain wall, you could overlook the entire CBD.
The chef stood at the grill, serving each dish as it was cooked, and the two ate at a leisurely pace.
Chen Yansen was long accustomed to this kind of setting, but Song Yuncheng was full of curiosity, looking around and occasionally chatting with the chef.
The meal lasted over two hours, and the bill came to 2,300 yuan.
"I thought it was delicious, but after seeing the price, I’m not so sure anymore," Song Yuncheng remarked, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Money is meant to be spent; there’s no other use for it. When your December salary comes in, you’ll be able to afford restaurants like this too."
Chen Yansen, who was already on his way out, turned back when he heard her.
"I could never bring myself to spend that much," Song Yuncheng declared.
’People change,’ Chen Yansen added silently in his mind. In his past life, back when he was broke, he and Tang Zhenzhe used to eat at cheap Shaxian County diners and share a single bed.
Later, after his company went public and he became financially independent, he rarely ate at restaurants where the bill was less than 500 per person.
It wasn’t that he was picky, but that he had more money than he could spend.
Before he died in his last life, he’d had 60 million in cash in his bank account, not to mention more stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit than he could even remember.
In this life, he didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes.
They spent the rest of the afternoon at a park, an amusement park, and a KTV downtown. Song Yuncheng remained completely oblivious to the fact that Chen Yansen was wooing her with the same methodical approach he used for his business.
As evening fell, the call from the dealership finally came.
Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng headed back. By the time they returned to Xucheng Academy, Chen Yansen was behind the wheel of the BMW 750.
As he drove past the guardhouse, he tossed out a pack of premium cigarettes and registered his license plate.
There were parking spots right at the entrance to the Innovation Park. Given his relationship with Cao Dahua, all it took was a quick word.
"Brother Wang, who’s that kid? Driving a BMW while he’s still in school?" a new guard asked curiously, nudging his colleague.
"Our Xuyuan’s resident business genius. I hear he makes this much a month." The other guard held up a single finger.
"Holy shit! Ten million!" The new guard’s face went pale, his jaw dropping.
"Hmph! One hundred million," the older guard snorted, correcting him with disdain.
...
...
Chen Yansen drove toward the Innovation Park. Just as he was about to park, he saw five or six security guards forcibly removing three disheveled, dust-covered people.
"That’s him! That’s Chen Yansen!"
A man in his fifties caught sight of Chen Yansen out of the corner of his eye and immediately shouted.
As soon as he spoke, the three of them swarmed the car as if they’d seen their savior, crying and shouting.
"Boss Chen, please have mercy and forgive us."
"President Chen, you’re a bigger man than us. Please spare us this once. We’ll pray for your future wealth and success."
"Please! We know we were wrong! Please give us a chance!"
The last person cried and wailed, his tone rising and falling with such dramatic flair it was like he was performing in an opera.
"Captain Zhan, what’s going on with them?" Chen Yansen asked, looking at Zhan Guowei from security.
"They’re the family members of those couriers from Yizhou. I stopped them at the main gate this morning, but I didn’t expect them to climb the wall by the West Gate to get in," Zhan Guowei answered.
’The couriers’ families?’
Chen Yansen was startled for a moment before it clicked. These must be the relatives of the culprits behind the Moutai swap incident.
’Coming all the way to Xucheng just to cause a scene? They must be crazy.’
Chen Yansen sneered, unmoved by their pleas. He suggested to Zhan Guowei, "Just call the police. If they start coming here every day and disrupting FoxTao’s operations, I’ll have to take it up with Principal Tang."
Hearing this, Zhan Guowei’s heart skipped a beat. "I’ll contact the Inspection Institute right away," he said hurriedly. "Don’t worry, I guarantee this won’t happen again."
With that, he shot a vicious glare at the three troublemakers and began to roughly drag them away from the Innovation Park entrance and toward the main campus gate.
Song Yuncheng watched this scene, lost in thought.
"Do you think I’m being callous? Too cruel?" Chen Yansen asked suddenly.
"No," Song Yuncheng replied, her gaze firm.
"If you don’t finish off a snake, it’ll come back to bite you. It’s better to be the bad guy than some bleeding-heart fool."
Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow, instructing her in a calm tone.