Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen and Wang Zihao were childhood friends, so Chen Yansen had been freeloading meals at his house since they were little.

Usually, that kind of thing either makes you a friend for life or an enemy for life. For Chen Yansen, it was clearly the former.

In his previous life, he’d almost managed to charm Old Wang’s precious daughter into running away with him.

Wang Zhanjun had been a soldier and had seen battle, so of course he didn’t care about a few meals. He would even give Chen Yansen red envelopes during the holidays.

"I heard from Zihao that you helped him earn a lot of money. I don’t know anything about business, so I can’t give you much advice, but you need to be cautious with everything you do. Still, when an opportunity comes along, you have to be bold and fight for it."

Wang Zhanjun patted Chen Yansen’s shoulder, offering his quiet advice.

"I know, don’t worry," Chen Yansen said with a smile, taking his fishing rod from the tackle box and joining the fishing party.

The three of them sat on the riverbank, chatting as the cold wind whipped around them.

It was only then that Chen Yansen realized a Constitution of 2.63 was no joke. The wind howled, but he barely felt the cold at all.

"Tomorrow morning, I’ve arranged to go winter swimming here with a few of my old buddies. You two want to join?"

Wang Zhanjun asked out of the blue.

"Dad, I’ll just join for part two," Wang Zihao said with a sheepish grin.

’He really couldn’t handle winter swimming in the middle of winter. Only Wang Zhanjun and his gang of retired veterans enjoyed torturing themselves like this, completely ignoring their age.’

That’s what Wang Zihao thought, but he didn’t dare say it out loud for fear of getting beaten.

The so-called "part two" involved going to Chessboard Street for beef soup, buying some braised snacks, and warming up with a bit of morning liquor.

Seeing his own son wasn’t playing along, Wang Zhanjun turned to his "godson."

"Uncle Wang, you know me—I can only doggy paddle. Besides, I have to visit a classmate’s house tomorrow." Chen Yansen, not wanting to suffer in the freezing cold, quickly found an excuse.

"What a coincidence?" Wang Zhanjun said, unconvinced.

"We made plans yesterday," Chen Yansen said with a straight face.

"Brother Sen, you’re not going to Mengjie’s Home, are you?" Wang Zihao’s eyes lit up, the flames of gossip flaring to life.

"Oh, a girlfriend?" Wang Zhanjun understood instantly. "Bring her over for me to meet next time."

"Dad, you’ve met her. She was the tomboy in our class," Wang Zihao said with a wide grin.

"Huh!?" Wang Zhanjun was stunned. He didn’t have a strong impression of most of their classmates, but he had remembered that one short-haired girl for years after meeting her just once.

She was just that memorable!

Back then, Meng Jie had been chasing a boy down, trying to beat him with a broken table leg!

"Xiaosen, Uncle Wang always told you to be more of a man, but I didn’t mean for you to find a girlfriend who’s even more of a man than you are."

Wang Zhanjun frowned, thought for a moment, and offered his cautious advice.

"Uncle Wang, that was a long time ago. Here, let me show you what Meng Jie looks like now."

Chen Yansen pulled out his phone, found a picture of Meng Jie, and handed it to Wang Zhanjun.

"Huh! This is that tomboy? Well, I’ll be. Now that you mention it, there is a resemblance. She’s really blossomed, hasn’t she? Haha..." Wang Zhanjun roared with laughter as he looked at the phone.

"You should take a lesson from him, kid. When I was your age, I’d already killed several An Nan monkeys. And look at you, you don’t even have a girlfriend."

After he finished laughing, Wang Zhanjun looked at Wang Zihao beside him and started laying into him with a look of utter disdain.

"Uncle Wang, you don’t know this, but Zihao..." Chen Yansen was just about to spill the beans about him and Teacher Liu.

But Wang Zihao, abandoning his fishing rod, lunged forward with a speed that completely defied his build and slapped a hand over Chen Yansen’s mouth.

Wang Zihao stared at Chen Yansen, his eyes screaming with desperation. He was one step away from getting on his knees and begging.

"What’s up with Zihao?" Wang Zhanjun asked with a grin, sensing something was afoot.

"Oh, it’s nothing. Zihao just met a girl he likes, but she’s a little bit older," Chen Yansen said, looking at Wang Zihao with a smirk and deliberately keeping his words vague.

"A junior? A senior? They say an older woman brings you wealth. Your mother is two years older than me, you know. It’s no big deal..." Wang Zhanjun said with a laugh.

"Whoa! Got a bite!"

Before Wang Zhanjun could finish, he felt a tug on his line and happily started to reel it in.

The afternoon passed. As the sun began to set, the air grew colder. The three of them headed back with a few palm-sized crucian carp.

"Want to have a drink with me tonight?" Wang Zhanjun asked.

"Let’s eat out. We can just have the restaurant cook the fish for us," Chen Yansen jumped in to say. He was determined not to go to Wang Zihao’s house.

"Er... I guess that works," Wang Zhanjun said without giving it much thought. He stuffed their gear into the Electric Vehicle for Wang Zihao to ride and follow behind, while he himself got into Chen Yansen’s BMW.

The trio headed into the old part of town, found a small restaurant they knew, and ordered a few hot dishes and some dumplings, which they dug into heartily.

Chen Yansen watched Wang Zihao, a flash of envy in his eyes.

’President Chen had his own regrets. He’d never felt much fatherly love from Lao Chen; his main childhood memory was of Lao Chen kicking him.’

’Zihao might be a bit dense, but both his parents were there for him. They were understanding and supportive, and his family life was wonderful.’

’Not like Chen Guobin, whose life consisted of just three things: running his bookstore, beating his son, and missing his wife.’

For the next few days, Chen Yansen completely relaxed. He freeloaded a meal at Mengjie’s Home and even accompanied Wang Zhanjun and his buddies for a few laps thrashing about in the Dongfei River.

In the end, he was perfectly fine, but Wang Zhanjun and his old army buddies were shivering uncontrollably. Not wanting to lose face in front of the younger generation, they started making excuses: "This winter in Chunshen is brutally cold, isn’t it? It wasn’t like this in past years," "I used to handle this fine," "Back when I was in the service," "When I was young..." and so on.

Chen Yansen just smiled and didn’t press the issue.

The twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month fell on February 1st.

The February salaries from FoxTao arrived right on schedule. A flood of over a hundred consecutive notifications popped up, completely blocking Chen Yansen’s screen.

In just a few minutes, he had gained 148 wisps of Human Dao Fire. This included wages, commissions, social security and housing contributions, rent stipends, and transportation allowances. This was the core reason he was so enthusiastic about increasing employee benefits.

’Spirit or Constitution?’ Chen Yansen hesitated for a second.

He immediately dumped all the Human Dao Fire into Constitution. ’Gotta max out the ’ol kidney stats first.’

The sensation this time was even more intense. For a moment, Chen Yansen felt as if his muscles, bones, and even his skin were contracting and expanding in rhythm, like a single, deep breath.

But when he looked closely, it seemed to be just an illusion.

Once the reaction from allocating the points subsided, Chen Yansen felt a distinct change. He could read the price list in the shop across the street, and even the faintest surrounding noises were crystal clear.

’Since the panel has a ’Talent’ section, it means I still haven’t allocated enough points. I need to keep making money and growing the business.’

Chen Yansen placed a hand on his lower back, thinking to himself.

On his status panel, the value for Constitution had changed from 2.63 to 4.11. Over the next few days, he tested his strength, speed, reflexes, and endurance. Every metric now far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

He could sprint 100 meters in just 7.6 seconds. Even Bolt would be left eating his dust. He was approaching the speed of the fastest land animal.

Standing at a crossroads, he could read the couplets on the gate at West Lake, 800 meters away. He could even clearly trace the path of a hummingbird’s wings.

He could engage in high-intensity exercise for ten hours straight and only use up half of his stamina.

He could deadlift over 700 kilograms. He could drag a Chevrolet Spark off the side of the road with one hand.

’If 4.1 is this powerful, what would happen if I get it to 100? 1,000? 10,000? Or even a hundred thousand, a million, ten million? Wouldn’t I freaking become an immortal?’

Chen Yansen jotted down the various data points in a notebook. After staring at them for a moment, he crossed them all out.