Chapter 116 - 108: Riding Xiaomi Across the River
FoxTao’s valuation was one thing, but the 560 million from the financing round had a specific purpose. To be blunt, that was the company’s money, not his.
Unless he sold FoxTao!
"Are we going back to Xucheng this afternoon? I’ll book the tickets." Song Yuncheng noticed he was spacing out, nudged him, and asked in a low voice.
"Let’s decide in a couple of days. We’ll hang out in Yanjing for two days first." Chen Yansen snapped out of it and shook his head.
"But I have over a dozen B2C platforms waiting to get onboarded, and there’s a ton of follow-up integration procedures."
Song Yuncheng quickly explained. She wanted to go back and make money.
"Just have the tech team follow up. Forward the contracts to legal for review. It’s all based on a standard template; nothing can go wrong."
Chen Yansen took her hand and began to knead it, not too gently, not too firmly.
This familiar technique made Song Yuncheng’s face instantly flush red as scenes from last night involuntarily surfaced in her mind.
"Driver, we’re not going to the hotel anymore. Head to Wangfujing instead."
Chen Yansen said to the driver.
"You got it, no problem." The driver responded with a smile. He glanced in the rearview mirror and could tell the two weren’t short on cash, so he pulled the car right up to the shopping center’s entrance.
"What are we doing here?" Song Yuncheng asked curiously, looking around after getting out of the car.
"Buying you a work uniform."
Chen Yansen said with a light laugh, putting his arm around her shoulder.
That little white blazer Song Yuncheng was wearing had been seen at Penguin Headquarters, the Series A financing reception, and Xiaomi Headquarters. It wasn’t a bad outfit, Chen Yansen was just tired of seeing it.
"Oh." Song Yuncheng grunted in acknowledgment and obediently followed him.
She knew very well that Chen Yansen was a very domineering person who didn’t give anyone a chance to refuse. ’I’ll just pay for it myself,’ she thought.
It’s not like she, Song Yuncheng, couldn’t afford it.
After earning some money, she felt more confident.
Chen Yansen led her to the elevator, went straight to the fourth floor where the women’s clothing was, and after a casual glance around, walked into a mid-to-high-end womenswear boutique.
In the store, a blouse sold for 800-1500 yuan, and a dress for 1500-3000 yuan. Song Yuncheng was secretly stunned. A single piece of clothing cost as much as her previous monthly income from part-time jobs.
Even though she could afford it now, seeing the prices still made her heart ache.
She was thinking of buying an outfit suitable for business settings—it had to be a dark color, affordable, and preferably under 3000 yuan.
"A set of this black one, and one in off-white too, size M. And grab that dress as well..."
Chen Yansen ordered the sales associate.
He didn’t have much patience for shopping with women. He pointed at a few nice-looking outfits and told the sales associate to get them in new.
"That’s too much, when would I ever wear all of it?" Song Yuncheng grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Back at the hotel, you can take your time trying them on for me."
Chen Yansen leaned in close to her ear and said in a suggestive tone.
The tips of Song Yuncheng’s ears turned red. She took a step back, looking like she wanted to say something but held back.
Relying on his past life’s experience reviewing female streamers, as well as his 4.11 physique and 3.49 Spirit attributes, the outfits Chen Yansen picked for Song Yuncheng were basically all a perfect and proper fit.
Among these clothes were cute and beautiful casual outfits, as well as attire suitable for formal occasions.
"Sir, the total is 43,700. I’ve already applied a 5% discount for you. Here is our store’s VIP card; you can enjoy a 5% discount at any of our 126 stores nationwide."
The sales associate said enthusiastically, handing him the card as she folded the clothes and put them into bags.
Chen Yansen took the card, casually tossed it into one of the bags, and then prepared to take out his wallet.
"I... I’ll pay for it myself," Song Yuncheng said, bracing herself.
"Alright." Chen Yansen put his hands in his pockets, not forcing the issue.
As her boss, he knew her income very well. She had at least a hundred thousand yuan in her account.
Song Yuncheng froze. She hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to actually let her pay.
’Bastard!’
’Didn’t you say you were buying me a work uniform?!’
Song Yuncheng pitifully handed over her bank card. Her balance instantly plummeted, and her heart ached so much she could barely breathe. It hurt even more than last night.
Carrying the bags, Song Yuncheng walked out of the store with a miserable look on her face.
"Since you’ve already spent forty thousand, I assume you wouldn’t mind treating me to a creative Cantonese meal that costs a thousand yuan per person, would you?"
Chen Yansen pointed to a restaurant on the floor above. Just from the sign and the quality of the entrance decor, you could tell it wasn’t cheap.
"I don’t mind! I don’t mind at all!" Song Yuncheng was on the verge of tears.
"Director Song, you’re so generous."
Chen Yansen smiled slightly and gave her a thumbs-up in praise.
As for the bags of clothes, they were all in Song Yuncheng’s hands. Chen Yansen didn’t have the bad habit of carrying bags for people.
"Boss, I... I want to go back and make money," Song Yuncheng said earnestly, tugging on Chen Yansen’s sleeve.
With her savings having taken a huge hit, her desire to make money was now stronger than ever.
"What’s the point of earning money if you don’t spend it? As for your brother’s illness, I asked someone about it. It’s been going on for too long. The only thing to do is use behavioral intervention to keep his condition from getting worse."
Chen Yansen stopped and spoke slowly.
"I know. That’s why I want to save up more money to hire someone to take care of my brother in the future. I don’t plan on getting married, either. In my situation, no one would dare have me."
Song Yuncheng forced a smile and said in a low voice.
She never expected anyone to pull her out of the mire. Chen Yansen had given her a job and even personally taught her how to negotiate and develop markets; she was already content.
As for being with Chen Yansen, she had thought about it, but she knew it was completely unrealistic.
"In the end, you have to rely on yourself," Chen Yansen said, feeling a touch of emotion.
Song Yuncheng thought Chen Yansen was reminding her to work hard and earn money, so she nodded emphatically, adjusted her mood, and continued walking upstairs.
The lunch cost another two thousand-plus yuan.
Song Yuncheng couldn’t bring herself to smile, but strangely, the oppressive feeling she used to have was gone.
It was as if spending those tens of thousands of yuan had suddenly lifted a huge weight from her heart.
Over the next three days, Chen Yansen took her to several of Yanjing’s iconic landmarks. They went to the Central Business District and the 798 Art District.
When they returned to the hotel at night, no one was curled up on the suite’s sofa anymore.
For three consecutive days, Chen Yansen didn’t feel tired at all. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: ’Being young is so damn good!’
It wasn’t until Wang Zihao called to urge him, informing him that the special mobile phone sale in cooperation with China Telecom was about to launch, that Chen Yansen finally had Song Yuncheng book tickets for their return trip.
On the way, Wang Zihao explained that after Zhao Maolin relayed FoxTao’s rejection of the partnership to the online mall’s contact, the other party had actually gotten anxious. The original 30% commission had been raised to 45%.
According to the Super Rebates commission release rules, the final price for the customer would be 120-180 yuan cheaper than the market price.
Even if the list price was inflated, it wouldn’t really affect the user experience.
The heads of several categories discussed it and agreed to the partnership. They even sent an email to Chen Yansen’s inbox, but they hadn’t received a reply for two days.
"Okay, I’ve seen the prices. Have the events team create a secondary page and start building some hype."
Chen Yansen replied to Wang Zihao with a message while sitting on the train.
For a shopping guide website, having resources for a full range of product categories is crucial. It can elevate the product’s class, increase the average transaction value, and in turn, attract more major brands to join.
If the website only ever sold no-name products for a few dozen yuan, even if a major brand proactively sought a partnership, users would be suspicious and assume the products were fake.
It’s like selling cosmetics at a wet market—who would feel safe buying them?
The value of users interested in 3C digital products and large home appliances was too high. He was willing to sink money and resources into incubating a group of them from his existing user base, even if it was only 10%, or even just 5%.
It was just past four in the afternoon when they returned to Xucheng Academy.
Chen Yansen rested his hands on the steering wheel and asked Song Yuncheng, "Should I drop you at your dorm first, or are you coming to my place?"
"I’ll go back to my dorm," Song Yuncheng answered hastily. These past few days, Chen Yansen had taken full advantage of her. If she went back to 0418 with him, there was no telling what kind of trouble he’d stir up.
"Alright. Dinner together tonight?" Chen Yansen asked.
"You should probably go be with your other girlfriend first." Song Yuncheng pushed the door open, got out, and waved goodbye while pulling her suitcase.
"Hey! Does that mean you’re admitting you’re one of my girlfriends too?" Chen Yansen leaned his head out and teased with a laugh.
"Go to hell! Scumbag!" Song Yuncheng grabbed a mineral water bottle and threw it at him without hesitation.
With Chen Yansen’s reaction speed, while he couldn’t catch a bullet, he could easily handle a badminton smash traveling at 300 kilometers per hour.
He smoothly caught the water bottle and drove toward the faculty apartments.
Song Yuncheng turned, glanced at him from a distance, and a smile suddenly blossomed on her face. She strolled breezily toward her dorm.
Chen Yansen got out of the car and stood downstairs, calling Xu Dan. He rattled off a long list of hiring requirements.
"Brother Sen, we’re a shopping guide e-commerce company. Why are we hiring a systems architect and an Android system development engineer?" Xu Dan asked, confused and curious.
"To develop an app. FoxTao needs to expand into the mobile space in the future," Chen Yansen fibbed.
In reality, he was hiring these people to improve the UI design, function optimization, and user experience on top of the Android system, to develop a superior operating system.
Whether it was a re-skin or not didn’t matter, as long as it was good to use!
Xu Dan didn’t ask any more questions. After hanging up, she had the recruitment specialist start writing the job descriptions and post the positions on several major job sites.
Chen Yansen was short on funds. Without selling equity or the company, his only option was to borrow a hen to lay eggs—build the system first and figure out the rest later.
But the candidates for procurement director and technical director were giving him a headache. In his past life, he’d had no contact with the mobile phone industry; he had only heard of names like Yu the Big Mouth and Rebus.
Forget money, he couldn’t poach them even if he offered equity!
’Whatever, I’ll just take it one step at a time.’
Chen Yansen shook his head, pushing those thoughts down. As for Lei Yijun, he could only say he was sorry.
How could the number of jobs a shopping guide e-commerce company could provide compare to the mobile phone manufacturing industry?
What’s more, he planned to do it all himself, without even using an OEM factory!
The R&D team alone would eventually number 200 people. He would start by recruiting system development engineers, and then, once resources were more abundant, he would hire hardware and industrial design engineers.
Xiaomi crosses the river by feeling the stones. I’ll cross the river by riding Xiaomi!