Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

After Chen Yansen left, Cao Dahua took out his phone, scrolled to a number, and dialed.

"Brother Hua, what’s up?"

Zuo Hongyu smiled as he saw the familiar caller ID and pressed the answer key.

"Old Zuo, you still getting used to things at Daboluo?" Cao Dahua asked with a chuckle, leaning back on the sofa.

"They’re just knock-off phones, all assembly and production. Nothing difficult about it. But the last couple of years haven’t been as good as ’08 and ’09."

Zuo Hongyu assumed his old friend was just calling to check in on him, so he chatted casually.

"Thinking about jumping ship?" With the pleasantries out of the way, Cao Dahua got straight to the point.

"Brother Hua, are you getting back in the game?" Zuo Hongyu was stunned. After a moment’s hesitation, a thought struck him, and he quickly pressed,

"What do you think this is, a movie? I don’t have the energy to stage some epic comeback for you! I have a student who wants to get into the mobile phone industry. He’s looking for a purchasing director who knows the supply chain inside and out. So, are you interested?"

Hearing the excitement in his old friend’s voice, Cao Dahua grumpily poured cold water on the idea.

"Oh! Is that right? Brother Hua, is this student of yours some rich kid?"

Zuo Hongyu neither accepted nor refused, continuing to fish for information.

"I told you about him before. It’s that kid, Chen Yansen."

Cao Dahua grinned proudly. To others, he always referred to Chen Yansen as his star student.

"Oh, but isn’t he in e-commerce? Why the sudden jump into making phones?"

Zuo Hongyu was confused. The leap between those two industries was huge.

"Lei Jun used to be in software, and now he’s making phones, isn’t he? Anyway, this kid is loaded. He won’t treat you poorly. So, are you in or out?" Cao Dahua pressed.

"Brother Hua, I’m getting on in years. I don’t want to go through all that hassle again. If it were you wanting to start over from scratch, I’d risk these old bones to back you up."

After some thought, Zuo Hongyu still turned Cao Dahua down.

The knock-off phone market wasn’t as explosive as it had been a couple of years ago, but the potential in the domestic market was still huge. If they couldn’t sell in first- and second-tier cities, they’d just sell in third- and fourth-tier cities, or even in remote, backwater counties. There was always a way to make a living.

But following Chen Yansen was a step into the unknown. For a middle-aged man in his forties, the risk was too high. It just wasn’t worth it.

"Old Zuo, you’re being dense! The knock-off phone market only boomed because MediaTek provided the turnkey chipsets and operating systems. But MediaTek has lost its edge in touchscreens and smartphone technology. It’s a dead end now."

Cao Dahua’s tone was resolute. Even though he was at the university, he wasn’t just slacking off every day.

His entrepreneurial failure back in the day had always bothered him, so he naturally kept himself well-informed about the industry.

"It can’t be that bad, can it?"

Zuo Hongyu wasn’t convinced. From his perspective, Daboluo was still quite popular in the low-to-mid-range market.

"Hmph! That e-waste your factory churns out can’t even compete with the free smartphones carriers give away with a new plan. What are you going to use to compete against the likes of Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad?"

Cao Dahua felt a pang of frustration for his friend’s lack of foresight. ’Old Zuo is a born supporter, not a leader,’ he thought. ’Put him in charge, and things will just fall into chaos.’

"Brother Hua, how about this: you be the purchasing director, and I’ll be your deputy?"

Zuo Hongyu proposed after a moment of thought.

"Why are you so insistent on dragging me into this?" Cao Dahua was exasperated. ’I spend my days drinking tea and watching shows, living a life fit for a king. Why would I want to go suffer through the startup grind with Chen Yansen?’

"Heh heh, without a master like you overseeing things, I wouldn’t feel secure," Zuo Hongyu said with a wide grin.

"Master my ass. If I was so capable, I wouldn’t have scurried home from Shencheng City with my tail between my legs. Just give me a straight answer: are you doing it or not?"

Cao Dahua said, his patience wearing thin.

"In that case, I’ll need to make a trip to Xucheng and meet this student of yours," Zuo Hongyu said, his smile fading as his expression turned serious.

"Fine. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten together anyway. We’ll have plenty of Diguo chicken," Cao Dahua sighed, then readily agreed.

"Deal. This Saturday, then. I happen to be going to Huian for a business trip anyway." Zuo Hongyu glanced at his schedule and confirmed the meeting time with Cao Dahua.

After hanging up, Cao Dahua stood and gazed out the window at the gradually darkening sky. A sudden impulse washed over him. ’Old Zuo’s suggestion isn’t half bad.’

That kid Chen Yansen was mature and steady, thriving in the e-commerce industry to the point where he had venture capitalists eating out of his hand. But the manufacturing world was treacherous. Cao Dahua worried that, like him all those years ago, Chen Yansen might take one wrong step and lose everything.

’Whatever. I’ll go home and talk it over with my wife.’

Cao Dahua felt tempted. After mulling it over for a while, he made a decision.

The next day before work, he made a special trip to the president’s office and mentioned to Tang Qingshan that Chen Yansen wanted to expand his team by hiring from outside the university.

As expected, when Tang Qingshan heard that FoxTao wanted to hire an additional sixty people from off-campus, he frowned and looked troubled.

"President, I don’t think we can agree to this. FoxTao is already valued at over two billion, yet they’re still hiding behind the ’student startup’ banner to take advantage of the university. It’s just not right. We might as well make them move their team to the nearby Science and Technology Park."

Cao Dahua said this deliberately, keeping a stern expression on his face.

’Move to the Science and Technology Park?’

Tang Qingshan was taken aback for a moment. If FoxTao wasn’t located on campus, could it still be considered a student startup?

His gaze fell on a document on his desk—it was an invitation to the National University Student Entrepreneurship Competition.

"Teacher Cao, you are the director of the Innovation Park and a faculty advisor. When students have difficulties, you’re supposed to help them solve them. What’s this talk about kicking them out? I approve their request. Have the security office handle the registration and tighten up safety protocols."

Tang Qingshan waved his hand dismissively, first criticizing Cao Dahua’s ’pass-the-buck attitude’ and then, with a grand gesture, he nodded his approval.

Cao Dahua put on an apologetic smile and nodded in agreement. The moment he lowered his head, a flash of triumph glinted in his eyes.

Humming a little tune, he arrived at the Innovation Park with the invitation, but Chen Yansen wasn’t there yet.

’If this kid were half as diligent as I was back in my day, FoxTao would be worth 4 billion by now,’ Cao Dahua boasted to himself.

He walked over to Xu Dan’s desk, dropped off the invitation, gave a few brief instructions, and then, with his belly puffed out, leisurely strolled back to his office to resume his slacking.

Chen Yansen didn’t show up until ten-thirty. After hearing Xu Dan’s report, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile.

’Old Cao is a reliable guy. Every time he says he’ll give it a try, you can basically count on it getting done.’

He tossed the invitation to Zhuang Rui, telling him to have the product team pick an articulate product manager to represent FoxTao at the competition.

’I’m not wasting my time on this,’ he thought. ’I’d rather take Meng Jie for a walk in the woods by Pearl Lake.’

Next, Chen Yansen gave the keys to the new office spaces downstairs to Xu Xingxing. He told her to find some part-time students to clean them, then get an authorization slip from Cao Dahua to move some desks, chairs, and a water cooler from the warehouse.

Xu Xingxing nodded and immediately got to work.

Chen Yansen returned to his seat. As usual, he first reviewed the data, then gathered his team leads for a quick ten-minute meeting.

"Brother Sen, regarding last night’s inventory issue, I’ve warned the Investment Attraction team and notified them of the penalty," Zhang Yifeng reported proactively.

"Okay, got it," Chen Yansen replied, not paying it much mind.

’I’m not worried about the investment attraction staff quitting,’ he thought. ’If someone leaves, an editor can just take over.’

After all, besides selecting products and setting commission rates, it was the editors who had the most day-to-day contact with the merchants.

Everything from setting commission percentages to finalizing main images and product titles was handled through contact between the editors and the merchants’ operations staff.

If someone from Investment Attraction quit, an editor could take over and retain at least ninety percent of the merchant contacts.

At the end of the month, Chen Yansen planned to promote two or three new team leads for Investment Attraction based on performance, and also hire a few assistants for the department.

Ostensibly, the assistants would support the team leads, but in reality, it was a move to dilute the leads’ authority, allowing him to maintain tight control over the entire Investment Attraction team.

"Brother Sen," Yuan Wei said with a smile, "since Zhuang Rui’s web crawler and email system went live, very few merchants are listing on Meili Shuo, Mogujie, and Chaojifan at the same time as us anymore. We have the traffic and the first-mover advantage. We can definitely crush those competitors."

"Have the Investment Attraction team check the competitor sites every day. Prevent sneaky merchants from participating in our promotions using different links for the same product, or by using their storefronts on other platforms."

Chen Yansen nodded and added the reminder casually.

"Understood. That’s already part of the Investment Attraction team’s daily routine," Yuan Wei replied with a confident smile, then added,

"March is half over. I expect all of you to meet your Q1 targets. This will be the first time FoxTao issues quarterly bonuses. The money is all set aside, so don’t let me down."

Chen Yansen dangled the carrot with a smile.

"No problem!" The team leads beamed instantly.

The quarterly bonus was one to three times their monthly salary, with a guaranteed minimum of one month’s pay. Everyone, except for the Investment Attraction team, was ecstatic.

Chen Yansen smiled, called out, "Meeting adjourned," and led the way out of the room.

Meanwhile, Wang Teng submitted his resignation the moment he got back to Dongguan.

His department manager didn’t think much of it. After announcing its entry into the smartphone industry, OPPO, backed by the capital accumulated from its BBK days, was not short on talent.

Wang Teng had expected his notice period to be at least a month, so he was surprised when management set his last day for just one week later. He felt a pang of disappointment; he had worked at OPPO for three years, after all, and had grown attached to the company.

But then he remembered he would start earning a monthly salary of 36,000 this very month, and that trace of unhappiness vanished instantly.

At the same time, Xu Dan received the staffing plan Wang Teng had drawn up and immediately resumed recruiting efforts based on the R&D department’s needs.

Chen Yansen was willing to spend whatever it took. With generous compensation packages, excellent benefits, and quarterly bonuses, he quickly poached a group of system development engineers from companies like Xiaomi, OPPO, and Meizu.

On another ordinary weekend, Chen Yansen had just woken up when he got a call from Cao Dahua.

"An interview? Right now? Fine."

After hanging up, Chen Yansen got dressed and drove to a restaurant off-campus.

Interviewing someone in a restaurant was nothing new to him. ’After all,’ he mused, ’in my past life, I frequently interviewed female streamers in hotels and private villas.’