Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen grabbed a tray, getting some rice, a portion of beef, an order of dry pot shrimp, and two vegetable dishes. His meal came to 16.8 yuan.

"You didn’t go back to Lujiang?" Chen Yansen asked softly, setting his tray down across from Song Yuncheng.

"No," Song Yuncheng explained with a small smile, looking up to see Chen Yansen. "The number of B2C platforms joining has multiplied several times over recently. We’re swamped."

"There’s a decent hot spring hotel in Shidu. I’m taking you for some team building. Pack your things after lunch; we’re leaving this afternoon."

Chen Yansen made it an order, not an offer, leaving Song Yuncheng no room to refuse.

"Did your girlfriend go home?" Song Yuncheng asked, probing.

Chen Yansen was taken aback for a second. He gave a dry laugh and said with mock seriousness, "As an employee, you shouldn’t pry into your boss’s private life."

"And a boss can take a single employee on a solo ’team-building’ trip?"

Song Yuncheng shot back. The past few months had sharpened her tongue. She was no longer the girl who, whenever teased by Chen Yansen, would just look for a brick to grab.

She had put down the brick in her hand, but now there was a paving stone in her heart.

"Got a problem with it?"

Chen Yansen popped a piece of beef into his mouth and asked nonchalantly.

"Do you know what I made last month?" Song Yuncheng asked, shaking her head and changing the subject.

"Eighty-three thousand. Two thousand less than Zhang Yifeng, but ten thousand more than Li Hui in third place. You’re at the top of the Investment Attraction team."

With his current memory, Chen Yansen could memorize entire data reports with a single glance.

Song Yuncheng froze. She felt he was paying special attention to her, and a warmth spread through her chest. Thinking of his invitation for "team building," she had a rush of blood to the head, gritted her teeth, and agreed.

’Perhaps, subconsciously, she just wanted to get closer to Chen Yansen.’

By asking about her salary, she was implying that she could live well even without relying on him.

She agreed not for the money, and not to please Chen Yansen, but simply because she wanted to.

This time, it was Chen Yansen’s turn to be surprised. He had only mentioned it casually, just casting out a line to see what would happen. He never expected Song Yuncheng to actually agree.

"I have an extra key to my room. It’s for you." Chen Yansen fished a key from his pocket and placed it in front of her.

"Does *she* have one too?" Song Yuncheng placed her hand on the key, stroking it gently as she asked in a low voice.

"Nope. There are only two keys. The other one’s in my pocket." Chen Yansen lied with a perfectly straight face.

"Is that so?" Though she didn’t believe him, she hesitated for only a moment before taking the key.

They looked at each other and smiled, continuing to eat as they discussed work.

Song Yuncheng’s tray held shredded pork, a fried egg, and a small dish of stir-fried chicken. Clearly, she had broken her old, frugal eating habits.

After all, people are creatures of comfort. Who wants to endure hardship forever?

Ever since that time in Yanjing when Chen Yansen had "forced" her to spend forty or fifty thousand yuan, her frugal defenses seemed to have crumbled. She was no longer a penny-pincher.

She understood that Chen Yansen had a point. With the costs of her brother’s treatment and hiring someone to care for him, a few hundred yuan more for her own food expenses wouldn’t make a difference.

She had to eat well and stay healthy to be able to earn more money.

For a moment, Chen Yansen felt as if he were having a meal with Ye Qiuping.

’No!’

’Song Yuncheng is more like a junior version of Ye Qiuping. Her feelings for me are purer. Not like Ye Qiuping, who wants to drain me dry, both physically and for my abilities.’

The two of them were locked in a constant strategic game.

Chen Yansen wasn’t worried that Song Yuncheng would grow her wings and leave him. ’Eighteen-year-old girls are a dime a dozen,’ he thought. ’Not exactly a rare commodity.’

After the meal, Song Yuncheng headed back to her dorm. With every step, her face flushed a deeper shade of red, her mind filled with what happened last time in Yanjing.

Chen Yansen drove to the faculty apartment building, ran upstairs to grab a couple of changes of clothes, and then drove to the school gate to wait for Song Yuncheng.

...

...

Far away in Hang City, at the Ali Headquarters, Ma Liyun, Zhang Yong, and Cai Xin were gathered around a coffee table, chatting over tea.

Since its launch, Wealth Treasure had been operating at a loss for years. Every time Ma Liyun went to report on their financials to Yang Zhiyuan of Yahoo, the man would either just shake his head or get up and leave the moment Wealth Treasure was mentioned.

As Ali’s largest shareholder, Yang Zhiyuan had little interest in Wealth Treasure.

But Ma Liyun saw things differently. Having lived in China for many years, he knew full well how crucial a payment license with a high market share was for an e-commerce company.

’Since Yahoo isn’t on board, I might as well transfer ownership of Wealth Treasure to a company under my name.’

However, pulling this off would be fraught with difficulty. At a minimum, he would need approval from both Yahoo and SoftBank.

"Think about it, you two. Is there any reasonable, legal way to do this?" Ma Liyun asked, looking at Zhang Yong and Cai Xin with a frustrated expression.

As one of Ali’s co-founders and its current CFO, Cai Xin had the most experience when it came to equity transfers.

He was just about to speak when Zhang Yong cut in. "Chen Yansen from FoxTao recently obtained a payment license. He barely had it in his hands before he transferred it to Senlian Capital, a company he solely owns."

’FoxTao? Chen Yansen?’

Ma Liyun was taken aback for a moment but quickly recalled the name. ’If Zhang Yong is bringing him up, there must be a good reason.’

"Last June, the government issued new regulations on the eligibility requirements for non-financial institutions to hold payment licenses," Zhang Yong said, pushing up his glasses with a confident smile. "Wealth Treasure’s foreign ownership ratio happens to cross one of those red lines. I think this is our opportunity."

"So, you’re saying we use the regulation as a pretext to transfer ownership of Wealth Treasure? And even if Yahoo and SoftBank come after us later, we can use that same regulation to defend our actions?" Cai Xin asked, grasping Zhang Yong’s meaning after a moment of thought.

"Is that what Chen Yansen did, too?" Ma Liyun asked, surprised. He was astonished that for a problem that had been plaguing him for days, Chen Yansen had not only figured out a solution long ago but had actually managed to pull it off.