May 17th. Futian District, Shencheng City.

Chen Yansen leaned against the Mercedes, loosened his tie, and let out a long sigh. He turned to Cao Dahua. "Give Old Zuo a call. Why isn’t he here yet?"

"Don’t worry, I just called him. He’ll be here any minute!" Cao Dahua said, sticking out his belly and wiping sweat from his brow.

Wang Zihao got out of the car, retrieved two bottles of mineral water from the trunk, and handed them to the men.

Cao Dahua took the water and thanked him. ’I haven’t been back in so many years,’ he thought. ’I’d forgotten how muggy and hot it gets in Shencheng City in May.’

Chen Yansen waved a hand dismissively, got back into the rear of the car, adjusted the air vent, and aimed it at his face.

Song Yuncheng glanced out the window. Seeing that Wang Zihao was chatting with Cao Dahua and not paying attention to the car, she handed her half-finished bottle of water to Chen Yansen. "Here."

Chen Yansen didn’t refuse. He took it and tilted his head back for a long drink.

He had originally only planned to bring Wang Zihao and Song Yuncheng. But when Cao Dahua heard he was going to Shencheng City to set up a factory, he insisted on coming along, claiming that as an instructor at the Innovation Park, he ought to help Chen Yansen with the inspection.

After the four of them landed, they rented a Mercedes ML500 from a car rental agency and drove straight to the address Zuo Hongyu had given them.

Unexpectedly, Zuo Hongyu had dropped the ball and was a full half-hour late for their appointment.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—" Wang Zihao turned and tapped on the car window.

Chen Yansen looked toward the intersection and saw Zuo Hongyu getting out of his car, out of breath. He jogged over, his face full of apology, with another person trailing behind him.

Although annoyed, he still got out of the car and greeted them with a smile.

"President Chen, I’m so sorry. Something came up at the last minute and delayed me." Zuo Hongyu’s face was beet red with embarrassment.

"Let’s go see the factory you mentioned first," Chen Yansen said, not adding anything else.

Cao Dahua stood to the side, shooting Zuo Hongyu a harsh glare.

Just then, the man behind Zuo Hongyu spoke up. "Hello, Mr. Chen. I’m Zhou Jinling from Ouhan Mobile Phone. Old Zuo is late mainly because of me."

Chen Yansen glanced up at him. He saw a middle-aged man, not yet forty, wearing a blue suit that was noticeably dusty. Half of his hair had turned white, a stark contrast to his age.

"Xiaozhou? Are you Xiaoxiangxi?" Cao Dahua rubbed his eyes, hardly daring to believe it.

"Brother Hua, it’s been a while," the man replied with a bitter smile. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Chen Yansen smiled. He hadn’t expected the three of them to be old acquaintances. He glanced at his watch and suggested, "There’s a tea shop over there. Let’s go sit and talk."

Chen Yansen’s gaze shifted between Zhou Jinling and Zuo Hongyu. He knew something must have happened before they arrived.

"How did you get so old-looking?" Cao Dahua blurted out, unable to restrain himself.

He was four years older than Zhou Jinling, but Zhou Jinling looked at least ten years his senior.

"Brother Hua, let’s talk over there." Zuo Hongyu pulled Cao Dahua along, heading in the direction Chen Yansen had indicated.

Song Yuncheng got out of the car as well, following the group.

After they were seated, Zuo Hongyu glanced at Zhou Jinling. Seeing he wasn’t talking, he took the initiative to explain. "Xiaozhou was threatening to jump off a building this morning. It took me a long time to talk him down."

"My factory went bankrupt, my wife left me, and I found out my kid isn’t even mine. I really don’t feel like living anymore."

Zhou Jinling shrugged, picking up where Zuo Hongyu left off, and said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Fuck!

That’s so tragic!

No, ’unlucky’ is more like it!

Chen Yansen leaned back, as if afraid of catching the man’s bad luck.

"Xiaozhou, I heard from Old Zuo that you’ve been doing quite well these past couple of years. How did it suddenly come to this...?"

Cao Dahua asked, his face a picture of confusion.

"Two months ago, the authorities launched the ’Double Strike’ campaign, specifically targeting knockoff phone manufacturers like Ouhan. Now, not even one in ten of the knockoff phone makers in Huaqiang North are left. They’ve either shut down or been locked up. I was actually one of the lucky ones; I was released after paying a fine."

Zhou Jinling sighed, a miserable smile on his face.

Chen Yansen took the lemon tea Song Yuncheng had bought, took a sip, and listened nonchalantly.

’There are plenty of people in the world worse off than Zhou Jinling. What does it have to do with me?’

’If it weren’t for the fact that this guy was an old acquaintance of Cao Dahua’s, I would have already left. This is a complete waste of my time.’

Zhou Jinling secretly observed Chen Yansen’s expression, and his heart went cold. He understood that this was a standard-issue businessman, devoid of sympathy and morals. To him, everything Zhou Jinling was saying was just hot air.

"What’s ’Double Strike’?" Wang Zihao asked curiously from the side.

"It’s a crackdown on intellectual property infringement and the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods. Anyone involved gets crushed. Da Peng was lucky they transitioned quickly. Although they were also a knockoff phone maker, their technology licenses and supply chains were all traceable, so they weren’t affected."

Zuo Hongyu slowly explained.

Zhou Jinling nodded, filled with immense regret. Zuo Hongyu had warned him, but he hadn’t taken it seriously.

Three months ago, he was a big shot boss with a net worth in the hundreds of millions, riding in luxury cars and tipping KTV hostesses at least 500 yuan. Now, he was like a rat scurrying across the street, terrified of being spotted by an acquaintance.

Chen Yansen remained silent, glancing at Zhou Jinling and thinking to himself, ’No wonder more and more knockoff phone manufacturers have been looking to partner with FoxTao recently, and they’re all offering commission rates of basically 80%.’

’So it’s all just leftover stock!’

"But you earned a lot in the past few years. It can’t be so bad that you need to jump off a building, can it?" Cao Dahua asked, stunned.

"After the factory went bankrupt, I saw how well Apple phones were selling in the country and found a middleman, hoping to become a distributor. But the guy was a scammer and ran off with tens of millions."

Zhou Jinling’s expression was numb, as if he were talking about someone else’s life.

Hearing this, Wang Zihao instinctively shrank back a little.

It wasn’t that he was superstitious, but this guy’s luck was just too awful. It was like he was possessed by a god of misfortune.

And the part about his wife leaving him and his child not being his own was just the height of tragedy.

"You guys must think I’m the unluckiest person alive, don’t you?" Zhou Jinling asked, looking up with a bitter smile.

The others glanced at each other, unable to bring themselves to say something they didn’t believe.

"But before all this, my life was smooth sailing. Five years ago, Brother Yu, Brother Hua, and I all entered the mobile phone industry together. Brother Hua’s factory went under in less than a year, Brother Yu went to Da Peng, and I chose to start my own business."

"In just three years, I built Ouhan into a top-tier company in Huaqiang North. Our products sold in Southeast Asia and Africa, and I was steadily earning a hundred million a year..."

Zhou Jinling’s head was bowed as he recounted his past glories.

Cao Dahua rolled his eyes and cursed inwardly: ’This kid has no class. Bragging is one thing, but did he have to drag me down too?’

Chen Yansen had heard of Zhou Jinling’s crowd. They had made a lot of money during the years when knockoff phones were rampant.

The smarter ones transitioned in time and escaped the disaster. They used their previously accumulated capital and supply chains to switch to making smartphones. One of the best examples was Xiaolajiao Mobile Phone, founded a year later. Its boss had also gotten his start with knockoff phones.

The slower ones, like Zhou Jinling, had it easy for a while, but their mentality crumbled the moment they hit rock bottom.

The fact that he’d been scammed out of tens of millions showed that he was simple-minded and not very cunning. He had only managed to make money before because he had a go-getter attitude and had ridden the wave of the times.

Throughout it all, Chen Yansen said nothing.

He understood what Zhou Jinling was getting at, but he wasn’t a savior. He had no reason to help Zhou Jinling.

Zhou Jinling continued talking to himself. In the past two months, none of the projects he invested in had panned out, and he had lost almost all his savings.

His wife sued for divorce and took another chunk of his money.

Before leaving, his beautiful and educated ex-wife told him bluntly not to even think about his son, because he wasn’t his biological child anyway.

Under this series of blows, Zhou Jinling couldn’t see a way out and thought of jumping off a building.

"President Chen, I think Xiaozhou is very capable, more than enough to be a factory manager. He has a wide network and abundant resources in Shencheng City, so I took the liberty of bringing him to see you."

At this point, Zuo Hongyu turned to Chen Yansen.

"A great roc rises with the wind in a single day, soaring ninety thousand li. Do you think that’s because of the wind, or because the roc itself has the ability?"

Chen Yansen retorted with a smile.

In his view, Zhou Jinling might have some ability, but he most likely couldn’t keep up with the present, let alone the future.

’A guy like this wouldn’t just be unfit for factory manager; he’d struggle even as a workshop supervisor.’

The moment Zhou Jinling heard this, his heart turned to dead ashes. The glimmer of hope Zuo Hongyu had ignited was instantly extinguished.

"President Chen, can you give me a hand? I don’t want to lose. I want to win, just once."

After a moment of silence, Zhou Jinling suddenly dropped to his knees in front of Chen Yansen, begging pitifully.

He had nothing left now. All he wanted was to make a comeback!

With his head of white hair, Zhou Jinling knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly. The sight made Song Yuncheng, Wang Zihao, and the others feel a pang of pity.

Zuo Hongyu and Cao Dahua hadn’t expected this. They hurried to pull him up, but he was dead set on it, insisting that Chen Yansen take him in.

Chen Yansen snorted coldly in his heart but said in a calm voice, "If you’re willing, you can start on the assembly line. If you truly have the ability, I believe you can earn the position of factory manager."

The meaning was obvious. He would let Zhou Jinling stay, but he had to start by tightening screws.

Zhou Jinling froze. He had thought that with Zuo Hongyu’s help, he could at least land a department manager position. He never expected Chen Yansen to be so unsparing.

"I... I’ll think about it." Zhou Jinling slowly got up and returned to his seat.

"Old Zuo, it’s getting late. Let’s go see the factory."

Chen Yansen stood up. By wasting these ten-plus minutes, he had already given Zuo Hongyu enough face.

"Okay, President Chen." Zuo Hongyu patted Zhou Jinling’s shoulder, at a loss for words, then hurried after him.

After getting in the car, Cao Dahua thought for a moment before adding a word of caution, "Xiaochen, that’s just how Old Zuo is. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it."

Having been around Xuyuan for a few years, Cao Dahua understood how Chen Yansen’s mind worked. If Zuo Hongyu hadn’t been the one to bring Zhou Jinling, Chen Yansen might have offered him a workshop supervisor position.

"It’s fine. It doesn’t really matter anyway."

Chen Yansen signaled for Wang Zihao to drive.

’There were some good points about Zhou Jinling,’ Chen Yansen thought. ’At least he’s flexible. He was threatening to jump off a building in the morning, and by the afternoon he was on his knees begging for a job.’

’His familiarity with the low-end mobile phone markets in Southeast Asia and Africa is somewhat useful to me, but not that much. I could take him or leave him.’

If Zhou Jinling could really work his way up from the assembly line, Chen Yansen wouldn’t mind giving him a chance and a helping hand.

But to shamelessly ask for the factory manager position right off the bat? That was just dreaming.

Song Yuncheng listened to the conversation between Chen Yansen and Cao Dahua, lost in thought. It seemed she now understood Chen Yansen’s reasoning.

"You were a factory manager once? I bet you lost all the money you made from selling those 991 navigation units, didn’t you?"

Chen Yansen asked Cao Dahua out of the blue.

"You brat, stop prying!" Cao Dahua’s face flushed with embarrassment.

He thought to himself that he had to get Old Zuo to shut his mouth, or else how could he ever act cool in front of Chen Yansen again?

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, took out his phone, gave Xu Dan some brief instructions, and then hung up.

The situation with Zhou Jinling had served as a reminder. Most of the knockoff phone manufacturers were now out of business, but the sales channels they had built years ago could be revived if he just recruited the right people.

These rough-and-tumble entrepreneurs might be hard to manage, but in terms of ability, they far surpassed ordinary business personnel.

Left behind, Zhou Jinling was lost in self-doubt. He wasn’t sure if he had any ability at all.

On the one hand, he was in a complete mess now.

On the other hand, he had come to Shenzhen with nothing and built a fortune of hundreds of millions from scratch.

Before coming, Zhou Jinling had researched Chen Yansen.

He had entered the industry at eighteen and become a ten-billionaire in just one year. Following a boss like that, there would be no shortage of opportunities to get ahead.

Unfortunately, the man clearly looked down on him.

Zhou Jinling sighed and wandered aimlessly through the streets of Shencheng City, looking just like a homeless vagrant.