Chapter 137: Chapter 127: This Is the Most Outrageous Interview of My Career

The next morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

As summer drew near, the chirping of the birds outside the window grew more frequent, occasionally punctuated by the drone of cicadas.

Chen Yansen walked out onto the balcony. In the distance, an endless sea of golden wheat swayed gently in the dawn light.

Suddenly!

Chen Yansen’s eyes narrowed. From over a thousand meters away, he could actually see a young couple hidden deep within the waves of wheat, passionately devouring each other.

He instinctively glanced at the time. It was only five-thirty in the morning. The dormitory gates weren’t even open yet. ’Had they been making out in the wheat field all night?’

Even someone as worldly as Chen Yansen couldn’t help but click his tongue in amazement. ’Young people really are resilient,’ he thought. ’Aren’t they afraid of how uncomfortable the lumpy ground is?’

’A room in one of the little motels across from the school doesn’t even cost that much for a night.’

After watching for a moment, Chen Yansen turned and went back inside. He picked up a copy of *Advanced Financial Management* and began flipping through it on the sofa. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Ever since his Spiritual Power had broken through level 10, he needed less and less sleep. Now, he only slept for four hours a day. With nothing to do when he woke up, he passed the time by either watching movies or reading books that piqued his interest.

During the development of the Aurora System, Chen Yansen had offered many practical and effective suggestions. He would often pull the system architects aside and use the complete development environment to demonstrate his points with live code.

It was only then that everyone realized Chen Yansen didn’t just understand theory—his programming skills were also exceptionally sharp.

A few engineers on the team who had previously dragged their feet on development schedules started to panic, terrified that Chen Yansen would give them a low score on their Q2 performance reviews. They immediately changed their work attitudes.

They went to their team leads and insisted on shortening the originally planned development cycle by 20-30%. Now, no one dared to slack off during overtime anymore.

After all, their boss understood the technology and knew exactly how much work each module and component required. If they slacked off too much, their jobs would be on the line.

While Orange Technology’s base salary was comparable to other domestic smartphone manufacturers, the monthly housing subsidy—equivalent to 20% of their salary—had them all exclaiming, "This is awesome!"

Furthermore, overtime pay was calculated by the minute: 1.5 times the normal rate on weekdays, 2 times on weekends, and 3 times on holidays. This put them leagues ahead of companies like Coolpad, Gionee, and Meizu.

To put it bluntly, before joining Orange Technology, they had never even seen what overtime pay looked like.

As for overtime?

That was just you voluntarily staying late because you couldn’t finish your work, right?

Chen Yansen quickly flipped through a dozen or so books, then watched a movie to kill time.

He didn’t head downstairs to the cafeteria until seven-thirty.

After breakfast, he strolled leisurely toward the Innovation Park.

To recruit mobile phone hardware and industrial design engineers, Xu Dan had hired two more specialized HR supervisors.

One had a degree in electronic information and was formerly an HR manager at Xiaxin Mobile Phone. The other had a background in industrial design and had been poached from ZTE Mobile Phone.

A dozen or so offer letters had already been sent out, but Chen Yansen was still mulling over a location for the R&D center.

Unlike operating system development, mobile phone hardware and industrial design required a variety of testing equipment, such as logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, laser cutters, CNC machining centers, and 3D printers.

Factoring in the office space, conference rooms, break rooms, and a kitchenette, they would need at least 500 square meters of floor space.

The Innovation Park simply couldn’t accommodate that!

It would only be barely enough if they cleared out the milk tea shop, the print shop, and Song Yang’s courier station on the first floor.

’Looks like I’ll have to rent space in an office building.’

After some thought, Chen Yansen made his decision.

He walked into the Innovation Park. The Aurora System R&D team was on the left side of the first floor, but only a few people were at their workstations.

Up on the second floor, a dozen or so people had arrived, most of them from customer service.

Chen Yansen sat down, opened the Eclipse IDE with the ADT plugin installed, created a new project, and quickly began tapping out code, starting to design the file storage architecture for the Aurora System.

After 8:40, more FoxTao employees started trickling onto the second floor. Many of them were carrying breakfast, eating at their desks while checking the latest data.

Once everyone had arrived, Xu Dan called over a junior staffer from HR and had her gather everyone for a meeting in the open area outside.

The second floor of the Innovation Park was laid out with offices on the left and right, and a corridor and break area of over 100 square meters in the middle.

Hearing Xu Dan’s call, Chen Yansen got up, stretched, and headed outside.

By now, FoxTao had a total of about 160 employees. They stood packed together in a dense crowd, leaving just enough space for Chen Yansen to stand and speak.

"Next month is the 618 festival. Taobao Network is participating this time, and the scale of the event will be comparable to Double Eleven. Everyone needs to take this seriously, especially the Investment Attraction team. I can tell you this much: if you want to make money, June is the month to do it."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly as he laid out the project team’s plan for June.

After securing 1.5 billion US dollars in funding, Jingdong had begun to declare war on Taobao and Sunning.

But Zhang Yong wasn’t one to coddle Liu Qiangdong. ’You want to steal market share?’

’Then I’ll play your game!’

He had deliberately chosen the 618 festival to go head-to-head with Jingdong.

You have to understand, 618 was Jingdong’s signature sales event. Taobao’s move this year was blatantly provocative.

Chen Yansen wasn’t concerned with the "Cat-Dog War." All he knew was that the more fiercely the two companies competed, the better a shopping guide site like FoxTao would do.

Hearing this, the members of the Super Rebate Investment Attraction team and the Key Account Investment Attraction team exchanged excited smiles.

Top performers in Investment Attraction like Zhang Yifeng, Song Yuncheng, Li Hui, and Yuan Wei were already earning a minimum of 50,000 a month.

When they learned that both Taobao and Jingdong were participating in 618, they immediately realized this was a golden opportunity to break 100,000 in monthly income.

"At the end of June, we’ll be conducting our Q2 performance review. There’s a bonus of up to three months’ salary on the line, so it all depends on your performance! Also, regarding the online rumors that FoxTao is for sale, I can state unequivocally: they are all false."

Chen Yansen first mentioned the quarterly bonus before briefly dispelling the rumors.

His confident tone allowed many people to breathe a sigh of relief.

After working there for a while, they had slowly discovered that the compensation and benefits at FoxTao made it a dream company.

Employees in positions like editing, investment attraction, and category management, who frequently dealt with merchants, learned from conversations that their counterparts—operations staff, channel managers, and store managers at the brands—often had to work unpaid overtime.

They didn’t get a single penny in overtime pay.

Furthermore, FoxTao had an eight-hour workday that included a two-hour lunch and rest break. Other companies also advertised an eight-hour day, but that didn’t include lunch or breaks.

When you did the math, the difference in their hourly wage was huge!

If Chen Yansen sold the company, would the new owner offer such great compensation?

Everyone knew full well that there was no way they’d have it this good again.

After he finished speaking, Chen Yansen gathered the various department heads and led them into the conference room to continue their weekly business meeting.

The rest of the employees dispersed, returning to their desks with beaming smiles.

Their stock options vested at a rate of 25% every six months, so they were naturally hoping the company would successfully go public in two years, making them all millionaires in the process.

Unfortunately, they were destined for disappointment.

Not a word of what Chen Yansen had just said was true. He didn’t just plan to sell FoxTao; he intended to package the team and the project together to fetch an even higher price.

...

...

「One week later.」

On the second floor of the Innovation Park, Chen Yansen saw Gao Weilin again for the first time in two years.

Including Wang Zihao, this was the second "dead man" he had seen since his rebirth.

Chen Yansen sized up Gao Weilin. The Old Gao of this era was in his early thirties. He hadn’t yet put on weight, his hair was slick with product, and he wore an expensive suit, giving him the air of a corporate elite.

Gao Weilin was studying Chen Yansen as well.

From what he knew, Chen Yansen was a nineteen-year-old journalism freshman at Xucheng Academy who had made his first pot of gold selling campus phone cards.

He had then launched a shopping guide e-commerce site, risking his entire net worth in the first week. Within days, he had pushed the number of registered users past 100,000, successfully completing the initial product launch.

Next, he introduced the "Bargain to Zero" and "Super Rebate" features—one to drive traffic, the other to generate profit.

Every step he took was executed with flawless precision, without the slightest miscalculation!

In less than a year, he had driven the company’s valuation to 16 billion!

As Gao Weilin considered this, his gaze drifted unconsciously toward the door. He was shocked that this team—fewer than 200 people, composed of college students and a few experienced hires—could generate a billion in sales in a single month.

At the same time, he was dying to ask Chen Yansen why, out of all the financial experts on Hong Kong Island, he had been the one chosen.

"I’ll just call you Old Gao. The headhunter should have gone over the salary and benefits with you. I’d like you to start as soon as possible. Do you have any questions?"

Chen Yansen’s tone was so familiar it was as if he were skipping the interview process entirely.

"Huh!?" Gao Weilin was stunned. He hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be so direct. ’Are all mainland internet bosses this forward?’

Although he’d already gone through a round with HR, he knew that for a position like Chief Financial Officer, the interview with the boss was the one that really mattered.

"President Chen, I actually have an English name. You can just call me Dylan." Gao Weilin wasn’t quite used to being called ’Old Gao’ and stubbornly offered his English name instead.

"Okay, Old Gao. Any other questions? When can you start?"

Chen Yansen nodded and pressed on.

"President Chen, you trust me just like that?" Gao Weilin’s expression froze. After holding it in for a moment, he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

"What do you think of your own abilities?" Chen Yansen retorted.

"My professional skills are top-notch, and my character is absolutely reliable," Gao Weilin replied, habitually singing his own praises.

"Well, if you’re that outstanding, how could I possibly not hire you?"

Chen Yansen raised an eyebrow, looking at Gao Weilin with a teasing glint in his eye.

He knew this guy’s skin was thicker than a castle wall.

Normally, a company would choose a CFO with both impeccable skills and unimpeachable character.

Chen Yansen was quite familiar with Gao Weilin’s abilities and personality. He was greedy, yes, but only when it came to making money through legal and legitimate means.

On such short notice, he really couldn’t find anyone who could replace Gao Weilin.

"President Chen, this is by far the most absurd interview of my entire career. But I’m honored to be joining Senlian. Thank you for the opportunity, Boss."

Gao Weilin extended his hand and said with great solemnity.

"I have a task for you. There’s a Science and Technology Park southeast of Xuyuan. I want to rent a 2,000-square-meter office space there. Handle it for me."

Chen Yansen replied, immediately assigning Gao Weilin a task with the same familiar tone he’d used with him in his past life.

"Boss, I haven’t officially been hired yet," Gao Weilin reminded him.

"Your salary starts today," Chen Yansen said flatly, glancing up at him.

"You got it, Boss! I’ll get right on it," Gao Weilin immediately changed his tune.

Having grown up on Hong Kong Island, he lived by a simple principle: you pay me, I work for you.

Since Chen Yansen was willing to pay, Gao Weilin didn’t care whether he was officially an employee yet. He’d just treat it as a side job.

"Then I’ll be counting on you," Chen Yansen said, rising to his feet and patting Old Gao on the shoulder.

Gao Weilin was 1.8 meters tall, but he was still a few centimeters shorter than Chen Yansen.

...

「A short time later.」

When Tang Qingshan received word that Chen Yansen was moving Orange Technology’s R&D team to the nearby Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, he breathed a sigh of relief, yet also felt a little wistful.

He knew that Cao Dahua had stayed behind in Shencheng City to help Chen Yansen contact equipment suppliers. It didn’t take much imagination for him to connect the dots and guess that Chen Yansen was planning to manufacture mobile phones.

It was a shame, but the Innovation Park was too small and being located on campus made it too restrictive for such an operation.

With the increasing number of outside hires, Tang Qingshan had been feeling a lot of pressure, worried that if something went wrong, he wouldn’t be able to handle the fallout.

Fortunately, the Aurora System R&D team would only be occupying the Innovation Park for a little over a month.

’FoxTao in one hand, Orange Technology in the other... In future provincial university entrepreneurship competitions, won’t the grand prize be his for the taking?’

’And given how much I’ve helped him, if I ask him to hire 100 graduates from Xuyuan each year, how could he possibly say no?’

Tang Qingshan’s face was wreathed in smiles. His investment in Chen Yansen had been more than worth it.