"My sincerest apologies, President Chen. I was on a business trip in Peng City today, and since it’s so close to Xucheng, I took the liberty of visiting without notice."

Catching sight of Chen Yansen out of the corner of his eye, Li Wanqiang quickly apologized to Song Yuncheng before turning with a smile to greet him.

"President Li, please don’t do this next time. You have to call ahead so I can greet you at the entrance. Otherwise, I’m going to get mad."

Chen Yansen shook Li Wanqiang’s hand, teasing him with a deliberately stern expression.

’As for the excuse about a business trip, I don’t believe a word of it.’

With less than two months until the Xiaomi Mobile Phone launch, even as the head of the Market Department, Li Wanqiang should be in Yanjing right now.

"You’re too kind, President Chen," Li Wanqiang replied, but his eyes were evasive, as if he were waiting for the right moment.

"Let’s go upstairs to talk. This is the office area for FoxTao; it’s a bit basic."

Chen Yansen led Li Wanqiang upstairs while instructing Song Yuncheng, "Have Xu Xingxing go to Old Cao’s office. There’s a can of tea on the top shelf of the left cabinet. Have her make two cups and bring them to us."

Song Yuncheng nodded and relayed the message to Xu Xingxing.

"This is the entire FoxTao team?" Li Wanqiang asked in surprise as he reached the second floor and looked around.

"Mmm, about 90%... no, wait, it’s more like 60% are university students from Xuyuan. The rest were hired professionally."

Chen Yansen said with a smile.

People like Zhang Wenbo and Hu Li already had their diplomas, so of course, they couldn’t be considered students anymore.

They had all moved out of the dorms. Some rented apartments in the faculty housing, while others rented private homes in the village across from Xuyuan.

They’d achieved a seamless transition from studying to working!

Many people on the project team joked that once everyone graduated, especially those in customer service and editing, they would each have two to three years of work experience.

"Impressive! I should have brought President Lei to visit."

Li Wanqiang took it all in, then followed Chen Yansen into the conference room and took a seat.

"President Li, you didn’t come all this way just to say this, did you?"

Chen Yansen looked at Li Wanqiang with a smile, a teasing look in his eyes.

With his current observational skills, none of Li Wanqiang’s micro-expressions or the subtle movements of his hands and feet escaped his notice.

"I knew I couldn’t hide it from you, President Chen." Having held it in for a while, Li Wanqiang actually felt a lot more relaxed after Chen Yansen called him out. He admitted frankly, "Xiaomi would like to license the patent for the Aurora OS memory cleaning algorithm."

"No problem."

Chen Yansen agreed readily.

’To him, the generational garbage collection algorithm wasn’t some hot commodity; it was just an optimization solution he’d thought up in three hours.’

"President Chen, the price is negotiable. You can’t just refuse without hearing our offer."

Hearing him answer so quickly, Li Wanqiang subconsciously thought it was a rejection and said with a wry smile.

"President Li, I’m saying that we can license the algorithm patent to Xiaomi."

Chen Yansen raised his voice, emphasizing it again.

Li Wanqiang couldn’t believe it. ’Chen Yansen just agreed, like that?’

’Then what was the point of all the negotiation strategies and talking points I so carefully prepared before I left?’

Coming back to his senses, Li Wanqiang breathed a sigh of relief and asked tentatively, "President Chen, what about the price?"

’Is he planning to quote an exorbitant price to make me back down?’

"President Lei must have given you instructions before you came. I’d like to hear Xiaomi’s offer first."

Chen Yansen leaned back, crossed his arms, and said softly.

This was a negotiation, after all. He liked to see the other party’s cards before making a decision.

"President Lei has two proposals. The first is a 10 million yuan licensing fee for a three-year term. The second is that for every phone Xiaomi sells, Orange Technology receives a 5 yuan patent royalty."

Li Wanqiang had originally intended to present Plan A to test Chen Yansen’s bottom line.

But the moment his eyes met Chen Yansen’s, he felt as if he had been seen through. His mind went blank, and he laid his cards on the table.

"Let’s go with the sales-based fee."

Chen Yansen rejected the first option.

Lei Yijun’s decision to license the patent meant that in the past twenty days, Xiaomi’s R&D center had failed to reverse-engineer the Aurora OS memory cleaning algorithm.

It also meant he believed they would struggle to surpass Orange Technology in the field of algorithms within three years, which was why he gave Li Wanqiang these two negotiation options.

Li Wanqiang hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be so straightforward—first by agreeing so readily, and second by not haggling over the price.

This deal turned out to be the easiest one of his entire career.

For a moment, he felt that perhaps this trip hadn’t even been necessary; they could have sealed the deal over the phone.

After both parties signed the contract, Chen Yansen called Wang Zihao, and they drove to the Sky Garden in the city to treat Li Wanqiang.

After all, Li Wanqiang was representing Lei Yijun, and when Chen Yansen had visited Yanjing last time, Rebus had been a most generous host.

After a satisfying meal with plenty of drinks, Chen Yansen was about to arrange for a second round and take Li Wanqiang to the Star of the Milky Way, but Li Wanqiang repeatedly declined, saying he had to catch a flight that evening.

"The missus keeps a tight rein on you?"

Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

"You know the answer to that." Li Wanqiang pointed a finger at Chen Yansen with a helpless, wry smile.

"Don’t worry, I won’t tell your wife."

Chen Yansen said with a straight face.

Li Wanqiang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He and his assistant rushed to Peng City’s Guanyin Airport overnight.

Early the next morning, he was in Lei Yijun’s office, reporting on the results of his trip.

"That kid was so agreeable?" Lei Yijun frowned, finding it a bit hard to believe.

To be honest, if it were him, he might not have been willing to license it even if Chen Yansen had asked for a 10 yuan, or even 15 yuan, royalty.

You have to understand, the current trend of flashing phone ROMs was started by Aurora OS. When MIUI first launched, it didn’t have this kind of hype.

"Besides President Chen being a magnanimous person, there might be other reasons. For example, at the last Internet Openness Conference, President Lei, you generously shared your supply chain management experience with him. Maybe this is his way of returning the favor."

Li Wanqiang speculated.

"This kid is interesting. He still values personal connections." Lei Yijun smiled faintly, a warm feeling spreading in his chest.

Recalling how he’d held back a little when Chen Yansen had asked for his advice last time, he now felt a pang of guilt. ’Lei Yijun, you’re really getting old,’ he thought to himself. ’How can you be less forthright than a young man?’

Unfortunately, Sect Leader Lei’s guilt lasted for only three short days.

Because three days later, Meizu released an update for its deeply customized Android-based system. In terms of clearing cache and fragmented junk files, its performance was identical to Aurora OS.

No matter how slow Lei Yijun’s reaction might have been, he understood now.

So it turned out that the patent license he thought would be so difficult to negotiate was something Chen Yansen didn’t care about at all. As long as you paid, anyone could get it.

Meizu certainly wasn’t going to advertise for a competitor. They planned to embed the algorithm into their Flyme OS, which was under development, and launch it along with their new products at the autumn conference.

Lei Yijun didn’t wait either. He updated the latest version of MIUI overnight, publicly announcing that Xiaomi had optimized its memory management.

As for how it was optimized or what technology was used, not a single word was said.

It wasn’t until several years later, when someone dug up the annual financial reports of several mobile phone manufacturers, that people were shocked to discover that these companies paid a patent royalty to Orange Technology every year, ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.

「Meanwhile.」

When Wang Teng learned that Chen Yansen had licensed the generational garbage collection algorithm to Xiaomi and Meizu, he slapped his thigh and leaned over Chen Yansen’s desk. "Boss, that was our trump card!"

"Regarding the garbage collection algorithm, I’ve thought of a better technique. I’ve emailed it to you. Evaluate the development cycle and get it online as soon as possible."

Chen Yansen said nonchalantly, without even looking up.

A new algorithm?

Wang Teng was stunned for a moment, then broke into a knowing grin. He knew his boss wasn’t that stupid.

’Use the 1.0 algorithm to make money and the 2.0 algorithm to seize the market.’

"Anything else?"

Chen Yansen looked up and saw Wang Teng still standing there with a goofy grin. He asked softly.

"Nope! I’ll get right on it." Wang Teng snapped out of it, ran back to his office with a smile, opened his email, and began studying the algorithm logic Chen Yansen had sent.

"This is so much better than version 1.0. No wonder President Chen licensed it to two companies at once. Compared to this, the efficiency of 1.0 is leagues behind."

After reading it, Wang Teng’s eyes lit up. He quickly grabbed a few algorithm engineers and they all dove into the conference room.

The boss provided the plan; they were responsible for implementing it.

...

「June passed in a flash.」

It was just before graduation, and a restless atmosphere filled the campus as many students who had been interning off-campus returned.

People were taking graduation photos everywhere—in front of Pearl Lake, the gymnasium, and the library.

Graduation season is also breakup season.

Every night, someone would be downstairs crying their heart out, for no other reason than being dumped by their partner or cheated on by their girlfriend.

Song Yang, however, was the happiest. An endless stream of people came to the Innovation Park every day to ship packages. Most were large parcels of clothes, and he could earn a commission of over ten yuan from a single order.

He now understood what Chen Yansen had told him: during summer vacation and right before graduation, you could really count money until your hands cramped.

He might go half a year without business, but one good run would feed him for three.

In a single graduation season, over just one short week, Song Yang earned twenty to thirty thousand yuan in courier commissions alone.

The day before the holiday break, Chen Yansen called Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang to the second floor of the Innovation Park to give them some simple instructions.

"Brother Sen, you want us to be the main campus agents? No, no way!" Song Yang shook his head immediately after hearing this.

Chen Yansen had been the one to guide him into the courier agent business, and now he was earning seventy to eighty thousand a year. How could he have the nerve to take over the main agency for the Telecom campus cards?

Tang Zhenzhe was a little tempted, but since Song Yang had refused, he couldn’t very well say anything. He could only shake his head too and say sincerely, "Brother Sen, if you’re too busy, Song Yang and I can help out, but as for being the main campus agents... let’s just forget it."

"Sub-agents get a 50 yuan commission per card. I’ll give you two 80. I’m not making nothing, though—the commission from the top-up rebates will be mine."

Seeing that they wouldn’t agree, Chen Yansen explained with a smile.

Based on last September’s card sales, Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang could each make forty to fifty thousand. However, the lion’s share—the top-up commission—would still be in Chen Yansen’s hands.

"How about this? I’ll just take a 10 yuan commission per card. It’s not like I have to sell the cards myself; it’s just managing the sub-agents and coordinating with the Telecom service center. Taking 30 yuan a card feels like too much."

Song Yang thought about it and said he was only willing to take a 10 yuan commission per card.

"Same here." Tang Zhenzhe also felt the money was too easily earned and would feel uneasy taking it.

At 10 yuan per card, he and Song Yang could each make over ten thousand. While not a small amount, it felt much more reasonable than forty to fifty thousand.

"Alright, then. I’ll have Zihao assign the agents to you later. You two can recruit some more sub-agents in your departments. Whether you make money or not will all come down to those first couple of days of the school year."

Chen Yansen smiled helplessly. He was giving them an opportunity to make money, but they just kept refusing.

’University students are just too thin-skinned. If it were me, I wouldn’t just want the commission on the cards; I’d want the top-up commission too.’

With that, Chen Yansen got up and walked toward Room 206.

Song Yang pulled Tang Zhenzhe toward the first floor, planning to work on a sales strategy for the campus cards for when school started.

Although Chen Yansen looked down on the meager profit from the campus cards, he still wanted the dozens of strands of Human Dao Fire.

Streams gather to form a river, and sand piles up into a pagoda. Every little bit counts. Even a mosquito’s leg is still meat!