Chapter 156: Chapter 145: Another Back-to-School Season, Seeds for the African Market

August 31st, the day before registration at Xuyuan.

A year flew by in the blink of an eye. The six residents of Dorm 8302 had transformed from fresh-faced first-years into sophomore ’veterans’.

Tang Zhenzhe put on a light coffee-colored suit and slicked his hair back until it shone.

"Brother Zhe, aren’t you hot?" Song Yang asked, looking at Tang Zhenzhe with a strange expression.

The high today was 28 degrees Celsius, and even he felt stuffy in just a short-sleeved shirt.

"With this getup, if I stand at the school gate, I’ll have all the first-year girls swooning."

Tang Zhenzhe grinned, his eyes full of anticipation.

Chen Yansen shot him a glance and thought, ’Don’t be surprised if you fail to charm the first-year girls but end up charming their mothers instead.’

"Aren’t you chasing Secretary Su anymore?" Zhu Xiaopeng, who was sitting by the balcony, chimed in.

"Don’t even mention it. It was a classic case of unrequited affection, and I couldn’t warm her up! I think Brother Sen is right. If I want to get a girlfriend, I have to count on the first-year girls."

Tang Zhenzhe chuckled and turned to look at Chen Yansen.

"Cut the crap and get ready. A lot of new students have already shown up to register early. This afternoon, you two need to go to the telecom office and distribute the SIM cards for the sub-agency."

Chen Yansen put his phone away, stood up, and hurried them along.

He had slept until 4:30 AM, read for four hours after waking up, had breakfast, and then wandered over to Dorm 8302 to gather everyone for a meal off campus.

"Brother Sen, don’t worry! Zihao already assigned the sub-agency to us yesterday. We guarantee nothing will go wrong."

Song Yang quickly assured him.

Zhu Xiaopeng and Wang Zhengqiang exchanged a glance, quite envious that Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang were taking over the campus SIM card business.

After all, it was three days of work at most, and they could earn over ten thousand in commission—a daily income of more than four thousand yuan.

To be honest, many graduates from Xuyuan didn’t even make four thousand a month at their first job.

Still, the two of them were doing well at Xuyuan, too.

Zhu Xiaopeng had been working in FoxTao’s customer service department for almost a year. Including his quarterly bonus, his part-time income was three to four thousand yuan a month.

Over the year, after covering his daily expenses, he had managed to save twenty to thirty thousand yuan.

This semester, Zhu Xiaopeng didn’t even have to ask his family for tuition money. He even gave his parents red envelopes with 5,000 yuan each.

Wang Zhengqiang, who worked with Song Yang at the courier station, also had a decent income of two to three thousand a month. He was so busy he didn’t even have time to play soccer anymore.

Ever since Song Yang started dating, he had become a hands-off boss, leaving Wang Zhengqiang to manage the courier station entirely.

His salary even went up by five hundred, so he was now making three thousand a month. Combined with the living allowance from his parents, his bank account balance was growing larger and larger.

Both of them knew in their hearts that they owed all these changes in Dorm 8302 to Chen Yansen.

Even Tang Zhenzhe becoming class president was the result of Chen Yansen helping him campaign for votes.

"Old Guo didn’t even treat us to a meal before he left. So stingy," Chen Yansen joked with a smile.

Guo Dongchen had successfully passed his Ph.D. entrance exams, just like in his previous life. He was probably in Hu City right now, waiting to register at Jiaoda.

Therefore, the academic advisor for the 2010 Journalism class had been replaced by a Ph.D. student named Zhang Shun.

"Brother Sen, do you think the new advisor will hold another election for class president?" Tang Zhenzhe frowned and asked in a low voice, now that the topic had come up.

He had been class president for a year and had tasted its benefits, so his initial reluctance was long gone.

"Don’t worry. As long as you don’t curse him out to his face, Zhang Shun couldn’t be bothered with you. I’ve asked around. This guy is even more out of touch than Guo Dongchen; he’s completely hands-off."

Chen Yansen said with a smile.

"Hehe, that’s good." Tang Zhenzhe breathed a sigh of relief, the weight on his mind finally lifted.

"The branding department at Orange Technology is looking for an intern. If you’re interested..."

Chen Yansen began slowly, looking at Tang Zhenzhe.

"Brother Sen, I’m very interested! As soon as I’m done with things these next two days, I’ll go report for duty!"

Before Chen Yansen could finish, Tang Zhenzhe’s face lit up with joy. He grabbed his arm and agreed instantly.

"Let’s go, let’s go! Hurry up! If we leave any later, we won’t get a table for our meal." Song Yang put on his shoes and pushed Wang Zhengqiang out the door.

Zhu Xiaopeng was the last one out, locking the dorm room door and hurrying to catch up.

"Brother Sen!"

"Brother Yang!"

As they passed the men’s dormitory for the School of Communication and Culture, people kept greeting them.

Dorm 8302 was extremely well-known among the 2010 class. Although Song Yang’s courier station was like an ant next to the elephant that was FoxTao and Orange Technology, in the eyes of ordinary students, Song Yang, who netted seventy to eighty thousand yuan a year, was still a campus celebrity. Otherwise, why would an upperclassman have taken the initiative to pursue him?

And that was to say nothing of Chen Yansen. The terrifying two million pre-orders for the Orange Mobile Phone had made his fame at Xuyuan eclipse even the university president’s.

Many new students who hadn’t even registered yet knew that Xuyuan had an upperclassman named Chen Yansen who had built a net worth of over ten billion yuan after just one year of entrepreneurship.

Chen Yansen’s image—tall, handsome, young, and wealthy—still fueled the fantasies of many naive young women.

If only they could have a romantic encounter with him on Xuyuan’s cherry blossom promenade.

The six of them reached the ground floor, but Chen Yansen didn’t drive.

The group strolled south along Xue Lin Road, heading toward the school gate.

As usual, they chose Shuangqing Restaurant. After a satisfying meal, Chen Yansen, Meng Xibo, Wang Zhengqiang, and Zhu Xiaopeng headed to the Innovation Park.

Meanwhile, Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe went together to the on-campus telecom hall to discuss the next day’s SIM card promotion with Meng Yaqin.

「Ten minutes later.」

Chen Yansen went up to the second floor. He hadn’t been to the Innovation Park in a while. Lately, he’d been busy with the new phone’s design and usually stayed at Orange Technology, even changing the FoxTao morning meetings to online reports.

"Brother Sen!" Xiang Pengfei greeted with a smile when he saw him walk into Room 206.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and walked over to his seat. The desk was spotless, a clear sign that someone had been cleaning it for him.

Across from him, as if by instinct, Song Yuncheng looked up and glanced at Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen said nothing. He opened his computer, logged into the data backend, and checked the latest core metrics.

FoxTao’s total sales for August reached 3.7 billion yuan. The Orange Mobile Phone contributed over 2 billion of that, meaning the remaining 1.6 billion represented FoxTao’s true performance.

Daily active users had increased from 4 million at the end of July to 4.8 million, just a stone’s throw away from the 5 million mark.

Even after halving the advertising spend, it still maintained steady growth. Orange Mobile Phone users had contributed a significant amount of traffic.

After buying the phone, these users would occasionally open FoxTao during the 21-day waiting period for their cashback to be credited. They would browse the Super Rebates, Nine-Yuan-Nine, or Mall Rebates sections, leading to second and third purchases.

According to the data, approximately 40% of Orange Mobile Phone users made a second purchase on FoxTao.

From a financial perspective, although it meant a 1.7% loss in gross margin, it brought 2 million new customers to FoxTao and boosted pre-orders for the Orange Mobile Phone, making it a worthwhile trade-off.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP—"

A message window in the bottom right corner of the desktop suddenly started shaking.

Chen Yansen clicked it open. Seeing it was a message from Meng Jie, he stood up, went downstairs, and headed to the faculty apartments to get his car.

Song Yuncheng stole a glance, guessing what Chen Yansen was about to do. She sighed softly. ’Working hard and making money is what’s truly reliable! Handsome guys are unreliable enough, let alone guys who are both rich and handsome.’

With that, she opened a business PowerPoint to check the latest developments in the group buy industry.

Lashou Network had failed in its bid for an IPO and was refocusing its energy on increasing its market share.

After securing a total of 80 million US dollars in funding from Digital Sky Technology and Ah Li, Meituan Network was making a push to break into the top three of the industry.

Gaopeng Network was frequently hit with brand crises. Even with the backing of FoxTao and Penguin, its market share continued to plummet.

Excluding Juhuasuan, the top three in the group buy race were now Lashou, WoWo Group, and Nuomi Network. Meituan was in fourth place, and Gao Peng had nearly fallen out of the top ten.

Song Yuncheng thought for a moment, then picked up her phone and made calls to Lashou and WoWo Group to coordinate special group buy events for September.

...

...

Early the next morning, Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe, neatly dressed, sat at the telecom campus card promotion booth, busy selling SIM cards.

"Hello, uncle. Could you please tell me where the registration point for the School of Communication and Culture is?"

Tang Zhenzhe was looking down, organizing the SIM cards, when a crisp, clear voice suddenly sounded by his ear.

Uncle?

Besides him and Song Yang, all the other telecom staff were women. Where did this "uncle" come from?

"Hahaha..." Song Yang couldn’t help but burst out laughing. He pointed at Tang Zhenzhe and teased, "Brother Zhe, I told you not to wear a suit. You already look a bit mature for your age."

Only then did Tang Zhenzhe realize that the "uncle" the girl was referring to was him.

Korean dramas had been popular for the past two years, popularizing terms of address like "uncle," "little brother," and "little sister."

Young girls especially liked to use "uncle" to address men who were more than ten years older than them.

"How do I look like an uncle? I’m only a sophomore!" Tang Zhenzhe retorted, his tone full of dissatisfaction. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"But you’re wearing a suit, and your hairstyle is very mature. You really do look like a handsome uncle."

The girl, wearing a backpack, said with a giggle.

Tang Zhenzhe’s face fell at the first half of her sentence, but he was overjoyed by the second half.

He looked at the girl again. She had her hair in a high ponytail and a fair, delicate face. Perhaps because of the heat, her cheeks were tinged with a rosy blush.

"Let me take you there. Are you a journalism or Chinese language major? Why didn’t your parents come with you?"

Tang Zhenzhe put down the SIM cards, stepped out from behind the promotion booth, and offered to take the girl to the School of Communication and Culture’s registration point.

"I’m a local. It only takes me about ten minutes to get home, so I didn’t need my parents to come with me."

The girl replied with a smile.

Tang Zhenzhe smiled back, but his heart sank. He thought to himself, ’Looks like I won’t be selling this SIM card after all.’

「Elsewhere.」

Chen Yansen picked up Meng Jie from the bus station and brought her back to Xuyuan.

Having not seen each other for two months, they didn’t even bother with the luggage, heading straight for Room 0418 and tumbling from the bathroom to the bedroom.

This kind of bolt and latch, whether it’s the first time being used or it’s been a long time, requires a process of breaking in again.

Fortunately, Chen Yansen had studied the *Yingzao Fashi*. He was extremely familiar with the structure and use of such bolts. In no time, he had figured out the thickness and path of the latch, and then began to push and pull repeatedly.

「Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Shencheng City.」

Zhou Jinling, along with two market development specialists, boarded a plane bound for Abyssinia.

Chen Yansen had hired over 30 overseas channel managers like Zhou Jinling in one go. Most of them had offline sales experience in the African Market.

Some could even speak fluent Arabic or French.

This group was like seeds scattered by Chen Yansen, all flying toward the African Market.