Chapter 168: Chapter 156: I’ll Say a Number, First Let’s Compete It Down to Under 3 Yuan

That afternoon, after a preliminary discussion with Gao Weilin, Liao Wei returned to Yanjing.

He needed to prepare financial, asset, and business contract documents for Gao Weilin. The final acquisition price could only be determined after a professional evaluation.

Chen Yansen had given him 3% in stock options, with 1% vesting annually. He could continue working as long as his performance satisfied Chen Yansen; if not, he’d be let go. It was a de facto earn-out agreement.

Liao Wei wasn’t worried. He hadn’t done well in the past because he lacked two things: capital and orders. To put it bluntly, he didn’t have a powerful backer.

But now that he was with Chen Yansen, he lacked neither money nor business. If he still couldn’t succeed, he wouldn’t even wait for Chen Yansen to fire him—he’d show himself the door.

Chen Yansen’s days fell back into a familiar cycle of reading, designing Pinbei’s product architecture, and conducting interviews.

Xiong Li and Zhang Junjie, whom Wang Xueting had mentioned previously, were hired one after another. Following that, six HR specialists were brought on in one go to assist the two of them with Pinbei’s recruitment efforts.

Once the framework for the HR department was established, the pace of recruitment picked up noticeably.

By late October, Pinbei Technology’s employee count had grown from 14 to over 70.

To reduce the cost of trial and error, Chen Yansen’s recruitment this time targeted employees primarily from Taobao, Jingdong, Yihaodian, Yixun, and Sunning.

After all, Lao Ma had said he enjoyed supplying talented individuals to society.

Chen Yansen figured the man wouldn’t mind if he poached a few more.

Xiong Li, who came from Jingdong, specialized in poaching people from her old company. After all, among the major e-commerce firms, Jingdong’s compensation was in the lower-middle range, making its employees easy targets.

It was only after meeting her that Chen Yansen discovered Xiong Li was actually a very pretty woman.

Yet, in her four years at Jingdong, she had risen to the position of recruitment supervisor, a clear testament to her abilities.

Zhang Junjie, who had jumped ship from Sunning, simply told the front-end and back-end developers in his former department that Pinbei paid overtime according to labor laws, and with that, he pulled in over 20 engineers.

On their first day of orientation, one of the training modules involved familiarizing them with the internal referral positions and bonus rules:

Investment Attraction Position: Successful referral, 5,000 yuan bonus after the new hire completes three months of employment;

Design Position: 5,000 yuan bonus;

Category Management Position: 8,000 yuan bonus;

Product Position: 10,000 yuan bonus;

Tech Position: Bonus ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 yuan;

A few of the sharper new employees immediately pulled out their phones to contact their old colleagues. Under the guise of casual conversation, they subtly revealed Pinbei’s benefits and compensation.

"Yeah, yeah, I just started. The pay at the new company is just okay, and I’m always working overtime. It’s killing me. I worked overtime for one day last Saturday and only got 2,200 yuan for it. So little, really."

"Fuck! How much did you say? Did your salary jump to 40,000?"

"Nah! Weekend overtime is double pay. My base salary is only 15,000, but with overtime this month, my pre-tax earnings will probably be around 30,000."

"Are you trying to kill yourself? Do you sleep at the office every day?"

"This company has a 6-hour workday. Anything over six hours counts as overtime, and on weekdays it’s paid at 1.5 times the normal rate."

"Uh... so, what’s this company called?"

And just like that, a back-end developer who had only been on the job for a few days managed to poach all his old colleagues.

Three months later, he stood to make over a hundred thousand yuan from referral bonuses alone.

The day after Liao Wei returned to Yanjing, Zhou Shouzhi called. He said that DST’s big boss, Yuri, wanted to visit Orange Technology.

Only then did Chen Yansen remember that after he had rejected Zhou Shouzhi’s 36 billion valuation offer, the man hadn’t contacted him since.

He had originally thought Zhou Shouzhi had given up, but now it seemed he had brought in Yuri himself.

Chen Yansen’s knowledge of Yuri was limited. He only knew that he was the founder of DST, a super-rich tycoon from Beibing Country, and, in his past life, had been a key investor in Xiaomi.

But when compared to Xiaomi, it was clear that Yuri and Zhou Shouzhi were far more optimistic about Orange Technology.

This was especially true after the mass launch of the Xiaomi Mobile Phone, which received poor user feedback. After weighing his options, Yuri decided to give up on investing in Xiaomi and turn his attention to Orange Technology instead.

Chen Yansen didn’t hesitate and readily agreed.

He was tempted by DST’s advantages in the supply chain. Although he could have Zuo Hongyu negotiate with suppliers one by one, Orange Technology’s current purchasing volume was simply too small to secure the best prices.

After setting a date for the visit with Zhou Shouzhi, he handed over the hosting arrangements to Ye Qiuping.

「Elsewhere.」

As soon as Liao Wei got back to Yanjing, he instructed the finance and data departments of Cloud Speed Express to organize their files.

Two days later, Cloud Speed and Senlian Capital began negotiations.

It took only one day for the two parties to settle on an acquisition price of 260 million yuan.

In reality, Cloud Speed’s fixed assets were down to just 100 heavy trucks, 300 medium trucks, 17 distribution centers, 9 regional transfer hubs, and 4,300 employees.

Gao Weilin personally went to Yanjing to finalize the acquisition.

In the investment world, a 260-million-yuan acquisition barely made a ripple.

In the express delivery industry, Cloud Speed was already obscure, so no one paid much attention to its acquisition.

The employees of Cloud Speed, however, were filled with anticipation when they heard their new boss was Chen Yansen of Orange Technology.

After all, both Orange Technology and the Orange Phone Factory were famous for their excellent compensation and benefits.

Chen Yansen’s first task for Liao Wei was to figure out how to convert the franchisees and express stations into directly-operated assets of Cloud Speed.

To put it bluntly, all Cloud Speed employees were forbidden from signing third-party contracts.

Social insurance and housing funds, a monthly housing subsidy equal to 20% of their base salary, commissions, and bonuses—all of it had to be provided.

"Boss, if we do this, our monthly labor costs will at least double," Liao Wei reminded him cautiously over the phone.

"I’m not expecting Cloud Speed to be profitable in the short term. For now, just focus on taking good care of the people on the ground. These people work through wind and rain. Can you bear to see them get old with no financial security to fall back on?" Chen Yansen demanded.

This was a jab at Liao Wei for never having paid social insurance and housing funds for his delivery drivers.

"Boss, besides Shunfeng, Jingdong, and Bond, everyone else in the industry does it this way," Liao Wei argued.

"Does everyone doing it make it right?" Chen Yansen’s tone turned cold.

"Boss, I was wrong. Give me one week, and I’ll get it all sorted out." Hearing the displeasure in Chen Yansen’s voice, Liao Wei quickly agreed.

It wasn’t that Chen Yansen was trying to be a philanthropist. It was because that bastard Liao Wei, in order to evade responsibility, had signed the delivery drivers to a different corporate entity.

To put it plainly, Cloud Speed’s delivery drivers were all outsourced!

’I can’t even get a wisp of Human Dao Fire from them!’

He could tolerate not making money, but he couldn’t tolerate being unable to collect Human Dao Fire.

After hanging up, Liao Wei had the Market Department contact each station manager individually: either leave Cloud Speed or convert to a directly-operated model, where all future station rent and personnel costs would be covered by headquarters.

「Meanwhile.」

「A Cloud Speed Express station in Yanjiao.」

After learning about the changes at Cloud Speed, the owner didn’t hesitate for a second and sold the station directly to headquarters.

To be honest, ever since he became a franchisee of this Cloud Speed Express station, he had taken a lot of flak for it. His wife complained, his parents scolded him, and his friends mocked him. They all said he was an idiot for not choosing one of the "Three Passes and One Reach" and instead picking the delivery company with the worst business.

He had to both deliver and pick up packages every day. It was exhausting, and he only made six or seven thousand a month.

The station only had two delivery drivers; he couldn’t afford any more. To save money, he even had to go out and make deliveries himself.

Now that the new policy was out, he didn’t think twice before dumping this whole mess onto Cloud Speed headquarters.

"Brother Sheng, does this mean my and Xiaozhan’s salaries will be paid by headquarters from now on?" a man in his thirties wearing a Cloud Speed Express uniform asked curiously from inside the station.

"That’s right! I hear the new boss is loaded," Wang Sheng explained casually with a cigarette dangling from his lips. "Once we sign the new contracts, your and Xiaozhan’s base salary will increase to 3,000 yuan. Plus, there’s a monthly housing subsidy of 20% of your salary, which comes out to around 3,600 yuan total. The commission for deliveries and pickups will be the same as before."

His own base salary as the station manager would change to 4,500 yuan. It seemed like less, but it was a great relief to him.

Under Cloud Speed’s new policy, he could still earn six or seven thousand a month, but with easier work and a lot less pressure.

"This new boss is really great. He gave us a 1,200 yuan raise right off the bat," the other delivery driver, Xiaozhan, said with a smile.

"I also heard there will be high-temperature and cold-weather subsidies, plus performance bonuses. We’ll know the details in a few days. The pay has gone up, but the standards are higher now too."

Wang Sheng glanced at the two of them, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said in a serious tone, "From now on, all packages must be delivered to the customer’s door. If we get a customer complaint, it’s a fine for a minor offense and termination for a serious one. So you two better watch yourselves."

Wang Sheng knew all too well what Cloud Speed Express used to be like.

They’d call once, and if no one answered, they’d just dump the package at the entrance to the residential complex or the company’s front desk. They took no responsibility for lost packages.

Delivery to the door? It was out of the question.

"Huh? We have to deliver to the door? I always just left them with the security guard," the older delivery driver said, looking troubled. He felt that while his pay had increased, so had his workload.

Wang Sheng just smiled and said nothing.

「On the other side.」

Liao Wei began the restructuring while simultaneously using the 500 million yuan injected by Senlian Capital to expand aggressively in the East China Market.

He rented transfer warehouses, opened new express stations, and accelerated the recruitment of delivery drivers.

In truth, he didn’t have to worry much about recruitment.

Some delivery drivers from Tiantian, Guofeng, and Yunda immediately jumped ship when they heard Cloud Speed offered a guaranteed monthly pay of 3,600 yuan, social insurance and housing funds, red envelope subsidies, and order-rush bonuses.

They didn’t have a choice before, but now that there was a better option, they were quick to leave.

For a time, the "Three Passes and One Reach" companies saw a steady drain of their delivery drivers. Resignations became commonplace.

When Chen Yansen heard about this, he was speechless. He hadn’t set a high base salary for Cloud Speed, and there wasn’t even any overtime pay, yet it was proving to be incredibly attractive.

’And here I thought *I* was the black-hearted one!’

’But compared to my competitors, I look like a damn saint!’

When the bosses of several other delivery companies heard about the changes at Cloud Speed, they were scornful. They privately cursed Chen Yansen, thinking that he’d made a little money and now didn’t know how to spend it.

’The express delivery industry isn’t something you can build just by throwing money at it!’

But Chen Yansen didn’t care.

For him, the delivery company was just a shortcut to obtaining Human Dao Fire. As long as it didn’t lose money, he could accept it.

This was similar to Jingdong’s strategy for its book category. Liu Qiangdong never expected to profit from books in the first place.

After all, Jingdong still had its core categories like 3C electronics, large home appliances, and home goods.

But this was disastrous for sites like Dangdang Network, whose core business was books. Jingdong’s no-profit approach could drive them straight into a corner.

Chen Yansen was employing a similar tactic.

Once Pinbei went live, he would also give Orange Technology’s orders to Cloud Speed and promote Cloud Speed’s services to his Key Account merchants. The first step would be to drive the starting price for deliveries down below three yuan.