BANG!
Chen Yansen kicked the door open. Only Tang Zhenzhe and Song Yang were in the dorm room.
"Brother Sen, long time no see! You didn’t have to bring anything." Tang Zhenzhe quietly closed Kuai Bo and came over with a smile.
"Are Bo Bo and Zhu Xiaopeng still at work?" Chen Yansen pulled over a chair, plopped down, and put the beer and snacks on the table before asking.
"Those two can’t bear to part with that 1.5x overtime pay." Song Yang sidled up with a grin, then paused and added, "Qiangzi’s on duty at the Innovation Park. I’ll give him a call."
"No need. A dozen beers is just right for the three of us." Chen Yansen waved his hand, rejecting Song Yang’s suggestion.
Tang Zhenzhe had been about to call Meng Xibo and Zhu Xiaopeng, but after hearing what Chen Yansen said, he put his phone down.
Even though Chen Yansen hadn’t been back to the dorm in a while, he reached out by feel and pulled a bottle opener from a drawer.
Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe weren’t big drinkers. After a few bottles, their faces were flushed, and they started talking nonsense.
They rambled on and on, repeating themselves, talking about everything from the package station to the student council to the first-year girls.
Even as third-year university students, Song Yang and Tang Zhenzhe were still naive in the ways of the world and matters of the heart.
Listening to their bullshit, Chen Yansen smiled happily.
An hour later, he left the men’s dormitory and headed toward the faculty apartments.
As he walked, he mulled over the technical specifications for the heavy-duty dynamometer.
Zuo Hongyu had taken the equipment list he’d made and bought all the parts, like the industrial-grade hydraulic force gauge and dynamic force sensors. He’d had them sent to the warehouse Chen Yansen specified—in an industrial park in the northwest corner of the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.
Chen Yansen wanted to know the absolute limit of his strength.
...
...
The next morning, Chen Yansen didn’t go to the Science and Technology Park. Instead, he went straight to the warehouse where the equipment was stored.
The warehouse had a five-to-six-meter-high ceiling and over six hundred square meters of floor space. It was filled with a pile of brand-new industrial parts: a titanium alloy frame, a ten-centimeter-thick quenched steel plate, a hydraulic buffer, an S-type tension and compression sensor, a rubber damping layer, an electromagnetic valve power-off device, and industrial-grade data acquisition equipment.
A normal person, faced with components weighing hundreds or even thousands of kilograms, would have been helpless without a crane or a robotic arm.
But when Chen Yansen tried, he found he could lift the 2,000-kilogram quenched steel plate with a gentle heave and move it around at will.
The morning passed quickly, and a bizarre-looking heavy-duty dynamometer was finally assembled.
It was ugly, but as long as it worked, that was all that mattered.
The front of the dynamometer featured a circular metal impact block connected to an S-type tension and compression sensor. By striking the pressure plate, a signal amplifier would immediately collect the information transmitted back from the sensor. An AD conversion module (which converts analog signals to digital signals) would then upload this data to the acquisition equipment to analyze his strength value.
Chen Yansen raised his right hand and, with a slight exertion of force, landed a precise punch squarely on the pressure plate.
The industrial touchscreen on the side immediately displayed the number: 6,239 kg!
’Less than half my strength, and it’s already over six tons?’
Chen Yansen glanced at his right hand. The skin was intact, the bones unharmed. Clearly, with his body’s current durability, he didn’t need to worry about his skin splitting and flesh tearing from using too much force.
A deafening THUD!
Chen Yansen threw another punch, this time using seventy to eighty percent of his strength. The number on the display soared to 10,299 kg!
’Fuck!’
Chen Yansen sucked in a sharp breath. His strength was fine, but his physical durability wasn’t enough. The skin and flesh on the back of his hand screamed with an excruciating pain from the ten-ton impact.
The skin hadn’t broken, but a large patch had turned red.
He had a feeling that if he used his full strength to smash the steel plate, his knuckles would probably fracture.
’I can’t test it anymore!’
’I need to strengthen my physique one more time!’
’Time to test my leg strength!’
Chen Yansen precisely controlled his strength to seventy percent and suddenly lashed out with a front kick, striking the pressure plate hard.
The ten-centimeter quenched steel plate groaned under the impact. The heavy-duty dynamometer, weighing around ten tons in total, was forcibly knocked back three to four meters.
The numbers on the display climbed frantically, finally stopping at 17,136 kg!
It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen if Chen Yansen landed a full-power kick on a UFC champion.
They’d probably be blown to pieces on the spot.
Chen Yansen summoned his system panel and stared blankly at the value: 31.16.
’If I raise this value to 100, how much strength would I have? Sixty tons? A hundred tons?’
Coupled with his terrifying Spiritual Power, it was enough to let him avoid 99.99% of all accidents. Even if someone deliberately tried to harm him, it would be difficult for them to escape his Divine Sense.
The maximum range of this heavy-duty dynamometer was twenty tons. Unless he replaced the hydraulic system to expand its range, another kick with his full power would completely wreck the internal components.
Having figured this out, Chen Yansen lost interest in any further testing.
He left the industrial park, drove back to the Science and Technology Park, and had lunch. In the afternoon, he began his weekly meetings with the heads of each project, starting with Pinbei Mall.
Huang Zheng was busy preparing for the Singles’ Day (Double Eleven) promotion. At the same time, to coordinate with the launch and promotion of Yu’e Bao, the product department had planned an "Order and Receive Trial Funds" event.
For example, purchasing a 99-yuan electric kettle would grant you 10,000 yuan in Yu’e Bao trial funds, valid for three days. The more you bought, the more you received.
The 10,000-yuan figure looked enticing, but the actual cost was only four yuan. It could boost downloads for Orange Pay and attract a new user for Yu’e Bao—an absolutely superb deal.
After finishing his work report, Huang Zheng added, "Boss, I’m planning to invite our Key Account merchants for a Pinbei merchant conference before Singles’ Day starts. It will serve as a work summary for 2012 and also be an opportunity to discuss paid advertising collaborations for next year."
Nowadays, Pinbei’s monetization methods were becoming more and more refined. In addition to the annual technical service fees, there were various paid resources, bringing the gross margin to 8% of the platform’s GMV.
This showed that Huang Zheng had a real knack for making money, especially when it came to getting it from the merchants.
"You decide." Chen Yansen didn’t object, signaling for him to proceed as he saw fit.
"Understood, Boss." The corners of Huang Zheng’s mouth lifted slightly as he responded with a smile.
Working at Pinbei Technology didn’t make him feel like just an employee. As the boss, Chen Yansen only held one weekly meeting that lasted less than an hour, and he rarely interfered with Huang Zheng’s management and operations.
Furthermore, the generous annual salary and stock option rewards gave him a strong sense of belonging at Pinbei.
Next was the weekly meeting for Orange Technology. After Zhou Shouzhi finished his routine report on financial and business data, he specifically mentioned the progress of the Orange Intelligent Life Hall project.
Nine days after launch, the 32 stores had collectively achieved 130 million in sales. Offline sales accounted for 71% of this, while the remaining 29% of performance came through the Kuai Pao channel.
Naturally, it couldn’t compare to the output from the flagship stores on Orange Mall, Pinbei, Tmall Mall, Sunning, and Gome, but it added a brand-new sales channel for Orange Technology.
In the future, once Orange Mobile Phone’s direct-sale stores were spread across the country, they could generate at least tens of billions in revenue annually.
"Boss, I heard Xiaomi is planning to expand into the overseas market in Tianzhu," Zhou Shouzhi said in a serious tone after they finished discussing business matters.
In his view, Tianzhu, with a total population of over 1.2 billion but fewer than 30 million smartphone users, was perfectly suited for Orange Technology’s expansion.
"You’ve set your sights on Tianzhu’s mobile phone market?" Chen Yansen asked in return.
"I think Lei Yijun has a good eye. Tianzhu is like Hua Country three years ago. Once its potential is unleashed, annual smartphone shipments won’t be less than one hundred million units," Zhou Shouzhi said seriously.
"Let’s stick to an asset-light operating model. We won’t touch any heavy-asset models like investing in factories. I don’t have much faith in the Tianzhu market. After all, both Pepsi and Mountain Star have suffered losses there, and Orange Technology could very well be the next."
Chen Yansen didn’t oppose it outright, but simply told Zhou Shouzhi to test the waters first, then frankly stated his concerns.
You have to understand, the folks in Tianzhu don’t discriminate; they’ll fleece anyone who shows up.
For the Tianzhu market, it’s best to stick to e-commerce and distributor channels. That way, it’s easier for Orange Technology to pull out and run if things go south.
"OK." Zhou Shouzhi nodded, showing he understood.
「Meanwhile.」
Only eight or nine hours remained until the launch of Yu’e Bao.