In late autumn, Xue Lin Road was blanketed in withered yellow plane tree leaves.
A fierce gust of wind swept past, sending the leaves swirling through the air.
As Chen Yansen drove past, he could hear a maintenance worker grumbling, "I have to sweep this place every single day. When are these leaves ever going to finish falling?"
The man brandished a large broom over a meter long and glanced up at the sky. To the students, the plane trees were a beautiful sight, but to him, they were an instrument of torture, a source of endless misery.
’No wonder all the plane trees in Chunshen were replaced with camphor trees a few years later.’
Chen Yansen thought to himself as he glanced out the window.
A moment later, an Aston Martin Rapide drove slowly out of the East Gate of Xuyuan before speeding off toward the Science and Technology Park.
Autumn in Northern Huian was bleak. The birch trees lining the streets were bare, with only a few scattered leaves clinging to their branches.
A short while later, Chen Yansen parked his car, walked straight into the No. 9 Office Building, and took the elevator up to his office to sit down.
October’s Human Dao Fire had been credited to his account. Combined with the 49 wisps remaining from September, he had a total of 163,146 wisps, which could be synthesized into 1,631 wisps of Divine Dao Fire.
"Enhance!"
At his mental command, a stream of golden mist as thick as his wrist materialized from thin air and instantly drilled into the space between his eyebrows.
Unlike Human Dao Fire, strengthening his physique or Spirit with Divine Dao Fire brought no stinging sensation of heat or cold—only an ultimate, blissful pleasure.
In just a few moments, his physique value had risen to 47.47!
There were no visible changes to his appearance, but Chen Yansen was keenly aware that his fundamental physiological functions—including his strength, speed, endurance, and physical durability—were rapidly transforming.
His five senses evolved once more. His sight, smell, and hearing changed dramatically. Standing by the window, he could even make out the antennae of an ant three kilometers away.
His weight reached 134 kilograms!
Yet his build was still that of someone weighing around 80 kilograms!
The density, resilience, and hardness of his muscles, bones, and flesh were all increasing!
Chen Yansen raised his hand and swiped at the air, creating a piercing sonic boom. His fingers moved so fast that an ordinary person would barely be able to see an afterimage.
"Dumping over a hundred thousand Human Dao Fire into it really does make a difference."
Feeling the abundant physical strength and energy, Chen Yansen muttered to himself in satisfaction.
He then wrapped a few layers of Spiritual Power around his waist, bringing his weight down to 87 kilograms, before slowly returning to his seat.
He turned on his computer, logged into the data backend and his email, and began handling the company’s daily operational matters as usual.
Half an hour later, he had finished the work at hand.
Chen Yansen stood up, pushed the door open, and walked out, heading for the floor where the chip design department was located.
「Meanwhile.」
Lei Yijun sat in his office in the Xiaomi Headquarters Building, his face grim, clearly in no mood to talk.
The engineering test version of the Xiaomi Box had been online for only eight days before its service was halted.
Although Xiaomi hadn’t obtained an internet integrated broadcast control license, it had achieved a form of compliance by partnering with Huashu Media.
Yet, it was still ordered to undergo rectification for violating regulations on content sources and connection exclusivity.
To put it bluntly, the Xiaomi Box wasn’t allowed to link to content from sites like Sohu, Penguin, and Youku to poach their user base.
"Son of a bitch! Nobody jumped up to say we couldn’t do this before we started!"
Lei Yijun cursed under his breath, seething with frustration.
It was only then that he realized: the powers that be would graciously court him when they needed him, but couldn’t care less if Xiaomi lived or died when they didn’t.
Instead of being the first to taste success, the Xiaomi Box had been met with an iron fist, leaving him stunned.
"Boss, I don’t think you need to be so pessimistic. It’s just a rectification order. The timing was wrong, so everything went wrong. Let’s just wait a while."
Li Wanqiang, sitting opposite him and listening to Lei Yijun’s curses, quickly tried to console him.
"It’s fine. I know what to do. The Xiaomi Box launch is on hold for now. We’ll focus all our energy on preparing for next year’s Spring Festival new product launch."
Lei Yijun said with a wave of his hand.
In the five months since the release of the Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi MI2, total sales had reached 5.7 million units. However, as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Coolpad each launched their own low-to-mid-range phones, sales growth had slowed significantly.
This forced Lei Yijun to accelerate the development of their new models.
"Okay, Boss. But are we really going to ship the Xiaomi 2A and 2S with Aurora OS? The MIUI system R&D department is strongly against it."
Li Wanqiang asked with a frown after a few seconds of thought.
"Who’s against it? Hong Feng? Tell him to come say it to my face!" Lei Yijun snapped, his expression cold.
To boost sales and meet user demand, Lei Yijun had decided to release Aurora OS versions of the Xiaomi 2A and 2S in addition to the standard MIUI versions.
Simply put, customers buying a Xiaomi 2S or Xiaomi 2A could choose between Aurora OS and MIUI.
Due to the different built-in operating systems, some electronic components were also fine-tuned. The configurations were similar, yet each had its own distinct characteristics, a move primarily aimed at improving software and hardware optimization.
However, the MIUI-equipped version of the Xiaomi 1S had consistently undersold the Aurora OS version, which was undoubtedly an insult to the MIUI system R&D department.
"Er... I understand," Li Wanqiang nodded in resignation.
As Lei Yijun’s right-hand man, no one understood the change in his boss’s mentality over the last six months better than he did.
Losing to Orange Mobile Phone was one thing, but now, Xiaomi Mobile Phone’s cumulative shipments weren’t even as high as 360’s phone sales. Even a nobody like the NetEase phone had sold over two million units.
Lei Yijun had initially wanted to be the Jobs of Hua Country. Now, forget Jobs—he couldn’t even hope to touch the hem of Chen Yansen’s garment.
"What’s the development progress on Little Love? Can it be ready for the spring launch event?" Lei Yijun asked.
"It’s in the final debugging stages, but in terms of performance and user experience, it can’t compare to the Moss voice interaction engine. They’re probably using a more advanced algorithmic model."