Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 235 Market Crash
On Tuesday evening, Chen Cheng left Yanjing and returned to Jiangcheng.

However, he brought a 33-year-old woman with him this time. This woman, named Wang Xuan, was the deputy director of human resources at Sina last week. She completed her resignation at lightning speed on Tuesday and was preparing to go to Jiangcheng with Chen Cheng.

Normally, it would be difficult for Wang Xuan to resign so quickly, but she happened to be in an awkward period where her boss was targeting her relentlessly. Her boss had been making things difficult for her for a long time, trying to squeeze her out of the company. So when she decided to resign, her boss seemed to have won a long and protracted tug-of-war, and approved her resignation application at lightning speed.

Chen Cheng recruited a lot of people from Yanjing this time, but these people arrived at different times, and many of them brought their teams with them, so Chen Cheng currently has no idea how many people will actually be on the job. Fortunately, Wang Xuan successfully resigned, so she returned to Jiangcheng with him to quickly sort out the personnel process. She will be responsible for completing the company's organizational structure, job requirements, and the onboarding process for each person.

In addition, Wang Xuan also needs to prepare formal employment contracts for the current Jiangnan University alumni, and at the same time handle the opening of social security and housing provident fund accounts. In the future, all employees of the campus network will enjoy social security and housing provident fund that are consistent with their actual salaries.

After returning to Jiangcheng, Chen Cheng first took Wang Xuan to the company. The office space of more than 800 square meters has been prepared and can provide more than 150 workstations.

Wang Xuan made a simple plan for the venue. President Chen Cheng, as well as the finance and administration departments, all needed to have their own offices. In addition, at least two meeting rooms were needed. Other departments did not need their own offices, but in Wang Xuan's opinion, the 800-square-meter space would soon be overcrowded.

Based on her experience, the number of full-time employees at Renren.com could exceed 300 in three months, at which point the office space would need to double.

Fortunately, the office building had a relatively high vacancy rate, so Chen Cheng gave Wang Xuan two tasks. One was to find a three-star hotel nearby tonight and negotiate a negotiated price with them on behalf of the company. Employees coming from Yanjing would definitely need to find a place to stay after arriving in Jiangcheng. Large companies in later years had already taken this into consideration. For example, Alibaba would reimburse employees for hotel expenses for at least ten days if they came to Hangzhou from other places to join the company, and would continue to provide housing subsidies afterward.

Chen Cheng knew the importance of good benefits. These employees were moving from Yanjing to Jiangcheng, which was already full of uncertainty. The company had to provide benefits and care that far exceeded their expectations so that they could adapt to the new environment as quickly as possible.

Therefore, he told Wang Xuan: "In the future, our out-of-town employees can stay at the contracted hotel for free for ten days. The room type can be a standard room or a double room, but breakfast must be included. During this period, their work attendance time can also be shortened by two hours, which will make it easier for them to find a house and purchase daily necessities. In addition, travel expenses will also be fully reimbursed. Economy class airfare will be reimbursed, hard sleeper train tickets will be reimbursed, and the cost of taking a taxi from the airport or train station to the hotel will also be reimbursed."

Wang Xuan was somewhat surprised. Although these benefits were common in major companies in later generations, they were unheard of nowadays.

A ten-day stay in a three-star hotel would cost at least 2,000 yuan under contract. Add in travel expenses, and the upfront costs are considerable. At least 100 to 200 employees will be coming from Yanjing in the future. If each employee receives a subsidy of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, the cost will be several hundred thousand yuan.

However, she did not raise any objections because she knew that her job was human resources. Recruiting employees and ensuring that new employees settled in and enjoyed fair opportunities for growth were the core of human resources work. As for cost control, that should be handled by finance and the boss in the future.

So she immediately said, "Okay, Mr. Chen, I'll finalize the hotel agreement tonight."

Chen Cheng then instructed her: "Tomorrow morning, come and talk to the property management to see if there are any suitable spaces available. Rent them in advance, even if they're a bit bigger, it doesn't matter, we'll be able to use them soon. You don't need to come in the afternoon. Walk around the company area and check out the nearby residential areas and real estate agencies. See if there are any suitable places to rent. Find a reputable agency and connect with them so they can provide rental services for our employees. You can negotiate a discount on the agency fees with them. Everything will be done through the company, and the company will cover it."

Wang Xuan was astonished; the company had to cover the rental agency fee—this was truly something she'd never seen before.

Seeing her surprise, Chen Cheng reminded her, "The real estate agency industry is very chaotic. You've just arrived in a strange city and urgently need to rent a suitable place to settle down. If you encounter a shady agent in the process, it will have a great impact on your mood and state of mind. If you get into a dispute, you won't be able to focus on work since you just arrived. You'll have to focus on protecting your rights first, which will not only affect your state of mind but also your work. If we take care of this small matter, it won't cost much money, but it will save our employees a lot of time and energy."

Wang Xuan felt that Chen Cheng's words made sense. She had rented a house in Yanjing several times and encountered some shady agents. When she shared a house with someone, she encountered a shady agent and a shady sub-landlord. The feeling of being kicked out in the middle of the night, not getting a penny of the rent and deposit back, and having nowhere to seek justice was indeed devastating.

If we can connect with a reputable agency, where all fees are transparent and settled through official contracts, the chances of this situation occurring for employees are almost completely eliminated, saving them a lot of trouble.
-
The following Wednesday, Chen Cheng resumed normal classes.

The counselor chatted with him for a bit, and after confirming that he hadn't encountered any difficulties, didn't make things difficult for him because he missed two days of class.

Yan Ruoxuan was concerned about Chen Cheng's gains from his trip to Yanjing, and privately told him that her father had asked about Renren.com's financing again, and wanted to know what Chen Cheng's plans were.

Chen Cheng's reply was to wait a little longer. Even if the team were expanded, the revenue from the first month and the Double Eleven promotion would be enough to cope. Besides, the team that needed to spend money wasn't in place yet, so asking for more money wouldn't be of any use.

The team that really needs to burn money is the marketing team.

Chen Cheng is ready. With staff in place, the "Facebook" app will be rolled out across the entire network in the first half of next year. At that time, "Xiaonei" and "Facebook" will be used simultaneously. Then, "Xiaonei" will be gradually phased out, and eventually only Facebook will remain.

The rhythm needs to be controlled like that of a scumbag: first find a mistress, then gradually make her the official wife. You can't be too hasty, but you also can't be too slow.

Once the "Facebook" campaign starts rolling out across the entire network, it will be a phase of massive cash burn. If Xiaonei.com sees any signs of impending cash flow pressure at that time, it will seek financing immediately.

At noon, Yan Ruoxuan wanted to invite Chen Cheng to lunch, but Chen Cheng received a call from Wang Xuan, who wanted him to come to the company to take a look at some office spaces she had selected.

Chen Cheng could only reschedule his dinner with Yan Ruoxuan for the evening and then take a taxi to the company by himself.

Once in the taxi, the driver kept talking to his colleagues in the local dialect on his walkie-talkie. He was indignant, and the voices coming from the walkie-talkie were just like his, full of curses.

Fortunately, although the accents of Fancheng and Jiangcheng are quite different, they are still understandable if you listen carefully. Chen Cheng understood the topic of the drivers' angry discussion, so he asked the driver, "Sir, is the starting price going to be adjusted?" "Yes!"

The taxi driver angrily cursed, "They say the failure to apply for the title of 'Civilized City' is related to the numerous tricycles running all over the streets. The city plans to clean it up properly, so they're going to lower the taxi starting fare from eight yuan for three kilometers to three yuan for one kilometer."

After saying that, he asked Chen Cheng, "Young man, don't you think this is ridiculous? Lowering our starting price to the same level as tricycles, how high are our costs? What are the costs of a tricycle? You can buy one for a few thousand yuan and start driving around doing fare. Our quota has risen to more than 200,000 yuan, and a vehicle costs more than 100,000 yuan!"

Chen Cheng smiled and said, "Actually, it may not be a bad thing. With the starting price lowered, your customer base might increase."

The taxi driver waved his hand: "Young man, you don't understand. Half of the people who take taxis in the city are going for short distances. Those who go for long distances are either in a hurry or don't want to take a taxi. Now that the starting fare has been lowered, our income from short trips will decrease. A colleague just analyzed it very well. He said that the city can't just drive out the unlicensed tricycles. There are so many passengers taking unlicensed tricycles. If we rely on taxis to pick them up, we simply can't handle it all. Not to mention that during peak hours, taxis are much slower than unlicensed tricycles. So, the city might have to issue more licenses. Then we'll have more competitors, and life will be even harder."

Chen Cheng asked him, "Does that affect the price of the indicator?"

"How could it not have an impact?"

The taxi driver said, "Last week it had reached 240,000, but on Monday news came out that the starting price would be adjusted. Many people were afraid that the quota would drop, so they were selling at a loss. In just two days, it has dropped to below 200,000."

Chen Cheng was somewhat surprised, not expecting the price to drop so quickly.

But he knew one thing: the price of the index would enter a panic phase where there was no market for it. No matter if you offered 200,000 or 180,000, no one would take the bait. At that point, you could only keep lowering the price until someone was willing to buy.

Once the impact of SARS spreads, the price of the quota will drop to around 30,000 yuan.

Judging from this, Qin Xiaobo's father, Qin Jianshe, is probably going to suffer a huge loss this time.

Qin Jianshe is indeed on the verge of collapse.

He has more than a hundred indicators. Even if the price of a single indicator fluctuates by 10,000 yuan, it's a fluctuation of one million yuan. Now that one indicator has dropped by 40,000 yuan, it's equivalent to the market value of his holdings dropping by five million yuan from its peak.

He also considered quickly releasing a batch of quotas, but there are no actual transactions in the market now. Everyone is afraid that the policy will change too much at once. The city wants taxis to replace all the unlicensed tricycles, which cannot be achieved by simply lowering the taxi starting price. There must be enough transportation capacity to take over the market of unlicensed tricycles, which will inevitably require the issuance of a batch of quotas.

The loss of several million yuan has made Qin Jianshe restless. At lunchtime at home, he sat by the table without touching the food. His wife also looked worried and asked him, "What's going on now?"

Qin Jianshe's information network is even better than that of taxi drivers. He said, "The news I heard this morning is that the city is very determined to crack down on unlicensed tricycles this time. Basically, they want to eliminate the root cause of the problem."

His wife asked, "How do you plan to eliminate the root of the problem?"

Qin Jianshe said, "On the one hand, we need to require traffic management departments to strengthen road enforcement, starting from the urban area, and gradually drive out the living space of unlicensed tricycles. On the other hand, we need to let taxis take away the market share of unlicensed tricycles."

At this point, Qin Jianshe sighed and said, "The city has been holding meetings for three consecutive days. This morning, it was initially decided that the Jiangcheng Transportation Department would establish a wholly-owned enterprise. The Transportation Bureau would issue 3,000 additional taxi licenses to this enterprise and purchase 3,000 of the latest Fukang sedans. All 3,000 taxis would be contracted out to qualified taxi drivers."

"The first batch is 3,000 units. Whether there will be a second batch, and if so, how many, is still unknown. If there is a second batch, taxis will be everywhere. For every unlicensed tricycle that gets rid of, there will be an increase in taxis. The price of the quota will definitely drop, perhaps even to half price or lower!"

His wife panicked immediately, dropped her chopsticks on the table, and then bounced up and fell to the ground.

She said in a panic, "If it's really half price, we'll lose a lot of money! You have to think of something right away!"

What can I do?

Qin Jianshe said dejectedly, "I can't find a buyer to take over, and I can't stop the city's decision. I can only watch as the price of the quotas drops day by day. If word gets out that the Transportation Bureau is setting up a taxi company, the price of the quotas will definitely plummet..."

His wife couldn't help but complain, "I told you not to buy so many, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what's happened, you bought eighty from that kid surnamed Chen alone..."

Then she quickly added, "Why don't you ask that guy surnamed Chen if he still wants it? Just say you're short of funds and plan to sell it to him at a low price. He hasn't received the news about issuing additional licenses yet, has he?"

(End of this chapter)