I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 572 The Tea Master's Work Paradise, Salary Maniac: I'm Not Interested in Money!
The rooftop garden of Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

After Ma Liyun and Li Yanhong got out of the elevator, they looked at each other in surprise. Neither of them expected that Chen Yansen would arrange for them to be on the top floor to be exposed to the cold wind.

In late February, the city of Xucheng was still chilly despite the warming weather. Standing at a height of over 30 meters, I couldn't help but shiver after just two minutes.

"Mr. Ma, Mr. Li, please have a seat!"

Chen Yansen greeted them warmly.

In his hand, he was also carrying a purple clay teapot, and a faint aroma of tea wafted through the air.

It was obvious that the staff from the three major associations—the Market Supervision Association, the Commerce Association, and the Internet Association—had not arrived yet; Ma Liyun and Li Yanhong had arrived early.

Ma Liyun pulled the zipper up a few more centimeters before sitting down opposite Chen Yansen.

Li Yanhong then took a seat, sitting on the same sofa as Ma Liyun.

"Try it out, these are yellow sprouts from my hometown. I don't know if they'll suit your tastes, but I quite like them."

Chen Yansen put down the teapot and handed two cups of hot tea to Ma Liyun and Li Yanhong respectively.

Putting aside the fact that the three companies are competing, both Ma Liyun and Li Yanhong are among the first generation of internet veterans in China, influencing an era.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Ma Liyun felt a chill on his scalp. He was about to say, "President Chen, how about we change to another meeting room?"
But he swallowed the words back down his throat.

Li Yanhong and Chen Yansen both sat there calmly. If he were to suggest changing places first, wouldn't that be blatantly telling others that he was physically weak and couldn't stand the cold?
Ma Liyun exhaled a puff of white mist, quickly picked up a cup of hot tea, and felt much more comfortable as she felt the warmth from her palm.

“Mr. Ma, actually, Ali doesn’t need to plunge into the food delivery and group buying sectors. Our previous cooperation model is fine. I believe you’ve been doing this for half a year and you should know very well that these two industries don’t make money and involve a lot of dirty and tiring work.”

Chen Yansen held his teacup, took a small sip of hot tea, and then slowly offered his advice.

Ali has already submitted its IPO prospectus, and once it goes public, the amount of funds raised will definitely not be less than 200 billion US dollars.

Frankly speaking, Senlian Capital, with its three cash cows—Pinbei, DeepBlue Technology, and Orange Technology—is in no way inferior to Ali, which is about to go public, in terms of funding.

While engaging in subsidy wars may seem appealing, it is undeniably a waste of funds.

Upon hearing this, Ma Liyun sensed the sincerity in Chen Yansen's tone and understood the subtext of his words.

They abandoned the O2O strategy to drive traffic to Kuaipao, and Kuaipao was willing to join Yaomao Mall to improve user stickiness and retention rate for Ali.

But other people's resources are ultimately theirs; they're never as convenient as the resources you have in your own hands.

Ma Liyun suppressed her smile, shook her head slightly, and her attitude was very firm.

Alas, the Chinese people's genes are ingrained in their bones; they are constantly fighting amongst themselves and never consider solutions that would benefit both sides.

Chen Yansen sighed and then fell silent.

Why don't you ask what I think?

Li Yanhong held the cup, feeling ignored.

He fared even worse than Ma Liyun, having experienced the ride-hailing war, search engine war, electronic map war, and food delivery war since establishing the LBS business unit.

Senlian Capital is getting stronger and stronger, while Qiandu is getting weaker and weaker. Now its market value is less than 200 billion US dollars, which is even less than a fraction of Pinduoduo's market value.

Li Yanhong wanted to admit defeat, but he didn't know how to say it.

Previously, when he saw that Chen Yansen intended to acquire Taodian and Dianping, but was rejected by Ma Liyun, he sat calmly and waited for Chen Yansen to turn around and talk to him about cooperation.

The three remained silent for several minutes, and Chen Yansen did not mention a word about cooperation, nor did he even glance in his direction.

Grass!
what does it mean!

Do you look down on Baidu?
Do you look down on Qiandu Waimai and Qiandu Tuangou?

A series of questions swirled in Li Yanhong's mind, and his face turned pale and then red.

"Mr. Li, is it too windy and cold on the rooftop? Should we change to another meeting room?"

Chen Yansen asked abruptly.

"No need," Li Yanhong replied with a straight face.

Then, there was another silence that lasted for more than ten minutes.

All three are shrewd business people who have been immersed in the business world for many years, and their emotional intelligence and communication skills have long been honed to perfection.

The silence at this moment is not because they have nothing to say, but because they have both figured out each other's thoughts and neither is willing to break the deadlock first, for fear of losing the negotiation.

After some time, Ma Liyun said, "Does President Chen want to monopolize the food delivery and group-buying market?"

"Does Mr. Ma want to monopolize the e-commerce market?" Chen Yansen asked rhetorically.

"The higher-ups may not genuinely want to see the three of us shake hands and make peace," Li Yanhong said quietly.

At this moment, none of the three major associations were present, and Li Yanhong was no longer as cautious as before when he spoke.

"Competition drives progress; isn't that exactly what President Li said at last year's Internet Conference?"

Chen Yansen joked with a smile.

Li Yanhong snorted coldly and didn't reply.

Half an hour later, staff from the three major associations—the Market Supervision Association, the Commerce Association, and the Internet Association—arrived one after another, led by Wang Guangtong from Yanjing.

Everyone entered the conference room and took their seats in turn. Ma Liyun brought Tang Yongbo and Zhang Tao with her.

Li Yanhong brought Gong Zhenbing with him.

"First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Chen, Mr. Ma, and Mr. Li for their willingness to cooperate with the Market Supervision Bureau, the Commerce Bureau, and the Internet Association."

The core message of today's meeting is very clear: to eliminate malicious competition in the food delivery industry and allow the industry to return to a healthy development track.

Wang Guangtong was the first to speak.

As for what constitutes malicious competition, what coupon value should be issued, and what promotional methods should be adopted to cross the line of 'malicious competition,' there is currently no unified standard. It still requires the three companies to reach a consensus and come up with a solution that complies with industry norms and takes into account the interests of all parties.

After most of the day’s discussion, a very rudimentary set of rules was produced.

For new users, the maximum amount of no-minimum-spend coupons that can be issued is 10 yuan;
针对老用户，最高只能发放5折优惠券，比如10减5、20减10、40减20等；
For daily marketing activities, it is explicitly prohibited to attract users with "free orders" to avoid falling into a vicious cycle of promotions again.

Chen Yansen glanced at it and knew that the validity period of this piece of paper was probably unlikely to exceed six months, but he still signed it in a perfunctory manner, just to give face.

In his view, Baidu is not a big threat; the real threat is Ma Liyun.

Old Ma is still up to no good; who knows, he might make a comeback once Alibaba completes its IPO and has more capital backing.

So he made up his mind that since the food delivery war was over, he would put his energy, money and manpower into the e-commerce track and compete with Ali for the top spot.

That afternoon, news that the three major food delivery platforms had been summoned for talks spread like wildfire and quickly became a trending topic.

"I advise the three major associations—the Market Supervision Association, the Commerce Association, and the Internet Association—to mind their own business!"

Goodbye to my free milk tea, hamburgers, and Sichuan-style boiled chicken, as well as Shaxian, Lanzhou, and braised chicken!

"I woke up to find that the working class's rice bowl was gone!"

"Use today's red envelopes quickly, because they'll probably be gone soon. Use them while you can!"

The comment sections of major social media platforms are filled with lamentations.

Although everyone knew that the food delivery platform's cashback subsidies couldn't be distributed indefinitely, no one expected that this day would come so soon.

Merchants on the three major food delivery platforms breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the news.

Especially the tea makers at milk tea shops were overjoyed and couldn't help but leave comments saying, "Thank you to the Market Supervision Association, thank you to the Business Association, thank you to the Internet Association, thank you to CCTV. Do you know how I survived these past three months? I had to make three or four hundred cups of milk tea every day, and my arms have gotten thicker."

"The nightmare is finally over! My mom said I was dreaming about memorizing recipes and shaking milk tea!"

"Me too! That damn boss, he's like a skinflint, I'm so tired of working here I feel like jumping off a building, but he won't even spend 2000 yuan to hire another employee."

"A salary of only 2000? Which city is that? That's too little! Come to Mixue Ice Cream! The base salary is between 3000 and 4000 yuan. Every month, the company will also allocate 5% to 15% of the store's sales revenue as a bonus."

"Mixue Ice Cream? That name sounds familiar!"

"Isn't it just that milk tea that Brother Sen bought? It was trending on social media a few days ago. There are five or six Mixue Ice Cream stores in just one district of Greentown."

"I'm based in Shanghai, and I've never heard of Mixue Ice Cream before."

"Go check out B1 of the Sun Moon Light Center; it's under renovation."

"A new one has opened on Luzhou Pedestrian Street. It is said that it will open on the 8th of next month, and the egg roll ice cream will only cost 1 cents a stick."

Netizens are very good at derailing discussions; in no time, everyone was talking about Mixue Ice Cream's new store and employee benefits.

Many tea makers from Coco, Happy Lemon, and Yi Dian Dian have said they have switched jobs to Mixue Ice Cream.

Under Chen Yansen's instruction, Zhang Chaopu made a comprehensive adjustment to Mixue Ice Cream's salary and benefits system. In addition to base salary, commission, quarterly bonus, and six types of insurance and one housing fund, benefits such as weekends off, holiday bonuses, meal allowances, accommodation subsidies, and transportation subsidies were added.

My monthly income has increased from three or four thousand to six or seven thousand.

For a time, Mixue Ice Cream became a haven for milk tea chefs in Central China.

In East China, North China, and South China, whenever a Mixue Ice Cream shop is under renovation, countless people come to submit their resumes.

A pre-tax income of six or seven thousand yuan a month may not seem like much, but in some third- and fourth-tier cities and county-level areas, bosses dare to pay tea makers 2500 yuan or even 2000 yuan a month.

Overtime pay and social insurance and housing fund?
Don't even think about it. Do it if you want, or get lost!

……

……

Three days later, on February 28, the National Daily specially set aside a small section of its page for a free report on Mixue Ice Cream.

"Net profit is less than 15%."

"If five employees can't handle the workload of a 30-square-meter shop, then we'll hire two more."

"Everyone should have the right to a two-day weekend, to spend time with their family, watch the sunrise and the sunset."

"I'm really not interested in money."

The reporter relayed Chen Yansen's original words in written form.

"I don't know if Ma Liyun is interested in money, but I'm sure Chen Yansen is definitely not."

After reading the report, netizens gave their comments.

(End of this chapter)