Tech startup: I really do make mobile phones!

Chapter 96 High Salary Recruitment
In the restaurant on the second floor of the west gate of Shenzhen University, the chandelier casts a soft halo on the glass turntable.

Liu Jiping, wearing the work clothes cuffs bearing the Chrysanthemum Factory logo, rubbed them against the scalding hot teacup, the rising steam blurring his glasses.

When Chen Mo pushed the black orange 1 packaging box across the table, the scraping sound of the film against the glass turntable startled him so much that he almost spilled his tea.

"Senior! Try out the phone I made. Come work with me and keep an eye on the newly acquired battery factory?"

Liu Jiping, from the "small workshop in North China," stared at the "Shenzhen Orange Technology Co., Ltd." information on the back of the packaging box, his Adam's apple bobbing, still looking somewhat incredulous: "You really made two hundred million?"

Liu Jiping knew about Huabei Qiang's rice cabinet legend: a 1.2-meter counter that earns 2 million yuan a year. But he had never heard of a 20-square-meter workshop that earns 200 million yuan in less than four months!

That averages out to 5000 million a month. How many phones must that be?!
Is Junior Brother Chen's little workshop really that powerful?
If Senior Brother Liu knew that this 2 million was earned by Orange Technology from shipping goods in a week, he would probably pinch himself to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating from spending too much time in the lab.

After all, even if he worked at the chrysanthemum factory for ten years, he might not be able to earn that much.

5000 million! He couldn't earn that much money in his entire life.

Teacher Lin picked up a piece of Longjing shrimp, a few strands of white hair gleaming silver under the lamp, and tapped the table lightly with her fingertips: "Little Liu?"

This sound startled Liu Jiping, who was still immersed in the shock of "Junior Brother Chen earning 2 million in four months".

"teacher LIN!"

He hurriedly sat up straight, his work clothes sleeve brushing against the scalding teacup, splashing water droplets that left dark stains on the red tablecloth.

Seeing that he had realized what was happening, Teacher Lin smiled gently and said, "Little Liu! Your junior brother's gaseous lithium battery is so advanced that even Lao Jiang has to come and ask for his advice. What does making some money in your main job matter?"

After receiving confirmation from his teacher, the notice of formal employment that Liu had been carrying in the pocket of his work clothes at the chrysanthemum factory suddenly became insignificant. Sister Hong's promise to promote him to a key position in three years and to a team leader in five years was still ringing in his ears.

At that moment, he couldn't even bring himself to say the good news.

Faced with Chen Mo's dual achievements in "scientific research + business," Liu felt a pang of self-reproach.

I had thought Chen Mo's little workshop was going out of business and he wanted to use Teacher Lin's connections to get me to help him out.

"Mr. Liu! If you'd like to go to Yuancheng, you can contact me in three days!"

Lin Junfeng handed over his business card at the right moment. The top of the card had the words "Patent Consultant of Nanshan Patent Agency" printed in gold lettering. The titanium alloy ring on his left ring finger gleamed coldly under the floor lamp.

"Senior! In three days, Attorney Lin will be taking an auditor to Yuancheng to inventory the assets. Would you like to come along?"

Chen Mo's smile still carried the air of his student days. He lightly pushed the phone box with his fingertips, leaving a trail of light and shadow on the red tablecloth.

"If you think it's a good fit, stay and lend me a hand. Whatever the chrysanthemum factory offers, I'll double it!"

Double! Double! Double!
These two words struck Liu Jiping's eardrums like a heavy hammer, crashing into his heart.

Senior Brother Liu is just an ordinary person, so naturally he wouldn't be detached from worldly affairs.

In 2010, the salaries of R&D staff at Chrysanthemum Factory in Shenzhen were among the highest in the city, even better than those in foreign companies.

Now, Senior Brother Liu has been promoted to a full-time position at the Chrysanthemum Factory, starting as a Level 13 Assistant Engineer.

We'll leave aside for now the promises made by Sister Hong: she'll be promoted to a key position within three years and to a team leader within five.

The starting salary for a Level 13 assistant engineer at Chrysanthemum Factory is 7500 yuan. Graduate students can enjoy an additional 1000 yuan per month upon joining, along with a comprehensive subsidy (including housing allowance, transportation allowance, meal allowance, etc.) of 1000 yuan per month, and a 3-month bonus at the end of the year.

Based on this rough calculation, Senior Brother Liu could earn a monthly salary of 1+.

Compared to Zhao Tiezhu, a "tall, rich, and handsome" man in North China who earns 3000 yuan a month, this is a complete and utter crushing defeat.

Brother Liu still remembers a social news story he saw yesterday: After a salary adjustment, about 85% of the workers on Foxconn's production line in Shenzhen earned an average monthly salary of 2000 yuan, enough to buy a Mercedes-Benz.

This means that 15% of workers still don't even receive 2000 yuan.

He touched the letter of confirmation of employment in his work uniform pocket, and then thought about the 2+ monthly salary Chen Mo offered him, and his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

“Junior brother! It’s not about the treatment. I’m not very capable. I’m just afraid of delaying your important matters.”

Seeing that Senior Brother Liu's attitude had softened, Chen Mo smiled and reached out to pat him on the shoulder, the work clothes fabric making a soft sound as it was patted.

"Senior, don't underestimate yourself! You were the one who taught me the basics of electrochemistry!"

Senior Brother Liu accepted the phone that Chen Mo pushed in front of him. The individual packaging box with its colorful printing made the phone on it stand out. The orange logo printed on it looked like a small flame, making his heart itch.

"Welcome, Senior Brother Liu, to our Orange family!" Chen Mo picked up the teapot and poured tea for him, the amber-colored tea water splashing against the cup.

"Great, great!" Professor Lin smiled and raised his glass. "Back in the lab, you two were the most hardworking, and now you're all together again!"

When everyone clinked their glasses, Liu Jiping's glass made a clear sound against Chen Mo's glass.

Chen Mo smiled wryly. Was it really necessary?

As dusk deepened outside the window, the streetlights along the west gate of Shenzhen University lit up one by one.

Teacher Lin led her nephew Lin Junfeng ahead, talking about some trivial family matters.

Chen Mo and Senior Brother Liu lagged behind, the streetlights casting the time they had known each other into two slender shadows.

As they chatted and laughed, they recalled late nights in the lab, when an electric heater with an asbestos mesh was used to cook instant noodles. Amidst the rising steam from the beakers, they took turns eating the last five-pack of instant noodles, arguing about the ratio of lithium-nickel batteries.

At this moment, under Chen Mo's deliberate attempt to get close, Senior Brother Liu's tense brows quietly relaxed.

After Lin Junfeng drove Chen Mo away, Teacher Lin suddenly called out to Senior Brother Liu.

"Little Liu! If you go to Yuancheng," the old man said, his gaze fixed on the taillights of the Audi A6, a meaningful look in his eyes, "remember one thing: don't fight, and you'll win!"

These words were still echoing in Liu Jiping's ears. Before he could ask any more questions, Teacher Lin had already passed through the gate at the school gate amidst the students' polite greetings.

On the subway ride home, Liu Jiping mechanically swiped the screen of his black Orange 1.

The removal of the drawer design in Orange OS 1.0 made his pupils shrink slightly, and the smoothness of switching between background applications was comparable to the first version of Huawei's flagship prototype.

Why can I only switch between two apps?

System bug?

"Attention passengers, the train is about to arrive at Shuanglong Station. Please take your belongings with you and exit through the right-hand door in the direction of travel. Shenzhen Metro reminds you: let passengers off first before boarding, and be courteous on the train."

The car door opened.
The soft backlight of the billboard outside the car door swept across the battery information after he opened the back cover. He suddenly remembered what Chen Mo had said: "The Orange 1 phone has 30-second fast charging." He took out the charger and looked around the subway car, but his hand froze in mid-air.

If this technology is real, then Yuancheng New Energy...
"Beep beep beep~" The subway door closing announcement broke his thoughts. He staggered toward the door, but was knocked back two steps by the crowd of people boarding the train.

Senior Brother Liu hurriedly took two steps towards the door, then stopped helplessly: "I haven't gotten off the bus yet!"

As the car door closed in front of him, he looked at his stunned face reflected in the glass and suddenly smiled.
Even if the lithium-nickel battery ratio is calculated correctly, it's just patching up the scraps of someone else's technology.

But missing out on Yuancheng New Energy this time would be far more regrettable than missing a subway ride home.

Clutching his black Orange 1 phone, Senior Brother Liu began to look forward to the Yuancheng trip three days later.

Isn't life all about taking risks? As long as there's life, there's no stopping the struggle! I'm going to hand in my resignation to Sister Hong tomorrow. Lin Junfeng's Audi A6 lightly braked at the Huabei Qiang intersection, its xenon headlights cutting through the twilight.

When Chen Mo opened the car door, the lingering warmth of the leather seats still soothed his back, and the rearview mirror reflected the other person's fingertips lightly tapping the steering wheel.

The titanium alloy ring on his left hand, extended out of the window, gleamed coldly under the streetlight.

Lin Junfeng had just politely declined Chen Mo's offer of a high salary.

As for how high this salary is, using Zhao Tiezhu as the unit of measurement, Senior Brother Liu earns about 7 pillars' worth of salary per month, and Lin Junfeng earns 40 pillars' worth of salary per month.

Chen Mo felt it was worth it to offer Lin Junfeng such a high monthly salary.

Lin Junfeng is not short of money now, and he values ​​the prospects of Orange Technology more. Otherwise, when Orange had nothing, he would not have thought of using 100 million to acquire 30% of the shares.

"Mr. Chen! Regarding the patent consulting matter, we'll proceed according to the agency contract." Lin Junfeng rolled down half the car window, letting in warm air from the air conditioner. "As for the shares..."

He suddenly chuckled softly, "Mr. Chen! If you want a wolf to submit, you have to let it taste meat first." The taillights cast two scarlet streaks in the night.
The night wind carried the dampness from the nearby soil.

Chen Mo, carrying his briefcase and tightening his collar, walked back. The streetlights cast long shadows. Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him.

Xiaoyu, wearing an angel hat and carrying a schoolbag, bounced over, her hair still damp with water droplets.

"Uncle! It's you again!" She waved the Orange 1 in her hand, the blue background of the screen making her eyelashes stand out clearly: "Thank you for the phone!"

"Uncle???"

Those two "two"s felt like a needle piercing his heart.

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow and smiled, saying, "Little girl, with such a sharp tongue, you might never be able to get married in the future!"

Xiaoyu glanced at the briefcase in his arms, deliberately drawing out her words with a hint of provocative slyness: "Getting off work so late, uncle~"

She continued with her biting sarcasm: "Working so late, if I ever look for a job after graduating from university, I will definitely not work for your company!"

"Ha!" Chen Mo suddenly laughed and said, "By the time you finish university, you'll probably be fighting tooth and nail to get in!"

This girl is a high school student at a nearby experimental middle school. She won't graduate from university for another five or six years, and by then, it won't be so easy for her to get into Orange Middle School.

"You're bragging!" Xiaoyu waved her phone, and I'll brag too: "I got a 211 degree, and Xiaowei got a 985 degree, those are easy for us. What's your educational background, uncle?"

Chen Mo suddenly laughed out loud: "You could say I'm half a graduate student at Shenzhen University!"

"That means they're undergraduates!"

This little girl named Xiaoyu was so outgoing. Chen Mo, an only child, actually liked having a lively younger sister, so he couldn't help but give her a few more words of wisdom.

"But young lady, education is the threshold, but ability is the stepping stone to advancement."

"Tch!" Xiaoyu swung her ponytail and ran forward, the two little white wings of her angel hat fluttering in the wind: "Goodbye, Uncle! Remember to work hard, get promoted to a leader, and pull some strings for me!"

Watching her skipping figure disappear into the alleyway, Chen Mo chuckled to himself.

A lone lamp at the alley entrance casts shadows of varying depths on the uneven wall. Walking through this slightly dim alley...

When Chen Mo returned to the small workshop, the blinding light from the pale incandescent bulbs made him squint.

Zhao Tiezhu lay half-reclined among the pile of cardboard boxes checking orders, while Gong Yun took on some accounting and bookkeeping work. The more complex tasks, such as tax calculations, were handled by an accounting firm.

"Brother Chen!" Zhao Tiezhu jumped up when he saw Chen Mo, kicked the cardboard box marked with an "X", and the lid popped open to reveal half of the black body: "The OEM sent thirty samples today. Let's have them take a look before shipping them to the coal boss tomorrow?"

Chen Mo glanced at the cardboard box, his shoe tip scraping against the raised floor tiles.

"There are even 1:1 replicas of the Apple 4's appearance in North China. What's the point of buying a rebadged product? Just keep an eye on it."

These days, Chen Mo's energy has been focused on battery production, and he really hasn't had time to care about the OEM "X" machine.

After all, "Orange" is their own child, and rebranding with "X" is just a tool to fill production capacity.

Although it can solve the immediate problem of idle production capacity and make some quick money to keep the business running, Chen Mo did not put any effort into it. It was just a feature phone with the Orange OS 1.0 system.

"83% yield rate!" Zhao Tiezhu tore open the cardboard box. The obvious pixels on the phone screen made his eyes dry. "This batch of X phones uses the logo-free version of Orange OS 1.0. Although it's hard to scratch with your fingernail, it's still very smooth with a stylus!"

"Brother Chen! Your system has turned these OEM machines from chickens to phoenixes!" He suddenly laughed.

"Stop talking nonsense." Chen Mo laughed and kicked his butt.

He suddenly noticed a negotiated agreement faxed from TouchPal on the long table, and looked up to ask, "TouchPal is raising the licensing fee?"

Zhao Tiezhu's expression suddenly became strange, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"Brother Chen! You might not believe it, but they not only offered to lower the price, but also asked when you would be free, saying they would like to visit you in person."

"Huh?" Chen Mo blinked involuntarily. "What's going on with them?"

Zhao Tiezhu scratched his buzz cut, having no idea what was going on.

What hardware manufacturer in this world would demand software vendors pay them software licensing fees?

Then Brother Chen did it.

Afterwards, TouchPal proactively offered to reduce the revenue share for licensed software on each phone, which was unexpected by Zhao Tiezhu.

Chen Mo reached out to Zhao Tiezhu
"Brother Chen! What are you doing?"

"Get out of my way!" Chen Mo shoved the clown aside, grabbed a pen from the long table behind him, and said, "Of course I'm signing the contract! Why wouldn't I take a share that's practically free!"

To maintain his public image, Chen Mo muttered something else.

"I support genuine products; they're just trying to achieve a win-win situation!"

"As for their upcoming visit," Chen Mo pondered for a moment, "I'll handle that. You keep a close eye on the coal mine owner's deposit, and after the samples are sent over, urge him on it!"

“No problem!” Zhao Tiezhu grabbed the resistivity pen from the “X” machine, tested the Angry Sparrow on the screen, drew an arc, and the slingshot belt left an afterimage: “After they finish testing the samples, we’ll start production and deliver directly.”

At the same time, after seeing the 30 prototypes, Lu Laowu transferred 30% of the deposit to Orange Technology.

The renovation team he quickly assembled has started work in full swing, with nearly 1200 small shops across the country starting construction simultaneously.

Thousands of green signs spread rapidly through the city streets like wildfire.

Lu Laowu also hired people to ride motorcycles all over the country, using loudspeakers to broadcast: "[Nietzsche] Mobile Phone Factory Direct Store, we only make 10 yuan profit on each phone!!!"

This has transformed into a mobile advertising symbol on the streets and alleys. This green visual storm sweeping the country has already allowed the name of Nietzsche to quietly seep into the minds of passersby along with the new street scenes and the noise, fermenting into an offline communication wave with its own traffic.

The female host on Brother Jiang's TV shopping channel has already received a prototype of the Apple 4 with the "Nietzsche" logo and has started practicing her live TV script.

　Don't worry, most of the characters have been introduced. What follows is the misuse of the phone's location and the development of character interactions.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)