Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Seeing that Shan Jiawei had no intention of reporting him, Zhao Kai immediately relaxed and asked with a grin.

”You mean Cheng Wei? He did spend time with the Hua Country suppliers, but the one who made it furthest is Lu Zhaoxi, the president of Ah Li. He used to be my boss. Kuai Pao is growing fast in the Group Buy business. What’s its current market share...?”

After a brief reply, Shan Jiawei seized the opportunity to probe for information about Kuai Pao, chatting with Zhao Kai about the latest industry shifts.

Shan Jiawei was only discovered when Pei Yi happened to be passing through the first floor.

”President Shan, welcome to Kuai Pao!” Pei Yi didn’t overthink the situation, simply clearing his throat and stepping forward to greet him.

”President Pei, I’ve heard so much about you! Frankly, I’ve been eager to report for duty, but I had to tie up loose ends at Lashou first. You’re even younger and more accomplished than I imagined, President Pei. Defeating Eleme in two months and then creating the ’Thousand Talents, Hundred Cities’ plan—truly impressive!”

Shan Jiawei abandoned Zhao Kai and strode forward to meet him. He leaned in slightly, a smile on his face, speaking with smooth eloquence.

This served two purposes: first, to show he was a man who finished what he started, and second, to lay the flattery on thick.

No boss dislikes an employee who’s quick-witted and knows how to talk.

Hearing this, the corners of Pei Yi’s mouth lifted in a slight smile.

’If I hadn’t hitched my wagon to a powerhouse like Chen Yansen,’ Pei Yi thought, ’I probably wouldn’t even have the right to be making small talk with Shan Jiawei right now.’

Just then, Zhang Xuhao, who had been transferred to the Hu City Branch only two days prior, walked up behind them. When he heard Shan Jiawei mention ”Eleme,” his expression froze.

’Shit!’

’I have to make a name for myself at Kuai Pao, or I’ll spend the rest of my life as nothing more than a backdrop for Pei Yi’s success.’

Zhang Xuhao silently made a vow.

Pei Yi heard the movement behind him. Catching sight of Zhang Xuhao out of the corner of his eye, he pulled him forward. ”This is Zhang Xuhao,” he said, ”head of the East China Region for our Group Buy Division. You two will be working together, so you should connect.”

”President Zhang, a pleasure.” Shan Jiawei shook Zhang Xuhao’s right hand in a polite greeting.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that the name sounded familiar.

”President Shan, hello. I’m that Zhang Xuhao—the one President Pei defeated. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Zhang Xuhao adjusted his glasses and said with a self-deprecating laugh.

”Shit! You lost to the big boss!” Pei Yi roared with laughter.

Shan Jiawei’s unease vanished in an instant. If Chen Yansen was willing to take in a defeated rival like Zhang Xuhao, he surely wouldn’t mind Shan Jiawei’s own history of job-hopping.

Zhang Xuhao, standing opposite him, had a similar thought. ’If Chen Yansen is willing to hire a ”Three-Name House Slave,” he probably won’t hold me back at Kuai Pao.’

The two men looked at each other and smiled, their anxieties finally put to rest.

With Shan Jiawei and Zhang Xuhao’s help, Pei Yi found the task of acquiring and restructuring Nuomi Network to be much smoother.

After all, Shan Jiawei had single-handedly spearheaded the optimization of Lashou Network’s offline promotion structure. His methods were experienced, mature, and ruthlessly efficient.

Moreover, Shan Jiawei’s arrival would inject Kuai Pao with the Huagong Iron Army’s sales incentive system, spirit of sharing, talent development mechanisms, and powerful execution.

With this, Kuai Pao’s core leadership team began to take shape.

「Meanwhile.」

Far away in Yanjing, Cheng Wei was leveraging his startup experience from DiDi Dache. He had easily assembled an R&D team in an office building near Digital Valley and was now working around the clock to develop the ”DiDi Bike” app.

To enable ”direct communication” between the user and the DiDi Bike, the most critical issue was solving the technical challenges of positioning and communication.

Fortunately, by 2012, it was possible to use a built-in GPS module to obtain the bike’s real-time LBS location data, making it convenient for both users to find bikes and for the company to manage its fleet.

The communication module could use an SMS interface; the bike would unlock automatically after receiving an unlock command from the server via text message.