Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Without orders, how could they possibly support so many couriers?

As it stood, Cloud Speed held over half the market share in Yiwu’s express delivery market. It took the combined pickup volume of dozens of other companies—like Shunfeng, Best, Tiantian, and Guotong—to even compete.

Five minutes later, Lu Hua arrived at District Three of the Trade City. He dropped some of the packages into smart lockers, while the rest had to be delivered directly to the recipients’ doors as requested.

He worked nonstop until noon, finally taking a break. He hopped on his scooter and found a nearby Shaxian County Snacks eatery.

Even though he earned a good living, Lu Hua couldn’t bear to spend extravagantly. He had two little ”money-guzzling monsters” at home, so he had to be frugal.

There were plenty of other Cloud Speed couriers who thought the same way.

As soon as Lu Hua walked in, he shouted to the owner, ”One duck leg with rice! And extra sauce.”

”Yo! Brother Hua’s here!”

”How were the morning pickups?”

”Brother Hua, there’s a seat over here!”

The dozen or so Cloud Speed couriers already sitting inside greeted Lu Hua warmly the moment they saw him.

As a veteran of the Yiwu Trade City, Lu Hua had been a courier here for seven or eight years. From Yuantong to Cloud Speed, he knew people everywhere he went.

”Xiaowei!”

”Brother Dong!”

”Big Mouth!”

”...”

Lu Hua returned their greetings one by one and sat down next to Big Mouth. The group started chatting as they ate.

”These electronic waybills are so damn useful!”

”Feels like the order volume has been a little low lately.”

”August and September are the off-season for e-commerce. Just hang in there. Singles’ Day is coming up, and you’ll be worked to death then!”

”Exhausting, sure, but you make a ton of money!”

The group chatted back and forth.

Lu Hua glanced around from left to right, finding the scene surreal. Among them were former employees who had jumped ship from Shunfeng, Tiantian, and Guotong, as well as veterans from the ”Three Passes and One Reach” companies.

They had all originally belonged to different companies, but now they all worked for the same boss.

”Brother Hua, have you heard? The company is going to issue us stock options,” Xiaowei said mysteriously, deliberately lowering his voice.

’Stock options?’ Lu Hua only had a middle school education and didn’t understand the concept. All he knew was that it was something like stocks and could be exchanged for money in the future.

”That can’t be true, right? Xiaowei, I haven’t seen anyone on the company’s intranet discussing it.” Brother Dong shook his head, unconvinced.

”Believe it or not!” Xiaowei retorted with a dismissive pout.

”Holy crap! It’s true, look!” Big Mouth suddenly yelled, holding up his phone to show the screen to the others.

”Huh? It’s actually real! Brother Wei, are these stock options the same thing the guys at Kuai Pao got?” Brother Dong glanced at the phone, then leaned in towards Xiaowei with a fawning, sheepish grin.

His form of address had changed from ’Xiaowei’ to ’Brother Wei’!

Xiaowei smiled smugly, not taking Brother Dong’s earlier doubt to heart. He slowly explained, ”Our company is valued at 15 billion US Dollars, with a total of 3 billion shares. That makes each stock option worth 5 US Dollars. With an exercise price of 0.01 Hua Yuan, if you could get 10,000 shares, it would be worth over 300,000 Hua Yuan.”

”How much?”

”Over 300,000?”

”Xiaowei, it’s not that I’m trying to bring you down, but don’t get your hopes up. My cousin is a delivery guy for Kuai Pao, and he only got 500 shares after working there for three months.”

The group burst into laughter.

”Huh!? Only 500 shares! I thought it would be a few thousand,” Xiaowei said, his mouth agape with disappointment.

”You should be happy with 500! Most Kuai Pao riders only get one or two thousand shares. Some get four or five thousand, but those are all veteran employees.”

Brother Dong added.

”It’s different! A Cloud Speed stock option is worth 5 US Dollars, while a Kuai Pao one is 1.2 US Dollars. Our share count definitely won’t be as high.”

Lu Hua spoke up.

”Ah, who cares if it’s one thousand or two thousand shares. It’s free either way,” Big Mouth said with a grin, not bothering to think too hard about it.