Chen Yansen had no desire to be the vice class monitor whatsoever. Since Guo Dongchen hadn't approached him directly, he pretended to know nothing about the appointment.
In the following days, he remained busy with recruitment while collaborating with Zhuang Rui and others to refine the development plan and prioritize the most urgent first-phase requirements.
Rooms 206 and 208 in the startup park quickly expanded from the initial seven-member team to eleven people, and development progress continued steadily.
"Song Yuncheng, optimize the website brand logo again. Prepare three versions each for user registration, login, homepage, cashback list, and order detail icons. We'll review them together next week."
Chen Yansen tapped the table, addressing Song Yuncheng across from him.
"Okay, boss!"
Song Yuncheng nodded helplessly, her face drooping.
She had thought that after recruitment ended, she'd return to her UI position with lighter duties. She never expected Chen Yansen to demand three versions—A, B, and C—for every single requirement. For a moment, she even missed her cafeteria job.
"Pengfei, how many more weeks for developing registration, login, personal information management, and cashback withdrawal functions?"
"Wenbo, browser compatibility issues. I'm giving you three days. If you can't solve it, don't bother coming back."
"Zhuang Rui, is this your requirements document? You haven't even figured out the cashback payment logic! If this happens again, you're fired!"
Chen Yansen's roars echoed across the second floor of the startup park.
Witnessing this, Song Yuncheng secretly felt relieved—at least Chen Yansen had never yelled at her like that.
Chen Yansen was driven and uncompromising before project launches. However, he didn't just push everyone relentlessly. Occasionally, he'd pull a few people aside to clarify development challenges, or treat them to meals to strengthen team bonds.
Having lived through mobile internet's golden decade and witnessed e-commerce empires rise, he knew exactly what product he wanted—and what product could gain market traction and establish its name!
"After the project goes live, I'll reassess everyone's salaries based on development performance. Those who don't meet standards will be directly eliminated,"
Chen Yansen stated coldly and seriously.
Having said that, he turned and went downstairs, taking slow, deliberate steps across Yixing Bridge. Standing under a tree's shade by the basketball court, he ate an ice cream while watching freshmen military training formations.
"One, two, one! One, two, one!"
Orderly footsteps sounded, dust flying everywhere!
September in northern Anhui remained sweltering. Soon, several boys were drenched in sweat under the blazing sun.
Chen Yansen squinted and spotted Wang Zihao looking miserable in the distance.
The moment their eyes met, Wang Zihao immediately understood his lip movements: "Feeling good?"
Ugh, should've pretended to be sick. Would've been so much more comfortable with a medical exemption, lying in the dorm with the fan on.
Wang Zihao lowered his head, regretful. Sweat beads slid down his neck, his chest itching unbearably.
He raised a hand to scratch—
"Second row, sixth position! Step forward! Twenty push-ups!" the instructor roared.
"Instructor, I—"
The instructor didn't bother arguing, glaring. "Thirty!"
Damn, Brother Sen was right! Wang Zihao sighed helplessly. As squad leader, he couldn't openly defy the instructor. He could only obediently step forward and begin push-ups.
Chen Yansen watched with schadenfreude for a while until his phone rang. He then turned and walked away.
The two air conditioners he'd ordered had arrived!
Throughout the entire startup park, only Cao Dahua's office had air conditioning. Other startup rooms relied on fans. Summer was bearable, but northern Anhui winters were cold—without heating, it'd be unbearable!
"Master, over here!" Chen Yansen waved to the two deliverymen, then led them upstairs.
"Your building has no reserved air conditioner space. We'll need to install two brackets on the exterior wall..."
A skinny man said after opening the exterior window and inspecting carefully.
"Money's not an issue. Install it as soon as possible."
Chen Yansen waved his hand, cutting off the preamble.
"Boss, you're generous! Lao Liu, let's get to work!"
The skinny guy grinned, quickly unboxing to reveal the outdoor unit and main unit, calling his colleague to begin work.
"Brother Sen, you're installing air conditioning for us?" Xiang Pengfei dropped his keyboard, eagerly joining in.
"Yeah, the room reeks of your sweat!"
Chen Yansen glanced at him, teasing with a smile.
"Hehe, Brother Sen, can I ask something? I'll bring a straw mat tonight. Can I sleep in 206 from now on?" Zhuang Rui squeezed in, asking with a grin.
Xucheng Academy dormitories lacked air conditioning, making summers unbearable.
"Whatever." Chen Yansen naturally didn't care about electricity bills, responding indifferently.
"Thanks, Brother Sen! I want to sleep here too—I have a folding bed." Zhang Wenbo, quick-witted, immediately chimed in after hearing Chen Yansen's agreement.
Others clearly had similar thoughts.
Chen Yansen fully realized that his unintentional air conditioning installation significantly accelerated development progress.
These youths, around eighteen or nineteen, arrived that evening with bedding. Knowing it wasn't right to freeload off broadband and air conditioning, they instead gathered to write code together.
Around noon, Chen Yansen was about to go downstairs for lunch when he saw Wang Zihao and Meng Jie coming up the stairs.
"Holy crap! Brother Sen, when did you install air conditioning? Damn, this feels amazing!"
Wang Zihao pushed open Room 206's glass door, a gust of cool air hitting him. Before finishing, he rushed to the air conditioner, humming as he enjoyed the breeze.
"Chen Yansen, not bad! I thought you only had a few people, but this is quite the operation."
Meng Jie stood on tiptoe, patting Chen Yansen's shoulder like a little adult.
"Not bad, right? Come rest here anytime during military training breaks. I'll buy a refrigerator later, stock it with your favorite cold drinks." Chen Yansen smiled, eyes full of affection.
"Brother Sen, me too!" Wang Zihao chuckled, turning to call out.
"Let me introduce everyone. This chubby guy is my sworn brother. Next time you see him stealing ice cream, don't arrest him like a thief,"
Chen Yansen teased, pointing at Wang Zihao.
"Brother Chen, you're too kind. Hello everyone, I'm Wang Zihao, class monitor of E-commerce Class 2010. Nice to meet you all." Wang Zihao
nearly swore but, seeing everyone was Chen Yansen's employee, swallowed his words and introduced himself confidently.
"As for this—this is my girlfriend, Meng Jie!" Chen Yansen pulled Meng Jie forward, introducing her seriously.
Hearing this, Meng Jie felt like countless fireworks exploded in her mind. Her heart pounded. She tilted her head back, subconsciously looking at Chen Yansen. He raised an eyebrow, a slightly roguish smile on his face, yet his expression was unusually serious when speaking.
This was the first time Chen Yansen had formally introduced her as his girlfriend in front of outsiders.
Girlfriend? So he has a girlfriend.
Song Yuncheng's expression froze in the crowd. A bitter smile tugged her lips before quickly disappearing, replaced by a gentle smile.
An indescribable sadness welled up inside her. During their time together, Chen Yansen's every move had left a deep impression.
He'd even deliberately bitten her finger while eating shrimp.
She'd never been in a relationship, but claiming she had absolutely no feelings for this roguish guy would be self-deception.
But now, even that last bit of feeling had been completely shattered by Chen Yansen's words.
Thank goodness I didn't fall for it. Chen Yansen is a jerk, Song Yuncheng took a deep breath, silently admonishing herself.
"This is Zhang Wenbo, Senhai's front-end engineer; Xiang Pengfei, back-end engineer; Zhuang Rui, product manager; Song Yuncheng, UI designer..."
Chen Yansen introduced Senhai's current members to Wang Zihao and Meng Jie one by one.
"Senior Song, you're here too?"
Wang Zihao was slightly surprised, looking at Chen Yansen suspiciously before greeting.
"Huh? Zihao, you know Senior Song?" Meng Jie's eyes flashed with curiosity.
"Um, yeah, first time meeting..." Wang Zihao subconsciously wanted to tell Meng Jie about their first encounter.
"Nothing special. Song Yuncheng is our campus card agent." Chen Yansen rolled his eyes at Wang Zihao, taking over.
"Hello, Senior Song. I'm Meng Jie from Accounting Class 2010. Nice to meet you."
Meng Jie walked forward gracefully, extending her hand.
"Hello."
Song Yuncheng replied briefly, unable to help secretly sizing up Meng Jie.
The other girl was petite—under 160cm, half a head shorter than her—wearing blue-and-white military training uniform, frameless glasses, small face, delicate features. Most striking was her short hair, just past earlobes. She had
a lively expression and carefree demeanor, appearing more boyish.
She doesn't seem prettier than me! This thought inexplicably popped into Song Yuncheng's head, but she quickly dismissed it as ridiculous.
After pleasantries, the group chatted and laughed, heading toward the cafeteria.
In the following days, Song Yuncheng exchanged no unnecessary words with Chen Yansen except in the startup park.
Whenever Chen Yansen took a step closer, she took a step back—their relationship instantly reverting to campus agent days.
Chen Yansen didn't seem to care, focusing all energy on work.
September 17th: User login system launched, supporting email or phone verification.
September 19th: Alipay API interface successfully integrated, cashback withdrawal function launched.
September 24th: Order system launched for testing, integrating Taobao.com API for order data synchronization.
September 29th: Product library module launched, data sourced from Alibaba product pool. Backend allowed main image and title modifications with one-click push functionality.
Thus, Chen Yansen completed first-phase development. The core merchant management system was reserved for phase two.
Only a suitable product name remained before launch.