After Chen Yansen left, Cao Dahua took out his phone, found a number, and dialed.
"Brother Hua, what's up?" Zuo Hongyu looked at the familiar caller ID and smiled as he answered.
"Old Zuo, are you getting used to life at Big Pineapple?" Cao Dahua leaned back on the sofa and asked casually.
"It's just a knock-off phone brand, all about assembly and production—nothing complicated. But these last two years haven't been as comfortable as 2008 and 2009 were."
Zuo Hongyu took it as an old friend checking in on him and chatted idly.
"Do you want to switch jobs?" Cao Dahua finished the small talk and got straight to the point.
"Brother Hua, are you making a comeback?" Zuo Hongyu was stunned. After a brief moment of hesitation, he quickly asked.
"You think this is a movie? I don't have time for a triumphant return! A student of mine wants to get into the mobile phone industry and needs a purchasing director who knows the supply chain inside out. I'm asking if you're interested."
Hearing the excitement in his old friend's voice, Cao Dahua poured cold water on it.
"Ah? Is that so? Brother Hua, is your student some rich second-gen heir?"
Zuo Hongyu didn't immediately agree or refuse but continued probing.
"I told you about him last time—that kid, Chen Yansen."
Cao Dahua grinned, looking smug. He always bragged that Chen Yansen was his prize student.
"Oh? Wasn't he in e-commerce? Why's he suddenly jumping into mobile phones?" Zuo Hongyu was puzzled; the two industries were quite different.
"Lei Jun used to be in software, and now he's making phones too, isn't he? Anyway, this kid has money and drive. He won't treat you badly. So, are you in or not?" Cao Dahua urged.
"Brother Hua, I'm getting old. I don't want to keep jumping around like this. If you were starting something, I'd risk these old bones of mine to join you."
Zuo Hongyu thought for a moment and still declined Cao Dahua's offer.
The counterfeit phone business, though not as booming as a few years ago, still had potential in the domestic market. If they couldn't sell in first- or second-tier cities, they could target third- or fourth-tier cities, even remote counties—there was always a way to make a living.
But following Chen Yansen was full of uncertainty. For a man in his forties, the risk was too high and not worth it.
"Old Zuo, have you lost your mind? The reason counterfeit phones took off was because of MediaTek's turnkey solutions—the chips and operating systems. But MediaTek has no advantage in touchscreen and smartphone tech now. It's a dead-end."
Cao Dahua spoke with certainty. Although he was at the university, he hadn't been slacking off all this time. His past entrepreneurial failures still haunted him, so he kept a close eye on industry trends.
"Is it really that bad?" Zuo Hongyu was skeptical. In his view, Big Pineapple was still quite popular in the low-to-mid-range market.
"Hmph! The electronic waste your factory produces isn't even as good as the smartphones telecom carriers give away with prepaid plans. How do you expect to compete with Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad?"
Cao Dahua was exasperated, thinking to himself: Old Zuo is only fit to be a supporting player. Put him in charge, and he'll probably make a mess of things.
"Brother Hua, how about you take the Purchasing Director role, and I'll be your deputy?" After a moment's thought, Zuo Hongyu suggested.
"Why are you so set on dragging me into this?" Cao Dahua was both amused and annoyed. His days were spent drinking tea, watching movies, living a carefree life—why would he suffer the hardships of starting a business with Chen Yansen?
"Hehe, without you, the expert, guiding us, I wouldn't feel at ease," Zuo Hongyu laughed heartily.
"I'm no expert. If I were, I wouldn't have slunk back to my hometown from Shenzhen back then. Give me a straight answer: are you in or not?" Cao Dahua said impatiently.
"Then I need to go to Xucheng to meet your student," Zuo Hongyu said, his smile fading, his expression turning serious.
"Fine, it's been a while since we caught up anyway. My treat—all the braised chicken you can eat," Cao Dahua sighed and readily agreed.
"Okay, this Saturday then. I happen to have a business trip to Huian." Zuo Hongyu checked his schedule and confirmed the time with Cao Dahua.
After hanging up, Cao Dahua stood up and looked out the window at the gradually darkening sky. A sudden impulse stirred within him—Old Zuo's suggestion wasn't half bad.
Chen Yansen was mature and steady, doing extremely well in e-commerce, even managing to win over venture capitalists. But the manufacturing industry was a deep and treacherous pool. Cao Dahua worried he might end up like he had back then—one wrong step and a total loss.
"Forget it, I'll go home and discuss it with my wife," Cao Dahua muttered to himself, feeling somewhat tempted after some thought.
The next day, before work hours, he went to the principal's office and mentioned Chen Yansen's idea of expanding the number of externally recruited staff to Tang Qingshan.
Hearing that FoxTao wanted to recruit 60 more external staff, Tang Qingshan frowned, looking troubled. "Professor Cao," he said sternly, "I don't think we can agree to this. FoxTao is already valued at over two billion yuan. They're still using the 'student entrepreneurship' label to take advantage of the school's resources. It's too unfair. They should move the project team to the nearby science park."
Move to the science park? Tang Qingshan was slightly taken aback. If FoxTao wasn't on campus, could it still be considered a university student entrepreneurship project? His gaze fell on the documents on his desk—the invitation to the University Student Entrepreneurship Competition.
"Professor Cao, as the head of the entrepreneurship park and a mentor, you should be helping students solve problems. What do you mean by 'turning people away'? I agree to this. Have the security department handle their registration and strengthen patrols."
Tang Qingshan waved his hand, first criticizing Cao Dahua for "shirking responsibility," then nodding in agreement.
Cao Dahua smiled obsequiously, nodding along. A hint of smugness flashed in his downcast eyes.
Humming a tune, he arrived at the entrepreneurship park with the invitation. Chen Yansen hadn't arrived yet.
"If this kid were as diligent as I was back in the day, FoxTao's valuation would be four billion by now," Cao Dahua thought to himself, indulging in a bit of private boasting.
He walked to Xu Dan's workstation, placed the invitation down, gave a few brief instructions, and then, with his belly leading the way, slowly returned to his office to continue his leisurely pace.
Chen Yansen didn't arrive until 10:30 AM. After hearing Xu Dan's report, a smile crept onto his face.
Old Cao was reliable. Whenever he said he'd "give it a try," he usually got it done.
He tossed the invitation to Zhuang Rui, instructing the product team to pick a smooth-talking product manager to represent FoxTao in the competition.
He had no desire to waste time on this himself—he'd rather take Meng Jie for a walk in the grove by Pearl Lake.
Next, Chen Yansen handed the keys to several of the downstairs startup rooms to Xu Xingxing, asking her to find some part-time students to clean them and to get Cao Dahua's approval to move desks, chairs, and water dispensers from the storage room.
Xu Xingxing nodded and went off to take care of it.
Chen Yansen returned to his seat, first reviewed the data as usual, then held a short 10-minute meeting with the team leaders.
"Brother Sen, I warned the business development team about the database issue last night and informed them of the punishment," Zhang Yifeng proactively reported.
"Mhm, I know," Chen Yansen replied, not paying it much mind.
He wasn't worried about the business development team leaving. If someone quit, he'd just have an editor take over.
It was important to understand that, aside from product selection and commission rate setting, editors were the ones who interacted with merchants the most on a daily basis. From negotiating commission rates to finalizing product images and titles, it was all editors communicating with merchant operations.
If a merchant recruitment manager left, an editor could take over and retain at least 90% of the merchant resources.
At the end of the month, Chen Yansen planned to promote 2-3 more team leaders based on performance and recruit several recruitment assistants. Nominally, these assistants would support the team leaders, but in reality, they would dilute the team leaders' authority, ensuring Chen Yansen maintained firm control over the recruitment team.
"Brother Sen, after Zhuang Rui's web crawler emails went live, there are very few merchants simultaneously listed on Meilishuo, Mogujie, and Super Fan. We have the traffic and first-mover advantage; we can definitely crush these competing sites," Yuan Wei said with a smile.
"Have the recruitment team check competing sites daily. Prevent sneaky merchants from using different links for the same product or participating in activities through stores on other platforms," Chen Yansen nodded, casually reminding him.
"Got it. This is routine work for recruitment," Yuan Wei smiled confidently and added.
"There's still half of March left. I hope everyone can hit their Q1 targets. This is also the first time FoxTao is distributing quarterly bonuses. The money is all ready, so don't let me down," Chen Yansen said with a smile, dangling a generous bonus.
"No problem!" The several team leaders immediately beamed.
The quarterly bonus was 1-3 months' salary, with a guaranteed minimum of one month's pay. Everyone except the sales team was thrilled.
Chen Yansen smiled, called out "Meeting adjourned," and was the first to leave.
Meanwhile, Wang Teng submitted his resignation as soon as he returned to Dongguan.
The department manager didn't take it too seriously. After OPPO announced its entry into the smartphone industry, it had accumulated funds from the BBK project and wasn't short on talent.
Wang Teng thought he'd have to wait at least a month to leave, but his supervisor set his last day for just a week later. He felt a little disappointed—after all, he'd worked at OPPO for three years and had some attachment to the place.
But then he remembered he'd start earning 36,000 yuan a month from now on, and his displeasure vanished instantly.
Meanwhile, Xu Dan also received Wang Teng's personnel plan and immediately continued recruitment according to the R&D needs.
Chen Yansen was willing to spend money, offering generous allowances, benefits, and quarterly bonuses. He quickly poached a group of system development engineers from companies like Xiaomi, OPPO, and Meizu.
Another ordinary weekend arrived. Chen Yansen had just gotten up when he received a call from Cao Dahua.
"Interview? Now? Okay."
After listening, Chen Yansen put down the phone, dressed neatly, and drove to an off-campus restaurant.
Interviewing at a restaurant was nothing new to him. In his past life, he'd often interviewed female anchors in hotels and villas.