Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen stood at the window, gazing down. Employees were walking toward the cafeteria in small groups.

After a moment’s thought, he pushed the door open and walked out.

Meanwhile, after negotiations with Cheng Wei failed, Xiang Hailong of DiDi Dache took DiDi Bike to court for unfair competition, accusing them of trademark squatting.

But Cheng Wei was prepared. He instructed his lawyer to argue two main points: first, a difference in branding—the name for DiDi Bike was meant to evoke the sound of a falling drop of water, whereas the name for DiDi Dache sounded more like a car horn, making them distinct in visual, auditory, and semantic perception; second, a difference in service—one was a ride-hailing app, the other a bike-sharing service.

The two sides had a complete falling out.

While Cheng Wei’s actions were controversial, Li Yanhong’s were even more outrageous. Under the guise of an investment, he had no sooner kicked the founder of DiDi Dache out of his own management team than he turned around and sued him.

For a time, entrepreneurs in talks with Qian Du’s investment department either abandoned the negotiations or became extremely vigilant, terrified of suffering a similar fate.

"Qian Du is too domineering. It’s like they get invited to a dinner party, and they not only steal the pot but also beat up the chef and chase him away."

"Have you all forgotten the fake medicine scandal from two years ago? It’s not like Qian Du just turned evil overnight!"

"Oh, I remember now! Nothing ever came of that Qian Du Library copyright infringement case last year, either. It seems President Li operates on a ’rules for thee, but not for me’ basis."

Netizens buzzed with discussion, dredging up old scandals and thrusting Qian Du into the eye of a public relations storm.

In the eyes of the public, Cheng Wei became a dragon-slaying hero, fighting back against the internet giants.

Riding this wave of publicity, Cheng Wei immediately decided to launch DiDi Bike simultaneously in three cities: Jinmen, Tang City, and An Ci.

But his celebration lasted less than ten minutes. He received a report from the Market Department: a large number of yellow bikes had been spotted near Xizhimen, Dongzhimen, Guomao, and Wangfujing.

"Little yellow bikes?"

Cheng Wei’s expression froze. He immediately realized a new competitor had entered the scene.

"Yes. The bikes are painted yellow from top to bottom, and the product name is literally ’Little Yellow Bike.’ We estimate they’ve deployed around 5,000 of them."

Songtian Road, the director of the Market Department, replied.

"Smart locks or mechanical locks?" Cheng Wei asked after a few seconds of thought.

"They’re using mechanical locks, just like our first-generation bikes," Songtian Road said with a knowing grin, seeming to understand his boss’s implication.

"Isn’t that moronic? It’s like they want to fall into every single trap we did," Cheng Wei said, his eyes narrowing. "Find a few people. Give them a little... ’help.’"

Though the order was unspoken, Songtian Road understood perfectly and gave a crisp nod.

At the same time, Chang Wei and a group of senior executives from Little Yellow Bike were stationed outside the Xidan Subway Station, watching the commuters pass by.

Given his family background, from the moment he announced his entrepreneurial venture, he’d gotten the green light every step of the way, from company registration to an unusually smooth negotiation process with suppliers.

In less than ten days, Yanjing’s Klock Technology Company was founded. Immediately after, Chang Wei recruited a group of top students from Peking University’s School of Computer and Software Engineering to form his core product development team.

In just over a month, Little Yellow Bike went from concept to reality, successfully deploying its first batch of 5,000 shared bikes in Yanjing.

To him, starting a business was as easy as breathing.

"How many shared bikes does DiDi Bike have in Yanjing?" Chang Wei asked casually.

"The number Cheng Wei announced in his last interview was 16,000. But based on my recent observations, DiDi Bike has deployed two more batches, bringing their total to around 26,000," the head of Little Yellow Bike’s market department replied after a moment of careful thought.

"We’re short by 21,000 bikes! Tell the factory in Jinmen I want to see 100,000 finished bikes by the end of the month."

Chang Wei frowned slightly as he gave the order in a low voice.

Before even launching, Little Yellow Bike had secured 30 million in funding from Wei Lie Capital and Jinsha Venture Capital. Including user deposits, these funds were enough to support a deployment of up to 500,000 bikes.

"Right away, Boss," the market head replied hurriedly.

Chang Wei was completely unaware that DiDi Bike’s operations team was already out on the streets, using their phones to input the serial numbers of Little Yellow Bikes and record each one’s fixed password.

After half a day of diligent work, an Excel spreadsheet containing the unlock codes for 2,700 Little Yellow Bikes began to quietly circulate on social platforms like online forums, Renren Network, BBS boards, and QQ.

Furthermore, thanks to the efforts of some "helpful" netizens, the number of passwords on the sheet grew, eventually exceeding 3,900.

Then, a tech-savvy user emerged and converted the spreadsheet data into a searchable app. All you had to do was enter a bike’s serial number to instantly get its unlock code, saving everyone the time of manually searching the list.

The app was an instant hit.

Because the bikes used mechanical locks, people didn’t even have to download the official Little Yellow Bike app.

And the deposit? Of course, they didn’t have to pay that either.

For the first few days, Chang Wei didn’t notice anything was amiss. He just found it odd that Little Yellow Bike’s daily usage rate was unexpectedly low at only 1.4 rides per bike, with daily revenue hovering between 4,000 and 5,000 Hua Yuan—nothing like he had projected.

It wasn’t until he was browsing an online forum that he stumbled upon a pinned post: [STICKY] Little Yellow Bike Passwords (Live updates, currently at 5,684 bikes).

Chang Wei froze. His face instantly turned ashen.

’Fucking hell! We only have 8,000 bikes, and these bastards have collected the passwords for 5,684 of them?!’

He frantically downloaded the spreadsheet and sent it to his operations department for verification.

Ten minutes later, he received a confirmation: "Boss, the passwords are 98.7% accurate."

The implication was clear: in the eyes of freeloaders, Little Yellow Bike’s mechanical locks were a complete joke.

’Looks like I overestimated people’s integrity,’ Chang Wei sighed. He couldn’t understand why users would rather exploit a loophole than spend a single Hua Yuan.

Unlike Cheng Wei, who had used mechanical locks purely to cut initial costs, Chang Wei had been plain stupid. He didn’t even have a backup plan for smart locks. Finding a new supplier and replacing the hardware would take at least a week.

With no other choice, Chang Wei could only watch helplessly as people mercilessly exploited his Little Yellow Bikes for free rides.

When Zhu Xiaohu of Jinsha Venture Capital heard the news, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ’With a brain like that, he wants to be an entrepreneur?’ he thought to himself. ’Is this a fucking joke?’

In any case, the first round of funding had already been transferred. Whether Little Yellow Bike lived or died had little to do with him now.

He hadn’t invested because of the project’s potential anyway. In the world of business, while cutthroat competition is important, managing relationships and social obligations is even more critical.

Seeing Chang Wei being run around in circles, Cheng Wei let out a contemptuous laugh and threw himself back into his own market expansion efforts.

「December 21st. The winter solstice, and the day the world was supposed to end according to the Maya prophecy.」

After ironing out its operational flow and business model, a company called OFO Bike deployed a total of 75,000 shared bikes across six cities—including Jinling, Luzhou, and Hu City—all in one go. Its expansion was incredibly rapid.

Cheng Wei breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the news. It seemed his new rival had no immediate plans to move north.

He had someone look into it and learned that the project lead for OFO Bike was the former CEO of an automotive magazine. While he had some business experience, he was a newcomer to the bike-sharing industry.

Still, OFO Bike’s expansion put him on high alert. He immediately convened a meeting with his senior management, laying out a plan to completely swallow the North China Market before Q2, after which they would head south for a final showdown with OFO Bike.

As for the fledgling Little Yellow Bike, he didn’t even consider it a threat.

That afternoon, Pei Yi gave an interview to the Hu City TV Station, where he disclosed Kuai Pao Delivery’s recent performance for the first time.

After successfully capturing the East China, Central China, North China, Southern China, and Northeast markets, Kuai Pao’s average daily orders skyrocketed in December, with a staggering month-over-month growth rate of 21.4%. The company officially surpassed the six million daily order mark, with a fleet of over seventy thousand full-time and thirty thousand part-time couriers.

The platform’s daily transaction volume exceeded 200 million, with a projected annual total of 80 billion Hua Yuan.

The food delivery industry, which investors had scorned just two years prior, had suddenly become a hot commodity.

Besides Taobao Delivery, a company in Minzhou called ’123 Delivery Net’ was managing 7,000 daily orders. Even with Kuai Pao’s overwhelming dominance, many smaller delivery websites were still finding ways to survive in the cracks.