Chapter 623 - 445: Wang Xin: Tenth Venture, Failure Is Not an Option! The Kuai Pao Cafeteria Pilot Begins

The afterglow of the setting sun filled the sky with clouds.

In the height of summer, dusk always came particularly late. Even at six o’clock, a brilliant glow still lingered on the horizon.

After returning to Xucheng, Chen Yansen didn’t go back to the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park or the Delta Villa. Instead, he went straight to Ye Qiuping’s house.

He expertly grabbed a bath towel, a hand towel, and his pajamas from the closet before heading into the bathroom to draw a bath.

A big house was comfortable, but a small house had a human touch.

Staying at Master Ye’s three-bedroom, two-living-room, 140-square-meter rented apartment once in a while was a way to appreciate how far he’d come.

He lay in the bathtub with a soft towel folded under his head, squinting as he mulled things over.

Senlian Capital’s holding subsidiaries were massive and its staff numerous, but he could easily recall every business line, every department head, every project CEO, and even every frontline employee he had ever met.

Anyone else in his position, no matter how gifted or energetic, would be exhausted to the point of stupor.

But for him, this was all just part of a normal day.

Ofo Bike had already expanded its operations to the North China, East China, Central China, and Southern China regions. The next step was to enter the Southwest Region.

Cheng Wei and Chang Wei were hot on Wang Zihao’s heels. After establishing their presence in the East China Market, they successively raised another round of funding and set their sights on the Central China and South China Markets.

Although DiDi Bike and Little Yellow Bike had smaller market shares, as long as they expanded their scope of operations and made their user, order, and revenue numbers look good, venture capitalists would come running like hyenas smelling blood.

The greatest blessing of riding a trend was never being short on investment!

Elsewhere.

Liang Changlin was holding down the fort in Yanjing, focusing all his efforts on expanding the business scale of Kuai Pao Maicai.

At the same time, the heads of the grocery business in the Central China and Southern China regions weren’t idle either.

Under Liang Changlin’s direction, they continuously added new front-end warehouses, creating business synergy with Cloud Speed Express and Kuai Pao Delivery.

Kuai Pao’s group buy business reached a new level, with its transaction volume in June surpassing the five billion mark for the first time—nearly four billion more than Qian Du Group Buy.

Dianping’s monthly transaction volume had fallen to just over 600 million, its influence limited to places like Hu City, Jinling, and Hang City. To the north, they faced Qian Du Group Buy; to the south, Kuai Pao.

Zhang Tao was caught between Pei Yi and Gong Zhenbing, and it looked like they were about to completely encircle him.

He knew in his heart that as soon as the two of them went to war, Dianping would be the first sacrifice.

As for Meituan, which had been acquired by Sanbao Group, it had become a tool for driving offline traffic for its new parent company. Its group buy revenue last month was a mere 200 million.

Without a doubt, Kuai Pao had become the leader in the O2O industry, maintaining a commanding, breakaway lead.

Ma Liyun had considered expanding Taodian’s scope and scale several times, but in the end, he always forcibly suppressed his ambition.

Meanwhile, Cloud Speed Express’s average daily volume had exceeded 14 million parcels, occupying half the delivery industry. Its intelligent central warehouses, automated sorting stations, service points, number of couriers, number of delivery lockers, and number of service stations in emerging markets were all the largest in the industry.

The most recently purchased second-hand passenger jets had already been converted, bringing the fleet to a total of 13 cargo planes.

Liao Wei mentioned in an email that they had recently placed orders for 12 more planes, expected to be operational by the first quarter of next year. This would accelerate their competition for customers in the time-sensitive express delivery sector.

For context, Shunfeng only had 12 cargo planes of its own at the time.

Although Wang Wei wanted to purchase more cargo planes, he was hampered by a lack of funds and could only proceed slowly.

His business competition with Cloud Speed was also extremely mild, as he was terrified of provoking Liao Wei or Chen Yansen.

After all, Shunfeng was a member of the Cloud Speed Express Alliance. The electronic waybill technology it used daily came from Cloud Speed, and for last-mile delivery, it had to rely on Cloud Speed’s lockers.

Wang Wei himself couldn’t quite figure out how, in just two short years, Shunfeng had ended up as Cloud Speed’s little brother.

Orange Mobile Phone had entered the Western Europe market and secured a certain market share in the Eastern European Market. Its user base was gradually increasing. Although it couldn’t compare to Mountain Star or Apple, its sales weren’t bad.

The names ’Orange’ and ’Chen Yansen’ had also gained considerable fame in Europe.

He was young, rich, tall, and handsome, with a net worth that crushed that of Facebook’s founder, Zuckerberg. People naturally admire the strong, so after becoming curious about Chen Yansen, it was only natural for them to also buy a product from Orange Technology.

Since the Orange B1 smart band was launched on channels like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, its cumulative sales reached 1.2 million units in just one week.

Its price of 89 US Dollars was extremely attractive. The 1.84-inch AMOLED display, compared to the dot matrix made of LED lights used in European and American products, made them seem like they weren’t from the same era.

In comparison, wearing a Jawbone UP, FuelBand, or Fitbit Flex suddenly felt incredibly lame.

This was because all the major influencers on Mimo Short Video had an Orange B1 smart band on their wrist.

For a time, local smart wearable device companies in Europe and America all started down the path of ’imitation.’ The product prototype diagrams on their computers began to look more and more like the Orange B1.

Furthermore, projects like Gaode Map, Lingxi Browser, Lingxi Search, Toutiao, and Deep Blue Battery were all progressing steadily.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he suddenly heard the sound of a key in the lock, followed by the rustle of footsteps.

Five minutes later, Ye Qiuping slipped in, wrapped in a bath towel. She crouched by the tub and whispered against President Chen’s earlobe, "Boss, I’m hungry."

Her face was flushed like a peach blossom, a blush spreading across her shoulders as she stared intently at the water.

...

...

「The next morning, near Longcao Road Subway Station.」

The entrance of a restaurant right next to Kai Xuan South Road was packed with a dense crowd of Kuai Pao Riders and Cloud Speed Couriers, with a few Kuai Pao promotional managers mixed in.

Although the scene was a bit chaotic, everyone was standing in line.

Through the glass window, the scene inside was visible. It was just as packed, with staff standing at a counter, dishing out food for customers.

Everyone was wearing a clean, neat, orange T-shirt. Embroidered on the chest in small characters was the name: Kuai Pao Cafeteria.

The pickup counter, the dining area, and even the floor all gave off a spotless, hygienic, and healthy impression.

Large Fresh Meat Buns, fist-sized, 2 yuan each;

Shumai with Diced Bamboo Shoots, 1.5 yuan each;

Mixed-Grain Pancake, 5 yuan each;

Soy Milk, 300 ml cup, 3 yuan;

Eight-Treasure Porridge, 300 ml cup, 3 yuan;

Because it was breakfast time, there were no stir-fried or steamed dishes available.

Wang Zhe leaned out to look outside and complained inwardly, ’There are Kuai Pao Cafeterias on Caoxi Road and Cao Bao Road, too, right? Why is everyone coming to the one on Longcao Road?’

After a moment’s thought, he walked to the entrance and asked, "Brothers, why not go to the Caoxi Road or Cao Bao Road locations? I’m afraid that lining up here will make you late for the morning rush."

"President Wang, when is the big boss coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, we heard the big boss is coming to inspect the store today."

"I want to thank the boss in person. My son passed the Tier 2 university entrance exam."

The crowd chattered excitedly.

’No, which son of a bitch started this damn rumor?’

’How could I not know if the boss was coming for an inspection?’

Wang Zhe’s face darkened, so angry he didn’t want to speak. He let out a long sigh and said, "Break it up. The boss isn’t coming today. Where did you get this news? It’s fake!"

"No way!"

"Huh?!"

"It’s fake news!"

The group stood there stunned, their faces full of disbelief.

"Who said the boss was coming to Longcao Road today?"

"I think it was Zhou Peng from the Yishan Road station."

"Where’s Zhou Peng? You son of a bitch, get your ass out here!"

"Guys, it wasn’t me! I heard it from Wang Long from Guilin Road."

Zhou Peng shrank back and answered timidly in the face of everyone’s anger.

"Alright, it’s a good thing the boss didn’t come. If he saw you all being so rowdy, he’d probably be disappointed," Wang Zhe said grimly.

"Get to work!"

"Oh man, it’s almost 7:30! Time to go online and take orders!"

"Talk to you guys later, gotta get back to the station and sort packages!"

More than half the crowd quickly hopped on their Electric Vehicles and vanished in a flash.

The remaining people, a group of Senlian Capital employees, were the ones who actually wanted to buy breakfast.

The prices on the menu weren’t expensive for Hu City in 2013, but you couldn’t call them cheap, either.

However, Senlian Capital employees could get a 40% discount with their company card. That brought a fist-sized fresh meat bun down to just 1.2 yuan, making it much more affordable.

The lunch prices were on par with community cafeterias like Qiao Family Fence and Old Zhengxing; the only difference was that the food tasted a little better and the portions were slightly larger.

For nearby residents who didn’t want to cook, it was just another dining option.

But for Cloud Speed Couriers, Kuai Pao Deliverymen, and the promotional business staff responsible for canvassing the streets all day, it was a cheap and clean ’company cafeteria’.

With the 40% discount, a stir-fried dish with some meat was only 3 yuan, a full meat dish was just 4.8 yuan, and rice and soup were free. You could usually get a full meal for 10 yuan, so the 500-yuan monthly meal subsidy was more than enough.

Wang Zhe smiled and shook his head. After finishing up at the Kuai Pao Cafeteria on Longcao Road, he drove to a dozen other nearby cafeterias to inspect them, getting a comprehensive understanding of each store’s hygiene, menu, and dining experience.

The first batch of 23 Kuai Pao Cafeteria locations was launched in Hu City as a pilot program. After a half-month trial run, if there were no issues, they would accelerate the pace of hiring, training, and opening new stores in places like Jinling, Luzhou, Yanjing, and Jinmen.

Senlian Capital had partnered with two culinary training schools in the East China Region. From pastry chefs to Chinese cuisine chefs, anyone whose skills were up to par could get an offer from Kuai Pao Cafeteria.

That afternoon, local print media, television media, and independent social media all took notice of the Kuai Pao Cafeterias.

Soon after, they were pushed into the top trending topics by reporters and bloggers.

"Kuai Pao’s new venture? According to sources, Kuai Pao will open 1,000 community cafeterias nationwide within two years."

"Community Cafeterias? No! They’re essentially employee cafeterias! Prices as low as 60% of the original!"

"Senlian Capital Splurges 1 Billion, Just So Couriers and Deliverymen Can Have a Hot Meal!"

Netizens initially thought Kuai Pao had gone crazy for money and was trying to profit from anything. But after learning that all Senlian Capital employees got a 40% discount, and comparing the prices to the cost of living in Hu City, they were surprised to find out the truth.

The profit margin on each dish at Kuai Pao Cafeteria was less than 5%. Even when factoring in the profit from external customers, they would be lucky to just cover their costs.

At the same time.

Wang Xin and his team had spent over twenty days, but they had finally completed the development of the website and app for ’Group Buy Loan’.

’This is my tenth startup. I absolutely cannot fail this time!’

Wang Xin swore to himself.