<h4>Chapter 41: The First Employee</h4>


    “Why don’t I join yourpany?”


    After their quarrel, Xia Yin blurted out this suggestion.


    Her words caused a shift in Chen Chen’s heart.


    It was true. He had to start selecting employees.


    cklight Biotechnology Ltd. was founded a long time ago. All along, Chen Chen had been a lone-wolfmander, without even someone to fetch him tea or water.


    There was a contract to be signed in a few days. Surely he must not always be the one who would go alone?


    The great X himself, personally visiting otherpanies to sign the contract. The others would be groups of four to fivewyers, apanying three or four high-level personnel while he would be by himself. Was that not a little demeaning?


    Now that he thought of this, Chen Chen replied pensively, “And what will you do?”


    “I can be your secretary.” Xia Yin opened a bottle of mineral water and nced around, only to find that, apart from Chen Chen’sputer desk, therge warehouse did not even have a stool.


    Xia Yin ended up plopping her butt down onto Chen Chen’s foldable bed. Her two slender, well-proportioned legs dangled before Chen Chen’s eyes.


    “Secretary work – are you able to do it?” Chen Chen intentionally emphasized the phrase “do it”.


    “Of course.”


    Xia Yin said matter-of-factly. She did not get Chen Chen’s innuendo at all. “Each summer and winter break, my dad would make me an intern at hispany. It’s not just secretary work; even managing an entirepany would be a piece of cake for me!”


    “But don’t you hate managingpanies?” Chen Chen smirked. He could still remember how Xia Yin had to rely on him just to rent aboratory.


    “I don’t really hate it. I just don’t want my father smothering me. If it’s yourpany, I’ll do a good job of it!” Xia Yin looked at Chen Chen expectantly.


    Chen Chen pondered about it silently. Although he had not known Xia Yin for long, they did work together every day for three months after all. The only thing they had not done was to share a bed. Chen Chen already had a clear grasp of Xia Yin as a person from her personality to her abilities.


    To put it simply, perhaps due to the influence of her family, Xia Yin had a certain aptitude for management and nning. Although she was not an exceptionally quick learner, she was clear-headed, logical, and meticulous, rarely making mistakes when she took things seriously.


    The only problem was her socializing skills, but that was something that could be trained.


    Moreover, even if Chen Chen had recruited professional managers through a headhuntingpany, their loyalty would be another issue.


    With this in mind, Chen Chen raised his head and said solemnly, “If your father doesn’t mind, I’ll let you do the work of the human resources department. Use your father’s connections to recruit a team of employees for me. I’ll also send you our first product that was just released. Try pitching it to your father and see if he has any ns to invest. If so, I can grant him favorable terms.”


    “Sure, sure!” Xia Yin nodded happily.


    When Chen Chen saw how excited Xia Yin was, he suddenly doubted his rationale in hiring her.


    He had not beenpletely serious in saying that, but he did not expect Xia Yin to sell out her father without the slightest hesitation. Did this idiot have a brain...


    ...


    In any case, the first employee of Chen Chen’spany was hired under such circumstances.


    What Chen Chen did not anticipate was that, in less than two hours after Xia Yin had sent Little X Trantion Assistant to her father, he immediately reached out to Chen Chen.


    Xia Yin’s father was named Xia Hui. Hispany was named “Sparkle Entertainment Information Technology Ltd.”. It was an ITpany as well but their main business was in the web game industry.


    In simple terms, it was the kind of gamepany that would start off a meme like “I’m Nick Cheung, if you’re a brother, cut me down; this is a brand new game you’ve never yed before”[1].


    Although Sparkle Entertainment was not as famous as the gamepany that gave rise to that meme, it had produced many popr web games. Even in Maind China, Sparkle Entertainment was among the top thirty web gamepanies.


    By the next day, Xia Yin’s father had already rushed to Shangdu on a ne. In Xia Yin’s presence, both of them had negotiated for a long time before finally drawing up a contract.


    The contract roughly stated:


    “Xia Hui, under his own individual name, will invest in Chen Chen’s Little X Trantion Assistant project with a capital of twenty million, owning four percent of the project’s shares.


    “At the same time, without revealing the artificial intelligence algorithm of Little X Trantion Assistant, Chen Chen must embed an intelligent system of NPCs in a game under Sparkle Entertainment. In return, Chen Chen will own fifty percent of the web game’s dividends.”


    Nheless, Chen Chen was not interested in the game’s dividends mentioned in the second use. Instead, he directly cashed this in for ten million in cash.


    By this point, Chen Chen had sessfully exchanged ten percent of Little X Trantion Assistant’s shares for fifty million in cash. He could pay off his business loans as a student as well.


    At the start, this loan was signed by Professor Wang Xi. In the past months, Chen Chen had rented a factory and paid for electricity, yet the Industry and Commerce Bureau as well as the bank had never investigated Chen Chen’s financial situation. This was because Professor Wang Xi had been shielding him from that pressure.


    Now that Chen Chen had abundant funds, naturally, he would not trouble Professor Wang Xi any longer.


    The thirty million from Xia Yin’s father was paid to Chen Chen almost immediately after the contract was signed. It was not even paid in different installments.


    Over at thepany, Chen Chen directly handed over the management of the funds to Xia Yin, asking her to rent a floor of an office building. Meanwhile, she also had to ask her father for a few capable assistants to round up their team.


    After all, they had to sign another contract with Zhan Fei and the other two in a few days.


    As for the involvement of Xia Yin’s father in thepany, Chen Chen was not worried in the least.


    Once the office location was set and the local areawork was built, X would be able to take over the entirepany’swork. None of the employees’ actions would go unnoticed by X.


    Chen Chen could then be a boss who sat back and did nothing.


    As long as he tossed out a scrap product derived from Oasis every year or so, the money would keep rolling in.


    For instance, the “simultaneous trantor” that was developed at the same time as “Little X Trantion Assistant” was just an ordinary trantion program. Even so, when it was supplemented by artificial intelligence, it would immediately revolutionize an industry.


    This was the power of technology.


    In truth, Chen Chen could release the “simultaneous trantor” and “Little X Trantion Assistant” together, but after some consideration, this seemed to be too outrageous.


    A person who had designed a product that transcended eras might be described as “a sword that had taken ten years to sharpen” or simply “a genius”.


    However, if he came out with two such products at once, those with wild imaginations mighte to strange conclusions like “He’s using a cheat code”, “He’s hacked the system”, or “He’s been reborn”, and so on.


    Thus, to avoid being too shy, Chen Chen had given up on doing that.


    Chen Chen still maintained a clear head. His goal was not to be some dreamy, domineering CEO, ying house in the workce all day. This would be missing the forest for the trees.


    What was apany worth? Chen Chen’s true foundation was the USB drive.


    As long as he had the USB drive, Chen Chen could start up a thousand or ten thousandpanies. Even if he failed countless times, he could get back up over and over.


    Even his dream of immortality would have to be realized through the USB drive.


    [1] This refers to a meme that went viral when, in an advertisement for a web game, Hong Kong actor Nick Cheung’s imprecise Mandarin pronunciation became the butt of various jokes and puns.