Chapter 214 I’m Not Dead Yet
The sultry wind blew away the faint ambiguous smell. Xie Jingxing lay on the street-facing windowsill with a cigarette in his mouth, watching the outdoor scenery through the shade of the tree.

He discovered that Song Anli was quite petty bourgeois. This villa, decorated in a Shanghai retro style, looked very much like the canary cage that a favored concubine in the Republic of China era would choose for herself.

The melodious music from the vinyl record player drifted away, and the tourists who were experiencing the rickshaw crossing the street downstairs looked up.

Xie Jing Xing smiled back, feeling like something was missing without him.

"Mr. Xie, Mr. Song asked me to bring you some clothes." The waitress pushed the door open and said shyly, with two just the right amount of blush on her fair face.

Xie Jing Xing looked her up and down: "Where did you get the clothes?"

"Ms. Song arranged for me to buy it. She told you to take a look. If the size doesn't fit, I'll go and change it." The waitress's tone could not hide her anticipation.

Xie Jing Xing looked her up and down with interest: "Put it down."

The waitress said ok, put down the clothes bag, turned around and left, unable to suppress her excitement and waved her hand gently.

Xie Jingxing suddenly remembered what was missing. If Song Anli wore a cheongsam, she would definitely be more worthy of the word "swaying and graceful" than this gambler girl.

He has a nice face and great courage, but it's a pity that he has never read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

If you think about everything your boss thinks about and worry about what your boss worries about, you can get ahead. Then Yang Xiu would have died in vain.

"The Yangtze River rolls eastward, its waves wash away all heroes. Right and wrong, success and failure..."

Xie Jingxing was in high spirits when he was reciting a poem but he could not continue reading when he saw the door was pushed open. His pants got stuck.

"Good poem... Haha, Mr. Xie, I'll send the dishes to the kitchen first." Liu Qiming awkwardly raised the ingredients in his hand high to indicate.

"Come in quickly."

Xie Jingxing pulled up his pants and fastened them naturally: "What good stuff?"

"It's not a good thing. I heard that you wanted to eat stewed pork ribs with beans, so the company airlifted some Tibetan pork over yesterday and I brought it over." Liu Qiming explained casually.

Xie Jing Xing complained: "You guys are wasting money, be careful or the group may cut its budget next year."

"If those annoying guys in the group's finance department cut the budget, it would be a slap in your face." Liu Qiming smiled and flattered him.

Yunshan is a large company with a huge business. It has contracted several mountains across the country to produce green grains, vegetables, meat and fruits for use in the group's internal canteens. In the past, Yunhe Logistics was not able to get a large share.

Now it has become the residence of the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace. We can purchase as much as we want at internal cost price, and middle-level management employees can occasionally bring their friends to the company for a meal.

Xie Jingxing didn't care about these trivialities, but he didn't believe in the self-control of his employees. He grumbled to Liu Qiming at this time as a private venting of his complaints.

The two chatted for a while, and then Yunhe Logistics' current president Guan Linhui arrived with several executives. It would take a while to send the pork to the kitchen for cooking, so Song Anli took off her apron and performed the socialite tea ceremony she learned from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

"It's been less than half a year and the company has been completely revitalized. Thank you all for your hard work." Xie Jingxing expressed his sincere gratitude with tea instead of wine.

Guan Linhui said calmly, "Mr. Xie, you are too kind. My colleagues have always had a sense of urgency, fearing that they will not be able to do their job well and will not be able to shoulder the responsibility."

"Boss Guan is right. We have welcomed and sent off thousands of employees in the past six months. Every day when I arrive at the company, I have to recite the employee list first, so that I can be in the dark when my subordinates report their work."

Yu Congxin, the deputy general manager and general manager of the human resources department, followed suit and asked for credit in a slightly more explicit manner.

"Ele.me and Dianping have just merged, so there is still a lot of competition in the food delivery industry. The strategic plan formulated by Yunhe at the beginning of the year has reached the point where it can be implemented step by step. In the next month or two, I will focus on the company."

Xie Jingxing brought up the topic: "You guys are making me feel very stressed. It seems I have to memorize the employee list in advance."

"Don't feel stressed. If you are stressed, the leaders below won't be able to sleep, and Old Yu will have gray hair due to worry." Liu Qiming made jokes to liven up the atmosphere.

Yu Congxin echoed the sentiment: "Hey, I can still guarantee the psychological dynamics of the employees. If Mr. Xie names the people below, nine out of ten will be confident that they are doing their job well and will be promoted."

"What about the remaining one?" Guan Linhui asked.

Yu raised his eyebrows again: "As for the one who lacks confidence, you don't need Mr. Xie to ask me to write a note and Mr. Guan to sign it. Just fire him!"

"Okay, okay, don't be so high-profile. Prepare a list first. I'll familiarize myself with it."

Xie Jingxing saw that if he allowed these old foxes to continue to act, he would be framed, so he made his attitude clear.

Yunhe has been undergoing internal adjustments for a long time, and it is time to promote a group of employees to fill the vacancies. He has no direct middle-level confidants in the company, so it would be better to set a total number of promotion quotas and let them discuss and divide them.

In the end, the list that was handed to him would give less points to those who scored more, and more points to those who scored less - it was nothing more than playing favoritism and balancing things.

Anyway, Old Xie is in his prime, so it is unlikely that he will fail miserably when he tries to imitate Emperor Wanshou.

"However, there is one thing I need to make clear in advance."

Xie Jingxing paused for a moment and said, "Ele.me and Dianping have merged, and some of the overlapping departments of both parties need to be eliminated. It would be a pity to send many excellent employees to society for nothing. Yunhe should find a way to recruit a batch of them."

"Um, Mr. Xie, could you tell me which specific business talents they are for?" Yu Congxin made eye contact with Guan Linhui without leaving any trace.

Xie Jingxing made a downward gesture: "Listen to me first. Most of these employees are in the catering industry, business sales, and Internet product development. At the beginning of the year, we set four new business directions: crowdsourcing distribution, new retail fresh supermarkets, community group purchase of vegetables, and same-city express delivery."

"So far, only crowdsourcing delivery has some presence, with a market share of 30%?"

Xie Jingxing turned his gaze towards Guan Linhui, who nodded without saying anything.

Lao Guan is from his mother's family. He has not experienced the years when Yunshan was fighting hard for the market. When he took the position of general manager of the grain logistics system, there was no need for him to risk his life at all.

In short, he has no bloody temperament and is better at management than competing in the market.

During this period, it could not keep up with the pace of start-ups like Dada that tended to be Internet platforms, and it was hard to bear to compete with old logistics companies such as Shentong in terms of money.

Xie Jingxing already had a 30% market share as he had laid out his plan early, taking advantage of the right time and right place.

In the future, as more and more competitors enter the market, market share will only decline and not rise, because this industry is essentially just a fucking contractor and anyone can do it.

There are 1.4 billion people in China. It is only a dream to occupy the majority of the market if you compete with all your strength!
Excluding crowdsourcing delivery, among the other business directions, only the same-city express delivery has made smooth progress so far, while the fresh food business is stuck in warehouse configuration and store system development.

It’s even more difficult to understand what the concept of community group buying is.

"Yunhe Logistics is a traditional bulk logistics and transportation company after all. We lack the genes to connect local life with the mobile Internet. It just so happens that both Dianping and Ele.me are among the best related start-ups at present. This is a supplement for us rather than a burden."

Xie Jingxing emphasized seriously, Guan Linhui was silent after being beaten.

Yu Congxin didn't know what to say. As a senior human resources veteran, he was well aware of the troubles in large-scale corporate mergers and acquisitions. Didi and Kuaidi were considered to be the fastest.

Even so, after the boss had acted in front, Liu Qing followed behind and fought with Lu Chuanwei for more than a month before deciding to lay off those departments and keep those people. "If everyone has no objection, it's settled. After the Dianping acquisition is completed, I will return to the company for a meeting in a few days to discuss the business logic of community group buying."

Xie Jingxing blew the steam from the hot tea leisurely. It was no wonder that Huang Zhang was obsessed with the family business. Anyone who had enjoyed the experience of having a single word decide things knew it.

"Mr. Xie, I personally think that community group buying overlaps with the business of other brother departments of the group?"

Just as he was about to invite everyone to serve the meal, Xie Kai, the head of the government's public relations department who had remained silent throughout, suddenly spoke out in opposition.

Xie Jingxing's brows slightly wrinkled and then calmed down in an instant, and asked in confusion: "Which department of the group is doing the community vegetable selling business?"

"Well, not as far as I know, but I think we should report it to the group headquarters." Xie Kai smiled embarrassedly.

He put down his teacup and said, "Okay, who of you will be responsible for following up later."

"Mr. Xie, it's getting late, why don't we eat first. Assistant Song is good at making tea, but it can satisfy your hunger!" Liu Qiming changed the subject in an exaggerated manner.

Song Anli pursed her red lips and smiled, teasing him that he should lose weight. She moved her hand under the table and stroked Xie Jingxing's vest, signaling him to calm down. It had been a long time since they had a meeting, so he didn't want it to be awkward.

At the same time, Xie Kai received Liu Qiming's eye signal and shook his head, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

…………

The next morning, Yu Congxin brought his human resources team directly to the Ele.me headquarters office to recruit.

The company was in chaos. A regional agent who only recognized a certain business salesperson came to make trouble, shouting that he would terminate the contract if the salesperson he was familiar with was fired.

In the corner, several people from the platform department surrounded the delivery supervisor, arguing about who should decide the length of the delayed compensation.

"Where is your chairman?" Xie Jingxing picked up a few discarded documents on the ground.

Xu Nuo, who was following him, didn't look very happy: "Mr. Zhang was stuck in traffic during the morning rush hour. I'll be there soon."

"The Qing dynasty is dead, the Eight-Nation Alliance has invaded! The Allied Forces have landed in Normandy, I'm going to hide in the bunker and commit suicide tomorrow!"

He kicked the desk with a bang. The sound echoed in the office and you could hear a pin drop.

"Keep going, at least I'm not dead today."

Xie Jingxing rubbed his calf and walked away calmly.

Everyone watched him leave in unison, and the office resumed its buzzing noise, inadvertently losing a bit of hostility.

They arrived at the conference room in silence, where Shen Nanpeng, Zhang Tao, Chang Bin of JD.com, Lu Quan of CITIC Industry Fund and others sat opposite each other.

The main seat was empty, so Xie Jingxing sat down without hesitation.

"Sorry, I'm late."

A few minutes later, Zhang Xuhao appeared in the conference room, with messy hair and bloodshot eyes. He clasped his hands together and apologized repeatedly. The smell of cigarettes and alcohol on him could be smelled from eight hundred meters away.

Everyone could understand and pretend nothing happened. Xie Jingxing knocked on the table and got straight to the point: "A valuation of 60 billion US dollars, introducing 8 million US dollars in financing, and increasing the equity by about 13%. Tell me what you think."

"8 million US dollars is not a small amount. It would be better if everyone shares the share. Of course, we are willing to lead the investment." Lu Quan was not very enthusiastic.

Chang Bin added with embarrassment: "Let's make up for it. We can get 3%-5% of the market share."

Xie Jingxing sat there watching their performance without even raising his eyelids, and Shen Nanpeng even yawned.

Dianping and Ele.me each conducted a round of financing to resolve all book debts before the merger, and Taihe repurchased the shares held by the management team that wanted to cash out.

Yunhe Logistics registered 12% of the old shares through a targeted approach, calculated in the form of physical assets plus cash payment, and the total amount paid for these two parts alone was US$5.1 million.

In addition, the 12% old shares issued through private placement have priority voting rights. The old shares held by Zhang Xuhao and the original Ele.me founding team will be cashed out and repurchased by Yunhe Logistics in the future.

In other words, Xie Jingxing promised to cash out $6 million to this guy cleanly without having to bear a penny of debt.

Having paid such a huge cost, he absolutely cannot afford to cover the entire cost. According to the distribution agreed upon by all stakeholders, he must get more than 25% of the shares before he can accept it.

If JD.com and CITIC Industry Fund want to take advantage, just get lost. With the current venture capital market conditions this year, there is definitely no shortage of investors.

"Boss, this is a call from Bao Fan from Huaxing Fund." Song Anli covered her mouth and reported in a low voice.

Xie Jingxing nodded slightly: "Sorry, you guys chat, I'll take a call."

"..."

Shen Nanpeng couldn't help but curl his lips. Chang Bin and Lu Quan exchanged clever glances, thinking that the acting was a bit too fake, but they seemed to have no choice but to fall into the trap.

Last year, Bao Fan, head of Huaxing Fund, invited Cheng Wei and Lu Chengwei to visit Shenzhen. He said he could help broker a merger and acquisition, but the prerequisite was that Didi had to accept investment from Huaxing Fund.

As a result, Liu Qing and Xie Jingxing, two super second-generation kids, easily raised hundreds of millions of dollars by making some noise and eating Kuai alive.

Although Mr. Bao was treated coldly, it was clear that he was not someone who would be easily dealt with since he dared to say that he would get involved in this project. Didn’t you see that Zhu Xiaohu wisely kept his mouth shut as if he was avoiding a disaster?

If he comes in to invest in "New Big Hungry", no one will be able to play.

"How's it going, have you finished chatting?"

Xie Jingxing squatted in the toilet for more than ten minutes to detoxify, then returned to the conference room and asked questions in a fake manner.

"Almost. We at JD.com and Mr. Lu should think of a way. $8 million is a bit too much, but if we grit our teeth we can squeeze out $6 million to support Mr. Xie's work!" Chang Bin shamelessly said this based on his familiar relationship.

"You are not supporting my work, but supporting the work of the two Mr. Zhangs. Your money will be invested in the operation and development of the company."

Xie Jingxing corrected him with satisfaction, paused and continued, "For the remaining $2 million share, Mr. Cheng Wei from Didi is interested in investing, and Mr. Xu from Today Capital is going to follow up with an investment. We can all make money together."

"That's right, everyone gets rich!" Lu Quan's eyes lit up.

It seems that the rumors that Cheng Wei and Wang Xing have a grudge against each other are absolutely true. Not only did they engage in the food delivery business before, but now they have simply invested in the rival company.

For him and later investors like JD.com, the more capital that comes in, the better.

In fact, he and Chang Bin were not just being difficult for the sake of bargaining. The merger between Ele.me and Dianping took off on the spot in terms of financing and valuation, and the company's operations took less than half a year to recover.

This is not something that can be quickly resolved no matter how great Xie Jingxing's personal abilities are. They still have a long way to go in fighting with Meituan, so they do have reason to be pessimistic to a certain extent.

(End of this chapter)