The Offensive

The dinner gathering came to an end.

Chen Jianjun and Peng Ying stayed in the capital for five more days before heading home.

This trip wasn't just about visiting their son—they practically toured the entire city.

When they returned to their village, they would have plenty of stories to boast about to their old friends.

As for his younger sister, Chen Qi, Chen Pingsheng still didn't let her work as a stock clerk at the fruit shop. Instead, he sent her to study finance.

At least that way, she'd have a stable skill to rely on in the future.

To be honest, the fruit business wasn't really suitable for women—it was simply too exhausting.

After seeing his parents off, Chen Pingsheng returned to his usual work routine.

Right now, he still owed Tengsheng Fruits two million.

With stores three, four, and five running recharge promotions simultaneously, in just one week, they brought in 1.6 million in revenue, with his personal earnings amounting to 820,000.

Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have accumulated 820,000 in earnings. Would you like to activate the Random Multiplier?

"Activate."

Chen Pingsheng eagerly watched the two golden dice. As long as he rolled a three-times multiplier, he could clear his two-million debt on the house.

The first die landed on a two.

The second—unexpectedly—a one, the lowest possible roll.

So much for expectations.

Congratulations, Host! You have received a random three-times multiplier.

Ding! 2.46 million has been deposited into your Alipay account. Current balance: 2.81 million.

During his parents' visit, not only had Song Yanxi spent a considerable amount, but he had too.

Of the 500,000 he had left before, only 350,000 remained.

"Yanxi, come here for a sec."

The massive company headquarters was sparsely populated, with only seven or eight people scattered around.

Song Yanxi's office was right next to his. The moment he sent her a message, she arrived within five seconds.

He suspected she had been slacking off at work.

"Honey, what's up?"

"Good news, of course. Remember how we took two million from the company account to buy the house? We can pay it back now."

"Already?"

Song Yanxi had no idea where he had managed to pull another two million from. At this point, she was numb to his ever-growing stash of secret funds.

But regardless, it was a good thing. Once the two million was repaid, the house would be completely debt-free.

"Honey, there's something I wanted to discuss with you."

Sitting half-perched on the desk, she opened her laptop and pointed to some data on the screen.

"Look, since we opened in February and launched on food delivery platforms in March, our sales were initially low. But since then, our monthly growth rate has exceeded 300%. Right now, we're doing over ten thousand in daily sales on these platforms alone, making us the number one fruit store in the Shijingshan District."

The growth rate was indeed staggering.

She continued, "Honey, I really think food delivery is going to blow up, just like online shopping did. Otherwise, why would the BAT giants be fighting over it like crazy?"

Chen Pingsheng stroked his chin. When he first put their store on these platforms, his main goal was to reduce fruit waste—selling slightly less fresh produce via delivery.

While that objective was achieved, he hadn't expected such a pleasant surprise in return.

"There are still too many delivery platforms right now, all offering heavy subsidies and securing billions in funding left and right," he said, glancing at her. "Yanxi, you don't actually think I can play this capital game, do you?"

"Of course not," she laughed.

"I just feel that food delivery is bound to take off. Otherwise, why would the BAT trio be fighting tooth and nail for a piece of the pie?"

"That's true."

Among the major players in food delivery, three companies dominated the scene: Meituan, Ele.me, and Baidu Waimai.

Meituan, initially backed by Alibaba, was its biggest shareholder. But in later rounds of funding, Alibaba introduced its infamous "pick one" policy—forcing companies to choose between its money or Tencent's.

In the mobile internet era, these two tech giants represented two extremes—one ruling e-commerce, the other reigning over social media.

Tencent had repeatedly tried to leverage its massive user base to break into Alibaba's e-commerce territory. Meanwhile, Alibaba had made numerous attempts to conquer the social media space.

The result?

Tencent was utterly crushed in the e-commerce war.

And Alibaba? It was repeatedly smacked down in the social media battle.

After suffering enough defeats, Tencent adjusted its investment strategy—leveraging its social traffic to support its portfolio companies.

This gave birth to a series of Tencent-backed enterprises, including JD.com, Meituan, and later, Pinduoduo.

On the other hand, Alibaba's core business remained e-commerce, relying heavily on paid traffic. Its investments were aimed at strengthening this core, which is why it insisted on controlling its subsidiaries to funnel traffic back into its ecosystem.

That's why Meituan eventually broke away from Alibaba and aligned with Tencent instead.

Of course, Alibaba didn't just sit back and watch—it immediately backed Ele.me as a rival.

Thus, the food delivery wars were ignited.

As for Baidu's Waimai? Despite its flashy debut with a two-billion investment, it ultimately became nothing more than a joke.

Chen Pingsheng had always been fascinated by these internet battles.

The deeper you looked, the more there was to learn.

Take Alibaba and Tencent—despite their cutthroat competition, they would still collaborate when necessary.

"Love-hate relationship" was the perfect way to describe them.

"Honey, last month, our second store received over four million in recharge payments. If we only keep thirty million as risk capital, that means the store's profit for the month is over two million. Are we taking too big a risk by splitting it up like this?"

Song Yanxi was a little worried. After all, that two million wasn't exactly profit—it was just money customers had prepaid.

If they used it all up now, they could face serious financial trouble later when customers started redeeming their stored value.

"It's manageable," he reassured her. "Running a business on future earnings is always like this. The money we owe customers is balanced out by what we owe suppliers. If we keep thirty million in reserves and allow for half a month's buffer, the risk is minimal."

Since they settled with suppliers on a monthly basis, their cash flow was substantial.

Frankly, if Beijing didn't have real estate purchase restrictions, they could've used these funds to flip properties. In a few years, their profits would far exceed what they made from selling fruit.

But with his Random Multiplier, he had no interest in such schemes.

With just a few days left before their profit distribution, the second store alone had netted over two million in a month—an absolutely insane figure.

By the 15th, when they split the earnings, Song Yanxi's personal account saw an instant deposit of 1.3 million.

She was so excited she nearly shouted, "Drinks on me!"

It wasn't just Chen Pingsheng making money anymore—her own earnings had now surpassed two million.

Selling fruit had far exceeded everyone's expectations.

But they all remained calm.

At this point, they had no real competition left in the Beixinan fruit market.

The only way forward was expansion.

Otherwise, once stores three, four, and five finished their recharge promotions, all five stores would hit a growth ceiling, forced to rely on stored value consumption.

After experiencing the insane profits of the recharge model, how could they go back to earning just a few tens of thousands a month?

Without recharge, the combined monthly profit of all five stores wouldn't even exceed 400,000.

Compared to the millions they were making now, that was unacceptable.

Even the usually level-headed Song Yanxi was now pushing for expansion beyond Beixinan and into Shijingshan.

They had money, they had manpower.

It was time to go on the offensive.

If Beixinan was a village, then Shijingshan was a town.

And they weren't content being village kings anymore.

It was time to invade new territory.

This was going to be an all-out war.