Chapter 56 – "You Don't Have to Worry About Money"
Lou Gaoyuan smirked as he teased Wang Ping, "So, you're one of those single guys who follow the goddess, huh? Maybe you've even saved the selfies she posted on Weibo?"
Wang Ping immediately straightened up and responded with a serious expression, "Nonsense! I'm only doing this for product promotion purposes. My attention is purely for research—nothing more, nothing less."
Yuan Jie scoffed, shaking his head. "I've never seen someone as shameless as you."
Seeing how his friends were poking fun at him, Wang Ping wasn't pleased. He quickly fired back, "Oh, and you guys mean to tell me you haven't been keeping an eye on her? Come on, big brother, second brother—don't act innocent."
At that moment, Yuan Jie turned to Fang Hong and suddenly said, "By the way, boss, four of the 'New Big Five Beauties' have already registered on Weibo, but Lin Ruoshui, your girlfriend, still hasn't. Maybe you should get her to sign up too?"
Sun Xin nodded in agreement. "Exactly! If all five of them join Weibo, it'll definitely bring in more users."
Hearing this, Fang Hong calmly replied, "She and I broke up a while ago."
The group fell silent for a moment before collectively exclaiming in shock, "Wait... you broke up?"
Fang Hong nodded again. "Now, Hexuan is my girlfriend."
The room was stunned into silence. After a few seconds, the realization hit, and they all shouted in unison, "Damn!"
Yuan Jie was the first to react. "No way! No freaking way! You've already claimed two of the 'New Big Five Beauties'? At this rate, Su Dongyan, Yun Xiaoli, and Zhong Xue are in serious danger!"
Lou Gaoyuan sighed. "Have you even considered the feelings of us single guys? Some people just have it all."
Wang Ping immediately grabbed Fang Hong's arm and said, "Boss, please, take me in as your disciple!"
Fang Hong chuckled. "First, you need to be blessed with an ancestor's face."
The group let out a collective sigh.
Fang Hong then turned serious as he addressed them, "Alright, enough with all this talk. Let's focus on making quantum leaps in our careers. In the future, you'll have your pick of beautiful women, luxury cars, and lavish mansions. You could choose a different one every day without repeating a single option. But right now, you guys are still stuck fantasizing about a few campus beauties? It's time to raise your standards and start thinking about your future!"
His impassioned speech struck a chord with the group. Lou Gaoyuan nodded enthusiastically. "The boss is absolutely right! Career comes first. Women will only slow down my coding speed."
Fang Hong patted his shoulder approvingly. "Now you're getting it."
Expanding the Company
After the brief distraction, Fang Hong shifted the topic and turned to Xu Jingren. "How's the company progressing in other areas?"
Xu Jingren replied systematically, "We've moved into an official office space. The company is no longer just a small studio; we've upgraded to a proper corporate structure. Additionally, we've recruited 25 interns from the university, each earning a monthly salary of 800 yuan, including meal allowances."
The IT industry was still one of the highest-paying fields, often rivaling the financial sector.
However, salaries varied significantly by region. In first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, a junior programmer's monthly salary typically started at around 3,000 yuan. At that level, even basic project maintenance work couldn't be handled independently.
With five years of experience, a programmer could expect a salary of around 7,000 yuan per month, while project leaders could earn over 10,000 yuan.
Of course, top-tier talent was a different story. For them, compensation was calculated on an annual salary basis, often including stock options.
While Xu Jingren and his team weren't necessarily considered "geniuses," they were still outstanding developers. They had built a functional product in less than two months—something that would take most ordinary developers much longer.
Even Fang Hong, whose technical development skills were the weakest among them, could independently complete tasks and maintain projects. But his focus was no longer on programming.
"We need to consider further expansion," Fang Hong said. "It's time to start hiring full-time employees. We can't let the millions of yuan in our account sit idle. If we want to scale up, we need a solid organizational structure in place."
Xu Jingren nodded in agreement.
"We'll adopt a flat corporate structure for now and prioritize recruitment. We need to establish the following departments as soon as possible: Technical, Design, Marketing, Operations, Human Resources, Administration, Finance, and Legal."
"Each department should have clearly defined roles and work together seamlessly. For instance, when developing a new feature, the Technical, Marketing, Design, and Operations teams must collaborate from planning to promotion."
"The Technical Department will need product managers, project managers, R&D engineers, operations engineers, and architects.
The Design Department requires UI/UX designers and user researchers.
The Marketing Department will need channel specialists, business developers, and promotional experts."
After estimating the necessary staffing, Fang Hong concluded, "We should expand the company to 90 employees."
Xu Jingren quickly did some calculations and hesitated. "Boss, hiring that many full-time employees at once will drain the millions in our account just on salaries alone. If we pay them for a full year, we'll be out of funds."
Fang Hong remained unfazed. "Time is the most valuable resource. Expansion is our top priority, and we're not going to hold back. I'm not planning to let our 5 million yuan sit idle for a year. We'll be raising additional funds within three months, so you don't have to worry about the financial side. Just focus on taking the company to where it needs to be. The stronger our foundation, the easier it will be to secure funding from investors."
Hearing Fang Hong's confidence, Xu Jingren and the others nodded. With the boss guaranteeing funding, their worries eased.
There was only one directive: Expansion!
With Fang Hong setting the direction, Xu Jingren and his team had a clear goal ahead.
In the following weeks, Quantum Beat would enter a period of rapid growth. Fang Hong set a deadline—within one month, all major departments had to be fully operational. At the same time, a large-scale recruitment campaign would be launched across universities nationwide.
Securing Capital
While Fang Hong had accumulated enough achievement points to exchange for valuable business tools, he wasn't in a rush to use them. Xu Jingren was handling operations well, and he wanted to let the team gain hands-on experience.
However, things were different for Huayu from Qunxing Capital. Unlike the startup team, Huayu had a high-stakes mission. Fang Hong placed intense pressure on him, demanding that he secure one billion yuan in funding within a week.
Raising that much capital in such a short time was no small feat.
In the end, Huayu had no choice but to leverage his family's business resources to meet Fang Hong's deadline.
---
With the company now in expansion mode, Fang Hong was setting the stage for Quantum Beat to become a dominant player in the fintech industry. The next step? Raising even larger investments and scaling operations to the national level.
But with rapid growth came new challenges—challenges that would test Fang Hong's leadership and business acumen.
The fintech empire was only just beginning.
---