"What then..." Chen Hu's curiosity was even more stirred.
"Alas, there's nothing much to say. I can only say I was short-sighted back then. I thought Jiangnan University was a private institution, at best a second-tier university, and couldn't compare to regular first-tier universities. Otherwise, my life wouldn't have ended up this way!" Fan Rui sighed.
"But the person I hate the most is that teacher. If he hadn't kept coming to my house to persuade me not to go to Jiangnan University, how could I have made such a decision!" Fan Rui was still extremely unwilling and ultimately pushed the blame onto his teacher.
In reality, Fan Rui was quite benevolent. He hadn't really hated his homeroom teacher before, as his parents' opinions played a crucial role.
And at that time, the teacher genuinely meant well for him. After all, he was also short-sighted and couldn't possibly have seen how powerful the future Jiangnan Group would become.
However, Fan Rui's perspective changed this year.
It was because he heard about something that happened at a high school reunion. His homeroom teacher not only attended but also had a very pleasant conversation with Zhao Yao, saying that Zhao Yao was the best student he had ever taught.
At that time, Fan Rui, partly because he didn't want to meet Zhao Yao and partly because he was truly busy with work, did not attend the reunion. He only heard what the teacher said at the banquet later, through a video recorded by a classmate at the scene and posted in their class group chat.
Fan Rui was furious at the time. Zhao Yao, the best student he had ever taught? Back in school, his homeroom teacher had never said a good word about Zhao Yao. Instead, he would scold Zhao Yao severely after every exam.
Take the last exam, for instance. Why did his homeroom teacher try his best to stop Fan Rui from going to Jiangnan University but not Zhao Yao?
It was simply because, in this teacher's mind, Zhao Yao was not an outstanding student and couldn't get into any good first-tier universities. He might not even get into a first-tier university at all, so it would be better for him to go to the second-tier Jiangnan University.
Fan Rui didn't think the teacher's actions were wrong at the time. It was just that now, seeing Zhao Yao become the chairman of E Bu Pa and one of the top billionaires in the country.
And then he was there shamelessly sucking up to him, calling Zhao Yao the best student he had ever taught. It was utterly shameless and almost made Fan Rui want to vomit.
At the same time, Fan Rui was very glad that he hadn't actually attended this reunion. Otherwise, wouldn't he have had to fall out with his homeroom teacher on the spot? How embarrassing would that have been?
"Exactly, teachers are all scumbags. If he hadn't been coming to my house every day, and my family hadn't reported me, I wouldn't have been spending all my days in internet cafes. I wouldn't have fallen out with my parents and run off to work before I was 18!" Chen Hu couldn't help but recall his own youthful stories.
If he had studied hard back then, hadn't spent all his days in internet cafes, and hadn't gone to the blind box shops in Jiangnan to open blind boxes, spending all the tens of thousands of yuan his family had painstakingly saved, would he have been able to graduate from university peacefully, find a job with a modest but stable income, get a good wife, and live a stable life?
Instead of having to flee overnight and possibly never return to the country.
"Your teacher..." Fan Rui fell silent, feeling awkward about criticizing such a dedicated teacher.
"By the way, how has Zhao Yao been lately? Is he living the good life, constantly bragging about his great victory among your classmates?" Chen Hu suddenly asked, his tone tinged with a hint of sourness.
"What great victory? What has Zhao Yao done?" Fan Rui asked, somewhat bewildered.
"You don't know?" Although he was the one who failed, Chen Hu was even more annoyed to find that the other person had no idea about this matter. "It's about that delivery war! E Bu Pa successfully defeated Dida Delivery and became the market dominator, almost unifying the entire delivery market!"
"Oh, I don't really order takeout much myself, as the construction site provides meals, so I don't really care about these things," Fan Rui explained. Chen Hu felt a little better.
But Fan Rui continued, "However, I have a cousin who orders takeout every day. Once, when I was chatting with him, he said that he used to order from Dida Delivery because it was cheaper and had various subsidy coupons. But later, he mostly only ordered from Zhao Yao's E Bu Pa."
"Why?" Hearing Fan Rui's words, Chen Hu couldn't help but feel indignant. His cousin was clearly a takeout user cultivated by their own subsidy policy, so why was E Bu Pa benefiting now?
"He didn't say much. He just told me that if I want to order takeout in the future, I should use Dida Delivery when there are subsidies and E Bu Pa when there aren't," Fan Rui recalled.
This seemingly ordinary sentence stabbed Chen Hu's heart like a sharp knife.
It reminded Chen Hu of the events of the past few months. As the two sides began their subsidized delivery war, Dida Delivery, with its greater funds, initially suppressed E Bu Pa.
But later, E Bu Pa simply stopped offering any subsidies except for their membership program. Chen Hu initially thought he had won and stopped subsidies as well.
But as soon as he stopped the subsidies, he found that their user numbers were continuously declining, while E Bu Pa's user numbers were continuously increasing. This continued until Dida Delivery had to restart its subsidy policy to bring back users.
However, the problem was that as soon as the subsidies stopped, these brought-back users would disappear again, and at a faster rate than before. In the blink of an eye, they could lose millions of active users in a single day.
Until a few minutes ago, Chen Hu still hadn't figured out why. He could only conclude from the market research reports conducted by the company that E Bu Pa's service was better and more efficient, which was why it won the war when neither side offered subsidies.
So, for the next half year, Chen Hu began to comprehensively improve service quality. He even initiated an unpublicized campaign within the company, which was essentially a movement to learn from E Bu Pa's service attitude and philosophy.
Although he didn't know if they had learned the service attitude and philosophy, they had at least learned E Bu Pa's equipment.
Delivery-specific electric bicycles, delivery-specific packaging boxes, and very strict service policies for delivery personnel.
For example, a few minutes late, or receiving a user complaint, would result in immediate deductions from the delivery person's pay, regardless of the circumstances.
Chen Hu thought that with such policies implemented, Dida Delivery's service would surely catch up to E Bu Pa's.
But the results only got worse. Not only did the order volume not rebound as expected, but their own delivery personnel began to leave in large numbers. By the time Chen Hu realized it, Dida Delivery had lost over half of its riders and even more orders.
Helpless, Chen Hu had to restart the subsidy policy to attract users while also demanding that the group company conduct a thorough internal investigation to understand the reasons for the rider outflow and, most importantly, the user service experience. Why wasn't the significant investment yielding results? He demanded investigation reports and corresponding rectification plans from all branch companies.
Failure to provide investigation reports and rectification plans would result in a complete overhaul of the entire branch company.
Soon, the investigation reports from the branch companies came out, and the conclusion was the same: because most riders were outsourced employees, their attitude was certainly not as dedicated as E Bu Pa's own riders, so their service was still inferior to E Bu Pa's.
At the same time, these branch companies also proposed corresponding rectification plans, which were to further increase service review metrics, intensify service efforts, and require riders to provide better service to users. Only by doing so could they match E Bu Pa in service and achieve further victory.
Chen Hu believed this investigation report at the time because almost all the companies had the same investigation results. If one company was deceiving him, it was impossible for all the branch companies to be deceiving him, right?
Chen Hu believed it then, but now, thinking back, Chen Hu wished he could slap himself.
He had actually thought about it the wrong way. It wasn't impossible for all the branch companies to be deceiving him; rather, the fact that all the branch companies had the same investigation results was the most ridiculous thing.
The situation in each province was different, and the market environment was also different. How could all provinces have the same investigation results?
This was the biggest problem!
It was a shame that Chen Hu hadn't figured this out at the time, because immediately after, their company's performance began to recover rapidly.
First, the number of takeout orders in various provinces quickly rebounded. Even after subsidies were stopped, the order volume continued to recover, soon reaching about 70% of the company's peak level. Chen Hu was very satisfied with this result.
In addition, the number of riders in the company also recovered rapidly. According to reports from the branch companies, the company's riders had basically returned to their peak level, and their numbers even seemed to be increasing.
This meant that the company's data was comprehensively improving, and his policies had been successful.
During these two to three months, Chen Hu was undoubtedly happy.
The company's IPO process in the US stock market resumed, and the investors were all smiles. The investors who had previously reprimanded him now restored their respect to Chen Hu, and the market was full of praise.
Especially the third-ranked takeout company, which suddenly announced it would transfer some of its business and enter broader, more expansive markets. But in reality, it was because they no longer had the funds to continue subsidizing and couldn't retain users with their service, ultimately being crushed by the other two companies. Investors withdrew their funding, and the company completely collapsed.