Chapter 501: Annual gathering

As a financially independent subsidiary of Xingchen Technologies, Xingchen Games effectively had two bosses, Xu Tingsheng and Old Jin.

While it did not generate wealth for the other members of Xingchen Technologies besides Xu Tingsheng, much of Xingchen Games' work was actually finished with the help of the talents and manpower of Xingchen Technologies.

What did this mean?

It meant that Xu Tingsheng and Old Jin were receiving a favour from Xingchen Technologies.

While Hu Chen, He Yutan and the other employees of Xingchen Technologies might not be especially concerned about this at this point in time, it was something that Old Jin and Xu Tingsheng had to take into consideration.

"First, we must repay the favour. I'll do that. Second, we can't always take advantage of them like this. You should consider taking out some shares," Old Jin said very candidly and directly.

Old Jin left to discuss the venue, programme and prizes with a hastily established preparation squad.

Xu Tingsheng remained by himself in the meeting room.

Having a hundred percent of the shares as he did now was intrinsically unfeasible, especially with internet enterprises where such a situation was virtually unheard of.

From what Xu Tingsheng knew, Zhou Hongyi had just 18% of Qihu 360's shares whereas his employees had 24% of its shares in total. This was standard for internet enterprises right now.

As capital flowed in like a torrent amidst the internet era, countless companies were springing up everyday like bamboo shoots after a downpour. This competition was incomparably tragic. Meanwhile, the bulk of the competition revolved around talents.

Unless one was a cheat MC-like figure, a so-called 'Dragon Proud Sky' who was able to win everyone's hearts with their valiant haloes, if one did not give shares and options, tying their gains and benefits together, one would not be able to retain their core talents and form their core team.

Xu Tingsheng was not a 'Dragon Proud Sky'. He did not have a halo and could not radiate omnipotence.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before he parted with some shares.

The problem was that he presently still could not distribute the shares of Xingchen Technologies as even his promises to Hu Chen, He Yutan and the rest were only verbal. Xu Tingsheng was not in a hurry to fulfil it yet. His plans for Xingchen Technologies were too great whereas its initial authorised capital was simply too low.

"I'll distribute the shares of Xingchen Games first then."

Using a subsidiary company to 'split the pie' was actually more or less the same as what many large-scale enterprises did. Even as this tied their gains and benefits together, it left their control fundamentally unaffected.

Earlier, Old Jin had been suggesting precisely this too. Xingchen Games, this pie that was fresh out of the oven, could not be produced of the effort and toil of others yet be enjoyed solely by its two bosses.

As an independent company, Xingchen Games' authorised capital actually far surpassed that of Xingchen Technologies as it amounted to a hundred million. Old Jin owned 30% of this and Xu Tingsheng 70%.

From the standpoint of financing, this share allocation truthfully did not correspond with their investment sums at all.

There were two crucial considerations here. Firstly, Xu Tingsheng's resources and his leading role in his company's projects had been majorly counted as an investment by Old Jin. Secondly, they had actually already considered rewarding and incentivising their employees with shares at the time. The portion of shares that would be allocated for this had temporarily been allocated to Xu Tingsheng.

As Old Jin had said, now was the time to take out some of it.

Of Xingchen Games' current hundred million shares, Xu Tingsheng grit his teeth and took out eight million of it in one shot. Of these, five million was for Hu Chen, He Yutan, Shao Yanshan and the other higher echelons as well as a portion of the middle-echelon employees based on their contributions to the company.

As for the remaining three million shares, a million would go to outstanding ordinary employees, a million would go to official employees who passed the criteria...and finally, a lucky draw for the remaining million.

As Xingchen Games was still not a listed company, if an employee got ten thousand shares right now, it would correspondingly be equivalent to having acquired ten thousand yuan.

Still, anyone who had the slightest bit of knowledge on the topic would know that this entailed something different altogether. Ten thousand yuan would always amount to ten thousand yuan. Ten thousand shares of a company that was not yet listed, however, would very likely amount to hundreds of thousands, even a couple million yuan in the future.

Xu Tingsheng had a dazed, pained look on his face as he threw the 'Annual Gathering Shares Incentivising Scheme' onto the meeting table of the preparatory squad. The back of his hand raised as if to shield a 'tragically weeping face', he turned and left…

The meeting room erupted as once as cheers shot through the roof…

Following that, on the entire first storey, in the entire work area of Xingchen Technologies, cheers shot through the roof…

Not having an omnipotent halo, Xu Tingsheng took a blade to his flesh and sawed off some meat, winning the hearts of Xingchen's core entrepreneur team and these hundred plus people.

"All hail Boss Xu!"

"All hail Xingchen!"

"Xingchen is my home."

"Boss Xu is my Mum."

"Scram!"

……

Xu Tingsheng had already called the dormitory and told Xiang Ning about that annual gathering.

Being fun-loving and vivacious by nature, with this also being the annual gathering of Xingchen Technologies which she felt a great sense of affinity with and had been invited to several times, Xiang Ning did not hesitate in the least as she joyfully agreed.

Xingchen had dispatched a car, one driver and Hu Chen's assistant to pick Xiang Ning up.

Still, they would have to wait until Xiang Ning was released from school the next day.

Xu Tingsheng was pretty active over these two days too. As everyone was busy preparing for the annual gathering, he could only pay more attention to work-related matters. Still, this was actually not something he was proficient in. Rather than managing and participating, it would really be more accurate to call what he was doing learning.

Fortunately, Xingchen's employees seemed like they were on steroids during this time. Xu Tingsheng literally had to force some of them back home to rest such that they would not be working overnight for two consecutive days.

That afternoon, he put two sofas together and took a nap in the meeting room. When he woke up, it was already past 4pm. He called and found that Xiang Ning had taken leave for music, her last period, and was presently already on the way over.

Past 6pm, having taken a bath and changed, Xu Tingsheng rode in He Yutan's car and reached the 5-star hotel that was the venue for their annual gathering.

He had previously not participated in the planning for the gathering and had not tried to find out the specifics too. He had estimated that in such a short amount of time, with but a hundred odd people, Xingchen should not be able to make this so grand an affair…

Therefore, he was somewhat overwhelmed when he arrived at the venue.

Lined with red silk, four BMWs were neatly parked at the entrance of this hotel.

"These are from Boss Jin. They're prizes. Three of them are for me, Old Hu and Old Shao. The remaining one is a reward for the most outstanding employee of the year that we chose...he's a technician and most of the difficulties we run into when programming were resolved by him. Old Hu and I wanted to elevate him before, but regretfully, he is single-mindedly devoted to his work and isn't interested in management."

"Right, for the shares-based reward, we also allocated him as first amongst the employees. It's to establish a positive example on the whole, both within and without. We need to attract more outstanding personnel in this field," He Yutan explained.

Such talents were actually the most important for program-based enterprises. They were the likeliest to be poached too.

"Boss Jin is open-handed and knows how to tame people. That guy was holding invitations coming from so many headhunting companies. He was called over for a talk by Boss Jin yesterday. When he came out, his eyes were all red...he immediately rejected all those invitations, even deleted them."

He Yutan looked full of admiration as he said this even though he had actually vehemently opposed it back when he had learnt that Xu Tingsheng was going to get a mine boss to invest in Xingchen.

"The main thing's that he's rich!" Xu Tingsheng exclaimed emotionally, feeling it a bit unfair.

While Xu Tingsheng did not know much about cars, these 4 BMWs together had to cost two million at least. Indeed, Comrade Old Jin, a 'mine boss' is really a synonym for nouveau riche...

"So riche it's inhumane!"

"I understand the cars, but the four long-legs standing beside them...what's with that?" Xu Tingsheng asked as he saw some skimpily-clad beauties with model-like figures standing beside the cars.

Xu Tingsheng knew that Xingchen had just around twenty female employees and whose 'quality' was merely average too.

He Yutan's gaze came to linger on the models as he casually explained, "This is as per Boss Jin's instructions too. He got us to contact a very famous model agency. Not just here, there are some inside too. There will even be a catwalk and some easter eggs later...in Boss Jin's own words, the purpose of this is to invigorate the spirits of these programming males who are oblivious to the ways of the world."

"Alright then," Xu Tingsheng mentally prepared himself for a little more stimulation.

Immediately afterwards, he witnessed He Yutan's 'there are some inside too'.

Right after entering, a veil-wearing female model who was even taller than Xu Tingsheng came over, leaned in and put a wreath of flowers around his neck.

It was the same with He Yutan and all the other employees who entered…

There were six of them who were standing by the entrance, accounting for all attendees.

It was still fine for the female employees who just felt a bit unused to it. The programming males had it real tragic. A sizeable majority ended up breathing heavily at once, dazed and stunned. It took them a long time to regain their wits after which some even ended up awkwardly hunching as they walked…

The problem was that even then, the female models would cover their mouths while looking at them bashfully, seeing them off with their gazes…

"This is really bad! Calm down! Everything's resting on my shoulders here. I can't be a disgrace," Xu Tingsheng inhaled deeply, stabilising himself mentally and physically.

He composedly greeted everyone while walking quickly to sit down beside Old Jin who had arrived a little earlier than him.

"Hey bro, you're playing it real…" Xu Tingsheng paused midway through his words, unable to think of a fitting adjective.

He was playing it real...to sum it up, it was plain rich and crass.

Adding in the prizes for the upcoming programme, the money Old Jin had flung out tonight definitely surpassed five million. This did not just demonstrate his capabilities as it also demonstrated how highly he thought of Xingchen after his two days of participation.

Tonight should really be considered Xingchen Games' celebratory banquet, in truth. Thus, for Old Jin to lead it could not be considered a guest usurping the role of host...it also fit perfectly with Xu Tingsheng's intentions and his usual style of handling matters.

Xingchen's people had already long since sought Xu Tingsheng's approval on this.

"Crude, isn't it?" Old Jin asked without the least bit of awkwardness, "That's exactly the point. At the end of the day, what people seek is always basic and crude. Without the enjoyment of gold's glitter, how will there be fervent, hot-blooded fight and strife…"

"There'll be something even more crude later," Old Jin said.

Xu Tingsheng already saw no point in trying to rebut this. Old Jin always made a lot of sense. It had been this way ever since their first meeting in Nice...

Though Xiang Ning had not arrived, the employees were basically already gathered.

The photography team also assumed their positions. As this was Xingchen's first annual gathering, it had to be recorded for posterity.

The personnel from the planning company they had hired came over to ask Xu Tingsheng if they could begin.

Xu Tingsheng thought about this. Xingchen's employees and the distinguished guests whom they had invited numbered more than two hundred people in total. For them to wait for Xiang Ning together with him would just be inappropriate.

"Let's begin then," He said.

Hu Chen personally assumed the role of emcee for this annual gathering.

As he walked over from the side of the stage, before he even said anything, eight huge words appeared on the enormous electronic screen before the audience in the style of couplets.

On the right: United, together we strive.

On the left: Drinking wine, eating meat.

Without question, this was Old Jin's handiwork again. He was already giving a lot of face by not writing 'Bandits, together we rob. Mega loot, we split'. Hey, this was an internet enterprise, okay. Why was it that it was like some syndicate now…

Xu Tingsheng put a hand to his forehead, incomparably pained…

Still, the employees here were all in high spirits.

While they had never experienced and felt it before, that did not mean that they did not yearn to hot-bloodedly strive together as a single cohesive unit...battling for the heavens, enjoying glory and riches together…

Up on stage, Hu Chen picked up the microphone and spoke.

"Because I was chosen to be the emcee, I was wracking my brains for a way to start off and motivate everyone for the past two days. Then, Boss Jin told me: Think the heck! Just tell the bros how we of Xingchen should live."

"I asked him how I should put it."

"Boss Jin said: You don't need a lot. Just eight words are enough."

"Just these eight words," Hu Cheng stepped aside and pointed at the huge words behind him, proclaiming with valiant fervour, "We of Xingchen-this is how we live."

"We of Xingchen-this is how we live."

United, together we strive, drinking wine and eating meat...it was simple, crude, but sweet as the employees' enthusiasm and hot-bloodedness were stirred.

Cheers, applause, yells.

Hu Chen smiled and indicated for everybody to quieten down.

"I think that our current Xingchen should integrate two types of dispositions, two cultures," Hu Chen continued, "Thus, besides Boss Jin's eight words, I also asked Boss Xu for a few words."

He pointed towards the screen behind him once more.

"Faraway where our expedition seeks...Xingchen, Dahai(Starry Expanse, Vast Blue)."

Xu Tingsheng had been inspired and copied this well-known line when Hu Chen had looked for him. Having happened to think of 'Xingchen', the latter part had naturally come to mind.

Now that he thought about it, just as Hu Chen said, it seemed very able to display another disposition of Xingchen's. It was deep, broad, majestic...classy, deep, better able to resonate with the minds of the employees of Xingchen who were rather more cultured.

As if their heroic loftiness was all hidden within that calm narration…

If the previous eight words had caused one's blood to boil, this line caused the undercurrents to surge within one's chest.

"Faraway where our expedition seeks…" Hu Chen clenched his fist.

"(Xingchen)Starry Expanse...roar!"

"(Dahai)Vast Blue...roar!"

"Faraway where our expedition seeks…"

"(Xingchen)Starry Expanse...roar!"

"(Dahai)Vast Blue...roar!"

As compared to the flying saliva and whoops from earlier, Xingchen's employees had solemn expressions as they said this, their gazes deep and distant and their tones firm and resolute…

While they were not howling it out with all their might, it seemed to contain an even greater potential and might…

The atmosphere here instantly transformed into one akin to a troop before an expedition, resolved and deathsworn to expunge all that might stand in its path.