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Xu Shuying watched her eldest sister, Xu Wanting, as tears streamed down her face, feeling a mix of emotions herself. Without hesitation, she began explaining the shared bike project to Xu Wanting.
…
Meanwhile, Xu Mo and his three friends, were celebrating.
Securing financing of a hundred million meant that the overall valuation of their entire project had reached a staggering 1.5 billion.
For them, who were merely high school graduates, this was an astronomical figure.
With the addition of such a substantial amount of funds, their project began to expand rapidly. They could quickly cover the entire Xiahai City and then move on to develop in other cities.
To fully cover Xiahai City, it was estimated that 600,000 bikes would be needed, and the other cities were no small task either.
What China has in abundance is people and cities. There are four first-tier cities alone, not to mention second-tier and third-tier cities.
Their market space was enormous.
So, upon returning, Tang Lei, Gu Huanxi, and the others were too excited to sleep.
Gu Huanxi and Li Banzhuang even went to the vegetable market and bought a pile of seafood. The two of them cooked together, preparing a table full of dishes to celebrate.
“We need to hire people, at least sixty! There are so many things that need to be prioritized right now!”
“People to find the bikes, people to place them, people to maintain them, ongoing operations, warehouse management, legal affairs, and people to liaise with the city management!”
“We need to make a plan—to complete the work in Xiahai City within a month and then start expanding to other cities!”
“Our next city, the capital—Beijing!”
Xu Mo, full of enthusiasm, laid out their plan.
They had all just finished the college entrance exams, and their results were out. Having done well, all four of them decided to attend Tsinghua or Peking University.
Since they were going to Tsinghua or Peking University, naturally their shared bike business would also move to Beijing.
The market in Beijing is comparable to Xiahai City, and once they establish themselves there, their business would truly take off.
“Are we going to hire people in Beijing and set up a branch there?” Gu Huanxi asked with a smile.
“Exactly! We need to establish a branch there. This month, we’ll cover Xiahai City, and next month we’ll launch the plan in Beijing! If we succeed in Beijing, we’ll start expanding to other first-tier and second-tier cities as well!”
Xu Mo smiled and said, “A hundred million is not the end, but just the beginning. We might even secure more financing and make the company even bigger!”
Tang Lei laughed upon hearing this, “Xu Mo, we can definitely expand, but our organizational structure needs to be more complete.”
“Of course! Our internal management needs to be improved. To manage external challenges, we must first stabilize internally. We need to recruit people quickly and complete their training as soon as possible. Moving forward, we need a more complete structure to develop even faster!” Xu Mo nodded.
“Great!”
Seeing Xu Mo’s ambitious spirit, everyone became excited and began discussing their next steps.
With money, they could certainly do much more. Next, they needed to advertise and build their reputation.
Xu Mo estimated that their window of opportunity was only one or two months. After that, there might be imitators and other large investors entering the market, so they needed to act quickly.
After the discussion, everyone got busy again.
Due to the shortage of staff, Xu Mo occasionally still had to go out and move bikes himself. Recently hired employees were all undergoing training and needed to complete it before they could start working.
His work area remained near the Fu Yi Hospital, where he ran into Jiang Pingting a few more times.
Xu Mo was, of course, very grateful to Jiang Pingting. If it weren’t for her, they wouldn’t have secured such significant financing. When he saw her approaching, Xu Mo put down what he was doing and started chatting with her.
“We are rapidly expanding. With the funds, we plan to cover the entire Xiahai City. It is estimated that we need 600,000 bikes to do so!”
“Yesterday, Mr. Zhou visited our office and reviewed all the data. He seemed very satisfied and is highly interested in the project!”
Hearing this, Jiang Pingting smiled and said, “I also heard Mr. Zhou’s feedback. It greatly exceeded my expectations. I didn’t expect your data to be so impressive!”
Xu Mo laughed and said, “If everyone contributes a little love, the world will become a much better place!”
“Haha, you’re quite ambitious. You mentioned before that the concept of sharing is just starting to become popular and that there’s more to come, right?” Jiang Pingting laughed.
“Of course! This is just the beginning. In the future, our cities and our world will become even more convenient! We’re also launching a new project internally called shared electric scooters,” Xu Mo said with a smile. “No need to pedal, just scan a code, and you can ride—it’s fast and convenient!”
Jiang Pingting was surprised, “Your shared electric scooters will be similar to the bikes? Filling the streets?”
Xu Mo laughed and said, “Of course! That’s one of our main goals. With this, our transportation will become much more convenient and efficient! We’ve already calculated the loss rate. Although the cost of an electric scooter is somewhat higher, it’s not excessively so. We can definitely make it work!”
Hearing this, Jiang Pingting gave him a thumbs up.
“You really are ambitious! You don’t seem like a high school student at all!”
Xu Mo smiled at her and said, “It’s all thanks to Miss Jiang’s help; otherwise, we wouldn’t have progressed so smoothly!”
“Come on! I haven’t helped you that much. You’ve achieved this through your own efforts! By the way, Director Tang just asked me to greet you. She thinks very highly of you!” Jiang Pingting said with a smile.
Xu Mo turned to look at the Fu Yi Hospital. He saw a kind woman in a white lab coat standing by a window on the tenth floor, looking down. He nodded in acknowledgment and said, “Thank you very much! We’ll develop even faster from now on and live up to everyone’s expectations!”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Pingting smiled and continued discussing with him.
Director Tang Jingyi was already in her fifties and, it was said, didn’t have any children of her own. She wanted to adopt a child.
Apart from Jiang Pingting, she had come several times to inquire about the progress, and now she naturally had all the answers.
Work was progressing rapidly. Perhaps due to media coverage, more and more people were becoming aware of this project.
Bike users were also increasing rapidly, seemingly in response to the project’s publicity.
…
After finishing the conversation with Xu Wanting, Xu Shuying went to work at the hospital as usual.
To assess the success of the bike-sharing project, they drove around the streets of Xujiang District with Xu Wanting.
On the streets, they indeed saw numerous bikes belonging to Xu Mo.
There were many users!
As they passed by, they saw people scanning codes to use the bikes, which seemed very convenient and popular.
“You just scan the code to ride away, pay a certain deposit, and it’s simple and easy to use! It seems to be very popular,” Xu Shuying explained.
Xu Wanting glanced at them, nodded, and wiped her eyes.
“I used to think this project was bound to fail. He’s just wasting money, and yet he still has this anxiety!” Xu Shuying said.
“This project is very good—sharing, sharing your own things with others!” Xu Wanting sniffed. “It’s hard to imagine that he could come up with such a project. When he was in our family, not a single person was willing to share even a tiny bit with him!”
Xu Shuying was taken aback.
“Do you know, Shuying, do you know what Xu Mo desired most when he was in our family?” Xu Wanting asked.
Xu Shuying shook her head.
“You know! You’ve been to the orphanage before and seen those orphans! For an orphan, what they desire most is to have someone, that is, family and parents!” Xu Wanting said. “When he first came back to our family, he must have been very excited and eager! But we didn’t understand any of these things! Even now, Mom and Dad probably don’t understand!”
Xu Shuying furrowed her brow, feeling conflicted.
She didn’t say much more and continued strolling with Xu Wanting for a few more streets before heading back.
Xu Wanting was still investigating who had poisoned Xu Mo, a matter she took very seriously. Xu Shuying knew she couldn’t clear her suspicion, so she could only go back to work for now.
It seemed that because of the bike-sharing project, Xu Mo’s fame had grown. On several streets near the Fu Yi Hospital, Xu Shuying once again encountered him moving bikes.
Unlike before, Xu Mo was now often surrounded by many people, and there were even a few occasions when Xu Shuying saw several girls chatting with him.
It was evident that he had become quite popular among girls recently.
However, most of the time when Xu Mo saw her, he acted as if he hadn’t seen her at all.
He didn’t even say hello, as if he didn’t know her at all.
Once, she went over to ask him something, but Xu Mo looked sullen and quickly left, leaving her feeling annoyed.
“That top scholar is truly remarkable! With a hundred million in financing, they say they’re going to fill every street!”
“And they’re going to promote it in Beijing too!”
“The concept of sharing has really become famous!”
Back in the office, both Aunt Song and Jiang Pingting looked amazed, as if they had witnessed a miracle.
Under their very noses, Xu Mo was thriving and growing.
For some reason, hearing these words made Xu Shuying suddenly feel very uncomfortable.