The new week was busier.
On Monday, Jiang Wei scheduled seven interviews — two applying for customer service, the other five for salesperson positions.
Both customer service applicants were female, one a third-year and one a fourth-year. After getting a basic sense of things, Xu Ye politely declined the third-year. His reasoning was simple: the customer service department needed someone who could hold their post for long stretches, and third-years had heavy course loads and little free time, whereas fourth-years in their first semester had barely any classes left. So Xu Ye went with the fourth-year, a senior named Xia Minghui.
As for the five applying to be salespeople, once Xu Ye laid out the pay and terms, two of them withdrew on their own. The other three, he took on the spot.
Xu Ye had set the salespeople’s base pay very low — only five hundred yuan a month — but for every machine they sold, they got a thousand yuan in commission directly. The work was relatively simple too: print some business cards, and when they had time, go out to high-traffic venues to pitch partnerships. “Salesperson” was really no different from sales in general — this line of work came down to having thick skin, and anyone thin-skinned wouldn’t last.
Tuesday afternoon, Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou split up. The moment class ended, the two of them took taxis to the two campuses. Jiang Chao had already smoothed everything over before he even called Xu Ye, so things went easily on both ends. Around four in the evening, both of them were back at school.
“So? Go smoothly?” Seeing Zhang Xinzhou back in the dorm too, Xu Ye asked casually.
Zhang Xinzhou nodded. “Extremely smoothly. I locked down thirty locations total. What about your end?”
“About the same.”
“Once these two campuses are set up, our workload’s going to get a lot lighter.”
“For sure.”
Zhang Xinzhou sat down and changed the subject. “I’m thinking of signing up for driving school this week. You in?”
“I’ve already got my license.”
“You got it over the summer?”
“Yeah.”
“Should’ve gotten mine over the summer too. Oh right — where’s Yang Fei?”
Xu Ye shrugged. “He wasn’t around when I got back. Messaged him just now and he didn’t reply either.”
Zhang Xinzhou pulled out his phone and sent Li Tongwen a voice message. “Li Tongwen, is Yang Fei at the fruit shop?”
Li Tongwen: “He’s not here.”
Li Tongwen: “After we ate lunch together in the cafeteria, he went straight to the office.”
Zhang Xinzhou put his phone down and turned to Xu Ye. “Li Tongwen says Yang Fei went to the office.”
“Since when is he this diligent?”
“No idea.”
Xu Ye stood up on the spot. “Come on, let’s go catch him at the office.”
Zhang Xinzhou quickly left the dorm with Xu Ye and headed for the college student entrepreneurship center. When they got to the office, sure enough, there was Yang Fei sitting at his workstation, fingers clattering away on the keyboard. He’d picked a workstation facing away from the door, and hadn’t noticed Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou yet.
Jiang Wei and Ruan Xiaolu saw the two of them and were about to speak when Xu Ye immediately made a shushing gesture.
Then Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou crept up behind Yang Fei and watched him chat with that internet girl whose handle was “Miaomiao.”
Yang Fei: “It’s not as impressive as you’re making it sound. Our company was only just founded, we don’t have that many people yet.”
Miaomiao: “So what do you do at the company?”
Yang Fei: “Procurement manager.”
Miaomiao: “Impressive.”
Yang Fei: “I keep forgetting to ask — how old are you?”
Miaomiao: “Has no one told you it’s rude to ask a girl her age?”
Yang Fei: “I’m just asking. If you don’t want to say, that’s fine.”
Miaomiao: “I was born in ’95.”
Yang Fei: “A year older than me.”
Miaomiao: “Call me jiejie.”
Yang Fei: “Jiejie~”
Miaomiao: “Good boy.”
Yang Fei: “Where are you from, jiejie?”
Miaomiao: “Yunnan, a little place near the Myanmar border.”
Yang Fei: “That’s a great place for tourism.”
At that point, Xu Ye smacked Yang Fei on the back of the head.
“Damn it! Who—!” Yang Fei whipped around, found Xu Ye and Zhang Xinzhou behind him, and immediately minimized the chat window.
Xu Ye scolded him. “You absolute dog, you spent the whole afternoon in the office, and it turns out you’re in here running an online romance?”
“I am not.”
“‘Jiejie’ this and ‘jiejie’ that, and you say you’re not? I’ve been standing behind you watching for ages.”
Xu Ye turned and called out, “Jiang Wei.”
Jiang Wei was working on an Excel spreadsheet and replied impatiently, “What?”
“Docking Yang Fei two hundred yuan of pay.”
The moment Jiang Wei heard the words “docking pay,” she perked right up. She turned around with a smile. “I happen to be putting together this month’s pay slips. Real docking, or fake docking?”
“Real.”
Yang Fei was about to protest when Xu Ye warned him again. “Yang Fei, I’m warning you — flirting online is one thing, but whatever you do, don’t go thinking about meeting this internet friend in person, especially anywhere near the Myanmar border.”
“Why not?”
“That area’s extremely dangerous.”
The next day, after the first afternoon class, Xu Ye took Yang Fei to the vending machine factory.
Since he’d put Yang Fei in charge of procurement, these tasks would naturally be handed off to him going forward. Xu Ye told Yang Fei very plainly, “This is the last time I’m bringing you along to run business. From now on this work is all yours. If you don’t want to do it, tell me early, and I can find someone else.”
Xu Ye said this in complete earnest, and Yang Fei understood exactly what he meant.
Xu Ye’s meaning was easy enough to grasp: since you want to work under me, then do it properly — and if you don’t want to, then don’t be dead weight at the company.
Yang Fei was no fool. He quickly nodded. “Starting today — making money first, studying second, online dating third!”
On the way back, Xu Ye gave Yang Fei a task: order a batch of advertising stickers, then hand them off to the campus agents to have someone stick them on the machines.
Yang Fei: “What goes on the stickers?”
Xu Ye: “Just write ‘Xinye Unmanned Vending Machines,’ add the partnership contact below, and leave the middle blank for ‘Advertising Space for Rent.'”
Yang Fei: “Got it, I understand what you mean.”
Xu Ye: “Have the print shop make a mockup first and send it to me to look at.”
Yang Fei: “Okay.”
By the time they got back to school it was past six. Xu Ye and Yang Fei had dinner together in the cafeteria, and once they were back in the dorm, Xu Ye hurried through a shower.
Then he quickly lay down on his bed and gave Chen Qingqing a voice call.
She picked up fast — she happened to be doing her pre-bed skincare routine.
Xu Ye: “Did you miss me today?”
Chen Qingqing felt the speaker was a little loud, quickly turned it down, then leaned close to the phone and said, “No.”
Xu Ye: “I’ve been so busy these past few days. Classes, plus the company stuff.”
Chen Qingqing: “You’re busy every day.”
Xu Ye picked up a note of complaint in her tone and quickly added, “I’m not lying, I swear.”
Chen Qingqing: “So this weekend…”
She was too embarrassed to finish the sentence. She felt that if she asked whether Xu Ye was free this weekend, it would be a roundabout way of saying she missed him.
Even though that was exactly what she was thinking, she found it hard to get the words out.
Xu Ye smiled. “If it doesn’t rain this weekend, I’ll come see you.”
Chen Qingqing replied quickly, “It’s not going to rain this weekend. I already checked the forecast today.”
“Then I’ll come see you.”
The three roommates couldn’t take it anymore at this point. Jiang Yu said outright, “Qingqing, if you want Xu Ye to come, just say so. Why go around in circles?”
Shen Xinyi laughed too. “You’re still shy around Xu Ye?”
Zhang Ruowei tucked a pair of feet painted with dark red nail polish under the covers, propped herself up on one hand, and said, wrapped in her blanket, “Qingqing, how about we all go with you to Xu Ye’s school this week?”
“His school’s kind of far.”
“It’s fine, just treat it as a fun outing.”
The phone was on speaker, and Xu Ye could hear Chen Qingqing’s three roommates. Hearing this, he quickly said, “Then all of you come along. I promise I’ll host you in complete comfort.”
While chatting on the voice call, Xu Ye opened his chat window with Qin Zhiwei.
Xu Ye: “Zhiwei, come to my school this weekend.”
Qin Zhiwei: “It takes me an hour and a half to get there. You have any idea how tiring a trip every week is?”
Xu Ye: “My girlfriend’s bringing her three roommates over this week.”
Qin Zhiwei: “Dad!”
Qin Zhiwei: “Should I come Saturday, or Sunday?”
(End of Chapter 142)