Before heading into town, Xiang Yu stopped by the hot spring construction site to take a look. The hot spring, which looked like a public restroom, had been fenced off with construction screens.
The fencing was set up high, and every so often the whine of drills and a string of loud bangs came from inside. Several dump trucks and pile drivers were parked at the entrance, making quite a commotion.
Villagers gathered nearby, pointing and whispering. When they saw Xiang Yu, they all gave her a once-over. The joke about her and Director Ji getting into trouble with mushrooms at their village-head’s get-together last night had probably spread through half the village by now. Some people snickered; an older man even came over to greet her and offer her a cigarette.
Xiang Yu bought a sack of peaches and several jars of chicken-fir mushroom oil from them. The peaches and jars were wrapped snugly in bubble wrap, and she didn’t dare risk damaging them by taking the bus. Luckily, a local was driving a three-wheeled cart into town. She climbed into its open-sided sidecar, hugged her local specialties close, and rattled along from the country road to the national highway, then all the way to the entrance of West Sea University.
To her surprise, her academic adviser was waiting at the gate. He kept saying, “Oh, you really shouldn’t have,” when he saw the peaches. Once she handed him the chicken-fir mushroom oil, he was grinning from ear to ear. He took the sack from her, but instead of going straight to his office, he made the rounds of the administrative building, handing out peaches as he went.
He kept saying things like, “Our department’s young entrepreneur,” “I never expected Xiang to start her own business instead of signing a contract,” and “If any of you students have questions about finding work, you can ask my student”...
After making the rounds, the adviser was still buzzing with excitement. He insisted that Xiang Yu give a talk to the underclassmen during evening study hall. Xiang Yu politely declined ten times over, while privately resolving to keep her business running smoothly and do her best to make sure the adviser’s boast didn’t turn into a chilling headline 28 days later: “University Graduate Dies in Freak Accident.”
But after all those introductions, she really did manage to recruit some students “with employment questions.”
One of them had been referred by a professor in clinical medicine. Her name was Du Zhilan, a name that sounded like it belonged to someone ethereal and graceful. She was tall and slender, too.
She planned to specialize in dermatology and burn care in graduate school. After failing the entrance exam on her first attempt, she lost heart. Studying for the retake had made her miss the hospital residency exam, and without a residency certificate or a medical license, she couldn’t get into a good hospital after graduating with her bachelor’s degree. So she was working part-time at a beauty salon to make ends meet while preparing to retake the graduate exam and earn her credentials.
She was already rather proud and ambitious by nature. After years of hard study, she felt that scrubbing people’s faces was beneath her. The salon’s shady owner didn’t let her sit idle, either. When there were no clients, she had to clean, leaving her no time to study. Her monthly salary was just 2,800 yuan.
She wouldn’t be able to do much skilled work for Xiang Yu, either, but seeing a fellow alum was still comforting.
Besides, Xiang Yu had just signed for a start-up grant that would be paid out soon. It was a generous sum by a poor student’s standards, and she was willing to spend it. Other people went into business to make money. Xiang Yu was doing it to stay alive. If she couldn’t hire anyone and open for business, the start-up grant would be useless no matter how much she had.
So she made the offer remarkably generous. She could take her time finding people once her life was no longer hanging by a thread; for now, she needed to open as soon as possible and earn good reviews to deal with the crisis at hand.
“The worksite is pretty remote. Room and board are covered, and there’s a meal allowance. When there are no clients, you can study. You can quit once you get into grad school. There’s no probation period.”
Du Zhilan’s eyes lit up.
“The work involves skincare, so it’s pretty similar to what you do at the salon. But the location is remote, far from downtown. It’s just a little mom-and-pop operation, and the hot spring is still being renovated. The starting pay is low, but it’ll go up if business picks up. If it gets too busy, I’ll try to hire more people. You’ll definitely have time to study.”
Xiang Yu understood her classmates’ determination to make it through their exams. She paused, then said in a mournful voice, “It’s just that the job might not be very stable. As long as I’m alive, I’ll find a way to pay you. If I die, well, that’s harder to guarantee.”
Du Zhilan took that seriously. With the earnest sincerity unique to a college student, she replied, “That’s okay. If I get in next year, I probably won’t be able to stay very long anyway.”
“Sure. Think of it as a temporary job. But you’ll need to start next week. As for the pay...”
Xiang Yu held up a thumb.
“Six thousand a month, plus a fifty-yuan commission for each client you treat.”
“How much?”
Du Zhilan rubbed her ears, sure she’d misheard.
“Six thousand.”
“Boss, I’m not licensed yet,” Du Zhilan reminded her timidly.
These days, medical graduates needed all four credentials to find work: a residency certificate, a medical license, a degree certificate, and a master’s diploma. Miss even one, and you were out of luck. Even with all four, all you’d get was a chance to start at a hospital on 3,000 yuan a month.
Xiang Yu laughed. “You’ll get a raise once you’re certified. You’re a trained professional. After all those years of studying, aren’t you worth six thousand?”
She patted the young woman on the shoulder. They were the same year, technically, and Du Zhilan was actually a year older, since she’d spent five years studying medicine. But that didn’t stop Xiang Yu from putting on a show of confidence and dangling the prospect of a salary over ten thousand yuan a month.
Du Zhilan’s eyes filled with tears at once. “Boss, you’re not a scammer, are you?”
What a thing to say.
With the adviser and the department backing her, Xiang Yu had recruited her first general.
The rest turned out to be far easier than expected. She didn’t even need to track down every holdout and talk to them in person. College students weren’t stupid; they weren’t going to refuse a job just to get the adviser in trouble over the school’s employment rate. Du Zhilan signed a one-year contract with Xiang Yu, then carefully asked what positions were still open and sent a message to her dorm group chat.
Before the night was over, Xiang Yu had rounded up several more recruits, lured by such tempting promises as “room and board covered,” “six thousand a month,” “no probation period,” and “you can quit once you get into school.”
The applicant for the finance role had majored in international trade but held an accounting certificate. The person applying for management and logistics had majored in business administration but had earned a tour guide certificate.
The two people hired to staff the bathhouse, one man and one woman, were both classmates who had crashed and burned in the civil-service exams. They had majored in Chinese language and literature; one had passed the highest-level English exam, and the other had passed the N2 Japanese exam.
The guy who’d applied for management was so pleased with his salary negotiations that he put on a show. He worked out all the time and had muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Right there, he launched into an elaborate pantomime of hotel housekeeping, waving his arms as he recited the international hotel standard for making a bed: “Tuck the four elastic corners around the mattress, and line up the sheet’s center crease with the mattress’s centerline.”
Xiang Yu nodded along. “Great, great—but the hotel hasn’t even started construction yet.”
The guy looked rather disappointed. He launched into another impromptu demonstration, this time checking whether a towel’s fold was straight and whether it hung properly. He insisted that even without any beds to make, he, Liu Bo, would defend the hot spring’s disinfection cabinet with his life.
He might have studied himself a little silly, but he certainly knew his stuff.
Of course, everyone had come to work for Xiang Yu because the job conditions were flexible enough to leave room for studying for civil-service and graduate-school exams. They were all gritting their teeth and heading into the mountains to tough it out, planning to move on to better prospects once their time there was done.
Xiang Yu might not even qualify as a backup plan. She was more like the jack they used while looking for a replacement after their first choice had fallen through.
Still, putting together a team of people who all shared a bed but dreamed different dreams, who seemed united but each had their own plans, was already quite an accomplishment!
They even started a work group called “Tianbai Snow Mountain Hama Valley Glacier Park.” It looked very official. Xiang Yu was the group owner, while Liu Bo—the business administration guy—was an admin. He gave everyone a new group title.
They even added an AI bot. Xiang Yu’s title was AAA Hama Valley Sect Master. Her rank was obvious.
Du Zhilan’s title was Imperial Physician. Xiaoshan, with an English major’s level-eight certificate, and Xiaotian, who had passed Japanese N2, were named the Left and Right Altar Acolytes (Hot Spring Edition). Mu Qian from finance had been given the title of the Bookkeeper, and even changed her avatar to a sunglasses-wearing accountant fiddling with an abacus.
They were all about the same age, and the whole group was lined up neatly, greeting the boss.
Xiang Yu was so thrilled she could hardly contain herself. Her little business boat was ready to set sail, so she happily sent a red packet to the group.
Everyone scrambled for the money. Xiaotian led the way with a monkey saluting in respect, and the others piled on with flattery: silly little faces promising to obey the boss’s orders and go through fire and water for her. The group was all smiles and good cheer.
[Earn the satisfaction of five employees. Receive one skill card draw.]
!!!
So it wasn’t just good customer reviews that counted. Employee satisfaction worked too!
How could you make your way in the world without a few skills up your sleeve? When Xiang Yu first arrived at Hama Valley, she’d even brought two batons along, just in case something came up that she couldn’t handle.
Though, the skill cards for things like “Tear Japanese Soldiers Apart with Your Bare Hands” and “Nunchucks, Dancing Style” didn’t exactly make her eager to try them…
Xiang Yu pocketed the card. She didn’t know if the skill would be single-use, and it would be a shame to waste it. Best save it for when she really needed it.
Unfortunately, there were far fewer staff than customers at a scenic area, so there weren’t many people to earn rewards from. Otherwise, she’d gladly put every employee in a mansion and a luxury car!
Looking at the clear-eyed college students around her, Xiang Yu decided to send another red packet. She told them to work hard, and that at least for this year, they were all in it together—some good old-fashioned pep talk.
Liu Bo had been the lucky winner twice in a row. Everyone egged him on to send one next, and he didn’t disappoint. He launched into a grand speech: it was all thanks to the boss’s generosity that he’d had such good luck; he was only riding on the leader’s good fortune. He thanked Xiang Yu for giving him the chance to prove himself and promised to work hard. Their business was just getting started and times were tight, but once he reported for work, he’d buy everyone milk tea.
Bookkeeper Mu told him to cut the talk and send the red packet already.
Flush with cash, he sent a group packet of 200 yuan split six ways. Everyone gasped and excitedly thanked the manager.
Mu Qian joked in the group that Liu Bo’s father owned the Sheraton in town. Liu Bo had stormed out after a fight with his dad, so she told the boss not to pay that kid a salary.
No wonder he was so smooth with his words. Turns out this was the young master of the Schwarzenegger family, out here amusing himself.
With the group in such high spirits, Xiang Yu found some staff training materials in the Hama Green app and sent them over. They covered things like what to do in a drowning emergency. Her makeshift operation couldn’t provide proper onboarding, so she shared both videos and written guides instead.
Liu Bo quickly set a group task. A little while later, he posted an announcement asking everyone to join the class group on X Star Learning. The videos had been uploaded; everyone needed to watch them all and complete the required checkpoints. There would be a five-minute quiz afterward, and anyone who passed would need to sign in online at the appointed time.
Everyone replied that they’d got it.
Xiang Yu: “…”
So this was why she had to hire students. Their self-discipline was impressive.
A little later, Liu Bo messaged her privately, like a palace eunuch delivering a report. He asked if she wanted to enable anti-skipping and anti-fast-forward settings on the videos, or make viewers answer questions before they could continue. Since X Star Learning couldn’t grant access to employees outside the school, he’d put together a DingTalk version too.
Xiang Yu realized the kid really was a talent. They chatted some more about issues specific to managing a hot spring: taking blood pressure readings before older customers entered the pools, offering face masks to female guests, keeping snacks and drinking water nearby, and making sure people ate and drank enough before soaking to avoid dehydration…
In truth, Xiang Yu still had something on her mind.
This system was remarkably realistic about all the unnecessary details, but at its core, it really did come from a supernatural being. Like that first announcement had said: “Encourage the immortal households and spirit beasts of the Three Pure Ones and Four Realms, as well as mortal entrepreneurs,” and “fully open the channels for resources across the three realms.” So where were they? The immortal households and the resources of the three realms?
The place was nearly ready to open, and she hadn’t seen so much as a single tuft of beast fur. Even if no one could summon the wind, call down rain, or move mountains, it’d still be nice to have a clever monkey chained up at the gate performing tricks.
There was nowhere she could talk about this, so she could only chat with Liu Bo about all sorts of other things. For instance, they should hire a professional designer and copywriter tomorrow to put together a brochure. The system-upgraded equipment was a real selling point, and people needed to see it.
They should also stock clean gear for customers who decided on a whim to visit the hot springs without bringing swimsuits, towels, or slippers. The scenic area had a disinfection room, but travelers new to the place would probably prefer disposable items.
Xiang Yu and Liu Bo chatted and took notes. By the time they finished, they were still reluctant to stop. She asked the employees to spread the word in their school groups too, while she went to sort out the renovations and purchasing.
The system’s renovations to Hama Valley were almost complete. She was going to get ready to open for business—right now!
