Recruitment

June 25, 2017.

At this time, examinees all over the country had already checked their scores, and most of them should be preparing to fill out their college applications or had already finished doing so. Many examinees planning to study at Yizhou University invited like-minded classmates or brought their parents, visiting Yizhou University with great enthusiasm.

This was the third day since Anju Hotel opened for business.

Business suddenly became booming.

Just this morning, Anju Hotel received over twenty orders on different platforms, ranging from today up to three days later.

In response to this, Cheng Yan was a little excited, while Cheng Yun was much more calm by comparison.

Jingguan had convenient transportation and numerous accommodations, so this bit of customer volume was not enough to make businesses raise their prices. Well, accommodation businesses around the university would only consider raising prices during those few days when the school year started, but the increase wouldn't be that large either; this aspect couldn't compare to small cities.

This morning, Cheng Yun bought two bags of frozen dumplings outside, borrowed the mini kitchen in a suite to boil them, secretly brought a bowl to Old Mage first, and then sat on the first floor eating with Cheng Yan.

Suddenly, the computer made a prompt sound again.

Another order!

Cheng Yun hurriedly put down his bowl, went over to click confirm, and only then walked back to say to Cheng Yan, "Business will definitely be very good these few days. Except for the deluxe suites, the rest of the rooms will probably be fully booked! The two of us can't both live here, and we have to choose one person to go home to sleep."

Cheng Yan pierced a dumpling with a fork, chewed slowly and swallowed, then nodded and said, "Not bad. I originally thought Mom and Dad setting up deluxe suites in such a small hotel had zero commercial prospects, but now it seems quite necessary. This way, we can go buy groceries at the vegetable market next door and come back to cook ourselves in the future."

"..." Cheng Yun speechlessly said, "I mean, if the rooms are tight in a few days, you should go home to sleep, and I'll just take the night shift!"

"Didn't you say the deluxe suites wouldn't be fully booked?"

"But a deluxe suite isn't a family suite; there's only one bed!" Cheng Yun said helplessly.

Actually, the deluxe suite could accommodate a small cot, but it definitely could only be placed in the bedroom since the mini living room area was not big enough. Furthermore, the two siblings were already at this age, and unless under special circumstances, sleeping in the same room was obviously inappropriate.

"There's a sofa!" Cheng Yan stated instead. "I'll just sleep on the living room sofa! Otherwise, if I go back, who will cook for me?"

"You can eat before going back."

"No! Sometimes I want a midnight snack at night!"

"..." Cheng Yun had no choice but to nod and say, "Alright, it's also possible... that absolutely no one will book the deluxe suite, and by then we can each have a room anyway, since there are two."

"Look, the only function of setting up this room is for us to sleep in ourselves," Cheng Yan said.

"...Actually, you can't say it has completely no commercial prospects either!" Cheng Yun shook his head and said, "Not to mention how many students from wealthy families Yida has, the surrounding area itself belongs to a relatively prosperous commercial district. Many white-collar workers from other places on business trips here to discuss business and the like won't care about the price of the room when they have company reimbursement. It's just that wanting to compete with large hotels in such high-end rooms as a small hotel is really a bit unideal."

"Just right, we'll live in it ourselves," Cheng Yan said.

Back then when Cheng Yun's parents were preparing to invest in the hotel, doing startup design and market research, Professor An dropped the ball, so this heavy responsibility fell on Professor Cheng. However, given Professor Cheng's idiot-level capabilities, how could he handle such work? This fundamentally led to the hotel's positioning being unclear and the room types being extremely messy—

Even a little idiot like Cheng Yan could tell!

This was a three-story building, not too old in terms of years, but not built in recent years either. Cheng Yun's parents directly rented the second and third floors of the building along with a storefront on the first floor, and then carried out renovations and remodeling to create the current Anju Hotel.

There were 39 rooms in total in the hotel, ranging from bed spaces suitable for young travelers to couple-themed rooms, and from mini economic singles to deluxe suites. This also laterally corroborated the traditional merchant thinking of the two professors. Through research, they concluded that potential customers in the surrounding complex environment had a broad demand for accommodation conditions, but they ignored the problem of brand positioning, probably using the mindset of running a training class back then to operate the hotel industry.

It wasn't a huge loss either; many hotels had operated this way in the past. Benefiting from the unique surrounding environment, Anju Hotel's economic singles sold, and the themed rooms also had plenty of couples coming to stay.

After breakfast, Cheng Yun kept watch at the hotel, while Cheng Yan actually went back and packed up pots, pans, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and everything, throwing them into the storage room at the stairwell between the first and second floors.

Near midday, the first customer arrived—

Two boys who looked very green and shy, carrying schoolbags, dressed in youthful casual wear and sports sneakers. They had booked a deluxe standard room.

When Cheng Yun was processing their check-in procedures, Cheng Yan sat right beside him quietly reading a book. A few strands of black hair naturally fell from one side of her cheek, while the hair on the other side was tucked behind her ear; her silent demeanor and aloof, pretty melon-seed face made her temperament look exceptionally outstanding.

The two boys were inevitably attracted by Cheng Yan, lowering their heads to look at Cheng Yun while their peripheral vision kept glancing intentionally or unintentionally at Cheng Yan's face.

"Deposit is one hundred," Cheng Yun said indifferently, looking at the two of them. "Are you guys from Jiangsu and Zhejiang?"

"Yeah," one boy said.

"Here for a trip?"

"Mm, applied for a school here, figuring we'll have to live here for several years in the future, so we came to take a look first." The boy smiled as he looked at Cheng Yun, carrying a hint of subtle smugness as he casually added, "By the way, we booked an accommodation relatively close to the school."

"So you're planning to attend Yida?" Cheng Yun cooperated.

"Mm." The boy nodded, glanced at Cheng Yan again, and then continued to ask, "Yida can be entered and exited freely, right? Does it close at night?"

"Doesn't close, feel free to enter," Cheng Yun said.

"Oh."

"Room 218, the deposit receipt and your two ID cards, please keep them safe." Cheng Yun smiled as he handed the receipt and their ID cards to them. "Please turn left upstairs; if you need any help, just let me know."

"Okay!"

The two boys went upstairs with lingering reluctance.

Only then did Cheng Yun turn his head to look at Cheng Yan, questioning her: "Look at that, other people have already filled out their applications, and what about you?"

"Haven't filled it out." Cheng Yan didn't even raise her head.

At this moment, the boy who had been talking with Cheng Yun earlier hurriedly slowed his pace, pulling his companion along by the way, and a little bit of luster began to light up in his eyes.

Turns out that pretty, classy young lady had just finished the gaokao too? Looking so pretty, he hadn't expected her to be a peer. Since that was the case, did it mean they could make friends or something?

Right then, they heard Cheng Yun discontentedly say: "But you still have to tell me which school you want to go to! Didn't you say before that you hoped to go to Yanjing? There aren't many choices for schools in Yanjing!"

"I'm too lazy to think about it," Cheng Yan said coldly. "Is there a difference? I'll just pick one randomly when the time comes!"

"How is there no difference? Tsinghua is good for engineering, Peking University is good for humanities and sciences..." Cheng Yun said helplessly. "You're a liberal arts student, and this year's provincial top scorer, I suggest you apply to Peking University."

The two boys' bodies shook as they looked at each other in dismay.

"I've said it many times, Cheng Yun. Just mind your own business and stop trying to manage me," Cheng Yan retorted, her tone full of utter helplessness. "Does choosing which school really make that big of a difference? Didn't you turn out white and plump after studying at Yida for four years?"

"I only studied at Yida because I didn't test well, okay? If I were like you, I would've gone to Peking University long ago!" Cheng Yun was speechless, acting both as an older brother and a mother.

The two boys no longer had the heart to continue listening; the content they had heard so far made their hearts feel somewhat blocked, and they no longer dared to deliberately dawdle with feigned sluggishness, speeding up their steps to go upstairs and back to their room.

Yet Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan still argued for a bit before shifting this topic involving 'life planning and values' onto what to eat for lunch today.

In the afternoon, Cheng Yun received a call from an applicant—a newly graduated female student from a certain art school nearby who wanted to work as a cashier.

Cheng Yun talked with her for a large part of the afternoon, and finally she used a hesitant tone to say, "I... can I consider it for a bit first? If I want to come, I'll call you again?"

Cheng Yun knew there was mostly no hope, but he still nodded and agreed.

In the afternoon, a succession of young girls who had just finished the gaokao arrived. All of them were quite pretty, or at the very least pure and lovely, making Cheng Yun marvel greatly at the quality of the next batch of junior female schoolmates.

Pity that these young ladies all came with their mothers or older sisters, and Cheng Yun had already graduated.

He finally managed to recruit a cleaning auntie, so he didn't have to clean and tidy up personally anymore.

On the morning of the 26th, he slept until ten o'clock before waking up.

Cheng Yun had taken the night shift last night because a guest had booked a room but caught a very late flight to Jingguan, so he waited until past two in the morning. Afterward, he even went to find Old Mage, studying the fifth and sixth steps of that elementary school meditation method, and by the time he returned to his room to sleep, it was already three in the morning.

It seemed he had dreamed last night; he had a vague sense of it, but couldn't remember a single thing. Looking in the mirror, he found his complexion was quite good, so he might as well assume he hadn't dreamed at all.

Reckoning it this way, that meditation method was still quite effective, showing extraordinary results after just these two points.

Cheng Yun regained a bit of interest in it.

Cheng Yan was on duty this morning. The moment he walked downstairs, he was greeted by Cheng Yan's deadpan face, and then heard her complaint: "Cheng Yun, you're getting lazier and lazier, you didn't even get up to make breakfast!"

"Heh..." Cheng Yun yawned, just wanting to snap back with a retort when his phone suddenly went ding-dong.

"Huh?" He hurriedly fished out his phone to take a look; it was a text message from an unfamiliar number with very polite phrasing.

"Hello Boss Cheng, I saw your recruitment post on 58.com. Since you didn't seem to see the message I sent you on the platform either, I'm taking the liberty of sending you a text message. Please forgive me if this disturbs you. Here I'd like to ask if your hotel has already recruited a cashier? If not, could I come over to take a look first?"

Just as Cheng Yun finished reading, another message was sent over, still from this number.

"Ah right, my resume can be viewed online. The username is Yu Dian, you can also check if it meets your requirements first."

Cheng Yun didn't look at the resume, casually sitting down on the sofa and dialing the phone right back.

Meanwhile, Cheng Yan immediately furrowed her brows and asked, "Who sent you that text, and who are you calling?"

While listening to the beeping sound coming from his phone, Cheng Yun replied, "Someone who wants to come work as a cashier said she wants to come over and take a look, I'm calling to communicate with her first."

Hearing this, Cheng Yan's brows knitted even tighter.