Recruitment

Chapter 11: Recruitment

June 25, 2017.

By this time, students from all over the country had received their scores and were mostly preparing to fill out their college applications or had already completed them. Many prospective Yizhou University students were eagerly inviting like-minded classmates or bringing their parents to visit Yizhou University.

This was the third day since the Anju Hotel opened.

Business had suddenly become booming.

Just this morning, Anju Hotel had received over twenty orders on various platforms, for stays ranging from today to three days later.

Cheng Yan was a little excited about this, while Cheng Yun was much calmer.

Jinguan was convenient for transportation and had many accommodations. This level of foot traffic wouldn't cause merchants to raise prices. Well, it was only during the days leading up to the start of school that accommodation businesses around the school would consider raising prices, and even then, the increase wouldn't be significant, unlike in small cities.

Cheng Yun had bought two bags of frozen dumplings outside this morning and used the mini-kitchen in a suite to cook them. He quietly brought a bowl to the Old Mage first, then sat down to eat with Cheng Yan on the first floor.

Suddenly, the computer chimed again.

Another order!

Cheng Yun quickly put down his bowl, went to click confirm, and then walked back to tell Cheng Yan, "Business is going to be great these few days. I expect all rooms except the luxury suites will be fully booked! One of us can't stay here; one of us has to go home to sleep."

Cheng Yan picked up a dumpling with her fork, chewed it slowly, and nodded. "That's right. I originally thought Mom and Dad had no business prospects setting up luxury suites in such a small hotel, but now it seems quite necessary. This way, we can buy groceries from the nearby market and cook for ourselves in the future."

"..." Cheng Yun was speechless. "I'm saying, if rooms get tight in a few days, you should go home and sleep. I'll take the night shift!"

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

"But luxury suites aren't family suites; they only have one bed!" Cheng Yun said helplessly.

Actually, a small bed could be added to the luxury suite, but it could only be placed in the bedroom. The mini-living room wasn't large enough. And the brother and sister were already this age; sleeping in the same room, unless it was a special circumstance, was clearly not appropriate.

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

"You can eat and then go back."

"No! Sometimes I want to eat a late-night snack!"

"..." Cheng Yun could only nod and say, "Okay, it's also possible... that no one books the luxury suites at all. Then we can each have our own room, since there are two."

"See, the only purpose of setting up this room is for us to sleep in," Cheng Yan said.

"...It's not that it has absolutely no business prospects!" Cheng Yun shook his head. "Not to mention how many students from wealthy families attend Yida, this area itself is also a commercially prosperous district. Many white-collar workers from other places come here on business trips to discuss deals. As long as their company reimburses them, they won't care about the room price. It's just that for a small hotel to compete with large hotels in this kind of high-end room is really not ideal."

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

When Cheng Yun's parents were preparing to invest in the hotel and conduct their entrepreneurial design and market research, Professor An had backed out, so this important task fell to Professor Cheng. But given Professor Cheng's level of incompetence, how could he handle such work? This fundamentally led to the hotel's unclear positioning and messy room types--

Even an idiot like Cheng Yan could see it!

This was a three-story building. It wasn't old, but it wasn't recently built either. Cheng Yun's parents directly rented the second and third floors and a storefront on the first floor, then renovated and decorated them to create the current Anju Hotel.

The hotel had a total of 39 rooms, ranging from bunk rooms suitable for young travelers to couple-themed rooms, and from mini-economy single rooms to luxury suites. Anju Hotel had them all. This also indirectly confirmed the traditional business thinking of the two professors. Through their research, they had determined the broad range of accommodation needs of potential customers in the complex surrounding environment, but they had overlooked brand positioning. It was probably the same mindset they used for running tutoring classes applied to the hotel industry.

It wasn't a complete loss. Many hotels and inns had done this before. Anju Hotel benefited from its advantageous surrounding environment; its economy rooms sold well, and there were plenty of couples who stayed in the themed rooms.

After breakfast, Cheng Yun stayed at the hotel, while Cheng Yan actually went back to pack up pots, pans, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, bringing them over and storing them in the storage room at the entrance of the stairs from the first to the second floor.

As noon approached, the first customer arrived--

Two boys who looked very young and shy, carrying backpacks, dressed in casual youth attire, and wearing sneakers. They had booked a deluxe standard room.

As Cheng Yun processed their check-in, Cheng Yan sat beside him, quietly reading a book. A few strands of black hair fell naturally from one side of her cheek, while the hair on the other side was tucked behind her ear. Her silent demeanor and her cool, delicate, melon-seed-shaped face made her aura exceptionally outstanding.

The two boys were inevitably attracted to Cheng Yan. They lowered their heads to look at Cheng Yun, but their peripheral vision kept glancing at Cheng Yan's face.

"Deposit, one hundred," Cheng Yun said calmly, looking at them. "Are you from Jiangxi and Zhejiang?"

"Yes," one of the boys replied.

"Just visiting?"

"Yeah, we filled out applications for schools here. We figured we'd be living here for several years, so we came to take a look first." The boy smiled at Cheng Yun, with a hint of hidden pride, and casually added, "And we booked accommodation near the school."

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

"Mm," the boy nodded, glanced at Cheng Yan again, and then continued, "Can we go in and out of Yida freely? Does it close at night?"

"It doesn't close; you can come and go as you please," Cheng Yun said.

"Oh."

"Room 218. Please keep the deposit receipt and your ID cards safe." Cheng Yun smiled and handed them the receipt and their ID cards. "Turn left upstairs. If you need any help, just let me know."

"Okay!"

The two boys reluctantly went upstairs.

Only then did Cheng Yun turn to look at Cheng Yan and question her, "Look, everyone else has filled out their applications. What about you?"

"Haven't filled them out," Cheng Yan replied without looking up.

At this moment, the boy who had been talking to Cheng Yun quickly slowed his pace and tugged at his companion. His eyes began to gleam.

So that beautiful and elegant young lady just finished her college entrance exams too? She's so pretty, I didn't expect her to be the same age. If that's the case, does it mean we can be friends or something?

Then they heard Cheng Yun complain, "But you have to tell me which school you want to go to, right? Didn't you always say you wanted to go to Yanjing? There aren't many choices for schools in Yanjing!"

"I can't be bothered to think about it," Cheng Yan said coldly. "Does it even make a difference? I'll just pick one when the time comes!"

"How can it not make a difference? Tsinghua is better for engineering, while Peking University is better for liberal arts and sciences…" Cheng Yun said helplessly. "You're a liberal arts student, and this year's provincial top scorer, so I suggest you apply to Peking University."

The two young men's bodies stiffened, and they exchanged glances.

"I've told you many times, Cheng Yun, you should mind your own business and not interfere with mine," Cheng Yan retorted, her tone filled with exasperation. "Does it really make that much of a difference which school I choose? You've been studying at Yida for four years and you're still healthy and well-fed, aren't you?"

"I only went to Yida because I didn't test well, okay? If I were like you, I would have gone to Peking University long ago!" Cheng Yun was speechless. It felt like he was being both a brother and a mother.

The two boys had no interest in listening any further. The content they had heard so far was already making them feel a bit choked up. They no longer dared to deliberately dawdle and procrastinate, but instead quickened their pace upstairs and returned to their rooms.

Meanwhile, Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan continued to argue for a while before finally shifting the topic, which involved 'life planning and values,' to what they would eat for lunch.

In the afternoon, Cheng Yun received a call from a job applicant. She was a female student who had just graduated from a nearby art school and wanted to work as a cashier.

Cheng Yun spoke with her for a long time, and in the end, she said with a hesitant tone, "Can I… can I consider it first? If I decide to come, I'll call you back?"

Cheng Yun knew it was unlikely, but he still nodded in agreement.

In the afternoon, several young girls who had just finished their college entrance exams arrived one after another. They were all beautiful, or at the very least, pretty and charming, which made Cheng Yun marvel at the quality of the next batch of junior sisters.

Unfortunately, these girls all came with their mothers or older sisters, and Cheng Yun had already graduated.

He finally managed to hire a cleaning lady, so he no longer had to clean the place himself.

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

Cheng Yun had been on duty last night. A guest had booked a room but arrived on a late flight to Jinguan, so he waited until past two in the morning. Afterward, he went to find the Old Mage and learned the fifth and sixth steps of that elementary school meditation technique. By the time he returned to his room to sleep, it was already three in the morning.

He seemed to have had a dream last night. He had a vague feeling about it, but he couldn't recall anything. Looking in the mirror, he noticed his complexion was quite good, so he decided to just pretend he hadn't dreamed at all.

Thinking about it this way, the meditation technique was quite effective. It had already shown remarkable results in just two days.

Cheng Yun regained a little bit of interest in it.

Cheng Yan was on duty this morning. As soon as he walked downstairs, he was met with Cheng Yan's death stare, and then he heard her complain, "Cheng Yun, you're getting lazier and lazier. You didn't even get up to make breakfast!"

"Heh…" Cheng Yun yawned. Just as he was about to retort, his mobile phone suddenly chimed.

"Hm?" He quickly fumbled for his phone and saw a text message from an unknown number. The wording was very polite.

"Hello Boss Cheng, I saw your recruitment notice on 58.com. Since you didn't seem to see my message within the platform, I've taken the liberty of sending you a text message. Please forgive me if this is an intrusion. I would like to ask if your hotel has already hired a cashier? If not, may I come to take a look first?"

As soon as Cheng Yun finished reading, another message came through from the same number.

"Ah, right. My profile can be viewed online. My username is Yu Dian. You can also check if I meet your requirements first."

Cheng Yun didn't look at the profile. He casually sat down on the sofa and made a call back.

Cheng Yan immediately frowned and asked, "Who texted you, and who are you calling?"

Cheng Yun replied while listening to the dialing tone on his phone, "Someone who wants to work as a cashier and wants to come take a look. I'm calling her first to communicate."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yan's frown tightened even further.