My Front Desk Cashier

The phone did not ring twice before it connected.

"Hello, hi, I'm the owner of Anju Hotel, my name is Cheng Yun," Cheng Yun said.

The other end of the line fell silent for a moment, and then a somewhat timid female voice came through, sounding quite young: "Bo... Boss Cheng, hello, my name is Yu Dian."

Cheng Yun frowned, then decisively said, "Hello, Miss Yu. Regarding our hotel's requirements for the front desk cashier, the cashier's scope of work, and salary standards, I've written all of that in the recruitment notice. We haven't hired a suitable cashier yet, so if you think it's a good fit, you can come over and take a look at any time. I strongly suggest you come take a look, after all, some things aren't easy to explain clearly over the phone, and it will also help you get a sense of the hotel's location and environment."

The other end fell silent for a bit longer before saying, "Then... then I'll come over right now, is that okay?"

"So fast!" Cheng Yun was somewhat surprised. "Of course, anytime. You can just search for the hotel name on the map to find the location; it's very close to Yida's north gate."

"I know, I live around here," Yu Dian said. "Then... I'll hang up?"

"Okay, goodbye." Cheng Yun felt somewhat weary.

Judging by her voice, this girl was at most a college graduate—well, she was about his age, but listening to her talk on the phone always gave the impression that she lacked confidence and wasn't very good at socializing, making him wonder if she was really suited for this hotel front desk cashier job...

Still, front desk cashier work was quite simple. As long as her IQ wasn't low and her personality wasn't bad, there shouldn't be any problems.

At that moment, Cheng Yun received another text message—

Hello Boss Cheng, I'll arrive in about an hour. I won't be disturbing your lunch, will I?

Cheng Yun shook his head again and replied: "No."

Then he opened the phone app and tapped on the girl's profile. Her profile photo looked quite delicate and pretty, and she looked to be around twenty or so. When he checked the details, she was actually twenty-four years old, two years older than Cheng Yun.

"Hmm..."

Whatever, the girl seemed quite polite anyway. It was just a small hotel after all, where would he find so many requirements!

Just hire one to make do!

With that thought, Cheng Yun turned to Cheng Yan and said, "This one seems pretty reliable. She said she's coming over to take a look, and once the job is settled, you'll be liberated."

Cheng Yan turned to stare at him, falling silent for a long moment before squeezing out a single sentence: "That would be best!"

She said an hour, but within half an hour at most, Yu Dian arrived at the hotel entrance—

She first walked around the street across from the hotel, then cautiously peered through the glass door at Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan sitting behind the counter. After quite a while, she gritted her teeth, made up her mind, avoided the passing traffic, and crossed the street toward them.

Cheng Yun saw the hotel's glass door pushed open by a somewhat pale hand, followed by a young woman wearing a white shirt and a black skirted suit walking in. She was about one hundred and sixty centimeters tall, somewhat slender in build, with a delicate face, though her complexion was a bit poor, as if she suffered from long-term malnutrition.

As soon as she entered, she looked somewhat constrainedly at Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan, her voice tinged with timidity: "Hello, are you Boss Cheng?"

Cheng Yan sized her up, then glanced at Cheng Yun.

"Hello." Cheng Yun walked out from behind the counter, scrutinizing Yu Dian, who looked like she was out looking for a job for the very first time. "You must be Miss Yu, I'm Cheng Yun."

"Hello, I'm Yu Dian." Yu Dian didn't even dare make direct eye contact with him, hastily lowering her head to take a folded piece of A4 paper out of her small handbag. The paper seemed to have been torn from somewhere, with some parts ripped, and right across the top were four large characters—

'Recruitment Notice'

"I'm here to apply," she said.

"Uh..." Cheng Yun's eye twitched.

Was this girl reading too many costume drama plots about tearing down imperial proclamations? Why did she actually tear it down? If she decided not to work here, wouldn't he have to print another one and paste it back up?

"Um, is... is there a problem?" The girl looked at his silence. "Why aren't... why aren't you saying anything?"

"No, no." Cheng Yun snapped back to his senses and said, "Since you've decided to come over, you must already understand the requirements, salary, and job tasks on the recruitment notice."

"No, I don't!" Yu Dian hurriedly waved her hands, shaking her head with a flushed face, then pointed at a certain spot with one hand while holding the recruitment notice in the other as she said, "I... I don't know if I meet your requirements."

Cheng Yun looked down.

Cheng Yan also turned sideways to look.

They saw this passage on the recruitment notice: Well-proportioned facial features, good appearance, optimistic and upward-looking personality, capable of enduring hardship and hard work.

Yu Dian was pointing right at this passage, lowering her head with her eyes darting upward, peeking at Cheng Yun with a heart full of trepidation.

Cheng Yan's face instantly darkened: "Cheng Yun, you really have some nerve! Big hotels only ask for well-proportioned facial features, and you actually dare to write the words 'good appearance' on it!"

"Cough, cough." Cheng Yun coughed, then said to Yu Dian, "Don't sweat the details."

"Oh." Yu Dian nodded.

"Let me explain the hotel's situation to you first." Cheng Yun smiled. "The hotel is newly opened, I'm the boss, and this is my younger sister, Cheng Yan."

"Hello, hello." Yu Dian hurriedly lowered her head and said, "I'm Yu Dian, please take good care of me."

"Hello." Cheng Yan nodded, squeezing out a smile.

"No need for formalities." Cheng Yun waved a hand and continued, "Because my sister just finished the college entrance examination and will be going to Yanjing for university later on, currently this hotel practically only has me and a cleaning auntie surnamed Tang. The cleaning auntie won't be working very many hours, so if you decide to work here, for the next period of time it will probably just be me and you rotating shifts. Of course, after next semester starts, I'll recruit a weekend part-time student from the nearby Yida, which will let both you and me have a two-day weekend off. But as for now, this semester is practically over, and weekend part-time jobs probably won't be easy to find, so you might have to work hard for the two months of summer vacation and cover full shifts."

"Yeah." Yu Dian nodded and murmured a soft acknowledgment, indicating she could accept this arrangement.

At the same time, she stole a glance at Cheng Yan, because Cheng Yan was truly very pretty, with well-proportioned facial features. Without her school uniform, one couldn't tell from her appearance or temperament that she had just finished the gaokao.

"Actually, it's nothing much. Our hotel can't compare to a large establishment; even if all rooms are fully booked, it's only a little over thirty rooms, so the workload isn't big. You'll probably spend most of your time sitting at the counter playing on your phone. Even if you work on weekends, it's essentially just changing places to play," Cheng Yun continued. "And I don't interfere with what you do when there are no guests, as long as you don't run around and you serve customers attentively when they arrive. You can do whatever you want the rest of the time."

"Yeah!" Yu Dian nodded vigorously, then asked, "Then can I... can I bring my own computer?"

"Of course you can." Cheng Yun glanced at her.

"Yeah." Yu Dian sensitively noticed his gaze, hesitated for a moment, and softly replied, "I've always wanted to find a job like this, with a lot of spare time during work hours that I can arrange however I like."

"But most jobs like that pay very low," Cheng Yun said.

"N—no problem."

"..." Cheng Yun gave a mental thumbs-up to her innocence and straightforwardness, then asked, "Do you have something of your own you need to do? Like some online side hustle?"

Yu Dian blushed and lowered her head without answering.

"In that case, the job of a small hotel front desk cashier perfectly meets your requirements," Cheng Yun said. "You only need to operate the hotel management system and hotel booking website backend, accept reservations and process booking information, handle check-in procedures for guests, and keep the front desk clean and tidy. Aside from that, when guests make certain requests, we can give them a better stay experience within reasonable limits. You can do whatever you want during your free time in between."

"I don't know how to use that... system," Yu Dian whispered.

"I'll teach you."

"Yeah."

"Do you think it's okay?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's talk about working hours, shift schedules, salary arrangements, food and housing, and things like that," Cheng Yun said. "For shifts, they're divided into day shifts and night shifts. The day shift is from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, ten hours. The night shift is from five in the afternoon to two in the morning, nine hours, but if guests arrive late at night, the person on night shift has to work a bit harder. Of course, if you have something to attend to and need a temporary shift swap or to leave early, we can discuss it. I'm very easy to talk to."

"I... I usually don't have things come up," Yu Dian said.

"Then let's talk about salary. The monthly salary we mentioned before was 2,200 plus commission. Since there are no regular weekends off these two months, we'll adjust it to 2,400 plus commission, and it will revert once the weekend schedule resumes. Do you think that's alright?" Cheng Yun asked.

"Alright." Yu Dian obediently nodded.

"The hotel provides meals and lodging. For meals, you'll eat with me, and I certainly won't treat myself poorly. As for accommodation, since the staff dormitory hasn't been set up yet, the rule of thumb is that you'll stay in whichever room happens to be vacant. That way you'll have a slightly better place to live, but the downside is that sometimes you'll be inconvenienced by having to move your things. Of course, if you're on the day shift and don't want to stay here, you can do whatever you like since I heard you say earlier that you live right around here," Cheng Yun said. "But if you're not eating here, you'd better tell me in advance to avoid wasting food."

"Yeah."

"There doesn't seem to be anything else to say. The hotel isn't large; all the rooms are on the second and third floors of this building, and the room at the stairwell between the first and second floors is the storage room, which doesn't look like much." Cheng Yun said this as he looked at her. "If you think it's okay, we'll sign the contract, and I'll take down the recruitment notice."

"Yeah." Yu Dian kept looking at the floor as she nodded. "Then when can I start working?"

"You can decide that, preferably as soon as possible." Cheng Yun glanced at Cheng Yan and added, "Because we really are missing a front desk cashier."

"Is tomorrow okay? I don't really have anything else to do anyway."

"That's fine," Cheng Yun smiled. "Then are you free this afternoon? I can teach you how to operate the equipment and system, the backend webpages, and by the way, I can tell you about the hotel's situation and precautions."

"I'm always free," Yu Dian whispered.

"Alright then!" Cheng Yun said. "Right, have you had lunch? Why don't you eat here? You can get a taste of my cooking along the way."

"..." Yu Dian hesitated for a moment, but still nodded and said, "Okay."

Meanwhile, Cheng Yan stood to one side, watching with a helpless expression as the two of them smoothly negotiated everything and signed the contract.

Then Cheng Yun went upstairs to stir-fry and cook, leaving the two of them at the front desk. One sat at the front desk playing silently on her phone, while the other simply busied herself looking around the room, remaining silent without starting a conversation.

Except for his freshman year living in a dorm, Cheng Yun had rented apartments outside the rest of the time. Originally, his understanding of cooking stopped at scrambled eggs with tomatoes and shredded stir-fried potatoes, but after living alone for a long time, he couldn't always order takeout. Driven by necessity, he gradually had to learn how to cook.

And later on, once he had a girlfriend... that only made his culinary skills advance day by day.

Soon, a simple three-dish-one-soup meal was brought out.

A plate of braised pork ribs with potatoes, a plate of minced pork with eggplant, a plate of green vegetables, and a tomato and meatball soup.

The three of them made do with the front desk's coffee table as a dining table. Yu Dian and Cheng Yan sat on two sofas, while Cheng Yun brought over a small low stool. Because the coffee table was low, the small stool was actually more comfortable to sit on than the sofas.

Such a simple table of dishes made Yu Dian so constrained sitting beside the table that she kept secretly swallowing her saliva. Yet restrained by etiquette, she could only take tiny bites, even picking exclusively from the dish directly in front of her while her gaze constantly swept across the table.

During the meal, Cheng Yun talked to her about the work flow and some detailed rules and regulations, while Yu Dian kept nodding and murmuring in acknowledgment. Meanwhile, Cheng Yan sat off to the side unable to chime in, looking like an invisible person.

After finishing the meal, Cheng Yan was dispatched to wash the dishes.

When she finished washing the dishes and came back downstairs, she saw Cheng Yun busy teaching Yu Dian how to operate the system inside the counter, still acting as if he didn't see her.

Cheng Yan finally couldn't help it, let out a cold snort, and said, "Since you've already found a front desk person, I have nothing to do here anymore! Settle my wages and the money for these past few days of takeout, and I'll pack my things and go back!"

Cheng Yun waved a hand: "Alright, alright..."

Cheng Yan was stunned for a moment, then indignantly turned and headed upstairs.