Perfect Fit

Russia was a country that spanned both Europe and Asia.

Moscow, meanwhile, was considered a European city. Like other European countries, high-rise buildings were relatively rare here; most of the architecture consisted of old European-style buildings.

So if you wanted to find skyscrapers in Moscow, it was fairly difficult.

The Alpha Hotel before them stood more than thirty stories tall. It might not have amounted to much in a first-tier city back in China, but here, it was the landmark building of the entire area!

People streamed in and out of the hotel entrance, while traffic flowed constantly outside. It was quite lively.

The two of them walked straight into the lobby and looked around.

Unlike the lobbies of ordinary hotels, this one was exceptionally large and completely open-plan.

The first floor mainly housed restaurants, bars, and the like. Since it was still morning, their doors were all shut, and there were few people around.

The people constantly passing through were probably employees of the various companies on the upper floors, hurrying up the escalators nearby.

"Let's go. We'll take a look upstairs. The second through fifth floors are office spaces, with quite a few companies," Wang Ye said to Little Hu.

The two followed the crowd and took the escalator upstairs.

Once they reached the second floor, its layout was completely different from the first. It looked more like a traditional office building.

A long corridor divided the floor into two large sections, left and right. Wang Ye and Little Hu wandered around casually and saw signs bearing the names of various companies hanging on many doors.

Clearly, all sorts of companies operated behind those doors.

They made a full circuit from the second floor to the fifth. The building's podium covered quite a large area and was far from fully occupied. The fourth and fifth floors in particular still had many vacant spaces.

After taking a general look around, Little Hu said he was quite satisfied with the place.

Wang Ye took him to the building's leasing management office to inquire about renting a space.

In the end, they settled on a large office on the fifth floor, roughly four hundred square meters, for a monthly rent of thirty thousand US dollars. There was no need to separately look for a warehouse or handle company registration, either—the Alpha Hotel could provide those related services!

Everything had gone incredibly smoothly.

When they walked out of the building, Little Hu's face was full of smiles.

"Alright, this went even more smoothly than I expected. They said that all the procedures could be completed within a month at most. You can notify the people back home to start preparing as soon as possible," Wang Ye said, turning to Little Hu.

Although the shorter timeline meant Wang Ye would receive less compensation,

he did not care about such a small amount of money.

If he had not been doing it to make a friend, he might not even have been willing to take this job.

"Thanks, Brother Ye. If you hadn't brought me along, I probably would have had to struggle with this for ages. My family might come over in a few days. When they do, I'll treat you to a meal. You have to honor us with your presence," Little Hu said gratefully.

Clearly, he wanted to introduce Wang Ye to his parents.

Wang Ye nodded without thinking much of it.

There was still plenty of time left in the day. Since they had already come out, they might as well not waste it.

Wang Ye took Little Hu to inspect the big market as well.

Quite a few domestic shoe factories had set up booths in the existing big market, and shoes were a fairly major category there.

Of course, Little Hu's family business was certainly much larger than those booths in the big market, so they were not really competitors.

The more important reason for coming here was to poach a few salespeople for his company...

Since they were starting a company, it was best to hire Russians for sales, preferably Russians with relevant experience.

Where could they find the most people like that?

Naturally, at the big market!

Wang Ye's suggestion for Little Hu's family company was to come to the big market and "dig up the foundation"...

At the big market, larger booths preferred to use Russians as salespeople.

Chinese interpreters only needed to handle communication between the bosses and the Russian sales staff.

Some of these Russian saleswomen were blondes, while others were brunettes, but without a doubt, Russian was their native language.

There was no need to question their Russian proficiency. With their extensive sales experience, they might even have built up their own customer resources...

For Little Hu's family company, they were simply perfect!

Of course, Wang Ye took Little Hu around the shoe section several times and did indeed spot several promising Russian saleswomen, but neither of them dared approach them to strike up a conversation and poach them.

After all, their bosses were standing inside their booths, watching them like hawks...

"Brother Ye, there's no way for us to go over and ask for their contact information. We're both Chinese, so it's obvious we aren't customers. The moment we get near a booth, those bosses glare at us..." After making a round, Little Hu said in frustration.

Wang Ye bought two bottles of beer from a nearby convenience stand, casually handed one to Little Hu, and said with a smile, "What's the rush? The two of us obviously can't poach them ourselves, but there's someone suitable for handling this."

Little Hu's eyes lit up. He took the beer without even thinking to drink it and quickly asked, "Who? Oh... I know! The senior students from school who work as interpreters, right? They're here every day. If we treat them to a meal or something, they should be willing to help us out."

Little Hu really was quick-witted to think of that idea so fast.

But...

What he suggested still was not the best option!

Wang Ye smiled and shook his head. "No, no, they aren't suitable either. Never mind whether their Russian is good enough to explain this clearly—during work hours, they can't leave at all. Besides, they don't have a suitable reason to go chat with people from other booths."

Little Hu thought about it and realized that was true...

Working as an interpreter at the big market was also extremely busy. Other than having a little free time during lunch, they basically had to stay at their booths and could not leave for even a moment!

"Then... then who should we find?" Little Hu was out of ideas now.

Wang Ye said unhurriedly, "You've been in preparatory classes for half a year now. You should have seen that preparatory teacher who carries a large sports backpack every day, right?"

That teacher who worked part-time selling shoes from a stall at the subway station had long been widely talked about among the students...

Little Hu naturally knew who he meant. He suddenly understood. "That's right! How could I forget about that teacher? He sells shoes from a stall himself and often comes to the big market, so he definitely knows those Russian salespeople. Plus, he's a native-born Russian. There'd be absolutely no problem having him communicate with those Russian salespeople for me!"

That teacher was the person Wang Ye had in mind.

Wang Ye even wanted to introduce the teacher to Little Hu's company for a job!

With that person on board, poaching and hiring other salespeople would become very easy.

And the teacher himself had plenty of experience selling shoes. He was simply the perfect fit...