Recruitment Underway

After about an hour, Fang Bai heard the first-floor door open. It looked like his father had returned.

Before long, he saw his father come upstairs, sweat beading on his forehead, but his face was full of joy.

"Son, I've finished putting them up."

"Thanks, Dad. How did it go?"

"It wasn't hard. I'm just worried whether you can sell all these TVs."

"We'll know in a couple of days. Besides, selling just over ten TVs will cover our costs, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Alright, keep studying. I'll watch the shop downstairs. I'll call you when someone comes for an interview." After Fang Shi finished speaking, he went downstairs. His son was studying for another round of exams while making money—it really wasn't easy.

With such a big operation going on, Fang Shi truly had no idea how he would manage without his son.

Just two hours later, someone came to the shop for an interview. Seeing all the TVs inside, he was a little surprised. So many TVs!

But he was also puzzled. Didn't the notice say it was a company?

Why was there only one storefront?

But since he was already here and short on money, he could only steel himself and ask the dark-skinned middle-aged man arranging TVs inside, "Sir, hello. I'm here to interview for the TV repair job. Is the interviewer here?"

"Oh, yes, yes. Wait a moment, I'll call him."

Fang Shi looked up and saw a young man asking the question. He replied politely, then jogged to the stairway and shouted upstairs, "Son, someone's here for an interview."

A calm reply came from upstairs. "Oh, alright."

Hearing that, the young man became even more curious. The interviewer was this middle-aged man's son?

Was this some kind of family workshop?

Before long, steady and resolute footsteps came from the stairs, neither hurried nor slow. A very young man came down.

Just as he had expected, the interviewer was young.

But unexpectedly, he was a little too young!

Maybe he had entered society early. That was normal around here.

Jing Tian was stunned in surprise for a moment. Seeing the other man smile, his eyes deep, he heard him ask first, "Hello. You're a student at Wencheng University, right? I'm in charge of the interview."

His speaking pace was neither fast nor slow, and he appeared more composed than Jing Tian's university professors.

Jing Tian suddenly felt nervous. He stood straight, puffed out his chest, and quickly recited the speech he had memorized beforehand.

"Hello, interviewer. My name is Jing Tian, and I'm a third-year student at Wencheng University. I saw the recruitment poster at our school, so I came to take a look. May I ask what the specific requirements are?"

Seeing his slightly restrained answer, Fang Bai smiled. He knew it was normal for the other party to be nervous. "My surname is Fang. You can call me Mr. Fang.

"The requirements are fairly simple. You'll dismantle TVs and repair them according to my instructions. It would be best if you know some electrical work. You need to be able to handle the work and not be afraid of hardship.

"Normally, the workday is eight hours, or you repair and clean five designated TVs. For example, if you work half a day in the morning and have classes in the afternoon, you can go back to class, and I'll pay you for half a day. But if you only work half a day, lunch isn't included.

"You can arrange your own work hours as long as you complete the tasks I give you.

"If you're a student, you need to come at least three days a week. Pay is settled the same day. If that's alright, I need to see you operate first."

"That's fine."

Jing Tian agreed without much hesitation. One weekend day, plus two more days he could free up, would make three days.

He had not expected the requirements to be so few.

"Alright. Put on gloves and open the back cover of this 17-inch black and white TV first." Fang Bai handed him gloves and tools, directly assigning him a task to see whether he was nimble with his hands.

Fang Shi stood to one side and watched how his son interviewed people.

Fang Bai did not expect applicants to know everything. Aside from reminding them about safety procedures such as discharging static electricity, as long as they could complete tasks under his guidance, they qualified.

Very few students had the chance to assemble and repair TVs now, so he did not expect anyone to immediately know how to do the job. He only wanted to see whether they learned quickly.

If someone was clumsy and impossible to teach, wouldn't that just waste his time? What would be the point of hiring them?

Once he taught them, the experienced workers could guide the newcomers.

To Fang Bai's surprise, this student named Jing Tian was quite nimble. He quickly removed the TV's back cover and began discharging the static electricity.

"Jing Tian, have you repaired TVs before?"

"Mr. Fang, my family has a black and white TV that happened to break down. During the holidays, I specifically took it apart to study it. I'm majoring in electronics, so I know a little about it."

"Oh, I see. Replace this capacitor and resistor, along with these parts. Remove all of them." Fang Bai used a red marker to put crosses directly on the damaged components, indicating that they were to be removed and replaced.

He had made a chart for himself, with different symbols representing different meanings.

Next, Jing Tian carried out the repairs according to Fang Bai's instructions.

Over an hour later, Jing Tian had repaired the TV. Following Fang Bai's requirements, he also cleaned away the dust and grime on it, making it look about ninety percent new.

Most used TVs had no real damage from use. They were mainly scratched during transportation.

Customers had high standards for appearance. As long as the TV worked, they did not care what it was like inside. When selecting TVs, Fang Bai had chosen ones with newer-looking casings.

"Not bad. Very good. If you have time, you can start work today. Your pay will start from today. Let's have lunch together at noon." Fang Bai did not bother with any complicated procedures. He was in a hurry, so if he thought someone qualified, he hired them directly.

Jing Tian felt as though happiness had come too quickly. Delighted, he said, "Mr. Fang, that's fine. I happen to be free today, so I can start working right now."

"Alright, then let me explain things first. Start by opening up five TVs. I'll mark them first, then you can repair them according to the marks. That'll be more efficient. After you finish repairing them, clean the TVs and stack them together in the open space over there. Don't mix them up with the unrepaired ones.

"Some are assembled from parts to make one TV, so pay attention to the markings. Ask if you don't understand."

Fang Bai gave his instructions. He had nearly four hundred TVs in this batch, and one repair worker could repair and clean roughly four to six TVs a day.

This storefront could fit at most seven people working. Any more than that and it would be too crowded.

In other words, this batch of TVs would take ten to thirteen days to repair and clean, and Fang Bai would spend less than a thousand yuan on wages.

Once twenty TVs had been refurbished, Fang Bai would begin organizing sales.

Sales also required staff, while he had his father handle the bookkeeping and collect payments.

Therefore, Fang Bai estimated that he needed seven repair workers, two general laborers, and two sales staff.

Considering that students could not work full-time, the number of repair workers would need to be doubled. Fifteen would be about right.

The general laborers needed to be strong, while the sales staff were preferably girls who were good with words.

Near noon, Jing Tian had opened the back covers of five TVs and repaired and cleaned the second one.

They ate lunch at a nearby small restaurant. Fang Bai ordered three meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup, making his father's heart ache at the expense.

Jing Tian had not expected the food to be this good. That morning, he had figured out the situation at this shop. Fang Bai was the one in charge, while his father was merely helping out.

What surprised him even more was that Fang Bai was repeating his final year of high school.

A high school student studying for another attempt at the college entrance exam while making money was simply astonishing. At least, Jing Tian had never heard of such a thing.

Not to mention high school students, very few university students started businesses.

What shocked him even more was that Fang Bai knew which components inside the TVs had problems. He was simply too busy studying to repair them himself, which was why he hired people.

For a high school student to possess such professional knowledge of electrical work and circuit boards, he was truly a genius.

Jing Tian guessed that Fang Bai was extremely smart. He had probably not performed well the first time around and wanted to get into a top university.

In any case, Jing Tian deeply admired Fang Bai.

After spending the morning together, he felt that Fang Bai was easy to talk to. He had standards, but he did not manage people too strictly.

Of course, Jing Tian also had concerns.

If he did not receive his money after work that afternoon, he definitely would not come back the next day, genius student or not.

That afternoon, people kept coming for interviews, all of them students.

By nearly six in the evening, forty people had interviewed that day, while more than a hundred had come to look around. Quite a few students came in groups, with some merely tagging along to see the excitement.

Fang Bai interviewed them one by one and hired eighteen more part-time workers, including two local girls who had come just for the excitement and were hired as sales staff.

It was best for sales staff to be locals, since students from elsewhere could not understand the Oujiang dialect spoken by locals.

The Oujiang dialect was extremely regional. Once outside Wen City, no one could understand it.

Thus, some people compared the Oujiang dialect to "bird language," while others cursed Wen City speech as "plague speech." It was considered one of the hardest dialects in the country to understand.

That aside, Fang Bai had not expected the recruitment to go so smoothly. He had his father tear down the posters they had put up, while the students would go back and remove the posters at their school.

By a little after six, it was already well past quitting time.

Fang Bai gathered everyone together. Standing before two rows of students, he said, "Today's interviews delayed things a little. Normally, work hours won't be this long.

"If you arrive late in the morning, you'll naturally leave later in the afternoon. Arrange it yourselves.

"Jing Tian came in the morning and completed his task, so his pay is ten yuan.

"Chen Youbiao started work at two in the afternoon. Although he didn't finish his task, I'll still give him five yuan. Make up the remaining workload later. There's no such thing as wage deductions here.

"Tell me when you're available to work, and I'll arrange your schedules.

"The shop has limited space and can fit at most seven people, so everyone's work hours need to be staggered.

"If you don't want to continue, tell me a day in advance so I can recruit someone else. Understood?"

"Understood, Mr. Fang," the dozen or so students answered in unison.

Fang Bai took out a ten-yuan note and a 5-Yuan Note and settled that day's wages.

Seeing Mr. Fang pay them on the same day, everyone stopped worrying that they would work without getting paid.

Jing Tian and Chen Youbiao, having received their money, laughed and joked happily.

Next, everyone reported the times they would be available over the coming week. After they finished, Fang Bai made some plans and quickly arranged their work schedules.

Fang Bai had recruited nineteen people in total. There were only two girls, and they were the part-time salespeople.

Seeing that everyone else had been assigned work, the two girls could not help asking Fang Bai, "Mr. Fang, when do the two of us start selling?"

"You two can come the morning after tomorrow. It'll be Saturday. Memorize the sales lines as soon as possible so you don't perform poorly on the spot.

"You'll be responsible for communicating with customers. The boys will handle miscellaneous work like moving TVs and watching the shop."

Fang Bai offered sales staff commissions. Their base pay was five yuan, with an additional seven yuan for completing their targets and bonuses for exceeding them.

As for the repair workers, Fang Bai intended to observe who had stronger organizational skills, then select that person as team leader and pay a little extra to help share his workload.

If anyone from this group showed great potential for development, he would bring them under his wing.

A note: China began implementing the two-day weekend system in 1995. Before that, it was a six-day workweek, with only Sundays off.

Some scenes that mention weekends may have gotten the days wrong. They would be corrected when discovered.