Recruitment in Progress

About an hour later, Fang Bai heard the front door on the first floor open—it seemed his father was back.

Before long, he saw his father come upstairs, sweat beading on his forehead, but his face was beaming with joy:

"Son, I'm done pasting."

"Dad, you worked hard. How do you feel?"

"Not hard at all. I'm just worried whether you can sell these TVs."

"We'll know in a couple of days. Besides, selling just over a dozen TVs will cover the costs. No need to worry."

"Alright, keep studying. I'll head down to the shop. If someone comes for an interview, I'll call you." Fang Shi finished speaking and went downstairs. His son was both studying and making money now—it was really tough.

With such a big setup, without his son, Fang Shi really wouldn't know how to handle it.

Just two hours later, someone came to the shop for an interview. Glancing at the TVs inside, he was a bit surprised: so many TVs!

But he also found it odd—wasn't this supposed to be a company?

Why was it just a single storefront?

Still, since he was already here and needed the money, he braced himself and asked the dark-skinned middle-aged man tidying the TVs inside, "Uncle, hello. I'm here to interview for the TV repair job. Is the interviewer around?"

"Oh, yes, yes. Hang on, I'll call someone."

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

A calm voice came from upstairs, "Oh, okay."

Hearing this, the young man interviewing grew even more curious: the interviewer was this middle-aged man's son?

Was this a family workshop?

Before long, steady, firm footsteps came from the stairs, unhurried, and a very young man walked down.

As he expected, the interviewer was young.

But beyond his expectations, he was almost too young!

Maybe he'd started working early—it was common around here.

Jing Tian was startled for a moment, then saw the other man smile with deep eyes, who spoke first:

"Hello, you're a student from Wencheng University, right? I'm in charge of the interview."

The other's pace was neither fast nor slow, more composed than his own university professors.

Jing Tian suddenly felt nervous, stood up straight, puffed out his chest, and quickly recited the lines he'd prepared:

"Hello, interviewer. My name is Jing Tian. I'm a junior at Wencheng University. I saw the recruitment poster on campus and came to check it out. Could you tell me the specific requirements?"

Fang Bai saw the slightly stiff reply, smiled faintly, knowing it was normal for him to be nervous, and said, "My surname is Fang. Just call me Mr. Fang.

The requirements are simple: disassemble TVs and repair them under my guidance. It's best if you know some electrical basics, can handle the work, and aren't afraid of hard labor.

Normal work hours are eight hours a day, or you can finish repairing and cleaning five designated TVs. For example, if you work half a day in the morning and have class in the afternoon, I'll pay you for half a day. But half a day doesn't include lunch.

You can arrange your own schedule as long as you complete the tasks I assign.

For students, come at least three days a week. Pay is settled the same day. If that's fine, I need to see you work."

"Okay."

Jing Tian agreed without much hesitation. One weekend day plus two weekdays would cover three days.

He hadn't expected the requirements to be so few.

"Good. Put on these gloves and open the back cover of this 17-inch black-and-white TV." Fang Bai handed him gloves and tools, giving a direct task to see how nimble he was.

Fang Shi stood to the side, watching how his son handled the interview.

Fang Bai didn't expect him to know everything. He still reminded him of safety steps like discharging static. As long as he could complete the task under guidance, he'd pass.

Not many students these days had the chance to assemble or repair TVs, so he didn't expect him to pick it up right away—he just wanted to see how fast he learned.

If he was clumsy and couldn't be taught, that would just waste his time. What would be the point?

Once he trained him, the veteran could then guide the newcomer.

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

"Jing Tian, have you repaired TVs before?"

"Mr. Fang, I have a black-and-white TV at home that happened to break. During the holidays, I took it apart to study it. Since I'm an electronics major, I know a bit about it."

"Oh, I see. Replace this capacitor and resistor, and remove all these parts." Fang Bai used a red marker to mark X's on the damaged components, indicating they needed to be swapped out.

He'd made a chart where different symbols stood for different meanings.

Next, Jing Tian followed Fang Bai's instructions to carry out the repairs.

Over an hour later, Jing Tian had fixed the TV and, as Fang Bai requested, cleaned off all the dust and grime, making it look about ninety percent new.

Most secondhand TVs weren't damaged during use—the scratches came from transport.

Customers cared more about appearance. As long as it worked, they didn't mind the internals. When picking TVs, Fang Bai had chosen ones with relatively new-looking shells.

"Good, not bad. If you're free, you can start today. Your pay starts from today. Let's have lunch together." Fang Bai didn't bother with complicated procedures. He was in a hurry and, since the guy passed, he hired him on the spot.

This made Jing Tian feel like happiness had come too fast. He said cheerfully, "Mr. Fang, that works. I happen to be free today, so I can start working right now."

"Alright, let me brief you first. You'll start by opening up five TVs. I'll mark them, and you'll follow the marks to do the repairs. That'll be more efficient. After repairing, clean the TVs and stack them separately in the empty space over there, don't mix them with the ones still waiting for repair. Some TVs are cobbled together from parts, so pay attention to the marks. If you don't understand, ask."

Fang Bai explained. This batch of TVs numbered nearly four hundred. One repairman could handle about four to six TVs a day, including cleaning. This shop could fit at most seven workers; any more and it'd be too cramped. That meant this batch would take ten to thirteen days to repair and clean, and Fang Bai's total wage cost would be under a thousand yuan.

Once twenty TVs were repaired, Fang Bai would start organizing sales. Sales also needed staff, so he had his father handle bookkeeping and cash collection. Fang Bai estimated he'd need seven repairmen, two general laborers, and two salespeople. Since students couldn't work full-time, the repair crew would need to double—about fifteen should do. The laborers needed to be sturdy, and the salespeople should preferably be girls, articulate and persuasive.

Around noon, Jing Tian had opened the backs of five TVs and finished repairing and cleaning the second one. Lunch was at a small restaurant nearby. Fang Bai ordered three meat dishes, one vegetable, and a soup, which made his father wince at the cost. Jing Tian hadn't expected such good food. By this morning, he'd figured out how the shop worked: Fang Bai was the one in charge, and his father was just an assistant.

What surprised him even more was that Fang Bai was still repeating his senior year of high school. A high schooler studying again while making money—that was astonishing. He'd never heard of such a thing. Forget high schoolers, very few college students started businesses. Even more shocking was that Fang Bai knew exactly which components in the TVs were faulty. He just didn't have time to do the repairs himself because he was busy studying. A high schooler mastering professional electrical knowledge and circuit board skills—that was pure genius.

Jing Tian guessed Fang Bai was very smart. His repeat year was probably due to a bad exam performance, aiming for a top-tier university. In short, Jing Tian deeply admired Fang Bai. After a morning of interaction, he found Fang Bai easy to get along with—he had requirements but wasn't strict. Still, Jing Tian had his worries. If he didn't get paid after the afternoon shift, he wouldn't come back the next day, genius student or not.

In the afternoon, people kept coming for interviews, all students. By nearly six in the evening, the total number of interviewees had reached forty, with over a hundred visitors. Many students came in groups, some just tagging along for the fun. Fang Bai interviewed them one by one and hired another eighteen part-timers, including two local girls who'd come out of curiosity and were taken on as sales staff.

Sales staff were best if they were locals. Out-of-town students couldn't understand the local Oujiang dialect. Oujiang was extremely regional—once you left Wen City, no one could understand it. Some compared it to "bird talk," while others cursed it as "plague speech," calling it one of the hardest dialects in the country to understand.

Anyway, Fang Bai hadn't expected recruitment to go so smoothly. He told his father to tear down the posted flyers, and the ones at school could be taken down by the students. Past six o'clock, well after quitting time, Fang Bai gathered everyone. Standing before two rows of students, he said, "The interviews today took up some time. Normal work hours won't be this long. If you come late in the morning, you'll leave late in the afternoon—it's up to you. Jing Tian came in the morning and finished his tasks, so his wage is ten yuan. Chen Youbiao started at two in the afternoon and didn't finish his tasks, but I'll still give him five yuan. He can make up the work later—I don't dock wages here. Tell me the times you can work, and I'll arrange your schedules. The shop is small, max seven people at once, so everyone's shifts need to be staggered. If you want to quit, tell me a day in advance so I can find a replacement. Got it?"

"Got it, Mr. Fang," a dozen or so students replied in unison. Fang Bai took out a ten-yuan bill and a five-yuan bill and paid the day's wages. Seeing the boss pay on the same day, everyone stopped worrying about not getting paid. Jing Tian and Chen Youbiao, cash in hand, were grinning and laughing, overjoyed.

Next, everyone reported the times they could work in the coming week. After they finished, Fang Bai planned it out and quickly assigned their schedules. He'd hired nineteen people in total, only two of them girls, both part-time sales. Seeing everyone else assigned work, the two girls couldn't help asking Fang Bai, "Mr. Fang, when do we start selling?"

"You two come the day after tomorrow morning. It's Saturday, so memorize your sales scripts as fast as you can, so you don't mess up on the spot. You'll handle customer communication; the guys will do the heavy lifting like moving TVs and watching the shop." Fang Bai gave the sales staff commission: a base pay of five yuan, plus seven yuan for meeting targets, and bonuses for exceeding them. For the repair crew, Fang Bai planned to observe who had the strongest organizational skills, then pick a team leader, give him a raise, and have him help share the workload. If any of these hires showed great potential, he'd take them under his wing.

Note: The national two-day weekend system started in 1995. Before that, it was a six-day workweek with only Sunday off. Some plot points might mistakenly mention two days off on weekends; corrections will be made if found.