An employee

"That's pretty much what I meant."

Xia Xu nodded and said, "Aside from your job, Yang, you must be pretty talkative in everyday life, and good at dealing with people, right?"

"You can tell that too?"

Yang Bowen grew even more astonished. After a moment's hesitation, he slowly nodded. "I'm the sort who hits it off with people easily. I don't have much else going for me, but I've made plenty of friends while driving my truck. I can strike up a conversation with just about anyone..."

A little pride lit up his face as he spoke, only to be replaced by a trace of frustration. "But it's not much use. We just chat and have a few drinks together. As my wife puts it, they're a bunch of drinking buddies and bad influences."

"Not necessarily. See, being good with people is one of your strengths. You're not good for nothing like you said."

After taking the long way around, Xia Xu finally steered the conversation back to his real point. "And that's not all. From observing some of your unconscious little movements just now, I could tell that you have sharp reflexes, Yang. You're good at noticing all sorts of details around you, and you're used to doing it."

"Spot on! Absolutely spot on! That's incredible!"

Yang Bowen thought back and realized that it really did seem to be true. He couldn't help slapping the table in admiration. "You really know your stuff, young boss. No wonder you've started a business at such a young age."

"That's why you need to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. It's not that you lack ability, Yang. You just went into the wrong line of work. You shouldn't have become a truck driver."

Xia Xu smiled as he spoke.

Yang Bowen perked up. "Oh? What kind of work do you think I should do, then?"

"You're a born detective, Yang."

Xia Xu finally revealed what he was after. "As it happens, I've just opened for business and need staff. Why don't you come work here for a couple of days and give it a try?"

"Well..."

Yang Bowen hesitated, or rather, looked a little suspicious. "Young boss, you're not just sweet-talking me because you're short on staff, are you?"

Xia Xu shrugged helplessly. "The job market is right across the street. However short-handed I am, surely I wouldn't have to resort to tricking people?"

"That's true."

Yang Bowen nodded at that. Much of his suspicion faded, but he still hesitated.

"It's only a trial. You don't have hauling jobs every day, do you, Yang? Just treat it as taking a couple of days off at home. If it doesn't work out, you can always go back to hauling freight."

Seeing his hesitation, Xia Xu pressed his advantage. "And don't worry, this is a paid job. Whatever you earn each month from hauling, I'll pay you one and a half times that."

"One and a half times? Are you sure, young man? Driving a truck is tiring, but I can still make around five thousand a month without much trouble."

Now Yang Bowen was genuinely tempted.

After all, it was a fifty-percent increase in income, and all he had to do was change jobs. Better still, he could try it for a few days first, making the cost of a wrong decision practically negligible.

"Of course I'm sure. I'll keep my word. Work here, and your base salary will be eight thousand a month. Depending on how things go, there'll be bonuses or raises later."

With less than sixty thousand in his pocket altogether, Xia Xu felt the sting, but he was generous when naming his price.

He knew Yang Bowen hadn't inflated his earnings by saying five thousand a month. If anything, he had deliberately given a low estimate. Normally, earning six or seven thousand a month driving a truck was commonplace.

A mere eight thousand really wasn't much more than the man's usual income. Any lower, and it wouldn't qualify as a high salary. Even at this rate, Xia Xu needed to dangle a few enticing prospects to win him over.

Besides, recruiting an exceptional talent with one four-star talent and two three-star talents for a monthly salary of just eight thousand was an absolute steal. If there was a problem, it was only that Xia Xu himself was too poor.

"Don't you want to discover what you're really good at, Yang? Are you truly content to spend your whole life as an unremarkable truck driver?"

"I'm no fool with money. If I'm willing to offer you such a high base salary, it's not because I'm trying to pull the wool over your eyes. It's because I genuinely believe in your talent.

"In freight transport, you're just an ordinary driver. But in detective work, you could become a famous detective with a formidable reputation."

Most people found it difficult to leave a stable comfort zone once they had settled into it. Getting someone to choose change without being forced was genuinely hard. Yang Bowen was still hesitating, so Xia Xu could only keep patiently coaxing him with those tempting words.

Being unremarkable on one hand and renowned on the other struck right at what mattered most to Yang Bowen.

Truck driving offered limited room for advancement, but honestly, the money wasn't bad. He could handle the dirt and exhaustion. The main problem was that it didn't sound particularly respectable.

When he told people he hauled freight, their first reaction was, "Oh, so you're just a driver. All you do is drive a truck."

It was much the same for construction workers. In terms of earnings, they might well make as much as office workers, but conventional attitudes were what they were. People always looked down on them a little.

"Doesn't your son love watching Detective Elementary Schoolboy, Yang? If he found out you'd become a detective too, and perhaps even a nationally renowned detective someday..."

Xia Xu's unfinished sentence became the final straw that tipped the balance.

Leaving things unsaid gave the imagination more room to roam. As he listened, Yang Bowen seemed to picture his son throwing himself into his arms with astonished cheers, pestering him about becoming a detective too, bragging about him to his classmates...

"You called me talkative, young boss, but I think you're the one with a silver tongue. You've made turning you down feel like committing some terrible crime."

After a brief silence, Yang Bowen gave a helpless, wry smile. "In that case, I'll give it a try for a few days. I'm taking a break right now anyway. If I can get the hang of it, I'll stay. If I can't learn, I won't take your wages for nothing."

"You can rest easy about that. If you couldn't do it, wouldn't that mean I'd misjudged you? I wouldn't risk embarrassing myself and ruining my reputation unless I was confident."

Xia Xu settled the matter. "Then it's decided. Head home for today, Yang, and come here at eight tomorrow morning to start work."

"Just call me Old Yang, boss. Since I'll be working for you, addressing me like an older brother doesn't seem right. It was fine before, but now that our roles have changed, it feels a little awkward."

Yang Bowen adapted quickly, slipping straight into his role as an employee as he scratched his head a little sheepishly.

Whether it was emotional intelligence or simply his nature, the attitude he showed genuinely put Xia Xu at ease, even if this was only a minor detail that didn't matter much.

In the end, he could only marvel inwardly at just how frighteningly powerful Little White Flower's husband-blessing fate was.

It wasn't merely Yang Bowen's talents that met his needs. Even his age and family circumstances matched Xia Xu's ideal perfectly.

When hiring directly, expecting a stranger to be loyal and conscientious right away was clearly unrealistic. That was why he had planned from the start to recruit someone who already had a family and an established livelihood.

Many people jokingly called themselves corporate livestock. For many middle-aged men with families, it was a deeply ironic yet remarkably fitting description. Their companies worked them like beasts of burden, and they endured the toil without complaint, just like beasts of burden.

Not because they wanted to, but because they had no choice.

After all, a family brought burdens and attachments. Food, clothing, housing, and transport cost money. Mortgages cost money. Having and raising children cost money. Sending those children to school cost money. Finding a new job also became harder with age.

If they quit or were fired, their whole family might have nothing to live on. Financial shortfalls, debts, and loans could easily shatter their homes and lives.

So however badly they were treated, they often had to grit their teeth and endure it. Even when they couldn't bear it anymore, they had to keep going.

Over time, all their rough edges were worn smooth. They grew accustomed to even the greatest pressures and hardships, or rather, became numb to them. They became perfect cogs in society's machinery, serviceable tools in the hands of capitalists.

Young people were different. Alone and unburdened, they might even have parents supporting them. Already hot-blooded and without anything holding them back, plenty would blow up and quit on the spot when mistreated. They might even beat up the boss before leaving.

Of course, Xia Xu wasn't recruiting a middle-aged man to make exploiting him easier. He simply wanted to choose someone as reliable as possible.

Someone like Yang Bowen, approaching middle age with a family and an established livelihood, had already had many of his rough edges worn down. He also lacked a young person's aggressive drive to forge ahead. Most importantly, he had a wife, children, parents, and other attachments. The more he had to worry about, the less he would dare to make mistakes or act recklessly. He was precisely the best choice.