Pei Qian was naturally elated as he offered the highest available price for an administrative position in the market right away – 5,000 monthly salary each!
Even though it did not sound like much, back in 2009, the average salary for front desk receptionists in Jingzhou was around 2,000. Even if someone was extremely good looking, 3,000 would be the upper limit.
The fact that Pei Qian had raised it up to 5,000 was considered a liberal offer.
But of course, he wouldn’t have minded raising the salary even higher to 10,000 such that he could spend his money even faster.
However, that would be overly exaggerated. Even if these were beautiful twins, it would not have made sense for receptionists to receive a 10,000 monthly salary.
Most importantly, the system would not have agreed to it.
Chapter 36
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Indeed, the twins had achieved their intended effect such that Huang Sibo was stunned the moment he entered.
Would a company that could hire such receptionists be lacking in money?
No way!
It was just a pity that this company had high requirements such that he wouldn’t be able to enter.
Otherwise, if he were to tell others that he was working at Shenhua View and that the front desk had a pair of beautiful twin receptionists, they would definitely envy him!
Huang Sibo then checked out the work desks.
Once again, he was shocked!
All of those desks were huge!
Why were all the desks separated so far from one another – was the rental for this place free or what?
They could almost play badminton between the desks!
Each desk was equipped with two high-end and large monitors – a single look was enough to tell that these were expensive stuff.
At the windowsill, there were rows of plants. Each of them looked costly and there was even a gardener taking care of them tenderly.
Huang Sibo felt as though he had transmigrated into those teenage idol dramas.
This was how companies were depicted within them.
However, reality was often a far cry from it.
Still, he lamented over what a pity it was that he wouldn’t be able to join this company given its high requirements.
He walked towards the front desk and reported his name – since he was here, he might as well go through with it.
“Give me a moment. I’ll inform the interviewer.”
The receptionist on the left replied with a huge smile. Not only was her service 10/10, her smile was equally therapeutic.
“Please follow me.”
Carrying a radiant beam, the receptionist stood up and led Huang Sibo in.
To his surprise, he found the company somewhat empty.
His first reaction was that of worry, wondering if he had been scammed.
However, when he saw the interiors of the company, he knew that that wasn’t the case.
Which scammer would go through such expense?
Even for scammers, wouldn’t they consider the profit margins? Given the set up, how many people must they scam in order to recoup their investment?!
As such, this company was definitely not feigning their wealth.
This was a new company that was opened by a rich person, most likely as an avenue to welcome cloud games.
Huang Sibo was confident that he had unraveled the truth behind everything.
Arriving at the guest room, he found a young man seated on the sofa.
He had delicate features and donned a suit.
Instantly, Huang Sibo felt a sense of inferiority.
That outfit looked even more expensive compared to those young men from the investment firm he had bumped into outside earlier on!
In fact, Huang Sibo could not even give an estimate to the cost of the suit. In any case, he was certain that it must be beyond his imagination.
Huang Sibo had tried his luck interviewing at a couple of other gaming companies but they were all rather casual.
Even the interviewers wore merely underpants and vests. They were still at their work desks moments earlier before heading to the conference room for the interview.
However, that was not the case here – this interviewer definitely looked like no normal person.
That had Huang Sibo feeling nervous.
“Huang Sibo, right? Please have a seat. I’m the president of Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd., Pei Qian.”
The young man on the other end stood up and shook his hands.
Stunned by the other party’s friendliness, Huang Sibo’s voice was quivering. “H-Hi, Boss Pei.”
“Don’t feel pressured. We’re just having a casual chat. Here, have some tea,” Pei Qian pushed a pure silver teacup before Huang Sibo.
Huang Sibo checked out the pure silver tea set laid out and could not even guess at its worth.
Even though he had not seen Pei Qian before, that did not affect his imagination.
‘A young talent!’
‘Someone who has managed to make two games a huge success!’
‘Look at that casual attitude while drinking tea and handling the tea set! That’s not something that can be feigned!’
‘This is truly someone who does not care for money!’
Huang Sibo felt that in the eyes of Boss Pei, the silver teacup was no different from a paper cup.
That had Huang Sibo feeling an innate nervousness.
“Describe to me your working experience in simple terms,” Pei Qian said with a smile.
Huang Sibo felt his heart pounding furiously and his mouth going dry.
However, he tried his best to repress his anxiousness and related his work experience briefly.
While doing so, he stuttered and said a couple of things wrongly and that added on to his uneasiness.
Pei Qian was sipping tea as he listened on, carrying a faint grin on his face such that one could not guess at his thoughts.
Huang Sibo felt his heart sink.
I’m doomed. He must definitely think that my experience is too negligible! Boss Pei must be mocking me internally!
Is he mocking how I don’t know my place such that I would dare take on this interview given my capabilities?
With his face blushed faintly, Huang Sibo struggled to finish his self introduction, wanting nothing more than to bolt out the door.
“Excellent.”
After hearing Huang Sibo’s self introduction, Pei Qian nodded while smiling.
Excellent?
Huang Sibo thought that he was hearing things.
Was that reverse psychology?
He had worked at his previous company for six months and he was practically just Old Liu’s underlings who did the most basic of odd jobs.
That was a work experience that was as good as nothing.
Yet, Boss Pei said that it was ‘excellent’?
What did he mean by that? Is he laughing at me?’
For a moment, Huang Sibo did not know how he should respond.
When he saw Huang Sibo’s expression, Pei Qian knew that this guy must have misunderstood as he hurried to explain.
“What I mean is that your capabilities suits the requirements of our company. Could I check with you on when you can start work?”
“Huh? I… the day after tomorrow…?”
Huang Sibo gave a casual date.
In any case, a nobody such as himself could resign at anytime he wanted without having to worry about handing over any work.
“Very well. Report for work the day after tomorrow then. Settle your resignation before we officially sign a contract on our end.”
“So, what about salary and benefits? What do you have in mind?” Pei Qian asked.
Salary and benefits…
In his previous company, Huang Sibo was taking the lowest salary of 1,500 per month without any insurance coverage or rental allowance.
That was enough money for him to get by without hav
ing any spare to save.
If he were to be able to work here, he would be earning with just the working environment alone!
Regarding salary, he would be fine if he could just maintain the status quo.
However, on second thought, Huang Sibo felt that he had to ask for a rise in salary since he was jumping ship.
Now that he already had 6 months of working experience, he supposed that it wouldn’t be too much for him to ask for an additional 400 yuan.
If so… what if he rounded it up to 2,000?
The mere thought of that figure had Huang Sibo feeling as though he was asking for too much.
However, since they were on the topic, Huang Sibo asked in a testing manner.
“2,000 a month…? Do you think that’ll work? Don’t worry, Boss Pei. I’ll definitely be responsible and I won’t complain about overtime at all!”
Pei Qian sighed slowly and shook his head.
Huang Sibo felt his heart sink.
What’s wrong? Have I asked for too much?
Sigh, it’s indeed too much…
Huang Sibo could only wait for Pei Qian to lower his demand. To him, as long as it wasn’t an excessive lowball, he would be able to accept the terms.
Shaking his finger, Pei Qian replied, “Here, let me calculate for you.”
Huang Sibo gulped and nodded to listen – he knew that this was a common tactic used to lower offers.
Pei Qian organized his thoughts.
“Renting a place in Jingzhou would amount to around 1,000 per month. That’s not too much, right?”
“Food expenses. A typical month would cost you 800 including treating others to a meal. That’s not too much, right? Even university students spend more than this for their living allowances!”
“You should buy a couple of new outfits every month as well. That’s another 300. That’s not too much, right?”
“What about utility bills? Daily necessities? That’s another 200. That’s not too much, right?”
“Traffic expenses? 100 per month? That’s considered cheap.”
“What if you were to have a girlfriend? You’ve got to buy her some make up every now and then. That’s another 300 to account for every month.”
“Young people must not spend all of their salary. How about an additional 500 as savings?”
“Take a look, that’s already more than 3,000 and that’s after taxes.”
“Our company’s in line with the national hiring guidelines and we account for taxes, insurance coverage and rental allowance. In order to cover your expenses, you’ve got to earn 3,500 before taxes!”
“Besides, our company also promised that we would provide salary and benefits better than other companies in the industry. Let’s add another 500 to that figure. That’s definitely reasonable.”
“So, a monthly salary of 4,000! How’s that sound?”
Chapter 37
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Pei Qian shook his finger and listed everything for Huang Sibo such that the latter was stunned while hearing it.
That reverse haggling had Huang Sibo completely stumped.
4,000?
That was twice of what he had expected?
Was there something wrong with Boss Pei?
Or was this how rich people behaved?
Huang Sibo’s jaw dropped open as he paused for a long time before answering, “T-That’ll work.”
Pei Qian then smiled. “Don’t worry. New employees naturally start with a lower salary. As long as you work hard, we’ll offer you a chance for a raise on a monthly basis in the future.”
Raise?!
Huang Sibo thought that he was dreaming.
“Alright, we’ll decide on that then!” Pei Qian stood up. “Remember to turn up the day after tomorrow. Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. welcomes you.”
…
The receptionist sent Huang Sibo off.
Pei Qian was pleased – he had managed to recruit yet another suitable employee!
The moment Huang Sibo took a seat, Pei Qian was certain that this was someone he wanted.
Someone hardworking and yet not too smart.
This was the perfect employee!
As for the 4,000 salary, that was reasonable as well and the system could not point out any flaws.
For example, the chief planner Liu who had applied previously was someone that did not fit Pei Qian’s requirements at all.
After thinking about it, Pei Qian started to write down notes on their resumes about his impression of the interview.
This was what he wrote on chief planner Liu’s resume: “Full of experience but outdated thinking. His traditional mindset lacks creativity and he thinks of making games as any other ordinary job. He lacks the passion for games and is unable to take on the task of creating a new game. Not suitable to be hired.”
This was what he wrote on Huang Sibo’s resume: “A newcomer whose thinking is revolutionary. He has passion for games and is earnest and hardworking too. In order to ensure his expenses are met, he’s hired with a starting salary of 4,000.”
After noting down his comments, Pei Qian was extremely satisfied.
Seemed like the system did not have any issues with it at all!
Based on the way things were right now, success was in his sights!
…
A week went by extremely quickly.
Before long, it was Friday once more.
Pei Qian laid down on the sofa in the resting lounge. He was feeling a little bloated from drinking too much tea. However, the agrypnotic effect of tea leaves was working well such that he could not even take an afternoon nap.
The AC was turned on to a comfortable temperature as Pei Qian rolled around casually in his suit that ranged in the figures of five digits.
When he started wearing the suit, Pei Qian reminded himself fervently that he was wearing hundreds of dollar bills on his body.
However, right now, Pei Qian did not see it as anything more than an ordinary outfit.
After all, each time he wore them for a period of time, Xin Hailu would make a trip down to his apartment and packed all his worn suits for dry-cleaning. Whether he wore them or not or the duration of wear, they would all be the same after cleaning.
If that was the case, he could just wear them as he pleased!
If they were torn, he would just buy them again.
Pei Qian felt that he had inflated massively.
During that period of time, he had not returned to the dormitory and had gotten used to his apartment. He could not imagine himself spending a single more in that six men birdcage of a dormitory any longer.
His other schoolmates vaguely knew that he was working hard at his own business but they did not show much interest.
It was partly because they were busy with schoolwork since they were year one students. They were still filled with hope towards school life and the bevy of beautiful schoolgirls that were roaming around. As such, they did not have any burning desires towards money.
On the other hand, it was also because Pei Qian did not flaunt to them and they did not think that Pei Qian was someone who would be accomplished.
After all, each year, there would be a couple of students who would leave school all of a student to try and start a business. However, they would end up returning to school in disappointment.
Starting a business was something that was high risk high reward. However, most people would only get to experience the high risk aspect of it.
Even people who had worked for many years and had connections in the industry had a possibility of failing at starting a business entirely, let alone poor students who had none of those resources.
Naturally, Pei Qian would not try and prove himself to these schoolmates of his either.
He was in the midst of enjoying life!
Indeed, most people who start a business end up failing. But what if I’m aiming to fail right from the start?
What if the reason
why I started a business was for it to fail?
Wouldn’t that goal be much easier to achieve?
See! A change of mindset can cause a cruel reality to be filled with happiness!
…
…
During that week, Pei Qian continuously recruited a couple more ‘exceptional’ employees.
Amongst them were Bao Xu and Huang Sibo.
With a short calculation, the 30 openings had filled up much faster than Pei Qian had imagined it would take.
He had initially planned on recruiting the 30 openings slowly through the course of a month but the process seemed to have been overly smooth.
A reason for it could be that in a place like Jingzhou, gaming companies were way too miserly.
However, that was normal as well – the smaller the place where a gaming company resided, the more miserly it was.
For places such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, gaming companies were all over the place. If employees were dissatisfied with work, they could just leave and work elsewhere.
Because of that, those bosses would not dare to overly squeeze the employees either.
However, things were different in a small place such as Jingzhou.
There were only that few gaming companies and the bosses might even know one another, gathering for drinks every now and then.
Even if one was too unhappy with their current job and wanted to leave, they would have to consider the issue of their next job.
In Beijing and Shanghai, they would definitely be able to find a job elsewhere – it was just a matter of time.
Even if they couldn’t, all they had to do was lower their standards and asking salary and they would definitely find a decent job to make do for a period of time.
However, not in Jingzhou – how many times could one jump ships between the few companies?
Besides, the bosses knew one another. If one of them were offended, the other companies may not want to employ that person as well.
Under such circumstances, most of the bosses squeezed the employees dry – someone like Huang Sibo was a perfect example.
That was the reason why most people had pent up frustrations.
The moment they saw that a new company was recruiting – be it whether or not the company was reliable – they were willing to give it a shot.
Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883 Page 21