June 6th, Monday…
Pei Qian woke up naturally at nine in the morning. His morale had been crushed for the past two days, owing to his gaming experience with Ruan Guangjian during the weekend. He was now cooped up at home, not wanting to go to work.
Pei Qian took out two small pieces of cake and a box of milk from the fridge after washing up. He was prepared to deal with them before continuing his unfinished game yesterday. The room was in a minimalist style, which was commonly known as the ‘Four Bare Walls’ style. Therefore, Pei Qian could only eat at the small coffee table next to the large balcony. This small coffee table was one of the very few pieces of furniture in the entire living room. There were also two small chairs next to it where its main purpose was to watch the scenery outside and drink tea.
The two pieces of small cake were wiped out in no time. Pei Qian threw the garbage into the trash can and left it at that. Someone would clean it up anyway.
The doorbell rang as soon as he settled on the sofa and picked up the controller.
“Hm?” Pei Qian was taken aback before he got up to open the door.
The butler stood outside the door, holding a squarish box in his hand. “Boss Pei, this is an express delivery sent to you from Dream Realization Ventures. Shall I bring it in for
you?”
The butler’s name was Song Kai. He was 26 years old and had previously worked as a housekeeper in a certain rental company. He was Assistant Xin’s candidate. He had been doing well so far.
Of course, there wasn’t much to do in the first place.
Song Kai had often felt skeptical about life ever since he came to the Sloth Apartments.
Pei Qian thought about it. If Liang Qingfan was the only one in charge of the Sloth Apartments, he would naturally be overwhelmed. This project might never become popular, but the cleaning and management of the building had to be recruited.
He must hire at least one cleaner as long as there was one resident in this building.
It would be impossible to get Liang Qingfan to do everything when there were more houses next time, right? He was an architect after all. He had to be responsible for all the design works as well as the on-site construction.
Pei Qian, therefore, was interested in observing Song Kai for a few days. If he felt that this person was ok, he would also make him the person-in-charge of Sloth Apartments to give Liang Qingfan a helping hand. “Unpack it and give me the item directly,” Pei Qian said.
Song Kai opened it, took out the squarish black box from within, and handed it to Boss Pei’s hands.
Pei Qian reached out and took it. He found that this thing was heavier than he expected, but it was not too difficult to move.
That was the improved version of the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine. Zhang Wang arranged for it to be delivered directly to Pei Qian’s residence.
Song Kai closed the door knowingly and took the empty box away.
Pei Qian held the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine and looked around the living room at a loss.
No place to put it!
This thingy was neither big nor small. It was too large to fit on the shelf as an ornament… yet too small to put in the corner of the room or next to the TV cabinet. In other words, this strange size satisfied Pei Qian.
Pei Qian eventually still decided to put it on the coffee table after he looked around.
Then, it looked strangely appropriate. He could reach it while sitting on the chair next to it. The operation for ‘bickering’ was rather smooth as well.
“Very good, Zhang Wang, I’ll trust you once more. I’ll invest in any project that you propose if you make this project a loss!”.
The system obviously had restrictions on the backlog of goods. They did not allow producing goods endlessly when there was a backlog of goods. However, a backlog of 20,000 to 30,000 units should not be a problem.
That meant to say that as long as this project were to meet Pei Qian’s expectations, it would be easy to burn millions to make 20,000 to 30,000 units of the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine.
Pei Qian began carefully examining this Fully-Automated Bickering Machine which he had high hopes for.
The Fully-Automated Bickering Machine was several times larger than the samples that Zhang Wang made previously. It was pure black with a matte texture, but with gold edges on it. It had a low-key and luxurious feel to it.
Pei Qian operated the first wave of the ‘bickering’.
The Fully-Automated Bickering Machine would always go back to its original position every time it was lifted.
If the bar was continuously lifted, the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine would restore the lifted metal rods in the corresponding order. It would make a full recovery and be regarded as a ‘continuous bar lifting’ state.
A reading would be displayed on the box in a purely mechanical way at this time. Once all the sticks were restored, the ‘continuous lifting’ state would be over, and the number on the box would return to zero.
Other than that, Pei Qian also noticed that the materials inside the box seemed to have been improved. The Y shaped rod became gold, and its shape seemed to be redesigned, filled with a finely crafted texture.
The cost had doubled from 200 to 400 yuan after all. All this money was spent on these useless fine details.
Pei Qian played with it for two minutes before losing interest in it. Who would want to buy this lousy sh*t for 488 yuan? That would be mental!
Firstly, it served no practical purpose.
Secondly, it was a pure black box with gold rims. Even if it had a frosted texture, not many people would use it as an ornament since many better things could be bought for the same price.
Pei Qian was so satisfied that he gave He Desheng a call immediately.
“I received the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine. It’s great; mass-produce and pay for it immediately! Hmm… it is cheaper if we make more? Let’s stock 20,000 units of them first then!”
Producing 20,000 units for the first batch and leaving them all in the warehouse. Eight million yuan would be gone in an instant.
Of course, Pei Qian would consider continuing to increase stocks if the early sales were not good. However, the exact amount would have to depend on the system.
However, in any case, Pei Qian could be said to have high hopes for Zhang Wang’s Fully-Automated Bickering Machine!
June 7th, dinner time…
At Ming Yun Private Kitchen…
‘Ming Yun Private Kitchen’ was how Tengda called it internally. Everyone else called it a ‘nameless restaurant’, which was made famous because people could not find it online at all.
Two tall blondes arrived at the front entrance of the villa.
“Elena, I did not expect this place to be so remote. I wouldn’t have come along with you if I’d known.”
“Alright, Jessica. A very good friend of mine made a reservation two months in advance. It’s my first time here as well; complain only after you think this local restaurant is not worth its reputation after we tried it.”
“Alright, but I would not give any face if their food isn’t good.”
“That goes without saying; I’m the same.”
They spoke in English, their voice neither high nor low. They chatted as they walked in.
One of the waiters in the lobby noticed. He walked up immediately and greeted them in fluent English. “Hello, Miss Elena and Miss Jessica, right?”
The reservation system had its advantages and disadvantages for Ming Yun Private Kitchen. The disadvantage was that anyone who wanted to try it had to make reservations two months in advance. They had to wait for a very long time to eat a meal.
However, this also came with certain advantages. For example, the number of guests who dined every day was fixed so Ming Yun Private Kitchen would never be crowded. The privacy of every guest could be guaranteed. At the same time, the waiters could prepare in advance to cater to individuals.
Lin Canrong specially arranged for a more famous simultaneous interpretation service provider in Jingzhou to receive them.
This young man was Jia Nuo. His English name was Lucas and had been doing simultaneous interpretation work for several years. He was well-known in Jingzhou but was worried about the prospects of his work. Simultaneous interpretation might be highly paid, but it was too tiring so he was considering changing careers.
Lin Canrong offered this young man 40,000 yuan a month. He only needed to come and receive foreign guests when they came in to dine. The maximum number of receptions was eight times a month, and they would pay him extra if he needed to work overtime.
This price might seem high, but it was not when compared to Jia Nuo’s original simultaneous interpretation job.
Jia Nuo’s service targets were mainly foreign companies in the past. His standard charges per day were about 8,000 yuan. However, that was calculated based on an eight-hour work system. That meant that he would quote 4,000 to 5,000 yuan if it was a four-hour meeting.
It was the year 2011 after all. These services would be more valuable a few years later.
Those who did not understand would calculate Jia Nuo’s salary based on a 22-day work month. That would mean that his salary would be 100,000 yuan a month. However, that was not the case.
Simultaneous interpretation was very tiring work; moreover, a large amount of preparatory work was required for large-scale business meetings. They might even need to prepare for a week or two prior to the meeting which consumed a lot of energy and time. That work was very detrimental to health.
Jia Nuo’s hourly salary might look high, but his annual income was only about 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.
Therefore, Jia Nuo accepted Lin Canrong’s invitation. On the one hand, he would have a stable monthly income. He would be able to obtain 40,000 yuan while lying at home if no guests were requiring him. On the other hand, he would be able to obtain extra money according to the pricing standard so he was not at a loss anyway. Moreover, Lin Canrong felt that it was necessary to have such a professional onboard. It might be a loss if there were no foreign guests, but as a waiter in Ming Yun Private Kitchen, Jia Nuo had to learn the English vocabulary for catering, recipes, and details of various meals and go through special service training-including mannerism, wording, expression management, and the like.
To Lin Canrong, paying a basic salary of 40,000 yuan a month was very cost-effective. Moreover, the quality of translation would translate into totally different standards.
Dining paid attention to color, fragrance, and taste. The naming of the food was as poetic as possible. It was two totally different concepts when one simply conveyed the meaning or to translate it faithfully and elegantly to foreign friends.
A smile immediately appeared on Jessica’s face when she heard his fluent English and saw his handsome appearance.
He could only say that this world was a sucker for looks…
Jia Nuo brought them to the largest private room. The tableware, tables, and chairs on the dining table had already been arranged for two; the decoration in the private room had been changed.
The meal had been booked in advance so there was no menu.
Most ingredients were special, and some dishes required more than a dozen steps in their preparation. That was why they could not be ordered on the spot. Elena smiled and said, “Lucas, the friend that pre-ordered for us told us that he ordered two of your most complicated and unique dishes. There are also new dishes this month. I hope that is not an exaggeration.
“In fact, my friend Jessica always had some prejudice against Chinese food. I’m looking forward to you being able to overturn that prejudice today.”