Chapter 201 - 177: Impulse Is the Devil (Part 2)

Chapter 201: Chapter 177: Impulse Is the Devil (Part 2)

’If something seems too good to be true, it probably is,’ Xu An thought. ’Since this woman came from Qiansheng Group and is so capable, I should ask President Lu Shengnan about her. I need to confirm if she’s really a Qiansheng Group employee and if she participated in these projects. If it all checks out, I absolutely can’t let her get away!’

Tang Wen saw Xu An fall silent after reading her resume. She assumed he didn’t believe her project experience and suspected she was faking it. She opened her bag again and took out another document. This one was slightly thinner than the last, but it was still seven or eight pages long.

"Boss, this is a marketing proposal I’ve prepared for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. This document outlines the promotional methods for the first two months. I can show you the more specific details after I’m hired."

Xu An, who had been about to ask her to wait while he made a call, silently closed his mouth. He took the document and began to read it carefully. Creating a ’Big Eye’ account for the restaurant, converting customers into promotional traffic, expanding the reputation of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant through the internet, offline events...

The seven or eight pages listed nearly twenty different marketing plans. All of them had one thing in common: they were perfectly suited to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant’s current operational status. They required very little funding, but one could imagine the results would be excellent...

Most of the plans involved promotion through major internet portals. This was still a novel concept at the time; only some foreign companies and those with close ties to the internet industry used such methods. Many publicly traded companies were still in the exploratory phase, or hadn’t even started. From the perspective of 2012, most companies would find this proposal unacceptable. It was simply too forward-thinking—so much so that its creator would be dismissed as an idealistic dreamer, an impractical speculator.

After reading the report, Xu An suddenly understood why Tang Wen had resigned from Qiansheng Group. Trying to convince such a large corporation to attempt something like this would be impossible without special approval from the top.

"Miss Tang, I’m very interested in your work experience and this report you’ve prepared. However, I still need to verify your identity. Would you mind?" Xu An didn’t beat around the bush, telling Tang Wen directly that he needed to do a background check.

"Not at all. Do you need me to provide you with contacts?" Tang Wen nodded calmly and pulled out her phone, ready to find the numbers of her colleagues and superiors for Xu An.

Although Xu An already had Lu Shengnan’s contact information, he didn’t mind having a few more references to help verify Tang Wen’s identity, so he gladly accepted the contacts she provided.

’But these contacts could be fake,’ Xu An mused. In his past life, he’d heard from HR about a candidate whose provided references were all friends and family. They hadn’t coordinated their stories properly, and the deception was discovered after a little more digging. The resume was excellent and the interview went well, but because the background check was falsified, the company had to regrettably stop the hiring process.

He pulled out his phone, scrolled to his contacts, found Lu Shengnan’s name and number, and pressed the call button.

BEEP... BEE-BEEP... BEE-BEE-BEEP...

"Good afternoon, Boss Xu. What can I do for you?" Lu Shengnan’s voice came through the receiver, as crisp and rhythmic as ever.

"Good afternoon, President Lu. I’m calling because I wanted to ask you something..." Xu An explained the situation as he walked outside the restaurant. He finished by asking, "I was wondering, have you ever heard of a person named Tang Wen at the group?"

Xu An had expected Lu Shengnan would need a moment to think or log into the company’s system to check. But as soon as he finished speaking, Lu Shengnan’s voice came from the other end of the line, laced with surprise. "Whoa! Are you saying Tang Wen applied for a marketing planner position at your restaurant?"

"Yes." Xu An nodded. Lu Shengnan’s reaction confirmed that Tang Wen was indeed a Qiansheng Group employee. ’She’s either well-known or has worked with Lu Shengnan before.’

"Tang Wen is indeed one of our employees. She started interning at Qiansheng Group before she even graduated and has worked here ever since." At this point, Lu Shengnan’s tone shifted, and she asked curiously, "But I haven’t heard anything about her resigning. Could it be a candidate with the same name?"

Lu Shengnan’s words subtly conveyed a message to Xu An: the person he was interviewing was likely an imposter.

’I just saw her a few days ago when I went to headquarters to report on a project,’ Lu Shengnan thought. ’I heard she was about to take charge of the marketing for a real estate project within the group. If it went well, she would be promoted to department head. I also heard she was quite excited after accepting the assignment. It’s impossible for her to resign so suddenly. At the very least, she would wait until her current project was finished before leaving.’

"She officially completed her resignation procedures today. She submitted her resignation three days ago," Xu An replied. "Could I trouble you to check the status on Tang Wen’s company account to see if it shows she has resigned, President Lu?"

The request wasn’t unreasonable. Lu Shengnan was curious herself, so she promptly opened the company’s internal portal and logged in with her account and password. She clicked on the employee list; the group’s headquarters alone had over three thousand people. She typed Tang Wen’s name into the search bar at the top and hit Enter.

’Name: Tang Wen. Position: Marketing Planning Team 3 Leader. Status: Resigned.’

Lu Shengnan’s eyes widened. ’Resigned? She actually resigned! And if she was going to resign, why on earth would she go interview at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant?’

To put it bluntly, comparing Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant to Qiansheng Group was like comparing an insignificant ant on the ground to the bright moon in the sky. No matter how bad things got for Tang Wen, she wouldn’t stoop to working at a small roadside shop, would she? What could she even do at Xu’s Fast Food? Stir-fry? Wash vegetables? Wash dishes or clear tables?

Lu Shengnan even felt an impulse to rush over to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, grab Tang Wen by the collar, and ask if she’d lost her mind. Then she’d drag her back to Victory Supermarket and make her a trusted deputy.

But the thought came and went in a flash, disappearing without a trace. ’If I were still at Qiansheng Group headquarters, that might be one thing. But now I’m at Victory Supermarket. It was a promotion in name but a demotion in reality, and I can barely fend for myself. Recruiting Tang Wen under these circumstances would only be harming her.’

However, to confirm whether the person Xu An was talking about was really Tang Wen, she made a bold request. "Boss Xu, would it be convenient for you to take a photo of Tang Wen and send it to me for confirmation? Without a picture, I can’t be sure they’re the same person."

"I’ll have to ask for Miss Tang’s permission." Xu An didn’t agree rashly. He walked back into the restaurant, and only after getting Tang Wen’s consent did he take a frontal photo and send it to Lu Shengnan. He then deleted the photo from his album and emptied the trash bin right in front of Tang Wen.

Less than ten seconds after sending the photo, Xu An received a reply from Lu Shengnan—Yes, that’s Tang Wen, no doubt about it.

After confirming with Lu Shengnan that Tang Wen was indeed a former employee of Qiansheng Group and the lead planner for the projects on her resume, Xu An had no more reservations. He immediately began discussing salary and benefits with her.

Although Qiansheng Group was a large corporation, its salaries were only mid-to-high range. When Tang Wen was an intern, her salary was 1,200 a month. After graduating and becoming a full-time employee, it was 2,000 a month. Before resigning, her base salary was 4,200 a month. However, a position like Tang Wen’s didn’t rely on base salary for survival; it relied on bonuses. Simply put, the better the results of a campaign, the higher the bonus, and the more money she took home. Last month, Tang Wen’s take-home pay was 13,000, and more than 8,000 of that was from bonuses.

A salary of 10,000 wasn’t something Xu An couldn’t afford, but it would completely upset the wage balance among his current employees. Everyone at the restaurant was paid a normal wage. If a newcomer suddenly arrived with a salary two or even three times higher than theirs, who would be happy about that?

’So, I really do need to set up a bonus system,’ he thought. ’But even with bonuses, there’s no way Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant can offer a 10,000 salary at this stage.’ The reason was simple: Xu’s Fast Food was just a small, locally famous restaurant popular with office workers. It couldn’t compare to a behemoth like Qiansheng Group. The impact of the same campaign run by a publicly traded company versus a small roadside shop was worlds apart.

Xu An wasn’t sure if Tang Wen had considered this when she impulsively quit her job to apply at his restaurant, but he reminded her of the issue anyway. Unexpectedly, Tang Wen nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"I thought it through before I resigned. A place the size of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant definitely can’t offer a high salary." Tang Wen suddenly placed both hands on the table, leaned forward to look Xu An in the eye, and lightly tapped the file folder on the desk. She spoke with immense determination, "For me, the salary isn’t what’s important. What’s important is, Boss, will you let me execute the marketing plan according to my ideas?"

Just as Xu An and Tang Wen were staring at each other, an electric tricycle pulled up in front of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Two burly men got out, walked straight into the shop, and called out loudly, "Is the boss here? We’re here to install the shelves."

"Here." Xu An led Tang Wen to the second storefront. They walked past the first floor, which was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items, and went up to the empty second floor. Xu An looked at Tang Wen and flashed a standard smile. "Miss Tang, the restaurant doesn’t have a proper office yet. For the time being, I’ll have to ask you to put up with working here."

"Isn’t this the office?" Tang Wen asked, confused.

"This is the restaurant’s storeroom. I’m having the workers install the electrical wiring and shelves now to clear out an office space," Xu An continued to smile.

Tang Wen surveyed the "office," her gaze falling involuntarily on the two file folders in Xu An’s hands. ’I haven’t signed a contract yet. I could just take my files and leave,’ she thought. ’Should I leave?’

"An... Boss, someone’s here to see you!" Xu Heping’s voice suddenly came from downstairs, followed by the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of people coming up the stairs. Xu An turned to look. His gaze went past Xu Heping to the two men walking behind him: Wang Fulong and Lu Ziyue.

"Boss Xu, let’s talk about the details of the job, like the duties, salary, benefits, and all that..." Wang Fulong’s eyes met Tang Wen’s. Their brainwaves instantly connected, and the same thought appeared in both their minds—’This person is also here for a job!’

Seeing the expressions on their faces, Xu An activated his ’Interrupt’ skill, breaking their silent exchange. He smiled and introduced the two of them and the positions they would hold at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Finally, he pointed to a ten-square-meter open space by the window that had been specially cleared out and said apologetically, "We’ll partition off a small cubicle here. This will be the temporary office for the three of you. We’re currently looking for a new location. It could be as soon as half a month, or as long as two or three months, but I will definitely provide a spacious, bright, and quiet office for you..."

’Activate ’Make Big Promises’ skill.’

’Targeting ’Make Big Promises’ skill.’

’’Make Big Promises’ skill effective. Target’s attitude has changed.’

Under the influence of Xu An’s continuous "big promises," the two reluctantly gave him a sliver of trust, believing his wild tales. The rest went smoothly. Xu An discussed the scope of work and salary with each of the three. After reaching an agreement, he printed out the contracts. Signatures, thumbprints, company seal—the agreements were official.

Because the office area was still under construction and the equipment wasn’t in place, their start time was set for eight o’clock the next morning. Why so soon? Xu An was afraid that if he gave them too much free time, they’d get cold feet and run for it!

As they left, the three of them walked silently to the Zijing Road bus stop. Their six eyes met, and they all saw a hint of regret in each other’s expressions.

’Impulse really is the devil!’