Chapter 5: The Little Career Boat Is About to Set Sail
Before heading into town, Xiang Yu first went to check on the hot spring construction site. The “hot spring” that now looked more like a public restroom had already been enclosed by construction barriers.
The barriers were set up very high. Inside, the sound of electric drills and constant banging echoed from time to time. At the entrance, several dump trucks and pile drivers were parked, creating quite a spectacle.
Villagers gathered nearby, pointing and commenting. When they saw Xiang Yu arrive, they all looked her over. The joke about her and Director Ji’s gathering at the village entrance last night, where they were poisoned by mushrooms, should have spread throughout most of the village. Some people chuckled, others of the older men came up to greet her and even offered her cigarettes.
Xiang Yu bought a sack of peaches and several bottles of oil-preserved chicken mushrooms. Both the peaches and the mushroom jars were carefully wrapped in layers of bubble wrap to prevent damage. Not daring to take the bus, she hitched a ride with a local farmer who was driving a three-wheeled vehicle into town. Sitting in the open sidecar, she hugged her local specialties as the vehicle rattled from the country road onto the highway and all the way to the entrance of Xihai University.
Her academic advisor was actually waiting for her at the gate. The moment he saw the peaches, he kept saying “you really shouldn’t have,” and when she handed over the mushrooms, he was so pleased he couldn’t stop smiling. He even helped carry her sack, but didn’t take her straight to the office—instead, he made a round through the administrative building, distributing peaches as he went.
He kept talking nonstop: “Our department’s young entrepreneur,” “I never expected Xiao Xiang wouldn’t sign a contract and would just become a boss herself,” “If any of your classmates have employment issues, they can come to my student…”
After finishing his rounds, the advisor still wasn’t satisfied. He insisted she give a talk during evening self-study to the younger students. Xiang Yu firmly and emotionally refused, silently resolving to work properly and seriously from now on—so that the advisor’s boasting wouldn’t, 28 days later, turn into the horrifying news headline: “University graduate dies unexpectedly.”
But after all that circling around, she actually did manage to trick… no, attract a student who genuinely had employment concerns.
One of them was introduced by a clinical medicine teacher. Her name was Du Zhilan—a name as elegant and ethereal as she was. She was tall, thin, and had an equally otherworldly, fairy-like presence.
Her graduate school application direction was dermatology and burn care. After failing her first attempt at the entrance exam, she became disheartened. Because she had been focused on preparing for the second-stage interview, she missed the deadline for the hospital’s standardized residency training exam. Without a residency certificate or medical license after graduation, she couldn’t get into a good hospital. She ended up working part-time at a beauty clinic to earn money, while continuing to prepare for a second attempt at both the graduate entrance exam and the required certifications.
Originally, she had been somewhat ambitious and proud. After years of hard studying, ending up massaging clients’ faces in a beauty salon felt like a waste of her abilities. The beauty clinic—run by a somewhat shady boss—also didn’t let employees idle around. When there were no customers, she still had to help clean, leaving her almost no time to study. Her monthly salary was only 2,800 yuan.
Although she wouldn’t be doing any real technical work at Xiang Yu’s place either, seeing a fellow university student still felt reassuring and familiar.
Moreover, Xiang Yu had just secured a startup fund that would be disbursed soon. For a financially struggling student, it was a fairly generous amount, and she was willing to spend it.
Most people start a business to make money, but she was doing it to save her life. If she couldn’t hire anyone and couldn’t open for business, then even a large startup fund would be useless.
So her conditions were very flexible. She could take her time finding the right people once things stabilized, but she needed to open quickly and get good reviews to solve the urgent situation.
“The workplace is a bit remote. We provide accommodation and meal subsidies. When there are no customers, you can study, and if you get into grad school, you can resign anytime. There’s no probation period.”
Du Zhilan’s eyes lit up slightly.
“The job mainly involves skincare and skin care treatments, similar to what you do at the beauty clinic. But the location is quite remote, far from the city center. It’s also a small setup—our hot spring site is still under renovation. The initial salary will be relatively low, but if customer flow improves later, we’ll raise it. And if it gets too exhausting, I’ll find a way to hire more people. In any case, you’ll definitely have time to study.”
Xiang Yu completely understood her classmates’ obsession with “getting in,” and after a pause, she said faintly:
“It’s just that this job might not be very stable. If I’m still alive, I’ll do my best to pay you wages. If I die, then… that’s another story.”
Du Zhilan took it in. With the simple sincerity typical of a university student, she replied:
“It’s fine. If I get into a program next year, I probably won’t be working here for long anyway.”
“Alright then, think of it as a temporary transition. But you need to start next week. As for the salary—”
Xiang Yu raised her thumb.
“Six thousand. Fifty yuan commission per client.”
“Wh—what??”
Du Zhilan even reached up to scratch her ear, suspecting she had misheard.
“Six thousand.”
She hesitated and reminded carefully, “Boss, I don’t even have my certificates yet.”
For medical students now, job requirements basically meant a “four-in-one” qualification: residency training certificate, medical license, degree certificate, and master’s diploma. Missing even one made everything impossible. Even if you collected all four, it still didn’t magically turn into a “Dragon Ball”—it only meant you could start hospital work from a basic salary of around three thousand a month.
Hearing her say it so naturally, Xiang Yu just laughed.
“You’ll get a raise once you have your certificates. You’re a professional talent—after all those years of hard study, aren’t you worth six thousand?”
She patted the girl on the shoulder. Although they were technically the same graduating class and not really different in seniority, and although the other girl had studied medicine for five years and was even a year older than her, it didn’t stop Xiang Yu from calmly playing the “boss” role and painting a picture of a monthly income exceeding ten thousand.
Du Zhilan’s eyes instantly turned red.
“Boss… you’re not a scammer, are you?”
What kind of child says that?
With the endorsement of the counselor and the department, Xiang Yu had already recruited her first “general.”
What followed went unexpectedly smoothly. There was no need to go door-to-door persuading stubborn holdouts. University students weren’t fools—they wouldn’t quit a real job just to pressure the counselor into ruining his employment statistics.
Du Zhilan seriously signed a one-year contract with Xiang Yu. She carefully asked about the remaining positions, then went back to her dorm group chat and posted a message.
Overnight, under the lure of phrases like “free room and board,” “6,000 yuan monthly salary,” “no probation period,” and “you can quit once you pass your exams,” Xiang Yu quickly gathered several key recruits.
The finance position was taken by an international trade major who also happened to hold an accounting certificate. The management and logistics role went to a business administration student who had, on top of that, earned a tour guide license.
The bathhouse area staff consisted of one man and one woman, both from Chinese Literature majors who had failed their civil service exams—one with an English TEM-8 certificate, the other with a Japanese N2 qualification.
The guy in charge of management even negotiated his salary with Xiang Yu in great spirits. He was a fitness enthusiast with muscles like Schwarzenegger. At the time, “Schwarzenegger” performed an improvised, imaginary demonstration of hotel linen folding, energetically acting out the “four-corner elastic wrap mattress cover, aligning the center line of the sheet with the mattress center line” standard of a five-star hotel.
Xiang Yu could only respond with “okay, okay,” though the hotel hadn’t even been built yet. The guy looked slightly disappointed, then went on to perform another impromptu demonstration—this time about checking towel fold lines for smoothness and proper drape—declaring solemnly that, although there were no beds yet, he, Liu Bo, would defend the “disinfection cabinet of the hot spring pool” to the death.
He had clearly studied himself into a bit of a daze, but his professional skills were genuinely solid.
In truth, everyone had come for the relaxed conditions and the chance to prepare for civil service or graduate exams. They were all planning to grit their teeth, endure hardship in the remote mountains, and then move on to better opportunities afterward.
Xiang Yu herself might not even be their “backup option”—she was more like the hydraulic jack used while switching from one backup plan to another after the first choice failed.
But even forming such a mismatched, loosely connected group already counted as quite an achievement.
They even created a group chat named “Tianbai Snow Mountain Hama Valley Glacier Park,” very official-looking. Xiang Yu was the group owner, and Liu Bo—the business administration guy—was the administrator. He even assigned custom titles to everyone in the group.
They even added an AI chatbot into the group. Xiang Yu’s group title was “AAA Hama Valley Master,” her status unmistakable.
Du Zhilan was titled “Imperial Physician.” Xiao Shan, the English TEM-8 holder, and Xiao Tian, the Japanese N2 holder, were assigned as the “Left and Right Buddhist Guardian Boys (Hot Spring Edition).” The finance officer, Mu Qian, received the title “Accountant,” and even changed her profile picture to a cartoon avatar wearing sunglasses and holding an abacus.
Since they were all about the same age, everyone neatly lined up in the group chat and kept spamming “Hello boss.”
Xiang Yu felt her blood boil with excitement. Her “little career boat” was already preparing to set sail, so she happily sent out a group red packet.
Everyone cheered and rushed to grab it. Xiao Tian led the way by sending a monkey salute “respect” sticker, and the rest followed with a flood of flattery stickers—loyal servant memes, “at your command, boss,” “willing to serve boss forever,” and all kinds of exaggerated obedience emojis. The atmosphere quickly turned lively and festive.
[[Gained satisfaction from 5 employees] Reward: Skill card draw ×1]
!!!
So not only customer reviews counted for rewards—employee satisfaction did too!
When walking the world, how could one not have skills for self-defense? When she first arrived at Hama Valley, Xiang Yu had even brought two collapsible batons, just in case she ran into trouble she couldn’t handle.
Although those skill cards like “tearing apart Japanese soldiers” or “flashy nunchaku tricks” didn’t exactly inspire much desire to try them…
Xiang Yu accepted the card. She wasn’t sure whether the skill was one-time use or not—if she used it carelessly, it would be a waste. It had to be saved for the right moment.
What a pity that the number of employees in a scenic area was always limited compared to customers. There wasn’t much she could farm from them—otherwise, she’d gladly let each employee live in a villa and drive a luxury car if it meant more rewards.
Looking at the clear, almost innocent eyes of the university students in front of her, Xiang Yu simply sent out another red packet and said a few perfunctory words about everyone working hard and, at the very least, “rowing the same boat for this one year together.”
Liu Bo got “lucky king” twice in a row. Everyone started teasing him, urging him to send another round. He didn’t hesitate at all, launching into an elaborate speech—how it was all thanks to the boss’s generosity that he had good luck, how he was grateful for the opportunity given by “Boss Xiang,” and how he would definitely work hard. He also added that since their business was just starting and things weren’t easy, once they officially began work he would treat everyone to milk tea.
Mu Qian, the accountant, told him to stop with the empty talk and just send another red packet already.
So he generously sent a group red packet: 200 yuan × 6. The group exploded in “holy crap” reactions, everyone cheering and thanking the “dog admin” enthusiastically.
Mu Qian casually mentioned in the group that Liu Bo’s father ran a Sheraton hotel in the city, and that he had run away from home after an argument with his father, so his father had ordered that his son’s salary be withheld.
No wonder he spoke so fluently—turns out he was basically a hotel heir who came here to “experience life” like Schwarzenegger’s rich kid version.
With the group atmosphere heating up, Xiang Yu took the opportunity to post some employee training materials she had found on the “Hama Valley” app. They were mostly about emergency responses like drowning rescue. Since her scrappy little setup couldn’t provide professional onboarding training, she simply sent over videos and written guides.
Liu Bo quickly set up a group to-do list. After a while, he sent out a notice asking everyone to move to the “X-Star Learning Platform” and join the class group. The videos had been uploaded, everyone needed to finish watching them, complete the assigned tasks, and then take a 5-minute quiz. Passing the quiz would count as online check-in within the required time.
Everyone immediately replied: “Received.”
Xiang Yu: “……”
This level of self-management… no wonder they all ended up in university.
A while later, Liu Bo messaged her privately, sounding like a court eunuch relaying imperial orders, asking whether the videos should have anti-skip and anti-fast-forward settings, whether viewing should require answering questions to continue, and also noting that the Learning Platform couldn’t properly support off-campus employees—so he was planning to set up a DingTalk version as well.
Xiang Yu discovered that this guy really was a talent. The two of them chatted further about the unique management issues of a hot spring facility—for example, checking blood pressure for elderly visitors before they enter the pool, providing facial masks for female customers, preparing snacks and drinking water nearby, and making sure guests eat and hydrate properly before soaking to prevent dehydration.
In fact, Xiang Yu still had one lingering concern.
Although the system was extremely realistic in all the unnecessary details, its core origin was still clearly supernatural. It had once issued announcements like “encouraging immortals of the Three Realms, spiritual beasts of the Four Divinities, and earthly entrepreneurs to actively participate,” and “fully integrating resources across the Three Realms.”
So where were they?
Where were the immortals, the spirit beasts, and the “Three Realms resources”?
The place was about to open, and she hadn’t even seen a single strand of animal hair from some mystical beast. Even if they couldn’t summon storms or move mountains, at least a sentient monkey standing at the entrance doing tricks would be fine.
But this was not something she could talk about openly. She could only vent indirectly to Liu Bo while discussing random operational details.
For example, tomorrow she would find a professional designer and copywriter to produce promotional brochures, so the system-enhanced equipment would actually look impressive when advertised.
And for walk-in customers who came on a whim and didn’t bring swimsuits, towels, or slippers, they should be provided with clean sets. The scenic area had a disinfection room, but first-time visitors would probably feel more comfortable with disposable supplies.
She and Liu Bo chatted while taking notes. By the end, they were both still slightly unsatisfied, so she asked the employees to help promote the place in their university group chats while she handled renovations and procurement.
Right now.
Open for business immediately.