Chapter 109: Competition

Xu Tingsheng did not explain himself to Old Wai, hurriedly hanging up and continuing with the sealing. Another call came in, “Xu Tingsheng, randomly sealing a home tutor’s account like this, have you gone bonkers?”

“Huh, how come it’s you?” Xu Tingsheng found it to be very unexpected, because this call was made by Lu Zhixin from the riverside residence.

Before the start of the winter holidays, Lu Zhixin had once come over to help, having been of great assistance as she had helped Hucheng to seal its first training institute student recruitment business deal. Back then, she had said that if he didn’t mind, she would be here over the entire span of the winter holidays. In the end, Xu Tingsheng had said that he minded.

Therefore, Lu Zhixin should not have appeared again. Now, however, it was evident that she was continuing to participate in the management and operation of Hucheng Education.

Therefore, it was Lu Zhixin who had previously sealed Xu Tingsheng’s 5-Star home tutor account. Currently, it was also Lu Zhixin who was going against Xu Tingsheng, repeatedly unsealing the account of that 1-Star home tutor.

With Lu Zhixin currently directly giving him a call like this, it went to say that she did not mind him discovering that she was still participating in Hucheng’s operations at all. To put it more harshly, she did not take herself to be an outsider at all.

Xu Tingsheng had thought that this would be a difficult, troubling conversation. However, this didn’t actually happen at all, with Lu Zhixin speaking entirely in a businesslike manner, not mentioning the previous incident in the slightest. Meanwhile, her position was the representative of Hucheng Education’s ‘second greatest shareholder’, Fang Chen.

This was the reason for her unshakeable confidence. Meanwhile, Xu Tingsheng was troubled by the fact that it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to get rid of her anymore.

“When you’ve returned, I’ve got a few plans that I would like to discuss with you,” Lu Zhixin said at the end of it.

Clearly, she had already completely entered her role. If she really just acted in a businesslike manner like this in the future, just being in a normal cooperative relationship, Xu Tingsheng wouldn’t mind it.

Still, he did not think it would be like this, because Lu Zhixin having become Fang Chen’s representative in Hucheng was itself already abnormal.

Hanging up the phone, Xu Tingsheng stopped sealing that account.

However, he grew even more worried. What if the two sides swiftly reached an agreement? With the new semester soon to start, many student home tutors were already beginning to accept new jobs. Over this period of time, the number of agreements reached on the platform had been unceasingly reaching new highs.

Through the communication method obtained over the backend, Xu Tingsheng added the Mathematics student in question, Gu Yan, on QQ.

“Hi, there’s something that I would like to discuss with you. Please reject the home tutor application for a student named Xiang Ning, okay? I can provide you with other types of compensation, including monetary remuneration,” Xu Tingsheng said.

“I just called your service number. Are you Hucheng Education’s boss?” the girl, Gu Yan asked.

“You could say that.”

“Then, it was you who sealed my account just now?”

“I was feeling overwhelmed. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, that’s within your authority.”

“I’m really sorry. Then, can you consider my request?”

“I won’t consider it. That’s within my authority.”

“Why? The hourly salary that this student offers is not high.”

“Because this lady hates the forceful use of authority the most. Therefore, I’m very sorry, but I’ll be going against you. Otherwise, why don’t you seal my account again?”

“...”

The chick was as valiant as this, even being a warrior. Xu Tingsheng wanted to cry but lacked the tears for such. Damn woman, this Uncle will prick a voodoo doll and curse you.

The morning after the Spring Lantern Festival, Xu Tingsheng left Libei and returned to Yanzhou. With how things were now, he still had a plan, his sole plan, which was to look for Xiang Ning’s form teacher, Liu Xueli.

Actually, directly going to look for Xiang Ning might also work out. From their previous two phone conversations, he could tell that the little girl was already much closer to him. However, even if she agreed, if her parents didn’t, it still wouldn’t be of any use.

Meanwhile, the sole person who could let Little Xiang Ning’s parents set their hearts at ease in accepting Xu Tingsheng, a male home tutor, was her form teacher, Liu Xueli.

After having called Mrs Liu, Xu Tingsheng directly went over to her house bearing gifts for a late new year’s greetings. Afterwards, he brought up that request of his in a rather awkward manner.

Maybe because Xu Tingsheng seemed to be a good kid, maybe because their past interactions had caused Liu Xueli to trust him, maybe because Mrs Liu still believed that lie which Xu Tingsheng had once constructed, with Xu Tingsheng’s university entrance examination results also really being very persuasive...

Liu Xueli helped him to call Xiang Ning’s parents, pretending to have coincidentally learnt that they were currently looking for a home tutor. She made Xu Tingsheng out to be a distant relative of hers, recommending him to them.

Parents always found the words of teachers to be the most trustworthy, holding the greatest weight. Little Xiang Ning’s parents no longer minded that Xu Tingsheng was male. Currently, what they were troubled about was that they had already found a 1-Star home tutor on Hucheng Education Service Platform, having already reached an agreement with her.

After hearing of this, Xu Tingsheng left Liu Xueli’s house and returned to the riverside residence.

Li Linlin also having already returned, Old Wai naturally came back early as well. The two students who had come to help out over the winter holidays were also present. Because of the development of their operations, Xu Tingsheng had already discussed with Old Wai earlier on and decided to hire them for the long term.

Yet two days later, the two technical personnel Old Wai had found would also officially arrive.

Lu Zhixin was there as well.

She had previously said that she had a few plans to discuss with Xu Tingsheng, having drawn up proposals for all of them. Seeing that Xu Tingsheng had returned early, she immediately took out a stack of documents and handed it over to him.

It had to be said that this girl was really very professional in her work. If Xu Tingsheng had been running Hucheng more like a casual workshop earlier on, Lu Zhixin was currently in the midst of gradually developing it into an official company through her own influence.

Xu Tingsheng brought the documents back to his room and perused them. There was one related to a salary framework and employee discipline, one related to the development of Hucheng’s operations in other cities, one related to the establishment of Hucheng’s own training institute...

All these were things that Xu Tingsheng had wanted to do yet had not had the time for as he felt admiration at Lu Zhixin’s capabilities once again.

In the business domain, this Miss Lu was definitely a horse that could run a thousand li. Also, she did not have to be sought for by a worthy general and acquired with a thousand pieces of gold...she had run over on her own, unable to be gotten rid of no matter what.

As compared to all those earlier proposals which were generally related only to Hucheng’s future development, Xu Tingsheng saw a comparatively less important proposal at the end which proposed a change to the rules of the platform. Li Zhixin proposed establishing a ‘home tutor trial’ as well as a ‘competition selection’ system on the platform.

Previously, the platform had been using a 1-to-1 choice system. As soon as an agreement was reached, unless the parents or the selected home tutor backed out, no one else would stand a chance.

Lu Zhixin’s proposal would enable both home tutors and parents to have a greater variety of choices from which they could make the most suitable choice, with the platform allowing for home tutor trials as well as competition selection.

For those home tutor positions that attracted more than a single registered home tutor due to high salaries or some other reason, if both sides agreed to it, a competition selection could be carried out with the parents making the final choice.

Of course, if the registered home tutor was unwilling or was just too busy, they could naturally refuse the trial session as well.

To sum it up, with the current supply of registered home tutors unable to meet the corresponding demand, this system would actually not be relevant to many of the platform’s users. If actually implemented, its function would basically only apply to those home tutor positions that attracted many applicants.

Without question, this system of competition would be beneficial for those more outstanding home tutors, also enabling the parents to make a more informed choice, thereby increasing their satisfaction as well as approval towards the platform.

Xu Tingsheng really loved this proposal to death. The reason for this, of course, was far from merely its effects on the platform’s future development.

Xu Tingsheng grabbed the proposal and dashed to the office on the third storey whereupon he threw it down on the table and exclaimed joyfully, “This proposal is really just perfect! No need to hesitate. Old Wai, get on with the programming. Get this implemented with immediate effect.”

“Don’t we have to discuss and refine it a little? I’m afraid that there might be flaws or deficiencies somewhere,” Lu Zhixin asked rather worriedly.

“It’s fine! If there’s a problem, we can just change it after it’s been implemented. Implement it now, yeah, right now!” Xu Tingsheng firmly instructed.

......

Hucheng Education Service Platform announced the home tutor trial and competition selection system, which was very well received from both parents and registered home tutors alike. Many people were raring to try it, with quite a few affluent parents planning to use a sky-high price to attract many home tutors to apply, thereby selecting the best possible candidate for their child.

However, Hucheng Education’s first competition selection occurred over a home tutor position with a lower middle class salary range.

Little Xiang Ning had been in a huff these past few days, holding an exceptionally deep grudge against Hucheng Education Service Platform. The ‘tragic situation’ of having a teacher both in school and at home-it seemed like she would not be able to avoid it.

Just earlier, her mother had told her that there would be two home tutors coming to teach her the next day. She was to listen to them earnestly and pick the one whom she thought was best.

“This is like asking me to be a judge? ...When the time comes, I’ll say that both of them were lousy. Ha!” Little Xiang Ning thought, “Like I’d want a home tutor.”

Meanwhile, already not having prepared lesson materials for many years, Xu Tingsheng was currently in the midst of frantic preparation. He was even more nervous, even more earnest than he had been in his previous life when he had attended that provincial teaching competition...