Chapter 81: Let’s hand out flyers

Hanging up the phone, Xu Tingsheng decided to put this matter aside for the time being. Perhaps Lu Zhixin would change her mind when the time came, and perhaps he wouldn’t even get to play in the match at all. And even if he did play, it was also not guaranteed that he would be able to score. Therefore, there was no need to worry himself over this.

Younglings often feel uneasy after having committed a mistake, remaining in a state of constant fear and worry. Men in their thirties, meanwhile, would already have learnt to only worry about the matters directly before their eyes. If a better solution could really not be found for the time being, they would just cross that bridge when it came to it.

At most, it it really came to that, he would just submit himself to that embarrassment, leaving Lu Zhixin satisfied.

Xu Tingsheng did not question whether this matter was in itself any suspicious. This stemmed from his understanding of Lu Zhixin. He knew her to be someone who was indifferent to the point of even being a little cold. With her personality, she would surely not be harbouring any little schemes in secret.

Perhaps the idea might have been proposed to Lu Zhixin by someone else. However, at the end of the day, she had accepted it and conveyed it to him. While the request was a little overbearing, having decided to choose it, she had not partially distorted or concealed the truth in scheming or beat around the bush, just having directly thrown the decision over to him just like that.

Lu Zhixin had been very clear cut in the matter, in effect expressing: I’ve already made the request. I can’t force you to do it if you don’t want to. The final decision lies with you.

Just like how she had directly and straightforwardly handed Xu Tingsheng a scarf in front of the male dormitory, she remained ever straightforward in her actions. Xu Tingsheng felt that it was great like this. What he was most afraid of was encountering those who were always going around and around in circles, crying out hysterically at every turn as they remained an eternal source of bother and harassment.

The examinations continued, and the testing of Hucheng Education Service Platform continued as well.

On the fourth day that the platform went online, the number of registered home tutors rose to 25. Looking over their information, Xu Tingsheng felt that they might not purely consist of people who’d come to show their support this time.

What truly made him joyful was the fact that two parents had registered as well.

Still, what made him feel yet more joyful came yet afterwards. When Xu Tingsheng was eating together with his roommates that evening with Old Wai also present, it was Xu Tingsheng’s number that Li Linlin called.

It seemed like Li Linlin’s ’employee sense’ was very strong. In work matters, it was naturally her ‘boss’ whom she first thought of.

Li Linlin told Xu Tingsheng over the phone that the first home tutor inclination had just been completed over the platform five minutes ago. It was a parent who had taken the initiative and made this choice, and the home tutor who had been chosen had accepted this winter holiday home tutoring job as well.

The university student who had accepted the job was one of the first five people to have registered, being a friend of Li Linlin’s who came from an exceptionally poor family. She had already informed her parents that she would not be returning home for the new year as she would instead be remaining here to work.

Due to the new year elapsing in between, it was not easy to find home tutors for the winter holidays. The wages offered by the parent had been rather good, Li Linlin’s friend having been very satisfied with it as well.

Everything was progressing in a good direction. Xu Tingsheng knew the advantage his platform possessed. Other home tutoring intermediaries would usually charge both the home tutors and the parents, obtaining an introduction fee from the former and an information fee from the latter.

Also, in order to spur their business on, they would generally embellish the information of both sides. Even if the requirements and specialities of the two sides did not match, they would still forcibly bring them together. Their level of trustworthiness was not very high.

These detriments of theirs were all to Xu Tingsheng’s advantage.

A few days later, the number of home tutors registered on the platform had risen to a shocking 127. Meanwhile, 19 parents had registered, with a total of 8 tutor-parent agreements having already been reached.

Making use of there being no examinations the next day, Xu Tingsheng invited Old Wai and Li Linlin to the riverside residence, personally cooking dinner for them and even preparing a few bottles of wine.

The first ever meeting of Hucheng Education’s higher echelons...consisted of three people, seated around a small squarish table.

Old Wai had already more or less recovered from his injuries as he accompanied Xu Tingsheng in drinking some wine. Even Li Linlin drank a little as well. After the meal was over, Xu Tingsheng took out ten thousand yuan from his wallet that he had prepared beforehand and placed it in front of Li Linlin.

“Year end bonus plus advance salary. Keep some for yourself and bring some presents back home for your family when you return for the new year.”

Actually, Xu Tingsheng had agreed from the start to give Old Wai and Li Linlin salaries as well as shares. This problem had not yet been discussed thus far, and Xu Tingsheng currently didn’t plan on talking about it as well. One ultimately had to be a little more prudent in matters regarding internal operations. He intended to wait till some additional staff had first been recruited over the next semester before properly consolidating and establishing a standard salary framework.

Xu Tingsheng not having talked about it, Old Wai and Li Linlin had not asked about it as well. Li Linlin had even straightforwardly and decisively resigned from two home tutoring jobs under such circumstances, fully devoting herself to the operations of Hucheng Education Service Platform.

In all honesty, the time and effort Old Wai and Li Linlin had spent on the platform far surpassed that by Xu Tingsheng himself.

Such a relationship where feelings were greater than the established internal system clearly wouldn’t be beneficial towards a company’s development in the long run. However, at the entrepreneurial phase of starting up a company, it instead had the greatest motivating force. Sharing weal and woe as they worked together towards a common goal would raise one’s spirits the most, leading to the greatest driving force.

It was just like how when the first tutor-parent agreement had been achieved on the platform, Li Linlin and Old Wai had been even more excited and moved than Xu Tingsheng.

Li Linlin and Old Wai harboured gratitude and trust towards Xu Tingsheng, and Xu Tingsheng would reciprocate this in kind.

Of the thirty thousand yuan that Xu Tingsheng had previously dispensed to Old Wai, 5000 yuan had remained. When Old Wai had tried to return it to Xu Tingsheng, the latter had let him keep it as an advance salary. Now, he had given Li Linlin ten thousand as well.

That five thousand and this ten thousand both did not conform to any internal regulations. However, they conformed to feelings. Xu Tingsheng knew that Old Wai and Li Linlin weren’t greedy people who would try to take advantage of him the more benevolent he appeared to be. On the contrary, they had even hinted to him in a veiled manner several times that they while they would receive their salaries, they were unwilling to accept the company’s shares.

“I won’t give what I shouldn’t; I’ll definitely give what I should. Since I’m giving it, you shouldn’t refuse it.”

This was what Xu Tingsheng said to the hesitating Li Linlin. Maybe he really had the aura of a ‘boss’, or maybe it was because Old Wai and Li Linlin had always regarded him as an elder brother. Li Linlin resisted no further, obediently keeping the ten thousand yuan.

What did ten thousand yuan currently entail? It even exceeded the cost of 3 years of Li Linlin’s university fees. It might even exceed the annual income that Li Linlin’s parents who came from an exceptionally poor county earned from farming every year.

Her eyes red, Li Linlin said, “Thank you, Brother Xu.”

“If you cry over just a mere ten thousand, you’d go mad in the future...a little woman’s just a little woman, shallow in her vision,” Old Wai commented from beside her.

He forgot that he had already recovered from his injuries. Li Linlin’s hand reached under the table, pinching him good.

“Bro Xu, save, save me!” Pain evident in his features, Old Wai begged Xu Tingsheng for help.

Xu Tingsheng did not speak, instead giving Li Linlin a thumbs up. A ‘bitch’ like Old Wai had to be properly overseen, strictly and viciously.

Having finished the meal, the three cleared up the table and began their ‘meeting’ proper, investigating the platform’s current situation.

Actually, calling it investigating was a little too much. The current situation and problems with the platform were all very clear cut. Old Wai and Li Linlin were able to sum them up with just a few simple sentences, and Xu Tingsheng himself was very clear on them as well.

They lacked registered parents, and greatly so.

Currently, there was a severe deficit of demand on the platform with regard to supply. As Li Linlin put it, the platform had already achieved quite a bit of popularity in their university, and it was rather well acclaimed as well. The number of registered home tutors would definitely continue increasing amongst them. Also, it was not just Yanzhou University. Even students from some other universities in the city were already beginning to register on the platform as home tutors as well.

Comparatively speaking, the influence of the platform on Yanzhou City’s general public was pitifully small, with extremely few amongst them being aware of its existence.

Xu Tingsheng had originally intended to deal with this problem via advertising and promotion only after having returned the following semester. However, Li Linlin was of the opinion that this could not wait.

Li Linlin had a better understanding than Xu Tingsheng of university students who worked as home tutors.

She had already surveyed and gathered that while there were not many of these home tutors who would consider remaining here over the winter holidays, there was still a certain number of them who might be willing to do so. In consideration for them as well as the development of the platform, they should make use of the remaining time before the end of the semester to do a little something.

Xu Tingsheng acknowledged Li Linlin’s view. Still, what could they do? ...Xu Tingsheng thought of a simplest and possibly also most effective method.

“It’s Friday tomorrow, and the students in the schools will be released for the week. Making use of that, let’s gather some people to distribute fliers at the gates of the various schools.”