Chapter 594: Group-Buy: A Winning Strategy

The campus activities for the culture week caused a lot of traffic at the venue and Xitian Milk Tea Shop was packed with people.

Xitian launched some new items and with a school event, the flow of customers kind of exploded.

The shop was so busy that Gao Wenhui, the plain milk tea girl, drafted the billionaire owner and group-buy chief technical officer to help out behind the counter.

Once they got through the morning rush, it was finally time for lunch.

As the last customer left, the influx of new patrons finally started to slow down.

The milk tea shop quieted down a bit. The staff and drafted helpers all made themselves a cup of tea and relaxed.

Su Nai just took a sip of her milk tea and was about to say “boss” when Jiang Qin walked in. He covered Feng Nanshu’s ears.

“There’s dirty talk, let’s not listen.”

The little rich girl was stunned for a moment and looked up at Jiang Qin, softly crying out, “Brother!”

Jiang Qin called her “little sister,” which prompted her to object. She wanted him to call her “big sister.”

“Boss, why are you here?”

Jiang Qin recovered and handed over Su Nai’s milk tea: “Drink more milk tea, speak less.”

“Then I’ll drink three cups!”

Nana jumped at the chance and immediately asked for more.

Jiang Qin’s lips twitched: “I’ll make you five cups.”

“Brother, I also want three cups.”

“No.”

Feng Nanshu’s cuteness disappeared and she turned expressionless, tall, cool, and aloof.

At this moment, Gao Wenhui was feeling weak and walked over with her honey lemon water: “Jiang Qin, with our business booming, how about we just close the shop?”

“?”

“What are you yapping about?”

“I’m just too tired. I imagined part-time work meant wearing an apron, leaning on the counter with a smile, reading a romance novel, with the sun shining outside and no customers in the shop. But Xitian is just getting too popular, totally not what I dreamed.”

Gao Wenhui argued convincingly, sucking on her straw.

Jiang Qin chuckled: “My idea of a part-time job is a shop so crowded you can’t move, a queue out the door, the staff too busy to even pee, and then refusing to take their wages because they feel unworthy.”

“???”

“You scammer!”

Jiang Qin sat down again, turning back to Su Nai: “Has the route navigation service for riders been integrated at Gaode now?”

Su Nai nodded: “It’s integrated, but we’re still using text message assignments because some riders don’t have smartphones, and some can’t use the navigation.”

“Smartphones are becoming more common quickly. That won’t be a problem soon. What you need to focus on now is interfacing with Gaode on the route planning feature for courier end use—it’s critical for the future of our delivery service.”

“We’re actually working on that.”

“There’s another feature you may not have heard of, but I hope can be implemented.”

“What feature?”

“A remark function based on the map for food delivery users.”

Su Nai holding her milk tea froze: “Never heard of it.”

Jiang Qin thought for a bit: “Like, I order food, and when the courier picks it up heading to my place, he can see remarks made by previous couriers like ‘lives here, nice guy with a good temper.’”

“Was the last courier blind…”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, I don’t see the use of this feature, but okay.”

“Huh? That was straightforward?”

Su Nai put down her milk tea cup: “I went to a reunion recently and those who chose employment after graduation look much older now. They start complaining as soon as they open their mouths, seeing no future. Boss, maybe I’m the luckiest one.”

The rat race culture in the country has intensified in recent years, especially in tech roles. Working overtime and being on-call has become an unwritten rule.

Good jobs are never short of applicants, so getting into a major company feels like it requires a superhuman effort.

Small companies seek cheap labor from college graduates but still expect them to have substantial experience.

Many fresh graduates struggle to adapt to this, feeling a stark contrast to the carefree university life.

Su Nai doesn’t have to code anymore.

After receiving a task from the boss, she just instructs the tech team and bosses them around.

For her, the most time-consuming tasks now are part-time graduate studies and various business courses arranged by Wei Lanlan.

The gap felt after graduation wasn’t apparent during her university side jobs.

Group-buy, once a college side job, has become fiercely competitive in society now.

“Gao Wenhui, did you hear what Su Nai said? The company gave you an opportunity to gain extensive work experience during your studies. You don’t pay to work, yet you still get a wage. There’s no law in this world.”

“As a milk tea girl, what experience could I possibly gain?” Gao Wenhui protested.

Jiang Qin patted her shoulder: “No profession is superior or inferior. Even a tiny screw can achieve great things.”

“Nonsense. There’s no superior or inferior job, that’s a false notion. Otherwise why would salaries differ so much? Luckily, my status isn’t just a milk tea girl. I’m also the good friend of a fairy-like boss lady.”

“Brown-noser, talking about a fairy. I can’t see what’s so pretty about Feng Nanshu.”

Jiang Qin boasted: “I’m friends with her because of her pure heart, though it’s gotten a bit tainted now.”

Feng Nanshu narrowed her eyes: “I’m not tainted.”

“You’re coveting my body.”

“Still not tainted.”

After chatting for a while, Jiang Qin stood up and took Feng Nanshu to the campus bathhouse for a bath.

They then had dinner and strolled around the cultural week event.

Throughout, a freshly bathed little rich girl kept trying to snuggle up to him, inevitably leading to some verbal sparring.

Feng Nanshu always seemed eager yet clumsy in romance, shivering after each kiss he gave her.

Now that clothes are getting thinner, unlike in winter when you could bundle up, she can’t simply choose not to wear certain things, especially as a curvy girl like her.

Jiang Qin was initially uncomfortable but soon got used to removing clothes with one hand. However, it often went wrong.

“I have an interview at the school tomorrow.”

Feng Nanshu brightened: “Can I come along?”

Jiang Qin kissed her: “Why?”

“You look the most handsome when you’re interviewed.”

“Damn this face fan. We’re supposed to be friends whose relationship is as pure as water, yet you always monopolize me.”

Feng Nanshu felt Jiang Qin’s cold hand, then bit her lip gently and cuddled into his arms, looking rather pitiful.

The night at Linchuan University was serene, but recent rains had raised the water level of Wangyue Lake, making frog sounds incessant under a star-packed sky, creating an atmosphere similar to the hit song “Sakura Grass” from a few years back.

The little rich girl behaved for a while then suddenly whispered in his ear: “Jiang Qin, I am somewhat pretty…”

Jiang Qin paused, then realized that she might be a bit mindful about his comment in the milk tea shop about not seeing her beauty.

“Of course, you’re pretty. I just like to show off and talk about the good things I have as if I don’t care, to make others jealous. But in reality, I treasure them deeply.”

Feng Nanshu heard the words “possession” and “treasure,” her eyes welled up, then she hugged his neck tightly.

Right then, Jiang Qin’s phone pinged twice.

Jiang Qin freed up his enthusiastic hand for friends to check his phone.

It was a message from Chu Siqi.

Gu Chunlei had set up the interview for the next afternoon, and upon hearing this, Chu Siqi hurried to schedule a time.

The last message was for a meeting the next morning and ended with a tilde symbol.

Feng Nanshu watched for a while then, like a little tiger stalking its prey, suddenly bit Jiang Qin’s neck, leaving a mark.

“?”

“Brother, I didn’t mean to.”

“????”

That evening in the male dorm room 302, Jiang Qin found a shirt to put on, checked it in the balcony mirror.

Good grief, the mark Feng Nanshu left was meticulously placed, an angle so peculiar that not even a tight collar could cover it!

Jiang Qin took a deep breath and turned to Zhou Chao, who was updating his reading of “Shielding the Sky”: “Chao, I remember you have a coat that can pop the collar. Can I try it on?”

“Oh, sure.”

Zhou Chao wasn’t tall, but he used to be chubby, so his clothes were all a size too big. Jiang Qin managed to fit into them.

Then he popped the collar, looked from left to right, and his only comment was it looked silly.

Jiang Qin gave up. The next day he still wore the white shirt as requested by Director Gu, and brought the instigator, Feng Nanshu, to the reception room at the east campus.

Chu Siqi was dressed beautifully in a long dress, her hair permed into waves.

Wang Huiru and Si Huiying also came with her.

Why call them? It had its reasons.

If Chu Siqi had come alone, the interview would probably have ended quickly, hardly giving her a chance to chat with Jiang Qin. But with Wang Huiru and Si Huiying, it was different.

It seemed like a good plan, but when she saw Feng Nanshu, all her earlier anticipation vanished.

As the trio’s attention shifted from Feng Nanshu, the next thing that drew eyes was the strawberry mark on Jiang Qin’s neck.

Two years ago, there had been an interview about Jiang Qin, and he had a strawberry mark then too. It’s surprising how time flies yet they are still so close.

Chu Siqi was a bit disappointed, wondering why the incident in entrepreneurship base 207 didn’t work.

The little rich girl looked at Jiang Qin’s “ex-best friend,” appearing innocent, yet charming, yet still innocent.

Jiang Qin had actually completed most of the interview during Feng Nanshu’s trip back to Shanghai for her grandmother’s birthday, so this was just wrapping things up, and it went quickly.

“Feng Nanshu, do you remember me?”

“I do, you are Wang Huiru.”

Wang Huiru’s eyes lit up when Feng Nanshu recognized her name.

The little rich girl wasn’t just seen as a goddess and emblem of youth at Chengnan High School, she was also a top student for three consecutive years, so both boys and girls likely saw her in a special light.

Wang Huiru herself had always been hardworking in her studies and had looked up to her before.

Jiang Qin was quite surprised, given Feng Nanshu was the type to leave immediately after school and hardly interacted outside, yet she still knew a classmate from next door.

“How do you know each other?”

Wang Huiru turned to Jiang Qin: “I think it was in the second year of senior high. I was going to the restroom and accidentally bumped into Feng Nanshu at our class’s back door. Afterwards, she would loiter there and we’d greet each other.”

Jiang Qin looked at Feng Nanshu: “Why were you loitering at our class back door?”

Feng Nanshu looked up at him: “I was secretly watching you.”

“?”

Jiang Qin was stunned, and so were Wang Huiru and Chu Siqi.