pjbooks Chapter 19: [The Prophet]
Chapter 19: [The Prophet]
Night had fallen outside the window, and scattered lights flickered in the old town. On Liu Zhuohao's computer screen, dozens of video files were compressed and packaged.
He had already buried the slight regret that Cai Jiahao had brought about by his withdrawal deep in his heart.
On the road to entrepreneurship, emotions are the most useless fuel.
He clicked on Zhuang Zicong's anime-style profile picture and typed a line of text.
The sound of the keyboard was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
"I've sent you all the footage. Edit it, add some background music, and remember to time it perfectly."
After pressing Enter, Liu Zhuohao leaned back in his chair and rubbed his slightly sore eyes.
The light from the computer screen illuminated his expressionless face.
The chat box immediately displays "The other party is typing..." at the top, but it is intermittent.
He knew that Zhuang Zicong was hesitating.
Although, we lost Cai Jiahao.
Fortunately, Zhuang Zicong successfully asked his parents to let him change his major.
Compared to the former, the latter is much easier to achieve.
He was going to college anyway, so it doesn't matter which field he chooses.
With the rise of the Internet, it's clear to anyone with eyes to see that using computers will be mainstream and fundamental in the future.
Therefore, when Zhuang Zicong proposed to change his major to digital media or film editing, he was allowed to do so without much resistance.
Soon, the notification sounds indicating that the file transfer was complete rang out one after another.
Zhuang Zicong's message popped up: "I'll give it a try."
After a few seconds of pause, another message popped up in the chat box: "But I'm not sure I can do it well. Why don't you find someone else to fill in first, so that the video I edit won't be bad and we won't be able to finish it?"
Upon seeing this sentence, Liu Zhuohao's lips curled into a slight smile.
As expected of Cong Ge, with his personality, he's prone to collapsing under pressure.
Ideally, there should be some capable people at the front, while he acts as a seasoned general in the background.
Unfortunately, it's not available at the moment.
He sat up straight, placed his fingers back on the keyboard, and this time typed faster:
"Relax, this is just for you to practice."
"You have three years to learn at your own pace. Feel free to experiment with these materials; whether you edit well or poorly, it will all be valuable experience."
"If you're interested in filming, you can come to my stall anytime during winter or summer vacations or weekends for practice, and I'll reimburse your travel expenses."
He paused, his finger hovering over the Enter key for a moment, before resolutely typing the most crucial condition:
"But if you do a good job, I'll pay you a salary."
The "typing..." message at the top of the chat box abruptly stopped.
Liu Zhuohao could almost see Zhuang Zicong on the other side of the screen, pushing up his glasses and looking dazed.
"salary?"
The two words are filled with uncertainty.
"Yes, I can't let you do this for nothing." Liu Zhuohao steadied himself, waited two seconds, and then threw out the number:
"I'll pay you a salary then, at least three thousand a month!"
Three thousand?!
Zhuang Zicong's reply was incredibly fast, and the exaggerated exclamation mark was completely unlike his usual style.
"Really? Brother Hao, you're kidding me!"
"Where would you get money? You borrowed it from us."
"Why would I lie to you? Just because I don't have it now doesn't mean I won't have it in the future. Besides, I've actually become a little better off recently; I borrowed some money from my parents." Liu Zhuohao finished typing the last line with a smile. "Take a look at the materials first, and ask me if you don't understand."
The chat window was closed, and the room returned to silence.
Looking out at the deep night, Liu Zhuohao thought, "Paying wages is a certainty."
This is not just about money, but also about stance.
He had absolutely no intention of "finding a partner".
We will never allow Zhuang Zicong, or anyone who may join in the future, to start by "helping for free" and then try to get a piece of that vague "future pie".
The pancakes must be properly baked before they can be divided.
Instead of making an empty promise about flour and stove.
He has to be the boss first.
They must be employees.
This order cannot be changed.
In the domestic business world, the most fertile ground is human relationships, and the most dangerous reef is also human relationships.
Many fledgling ships, though not destroyed by the storms, sink in internal strife among brothers who had promised to "shoulder the burden together."
Those debts of gratitude incurred due to a shortage of funds, if entrusted to the wrong people, may turn into resentment and poison in every penny of future profits.
He had seen too many examples like this, and he was tired of them.
So even though he was short of money and had to be very careful with every penny, he insisted on screening people with the eyes of an "employer" rather than trying to win them over with the expectation of a "partner".
The former is a contract.
It's all in black and white, with clear responsibilities and rights.
The latter is loyalty and affection.
A tacit understanding can easily become blurred, distorted, and lead to discord.
In business, the most unstable factor is "loyalty and friendship".
It should be a beautiful addition to the brocade, not a source of firewood under the pot.
Liu Zhuohao's thoughts were simple, and also ruthless:
I can give my loyalty and gratitude on my own initiative—after achieving success, I will generously distribute it as bonuses and dividends to the employees who helped me build this empire.
But loyalty and friendship should never become a bargaining chip for others to take from me—it should never be a so-called brother who, relying on past relationships, takes advantage of me to openly or secretly steal food from my bowl!
With that in mind, Liu Zhuohao opened his email, which already contained several filtered "interview" emails.
As for the others, they were either perfunctory, such as only writing "understand" or "often watch videos" for the third question, and "analysis" of the first two questions such as "young people like to eat" and "white-collar workers like to eat".
Either they analyze that the customers of a certain milk tea shop are "rich second generation, white and rich beauties who go shopping all day long," which is a completely unrealistic answer without any on-site investigation.
Of these emails, Liu Zhuohao selected only four.
"The rice noodle roll stall downstairs from my house opens every night at five o'clock and stays open until about ten o'clock at night. There are roughly two waves of customers. The first wave is around five or six o'clock, people who are getting off work and school. This is quite common, so I won't go into details."
"After that, there will be a few customers in between. The second wave of customers is around 10 o'clock. There is a factory nearby whose shuttle bus is at 10 o'clock. After get off work, night shift workers often go to buy rice noodle rolls."
"Our customer base is mostly middle-aged, with many families. Many people will also order takeout after finishing their meal..."
……
"I often watch Bilibili. Compared to other video platforms, Bilibili has a very high user engagement and a unique bullet screen culture, making it suitable for creating video series."
"But your video content is a bit boring. You can cut out some parts and only keep the lighthearted and joking content when interacting with customers, or add a special label related to 'hand speed' in the title, as if your scallion pancake is already made before others have even taken out their money."
"To be honest, when I was watching your videos, I was a little curious why you chose Bilibili instead of Dianping..."
……
"I know a lot about the internet, or rather, games and live streaming (but I won't let games interfere with my work). I personally think that we are currently in a critical period of transition from PC video to mobile video, because it is more convenient to watch videos on mobile phones, and many websites have their own apps."
"The 4G licenses were issued last year. According to the news, the issues of internet speed and data charges will no longer be a problem. In the future, smartphones may very well play a role far beyond that of computers."
"After all, mobile phones are more convenient. Many middle-aged and elderly people can't learn to use computers, but they can still operate them simply with smartphones. Once smartphones and 4G networks become widespread, then regarding video bloggers, live streaming..."
All four emails contained answers that caught Liu Zhuohao's eye, and some of them even "predicted" the future.
If he could do it all over again, he could see more clearly some people's "keen sense of smell," which might be a lucky accident, or it might be genuine talent.
But whatever the reason, the sender of these four emails had already arranged an in-person interview.
The interview time wasn't during the holidays when these food trucks were being converted, but rather when I went to set up my breakfast stall after the conversion was complete!