Chapter 924
Everything is developing
Li Xiangyang lay on his bed in room 512 of the talent apartment, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep all night.
It wasn't because of insomnia, it was because of excitement.
He kept thinking about what had happened during the day—the volunteers at the train station, the smooth process of scanning QR codes to fill out forms, the gentle interviewer, and the cleanliness of the apartment.
Everything exceeded his expectations, and everything felt unreal to him.
He even pinched his thigh three times to make sure it wasn't a dream.
He got up at six in the morning, before his phone alarm even went off.
Zhao Lei was still asleep, snoring softly.
Li Xiangyang quietly washed up and changed into the Xinghuo Express uniform he had received yesterday—a dark blue polo shirt with a silver "fire" logo embroidered on the left chest.
He stood in front of the mirror by the sink for a long time, feeling that the person in the mirror was both strange and familiar.
That was him, but the light in his eyes was something I'd never seen before.
At 7:00 a.m. sharp, he walked out of the apartment building.
The morning light was just right, shining on the wide road in the High-tech Zone.
Several Xinghuo Express electric tricycles were parked by the roadside. Their bodies were brand new, and their silver paint shone brightly in the sunlight.
A middle-aged man wearing the same work clothes was squatting next to the car checking the tires. When he saw Li Xiangyang, he stood up and patted the dust off his hands.
"The new guy?"
"Yes, today is my first day reporting for duty."
Which station?
"I haven't been assigned yet; they told me to go to the distribution center for training first."
"Oh, then come with me, I'm going to the distribution center too."
The middle-aged man got on his electric scooter, started it, and looked back at him: "Are you taking the bus? Or walking? It's a bit far."
Li Xiangyang paused for a moment: "I don't know how to get there yet, let me search for it."
"Then come on up, I'll give you a ride."
Li Xiangyang hesitated for a moment, then sat on the back of the electric scooter.
The car drove through the streets of the High-tech Zone in the morning breeze, passing construction sites, newly opened breakfast shops, and pedestrians hurrying along.
The middle-aged man drove slowly, the wind blowing on his face, carrying the warmth of early summer and the vitality of the city.
"Young man, where are you from?" the middle-aged man asked.
"From southern Jiangxi."
"Southern Jiangxi is a wonderful place; its oranges are famous."
"Yes, the navel oranges from our area are delicious."
"If I want to eat food from my hometown in the future, I won't have to worry. I can find everything on Pinduoduo, and it's cheap too."
Li Xiangyang didn't reply, but just watched the street scene rapidly recede.
The distribution center is located in the eastern suburbs of the city, covering an area of 200 acres.
When Li Xiangyang arrived, there were already dozens of people standing at the door, all wearing the same dark blue work uniforms. Some were young, some were middle-aged, some were silent, and some were chatting.
Li Xiangyang joined the line, and the person in front of him turned around. He was an uncle who looked to be in his forties or fifties.
"Young man, are you new here too?"
"Yes."
"I used to work as a bricklayer on construction sites for twenty years, but my back gave out and I can't do it anymore."
The middle-aged man patted his waist and gave a wry smile: "I came here to try it out. They said that deliverymen don't have to carry heavy things. There are conveyor belts and forklifts. It mainly relies on your brain."
"Rely on your brain?" Li Xiangyang asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes, plan routes, optimize delivery order, and improve efficiency."
The middle-aged man took out his phone, opened an app covered with various icons: "This is the 'Spark Smart Delivery' system that the company installed for us. You put the package on the bike, and the system automatically plans the optimal route. It takes into account red lights, one-way streets, and community entrances. You just ride, and the system will remind you when you arrive at your destination, even clearly marking which building and which door it is."
Looking at the app, Li Xiangyang suddenly realized that this job was much more complicated than he had imagined.
The morning training session was held in a large conference room.
Standing on the stage was a young man in his early thirties, wearing a white shirt and a name tag. He introduced himself as Zhang Wei, the training supervisor of Xinghuo Express Tangdu Distribution Center.
"Welcome to Spark Express, everyone."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear: "Among those of you here are recent college graduates, veteran workers who have spent decades on construction sites, and long-time employees who have switched from other courier companies. No matter what you did before, from today onwards, you are all members of Xinghuo Express."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
“I know that many people come to Xinghuo Express because of our high salaries, good benefits, and job security. These are indeed true. But I want to tell you that Xinghuo Express can offer you more than just money.”
He pressed a button on the remote control, and the large screen behind him lit up, displaying a photo.
The photo shows a deliveryman, wearing a Xinghuo Express uniform, squatting on the ground, tying an elderly person's shoelaces.
The old man's legs were clearly weak; he leaned on a cane, looked down at the deliveryman, a smile on his face and light in his eyes.
"This photo was taken last winter by Xiao Wang, a colleague of ours at Chaoyang Station in Beijing. He was delivering a package when he saw this elderly woman struggling to bend down to tie her shoelaces, so he squatted down and helped her. The woman later wrote a thank-you letter and sent it to the company."
Zhang Wei softened his voice: "What Xinghuo Express does is not just deliver packages. What we want to do is deliver warmth, respect, and goodwill between people."
"Making money can also inspire the goodness of human nature and encourage people to do more good deeds. This is what our chairman has always been saying and doing."
The meeting room fell silent.
Li Xiangyang stared at the photo and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.
He recalled that when he was a child, his grandmother couldn't tie her shoelaces and always asked him for help.
After his grandmother passed away, he never tied anyone's shoelaces again.
"Therefore, the first lesson in today's training is not how to sort packages, how to plan routes, or how to use the system."
Zhang Wei's voice returned to normal: "The first lesson is—how to be a warm-hearted person."
After the morning training, Li Xiangyang was assigned to a site in the High-tech Zone.
The station manager was a woman in her thirties, surnamed Liu, with short hair, capable, and speaking very quickly.
"Li Xiangyang?"
"Yes."
Have you ever worked in the courier industry?
"No."
Can you ride a tricycle?
"meeting."
"Okay, you'll start accompanying the driver tomorrow. An experienced employee will mentor you for three days. After three days, you can drive on your own. The area isn't big, so try it out for a week first. Ask questions anytime if you have any problems, don't try to handle everything yourself."
Li Xiangyang nodded.
Station Master Liu handed him a key: "This is your vehicle, an electric car. It can travel 120 kilometers on a full charge. Remember to charge it tonight, so you don't run out of power halfway through the next day."
Li Xiangyang took the keys, feeling both excited and bewildered.
He walked out of the station manager's office, found his vehicle, a brand-new electric tricycle, with the Xinghuo Express logo and the words "Mission Accomplished, Warmth Delivered" printed on it.
He stood by the car, touching the words, for a long time.
At 6 p.m., Li Xiangyang returned to the talent apartment.
Zhao Lei has returned and is looking at his phone in bed.
"How is it?" Zhao Lei asked.
"It's alright, I'll be traveling with them tomorrow."
"I've been assigned to the distribution center to do sorting."
Zhao Lei rolled over and continued, "They said I also need to learn sorting. Packages are put on the conveyor belt, the machine automatically scans the barcodes, and sorts them into different compartments according to their destination. I just need to make sure the machines don't malfunction. It's much easier than tightening screws in the electronics factory before."
"What about your salary?"
“The base salary is four thousand, and performance depends on the amount of work done; the more you do, the more you earn. They say experienced workers can earn more than six thousand a month.” Li Xiangyang nodded, lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
"Zhao Lei, how long do you think we can keep this up?"
How long will you work?
Zhao Lei was stunned for a moment, then said, "If you don't fire me, I'll work until I retire. You'll still have all the social insurance and housing fund contributions paid, and I'll have a pension after retirement. I won't have to go back to my hometown to farm."
Li Xiangyang didn't say anything more.
He closed his eyes, and the photo appeared in his mind.
He felt that this kind of company was indeed different, no wonder so many people on the internet praised it.
In July, after news of Galaxy Technology's large-scale recruitment spread, the entire city of Tangdu seemed to be put on an accelerator.
The number of passengers at the train station surged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per day, and the number of volunteers at the exit increased from dozens to hundreds.
The number of buses parked in the square increased from a dozen to fifty, each bus fully occupied, heading to every corner of the city.
The talent apartment plan in the High-tech Zone changed from one building to three buildings, and then from three buildings to six buildings.
The tower cranes on the construction site turn day and night, and the construction workers work in three shifts, turning buildings from blueprints into reality at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Workers are pouring concrete at the construction site of the second phase of the Xuanwu Battery Industrial Park.
The huge pump truck extends its long boom to deliver concrete to the working surface, which is tens of meters high.
Foreman Lao Zhou stood below, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Hurry up, hurry up, don't dawdle, this truckload of concrete needs to be poured within forty minutes!"
A young worker poked his head out from the work surface: "Brother Zhou, it's windy up there, you can't stand up straight!"
"If you can't stand, squat down! Squat down and water it! Stop talking nonsense!"
After finishing his rant, Lao Zhou took out his phone and glanced at it.
The screen showed a picture of his daughter, who had just been admitted to Tangdu Jiaotong University this year, majoring in artificial intelligence.
When his daughter called, she said, "Dad, there's a senior at my school named Wang Donglai. He's really amazing. I want to be like him and do something great when I grow up."
Old Zhou didn't say anything at the time, he just smiled.
Now, standing on the construction site, looking at the industrial park that is rising from the ground, he suddenly realized that the "big thing" his daughter was talking about might not be something that Wang Donglai was doing alone.
He, along with the hundreds of people on the construction site, are also doing it.
Half a month after the opening of Galaxy Supermarket No. 1, the number of customers dropped from a peak of 30,000 per day to just over 10,000, and sales also dropped from 4.7 million to 2.5 million.
A profit margin of 3.2% is still pitifully low in the retail industry, but Zhao Mingyuan is no longer anxious.
He walks around the store every day, watching how the employees smile at customers, how satisfied the customers are when they leave, and how the elderly sit in the rest area drinking tea and chatting.
He felt that this path was viable.
That afternoon, a middle-aged man in gray overalls walked into the supermarket and stood in the fresh produce section for a long time.
Zhao Mingyuan noticed him and walked over.
"Hello, do you need any help?"
The man turned around, and Zhao Mingyuan was stunned.
It was a face he recognized; he'd seen it on an industry forum, someone he knew.
"You're... from Yongjun Supermarket?"
The man nodded and extended his hand: "Zhang Xudong, Vice President of Yongjun Supermarket."
Zhao Mingyuan grasped that hand, his expression calm.
Now that he knew these weren't guests, but fellow travelers, Zhao Mingyuan immediately adjusted his mindset.
"I heard that your Yihaodian is doing very well, so I came here specifically to check it out."
Zhang Xudong looked around and commented, "The service is indeed good, and the staff are in good spirits, but I have a question: your profit margin is only a little over three percent. How can you sustain this?"
Zhao Mingyuan took a deep breath, frowned slightly, and said, "President Zhang, we don't look at short-term profit margins. We look at the long term, at employee satisfaction, customer repurchase rate, and brand reputation. If these improve, the profit margin will naturally follow."
Zhang Xudong looked at him, smiled contemptuously, and then said, "Galaxy Technology has money, so it certainly has the confidence to do so."
Zhao Mingyuan didn't reply, he just smiled.
Different road non-phase plan.
After Zhang Xudong said that, he had no intention of continuing the conversation.
After Zhang Xudong left, Zhao Mingyuan returned to his office, picked up the phone, and dialed Nie Yun's number.
"President Nie, Yongjun's men have come."
The person on the other end of the phone asked, "What are you here for?"
"Inspection".
What did they say?
"I didn't say anything, I just looked around and asked about the profit margin."
Nie Yun said, "Our colleagues were terrified, afraid that we would succeed in paving this way. They probably felt much more at ease seeing us like this."
Zhao Mingyuan, however, said with confidence and determination, "President Nie, I believe we can definitely succeed."
"Haha, I've never doubted that either."
……
Meanwhile, filming for "All or Nothing" in Baixiang Kingdom is also nearing its end.
After all, the script outline for "All or Nothing" was prepared in great detail, so there was no need to shoot a large number of scenes and then edit them like other movies.
The final scene is the female lead escaping from the park.
Guo Xing was in charge of the production team, while the director stood behind the monitor, watching the actors run wildly in front of the camera.
It was a muddy path, with dense woods on both sides. The sky was darkening, with only the lights of the park flickering in the distance.
"Cut!" the director shouted.
The actor stopped, panting heavily.
"Take one more take, make the emotions even more intense and precise, you're running for your life."
The actor nodded and returned to the starting point.
"start!"
The camera started rolling again, and the actors started running wildly once more.
This time, the fear on her face was no longer an act, but a real, deep-seated terror.
Guo Xing nodded as he watched this scene, feeling even more confident in the quality of the film.
"Stop! That's too far!"
The actor slumped to the ground, panting heavily.
Staff members surrounded them, some offering water, others wiping away sweat.
Guo Xing walked over, squatted down, and looked at the young actress.
"Thanks for your hard work."
"It's not hard."
The actress looked up and asked, "Mr. Guo, do you think our movie will be able to be released smoothly?"
Guo Xing didn't remain silent at all, and said firmly and confidently, "Definitely!"
"Don't forget, we are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Galaxy Technology. This movie is of such great significance that it will definitely be released."
The actress nodded and said nothing more.
Guo Xing stood up and looked at the busy crew members in the distance.
She knew that after the movie was released, countless people would see those scenes, countless people would know how terrible that place was, and countless people would give up the idea of going there because of it.
That's the significance of this film. (End of Chapter)