I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Chapter 142 Almost Touched My Big Cellphone

On October 1st, in the morning, the Bank of America Building, located in the High-tech Zone, is a 36-story office building.

Shen Kang followed Kang Zhengyang and took the elevator to a unit on the 12th floor of the building. A property management staff member was with them and opened the door to the unit, letting them in.

"The area here is 220 square meters, and the rent is 2.3 yuan per square meter per day, which works out to about 15,000 yuan per month."

Kang Zhengyang was explaining things from the side, and Shen Kang was listening while looking around at the environment.

Anjia Household Services is a service industry, and we don't take holidays like National Day. Instead, we break up the holiday and distribute the services to everyone on different days.

Boss Shen Kang, of course, doesn't give holidays either.

He and He Qiuzhu returned to Shenlan Waterfront yesterday evening, had dinner with Zhou Man, and came back this morning to work on Anjia's business of renting office space.

With the rapid expansion of Anjia Home Services, the original Anjia Home Services store on Xiangping North Road can no longer meet the office needs of Anjia Home Services.

The cleaning staff and inspectors are fine; they are recruited from various districts and don't need any office space. But customer service staff, dispatchers, and accountants do need office space.

Currently, Kang Zhengyang has temporarily rented several locations to house his staff.

In addition, Anjia Home Services will soon establish departments such as the Supervision Department, Finance Department, and Customer Service Department, so a formal office location is still necessary. Staff such as dispatchers and customer service personnel who do not need to participate in offline business, as well as the soon-to-be-established central departments, can work together here.

After Shen Kang surveyed the surroundings, Kang Zhengyang finished his introduction.

"The location is alright, but could the rent be lowered a bit?" Shen Kang asked, thinking to himself that the place wasn't big, less than half the size of Anjia Technology's office, yet the monthly rent was four thousand more expensive. Suburbs are definitely better; the prices are really cheap. However, the nature of the companies is different, and Anjia Housekeeping can't possibly have offices in the suburbs.

"Mr. Shen, two yuan and thirty cents is already a very cheap price. Office buildings in similar locations are basically all around this price," a property management staff member explained from the side.

"How about we ask around elsewhere?" Shen Kang smiled and said, "With the financial crisis raging so badly right now, I bet a lot of companies have gone bankrupt, and there are plenty of empty spaces that aren't easy to rent out. Maybe if we go ask around, they'll be willing to lower the price a bit."

The property management staff chuckled dryly and said, "I see you're quite busy, Mr. Shen, so there's no need for you to waste your time running around. How about this, I'll make a call and ask again, and see how much of a discount I can offer you!"

Ultimately, thanks to the "tearful offer" from the Bank of America Building, the place was negotiated down to two dollars per square meter per day, which translates to a monthly rent of around 13,000 dollars.

Shen Kang went to check on the two temporary office locations. Apart from the platform technology department, most of the employees who needed office space were there.

As for the platform technology department, since all the employees are students at Yang University and have to attend classes, they all work on campus. With Xiao Bonian's introduction, Shen Kang rented two classrooms on campus for the platform technology department as offices, which is considered a student entrepreneurship project from the university's perspective.

Anjia Home Services' online banking payment system has now been successfully launched thanks to the efforts of the platform's technical department.

In the future, in addition to being responsible for the daily operation and maintenance of the website, Li Su's platform technology department will also be responsible for developing some new functions, the most important of which is a map-based order dispatch system.

Shen Kang's requirement for them was that they didn't need to create highly specialized maps, but simply a localized map for Anjia Home Services that would allow the system to automatically assign cleaning services based on the orderer's location. Once this function was implemented, the workload of dispatchers would be greatly reduced, allowing one person to handle more work and significantly decreasing the number of dispatchers needed. With the advent of smartphones, the dispatcher position could even be gradually eliminated.

After a busy day, at 6 p.m., Shen Kang drove back to Shenlan Waterfront, picked up He Qiuzhu, the photographer for the An family, and drove to Haoli Restaurant in Tianchang District.

Tonight, all 242 employees of Anjia Household Services are having dinner together here. Partly to celebrate National Day, and partly to let everyone meet him and see who the real boss is.

During the time he was in school, Anjia's staff grew so much that now, more than half of the employees in the company don't even recognize him.

My phone rang while I was driving.

"It's inconvenient for you to drive, I'll get it." He Qiuzhu was eager to try. After saying that, she immediately reached into his pocket and took out his big cell phone, almost touching his other big cell phone.

"————" Shen Kang felt that he should wear clothes with pockets more often in the future and put his phone in his pockets.

He Qiuzhu glanced at the caller ID on her phone. "It's Professor Xiao."

Shen Kang: "Take this."

He Qiuzhu then answered the call and volunteered to hold the phone to Shen Kang's ear. People who haven't experienced this in later generations may not know that before 2005, hands-free functionality was very rare on mobile phones, and the cheap Nokia 3310 naturally did not have it either.

However, many new mobile phones in 08 already had hands-free functionality, such as Xiao Bonian's mobile phone.

Yesterday, while he was driving, He Qiuzhu held her phone to his ear and made him make a call.

Actually, it's fine if it doesn't have a hands-free function.

As Shen Kang was thinking this, he heard Xiao Bonian's voice coming from the other end.

"Shen Kang, there's something I'd like to ask you for a favor."

Shen Kang was somewhat surprised: In his impression, Xiao Bonian was someone who didn't like to ask for help. He had even tried to refuse when Shen Kang helped him with the 863 Project before. Why was Xiao Bonian asking for his help today?

"What is it, Professor Xiao?"

"I have a niece named Xiao Qingxuan —"

As Xiao Bonian recounted the story, Shen Kang learned the whole story. "Professor Xiao, I can try to help, but you've been talking all day and it's no use. I'm not sure I can help either. I can only say I'll give it a try."

"It's okay if it doesn't work out. I just meant to give it a try."

"Alright then. Are you at Weixiu Garden right now?" Shen Kang remembered the address Xiao Bonian sent in the text message yesterday and knew it should be Xiao Bonian's own home.

"exist."

"Then I'll come find you. I can take her out for a meal. Professor Xiao, would you like to come along?"

Xiao Bonian thought for a moment and said, "I'll pass, you guys go ahead." He had been talking all day to no avail, and he felt there was still a generation gap, so he decided not to get involved. He hoped that without this old man around, it would be easier for them, people of the same age, to communicate.

After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Bonian added, "My family doesn't know about my marriage yet. I'll tell them you're my student later."

Judging from Xiao Bonian's actions yesterday and what he said today, how could Shen Kang not guess that Xiao Bonian was keeping his marriage a secret from his family? Otherwise, Xiao Bonian wouldn't have rushed to leave Shenlan Waterfront yesterday and even asked him to send someone over to clean his house urgently.

"no problem."

Shen Kang had just come out of Shenlan Waterfront and hadn't even left the High-tech Zone yet. He turned a corner and drove towards Weixiuyuan, arriving in about ten minutes.

After getting out of the car, He Qiuzhu looked around curiously. "Does Professor Xiao live here? Aren't there any rats?"

"Hmm, the environment looks pretty clean, there shouldn't be any rats," Shen Kang said, walking towards Building 12 in front of him.

He Qiuzhu followed behind, "But Shenlan Waterfront looks cleaner, and there are rats there."

"I bet it's because you eat too much fruit and snacks, leaving crumbs everywhere, attracting the mice—I'd say the same thing even if you headbutted me!"

The two chatted for a few minutes before arriving at room 201. They knocked on the door, and Xiao Bonian opened it, leading them to the living room, where Shen Kang met Xiao Qingxuan.

She was quite pretty, with pale makeup and a gothic-style dress. At first glance, she reminded Shen Kang of the landmine-themed makeup style of later generations, but there were still many differences. She didn't have those terrifyingly large eye bags, so she should be a variation of the visual kei of this era, with a bit of a dark and yandere makeup vibe.

Then he noticed the cut on the girl's left forearm—oh ho, she's a knife modifier?

"These are my students, Shen Kang and He Qiuzhu—"

Xiao Bonian introduced them to each other, and finally said to Xiao Qingxuan, "There are still six days left in the National Day holiday. It must be quite boring for you to stay with your uncle every day. You young people should have some fun together. They're going to eat anyway, why don't you come along?"

Xiao Qingxuan glanced at Shen Kang, but spent more time looking at He Qiuzhu. She thought to herself, "What a beautiful older sister! She's just too plain. If I could do her makeup and dress her up, she would definitely be even prettier."

Then he stood up and said, "Okay."

"Then we'll be going now, Professor Xiao."

"Go ahead, drive carefully."

The four of them went downstairs. Xiao Bonian watched Shen Kang drive them away, stood there for a while, and then went back upstairs.

Inside the car, Xiao Qingxuan sat silently in the back seat. Only after the car had driven out of the residential area did she speak: "I'm quite curious. It's normal for my uncle to seek outside help since he couldn't persuade me, but why did he choose a kid like you?"

Shen Kang glanced at her in the rearview mirror and chuckled, "You're quite nice, aren't you? You're complimenting me on how young I am, aren't you?" He thought to himself, "I'm so young that people mistake me for a child? That's really something."

"————" Xiao Qingxuan felt that this guy's brain was a bit abnormal, so she simply ignored him and said, "I advise you to give up. I've thought it through very clearly. It's you who can't understand it. Your thinking is too outdated, so no matter how you try to persuade me, it's useless."

"What's the point of trying to persuade me?"

Shen Kang casually said something, then asked with great curiosity, "I heard that you guys who modify decorative blades get a sense of satisfaction while doing it. Is that true?"