April 28th, Saturday afternoon.

This shopping mall was already one of the more popular ones in the area, and now that it was the weekend, it was even more crowded and bustling with activity.

A guy about 182 centimeters tall with a very sturdy build but a somewhat silly expression stood at the entrance of a dessert shop in the mall, looking at messages on his phone while glancing around bewilderedly.

Suddenly, he felt someone pat his shoulder. When he turned his head, his somewhat silly face immediately broke into a smile: “Big Black Dog!”

Tian Mo smiled as well: “Dongzi, it’s been over a year since we last met, right?”

This sturdy-built guy was called Zhuang Dong, one of Tian Mo’s middle school classmates.

The two old friends were both very happy to see each other.

Zhuang Dong looked Tian Mo up and down: “Hey? What’s with this outfit? And your hairstyle looks pretty sharp too. It’s only been a year since I last saw you—did you strike it rich or something?”

Tian Mo had already done as Mr. Pei instructed and found that stylist who gave him a complete makeover.

This included his hairstyle and all of his clothes and accessories from head to toe. Everything had been changed, and it was all casual wear. He didn’t have that formal business look but instead gave off a trendy, youthful vibe.

The transformation was so dramatic that Zhuang Dong didn’t recognize him at first.

Tian Mo smiled: “We’ll talk about my situation later. What about you? I heard from Tie Zhu that you got tricked into going to some scammer’s den and it took more than two months for someone to rescue you? I was wondering why you weren’t responding to my messages during that time.”

Zhuang Dong scratched his head shamefully: “I… the person who tricked me was one of my previous ‘mentors.’ I really didn’t expect it. But don’t worry, I had plenty to eat and drink while I was there, and I was rescued before too long.”

Tian Mo didn’t ask further and led Zhuang Dong into the mall while asking: “So what kind of work are you doing now?”

Zhuang Dong gave a silly smile: “I don’t have a job yet. One of my uncles said he’d help me pull some strings to see if he could arrange for me to work as a security guard at a residential community.”

Tian Mo shook his head: “What’s so great about being a security guard? You might as well come work with me.”

Zhuang Dong was surprised and delighted: “Really? Dog Bro, you’ve made it big? No problem, we’d both be security guards anyway, but it would be better to work for my brother! Dog Bro, you can pay me whatever salary you want. Of course, if meals and accommodation are included, that would be even better!”

Tian Mo smiled: “Don’t worry about the salary. Although I’m not the one who decides it, it will definitely exceed your expectations! I haven’t made it big myself, but I’ve met someone important!”

“Have you heard of Tenda Group? I’ve become acquainted with Tenda Group’s boss! He’s the one who arranged this job for me!”

Tian Mo’s face was full of pride.

Was Tenda’s boss an ordinary person? How many people in Jingzhou wanted to meet him but couldn’t? And now he could go report to him every day. Wasn’t that something to be proud of?

Zhuang Dong was half-believing: “Really? Isn’t Tenda a big corporation? Are you sure that was Tenda’s boss? It’s not some scammer using Tenda’s name, is it?”

Tian Mo rolled his eyes: “Do you think I’m as stupid as you? Among all our brothers, you’re the one with the least brains, and you still have the nerve to warn me.”

Zhuang Dong scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly: “Hehe, that’s true.”

As they talked, they arrived at the storefront that Tian Mo had just taken over yesterday.

Tian Mo took out the keys from his pocket, opened the door, and led Zhuang Dong inside.

“This is it. From now on, this will be our store, brother!”

“Impressive, right?”

Tian Mo had the air of an owner, his words revealing strong pride and confidence.

He knew very well that Mr. Pei was extremely busy and rarely had the chance to visit this store. And since there were no other layers of management between himself and Mr. Pei, he was essentially the absolute ruler of this store.

Although the store’s revenue had nothing to do with his income, he had almost complete control over it, which naturally gave him a sense of ownership.

Zhuang Dong was almost dumbstruck: “Wow, such a big store! In a shopping mall like this, the monthly rent must be at least several hundred, right?”

Tian Mo was speechless: “Several hundred? Do you think this place is being given away for free?”

“Never mind, it’s not your fault. You don’t have a concept of numbers. Someone who scores 30 points in math shouldn’t be trying to show off their understanding here.”

“Anyway, from now on, this will be our store. After things stabilize in a while, I’ll call Tie Zhu, Brother Der, and the others to come too. We brothers will share hardships and prosperity together!”

Zhuang Dong was very moved: “Dog Bro, I’m the first person you thought of when you made it? I’m so touched!”

Tian Mo sighed: “What can I do? Among all our brothers, you’re the stupidest. The others could probably at least find temporary jobs with their abilities, but I really can’t trust you to do that.”

“Besides…” Tian Mo lowered his voice slightly: “I’m also testing the boss’s lower limits. If he can hire someone like you, then my other brothers should have no problem getting in.”

Zhuang Dong walked around the store and carefully picked up a display phone to play with: “This is a real phone!”

Tian Mo: “Of course it is. Would we be selling fake phones?”

Zhuang Dong glanced at the price tag in front of the display case: “Wow, so expensive! It’s ten times the price of my phone.”

“And there are more unopened ones in the back?”

“So all this inventory added together must be worth several hundred thousand, right?”

“The boss trusts you so much! Isn’t he afraid you’ll take everything and run?”

Tian Mo was exasperated: “Run with what? Do I have a mental problem? Why would I give up a job that pays several thousand a month to go to prison? Besides, the boss trusts me so much—if I were to steal from the store, would I even count as a human being?”

Zhuang Dong quickly said: “Of course I know you’re not that kind of person, but the boss doesn’t necessarily know that. I just think this boss is so bold, handing over such a big store directly to you. That kind of trust isn’t something ordinary people can have!”

Tian Mo nodded: “Of course, our boss is no ordinary person.”

Zhuang Dong sat down on the sofa and asked: “Dog Bro, when do we start working?”

Tian Mo said: “Don’t rush, everything needs to follow the procedure.”

“I’ve already arranged with the stylist to give you a makeover too, to repackage you—we can’t affect the company’s image. Don’t worry, all costs will be directly billed to the company for reimbursement. I don’t even know exactly how much it cost.”

“When we get back, I’ll first teach you the principles of our sales department.”

“After you’ve memorized the principles, I’ll introduce you to the detailed specifications of all our products in the store, and you need to remember all of them.”

“During this time, you’ll help me watch the store and also learn how I communicate with customers. Although my communication with customers hasn’t fully met Mr. Pei’s requirements yet, I’ve at least got the basics down.”

Upon hearing that he needed to memorize things, Zhuang Dong became worried: “This… Dog Bro, you know I don’t have a good memory. In middle school, I couldn’t even memorize poems properly. Asking me to remember so many things is too difficult!”

Tian Mo nodded slightly: “Hmm… that’s true.”

“It took me two days to memorize every word correctly. It is indeed a bit too much to ask you to remember all this.”

“Let’s do this: I’ll report to Mr. Pei and ask if we can lower the standards a bit, so that you only need to remember the general meaning.”

Zhuang Dong was very happy: “That would be great!”

…

After sending Zhuang Dong to the stylist for a “transformation,” Tian Mo took out his phone to send a message to Mr. Pei, briefly explaining Zhuang Dong’s situation.

Although Zhuang Dong’s situation perfectly matched Mr. Pei’s requirements, Tian Mo still felt a bit guilty when reporting Zhuang Dong’s resume to Mr. Pei.

Moreover, with Zhuang Dong’s intelligence level, he couldn’t even memorize the principles properly and needed to ask Mr. Pei to be merciful and lower the standards a bit, which made Tian Mo even more anxious.

But anxiety aside, he still needed to report truthfully.

He deleted and rewrote several times before finally gathering his courage and pressing the send button.

“Mr. Pei, I’ve found the first employee. His name is Zhuang Dong, my middle school classmate and a very close brother. Here’s his photo and work experience…”

“Mr. Pei, please rest assured that although Zhuang Dong isn’t very smart, he’s definitely a good person and very reliable! The only issue is that his memory isn’t very good. Could we be a bit more lenient about the sales department principles? Could he just remember the general meaning instead?”

After sending the message, Tian Mo was nervous, afraid that Mr. Pei would directly refuse.

However, Mr. Pei replied within two minutes.

“Sure!”

“As the saying goes, talent shouldn’t be restricted by conventional standards. The recruitment standards for the sales department have never been fixed, and rote memorization doesn’t represent real ability!”

“Since this person fully meets the standards and is your good brother, there’s definitely no problem. You can lead these employees as you see fit. I trust you to handle this!”

After reading Mr. Pei’s warm reply, Tian Mo was deeply moved.

“What have I done to deserve such trust from Mr. Pei!”

“I must work hard to repay Mr. Pei’s kindness to us brothers!”

…

What Tian Mo didn’t know was that Mr. Pei was secretly delighted at that moment.

“This Tian Mo is really something! He’s performing beyond expectations and has perfectly completed the task!”

“I asked him to find someone not as good as him, and he quickly found me a middle school graduate who can’t even memorize these few principles? And he’s asking me to lower the standards?”

“Where does he find such talents! This is just fantastic!”

Tian Mo had sent a photo of Zhuang Dong. Pei Qian looked at it and saw that this person was tall and sturdy with a square face that looked quite silly, somehow giving him a sense of déjà vu that reminded him of Old Ma.

But the problem was that Old Ma, no matter what, was still a student from a prestigious university, and no matter how out of touch his intelligence might seem, it still had a lower limit.

This guy, just in terms of educational background, had already completely surpassed Old Ma!

If the first employee recruited by Tian Mo was already like this, how could the ones that followed be any worse?

They would definitely be more and more “outstanding”!

Now the development of the sales department had completely exceeded Pei Qian’s expectations, and he could hardly estimate what Tian Mo and his group would turn the Tenda sales department into in the future.

Strangely enough, he was even looking forward to it a little!