"You’ve been hired," Ma Lu said to the white-bearded old boxer from Yangjia Gully, and then turned to Cao Youyi, "Give Li Zhengwei a ten silver coin referral bonus."
Cao Youyi immediately took out ten silver coins from his person and handed them over to Li Zhengwei.
Li Zhengwei, overjoyed, accepted the money and praised,
"Clear rewards and punishments, a promise kept, not bad, I like it!"
Ma Lu continued to review others’ test papers. The woman in the silver-grey jacquard satin tube skirt had written four full pages of detailed text. However, her suggestions were the conventional type applicable to ordinary schools’ development.
In addition, she had proposed some plans for instructor training. Looking at her resume, Ma Lu saw she had previously served as a teacher at another talisman master school for some time—no wonder she had such experience.
"Let’s put it on hold."
Having said this, Ma Lu saw the fat man in the blue vest whose pen was nearly sparking, looking like a primary school student rushing to finish homework the night before school started.
So, he bypassed him and approached the two men at the back door.
The two had just extinguished their cigarettes and stood up straight.
"Qi Baichuan, Zhou Zuolin." Ma Lu looked at the two men.
"Principal Ma," Qi Baichuan immediately extended both hands enthusiastically, "I’ve long admired your reputation. I’m Qi Baichuan, a graduate of the 84th class of Hou De."
"I’m not a graduate of Hou De, but my father studied there too, from the 61st class."
Zhou Zuolin also attempted to shake hands with Ma Lu like Qi Baichuan, but his posture was somewhat stiff, like someone sneaking into the village to steal chickens in the middle of the night.
"Were you two just comparing answers?" Ma Lu asked curiously.
Zhou Zuolin’s expression became a bit awkward, but Qi Baichuan still kept smiling.
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"Principal Ma, the questions you composed were very high level, reflecting the foresight of a leader. I felt that with only my own wisdom, I wouldn’t be able to solve such challenging problems, so I pulled Brother Zuolin here for some collective brainstorming."
"Oh, is that so? And how did your discussion turn out?"
Qi Baichuan respectfully passed over a piece of paper. Ma Lu took it and looked it over. There were only a few hundred words, but the content was quite interesting.
After reading all of the answers on the paper, he looked up at Zhou Zuolin and Qi Baichuan, "Whose idea was this?"
"It was me..." Zhou Zuolin started to speak, but Qi Baichuan interrupted, "Right, it was something we came up with together."
"I have an additional question for you," Ma Lu said to Qi Baichuan, "How did you know Zhou Zuolin could help you with the problem?"
Before Qi Baichuan could reply, Ma Lu added, "Answer honestly, this affects whether the school decides to hire you or not."
Qi Baichuan replied, "When we introduced ourselves to each other, Brother Zuolin mentioned that he had managed the editing work for ’Complete Modern Talisman’ at Jisi Bookstore. I speculated he must be familiar with talismans. And furthermore..."
"And furthermore?"
"Furthermore, he is also quite approachable, the type of person who is generally not good at refusing others."
From Ma Lu’s previous hiring of Li Zhengwei, Qi Baichuan had roughly grasped the new leader’s style of operation.
Unlike the former principal, Cao Jinhua, this one valued competency over character and was clearly a smart man.
When dealing with smart people, it’s best not to overdo it. Like the previous Xu Shoujing, therefore, Qi Baichuan chose to be completely truthful.
"You’re quite good at reading people," Ma Lu said. "What did you do before?"
"Oh, I was a Peace Officer with Kanghua’s life insurance department."
"What?"
"I sold insurance. Kanghua has specialized life and property insurances for Talisman Masters. I would recommend these insurances to them, and for every policy sold, Kanghua would give me a portion of the commission."
Puffing out his chest, Qi Baichuan said, "I was once the national sales champion."
"Hey!"
Before Ma Lu could say anything, the fat man writing vigorously next to them exclaimed. He dropped his fountain pen and rushed in front of Qi Baichuan, grabbing his collar in a threatening manner.
"Return my money! Give me back the money I spent on insurance!"
The scene unfolding before them caught many off guard, with the quickest reaction coming from the woman wearing a silver-gray jacquard satin tube skirt. She hurried over, taking small, quick steps.
Ma Lu thought she was coming to break up the fight, but instead, she reached out and scratched Qi Baichuan’s face while cursing.
"Scammer! Dead scammer, you even cheated the money I saved up as a concubine!"
Ma Lu turned to Li Zhengwei, who was enjoying the spectacle, and said, "Stop watching, and help separate them first."
"Okay." Li Zhengwei, who had briskly accepted the money, swiftly picked up the woman in the silver-gray jacquard satin tube skirt like a chicken and pulled her off Qi Baichuan, then turned to pull the fat man in the blue vest away.
He wasn’t particularly burly, but his arms were surprisingly strong, easily pulling the fat man aside.
Looking at Qi Baichuan with a busted face and torn clothes, and the fat man and the woman in the jacquard satin tube skirt, still glaring furiously with heaving chests, Ma Lu said,
"Let’s hear it, what exactly happened?"
With a droopy face and a wry smile, Qi Baichuan said, "I didn’t want this to happen. Who knew Kanghua’s big boss would suddenly take the money and flee the country? Then, all the insurance policies could no longer be honored."
Ma Lu had intended to ask Qi Baichuan why he had left his job as a good insurance salesman to become a teacher, but now he understood.
Kanghua was in crisis, the boss was planning to return to the country next week, and victims like the woman in the jacquard satin tube skirt and the fat man, unable to find the mastermind, could only turn their anger towards Qi Baichuan, the salesperson.
And since Qi Baichuan was a top salesman, there were probably even more victims demanding that he compensates them.
His customers were all Talisman Masters; if any of them really got ruthless, Qi Baichuan could not only expect a beating but could potentially lose his life.
No wonder he ran to Hou De to become a teacher, likely seeing the school’s decline and quietness as a place to lay low.
But what he hadn’t expected was to encounter a victim even while applying for a job.
Ma Lu then inquired from the man in the blue vest and the woman in the jacquard satin tube skirt, finding out that the former had bought insurance worth nine hundred silver coins, and the latter had incredibly bought a total of seven thousand five hundred silver coins worth of policies.
Hearing this number, Ma Lu was shocked too. Afterward, he discussed it with Qi Baichuan and learned that Kanghua had many types of insurance policies. The fat man mainly bought education insurance for his future children.
Although the guy was still single, Ma Lu didn’t understand why he was in such a rush to consider his children’s matters when he hadn’t even set a wedding date yet.
Perhaps this was what they call far-sighted planning.
Anyway, according to the policy, should the fat man have children in the future and they start school, he would be able to get three hundred silver coins each year for education funds from Kanghua, all the way up until they finished junior high, totaling about two thousand four hundred. It certainly seemed quite profitable, assuming Kanghua was still around.
The woman in the jacquard satin tube skirt had it even worse. She bought a savings-type annuity insurance that would pay out annually after ten years, with an effective annual interest rate of 29%. That high return was what lured her into putting all her savings into it.
She even sold the gold jewelry and designer bags her man gave her, turning them into principal.