Chapter 80: Company Name—Ming Sheng

The hiring process was finally settled.

A total of eight people were hired.

Considering the busyness of the station, the work schedule was arranged in shifts, each covering half a day.

Four people per half-day shift.

With Xiao Mingxiu as the store manager and the cleaning staff provided by the station, the store could operate smoothly.

However, since the working hours were much shorter than at the academy store, the post-probation salary and benefits for the station store were set to be roughly the same as those at the Jiangzhou Academy store.

Tian Wenhao explained this clearly to both store teams.

No one had any objections.

Then, Jiang Ning asked Tian Wenhao to announce the latest work incentive system.

First was the promotion system.

The store positions were divided into three levels: Junior, Intermediate, and Senior.

Each level had a corresponding salary standard.

Employees working for more than a year could automatically be promoted by one level, but only up to the Senior Employee level.

Beyond that were the Reserve Manager and Branch Store Manager positions.

Promotion to these roles required meeting a set of evaluation criteria, which Tian Wenhao did not elaborate on at the moment.

Next was the performance-based bonus system.

Jiang Ning suggested dividing all employees into three teams: one for the academy store and two for the station store (based on shifts).

Performance bonuses were categorized into three tiers based on sales performance:

500 yuan for the lowest tier

1,500 yuan for the middle tier

3,000 yuan for the highest tier

As long as the sales target was met, all members of the team would receive the corresponding bonus.

Conversely, if the target was not met, there would be no bonus at all.

As for salary deductions, Jiang Ning felt it was unnecessary for now—after all, she wasn’t short on money.

However, since the food delivery team had flexible hours, they were excluded from the performance evaluation.

With that, the personnel arrangements were finalized for the time being.

Now, all that was left was to wait for the grand opening on November 20.

—

In the midst of all this, there was a small incident regarding the company name.

At first, Tian Wenhao suggested naming the company “Shi Ning Ji”, which was memorable and served as a good advertisement.

But Jiang Ning disagreed.

A company is a company, and a store is a store.

The company would manage various business categories in the future, so naming it after a single store would be too limiting.

Tian Wenhao eventually agreed with this reasoning.

Thus, the company was named “Ming Sheng” (明生).

The meaning was simple:

“Ming Sheng”—Tomorrow’s Life—symbolized Jiang Ning’s origins from the future.

At the same time, it was a homophone for “Min Sheng” (民生), meaning “People’s Livelihood,” reflecting Jiang Ning’s ambitions and vision for the company.

—

That night, when Jiang Ning returned home after her evening self-study session, she was surprised to find her mother lying on the sofa, absorbed in reading what looked like a flyer.

Her mother was so focused that Jiang Ning couldn’t help but feel curious.

Without even closing the door, she changed into her slippers and quietly approached her mother.

However—

When Jiang Ning saw the content printed on the flyer, her expression instantly turned cold.

She reached out, snatched the flyer from her mother’s hands, and stared at it for a long time.

At that moment, Tian Cuilan noticed her daughter had returned home—and also noticed the open door.

“Ning Ning, why didn’t you close the door when you came back—”

Seeing that Jiang Ning wasn’t scolding her, Tian Cuilan grumbled while walking toward the door to close it.

Just as she shut the door, Jiang Ning’s voice came from behind.

“Mom, where did this flyer come from?”

“Oh, from your uncle. He said this is his chance to make a fortune,” Tian Cuilan replied, picking up an apple from the table.

Then, she took a peeler from the drawer by the entrance and started peeling the apple while asking:

“Want half?”

Make a fortune?

Jiang Ning declined the apple her mother offered and waved the flyer in her hand.

“Mom, do you know this is a scam?”

“A scam?” Tian Cuilan frowned, put the half-peeled apple on the coffee table, and asked,

“But I saw they even opened a store, and a lot of people go there to learn every day.”

Jiang Ning could hear the doubt in her mother’s voice, so she carefully explained how these schemes make money by recruiting new members.

Although Tian Cuilan hadn’t received much education, she was very sensitive when it came to money.

When she heard her daughter say that this recruitment-based model would eventually cause people to lose everything, her expression immediately changed.

“Ning Ning, are you serious?”

“Of course! This kind of scam was imported from abroad and is designed to rip people off.”

Hearing that it came from abroad, Tian Cuilan’s strong patriotic sentiment flared up.

She immediately scowled and said, “Ning Ning, stay home and rest. Mom needs to go out!”

“Where are you going, Mom?”

“To talk some sense into your uncle and make him get his money back!”

Hearing this, Jiang Ning frowned.

“Mom, how much did he invest?”

“He said thirty thousand.”

Tian Cuilan answered while grabbing her coat from the sofa and heading for the door.

Only thirty thousand?

Given what Jiang Ning knew about that man, he had probably invested at least three times that amount by now.

Still, she didn’t stop her mother.

She knew from experience that trying to stop her was useless.

In her previous life, she had tried to intervene, but even if she stopped him once, she couldn’t stop him forever.

Better to let her mother experience the disappointment firsthand. The more times it happened, the clearer she would see the man’s true nature.

Watching her mother rush out of the house, Jiang Ning thought for a moment, then took out her phone and sent a message.

Shortly after, she received a call.

Jiang Ning answered.

A soft, sweet voice came through the receiver.

“Jiang Ning, do you need something?”

Jiang Ning picked up the flyer from the table and read out the address printed on it, asking for information.

After a brief “Hold on,” the other end of the line went silent.

A long while later—

By the time Jiang Ning had finished eating the leftover apple on the table—the soft voice finally returned.

“Jiang Ning, I can’t say much about this.”

“I can only tell you—stay away from it, no matter what.”

That was enough for Jiang Ning to get the message.

Clearly, the authorities had already set their sights on these operations.

They were just waiting for the right moment.

If she remembered correctly, it was sometime after the new year—an incident somewhere drew high-level attention to these scams.

After that, a nationwide crackdown wiped them out within two or three months.

As for the underground operations…

Honestly, human greed could never be fully eradicated.

As long as people dreamed of getting rich overnight, scams like these would never disappear.

Sighing, Jiang Ning washed up and went to her room.

—

In the following days, whenever she asked her mother about the situation, her mother would hesitate and look conflicted, making it clear what had happened.

Jiang Ning didn’t press the issue.

She focused on school when she needed to and managed the store when she had to.

Just like that, the new store’s opening day arrived.

(End of Chapter)