Between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM, foot traffic in the small supermarket was abysmal, and very few customers came in.
Wu Jun took the opportunity to catch his breath. He sat back comfortably in the boss's chair behind the cash register, playing on his phone.
"Welcome." The automatic sensor at the door chimed. Wu Jun put away his phone and got ready to greet the customer.
He looked up and saw Xu Minli walk into the store.
Wu Jun asked, "You're off work today?"
"My niece is here, so I took the day off," Xu Minli said with a smile. She walked straight to the small room where the daily necessities were, went inside for a few minutes, and came out holding a pile of them.
"Toothpaste, toothbrush, a rinsing cup, a towel. Tally it up for me." Xu Minli put the items into a bag one by one, then took out her phone to scan the payment QR code on the wall.
Wu Jun waved his hand. "Don't worry about it, Sis Xu," he said with a smile. "Just take them. It's just a few small things, not worth much."
Ever since the rice started selling like hotcakes, the other goods in the supermarket had become mere accessories. Wu Jun no longer cared about small items worth ten or twenty yuan.
Xu Minli always looked out for him, making him feel like she was family. 'How could I possibly charge her for such trivial things?'
Xu Minli laughed. "No, no, no. I see you're feeling flush these days, kid. But you still paid for this stuff. Stop messing around and tell me how much."
Wu Jun waved his hand again. "Nine ninety-nine, free shipping. Just take it."
"You little brat," Xu Minli chided with a laugh. Seeing that Wu Jun wasn't going to give her a straight answer, she estimated the cost and sent a 30 yuan payment to him.
"Sis Xu, if you know any more customers who like to overpay, please send them my way," Wu Jun joked. Since Xu Minli was insistent on paying, he didn't refuse anymore.
"Alright, alright, I'm heading back. It's my niece's first day here, and she's waiting at home." Xu Minli picked up her bag and had just turned to leave when she suddenly spun back around, her eyes scanning Wu Jun up and down.
Her stare made Wu Jun feel uncomfortable. "What is it, Sis Xu? Do I have a spare part that doesn't fit?" he asked.
"You kid, your mouth is getting smarter by the day," Xu Minli chided with a smile, then added with concern, "Little Wu, you've lost a lot of weight recently. Making money is one thing, but don't work yourself to the bone. You're still young and not even married yet. Your health is your wealth, you know."
"I have?" Wu Jun looked down at his body, a blank expression on his face.
He really had lost weight. He used to sit around all the time and had a bit of a beer belly, but now it looked flat. If Sis Xu hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't have even noticed.
"Thanks for your concern, Sis Xu. I'll be more careful from now on," Wu Jun said, looking up with a smile.
"Alright then, I'm heading up," Xu Minli said, then turned and left.
After Xu Minli left, Wu Jun came out from behind the counter, walked over to the rice, flour, and oil section, pulled out the electronic scale, and stepped on it.
The digital screen showed a number: exactly 70 kilograms.
Wu Jun was 1.82 meters tall, and his weight had always hovered around 75 kilograms—not too fat, not too thin.
Now, he was suddenly down 5 kilograms and looked noticeably thinner.
"Whoa... this weight loss plan is second to none," Wu Jun muttered as he stepped off the scale and returned behind the counter.
The reason for the weight loss became clear as soon as he thought about it.
Weighing two or three tons of rice a day, and sometimes having to help elderly customers carry it out to their cars... with that much physical activity, even an iron man would slim down.
Once the rice packaging was ready, he could start selling in earnest, and the workload would undoubtedly be even heavier than it was now.
Wu Jun was full of confidence in the quality of the rice produced by the game. Plus, with such a consumer-friendly price, it was a predictable bestseller.
Just by passively waiting for customers in his tiny supermarket, he was already making around 30,000 yuan a day. If he took the initiative, multiplying his current income several times over shouldn't be difficult.
Besides, at its current maximum level, [Resource Tycoon] could produce 100 tons of rice per day. Even if he had three heads and six arms, he wouldn't be able to handle that alone.
Hiring employees was inevitable. Once he increased the in-game production capacity, he would have to build his own sales team.
To upgrade the game, besides recruiting Farmers and purchasing farmland, another condition was to sell 10,000 tons of rice.
Relying on himself alone, selling those 10,000 tons of rice would take forever.
The average salary in Shimen City was around 3,500 yuan, and supermarket clerks didn't even make that much.
In the large supermarkets downtown, a cashier's salary was mostly around 3,000 yuan, which worked out to just 100 yuan a day.
However, a normal job was nine-to-five. His supermarket was a bit special. Customers started showing up after 5:00 AM, and he didn't close until after 9:00 PM, making it a five-to-nine job. The work hours were several hours longer.
Wu Jun had personally experienced the workload for nearly a month now; it was truly exhausting.
The salary would definitely have to be raised accordingly. Otherwise, one day of work would be enough to make anyone quit and run.
For Wu Jun, who was currently earning around 30,000 yuan a day, shelling out one or two hundred a day to hire a helper wasn't something he'd lose sleep over.
At this time of day, there were few customers. Since he was idle anyway, he decided to act on his idea. Wu Jun hung up a "Closed for business, will return shortly" sign and walked towards the print shop outside the residential complex.
He spent two yuan to print a "Help Wanted" notice.
Wu Jun returned to the supermarket and posted the notice on the wall by the entrance.
Just as he finished posting the notice and reopened for business, Xu Minli came into the store again.
"Hey! Look at my memory, I forgot to buy slippers. I need to grab a pair." As she spoke, Xu Minli walked over to the household goods shelf on her own, picked out a pair of pink slippers, and scanned the code to pay.
Wu Jun asked with a smile, "You sure you didn't forget anything else, Sis Xu? I don't want you to have to make another trip."
"That's everything, I've got it all this time. I'm off," Xu Minli said and headed for the door. As she reached the entrance, she saw the "Help Wanted" notice Wu Jun had just posted and leaned in curiously to read it.
"Sis Xu, are you planning on giving up being a boss to come work for me?" Wu Jun joked when he saw how seriously Xu Minli was reading it.
Xu Minli ran an eyeglasses store near No. 17 Middle School, not far from the Tianyuan residential complex. Although it wasn't large, the income was decent—definitely more than the salary from this supermarket job.
After reading the notice, Xu Minli turned to Wu Jun and asked, "Little Wu, you're hiring a clerk? What a coincidence! My niece just came here today from our hometown and is looking for a job. Do you think she could come help out at your store?"
On his "Help Wanted" notice, Wu Jun had offered a salary of 5,000 yuan a month, which was higher than most other jobs. Plus, they were neighbors living upstairs and downstairs, and Xu Minli knew Wu Jun's character inside and out. She would feel very at ease letting her niece work for him.
Wu Jun asked, "Sis Xu, we're neighbors, you've seen for yourself that the workload here is no joke. Can your niece handle it?"
Xu Minli assured him, "Don't you worry about that, Little Wu. My niece has been doing all kinds of chores since she was little. She's not one of those pampered kids. She can definitely handle this job. Plus, she's honest and down-to-earth, totally reliable."
Since Sis Xu had put it that way, Wu Jun naturally wouldn't refuse. He said, "Alright then. You can bring her over to start anytime."
Xu Minli beamed. "Then it's settled? I'll get her settled in today, and I'll bring her over tomorrow. As for this 'Help Wanted' notice... can I tear it down?"
Wu Jun nodded. "Go ahead. It's useless now anyway."
RRRIP!
The "Help Wanted" notice, which had been up for less than two minutes, had fulfilled its historic mission and was honorably retired.
Xu Minli tossed the notice into the trash can. "Hah! You kid, if you were going to hire someone, you should have said so earlier. You could have saved two yuan."
Wu Jun was speechless. He hadn't expected such a perfect coincidence either.