101: Chapter 101 Annotation Function

Soon, the shop owner's phone received a transaction notification text message.

The shop owner, somewhat excited and impatient, reached out his hand and said, "Pleasure doing business with you!"

"Pleasure doing business with you!"

"Um, Boss Chen, I have some things to take care of on my end, so I'll be taking my leave now."

"As it happens, I have some things to take care of as well," Chen Sheng said, following the shop owner's lead.

The two parted ways there. Chen Sheng drove to the commercial street. He first found a nearby advertising company and, after confirming they could change the shop name tomorrow, brought the salesperson to "A Small Shop" to measure the signboard on-site.

Next, he found a printing shop and had them make a simple recruitment notice on A4 paper; he was preparing to hire a permanent Shop Assistant for "A Small Shop Here".

When he posted the recruitment notice at the shop entrance, the smile on the face of the Part-time employee working today instantly froze. After hesitating for a long time, she finally couldn't help but ask, "Boss, seeing as you're planning to hire a permanent Shop Assistant, does that mean you won't need us part-timers anymore?"

"No, things will remain exactly as they were before," Chen Sheng said, first dispelling the Part-time employee's concerns, then explaining, "I'll be adjusting the shop's business model later on, which is why I need a permanent Shop Assistant."

As for the specific operations, Chen Sheng didn't explain them to the Part-time employee.

But this was clearly enough. When Chen Sheng said, "Things will remain exactly as they were before," the Part-time employee visibly let out a sigh of relief. The smile on her face immediately returned to normal, and she looked at Chen Sheng with her large eyes blinking, as if expecting something.

Chen Sheng likely guessed what the Part-time employee was expecting, but he didn't make any promises immediately; instead, he steered the conversation back to the matter of hiring a permanent Shop Assistant.

"If any of you are interested in switching to full-time, you can let me know. I'll give you priority consideration."

This could be considered an internal benefit.

Over the past two days, he had specifically looked into the wages of sales staff at retail shops like "A Small Shop." The average monthly salary was roughly between 3k and 3.5k, with a maximum of no more than 4k. Yet, the base salary Chen Sheng offered in his recruitment notice was 4k, not including perfect attendance bonuses or commissions.

Of course, a high salary also implies high standards. Rather than calling it a permanent Shop Assistant, it would actually be more appropriate to call it a Store Manager.

Possessing an intelligence system, he couldn't stay watching over this small shop forever. Therefore, he needed a Shop Assistant who understood the entire workflow of a retail shop, including inventory counting. At the same time, this Shop Assistant also needed to possess a certain level of management experience to assist him in managing the part-time staff.

To completely free himself up—in his vision, by equipping the shop with one permanent employee, he would only need to stop by once a day or every few days to check the accounts.

Of course! This was the ideal state.

For this reason, he had specifically called Old Yu. After paying the price of a barbecue meal and accompanying him on another fishing trip, Old Yu, as a second-generation supermarket owner, broke down all the ins and outs in detail over the phone, spoon-feeding the information directly to Chen Sheng.

On the scene, upon hearing that internal candidates would be given priority, the Part-time employee's expression showed some struggle. Finally, she smiled reluctantly and said, "Boss, I'll pass. My schedule doesn't allow it."

"No problem! But when you hand over your shift tonight, please tell the others as well. Also, an advertising company is coming tomorrow to change the signboard..."

After giving the Part-time employee some instructions, Chen Sheng drove away from the commercial street and headed straight for Dafeng District.

He wasn't going for the Longines watch; rather, the North City Warehousing and Logistics Park was located in Dafeng District.

As the originator that redefined the new interaction method of contemporary smartphones, and as the legacy work representing the innovative spirit of the late tech giant Jobs, the first generation phone had definitely been enshrined by "Apple fans" as a "relic" of the contemporary tech religion.

Furthermore, it had long been discontinued, and only about six million units were sold at the time, with the vast majority having already been unsealed and used. Chen Sheng believed that when an unsealed first generation phone appeared on the market, it would definitely drive "Apple fans" crazy.

Especially those "Apple fans" who loved collecting.

Based on the above situation, without needing to think too much, Chen Sheng already had a series of sales strategies in mind.

The intelligence mentioned the market price was 70,000 to 100,000 ¥, but in Chen Sheng's view, anything less than 100,000 was selling it cheap.

After driving for about an hour and a half, Chen Sheng arrived near the North City Warehousing and Logistics Park. As evening and afternoon were the two peak times for the logistics park, electric tricycles could be seen entering and exiting everywhere at this time.

Chen Sheng had no choice but to find a vacant spot nearby to park his car, then followed the navigation to walk to the XX Foreign Trade Logistics Sorting Center.

As a result, when Chen Sheng arrived outside the XX Foreign Trade Logistics Sorting Center, he was immediately dumbfounded.

To summarize the scene before him in one sentence: there were many people, many stalls, and just as many express delivery blind boxes.

Due to special circumstances, many industries that hadn't been heard of before had been developed in recent years, such as old clothing recycling, and also express delivery blind boxes.

Express delivery or logistics companies would sell some returned or unclaimed express delivery boxes to private individuals in bulk. After buying them, these individuals would keep the high-value items, then use a pen to smear out the information on the tracking number, and then sell them via the internet to those netizens who were curious, enjoyed opening them, or enjoyed the fun of opening blind boxes.

This is also why most blind boxes contained worthless trinkets like trash bags, cat food, industrial incense, and so on.

As for why everyone flocked to them even though they were clearly worthless trinkets, it was because there was a small probability that a blind box could contain a high-value item.

Some were intentionally kept by the owners to attract buyers, while others were because the tracking number on the packaging was damaged, making it impossible to check the items inside.

Since it was a guaranteed profit business, the owners didn't want to gamble on whether the items inside were expensive or cheap, so they kept them all.

At this moment, various stalls at the scene were surrounded by people preparing to wholesale express delivery blind boxes. Some were selecting goods, some were bargaining with the stall owners, and some had just completed transactions and were loading goods...

Just as Chen Sheng was worrying, the system's voice suddenly rang in his mind: "Detected that the current environment is complex. Now, the host is specially permitted to advance three pieces of future intelligence to mark the current intelligence items. Does the host wish to mark them?"

Chen Sheng: "..."

He hadn't expected the system to respond to his complaint just now.

However, the urgent matter at hand was not to dwell on this. Regaining his focus, he hurriedly asked: "System! What does it mean to advance future intelligence to mark current intelligence items?"

【Ding! Choosing to mark current intelligence items requires deducting the corresponding future intelligence. If the host chooses to mark, the system will start deducting the corresponding unread intelligence from the next day. If there is insufficient unread intelligence on the next day, it will be extended to the third day, until the repayment is completed.】

After listening to the system's explanation, Chen Sheng understood. But it was precisely because he understood that he was conflicted.

This was because no one knew whether future intelligence would be good or bad. If it were intelligence like traffic congestion, exchanging it would be fine, but what if the future intelligence was something like a rise in international crude oil prices or a rise in gold prices?

This unknown was exactly the point Chen Sheng was conflicted about.

Chen Sheng lit a cigarette, constantly weighing the pros and cons in his mind, until he threw the cigarette butt on the ground and extinguished it with his foot; he had made his decision.

"System! Help me mark the current intelligence items."

Rather than gambling on the uncertainty of tomorrow, it was better to seize the tangible, real benefits that he could see and touch right now.

Besides, that was a first generation phone estimated to sell for at least 100,000; that wasn't a small amount.

Furthermore, there was the intelligence about gold prices rising in the next half month. He urgently needed funds to join this gluttonous feast. The sooner he got the money to invest in the gold market by one day, the more he would be able to get a share of.

【Ding! Three pieces of future intelligence have been deducted, and the items involved in the current intelligence have been marked for the host.】

【The mark is red; if a red mark appears in the host's field of vision, it is an intelligence item.】

Chen Sheng looked around...

There was no sign of the so-called red.

Seeing this, he didn't delay any longer and hurriedly squeezed into the crowd, starting to check one stall after another. However, after he had gone through all the stalls from start to finish, the so-called red mark still hadn't appeared.

Chen Sheng asked somewhat impatiently: "System! Didn't you say it was already marked? Why don't I see it?"

Unfortunately, he didn't receive a reply from the system this time.

Chen Sheng had no choice but to grab a free buyer nearby, hand him a cigarette, and ask: "Handsome Guy, let me ask you something, is all the express delivery blind boxes sold every day here?"

The man who was stopped looked at Chen Sheng, and only after taking the cigarette did he say: "The problematic express deliveries cleared out every day are basically all here, but sometimes if business is good, the owners will replenish stock temporarily."

...