Ronin went to contact his cousin.
Sophia called Haiwen.
"Yes, we need two people. One must handle reception and also help manage the business. The other one should be an auntie."
"They need to live in. My place is a bit far. If they don't live in, the travel will be inconvenient, and they probably won't stay long."
Haiwen replied on the phone. She wouldn't look for people herself but gave the job to her assistant.
"Okay, send me the details in writing. I will give it to my assistant to help find someone."
Haiwen was waiting at the airport, about to fly to LA for a business trip.
Before hanging up, Haiwen said, "I want to come to your house to see the exhibition. Save me a spot!"
"Don't just save one, save more! I want to bring people!"
Sophia laughed and said, "The exhibition is the day after your engagement party. Will you have time to come?"
Haiwen said, "An engagement party is not like a wedding, just a simple event. Nothing complicated, just friends and family eating together."
Sophia said, "Then you must quickly help me find a housekeeper. Time is tight."
"Or maybe see if it can be outsourced?"
But outsourcing has risks. Sophia's exhibits cost from tens of thousands to millions.
Haiwen agreed and told her assistant to help find someone.
Her plane was about to close its doors, so Sophia ended the call.
---
Ronin's cousin arrived in the afternoon after getting the message.
Sophia and Ronin were busy—one was receiving goods, the other selecting items.
General Yves sent a letter: there is a severe drought, many people in each county are starving to death.
People can't even get basic food, so handling funerals is impossible.
After walking for some distance, you can find places that are not wild anymore.
In this situation, epidemics can easily break out.
Sophia planned to buy more dried herbs like dandelion, isatis root, and coptis to send over.
But looking on Taobao, she did not trust the sellers much. She checked the top ten wholesale herb markets and found one in Yangcheng, which is a four to five-hour drive.
With many things to handle at home, she couldn't leave easily.
Sophia decided to order boxes of herbal powders and coptis tablets online, which cost only two or three yuan for fifty tablets.
Shallow spent a few thousand yuan to buy the first batch from JD.com, with nearby delivery. The next day, it would arrive.
While busy, Ronin got a call and stepped outside.
Soon after, he brought a young woman in.
Sophia sat near the middle door on the first floor and looked up to see two people entering.
Ronin brought the young woman to Sophia and smiled, "Boss, this is my cousin, Youling."
Seeing Sophia looking her over, Ronin patted his cousin's shoulder, "Boss, my cousin has been strong since she was little. She looks tall and big, can do hard work, but she's smart too. She graduated from a 985 university."
Because she looked big and strong, she was often isolated by other kids when studying. After working, people often judged her by appearance and passed her over.
"Ling, don't you have a resume? Send me a copy!"
Ronin had been so busy that he forgot to ask his cousin for her resume before asking her to come meet Sophia.
"Oh, okay!"
Ling quickly forwarded her resume to Ronin from her phone.
Ronin called her over, so she came without much preparation.
Fortunately, she had been job hunting recently, so her resume was ready.
Sophia and Ronin each had a desk. Sophia pointed for Ling to sit down and said to Ronin, "Mr. Qi, you go ahead with your work. I'll have a chat with Ling."
Ronin trusted his cousin and said, "Do your best. Don't be nervous."
After being unemployed for a month and attending several interviews, Ling wasn't nervous anymore in front of Sophia.
Ling was quite tall, over 170 centimeters. Standing next to Ronin, she even looked stronger than him.
Sophia looked through Ling's resume. At the end, there were her school grades and the competitions she had taken part in. The results were good.
Sophia also looked at her work history over the past two years. Ling had some experience.
Sophia picked a few points from the resume and asked Ling to talk about them.
After talking about her work experience, Sophia asked, "Ling, do you know what your cousin does here?"
Ling nodded. "Miss Sophia, I didn't work in purchasing before, but I can learn. In the past two years, I've had to talk about prices and find suppliers. I believe skills are important, but attitude and working methods are just as important."
Sophia smiled.
Ling felt she might have sounded too serious, so she added quickly, "Miss Sophia, I don't know if my cousin told you about my family."
"Our financial situation isn't good. There are two elderly people at home. I'm willing to do any kind of work."
As long as she could earn money, it didn't matter if the work was hard or tiring.
Sophia was quite satisfied with her. She explained the job, "The main responsibility is purchasing. There are many things we need to buy right now. You and your cousin can work separately. He will handle tools and equipment. You will be responsible for food supplies. But that's just the main task. We don't have many people, so when needed, you'll also help with other work."
Sophia told her some of the other tasks Ronin did, such as building houses, repairing roads, and more.
Finally, she said, "If everything sounds good to you, you can start work tomorrow. For now, your monthly salary will be fifteen thousand."
Ling, who looked strong and stable, couldn't help but smile when she heard that. Her eyes lit up.
"No problem, Miss Sophia. I'll come to work tomorrow."
She smiled happily.
She knew her cousin wouldn't cheat her, but she didn't expect the job he introduced to pay so well.
Even though she graduated from a top university, after working for two years, she had only been earning seven or eight thousand. Now it had doubled.
She didn't mind working hard. What mattered most was being able to make money.
If she couldn't find a job soon, she had been thinking about setting up a stall to sell things.
After the interview, Ling didn't want to disturb Ronin, who was still working. She waved at him from a distance and pointed at her phone to tell him to check his messages.
Ronin was busy receiving goods. He only had time to wave back.
Ling sent him a message saying she got the job and promised to treat him to a meal to thank him.
Ling's mother was the younger sister of Ronin's mother, Madam Xi. Ling had lost her parents when she was little, and Madam Xi had always treated her with care and love.