Just as Zhou Xiaoyue was about to speak, Li Xiao held up a hand.
"It’s fine. This is my assistant."
The person who had just entered was none other than Zhou Shishi, Li Xiao’s assistant.
Zhou Shishi wore a tailored, casual blazer and light makeup on her oval face—a very professional look.
To be fair, this was the first time the two had met in person. Previously, they had only communicated through WeChat and phone calls.
However, they still recognized each other.
After all, it wasn’t hard for Li Xiao to recognize Zhou Shishi, because she had used her actual ID photo on her resume without any beautifying filters.
And it was even easier for Zhou Shishi to recognize Li Xiao, because he never used beautifying filters on his livestreams either.
Li Xiao was the first to extend his hand.
"Nice to finally meet you. I’m Li Xiao."
Zhou Shishi quickly shook her boss’s hand.
"Hello, Boss. I’m Zhou Shishi."
...
After a few pleasantries, they got down to business.
Zhou Shishi took out a small stack of new menus.
"These are several different menu materials. I brought them over for you, Boss, so you can decide which one to use."
"Once you’ve confirmed, I can have them start printing in bulk right away."
Li Xiao took the stack of paper menus and flipped through them. He quickly chose a matte kraft paper that had a nice texture.
Although the unit price for this was high, it was also more unique, and customers wouldn’t be as likely to just toss it after getting one.
For this kind of promotional menu, the longer it stayed in a customer’s hands, the better the promotional effect.
Once the material was chosen, Zhou Shishi immediately sent the product number to the advertising company and told them to start printing.
Just as they finished, a man with glasses wearing a blue and white plaid shirt and a grayish-blue backpack walked into the milk tea shop.
Zhou Shishi quickly introduced him to Li Xiao.
"Boss, this is the former colleague who helped create the mini-program. He lives nearby, and when he heard you needed to sync the store’s hardware today and happened to have the day off, he offered to come over and help with the debugging for free."
Since the man was willing to help, Li Xiao was naturally happy to accept.
Although the mini-program came with its own tutorial and wasn’t difficult to operate, it was certainly better to have a professional’s help.
Li Xiao opened his wallet and pulled out a small stack of red bills.
"I don’t make a habit of letting people help me for free."
"I’ve heard programmers’ salaries aren’t low. Ten or twenty thousand a month is pretty common."
"I don’t know your salary, so I’ll just base it on 500 a day. Since this counts as fieldwork, I’ll triple it. That’s 1,500 for your trouble."
"Also, Zhou Shishi, when you go to mail the whelk slices for me later, take eleven pounds for yourself to take home for your aunt to make soup. And while you’re at it, send eleven pounds to this former colleague of yours as well."
Hearing Li Xiao’s words, the bespectacled man’s eyes went wide with shock.
It wasn’t because the offer was too little. On the contrary, he was shocked because it was far too much.
The main reason he’d suddenly come over today was because Zhou Shishi had mentioned something to him.
This milk tea shop was meant to help children with intellectual disabilities learn to be self-sufficient, so it most likely wasn’t profitable.
He had been very moved after hearing this. Although he was just an ordinary person and couldn’t offer these children much help himself, he deeply admired the good people who could.
That’s why he had made a special trip over today, wanting to help in any small way he could.
Connecting the mini-program to the hardware wasn’t complicated, but for a layperson doing it for the first time, it would still take a fair bit of effort.
However, for a professional like him, this small task would probably only take ten or fifteen minutes.
He had originally planned to help for free, but he never expected the young man before him to be so generous, offering a 1,500 service fee right off the bat.
He quickly waved his hands, refusing.
"I can’t possibly take this 1,500. The setup won’t take long at all, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes at most. I can get it done in a jiffy."
Li Xiao stuffed the money directly into his hand.
"I don’t understand technology myself, but I have a great deal of respect for technical experts."
"Twenty minutes of fieldwork is still fieldwork. This setup is a technical job. If you’re not willing to take the money, then I can’t let you help."
Hearing this, the bespectacled man almost burst into tears.
Honestly, he’d been sent out to do debugging for clients plenty of times at his company.
However, even when he had to travel to other cities for a setup, the company never gave him any extra pay for his trouble, and they were always incredibly stingy about reimbursing travel expenses.
He had never met a boss like this one, who was so generous even knowing the job wasn’t difficult.
At that moment, he felt an urge to ask if the boss needed a personal programmer.
This wasn’t the first time Zhou Shishi had seen her boss be so generous. Seeing her former colleague staring blankly, she gave his shoulder a nudge.
"Lin Jifei, what are you waiting for? Thank my boss!"
"I told you our boss is very generous. Don’t be so wishy-washy. When the boss gives you something, just take it graciously."
Hearing Zhou Shishi’s urging and feeling the weight of the bills in his hand, Lin Jifei no longer hesitated.
"Thank you for the payment, Boss. I won’t take it for nothing. I’ll make sure the software and hardware are configured perfectly for you!"
"Also, I live right nearby, so if any problems come up in the future, I can pop over to help right away."
Li Xiao nodded.
"Then I’ll be counting on you for any future maintenance."
Seeing Lin Jifei get right to work, he didn’t watch over him. It was always right to leave professional work to the professionals.
He then led Zhou Yu behind the counter, briefly explained how to use the equipment, and picked a few drinks to demonstrate.
Zhou Yu was, after all, smart enough to get into Zhongshan University. Although he could seem a bit simple at times, his intelligence was not lacking. Within a few minutes, he had more or less figured out the specific operating procedures.
While guiding Zhou Yu’s practice in making drinks, Li Xiao also checked on the other children’s progress.
Everyone had made great progress. Although they couldn’t remember how to make every single recipe yet, they could now prepare the ones they had memorized quite smoothly.
Of course, it was only the process that was smooth; their speed was still rather slow.
However, Li Xiao wasn’t surprised by this. Given the children’s circumstances, reaching this level was the result of their 100% effort. He wouldn’t be overly harsh, instead patiently guiding and teaching each of them one by one.
After just a short while, Lin Jifei had tinkered with everything and got it all set up.
"Boss Li, the store’s hardware and the mini-program are all configured."
"I just tested it, and everything is ready to go."
Li Xiao looked at Zhou Xiaoyue beside him, and she nodded repeatedly.
"It’s very easy to use. I’ve already learned how. The ordering process is much simpler than using the computer like before."
Li Xiao had Zhou Shishi see Lin Jifei out. Not long after, the advertising company that was installing the new sign arrived.
Although there was nothing wrong with the old sign, after several years of use, it had become a bit outdated.
The new sign was more minimalist, yet also more grand and eye-catching. Passersby could see it from a distance, making it a big improvement over the original.
The company Zhou Shishi found was very professional. Without Li Xiao needing to worry about a thing, they finished the installation in less than an hour.
Looking at the bright, eye-catching sign, he nodded in satisfaction. The new sign’s actual effect was about what he’d imagined—it looked great.
After a busy day, Li Xiao said his goodbyes and headed back to the university with Zhou Yu.
On the way, seeing Zhou Yu walking with his head down in silence, he frowned and asked:
"What’s wrong?"
"Are you not used to the work?"
Li Xiao thought perhaps Zhou Yu didn’t enjoy being around a group of children with intellectual disabilities.