Chapter 171 - 162: I Never Thought I’d See the Day I’d Be Assigned a Car

Chapter 171: Chapter 162: I Never Thought I’d See the Day I’d Be Assigned a Car

"Haha, an opening is always good news."

"Boss~ just say the word. We won’t slack off — we’ll do the job right and make you proud."

"Exactly, just tell us what to do, boss."

The employees were all in high spirits, following Chen Dequan’s lead in calling him boss.

How could they not be happy?

Yu City Village was a small place, and Liu Fang, being the village’s information director, had been singing Chen Yuan’s praises to everyone she met — and after they actually received their first paychecks, the whole family had practically been raised to sainthood in the villagers’ eyes.

But they were envious, too.

According to Liu Fang, it wasn’t just a base salary — there were bonuses too, and working a full month came out to at least three thousand.

Better treatment than what was offered at the interview.

They’d been looking forward to starting for a while now.

And finally, they were on the job.

"The fishing grounds have two main areas — the ponds, and the boxed meals. Let’s start with the food side."

Chen Yuan waved everyone to eat and talk at the same time. He picked up his chopsticks, popped a piece of meat in his mouth, and kept going.

"For the food, we’ve got side dishes and boxed meals proper. The side dishes will be handled by Grandma and Aunt Juan. Aunt Zhang and Aunt Juan, you two are a team — Aunt Juan, you’ll probably need to do your prep at home."

Aunt Juan was Xu Juan. Her cooking was nearly as good as Grandma’s — Zhou Lin had even hired her to cook at his wedding, so running her own kitchen solo was absolutely no problem.

Aunt Zhang was Zhang Youfen, also a village woman with solid cooking skills. When things got hectic, she could take the lead in the kitchen too.

"No problem."

"Whatever you say, boss."

Xu Juan and Zhang Youfen nodded with a smile.

"Aunt Liu, you’re paired with my grandma."

Chen Yuan looked over at Liu Fang. Those two already had a natural rhythm together — no need to split them up.

"Aunt Kang and Aunt Jing, you two are a team. You’ll be handling boxed meals, and you’ll also need to prep at home."

Aunt Kang was Kang Min, and Aunt Jing was Jing Shan — both had passed the interview and were assigned to the food side.

That left one group — his parents, naturally.

That covered all the food staff: two teams on side dishes, two on boxed meals. On paper it might seem thin, but realistically, not every angler at both ponds was going to order from the fishing ground.

Of course, the team assignments weren’t set in stone. During something like a big event, if everyone was ordering boxed meals, the side dish teams would pitch in on those too.

And if the side dishes got backed up, the boxed meal teams would help out as well.

The whole point was to work together and cover each other.

"These are the walkie-talkies I just bought. They have sixteen channels — same channel means you can talk to each other. Food team, everyone set to channel one. If something comes up, just say it."

Chen Yuan handed out the walkie-talkies to the food team, each one already tuned to the right channel.

"Nice little gadget."

Chen Jun was clearly intrigued. He grabbed one and started fiddling with it, and a few others gave them a try too, getting a feel for how they worked.

"Now for the pond side. The main job is greeting guests when they arrive and seeing them off when they leave, along with keeping an eye on pond safety. That goes double for Old Pond — the fish in there are big, and customers are more likely to lose their footing and fall in. Safety is the top priority."

Safety always came first, which was exactly why Chen Yuan had made sure every hire knew how to swim.

"Nothing changes at the small pond — I’ll be taking charge of Old Pond."

Chen Yuan had decided to leave the small pond as-is. He’d originally thought about moving Chen Dequan to Old Pond — as a veteran employee, he could help bring the new hires up to speed. But that would just put things back to square one and make his parents’ workload even heavier. No point in that.

"Uncle Heng, Uncle Kai — you two are on Old Pond for the daytime sessions. Your job is greeting and seeing off guests and patrolling the pond to keep everyone safe."

Chen Yiheng and Chen Yikai were both of the "Yi" generation in the family tree, technically of a high seniority, but calling them "Uncle" by age was perfectly reasonable too.

"Uncle Jun and Brother Haonan are on the night fishing sessions. Same duties."

Chen Hongjun was around the same age as the Chen Yiheng brothers. Chen Nan, on the other hand, was much younger — not yet thirty, still single.

Back when they were kids and had just finished watching a certain Hong Kong gangster film, Chen Nan had demanded that all the younger kids start calling him Brother Haonan, and the nickname had stuck ever since.

He’d apparently even tried to officially change his name to match at the time — word was he got a beating for it.

Young guys like him were a rare sight in the village these days. Chen Nan had only come back because his father needed surgery — he was here to look after him.

"Things will be a bit busy for a while, so I’ll also need to borrow your families’ open space for parking. Once the construction at Old Pond wraps up, there’ll be a proper lot — it’ll be a lot easier then."

For Old Pond, Chen Yuan had hired four people in total — two for the day shift, two for night fishing.

The main reason was that Old Pond had plenty of open space around it, so customers could drive right up and park by the water’s edge. It was more efficient than the small pond, so there was no need to overstaff it.

"No problem."

Chen Nan and the others smiled and gave their word.

"The pond team also gets walkie-talkies — set to channel two. If anything comes up, just call it in."

Chen Yuan and Chen Li handed out the remaining walkie-talkies.

Chen Youliang got one too. He was handling the fish farming side of things and didn’t have much overlap with the rest of the crew day-to-day, but better to have it and not need it.

"My sister and I are handling coordination. When nothing’s going on, stay on channel three. If you need to reach us, switch to channel three and call. That covers everything on my end — does anyone have anything they want to add? Speak up if you do."

Chen Yuan looked around after finishing the rundown.

"No major issues on my end. I just figure check-in and check-out are going to be the craziest times, so I’ll come in for mornings even when I’m on the night shift."

Chen Nan knocked back a mouthful of beer, easy and relaxed about the whole thing.

"Either way, we’re split into two shifts — there’s plenty of time to rest. We can all pitch in for arrivals and departures together."

Chen Hongjun felt the same way, and the Chen Yiheng brothers were on board too. They were all villagers — for pond work, everyone could pull together during the rush, and once it quieted down, whoever was on shift stayed while the rest took a break. That way no one burned out.

And it was just more efficient.

Part of it came down to Chen Dequan and his wife, too.

Everyone in the village knew how hard those two worked. With veteran employees setting that kind of example, the newcomers weren’t about to fall short — especially not when they were all drawing the same pay.

"We can pull double duty at the pond too, honestly — same as Liu Fang does."

"I was about to say the same thing. Once the morning rush is done, there’s still a good two hours free. After the evening meal’s cooked, we can still tend to our own farming. When there’s nothing going on, we rest. It won’t get in the way of anything."

Several of the cooking aunties chimed in one after another.

Chen Yuan genuinely hadn’t expected this much enthusiasm from the crew.

But one glance at Chen Dequan and Liu Fang made it easy to understand.

Same role, same pay — the workload had to match, or people would start grumbling.

"If that’s how everyone feels, then during work hours, we all come together for check-ins and check-outs."

Chen Yuan raised his glass with a smile.

Both tables drank together.

"Now let’s talk benefits."

He set down his glass and kept smiling.

"First — meals are covered. All employees get lunch and dinner included. Mr. Liang, that goes for you too."

Chen Youliang was a little caught off guard.

None of this had been mentioned when he’d applied. But looking around at the two tables of staff, he didn’t refuse — he just smiled, nodded, and said thank you.

"Next — days off. Once the Old Pond opening event wraps up, we’ll move to a rotating schedule. Everyone gets one day off per week, but each team needs to keep at least one person on duty. My sister will handle the scheduling. If something comes up on your end, let her know ahead of time."

This was something Chen Yuan and Chen Li had worked out together that afternoon.

If people were working proper shifts, they deserved proper days off — everyone had things going on in their lives.

And Chen Li was the right person for this. Back when she was a store manager, arranging staff leave was second nature to her. This kind of thing was easy work for her.

"Oh, days off too?"

Chen Dequan was in the middle of shoveling rice into his mouth when he heard that — his eyes lit up.

"Ha, honestly, the days off are something you all earned yourselves. You’re willing to put in the extra hours — you deserve the time off."

Under a normal rotation, the people who showed up while others were off would naturally feel the strain. But this crew was motivated and happy to work together during the busy stretches.

That meant even when someone took a day off, the rest of the team wouldn’t feel the crunch the way they would under a standard setup.

"Haha, well, thanks, boss~"

Chen Dequan didn’t make a fuss about it — he just laughed and said thanks, plain and simple.

The rest of the staff followed with their own thanks.

A few even threw in that since they all lived in the village anyway, one shout and they’d come running whether they were on or off the clock.

"One last thing."

Chen Yuan produced a set of three-wheeler keys and handed them out — starting with his uncle Chen Kingdom, then Chen Dequan, the four Old Pond staff, and Chen Youliang. Everyone got one.

"You’re on the job now — can’t have you using your own wheels. Consider these your work vehicles."

"Well, I’ll be — never thought I’d see the day I got a company car. If only it came with a driver too."

Chen Dequan held up the key and laughed.

"Want me to be your driver?"

Liu Fang turned and said it with a straight face.

Chen Dequan’s head immediately disappeared into his shoulders. Both tables erupted in laughter.

Business and dinner had gone hand in hand without anyone feeling rushed. Since the small pond still had night fishing going on and the grand opening was tomorrow, nobody pushed their luck with the drinks, and the gathering wrapped up before long.

The row of three-wheelers that had lined the road were mostly gone now — only three remained.

"New wheels really do hit different."

Chen Jun stared at the remaining three-wheelers and clicked his tongue.

"You can have mine."

Chen Yuan rolled his eyes. He’d seen this coming the moment his dad started shifting in his seat. Chen Jun hadn’t gotten a new key earlier, and the sourness had been building.

"Keep it. It’s not like I don’t have one already."

Chen Jun scoffed and held his ground, too stubborn to admit anything.

"I’ve got a three-wheeler at home too. No need to go spending money like this."

Chen Kingdom pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered one to both Chen Jun and Chen Yuan, then tried to hand his key back to Chen Yuan.

"Fresh start for the grand opening."

Chen Yuan took the cigarette but waved off the key.

"Go on, go deal with whatever you’ve got. If there’s nothing urgent, get to bed early tonight — I’ll handle the close-out shift."

Chen Jun said it while taking a drag, looking at Chen Yuan.

He still worried about his son. The kid had been running around for days, nearly slept through the morning, hadn’t managed to catch up on rest all day — letting him take the night shift was the least he could do.

Chen Yuan gave a nod.