Xiao Qiang's onboarding paperwork was processed very quickly. Five minutes later, the signed form was delivered to Song Yan's office.
"Manager, why did you change your clothes?"
A flash of unnaturalness crossed Song Yan's face. "It's so hot and sweaty in the summer, I just like to change clothes often..."
Xiaoman looked like she understood yet didn't. "Oh! Manager, this is Xiao Qiang's application form. Could you please sign it?"
After taking the form and studying it for a moment, Xiaoman wore a puzzled look. "Grew up in an orphanage? No parents?"
Xiaoman nodded. "I didn't expect Xiao Qiang's past to be so tragic either."
"And he's even a PhD in traditional Chinese medicine?! No wonder his massages are so good. A PhD in traditional Chinese medicine—why would he think of coming to work in our massage parlor instead of a hospital? How strange!"
Despite having many doubts, Song Yan neatly signed the employment application.
According to Xiaoman's introduction, Mingshi Health Club was an extremely famous sub-health management center in Haizhou. Focusing on women's health services, it had eighteen chain stores in Haizhou.
The branch where he currently worked was the flagship store, boasting a total operating area of several thousand square meters, including a bathing area, tea and refreshment area, leisure area, and massage area.
The massage area alone had nearly eighty massage rooms, capable of serving eighty customers simultaneously.
Inside the two-hundred-square-meter technician lounge:
"Everyone, please pay attention. This is our newly hired technician, Xiao Qiang. From now on, we're all family, so please take care of one another."
After a brief introduction, Xiaoman looked at Xiao Qiang. "There are over sixty technicians here, so I won't introduce them one by one. You'll get used to things as you work. Your number is 068, and you can temporarily rest on massage bed 068 from now on. Your dorm is shared with Jixiang from bed 067; go with him after your shift ends. Xiao Ji, look after our new colleague."
Just then, Jixiang, who was lying on massage bed 067 scrolling through short videos, immediately saluted Xiaoman. "Sister Xiaoman, guaranteed mission completion!" With that, he smiled and nodded at Xiao Qiang.
Xiao Qiang smiled back warmly. Jixiang had the kind of face that screamed approachability; a smile constantly hung on his face, making anyone who looked at him feel at ease.
He looked a bit like Old Bai from *Soldier's Assault*!
"Thanks, Xiaoman. Once I get my salary, I'll treat you to a meal." Xiao Qiang whispered to Xiaoman, and she flashed him an OK sign.
"Brother Qiang, good buddy, come sit over here. Just call me Xiao Ji—your arrival makes me so happy!"
Jixiang greeted Xiao Qiang in a thick Sichuan accent, which sounded quite flavorful.
Xiao Qiang didn't stand on ceremony. "Xiao Ji, my arrival makes you that much of a happy camper? Tell me why, let me share the joy."
"That's simple. With you here, I'm no longer at the very bottom! The glorious responsibility of serving tea and fetching water for the elite technicians now falls squarely on your shoulders..."
Xiao Qiang looked puzzled. "What do you mean? Spell it out for me..."
"Think about it. Since you're the new guy, if you want to make money, don't you have to learn the ropes from the seniors? And to learn the ropes, shouldn't you show some respect—buy the top-tier technician big brothers some good cigarettes, fetch their tea every now and then... that kind of thing."
Xiao Qiang let out an "oh" of sudden realization. "Paying respects to the local bosses?"
"Got it! Pretty much... Let me tell you, see that guy right over there in the very back, the one lying on the bed for Technician Number One? His name is Zhang Yang! His personality lives up to his name—quite arrogant. You'd better watch out around him..."
Just as Jixiang was giving Xiao Qiang a crash course in office politics, a voice suddenly sounded from behind them: "You're Xiao Qiang, right? Xiao Ji must have explained how things work in this lounge. If you want to learn how to become a top-tier massage therapist from me, you better take care of the trivial daily chores first. Just teach you a little bit casually, and you'll never have to worry about food or clothing..."
"Good day, Brother Yang..." Xiao Ji immediately greeted him respectfully!
The newcomer was indeed Zhang Yang. His tone reeked of arrogance and bossiness, instantly arousing a deep sense of disgust in Xiao Qiang, who was already greatly displeased because of the incident with Qin Zhaoyue.
Xiao Qiang turned around as well. "Zhang Yang, is it? In this society, compensation must match effort—whoever pays me is who I work for. You want me to run errands for you? Fine. Put up a salary. As for the massage techniques you claim you can teach me, sorry, I don't need them..."
Xiao Qiang's words rang out with clarity and force. Soon, the gazes of all the technicians in the lounge converged on Xiao Qiang and Zhang Yang.
"This kid's got guts. He dares to slap Mingshi's gold-medal technician Brother Yang in the face the moment he arrives..."
"This guy's life is going to be tough... Probably won't last a few days before he has to leave..."
Nearby, quite a few technicians immediately sighed under their breath, and Xiao Qiang took in every single one of those laments.
"Fine, you've got backbone. Let's see how many days you can last..."
Zhang Yang stormed off in a huff.
As soon as Zhang Yang was out of earshot, Xiao Ji said with a look of exasperated disappointment, "Bro, why'd you go and offend Zhang Yang right after getting here? Don't you know he really has his ways when it comes to lobbying clients to buy membership cards and servicing them? The most crucial thing is that the lobby manager who assigns the shifts to technicians is his classmate. If he pulls a few strings behind the scenes, you won't even be assigned a single group of clients a day. How are you supposed to make any money then?"
Sure enough, from afternoon until evening, Xiao Qiang remained lying in the lounge. Other people either had timed appointments or regular queue slots, but whenever the regular queue reached bed 067 for Xiao Ji, it skipped straight back to Number One.
Meanwhile, in Li Qingcheng's luxury apartment:
"Little Yueyue, why do you look so completely out of it? What's wrong? Could it be that your little toy boy didn't satisfy you recently?"
Li Qingcheng spoke with her usual boldness.
To her surprise, however, her niece didn't correct her on the wording of her remark. Instead, she stared blankly at her before suddenly wrapping her arms around her, burying her face in her shoulder, and bursting into loud, heartbroken sobs—crying so hard it sounded gut-wrenching.
Li Qingcheng instantly felt as though she had worn one pair of underwear too many; she was completely dumbfounded!
"Hey, hey, Little Yueyue, what are you crying for? What happened? Did you two not use a condom, and now you're pregnant, and he's telling you to get an abortion? That bastard of a toy boy... only knows how to sow seeds without reaping the harvest..."
"Auntie, he doesn't want me anymore! He unilaterally broke up with me!" Hearing her aunt's wildly off-base speculation, Qin Zhaoyue wept as she poured out the grievance in her heart.
"What? He initiated the breakup with you? That makes no sense! My Little Yueyue has money, looks, and a great figure—and he actually initiated a breakup? Tell your auntie what's really going on; my unplacable curiosity has reached its absolute limit! Wait, let me guess. Could it be that your appetite was too big and you scared the little toy boy half to death?!"