Chapter 330: Poaching People?

"Alright, I'll remember that. But if I score too well, wouldn't that be a bit bad?" An Yinan asked her final question.

Upon hearing this, Professor Feng was so incensed he nearly blew his beard and glared, "The students I teach every day—could they possibly score lower than a half-baked person like you? You just give it your all and ace the exam!"

"Understood!" Having received a definitive answer, An Yinan no longer needed to hold back.

"Sir, dinner is ready," Feng Zhong said as he walked over.

"Bring it over." The old man watched the two of them, one old and one young, sparring with great interest.

He didn't know who had won, but the little girl certainly hadn't lost!

This temperament was indeed not very suitable for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department.

An Yinan went to the shop in the afternoon to check on things; she had taken the day off, which had been her plan all along.

"Nan!" Wu Xia called out.

"Mm, is it busy?" These past few days, Qiu Hua would come over at noon to check on the business.

Xiue would come over in the evening to reconcile the accounts.

She had seen the reports containing the general business data.

"It's not too busy, but there are quite a few people. We sell dozens of items every day, and sometimes when business is good, it can reach over a hundred," Wu Xia said.

An Yinan nodded, "You go ahead and get busy; I'll just take a look and then leave."

She gathered the money from the past few days and then looked at the daily record sheets.

She had designed these forms herself, so all the data was clear at a glance, and they were cross-referenced, so she wasn't worried about anyone tampering with them.

After all, they didn't spend much time at the shop, so she was taking precautions.

While An Yinan was looking at the charts, three people came in; one person bought clothes, and two people left.

Through this, An Yinan also observed the level of service provided by everyone.

"I'm leaving now, please keep looking after things," An Yinan said.

She was very satisfied with the turnover from these past few days and very satisfied with their service attitude.

It was clear now that they were growing quickly, and in the future, she would gradually let them handle things on their own.

"Aren't you at school? Why did you come over?" Liu Jiumu asked, thinking something had happened.

An Yinan smiled, "I had other things to do today, so I took the day off. I just happened to have time to come by and take a look."

She had come to check on the new hires and also to check the inventory.

"Nan Nan, several groups of people have come by to ask around these past few days. Our relationship with the neighbors has always been good, so everyone came to tell me."

Liu Jiumu's expression was uneasy.

"And some people secretly told me that others are approaching them, offering high wages to poach them."

This incident made her fully realize that what Nan Nan had said before was true: time waits for no one.

An Yinan, however, took it in stride, "Liu Jiumu, don't worry. This is unavoidable."

"We signed contracts beforehand, so we'll just handle things according to the contracts later."

"Besides, the patterns are all in our own hands, and everyone is just following the method to finish the edges; essentially, there isn't much high-level technical content involved."

From the beginning, she had guarded against this.

In her past life, she had seen poaching tactics much darker than this.

These were, by comparison, child's play.

"However, we will never re-employ those who are poached," An Yinan was very firm on this point.

Once disloyal, never re-employed.

This was no longer a matter of craftsmanship, but a matter of character; who knew what they might do in the future?

"I understand. I will give these people a warning. As for what happens later, it depends on their own choices."

After talking with Nan Nan, she felt her heart settle.

When she had spoken to Liu Jiujiu earlier, he had said she was worrying over nothing.

Nan Nan definitely had a backup plan; as long as she gave a heads-up and told Nan Nan to be on guard, it would be fine.

"This is the inventory sheet, and there are also goods that were mailed over. I checked them, and the quality is fine."

Every batch of goods would go through Liu Jiumu's inspection, and only after there were no issues would they be allowed into storage.

"How is the recruitment going?" An Yinan asked.

"We hired fifteen people, and now we are working in two shifts, and the inventory is expanding." Liu Jiumu had originally intended to hire ten, but after learning about this, she hired five more to take precautions.

"It's still not enough," An Yinan shook her head.

"But we don't have enough machines."

There was a limited number of sewing machines; if there were more people but not enough machines, it would be useless.

An Yinan said, "Hire the people first and train them; I'll figure out the machine situation."

She was going to the Southern Front next week, which was the perfect time to prepare for the machines.

"Alright, I'll listen to you," Liu Jiumu agreed, not asking anything more.

Nan Nan was different from other children; she had her own plans and ideas, and she just needed to follow them.

After discussing the small matters with Liu Jiumu, she returned to the Xiao Yuan and took some strawberries out from her space.

She noticed there were already many street vendors walking around outside, and some were selling strawberries too.

She washed them, put them directly into lunch boxes, and also took meat buns, vegetables, and cold-dressed dishes—her favorite.

She packed four portions in total: three small ones and one large one.

"Nan Nan, you're finally back." When Jiang Yun Duo saw An Yinan, it was as if she had seen a savior.

An Yinan laughed, "What's wrong?"

Zhang Jia said, "She's been muttering about you since noon. I don't know what kind of shock she received."

While they were speaking, everyone looked toward Jiang Yun Duo.

Jiang Yun Duo pouted, "It's all because of that Zhang Cheng; he said he would definitely defeat you in this Monthly Exam! I was so angry."

"Nan Nan, what are you actually thinking?"

The little girl looked over with her big, watery eyes, and An Yinan could only surrender.

"Don't worry, I will still be asking for leave in the future!"

With that one sentence, the little girl beamed with joy, "I just knew it, my Nan Nan is the best."

"He only knows how to talk big."

Zhang Jia laughed, "I know you fully support Nan Nan!"

"I've been waiting for you to come back since noon."

An Yinan also smiled; this girl was young, and after finishing high school, she would be just right to take the university entrance exam. Being younger than everyone else, everyone pampered her like a little sister.

"I brought you all something delicious, wait for me a moment." An Yinan first took out six lunch boxes.

She knocked on the doors one by one.

"Nan Nan, love you." Xie Yuanyuan's eyes lit up when she saw the lunch box.

"Don't be cheeky, bring the lunch box back to me after you finish eating."

"You got it!"

After delivering to Xie Yuanyuan, she went to deliver to Qiu Hua, but the two missed each other, as Qiu Hua had gone out.

And Li Xiu'e had gone to the library and hadn't returned yet.

She could only entrust their roommates to help pass them on.

Returning to the dormitory, An Yinan opened the lid of the lunch box.

"This is? Strawberries?" Zhang Jia's eyes widened; she hadn't eaten strawberries in a long time, how could she be seeing strawberries? She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, only then confirming she hadn't seen wrong.

"Wow. So big," Jiang Yun Duo said.

As for Liu Erya and Zhou Ruoran, neither were in the dormitory; they had all gone to the workshop.

"Let's set some aside, and leave the rest for Er Ya and Ruo Ran." An Yinan portioned them out using Zhang Jia and Jiang Yun Duo's lunch boxes.

The remaining half was kept.