Rebirth 03: Starting a Business After Giving Up a Secure Job

Chapter 151: A New Approach to the Housekeeping Section

Shen Jingyi put the sheet music into her violin case and slung it over her shoulder, then bowed to Lai Li.

Lin Feng shook hands with Lai Li and arranged a time for the next class.

Before leaving, Lai Li saw Lin Feng to the door of the music room and said, "This girl has good comprehension; she adjusted the diaphragm expansion method on the first try."

Lin Feng said she would hold on. Lai Li nodded and turned to go back to the music room.

When I came out of the music room building, it was already dark.

The shadows of the camphor trees stretched long under the streetlights, and the evening breeze swept through the campus, carrying with it the melodious sound of a violin.

Shen Jingyi walked beside Lin Feng, looking down at the tips of her canvas shoes stepping on the cement pavement.

"Teacher Lai said that my pitch and musicality are above average among formally trained students. I used to think that my basic skills were very poor, so poor that I didn't dare to tell people that I studied music."

"You're not bad, you just lack guidance. In large departmental lectures, one professor teaches dozens of students; even if you're quick to learn, you won't get individual instruction. Now that you have one-on-one guidance, do you think you can improve?"

Shen Jingyi turned her head to look at him. "Yes. Teacher Lai corrected my diaphragm expansion method. I used to think that abdominal breathing was just about puffing out my stomach, but I didn't know that my lower back also needed to be expanded."

She pressed down on my lower back, and the depth of my breathing immediately changed.

There's also the larynx. Before, when I sang high notes, I only knew how to push hard, and no one ever told me to place my fingers on my Adam's apple to feel the rise and fall of my larynx.

She said that from now on, we'll follow the schedule, three classes a week, followed by physical training. I need to hand over my music club duties to the vice president and focus on practicing these next few months.

Lin Feng and Shen Jingyi walked on the campus road leading to the school gate.

"Brother Feng."

"Um?

""

"Thank you. From the New Year's Eve party when you said I could go to a bigger stage, to today when you brought me to meet Teacher Lai, I am very grateful to you!"

Lin Feng looked at her, and her eyes were filled with emotion.

Lin Feng patted her head and smiled, "You just focus on practicing, leave the rest to me."

The two continued walking, and when they passed the teaching building of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music's Popular Music Academy, Lin Feng stopped.

The lights were on in the rehearsal room on the first floor, and through the half-open window, you could see several students rehearsing.

A short-haired girl in a white hoodie sat in front of the piano and played a prelude to "My Heart Only Has You, Not Her." Her fingers moved with surprising precision, each chord striking crisply.

A curly-haired girl was standing next to him, clapping along to the rhythm.

After playing the intro, the short-haired girl suddenly started singing. Her voice was deep and powerful, with a relaxed quality that seemed out of place for her age.

Shen Jingyi followed Lin Feng's gaze and glanced at the rehearsal room.

"Do you know them?"

"I don't know him." Lin Feng looked away and continued walking forward. After taking a few steps, he looked back at the lights in the rehearsal room.

The short-haired girl had finished singing and was leaning against the piano talking to her companion, laughing so hard she leaned back.

He looked away, not stopping, but he had already made a mental note of it.

After leaving the main campus of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Lin Feng drove Shen Jingyi back to Sichuan University of Technology. As the Audi drove out of the school gate, patches of streetlights swept across the windshield.

Shen Jingyi leaned back in the passenger seat, humming a tune softly.

"How will you come to class from now on?" Lin Feng asked.

"You go about your business, I'll take the bus myself."

"I'll give you a ride when I have time; if not, you'll have to take a bus yourself."

"No need, it's too much trouble for you. I can do it myself." Shen Jingyi blushed.

She would be overjoyed if Lin Feng could drive her around. But she knew it wouldn't be right; Lin Feng was a company boss, very busy, and their relationship wasn't at that stage yet. She didn't dare to trouble Lin Feng too much.

The Audi drove into the Sichuan University of Technology campus and finally stopped in front of the girls' dormitory. Shen Jingyi unbuckled her seatbelt, and before getting out of the car, she suddenly leaned over and kissed Lin Feng on the cheek.

Then she ran back to her dormitory shyly.

Lin Feng watched Shen Jingyi's figure disappear into the dormitory building before driving out of the campus.

The streetlights outside the car window flashed by in beams, and his cell phone rang abruptly, interrupting his thoughts. It was Xu Qiang calling.

"Boss, there's a new development regarding Sister Rong's housekeeping business. The street offices in the old city are still keeping a tight rein on things. Liao Ping and her team went there several times, but they couldn't even get in the door."

The smile on Lin Feng's face vanished instantly, and his thoughts immediately switched back to work.

He told Xu Qiang to hold the line, put the positional battle in the old city area on hold for now, and concentrate his efforts on winning the "new neighbors' meeting" in the high-tech zone.

We must make a resounding success and let the results speak for themselves.

After hanging up the phone, he stepped on the gas, and the Audi sped towards Hongguangyuan.

The next morning, as soon as Lin Feng arrived at his office, Liao Ping walked in with a detailed plan for the "New Neighbors Meeting".

The plan is very well done, with the location, process, materials, and budget clearly outlined.

After carefully reviewing the document and raising a few questions about the details, Lin Feng instructed her to carry it out immediately.

Liao Ping acted quickly, and three days later, the first "New Neighbors Meeting" officially opened at the central square of Tianfu Mingyuan Community in the High-tech Zone.

Liao Ping scouted the location two days in advance with her sales team. The central square is located in the very middle of the residential area, surrounded by several high-rise residential buildings, with high foot traffic, making it suitable for setting up a booth.

At six o'clock on Saturday morning, before it was fully light, Liao Ping brought Sister He and Sister Zhang to the site.

Sister He is a certified postpartum nanny transferred from Shenzhen. She consistently ranks among the top three in the Shenzhen Station's domestic service section, and her appointments are already booked until the second half of the year.

Sister Zhang is a newly certified domestic worker in Rongcheng. She had worked as a cleaner for Rongjie Domestic Service for three years. However, Rongjie's job assignments became increasingly demanding, and since her son was admitted to Sichuan University of Technology and moved into a dormitory near Hongguang Town, she wanted to switch to a platform closer to home to take on more jobs.

The two booths were set up on either side of the fountain in the center of the square.

On the left is the maternal and infant care booth. Ms. He placed a lifelike baby doll next to a portable bathtub and tested the water temperature in the tub with her wrist. Next to it were waterproof umbilical cord dressings, baby bath wash, and several soft gauze towels.

On the right is the basic cleaning booth. Ms. Zhang opened the cleaning tool kit provided by Tongcheng.com and spread it out on the folding table. Inside were a nano sponge, a glass scraper, a categorized cleaning cloth, and a bottle of homemade environmentally friendly cleaning agent.

Liao Ping placed registration forms and promotional leaflets for the local online home service section behind the sign-in desk.

A laptop was placed on the check-in table, with a real-time page of the local website's housekeeping section on the screen. The verification information and service reviews of Sister He and Sister Zhang had already been uploaded in advance, and new users could make appointments directly by scanning the QR code.

Just after eight o'clock, the elderly men and women who were doing their morning exercise were the first to gather around.

An elderly man stood in front of Ms. Zhang's booth for a while, watching her demonstrate how to use a glass scraper to avoid leaving watermarks. After watching, he said he would go home and get an old towel to try out the scraper.

Sister Zhang smiled and said there was no need to take it, as she had a spare, and then let the old man try it out on the spot.

The old man took a glass scraper and scratched the glass panel of the booth a couple of times. After he finished, he looked at it carefully and found that there were no watermarks on the glass panel.

He scraped the glass over and examined it twice, then said, "You're a home cleaning service, right? My wife has trouble walking, and the kitchen hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in a long time. Could we schedule a session?"

Sister Zhang said it was fine and pointed to the registration desk for the old man to register.

He Jie's maternal and infant care booth was surrounded by a group of young mothers and expectant mothers.

She held a lifelike baby doll and demonstrated how to bathe a newborn. One hand supported the back of the doll's neck and back, while the other hand gently wiped the skin folds with the fingertips. She explained water temperature control, umbilical cord care, and how to wrap the doll with gauze after the bath.

Several expectant mothers nearby took out their phones to film videos, and one of them asked Sister He on the spot if she could schedule a time with her.

Ms. He said that her appointments in Shenzhen are already booked until the second half of the year, but there are other certified postpartum nannies on the local online platform that she can recommend.

Several expectant mothers asked if they could meet in Chengdu. Sister He laughed and said that she came here to help the Chengdu station train newcomers, and she would also take orders from Chengdu in the future.

Liao Ping was compiling the registration forms behind the sign-in desk.

She discovered that the people registering were not only residents of Tianfu Mingyuan, but also several residents from the neighboring "Nancheng Dushi" and "Zhonghuan Jincheng" communities.

They saw the small posters handed out by the local online sales representatives at the entrance of their residential compound in the morning and followed the directional arrows to get there.

Liao Ping added a new column, "Source Community," to the registration form, highlighting cross-regional visitors separately.

Xu Qiang arrived at the scene at 10:00 AM.

He scanned the foot traffic at both booths and the registration information at the check-in desk, and then went to the property management monitoring room to retrieve the entry and exit data from the south gate of the community.

The south gate connects the pedestrian path between Tianfu Mingyuan and Nancheng Metropolis. Most of the people entering and exiting are residents visiting each other's homes between the two communities.

From 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. this morning, the number of people at the south gate was much higher than on a typical weekend.

He noted this discovery down in his notebook and made a slight adjustment to the direction of the booth after the first event.

Originally, both booths faced the fountain, but now the maternal and infant care booth facing the inside of the community has been turned towards the south gate, so that visitors coming from the neighboring community can see the booth directly without having to cross the entire square.

The second event was held in the Nancheng Metropolitan Community.

In addition to Sister He and Sister Zhang, Liao Ping also brought two newly certified domestic workers from Chengdu: Aunt Liu, who provides care for the elderly, and Xiao Zhou, who does daily cleaning.

The number of booths has increased from two to three, and a new area for elderly care has been added.

Liao Ping compiled the cross-district visitor data previously registered at Tianfu Mingyuan into a concise infographic and posted it next to the Nancheng Metropolis booth. The infographic marked the names of several nearby communities and the types of domestic service needs that were most concentrated in each community.

Tianfu Mingyuan primarily focuses on maternal and infant care, Zhonghuan Jincheng mainly provides daily cleaning services, and Nancheng Duhui has the highest demand for elderly care services due to its large number of long-term residents.

The infographic worked even better than expected.

Several residents of Zhonghuan Jincheng were just passing by when they saw the name of their community and the statistics on cleaning needs on the map. They immediately asked Liao Ping if they could hold a similar event in their community.

Liao Ping wrote down the contact information for the property management liaison and said she would contact them as soon as she got back.

The third event was held at Jincheng in Central.

This time, not only homeowners were present, but also property managers from several surrounding residential communities.

Xu Qiang chatted briefly with several property managers at the scene and then launched a long-term cooperation plan for the "elevator information service board".

Tongcheng.com installed an acrylic notice board in each building elevator, with the property management notice board on the left and the Tongcheng.com housekeeping service appointment portal on the right.

The property management company didn't spend a penny; the local website was responsible for production and installation, and the layout was updated once a quarter.

The first batch of ten bulletin boards were piloted in Tianfu Mingyuan, and a week later, the number of bookings on the Tongcheng.com housekeeping section increased by nearly 30%.

The property manager of Zhonghuan Jincheng made the decision on the spot, while the property manager of Nancheng Duhui said he would go back and go through the procedures and sign the contract next week.

After several events, Liao Ping's list of certified domestic workers has grown considerably.

Among the newly certified personnel, some were peers who filled out forms at the event, while others were laid-off female workers and retired female employees who submitted applications through the local website's housekeeping section.

Shenzhen's certification standards and training syllabus were directly adopted, including background checks, skills tests, pre-employment training, and employer evaluations, all of which were standardized.

Sister He brought two novice postpartum nannies from Chengdu to attend a two-week course, teaching them everything from how to test water temperature with their wrists to how to communicate parenting concepts with employers.

Liao Ping compiled the data from several "new neighbor meet-ups" into a table.

More than 300 homeowners attended the event, with nearly 40% of them being visitors from other districts.

More than one hundred people registered on-site to book long-term cleaning, maternity care, and elderly care services.

Ms. He's maternity nanny schedule was booked on-site for the next six months. Several property management companies in the surrounding area proactively contacted her to request cooperation, and the installation schedule for another ten "elevator information service boards" is already booked until next month.

Liao Ping connected the SMS delivery service from Shenzhen to the newly established elevator information board.

Seniors who don't know how to use the internet can send a text message to make an appointment, and the system will automatically convert it into a work order and assign it to the nearest certified domestic worker.

At the weekly meeting, Xu Qiang projected the data from the housekeeping sector onto the wall and drew a circle around the location of the High-tech Zone on the Chengdu map with a laser pointer.

"Sister Rong's Housekeeping is in the old city area, let's finish eating in the High-tech Zone first." He then moved the laser pointer to the old city area within the Third Ring Road. "We won't tackle the old city area for now. After the High-tech Zone establishes its brand, let the homeowners ask the neighborhood committee why they can't access the local website."

Lin Feng agreed. He instructed Liao Ping to shorten the training period for newly certified domestic workers to within two weeks, as the growth rate on the supply side must keep up with the surge in demand.

Liao Ping said it's already underway, and the two newbies that Sister He is mentoring will be able to take orders independently next week.

She then changed the subject and made another request, saying that the certification standard for the Chengdu Station's housekeeping section currently uses the Shenzhen template, and suggested adding a "Sichuan Girl" special label.

On the personal homepage of domestic workers, their place of origin and service characteristics are marked, such as "from western Sichuan", "proficient in Sichuan cuisine", "can make pickled vegetables", so that employers can filter them by these tags.

Most of the domestic workers in Chengdu come from various parts of Sichuan Province, and this label makes them more recognizable on the platform.

Lin Feng asked her to first design a labeling system, which would be discussed at next week's weekly meeting.