63 A Test for Hiring Prt. 2

In the second half of the testing, the potential hires were made to converse with the Jiang family servants. Before they were placed in front of a servant, they were given a set amount of information they needed to extract. It was interesting to watch the different techniques employed, but the most common, it would seem, was to use small talk.

They would lead the servant into a sense of security through small talk; the small talk generally starting off with harmless topics, such as the weather, the gossip of different noble families, and their country's current state of affairs. The types of things anyone would speak of in passing.

Through the flow of conversation, the potential hire would use the examples of other things, situations, or even their own made up information to have the servants unconsciously spill their lives onto a silver platter. They used kind smiles and kind words; an unassuming wolf in sheep's clothing.

Eventually, each tested person walked away with a wealth of information. Jiang Ya Lin's horrified expression at each instance of mass information dropping was rather comical. Though, it was as said: "Loose lips, sink ships." The young miss Jiang was probably re-thinking the training undergone by her family's servants.

As she watched the proceedings, conversation by conversation, she couldn't help but smile fondly as she recalled her grandfather. The ideas for this test came from him. He often stressed that a person was always eager to speak of themselves. It didn't take coaxing or underhanded means to know what you wanted to know. You only needed a glib tongue. As long as you steered the conversation right, allowed the one you were speaking to get their fill of tooting their own horn, and praised them for it, nothing was out of reach.

Even a person's social security number and bank pin could foolishly be entrusted into your hands. Not that her grandfather had ever done such a thing purposefully and nor did he ever condone maliciously going after such a thing. It's just that, through the art of conversation during his tenure as an undercover agent of the military, he often spoke of the type of sensitive data a person can drop when led into a sense of warm secured camaraderie.

After watching the last one skillfully and subtly fish for information, Nastasia and Paoxiao retreated to a room that had been turned into a temporary office. It took a bit of time to read through all the written papers, though a good many of them didn't have too much written. Paoxiao helped to explain the words she didn't understand.

As she came upon Liu Yating's papers, Nastasia couldn't help her astonishment as she read through them with Paoxiao's occasional explanation of the words. The young boy had written, in great detail, nearly everything she had included in the model. Even his speculations about the identities of the dolls were concise and wonderfully well thought out.

This level of attention to detail, she was shocked to find it in such a young kid. Then again, in this place that was similar to a past-like China, being fourteen here wasn't necessarily similar to being fourteen in her modern world. From what she's seen, even at ten, the ones here seemed to be like little adults.

That thought got Nastasia to thinking. In her world, even at eighteen, a kid was a kid. They'd be focused on friends and school. Even if some of them had part-time jobs, most of them didn't have to work if they didn't want to. However, in this world, even at eight, one could work. They could start a family at fourteen-fifteen; or rather, the books in Li Yu Rong's study claimed as much.

Even Jiang Ya Lin's grandmother was trying to find a husband for a girl that looked twelve, but couldn't possibly be much older than fourteen. Though the girl, herself, had the qualities of someone her age, she was also very grown up in both her actions and thoughts.

Considering all these things, Nastasia couldn't help wanting to hire this meticulous-to-details-minded kid. Struggling with the thought, as in her mind children should lead carefree lives, studying rather than going to work, she said to Paoxiao. "He so little, yet saw all those things. He much great potential, what do you think?"

Paoxiao didn't have much of an opinion on these things and wasn't quite sure on how to respond. All of his time had been spent strengthening himself, so he didn't know too much outside of that. In light of being able to sense a decent level of martial skill in the boy, and that he seemed to have taken a liking to Nastasia, Paoxiao didn't feel threatened to have him nearby.

In the end, after shrugging his shoulders, he said. "If you want him, then take him." It didn't hurt to have more people around to watch out for her.

Nodding, she decided to hire Liu Yating, should he agree to work for her. Of the fifteen people that came, Nastasia hired four of them. It would be five should the kid agree. She intended to discuss the matter with Yating as he walked them back to the palace of the four gates.

Of the four that were hired, three were women and one was a man. As the things she planned to have in the store were more geared toward women, it made sense to have a woman attendant attend to a woman customer. The ones she chose to hire, while detail oriented, were quite the smooth talkers. They could steer a conversation, pull information without being invasive, while generating the feeling, between them and the other person, of being as close as lifelong friends.

The perfect type for gathering information without seeming as if they were fishing something.

A chef and a few waitresses have already been hired by Jiang Ya Lin and Paoxiao, to head the restaurant she planned on the second floor of the building. The blueprints for the inside construction had already been given to a craftsman's guild along with adequate pay for the project. It was said that a week or two later, the projected was predicated to be finished.

The clothing designs had already been handed over to a seamstress's guild. A generous extra fee was required to silence their tongues and still their hands from handing off her designs elsewhere for greater profit. It took a bit of effort, but Jiang Ya Lin had managed to work out a deal between them and her shop for the seamstresses of the Mencheng Seamstress Guild to be their exclusive mass production force.

As Nastasia thought about all Jiang Ya Lin had managed to help her accomplish, she couldn't help but find the young girl to be absolutely amazing. To be able to negotiate so well at her age, it made Nastasia wonder how the children of this world were educated.

However, what she didn't know was that the reason Jiang Ya Lin was able to progress so smoothly was not that her negotiation skills were topnotch, but that she knew how to threaten the people of Mencheng just right. Everyone feared Li Yu Rong, the minute she dropped a but "Elemental Spirit Master" this or an "Elemental Spirit Master" that, it was easier to negotiate more favorable terms. As well, not a single one dared to turn her down for fear of the consequences.

After bidding Jiang Ya Lin farewell, expressing gratitude for this time's matter as well as her past aid, Nastasia followed after Liu Yating as he led the way home. While they were on their way, she formulated what she would say in her head. After a moment of silent walking, she said. "Liu Yating, you want work in the shop?"

"Why?" He asked, his expression guarded. There was a sense of wanting to fight if her words didn't satisfy the pride he had in himself. If it was merely an act of charity, he'd shoot her down and leave without a backward glance.

"Hmmm..." Nastasia thought of all the good things she could say to butter Liu Yating up to the idea. She really didn't want to let such a promising character go, and felt that he was beyond the scope of a mere guide. He would make a wonderful addition to her shop. "You really smart, good for working in shop. I pay you lot, and since Jiang Ya Lin said that it be easier, some rooms will be made bedrooms for the workers to stay. You can make you room however you want. Because you really good details, you can be one in charge."

After thinking it over, Liu Yating found the terms to be rather good. The promise of a place to sleep was also something he couldn't pass up, long tired of sleeping on the streets. "Okay," he agreed, satisfied that the offer wasn't made because of pity, and then continued to lead the way.