Homo Sapiens

After spending over three hours working hard in the warehouse with his team leader, they finally completed the real-time inventory of all stored materials.

The team leader then called Liu Bingtian over for a short meeting.

”Your data has all been uploaded. I just compared it with the outbound and inbound data, and there are no discrepancies. Keep up the good work. From now on, you must all follow this standard, understand?”

”Yes, Team Leader!”

”Understood, Team Leader.”

The team leader continued, ”Don’t let your guard down. Warehouse management is tedious and complex, and it comes with many temptations. You need to observe more and learn more.”

The warehouse staff all readily agreed.

The team leader knew these men didn’t yet understand the gravity of the situation. ’In a few days, I’ll have to get some internal warning videos to educate these rookies,’ he thought, ’and keep them from going down the wrong path.’

A little while later, they finished discussing work matters.

The team leader put down his tablet and took out his phone. ”The company has issued each of you a contract phone. You’ve all received them, right?”

Liu Bingtian nodded and took out his phone. ”Got it.”

The others also quickly took theirs out.

The team leader continued, ”Good. Now there’s something you need to do. Log in to the official Fengrao House website.”

As he spoke, the team leader opened his phone’s screen, logged into the official Fengrao House website, and then showed it to his subordinates.

”On the Fengrao House website, there’s an ’Employee Needs’ interface. Open that now.”

Liu Bingtian opened the Employee Needs interface.

The team leader explained, ”This is very important information. After work, you can look up the detailed instructions online, then fill it out carefully. Remember, don’t just fill it in randomly.”

Another immigrant from Tianzhu, who seemed a bit simple, scratched his head and asked, ”Team Leader, what’s the point of filling this out?”

”This is demand data. All employees are required to fill it out. It’s then aggregated to calculate the demand for various products. The Industrial Division, Agricultural Division, and Service Division will adjust production based on this data.”

The team leader added, ”In other words, the information you fill in will affect the price and availability of the goods you’ll be able to get in the future.”

”So... if I write that I want a large villa, will I be able to get a large villa in the future?” Liu Bingtian asked, a little excited.

The team leader rolled his eyes. ”In your dreams. The data has to be filled out according to your income, and you can only modify it once per quarter. You can put down a house, but don’t be too ambitious. If you put down a large villa, then based on its production cost and your salary level, you probably won’t be able to even rent one for more than a decade.”

Hearing this, Liu Bingtian scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

Ten or so minutes later, it was time to get off work. They picked up their meals from the hotel and went back to their dorm to eat.

Back at the dorm.

His other roommates returned one after another.

”Lao Liu, why are you so quiet today?” a young man with a spiky haircut asked, holding a coke.

Liu Bingtian replied with a smile, ”I’m thinking about how to fill out the Employee Needs form.”

”Oh, that! I’m an expert on that. My company, Ye Mei Company, is the one that helped Fengrao House design this software.” The spiky-haired young man had an air of someone who knew it all.

Liu Bingtian asked with some hesitation, ”Uh? Xiaohai, aren’t you a new hire too?”

”I started two months before you guys. I trained for a while at the Ye Mei Company headquarters in Dongzhi and was involved in part of the Employee Needs project back then,” Xiaohai explained.

Liu Bingtian’s expression filled with hope. ”I see. In that case, can you teach me how to fill this out? It’s giving me a huge headache.”

Xiaohai leaned over, pointing at the app’s screen. ”First, there’s this...”

[Food], [Clothing], [Daily Necessities], [Services], [Travel], [Entertainment], [Communications], [Education], [Transportation], [Housing], [Medical], [Other].

”Among these categories, you haven’t brought your family over yet, so you eat in the cafeteria. For food, you can just select ’Public Cafeteria’...”

A look of realization dawned on Liu Bingtian’s face.

”For clothing, besides your work uniform, the company usually issues one or two sets of casual wear each quarter, depending on the region and your position. Open the clothing database to sync...”

Xiaohai then had Liu Bingtian stand up and take off his clothes.

After taking off his jacket, Liu Bingtian, left in only his boxers, felt a bit embarrassed as Xiaohai took a bunch of pictures of him with his phone.

”Is it this complicated?”

Xiaohai waved his hand. ”This is for precise data entry. It’ll make it easy for you to buy clothes that fit perfectly later on. Alright, Lao Liu, come over and pick your clothes.”

After syncing the database, he could directly access the Fengrao House clothing database from below the input field.

”Pick whatever clothes you like, but it’s best to only choose two sets as ’fixed demand.’ If you like anything else, you can mark it as ’intended demand.’”

”Fixed demand and intended demand?” Liu Bingtian asked as he browsed.

”’Fixed demand’ means that after you select it, the clothes will be given to you in a few months as part of your casual wear benefit. ’Intended demand’ is for anything extra. You either have to wait until the next quarter or pay for it yourself.”

”I see!” Liu Bingtian started looking even more carefully.

Xiaohai reminded him, ”Lao Liu, don’t cling to your old way of thinking. You don’t need to save too much money living in the company. I bought three sets of casual clothes myself, and they only cost 23 Jin in total.”

”I can’t compare to you young people,” Liu Bingtian said with a smile, shaking his head.

A middle-aged person’s spending habits truly couldn’t be changed overnight.

After browsing for over half an hour, he finally selected two sets of casual wear for his fixed demand.

Only then did Xiaohai continue his guidance: ”For ’Daily Necessities’ and ’Services,’ just fill them in according to your daily needs. Haircuts, ear cleaning, massages, beauty treatments, gym access, and so on all fall under Services. If an option isn’t there, you can write it in the supplementary section at the bottom.”

Liu Bingtian filled out these sections very quickly, finishing in about ten minutes.

”As for travel, Lao Liu, is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

Liu Bingtian thought for a moment. There wasn’t really any place he wanted to go. ”Not really. New Zealand? Nah, it’s too far.”

”It doesn’t matter. Just write it down. When you have vacation time, you can consider going, or not. This is all ’intended demand,’ which we have to pay for ourselves.”

Hearing that he would have to pay for it himself and that it wasn’t mandatory, Liu Bingtian put down ”travel to New Zealand.”

”For entertainment, things like movies, TV shows, comics, novels, traditional opera, and listening to music are all fine. This is all ’intended demand’ as well.”

In truth, Liu Bingtian didn’t much care about these things.

What he cared about most was the housing situation.

”The company has two types of housing: dormitory rooms and family apartments. Dorm rooms are usually free, but family apartments require rent, typically 1 Jin yuan per square meter per month.”

”One Jin yuan per square meter? GULP... Isn’t that a bit too expensive?” Liu Bingtian winced at the cost.

But Xiaohai shook his head. ”Lao Liu, right now you’re making 500 Jin yuan a month during your probation, plus a 150 Jin yuan comprehensive subsidy. Once your family arrives, your employee level will probably rise to D-3, which comes with a base salary of 1,000 Jin yuan. Your wife should be able to get a job too. When that time comes, will you still think a rent of a hundred-some Jin is expensive?”

”That’s true...” It started to sink in for Liu Bingtian.

He had been mentally converting Jin yuan to Huayuan, which naturally made the price seem very high. But now, he was earning in Jin yuan.

Besides, the 150 Jin comprehensive subsidy was actually enough to cover his rent and daily living expenses.

No wonder everyone envied the benefits at Homo Sapiens Company.