Chapter 94. Being a Substitute? The Hurts-Body-and-Soul Kind (3)
Normally, starting a bodyguard company under the guise of a security firm isn’t easy, with various complicated procedures. However, with Li Zhan’s agreement, things became much simpler.
One word from Li Zhan, and a professional team came to discuss the company setup with Shen Wan.
All equipment and procedures were completed in less than two months, with Shen Wan fully involved in recruiting bodyguards during this period.
Her offered price was considerably higher than the market rate, but there was a condition: long-term contracts. Generally, bodyguards range from early twenties to forty years old, as this age group is most suitable in various aspects and physical fitness. She asked for ten-year contracts upfront, or even fifteen years for those just over twenty. Breaking the contract midway would incur a hefty penalty.
The benefits were extremely generous. As long as one continued working there, the company benefits and annual salary would ensure a worry-free life. However, such long contract periods deterred many people. Moreover, this was a new company. Even with Li Group’s involvement, who could guarantee nothing would go wrong midway, making it untrustworthy?
Shen Wan wasn’t worried at all. With such good benefits, people would surely come. She had invested a lot in this company, spending all her previously accumulated wealth. If these people came and signed, it would be profitable.
Her company only provided private bodyguard services, nothing else, and targeted top-tier clients.
Now that the company was up and running, with staff in place, it was gradually getting into gear. When things were about right, Li Group’s people left.
As Shen Wan had promised earlier not to trouble Li Zhan if she lost money, the remaining tasks of developing the business were her responsibility alone.
“I’ve really invested a lot in this.”
Shen Wan sat in her office, cupping her cheeks and lifting her eyelids. “What’s the use of having more money in a small world? You can’t take it with you anyway. Sigh, I’m really at a loss. I finally managed to save some money, and now it’s all invested. That Li Zhan, I don’t know if he had some dog’s luck in his past life to be Miss Dong’s nasty nephew. So sad…”
[188: “Alright, Wan Wan, just think about how the fairy-like beautiful Miss Dong will one day shyly throw herself into your arms. It’ll all be worth it. What’s spending a bit of money? Haven’t you spent plenty on her over the years?”]
In any case, he had never seen such a money-burning little vixen.
Shen Wan: “Yeah, thinking about how I can shyly throw myself into Miss Dong’s arms in the future, it’s not really a loss.”
188: “……”
Just as Shen Wan perked up, there was a knock on the office door. After her permission, the door opened gently, and her assistant walked in.
This assistant had just graduated from university and was still in a daze. This job seemed too good to be true, with a salary much higher than expected, and a young boss who was incredibly generous. Of course, she was still very confused. Wasn’t this a private bodyguard company? Why was the boss sitting in the office daydreaming every day? When would they start doing business?
She was anxious, fearing this great job might disappear in a couple of months. For a regular university graduate like her, getting a job with such good benefits right after graduation was something to cherish.
“Boss Shen, do you have any further instructions?”
Shen Wan lifted her eyelids, glancing at the baby-faced assistant, and stood up. “Xiao Hu, go notify those big brothers and sisters to wait for me in the basement training area.”
“Yes, Boss Shen.”
Hearing that the boss had her own plan, the young assistant finally felt less worried. Although the boss was very young, she seemed confident, surely having her own calculations. As a mere assistant, she shouldn’t worry so much. They were about the same age, but look how calm her boss was. That’s what made her the boss.
Although the office area upstairs wasn’t large, just the size of a small company, the basement training area was the main focus. Most of the investment went there, with all kinds of comprehensive facilities that Shen Wan had considered and had Li Group’s people help acquire. Undeniably, riding on Li Group’s coattails had brought her all the best equipment.
When she arrived at the training area, those strong bodyguard brothers and sisters were playing with the training equipment. Seeing her, they quickly lined up in two rows, eyes shining, looking at her energetically. This was their meal ticket; of course they had to behave.
Among them, some were retired soldiers without special skills. Relying on ordinary wages, it was impossible to settle in this city.
Seeing this place recruiting by chance, they came to try. Although the contract felt like selling themselves, the benefits were good. Basically, as long as they could work for ten years, they could find a place to settle in this city. Moreover, this industry was considered high-risk, so besides the basic salary, there were some special bonuses. For them, they really couldn’t find anything better than this.
Another portion were those with insufficient education who could only do manual labor. The wages for manual labor were okay, but compared to the benefits Shen Wan offered, they naturally chose this.
Shen Wan glanced at them and said, “We haven’t started business yet because I believe your current level isn’t sufficient. Therefore, all of you need to undergo unified training for one month.”
No matter what Shen Wan said, they had no objections as long as their wages were paid as usual.
They indeed hadn’t undergone unified training and believed that a month of standardized training would definitely make them more professional.
“There are VR headsets over there. Each of you take one. Inside are the courses I’ve designed for you. For the first three days, you’ll learn through VR courses how to become qualified private bodyguards. It covers various practical scenarios, how to deal with sudden situations – basically everything will be included, and you can also train inside.”
Hearing Shen Wan’s words, everyone was surprised. They quickly turned and picked up a VR headset, holding it in their arms. If Shen Wan didn’t look like she had more to say, they would have tried them on immediately.
“These three days, you must study seriously. Don’t slack off. You need to thoroughly understand everything in there. You must realize that slacking off once, learning one thing less, will add one more potential danger to your future personal safety and your client’s personal safety.”
Hearing Shen Wan’s solemn words, they nodded quickly, shouting that they guaranteed to study hard. Such a good opportunity – if they didn’t study well and upset the boss, getting fired directly, wouldn’t that be the end? Since they chose to sign the contract, they had decided to work here for the entire contracted period.
“Alright, I’ll come back in three days to tell you about the next training session.”
Although she was skeptical about whether a month of training could instill professional qualities in the bodyguards, the assistant girl still believed she should trust the boss. After Shen Wan left, the bodyguard brothers and sisters sat in rows, put on their VR headsets, and started the learning program.
As they started the learning program, 188 instantly took control of their virtual world. Ordinary VR on the market couldn’t achieve this level of indistinguishability between reality and virtual, but with 188’s control, it was effortless.
Depending on the courses they chose, they appeared in different places. Moreover, the virtual world could change in real-time based on their brain waves and memories, making them believe more firmly that where they appeared was the real world. Without exception, their identities in the virtual world were all bodyguards.
“Wan Wan, they’ve started training. When their brains feel tired, the program I set will automatically wake them up. Given the brain capacity of people in this small world, three days should be enough for them to master all the skills and knowledge inside.”
If it were humans from higher-level spaces using the virtual world to learn these things, those with good aptitude would only need two hours. Average people would take about five hours. These people had better physical qualities, so he set a three-day learning plan that wouldn’t put too much strain on them.
“Thank you for your hard work, Brother 8. When this world ends and we make money, I’ll buy you all the remaining skins you can get,” Shen Wan said very seriously. Her Brother 8 was still her Brother 8, helping her a lot. Buying some skins was nothing. Keeping Brother 8 happy made things go smoothly.
[188 was so happy he became incoherent: “Wan Wan, do you really mean it?”] He could hardly believe it. Buying them all, wouldn’t that make him possibly the system with the most skins? He must tell the boss about this good news when he had time. Fortunately, the boss had reminded him to stick close to the host. Otherwise, how could he have today?
“Of course it’s true. Brother 8 has helped me so much; you should have all these. In the future, when limited skins return, just tell me.”
188 happily agreed.
He then compressed many complex courses for those training in the virtual world. Wan Wan was so good to him; he definitely had to do things perfectly. For these three days, he would seriously supervise these people, helping them achieve the best results.
After three days of training, the bodyguards in the company looked at Shen Wan differently. When they first started training, they didn’t know how many times they had died or failed. Later, they gradually learned how to deal with those special situations from the prompts. In short, they had learned so much.
Three days later, Shen Wan was to discuss the upcoming physical, skill, and equipment use training with the bodyguards.
However, before that, something happened. Dong Zheng arrived.
At that time, Shen Wan was in the training area, and Dong Zheng came in following the assistant girl. Shen Wan was surprised to see Dong Zheng. “Miss Dong, why are you here?”
“I came to see how your bodyguard company is doing. I heard it’s been a week, and you still haven’t had a single business deal.” A smile crossed Dong Zheng’s lips. “Shen Wan, your company’s funds are only enough to operate for two months. If you can’t get any business in these two months, you might face collective unemployment.”
“Sharpening the knife doesn’t hinder woodcutting. We’re training first,” Shen Wan walked up to Dong Zheng, smiling. “I thought Miss Dong wanted to hire bodyguards. If you need to, you can come back in a month. That’s when we’ll officially start business.”
Dong Zheng looked back at the bodyguards in the training area and suddenly frowned. She had been present during the initial selection and knew exactly what these people were like then.
But in this short time, these people seemed to have undergone a complete transformation. Especially their eyes, which were completely different now. Moreover, their stances also surprised her a bit. It was a very professional defensive stance that could instantly exert maximum force to prevent sudden incidents.
She knew this because she had seen many professional bodyguards before. After all, this world wasn’t always peaceful, and people with some status were easily attacked by sudden assailants. Many people hired private bodyguards.
“You say you need a month of training?” Dong Zheng’s expression became more serious. “Then I’m really curious to see what changes they’ll have after a month.”
“Then Miss Dong can watch. If you need to hire, be sure to hire from my company. We’re all so familiar now, please support our business.”
Dong Zheng: “……” When did they become familiar?
“Miss Dong, please sit down and have some water. I need to tell them something next, and after that, let’s go have a meal. It’s almost noon.”
This time, Dong Zheng didn’t refuse. She was very curious about how Shen Wan could transform this group of people in such a short time. So, she agreed.
“Next, you have five days to learn how to use and identify various equipment. I can get some of it, but some of the more advanced stuff I can’t get my hands on yet. However, you can learn all of this using VR. I’ve added new content for you.”
Hearing this, the bodyguards were all excited. Those three days had been a very magical experience for them.
“Now I want to tell you a story.”
Tell a story?
Everyone felt puzzled, but then they saw Shen Wan bring out a basket from behind, filled with chopsticks. She picked up one chopstick and said, “This is one chopstick. Basically, any adult can easily break it, right?” As she spoke, she snapped the chopstick in half.
Dong Zheng also didn’t understand what this skinny girl was up to, but she chose to keep watching.
Everyone seemed to understand something. Sure enough, they saw Shen Wan cup a large handful of chopsticks in her small hands and walk up to them. “Try to break these. See if you can snap them.”
Although they had some brute strength, they really couldn’t break so many chopsticks at once that they could barely grip.
“Can’t break them, right?” Shen Wan said with a grin. “Now do you understand what I want to tell you?”
The bodyguards looked at each other, then tentatively said, “United we stand, no one can break us apart?”
“Wrong!”
Shen Wan lifted her eyelids, a smile hanging on her lips. “That’s not what I meant.” She glanced at Dong Zheng from the corner of her eye, seeing that she also looked curious. Her mood couldn’t be better. See, even her future wife was captivated, all her attention drawn in.
Everyone looked at her in confusion, as if asking what principle she wanted to tell them.
Then they saw Shen Wan hugging a bundle of chopsticks, bending them forcefully. That large bundle of chopsticks was snapped in half. The broken chopsticks clattered to the ground. All the people observing her nearly popped their eyeballs out.
“Now do you understand what principle I want to tell you?”
Everyone was still bewildered. The most shocked was Dong Zheng. This skinny girl had such great strength? She felt somewhat relieved that Shen Wan had accepted compensation. If she had been truly angry, who knows if she might have beaten her nasty nephew into a human pancake.
Seeing that no one understood, Shen Wan said with a smile, “I want to tell you that as long as your strength is powerful enough, no matter how stubborn something is, it’s just a matter of breaking it in one go. The point is that you should train hard and improve your individual abilities. See, if I had this kind of strength doing business, wouldn’t clients feel very safe?”
Everyone looked at the chopsticks scattered on the ground. Was their little boss the reincarnation of a super-strong baby?
“Alright, the projects you need to train for next, let Xiao Hu arrange for you. Train hard.” As she finished speaking, Shen Wan pointed to several water dispensers placed to the side. “The drinks here are energy drinks I had specially mixed. They’re very helpful for your physical training. If you persist until the end, you can improve a lot. Don’t slack off.”
After saying this, Shen Wan moved to Dong Zheng’s side. The skinny young girl, with her rosy cheeks, looked at her with bright little eyes. “Miss Dong, shall we go eat?”
Dong Zheng glanced at the chopsticks scattered on the ground and nodded. Later, she wanted to ask if Shen Wan had any other requests. Being so fierce, if she decided to punch her nasty nephew later, there really wouldn’t be any way to stop her.
At the dining table, Dong Zheng asked tactfully, “Shen Wan, is your only request to open a bodyguard company?”
“Yes.”
“Then the matter between you and Zhan is over? You won’t cause him trouble?”
“No more trouble. Li Zhan was quite decent, helping me open the company and all. He didn’t let me worry about any procedures.”
188: This woman is a bit of a double standard.
Dong Zheng breathed a sigh of relief and asked diplomatically, “I didn’t expect you to be so strong. How come I never heard about it before?”
“I was afraid of being too fierce and not finding a boyfriend.”
“You’re not afraid now?”
Shen Wan looked up and said very seriously, “I’m not planning to find a boyfriend anymore.”
Dong Zheng recalled the previous events and sighed, “You shouldn’t be so pessimistic. There are still good men in this world.”
“Anyway, I won’t encounter them.” And I don’t want to encounter them. I want to find a girlfriend!!