"The first system," Lin Feng began, "is paying workers through store points."
He leaned forward slightly.
"Basically, they get paid in store credits that they can use to purchase goods from us. When they complete a delivery, depending on the customer's rating, they receive a certain amount of points."
He counted on his fingers.
"15 points for a 5-star rating. 12 for 4-star. 8 for 3-star. And 3 for anything below that."
He smiled slightly.
"The good thing about this system is that while 10 store points are worth 1 yuan to the deliverer, to us, it only costs about 0.6 to 0.7 yuan - depending on the price we buy our goods at."
He held up his hand.
"Pros: No cash outflow, which preserves our working capital. Deliverers become loyal customers because they spend their points on our products. The actual cost to us is only 60 to 70 percent of the perceived value. It's flexible - deliverers can choose their own hours and orders. And there's a gamification element that makes it engaging. Workers will naturally strive to improve their service to earn more points, so we get top-tier customer service as a byproduct."
He lowered his hand.
"Cons: It's less attractive than cash for students who actually need money. And some deliverers might not want anything from our catalogue, making the entire point system kinda useless to them unless we introduce some sort of trading system which is a whole other problem."
The others nodded slowly, absorbing the information.
...
"The second system," Lin Feng continued, "uses a similar rating structure but pays in percentages instead."
He gestured as he explained.
"Basically, the delivery person gets a certain percentage of the order cost, depending on their rating. Using a 70 percent cost model, we have a 30 percent profit margin. If we give a maximum of 5 percent to the deliverer, we still have quite a bit to work with."
He held up his fingers again.
"1-star rating gets 1 percent. 2-star gets 2 percent. All the way up to 5-star, which gets 5 percent. And this wouldn't apply to all orders - only rated ones. The unrated default to 1%"
He nodded to himself.
"Pros: Cash is universally attractive. Compensation is directly tied to performance - more deliveries means more money. But it also discourages people from half-assing as many deliveries as possible, since the rating system incentivizes good service. And it scales naturally with order volume."
He paused.
"Cons: Cash outflow reduces our working capital. And small orders become almost worthless for deliverers." He did a quick calculation in his head. "5 percent of an 8-yuan order is only 0.40 yuan."
...
Lin Feng looked around at his roommates.
"What do you all think?"
They sat in silence, each one weighing the two options in their minds.
Lin Feng smiled.
"There's also a third option," he said, lifting a finger.
They all became attentive.
"I call this the hybrid method."
He spread his hands.
"Both systems are good in their own right. So why not bring them together instead of picking one?"
He began explaining.
"How about we have a guaranteed base compensation paid in store points. Then add a cash percentage based on rating as a bonus."
He leaned back slightly.
"For every order, 10 store credits are guaranteed. This instantly solves the issue of making small deliveries attractive. Each delivery has at least 1 yuan in compensation - even if it's in store credit, which is less attractive than cash, it's still something."
He held up a finger.
"As for the percentage bonus, we maintain the same structure as before. And if a delivery doesn't receive a rating, it defaults to 1 percent. This incentivizes people to perform deliveries to the best of their abilities - to actively seek out good ratings - which in turn boosts our public image."
He looked around at them.
"What do you think?"
Silence.
Then Chen Ming let out a long sigh.
"The boss is indeed the boss," he said, shaking his head in admiration.
Zhang Wei nodded in agreement.
Li Jun leaned back in his chair.
"I have nothing to say, to be honest," he admitted. "It seems perfect. We can start with that and work out any issues we observe while it's running."
Lin Feng nodded, a satisfied smile on his face.
"The hybrid method it is, then."
…
Saturday, October 3rd.
[Infinite Money System]
[Total System Balance: ¥1,840.00]
[Available System Balance: ¥0.00]
[Personal Balance: ¥12,496.00]
Lin Feng observed his system with satisfaction.
He had indeed hit ten thousand the previous night. Since today was a weekend, his system balance wouldn't increase, so he had transferred it all back into his personal account.
He dismissed the system with a thought.
...
The morning began with their daily briefing - the usual reports from each roommate. Nothing out of the ordinary.
After the meeting, Lin Feng headed out to handle his delivery window. The volume of orders was significantly higher than usual. He completed twenty deliveries just by himself, and this was only the morning window - the least popular of all three.
We're definitely going to have another peak today.
After finishing his deliveries, he returned to the dorm. The four roommates spent most of the morning studying quietly.
From noon to one, Lin Feng and Li Jun had their daily coding lesson with Zhang Wei. The concepts were getting more complex, but Lin Feng found himself keeping up reasonably well.
When the lesson ended, Chen Ming - who had just finished his own deliveries - joined the three of them, and they all headed out for lunch together.
It was a simple meal. Nothing fancy.
Afterward, they returned to the dorms and continued studying. The afternoon passed quietly, each of them focused on their own materials.
Around 5 PM, Li Jun began preparing for his delivery window.
As for Lin Feng, he glanced at his phone.
He was meeting up with Su Yue for dinner tonight.
As for Teacher Liu, he had rescheduled their meeting to tomorrow - but instead of dinner, he had insisted it be lunch. He didn't feel entirely comfortable with dinner at her place, so he had used this method to compromise.
He grabbed his things and headed out.