CRA Chapter 10

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Now we just need a gatekeeper

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There were not a lot of cubs in the club right now, so for the time being Xie Luan only wanted to recruit one caretaker to replace Zhao Chuan and he would then recruit more when there was a need.

The finances of the club should have been taken care of by a professional accountant from the start. But because of the club’s conditions, Xia Qi was forced to take on this work as well.

It could not go on like this, especially since the activity of the club would, according to Xie Luan’s plans, increase. He had therefore felt it to be one of the important jobs that needed to be added onto the first recruitment wave.

Xia Qi had soon posted it on the starnet and together they posted the printed recruitment flyers on the commercial street. Within a few days, some people had started to come to the club and Xia Qi handled the interviews.

The wages had been raised from 1800 to 3,800[1] which was the main thing that made more people come than before but it was still not much. Food and shelter were generally offered by very cub raising branch and their club was not ranking within the 3,000, in fact, it would most likely be very low on that list.

Even with the increased salary, it was barely enough to hire a C-level caretaker. The average salary of a B-level caretaker was generally tens of thousands and A-level needed has at least 200,000 a month. As for S-level… They might not even be available even if you had enough money.

To be honest, it wasn’t until recently that Xie Luan found out that there was such a rating among caretakers and that if you wanted to get a corresponding rating, you would have to partake in the professional assessment held by the Star Alliance.

Originally, Xie Luan had thought that childcare workers in this world were just like those on earth. That it was just a matter of raising children. But unexpectedly, this world’s childcare workers also needed to guide the cubs to develop abilities.

Xie Luan had wanted to hire a professional A-level caretaker to come and care for the cubs, but he had to be realistic. Right now he only had 3.06 million. When he first got the money, Xie Luan had actually felt that the money was quite a lot, but after he calculating the expenses, he felt it not to be enough.

First of all, he had to save half of the money to pay for daily expenses and improve the living conditions of the cubs in the club. After all, there was a lot to buy, such as better rations for the older cubs and milk powder for the younger cubs, cub toys, cribs for young cubs, and so on.

Before the impression given by the club was fixed, their club would not be able to make any money at all. Even if its outer appearance was repaired, they would probably still have to go through a difficult period before the business started to move smoothly. The money saved had to be enough to get them through that period and pay for daily expenses and salaries so that this place didn’t fall apart when they tried to fix it.

After putting away the money needed for that, they had 1.53 million left, but then there was also the expenses of fixing the appearance of the club. Xie Luan wanted to completely rebuild the entrance of the club and replace that rusty old gate. Although the cost of doing so was definitely much larger than just changing the gate by itself, Xie Luan had something in mind and felt that it was important to do so.

He also wanted to take the opportunity to build a guardhouse next to the gate and they also needed to improve the overall environment. In the end, Xie Luan’s wealth had rapidly depleted.

Before the construction team came over, Xia Qi had already finished several rounds of interviews and successfully recruited a new caretaker and an official accountant for their club.

Both of the new employees were saiwei, natives of Gaia, and they had both passed Xia Qi’s interview and been hired directly. Xie Luan almost couldn’t believe how smoothly it all went.

However they had no luck in finding a guard but fortunately it was not very urgent, after all, they hadn’t even fixed the gate or built a guardhouse yet.

“We want it to be built like this, is it okay?” Xie Luan placed a piece of paper in front of the person in charge of the construction team. Although Xie Luan didn’t understand architecture, he knew how to paint, and he had therefore drawn a blueprint of how he wanted it to look.

Before drawing it he had first gone onto the starnet and looked at many other nursing clubs in order to get an idea about how they normally looked. But in the end, they all seemed pretty different from each other, so he just went with what he had planned.

“No problem,” the person in charge took a look at the picture and in the next second responded.

Before, when a large group of construction workers wearing the same overalls had rushed through the commercial street to the cub raising branch, it had actually caught the attention of many passers-by.

In fact, the position of their club was not bad. As a previous auction house it was adjacent to the trade zone and theoretically, it should be easily noticed. Xie Luan believed that as long as he fixed it up a bit and got rid of the “abandoned look”, they will be able to get a lot of people’s attention.

During the construction period, it was a bit noisy. Xie Luan had therefore started to gently stroke the cubs and sing a lullaby for them when it was time to sleep. He had been unsure about whether the lullabies from his world would work, but when he had tried it, the cubs were all asleep by the time he sang the last note.

The cubs’ simple sleeping mats had been changed to small beds. The comfort was much better and they also had a guardrail which made the beds feel more secure.

Xie Luan also looked for people to customize a bed, since other cubs had new beds, the muka cub must of course also get one.

“Baby, this is yours.” Xie Luan waved the muka cub closer and pointed towards the large bed.

When hearing that the young man wanted to customize a bed for a muka cub, the craftsman had been shocked and given the youth a strange look, but he still did his best to make the bed for the muka cub. The hard part had been to adapt it to the muka cub’s shape and after getting its measurements as well as searching for some information on mukas, he had gotten started.

The muka cub stood silent by Xie Luan’s side and seeing that he didn’t seem to understand, Xie Luan patted his foreleg and then pointed to the bed again. The muka cub looked at him and then looked at the bed. He then casually approached it and periodically turned his head back as if checking Xie Luan’s reaction. When he was by its side, he stopped and lowered his head to take a closer look at it before slowly stepping inside. Seeing the cub’s action, Xie Luan nodded and smiled as he encouraged him, “Yes, that’s it.”

Seeing that he truly had the youth’s permission the muka cub laid down. Glancing back at the youth one last time, he finally relaxed his body and lowered his head down on the soft bed. He then moved his head a bit as if he was snuggling into the bed and made a low-pitched sound as he narrowed those fearsome scarlet eyes and gazed at the youth.

The construction at the gate and the environment improvements were completed in less than a week. The efficiency was so high that Xie Luan had to sigh in envy, the Interstellar Age was truly amazing.

The gate was new and the wall surrounding their club had been demolished and rebuilt. Now when looking from the outside, one got a warm impression. The gate was refreshing and had a bit of a childlike style. The name of the club was placed in the middle of the arch that bent above the new iron gates.

Cub Raising Association – Yunbao Branch.[2]

The name of the club had always been “Yunbao” but it was first recently that Xie Luan got to know about it and he actually liked it quite a lot. It sounded very cute, so he had no intention of ​​changing the name of the club.

“This… is it really our club…” Xia Qi stood outside the gate and felt touched as she looked at their club and its new appearance. She felt that she was dreaming and there was almost a feeling of dizziness.

The old wall was demolished, and the gate had been changed. Originally, it had looked like their nursing club would close at any minute and it had basically been invisible to people passing by. But now it was like it had come to life, like it had only been a shadow before but had now materialized. It fit in with its surroundings.

A small guardhouse had been built not far from the entrance of the club and from the gate to the main buildings, the grass and the flower beds along the road that had been left unattended for a long time were now carefully pruned.

Although the overall environment was still far from chic, it was undoubtedly much cleaner and refreshing compared to the messy image from before when everything was growing wildly and there were tons of weeds.

As for the living environment of the cubs and the staff, it was of course also improved. The walls of several houses have been completely refurbished and the employees had gone from sleeping on shabby old mattresses to be able to lay comfortably on new single beds.

“Of course.” Xie Luan looked at Xia Qi and nodded, he then said, “It will become even better in the future.”

With the money he got from the auction as a start-up fund, the club could only be improved to this extent but this was a good start. Xie Luan believed that they would definitely be able to develop this club further and improve it even more.

The president was old and felt that he did not have as much energy as before. Since Xie Luan became the investor of their club, he was very happy to hand over the management authority to Xie Luan.

The two new recruits were called Zheng Zhou and Feng Wenxian. Zheng Zhou was the new caretaker and Feng Wenxian was the accountant. Both of them had many years of experience in their field. They knew that Xie Luan was the new manager of the club but since he looked so young they had not shown more respect for him than they would a fellow employee. But although they had been a bit disrespectful, they had been working hard and were serious about their work.

Xie Luan was therefore quite satisfied with the two new employees. The most important part was not to follow formalities but to work hard and not mistreat the cubs.

Although the construction team had already left and there were no more disturbing noises, Xie Luan had gotten used to the new way of putting them to sleep and chose to continue doing it.

Just like he hadn’t planned to start singing lullabies, Xie Luan would soon by chance unknowingly fulfill Xia Qi’s daydreaming by hiring a former general.

In the interstellar, if you mentioned the name “Zarad”, most people would be able to tell you a lot about him. Although many had not even seen him, they had heard about his brilliant and heroic achievements.

Before he retired, the Supreme Commander of the Star Alliance United Force had fought bravely and shocked the races that had tried to destroy the Interstellar peace. Earning himself the highest military medal issued by the Star Alliance.

The general’s retirement had always puzzled many people. He was far from retiring age, it was really strange and even if he had been a bit older, how could he just retire without reason?

The military had surprisingly been tight-lipped about the matter, so the outside world could only speculate and did not know the truth.

In fact, the reason for the resignation of the general was very simple. Some people had plotted against him on the battlefield, he had been wounded and his abilities had been blocked. After trying various methods to unlock them, he felt that he had no choice but to retire and it had now been two years since then.

It was impossible to not be frustrated when suffering such a large change and without warning losing the thing he lived for and loved doing. But although he was extremely frustrated, Zarad did not give up and ever since leaving the military he had been searching for a way to restore his abilities. The reason that he came to Gaia was also the same.

Gaia was a famous trade planet and there were often new auctions on the planet. Zarad had heard that Gaia’s auction house was going to auction a rare herb that could unlock, heal or strengthen powers. So he had hurried and traveled all the way from Pandora.

But the result was that the so-called rare herb was fake and did not do a thing. The former general, who had been full of sorrow and expectation, had almost lost his temper and gone to complain at the auction house.

For a person who had always had a powerful ability, losing it was almost the same as having his hands and feet broken. His hope had been lighted but he had expected too much and been disappointed once again. The little hope he had was blown out and this time it even felt like it had been crushed into smithereens.

Right now, Zarad only wanted to find the nearest pub on Gaia and drink away his sorrows. But when he walked through an alley and passed a building, he was suddenly stunned. His blocked abilities had given a small reaction!

It must be some kind of mental power, someone’s mental power, that had an impact on his closed and blocked abilities.

Excited, he didn’t even have time to look up and see what the building was. As there were no guards by the gate, Zarad directly entered and ran in the direction of the spiritual power… Walking into a building he found a young man who was singing a lullaby for some cubs.

It was hard to believe that such a strong power came from such a young person but Zarad could feel it, it was him. However, as soon as the youth saw him, he stopped humming and that incredible power quickly faded away.

“Excuse me, what are you doing here?” Some stranger suddenly appeared and he had not only walked into the building but also gone into the cubs sleeping room. Xia Qi had seen him entering the building and followed. Seeing him approaching the room that the cubs were in she had quickly called out to him in a vigilant tone.

“If it is not related to the cubs raising association, please leave as soon as possible.” You couldn’t blame Xia Qi for using this sharp tone and rejecting words. The other’s behavior was really suspicious and his unshaven face made him seem more dangerous..

The first sentence the man then said made Xia Qi speechless. “Don’t stop, don’t stop, ancestor[3], ah, please continue, sing that song again–”

Zarad was fully focused on the youth in front of him and had not even heard Xia Qi. When thinking that the youth might be able to help him recover his abilities, Zarad became too excited to think about anything else..

It was as if he had been walking in the desert under the scorching sun, like he had been dying from thirst, and then suddenly seen an oasis.

Xie Luan frowned and looked at the cubs that were still asleep in their beds. He then stood up and gestured for the other person to go out.

“Ah Luan, this person…” Xia Qi wanted to say that it must be a weirdo who had nothing to do here. After all, he made a really strange request just now, but seeing Xie Luan shake his head slightly, Xia Qi closed her mouth.

Zarad finally realized that he had behaved a bit strangely. Seeing that the young man had stood up and come out of the room instead of continuing to hum the lullaby, Zarad knew that he had to restrain himself and explain the reason that he needed him to sing.

He quickly summarized it, saying that his abilities were blocked and that the power transmitted through the lullaby seem to impact the seal. Zarad did not tell him his identity as he thought that it may complicate things.

Zarad promised with the utmost sincere attitude that he was willing to accept any condition as long as the youth was willing to help him recover his abilities.

The man sounded genuine and Xie Luan didn’t mind helping with this. Anyway, even if it was a fake, he would not suffer or lose anything, after all it was just singing a few lullabies.

“You don’t need to do anything for me,” Xie Luan said.

“You are truly kind, but I can’t accept this.” As soon as he heard what Xie Luan said, Zarad felt that he was too cheap. “You can ask anything, make any request. I, cough, I swear that I will fulfill it.”

He had almost blurted out “I give you my word as a general”, but Zarad hurriedly stopped himself.

Xie Luan was silent, looking at the unshaven man in front of him, he actually felt a bit tangled. Because looking at the other side’s appearance, his living conditions should not be very good. It made it really hard for Xie Luan to think about what kind of requirements should be appropriate.

It was not too easy to make the other feel that it was a fair trade, and it was not too difficult to make the other side feel pressured.

Thinking silently, Xie Luan’s gaze on the other suddenly paused as he came up with the perfect arrangement.

“Our club is in need of a gatekeeper. You have to work for our club for a year.” Xie Luan thought about it, although the man was dressed poorly, his physique looked good. As long as he cleaned up a bit it would be alright. Their club provided food and living space so requesting one year for a few lullabies didn’t feel greedy, seeing the other’s appearance it would probably be of help and if he did a good job and wanted to continue after, they wouldn’t complain. Xie Luan really felt that it was a win-win.

Zarad, a former general of the Star Alliance and the supreme commander of Star Alliance United Force: “…”

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Translator’s note:

I have a lot I need to prepare for this week, on Monday I have a religion seminar, I need to read one article and three books for school that I still have around two hundred pages left on each, on Thursday I have a psychological test to study for and I have a book analysis that is due on Sunday (on one of the books I have yet to finish)… (-_-||)

So I’m sorry to say that I probably won’t be able to update this week…

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[1] – It doesn’t say which currency it is but since this novel was originally in Chinese it is probably Yuan or a made up currency with a similar value. One yuan is equal to 0.145935 dollar so 1800 yuan would be around 262.669 dollars a month, it was raised to 3800 yuan which would be 554.503 dollars a month.

[2] – Yún can mean cloud, to say or the surname Yún. Bâo means jewel, gem, treasure or precious. So the name can be for example: Precious Cloud, Yún’s Gem (if the president had the surname Yún), Treasure Cloud, ect. But I like how it sounds in Chinese so I will keep it in pinyin.

[3] – He is being weirdly respectful.

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