Carefree Kitten is a loyal fan of the live stream room at Starry Sky Kindergarten.
She enjoys squatting in the live stream room, watching the happy children playing, and can't help but smile like an indulgent aunt.
It's as if her own less-than-perfect childhood can be healed by watching others.
This time, she opened the live stream room as usual.
But then she heard some extremely big news.
Starry Sky Kindergarten is recruiting students! They're opening 100 spots, and those interested can download the application form from the homepage. There will be online interviews in 10 days.
Those who pass the interview can enroll. The interviews will last 3 days, and parents must accompany their children.
Upon hearing this news, Carefree Kitten immediately exited the live stream room and hurriedly called her best friend: "Hey, isn't your kid going to kindergarten? That Starry Sky Kindergarten I told you about before is recruiting now. You should go sign up quickly."
Her voice was rapid and urgent, pouring out like a stream of beans, afraid that if she was even a second late, the spots would be gone.
She's been a long-time viewer of Starry Sky Kindergarten's live stream room.
The kindergarten practices happy education and has low tuition fees.
They eat so many delicious foods every day, and even have professional chefs.
Every detail is enough to drive parents crazy.
The fans in the live stream room used to say that if Starry Sky Kindergarten opened recruitment, everyone would vote it as the number one kindergarten.
It's just a pity that Starry Sky had only been doing small, exclusive classes, so others didn't have the opportunity to attend.
The old fans in the live stream room know that the staff at Starry Sky get two free enrollment spots as a benefit.
But only one accountant had the courage to actually apply and work there.
It really takes guts!
To get in, they'd have to do a large-scale recruitment.
Now they've finally opened it up. But there are only 100 spots, so it's very precious.
Her friend immediately started preparing upon hearing the news.
Carefree Kitten downloaded the application form and sent it over.
When she downloaded the form earlier, it was super slow.
You could tell everyone was really excited.
This kind of enthusiasm was only seen during the housing craze back in the day.
...
In the live stream room, after Shen Wei announced that Starry Sky Kindergarten was opening 100 spots, 50,000 people instantly left.
But after two minutes, not only did those 50,000 people return, they brought another 100,000 with them.
The live stream room's popularity skyrocketed to number one.
Even the short video platforms sent people to investigate why the traffic suddenly exploded like that.
The words Shen Wei said in the live stream room were screen recorded and shared in local community groups.
Not only were the viewers panicking, but even teachers from other kindergartens were rushing to report it.
"What do we do? Starry Sky Kindergarten is recruiting students!"
"We need to come up with a plan!"
Even when Starry Sky wasn't recruiting before, they were already causing a huge stir.
Now that they're recruiting, just thinking about it made people gasp in dismay.
The kindergarten staff created a small group chat and added the principals of various kindergartens in the city.
Within three minutes, dozens of people joined.
Someone immediately shared the news about Starry Sky Kindergarten's recruitment in the group.
Everyone fell silent.
But they were all watching.
No one knew who would fire the first shot.
"We kindergarten operators need to unite," said one person. It was Teacher Tang's former employer.
They had a bad relationship with Starry Sky Kindergarten in the past.
Ever since Starry Sky became popular, Teacher Tang's former employer couldn't sleep well at night.
When Teacher Tang went to arbitration over her social security payments, her former employer had to compensate her 80,000 yuan, which was really painful for them.
They heard that it was Shen Wei, the principal of Starry Sky Kindergarten, who instigated Teacher Tang to go to arbitration.
Teacher Tang's former employer constantly thought about ways to stir up trouble. They didn't even run their own kindergarten properly anymore.
Upon hearing that Starry Sky Kindergarten was recruiting, they were more fired up than anyone else.
"What do we do now?"
Others said, "What can we do? The one we should be most worried about is Noble Kindergarten."
When Starry Sky Kindergarten first opened, no one paid attention to them.
Who would have thought that in just a few short months, they would leave everyone far behind?
Their popularity is catching up to Noble Kindergarten, making everyone's feelings a bit complicated.
"Someone tried calling to report them for fire safety and tax issues before! After the investigation, all of Starry Sky's affairs were found to be reasonable and compliant."
Others fell silent upon hearing this.
Starry Sky Kindergarten was exposed online by someone later. The kindergartens in this group had all bought traffic before.
Not only did they fail to take Starry Sky down from its pedestal, but they ended up purifying its fan base instead.
For now, Starry Sky is only recruiting 100 students.
100 students isn't a large number for a kindergarten.
But their popularity is high. If any tricks are pulled now, it would backfire spectacularly.
"Are we just going to watch helplessly?"The feeling of sitting idly was too disheartening.
"What can you do about it?" others questioned back.
Silence filled the group.
In the end, it was Teacher Tang's former employer who exploded in anger. The gist was that these people only wanted others to cause trouble and bring Starry Sky down, but they didn't want to stick their own necks out.
They only hoped for the best outcomes.
If that's the case, then everyone might as well just stop living.
They'll just watch as Starry Sky recruits all the students away.
Her outburst upset the others, but what she said was true.
No matter how much they discussed, they couldn't come up with a solution.
This motley crew gradually dispersed.
The other kindergartens found ways to inform Noble Kindergarten about this.
They were just small fries themselves.
Starry Sky Kindergarten was backed by a wealthy heir, which these small business operators couldn't stand up against.
But Noble Kindergarten was different - it had a solid foundation.
And everyone had noticed Noble Kindergarten's frantic advertising recently, so they must have been driven to desperation.
These equally-matched opponents would make an interesting fight when they clashed.
Everyone was waiting to watch the drama unfold.
But to their disappointment, Noble Kindergarten's reaction was very calm. They just said, "Oh, we know!" as if they didn't care at all.
What they didn't know was that the principal of Noble Kindergarten was gritting her teeth so hard she almost broke them.
She exited the WeChat conversation page.
The principal of Noble Kindergarten couldn't help but say to the enrollment officer Zhang: "No wonder my right eyelid has been twitching these past few days. Turns out this was the cause."
Teacher Zhang was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan regarding the student admissions.
They appeared cold and aloof on the outside.
Only internally did they know the immense pressure brought by Starry Sky Kindergarten.
The principal said, "Keep a close eye on the children from these prestigious families. When necessary, sacrifice any interests to meet all their conditions and get those children to our kindergarten."
She wasn't anxious about Starry Sky Kindergarten's admissions itself.
Rather, it was the fact that these prestigious children had always been monopolized by Noble Kindergarten in the past.
Having Starry Sky Kindergarten lure away even one was a huge loss.
Last time when the Young Master of the Liu Family went to Starry Sky, the principal couldn't sleep well for three or four days.
The principal told the admissions teacher, "People out there are waiting to see us fail. At times like this, we must steady ourselves and take it one step at a time."
As long as those wealthy children didn't go to her kindergarten, there was still a chance.
As for the children from ordinary families, they were completely out of their scope.
Teacher Zhang said, "Last time, The Liu Family said they wanted to build a horse ranch on campus. That's The Liu Family with several diamond stores!"
The principal had rejected it before.
Everyone wanted to do this and that, but their place wasn't a wishing well.
But with the matter brought up again, the principal couldn't refuse, saying, "In that case, you contact the horse ranches and see how we can make it happen!"
Building one wouldn't hurt.
It would also convey to the prestigious families that only at their kindergarten could their demands be 100% satisfied.
Teacher Zhang said, "But to set up a horse ranch and raise a few horses, our maintenance cost would be in the millions per year."
Their kindergarten wasn't short on money.
But their spending was much higher this year.
The kindergarten was shareholder-owned. If they couldn't generate sufficient profits this year, they might not have a good time at the annual meeting.
The principal of Noble Kindergarten said coldly, "This year's situation is special."
Carefree Kitten Shen Wei herself didn't know that her admissions news had brought such immense pressure to other kindergartens!
