Chapter 65: Gossip at the Dining Table

The waitress ultimately decided against knocking herself out with the stool again.

Mealtime had arrived.

To her, it no longer mattered if she was dreaming. A meal in a dream was still a meal.

"Food, food, food!!!"

She stepped up to the bar's entrance, eagerly resting her hand on the "Open" sign as she turned to watch the clock on the wall.

The moment the clock hit 12:00, she pushed off the ground, tapping into her very last reserves of energy to sprint toward the exit of the bar street.

Similar scenes played out across the street as employees poured out of every bar. In an instant, the countless throng merged into a surging river of people. Trapped in the current, the waitress shoved her way forward for all she was worth.

Relying on her quick wits, she ignored the elevators and made a beeline for the emergency stairs.

The Tower's emergency stairwell was built extremely wide. As the crowd poured in like carp entering a river, the crushing pressure immediately eased.

Ultimately, thanks to her decisive action and sheer nerve, she reached the third-floor Employee Cafeteria and secured a spot just past the one-hundred mark in line for her chosen window.

"Not a bad run today."

After a bit of a wait, she finally received the standard meal she had been yearning for.

A massive portion of dry-mixed noodles, along with a large bowl of seaweed soup and a side of garlic cucumber salad.

And a huge chicken leg!

Overjoyed, she cradled the food in her arms, squatted on the floor, and immediately began to wolf it down.

"Boss, why aren't you eating at a table?"

Hearing the voice, the waitress looked up with a huge mouthful of noodles. Her expression instantly went slack, and she even stopped chewing.

Standing before her was Yan Jing, holding a massive, gleaming porcelain bowl. Piled high within it was a mountain of roast meat, seafood, and steak...

A... a luxury meal?!!

A luxury meal equivalent to ten standard portions—a meal that only a D-Class Employee could possibly afford.

She simply couldn't believe her eyes.

Then, she remembered something...

She smiled faintly.

"Right, I'm dreaming right now. Just a dream."

She lowered her head, ready to resume enjoying her food.

But Yan Jing leaned down and glanced at the food in her arms with a puzzled expression.

"Boss, why didn't you get something better to eat? Didn't you earn quite a bit today?"

Earned quite a bit?

Half-doubting, the waitress eventually carried her meal over to the window.

"Hello, I'd like to check my points balance. My employee number is..."

"Understood. Let me check that for you."

The staff member at the window replied a moment later, "Found it. Your current balance is 204 points. I'll go ahead and deduct those 204 points to pay down your overdue rent. You now have an outstanding debt of 206 points."

"Two hundred... 204 points?"

The waitress was completely dumbfounded. She carried her food over to a seat in a daze.

After quite some time, she finally accepted reality.

She had figured it out!

This absolutely was not a dream!!!

She, Rose, had finally struck it lucky today!

...

...

Carrying his luxury meal, Yan Jing tracked down Mantou and the others.

A morning of hard work had netted him 204 points, but it had also left him absolutely ravenous.

Figuring that Mantou and the rest probably hadn't received their daily wages yet, he had simply bought a luxury meal with ten times the volume of a standard portion.

After deducting the 5 points he gave the little boy playing the guitar, he still had 169 points on hand—a decent little nest egg.

"Holy crap, what is that you're carrying?"

Wearing his greeter's uniform, Grandpa Liu stared so hard his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Eat up. I earned it this morning."

Yan Jing set the luxury meal down in the center of the table and casually transferred a piece of steak into Mantou's bowl.

"You're a growing kid, Mantou. Eat some more."

In contrast to Old Master Liu's shock, Chen Nian simply picked a piece of tomato out of the bowl without saying a word.

"You didn't go and take out a loan, did you?"

A thought struck Old Liu, and he said with deep concern, "You can't do that. I've heard people say that once you take out a loan here, you'll never pay it off in your lifetime!"

"Tourist temps can't take out loans."

Yan Jing picked up a slice of roast meat. "Did you even read the Employee Handbook, old man?"

"Is that right?"

Old Liu's eyes looked a bit hazy. "I wouldn't know. I spent the whole morning chatting with the young men and women around me."

Mentioning this brought Old Liu's energy back. He dropped a crab into his bowl and said, "Did you hear? About the banquet in a few days. They say because of it, the Tower's management of employees has become insanely strict."

"In the past, taking a punishment meant starving for a few days, or at most losing an arm or a leg. Now? Heh, it's a near-certain death sentence."

Yan Jing placed another piece of roast meat in Mantou's bowl.

"Do you know which two sides are arranging the marriage?"

"Sleepland and Dandelion Manor."

Old Liu lowered his voice to a whisper. "Sleepland is the groom's side, and from what they say..."

He dropped his voice even further. "He's an imbecile."

An imbecile?

Yan Jing's mind stirred.

It was an old-era colloquial term for someone with an intellectual disability.

"If that's the case, Dandelion Manor has more to gain from this union."

Yan Jing pointed this out.

"I didn't catch the details on that yet. But regardless, I also heard... the girl from Dandelion Manor initially refused the arrangement. Yet somehow, after meeting the idiot a few times, she actually fell for him. Said she wouldn't marry anyone else."

"Don't you think that's strange?"

Old Liu smoothed out his greeter's uniform, suddenly taking on the air of a storyteller.

"The girl made one demand: the two of them had to move out and live together over by Solitude Lane, claiming she liked the scenery there."

"I mean, you tell me, what kind of scenery does that place even have..."

After finishing that story, Old Liu continued to share plenty of other idle gossip he had picked up. Compared to that first piece of news, however, much of it was clearly baseless hearsay.

Listening to the stories, the group quickly finished their meal.

"Old Liu, I think you're going about your information gathering the wrong way."

Yan Jing patted Old Master Liu on the shoulder.

"How so?"

Old Master Liu paused, taken aback.

"You should focus more on gathering information about the customers."

Yan Jing explained, "Think about it. Which of the customers are big shots, what are their preferences... As a greeter, if you want to become a manager, there are some shortcuts you have to take."

Yan Jing's suggestion seemed to open the door to a whole new world for Old Master Liu. He clapped his hands together in excitement.

"Right..."

He pulled out the notebook he kept on him and stealthily began jotting something down.

"Once you get some clear intel, remember to let me know."

Yan Jing told him.

It would be useful to him later when working as a waiter.

Meanwhile, Chen Nian had been visibly distracted throughout the entire meal.

Just as they finished, he suddenly clapped his hands.

"Right, I can use this as a substitute."

Without another word, he hurried off. "You guys keep eating. Don't wait for me."

The rest of them stared at his empty bowl and the leftovers on the table, totally bewildered.

"..."

His own Mantou was still the most normal one here. Yan Jing looked at her with a smile. "Did you have fun this morning?"

"F... fun!"

Mantou nodded, offering a goofy grin. "The manager... didn't... didn't give Mantou... much... work to do!"

"That's good."

Yan Jing smiled and nodded.

'See, I told you, right? Let me come out and play for five minutes, and you won't get bullied. If you don't get bullied, this guy stays happy.'

'If this guy is happy, then you'll be happy.'

'I didn't lie to you, did I?'

Inside Mantou's mind, the voice was secretly gloating.

She felt she had finally found a way to handle the little girl.

In the past, she couldn't come out to play for even a moment. Now, just by bringing up the Cameraman to them, she had managed to get five whole minutes of playtime.

It was just that this girl's body was too fragile. It couldn't handle much playtime.

She had to think of a way...

...

After finishing his meal, Yan Jing returned to the bar.

"Xiao Yi... Xiao Yi, you're back!"

The waitress, who had been waiting at the entrance for quite a while, hurried over to greet him. She grabbed Yan Jing's arm, a fawning smile on her face.

"Hello, boss."

Yan Jing gave a polite nod.

"Xiao Yi, you have to keep up the good work this afternoon! Do you need your boss to do anything for you?"

The waitress batted her large eyes. "I can do absolutely anything."

"If you don't want to get hit with customer complaints, boss, it would be best if you found a place to hide."

Yan Jing said with a serious expression.

"Is it... is it really that dangerous?"

The waitress's smile froze on her face.

"For you, boss, it is a bit dangerous."

Yan Jing explained.

Even though the customers couldn't complain about him, they might complain about the owner of the establishment.

So far, none of those twenty-plus customers had done so because of the photos, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that someone else eventually would.

"Don't worry, boss. The danger is only temporary."

"Soon, you won't be in any danger at all."

Yan Jing said earnestly, "Go hide in a corner of the shop or in the restroom for now. Hold out for a little while, and you won't have to worry about receiving complaints as the boss anymore."

Hearing this, the waitress nodded in deep emotion, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"Xiao Yi, it is so good to have you here."

Just like that, the waitress ran into the innermost stall of the restroom and hid there for the entire afternoon.

It wasn't until mealtime approached and her stomach started growling that she finally slipped out.

Seeing Yan Jing at the bar tallying up piles of earnings, the waitress's eyes lit up, and she excitedly walked over.

She struck it rich! She had struck it rich!!!

She had stumbled upon a true treasure. She hadn't done a single thing, yet she could rake in this many points.

She had to figure out a way to keep this man here!

To that end, Rose even began calculating whether she needed to use a bit of her feminine charm.

Her heart fluttered wildly, but she forced down the corners of her lips, deciding to put on the air of a proper boss:

"Xiao Yi, how much did we make? You didn't slack off this afternoon, did you?"

"Xiao Yi?"

Yan Jing looked up and said with a serious expression, "Please don't give your boss nicknames while at work, Xiao Mei."

"Huh?"

The waitress stared blankly.