Chapter 21: Chapter 21: The Boss Is Cooking, a Star Is Serving?
Xinghui Design Company.
With less than half an hour until quitting time, Wang Rui was packing up his things.
’This crappy company, with its garbage cafeteria... I didn’t get a single bite for lunch, and now we have to deal with this drinking culture tonight. The new director thinks he’s hot stuff, huh? Just wait. I’m gonna go absolutely ham and just fucking eat, eat, eat, eat, eat!’
As an intern who had just graduated from college and had only been on the job for half a month, Wang Rui felt like he was on the verge of a breakdown.
He’d spent four years studying Chinese language and literature, imagining he’d be making grand pronouncements and offering brilliant insights once he joined the corporate world.
Instead, his most frequent daily tasks were printing and copying various documents and registering and checking all sorts of ledgers. And this was a job his family had to pull strings with a friend to get him.
He couldn’t just leave, but staying felt pointless.
His life had just begun, yet Wang Rui felt like it was already over.
Especially that lunch—it was worse than the slop his family fed the pigs back in his village during the New Year!
He dreaded the evening’s dinner party with every fiber of his being.
’I’ll out-eat the bosses, I’ll fucking eat, eat, eat... Director Zhou?’
Zhou Kai walked in with a smile. "Not even quitting time and you’re already thinking about food, huh? Heh, I’m here to announce something."
Wang Rui stopped packing his things. He didn’t even have to think to know what was coming—it was definitely the announcement about the dinner party tonight.
A company dinner should have been a good thing. It was free, and he could get a nice meal out. However, Wang Rui had attended one right after he joined the company, and the dinner dragged on for three or four hours.
He barely ate anything. All he did was toast the bosses, toast his colleagues, and then listen to everyone boast about how great the company was. That meal had thoroughly disgusted Wang Rui.
So, he was just waiting for Zhou Kai to finish speaking before he immediately made an excuse about having something on tonight and being unable to go.
"Tonight, our department is holding a welcome dinner for the new Director Li. The location has been set. It’s in the building right across from ours."
Huh?
Wang Rui was a little curious. "Director Zhou, a restaurant opened up across the street? Why didn’t you say so sooner?"
His unspoken question was, ’So you’ve just been letting me starve every lunch?’
Zhou Kai rubbed his nose, unsure how to explain the situation. "Uh, it’s not a restaurant. It’s... also a company. Anyway, don’t worry about it. Also, Director Li said so himself. Tonight is just a simple meal together, like a small get-together with friends. No drinking, no talking about work. You all got that? Oh, and you probably won’t be able to find it, so just follow me after work."
With that, Zhou Kai turned and left.
He left Wang Rui and the other minions staring at each other blankly.
"For real? No drinking, and no talking about work? Then what are we supposed to talk about? Are we just meant to bury our heads in our plates and chow down?"
"I’m more curious about the ’company in the building across the street’ part. What does that even mean? If it’s a company and not a restaurant, what are we going there for?"
Wang Rui scratched his head, completely baffled. "I was originally planning to make an excuse not to go, but after what Director Zhou said, I’m actually a little tempted!"
The young woman from logistics leaned over her desk. "We should still go. What if the place is actually good? Then we’d have a spot for breakfast and lunch in the future, right?"
"Good point!" Wang Rui nodded. "Let’s go check it out tonight. Since the boss said no drinking, we’ll just eat our fucking hearts out!"
"Hey, watch your language!"
The group chatted for a few more minutes until it was time to clock out. After punching their cards, they found Zhou Kai already waiting in the first-floor lobby.
"Let’s go, let’s go! Thanks to Director Li, you’re all in for a treat today!"
Wang Rui sidled up to him. "Director, what’s the story?"
Zhou Kai stopped walking. "Did you see my WeChat Moments post from lunch? I ate at that very company. Heh, that pickled fish was incredible."
"I was wondering where you’d snuck off to for a good meal at lunchtime since you weren’t in the office. So that’s what was going on."
Zhou Kai nodded. "The boss of that company is good friends with Director Li. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have gotten to taste it either. Ah, enough talk, let’s hurry. I didn’t get my fill at lunch."
Wang Rui hurriedly followed.
It had to be said, the General Affairs Department was the only one in the entire company with a relatively good working atmosphere.
After all, the other departments were all under pressure for promotions, something that basically didn’t exist in General Affairs. The employees who stayed there were generally people with no great ambitions.
Led by Li Mingtao and Zhou Kai, the eight employees of the General Affairs Department followed closely behind, arriving at the building across from Xinghui.
As they took the elevator to the nineteenth floor, Wang Rui muttered, "This building is even emptier than ours. It looks like this is the only floor with a company on it."
"Shh!" Zhou Kai turned his head. "Don’t talk about anything related to work or the company."
"Uh..." Although he didn’t know what kind of rule this was, Wang Rui still nodded vigorously.
The elevator doors opened, and the group stepped out, filled with a trace of curiosity.
The first thing they saw was a vast, empty office area, without even a single desk or chair. It wasn’t until they walked to the very back of the space that they spotted a few scattered work desks.
What made them even more curious was that there were things like sweaters tossed on the desks, but not a single computer.
’Is this really a company?’
The layout here was more or less the same as at Xinghui. They continued further inside, and after passing through a door, they found a vast space containing only a single round table and a square table for four. This was clearly the employee cafeteria.
And at that moment, a young woman was standing at the entrance to the cafeteria.
She wore a black lace top and a pair of somewhat retro flared pants. Her shoulder-length hair was dark and glossy. At a glance, her looks were easily on par with some B-list starlet.
"They’re here, they’re here! Boss, they’re here!"
Su Chen was in the kitchen, holding a large ladle of lard heated over an open flame. He poured it over five separate servings of pickled fish.
TSSSSS~~~
The instant the aroma wafted out, it instinctively made everyone sniff the air.
Seeing all this, the group from Xinghui was completely dumbfounded.
"Holy shit, that waitress is gorgeous! How much would you have to pay someone like that a month to be a waitress?" Wang Rui whispered to the colleagues beside him.
"No, no!" The girl from logistics stared in shock at the person coming out of the kitchen. "What did she just call him? Boss? Look, the guy with the big ladle is their company’s boss!!!"
GASP!!!
The junior employees all sucked in a sharp breath at the same time.
’What is going on?’
Wang Rui stared wide-eyed, feeling like his brain couldn’t keep up.
’A beautiful waitress is standing at the door, the boss is in the kitchen wielding a giant ladle, and a few shady-looking men and women are peeking over from the office area from time to time.’
’What in the world is this place?!’
At the critical moment, Li Mingtao stepped forward.
"Boss, I’m so sorry to trouble you. I promise, this is the last time!"
Li Mingtao grasped Su Chen’s hand, his words filled with guilt.
’Well, it *is* the last time, isn’t it?’
’This meal for ten would pretty much use up the last of the thousand.’
Su Chen glanced at the people behind Li Mingtao. "It’s no problem. Have your friends take a seat first. I’ll have Xiaobai bring out the dishes."
Bai Xiaobo and Xiaobin worked together, first carrying the eggplant and potato stew, still covered with a lid, to the area previously used for serving rice. Then they placed the five portions of pickled fish on the buffet counter, followed by two large steamers of piping-hot buns.
Under the stunned gazes of the Xinghui employees,
Liu Shengnan came rushing in.
She walked up to the cafeteria entrance and slapped a sign onto the glass.
A new price list appeared on the door.
[Employee Discount with Staff ID]
[Pickled Fish: 30 yuan (Employee Price) / 48 yuan]
[Braised Pork Hock Steamed Bun: 3 yuan (Employee Price) / 5 yuan]
[Eggplant and Potato Stew: 12 yuan (Employee Price) / 15 yuan]
