Chapter 825: Zeng Yan’s New Job
8:30 p.m.
Zeng Yan still hadn’t finished work.
Zeng Yan had been one of the last round’s lab rats in the Alice Apartment survival game—the one whose girlfriend was a college student and cheated on him.
Since breaking up with his girlfriend,
while Jiang Ran was away from Hua Country in Aisen Town, Germany,
Zeng Yan had been working at a garment factory in Nancheng City.
The factory’s situation kept deteriorating. Even before Jiang Ran left Hua Country, the workers in that factory were already slacking off, working in fits and starts because there wasn’t much work.
Whenever a company or factory declines like that, there’s one inevitable result—the layoffs.
Word of the layoffs spread through the garment factory like wildfire; it couldn’t be hidden.
So, to avoid being fired, the ordinary employees there tried every trick they could, pulling whatever connections they had.
For example, a middle-aged man Zeng Yan knew—normally not much of a smoker—gave the Supervisor a pack of cigarettes to try to keep his job.
Zeng Yan didn’t want to be laid off either.
But he also didn’t want to spend money and effort flattering the factory bosses just to stay.
He’d already split up because of the cheating; he was annoyed and emotionally low enough.
Now this job uncertainty piled on top of it—if they wanted to fire people, fine, let them fire him!
Sure enough, around the time Jiang Ran left Hua Country, Zeng Yan was laid off.
After being dismissed, Zeng Yan didn’t panic—he lived in Alice Apartment and received ten thousand yuan a day.
But he didn’t lie around and do nothing just because of that high daily income.
Hua Country people have one great strength—they’re hardworking.
Really hardworking.
If they can handle the language, Hua Country people can survive and do well in many countries around the world.
After being let go, Zeng Yan started looking for other work.
His new job was at a restaurant.
A cheese cuisine place.
He started working there around the same time Jiang Ran left for Germany.
The daily tasks were simple. He was hired as a server, but in truth did every odd job.
The biggest and trickiest task was pouring cheese.
The restaurant’s signature dish—the cheese pork ribs—required pouring cheese.
When customers ordered the cheese pork ribs, a whole roasted rack of ribs would be brought to the table.
It would sit on a foil baking tray, above a portable burner.
Zeng Yan’s job was to melt the cheese in a frying pan from solid into a yogurt-like consistency, then pour it over the ribs to cover them completely.
At first, because he was inexperienced, his cheese pouring wasn’t visually appealing. To compensate, he would prepare a double portion of cheese for the customer to reduce difficulty and make sure the whole rack was covered.
This skill was all about practice—nothing especially difficult—so within a few days he had reached about seventy to eighty percent proficiency. Not perfect, but good enough to avoid complaints.
Now, Zeng Yan was frying yellow cheese in a flat pan.
The evening crowd was steady, table after table.
Most of their customers were young people.
The cheese in his pan was for a table of two men and two women.
The cheese reached a yogurt-like consistency. Zeng Yan carried the pan toward that table.
“Finally, it’s here—took you forever.”
The table’s seat on the right was against the wall.
That remark came from the young man on the left side of the pair of a man and a woman.
Zeng Yan hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, sorry.”
He kept using the spatula with his right hand while holding the pan.
When he arrived, he said, “Could someone please move so I can stand in a better spot? This cheese is hard to pour.”
The table was rectangular, and the ribs lay along the table’s length.
At the head of the table it was indeed difficult to pour; someone from the four seats would have to stand up and give him space.
“No need, just pour however.”
The young man on the left said that.
Zeng Yan had no choice but to stand at the table’s head and attempt this high-difficulty pour.
He tapped the cheese in the pan a few times with the spatula, then prepared to pour.
Suddenly the young man on the left said, “Hey, if you pour from there it won’t look good. Why don’t you come over here and pour it by me?”
Zeng Yan was speechless.
But as a server facing customers, he complied and moved over, saying, “Okay, please make some room for me.”
“Make room? Make room for what? Just pour it like that.”
Zeng Yan was completely dumbfounded.
He looked at the young man on the left, who kept giving him trouble with an arrogant confidence.
The man on the right sat yawning, completely unconcerned about the cheese.
The two young women beside the men were much more interested in the pour, smiling as they watched.
The young woman on the left chimed, “Why don’t you just pour it on his head?”
Zeng Yan stayed quiet. The young man on the left immediately bristled, “What are you saying? Which side are you on?”
The young woman quickly apologized, “Sorry, bro.”
At the same time she urged Zeng Yan to hurry with the pour.
Zeng Yan had no choice but to pour from the narrow gap between the left pair.
Because his body was farther from the table, his arm had to reach long.
Accustomed to better positioning, he usually hit seventy to eighty percent accuracy.
In this disadvantaged posture, the cheese pour turned out terribly.
It was a failure.
The young man on the left complained.
“This is ridiculous—how can you pour so ugly?”
“Where’s your boss? Call your boss! I want to complain!”
Watching Zeng Yan still scraping the remaining cheese in the pan, the young man grew more irritated.
“Ugh, fine, fine, just call your boss.”
Zeng Yan kept quiet.
If the boss came, they would definitely replace the dish.
Then Zeng Yan would have to pay for the dish they rejected.
The dish cost 168 yuan.
Zeng Yan’s daily wage there was 150 yuan.
If he had to cover that dish, today’s work would be for nothing.
The other three noticed Zeng Yan’s silence and said, “He won’t even say anything…”
The young man on the left shrugged at the two women, “No choice, he poured it ugly. That’s his problem. As a customer, I don’t pay for the server’s mistakes.”
Hearing that, Zeng Yan felt some resentment. He’d asked them to give him space, but they didn’t. They kept messing with him—first telling him to pour anywhere, then summoning him over, forcing him to pour from there—and now they blamed him for the ugly pour. Was it his fault? Was it his problem?
From start to finish, they had deliberately made things difficult for him: telling him to stand at the head of the table to pour, saying “pour however,” then calling him over to their side and making him pour from that cramped spot.