Chapter 17

Manager Zhou took Lao Zhang to the counter, where Fang Shao was concentrating on his mobile phone.

Tomorrow is the day that he has arranged to meet with Senior Qiu. According to Fang Shao, Senior Qiu is still in graduate school, so he can just go to the school to find her. As it turned out, Senior Qiu is working on a project outside with her tutor at this time, so he arranged to meet at an office center outside the Second Ring Road. Fang Shao looked at the address and found that the distance was not too far. He could get there by taking a few subway stops and then riding a shared bicycle.

Manager Zhou greeted Fang Shao with a smile. Although the business of this bar was terrible, the boss didn't look sad at all. Either he was very cunning or he didn't care at all. Manager Zhou was a little curious.

"One dozen beers first, two servings of fruit platter and two servings of dried fruit platter." Zhang picked up the menu and glanced at it, feeling a little unhappy. "Why are there only pizza and fried rice? Who can eat this at this time of night?"

Fang Shao actually saw the little unhappiness just now, but he was selling Gao Yang's face, so he naturally didn't care about Lao Zhang's attitude. "How about this. I have some fresh mushrooms here, which are absolutely delicious if baked in the oven, and they won't fill your stomach. Manager Zhou, take a look, if you like them, I'll make some for everyone to try."

Fang Shao took out the mushrooms that Totoro had delivered yesterday from the drawer. He had been busy all day and hadn't even had time to cook the mushrooms, so this was a bargain for Gao Yang and his colleagues.

"This must have been picked from the mountains. It's a rare commodity!" Manager Zhou is also a foodie. When he saw the fresh mushrooms wrapped in leaves, his eyes lit up immediately and he almost touched them.

"Wild mushrooms, there won't be any problem eating them, right?" Lao Zhang muttered.

"Don't talk nonsense. This is not Yunnan. There are no poisonous mushrooms here." Manager Zhou was unhappy.

Fang Shao smiled and shook the mushrooms in his hand. "If there is any problem with the food, I will take responsibility."

"Boss, you just love to joke. Oh, we made the right choice today, otherwise we wouldn't have had this treat." Manager Zhou quickly changed the subject. These mushrooms were obviously the boss's own private collection, and he probably shared them out of respect for Gao Yang. If he was unhappy about being criticized by Lao Zhang, he would be wronged if he was taken away by others.

Old Zhang had a somewhat unhappy look on his face, but he still considered Manager Zhou's face and swallowed his unhappiness.

Fang Shao was too lazy to pay attention to him. He smiled and said a few more words to Manager Zhou, then went to the back to process the mushrooms under the expectant gaze of this elderly foodie.

Zhang's expression became even uglier. Manager Zhou was squinting his eyes, imagining the taste of grilled mushrooms, and he didn't even think of giving him a step. "What kind of person is this? Do you know what customer first means?!" He said angrily, and couldn't help but kick the counter a few times, leaving gray-black shoe prints on the white paint surface.

“Bang!”

There was a loud thump of something heavy falling behind the counter.

Lao Zhang looked over. A black suitcase was lying on the ground. This was the suitcase that Iron Man had left at Fang Shao's place, and Fang Shao had casually put it under the counter. The suitcase was originally standing upright, but Lao Zhang's feet probably hit the partition next to it, causing it to fall sideways.

"What bad luck today..." Old Zhang was obviously feeling guilty and quickly took a step forward to pick up the box.

Manager Zhou saw this and the shoe prints and immediately guessed what had happened. He couldn't help but complain, "Why are you kicking the counter for no reason? What if there are valuables inside?"

"What good things can there be in a shabby bar!" It would have been better if Manager Zhou hadn't said this. After hearing what he said, Lao Zhang, who was originally uneasy, immediately became angry again.

He locked his hands on both sides and clicked them.

"Ah, don't!" Manager Zhou tried to stop him. But it was too late.

"Pah~"

The suitcase opened.

“Fuck!”

Manager Zhou was stunned, and blurted out the swear words that he had given up since he started working.

"It must be fake..." Old Zhang's eyes almost popped out of his sockets as he looked at the box of gold, gems and US dollars.

Manager Zhou was the quickest to react. He closed the lid of the suitcase and put it back behind the counter. "Whether it's real or not is none of our business. Do you understand?"

Old Zhang was frightened by his stern expression, and finally came to his senses. He just had a bad temper and foul mouth, but he was not stupid. After all, he had been in society for more than 20 years. If he was too stupid, he would not be able to be cunning and act like a sly person in the company and put on airs in front of young people.

Manager Zhou quickly looked around again. Fang Shao was still in the operating room at the back, and a few young people were just surrounding Mai and singing. No one was paying attention to this place. Only a small orange cat with big eyes on a cat climbing frame not far away was looking at them curiously.

He finally breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at Lao Zhang and wanted to say something but found himself speechless. "Hey, you..."

After a while, Fang Shao came back with the roasted mushrooms. The round mushrooms were upside down on the plate, like inverted white umbrellas, with a pool of water in the middle of the umbrellas, which was the most delicious juice.

Manager Zhou looked at the delicious food that fulfilled his dream, but the purest expectation in his heart could not be aroused again. As a real foodie, Manager Zhou really wanted to cry but had no tears.

"What's wrong?" Fang Shao looked at the two people who were obviously not right.

Lao Zhang didn't dare to say anything.

"Nothing, just lamenting how time flies." Manager Zhou looked like he was reminiscing about the passing years. "When I first joined the company, I was often taken to bars by the company's leaders to play, which was also considered to cultivate team spirit. In the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed, and now we are the ones who take the young people out to play."

"Manager Zhou, you are also a young man, so why would you sigh like that?" Fang Shao smiled, accepting the explanation.

As soon as the delicious grilled mushrooms were served, several young people immediately shouted loudly. Although they were not qualified foodies, they still had the ability to appreciate good things.

Gao Yang gave his brother a thumbs up and praised him loudly. "Great, Lao Fang, you really give me face!"

Fang Shao accepted his compliment without hesitation and patted him on the shoulder. "That's nothing. Come whenever you want next time. If I have something good, I'll give you a share."

Gao Yang smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed, and he felt that his luck today was really good.

Seeing his frivolous look, Lao Zhang instinctively wanted to make a sarcastic remark. But when he looked at Fang Shao standing beside him, he suddenly felt frightened and lost his voice when the words came to his lips.

Manager Zhou had already returned to normal, but he still had a slightly sad look on his face as he ate the grilled mushrooms. What a failure. Even such delicious food couldn't save his mood.

No, it's probably because my current mood is not worthy of such delicious grilled mushrooms.

A big failure among failures.

After leaving the bar, Manager Zhou first arranged to send the two girls to the car, and then said goodbye to the boys. Old Zhang followed closely behind Manager Zhou, smacking his lips a few times, but didn't say anything.

"What's wrong?" Manager Zhou was a little surprised.

"Well, nothing will happen, right?" Old Zhang's face turned pale. He became more and more scared the more he thought about it, and he didn't even want to joke with everyone. Fortunately, everyone didn't like to talk to him, so no one noticed his abnormal behavior.

"Ah? Oh..." Manager Zhou finally reacted. Seeing Lao Zhang's behavior, he couldn't help but laugh. "You are afraid now, what were you doing before? Your hands are so dirty..."

After all, they have been colleagues for many years. He knows that Lao Zhang has a lot of minor problems, but he is not a bad person, so he patted him on the shoulder. "Don't scare yourself. This is China, not the USA. If it is something shameful, why would they leave it out there? I guess it is a prop for their bar activities."

Old Zhang's face turned a little red. "I said it was fake."

Manager Zhou patted him on the shoulder. "It's the same old story. Whether it's true or not, it has nothing to do with us. You shouldn't have opened someone else's box. What if the stuff is real, but has problems, big problems? If they find out you touched it and want to make trouble for you, what are you going to do? Can you afford to offend someone with a box of good stuff?"

"How could it be..." Lao Zhang was annoyed by these three consecutive questions. "Didn't you say it was a prop?"

"You still don't understand what I mean..." Manager Zhou shook his head. "Forget it, just pretend that nothing happened and be nice to that guy Gao Yang! Okay, that's it, let's go home!" He patted Lao Zhang's shoulder heavily again, hailed a taxi and left.

Lao Zhang stood there in confusion, not yet figuring out whether there was something wrong or not.

Fang Shao didn't know about the little farce outside the bar. He looked down at the dirty footprints on the partition and said, "I'll have to trouble the cleaning lady again tomorrow. This suitcase really can't be left outside anymore. It scares the guests. It's a pity for Manager Zhou. He first had no appetite and then regretted it."

Although it was a bit unkind, it was really funny to see Manager Zhou coming to his senses and seeing the empty plate in front of him, and trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Noticing that he was now more lively than before, Fang Shao suddenly had an epiphany.

No, it's not that he's more active today, but he's been less active in the past few months than he was in school. Today he's just recovered a little bit of his previous state.

He was too quiet during this period, sometimes even a little lonely.

Many of his peers have grown up, but none of them live and eat in bars like him. Before, Fang Shao thought that these brothers and sisters were too embarrassed to use their family's resources, or they didn't care or didn't calculate the financial account. But now he doesn't think so.

There are hidden dangers in integrating the bar too deeply into your life.

As the owner of the bar, he has an absolute advantage over the mysterious guest. Regardless of whether he will use this advantage or not, this unequal relationship will cause him to instinctively look down on the guest. Over time, if he takes this kind of condescending attitude for granted, his temperament will change.

He didn't want to become cold and conceited, or arrogant and frivolous in the future.

Of course, the fundamental reason for this is that his own character is still immature. He is unable to handle the role of a bar owner and is instead affected by this role.

After figuring this out, Fang Shao took a deep breath. This was probably one of the tests during the internship. Otherwise, among so many seniors and peers, there wouldn't be even one person who reminded him.

Fang Wei/I am a madman from Chu/Beautiful lady in her twenties and many other peers:

It's unfair, we really can't save our dignity/we haven't settled the accounts clearly! [Erkang hand]

How many people do you think can be like you, having so many customers in just half a year, and they are all generous and wealthy customers!

Even a mosquito is a rarity here, let alone being trained to be arrogant. If a guest comes, we can hold him in the palm of our hands!

[Biting hand silk] [Becoming twisted with jealousy] [Trying to remain calm] [Failed to remain calm] [Continued to twist] [Shouting] [Her voice became hoarse] [Blood dripping from her eyes] [Losing strength] [Exhausted] [Putting herself in order, a gentle smile appeared on her face again]