Chapter 24

After the negotiation, the number of customers in the bar returned to the original single digit, and Fang Shao became free again.

With nothing to do, he simply took the opportunity to re-plan the bar's business hours. The business hours remained the same every day, with the mysterious side opening at 10 a.m., seamlessly connecting to the real side at 8 p.m., and then continuing to operate until midnight. But Tuesday became a fixed rest time. During this time, he could meet up with his senior schoolmates and old classmates like Gao Yang, or wander around the park aimlessly, or go to the library to enrich himself. In short, he had to maintain a certain contact with the outside world.

The accounts for the past six months were also briefly sorted out.

So far, the bar has issued seven cards: David and George from the Mist world, Tu Su (Han Yunxi) from the Ancient Sword world, Stark and Peter from the Marvel world, My Neighbor Totoro, and Zhu Lao from the Wandering Earth world.

Among them, one person (David) returned a card, one person (Tu Su) replaced a card, and there are currently six valid cards.

The little cat demon Luo Xiaohei, who came once and ran away, and Harry, who was a regular customer but had no money to open a card, were not taken into account.

There were more than 100 transactions in the past six months. Among them, Totoro had the most transactions, after all, he was a frequent visitor to the bar. Although the amount of each transaction was not large, it was a long-term success. The one with the least transactions was Tu Su, who only bought drinks during his first visit.

Although there were not many customers and the number of transactions was small, the total transaction amount was considerable, exceeding 2 million. Among them, a few transactions accounted for the absolute majority. Except for one transaction of emergency supplies for the Wandering Earth, the rest were all selling wine. The "Ancient Dream" that was considered a chicken rib in the Immortal Alliance became a hot commodity in Fang Shao's hands.

At the instigation of Iron Man, Zhu Lao bought the "Ancient Dream" that Fang Shao prepared for Tu Su at a high price. I don't know who finally enjoyed the Wandering Earth, but the next time he entered the bar, Zhu Lao would follow Stark with a smile and encourage him. "One bottle of such good wine is never enough, the more the better."

George, who had never even smelled the wine, also came to join in the fun and insisted on buying a bottle. After all, the military had plenty of money in their cards, and they were all rich men, so who was afraid of whom? Seeing that the wine was so popular, Fang Shao simply asked Fang Wei to buy a few more bottles and officially included it in the bar's price list. But except for the bottle sold to George, the remaining bottles were sealed into storage under Stark's piercing eyes.

George, knowing that he had gotten an advantage, immediately ran away with the wine in his arms. Stark, who had worked in vain, was so angry that he jumped to his feet. If it weren't for Zhu Lao who intervened, he would have almost snatched the wine.

The 2 million transaction volume made Fang Shao stand out among his peers, but most of the people in the group also got some benefits, so instead of being jealous, they strongly supported Fang Shao. Especially Fang Yao, who was led by Fang Shao and also made a million transaction volume, enough to be proud of to his parents.

According to regulations, bar owners can withdraw a certain percentage of their turnover and transfer it to their personal accounts as income. But Fang Shao has never withdrawn any of it. Instead, he used his personal account to keep all the delicacies brought by Totoro because he was greedy. After all, he used to equate "opening a bar" with "living on the minimum living allowance". In addition to using the bar as a fixed source of food and shelter, he mainly made money from the translation orders he received from Manager Qiu.

But the current situation is very different from what Fang Shao expected. Even if he took the minimum rate of 5% during the internship, Fang Shao's income in the past six months has exceeded 100,000 yuan, and he has immediately gone from being a poor person who "eats the minimum living allowance" to a high-income earner with a monthly income of 20,000 yuan.

Fortunately, Gao Yang and the others didn't know about it, otherwise they would have been envious and jealous of each other.

But Gao Yang has been doing well recently. His senior, Lao Zhang, has become much nicer to him and has taken his advice seriously. Gao Yang even wanted to pay for Lao Zhang's dinner, but he declined with a subtle look on his face.

Fortunately, Gao Yang was a generous person. He just refused if he wanted to. As long as he was sincere, it was fine. In fact, as a rookie in the workplace, Gao Yang had never thought about how good the treatment would be. As long as the other party had a good attitude and could really learn something, he would be satisfied.

Zhang kept his distance from Gao Yang and the bar, but Gao Yang's young colleagues couldn't forget the delicious grilled mushrooms and made appointments to come to the bar several times. Although he didn't receive any special treatment from Fang Shao, he got used to the quietness here and felt that this place was more suitable for relaxing after a busy day.

After the project was successfully completed, Qiu brought her roommates here twice. The girls also felt that the quiet environment here was more suitable for chatting, and since it was not far from the city center and the school, they would bring their friends here from time to time.

Friends brought friends. Gradually, there were one or two tables of people sitting in the bar at night, and finally the embarrassing situation of being deserted in the eyes of others was over.

Even the property manager smiled a little when he occasionally passed by the bar during his inspection. It seems that the year-end summary report does not need to be revised.

The calendars for December were torn open one by one. The weather in Yizhou gradually became colder. The thin coats on the pedestrians outside were finally replaced by woolen coats and down jackets. Fang Shao changed the virtual scene in the bar to a snowy field. The white snow covered the field like a thick quilt, which reminded Fang Shao of the text he had learned when he was a child.

"Auspicious snow indicates a good harvest."

It’s a pity that the people of Yizhou cannot see such a beautiful scenery, otherwise the circle of friends would definitely be exploded with ecstatic Yizhou people.

A long-standing online joke goes like this: When people in Yizhou see snow, they go into a collective frenzy, just like a kitten seeing catnip. Even a little bit of snow that can't even cover the ground will be photographed from various angles and posted on WeChat Moments, wishing to let the whole country know that it's snowing in Yizhou. If someone can push a little snowman on the hood of a car, it will be the most beautiful and eye-catching thing in the eyes of relatives, friends and passers-by.

Fang Shao suddenly had a bad idea, so he walked to the window and took a few photos of the scenery outside, then shared them on WeChat Moments without saying a word. Sure enough, within a minute, there were a lot of likes and follow-up comments on his WeChat Moments.

[Lao Gao]: It’s so beautiful, where is this?

[Senior Qiu]: Weren’t you in Yizhou the day before yesterday? Where did you go?

【Twenty-eight Beautiful Lady】: Bluffing again! What a bad taste.

【Dayuge】: Haha~

【Translation-Qiu contact phone number XXXXXX】: Like

【Property】：Like

【Maid】: Thumbs up

…

You have received a total of 39 likes.

Fang Shao chuckled, didn't answer any of the questions, and put away his phone.

"Ding ding bell~" The door was pushed open.

Fang Shao turned around and saw a man in a heavy leather coat walking into the bar in the snow. A chill rushed into the warm room. The stranger did not see Fang Shao standing behind him, and from where Fang Shao was standing, he could only see his tall back, his simple bow and arrow, and his messy brown hair under his leather hat.

After the tall man entered the room, he stamped his feet as if no one was around, patted his clothes to shake off the snow on his body. He took off his thick leather gloves and leather coat and threw them on the ground casually. Then there were a few bloody dead rabbits, a long-armed thick spear wrapped with cloth strips, and even a few heavy bundles of firewood.

Fang Shao couldn't figure out where he had put these things before, so he couldn't help but guess that this might be another character from the game like Tu Su.

After throwing away all this, the man seemed to finally get a break from the heavy burden, and his posture and movements seemed much more relaxed. He gurgled a few times in his throat, making some incomprehensible complaints.

Fang Shao was somewhat curious about this man's identity. His appearance looked primitive and rough, as if he came from an ancient era. But after taking off his leather jacket, the gray, patched turtleneck sweater he was wearing betrayed the real time he lived in.

While Fang Shao was observing carefully, the man was also observing the surroundings. He was used to seeing abandoned huts hidden in the snow, but this was the first time he had seen this place. The interior of the room was unexpectedly clean and bright, with almost no signs of being abandoned for a long time, as if its owner was still there.

He picked up the small traffic light ornament on the table, looked at it as if thinking about something, then put it down and walked around. From time to time, he lowered his head to search under the table, as if trying to find something useful.

Finally, the man turned around and made eye contact with Fang Shao, who was standing silently by the window.

Fang Shao finally saw the man's face clearly. It was a face that was red from the wind and frost, and there were deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, showing that he was already quite old. Actually, it would be wrong to say that he could see it clearly, because the man's face was mostly covered by a thick beard, making his eyes, which were as big as copper bells, stand out even more.

"Ah!" The man suddenly shouted. His calmness just now was gone. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, as if he wanted to confirm whether Fang Shao's existence was an illusion. When he found that nothing had changed, he suddenly became excited and pointed at Fang Shao and uttered a few unclear syllables.

"Hello, guest." Fang Shao maintained a proper smile, seemingly not noticing the rude and inappropriate behavior of the new guest.

Hearing Fang Shao's voice, the man's vague words suddenly stopped. It seemed that Fang Shao's words had some incredible power. Although the man was smiling, his tears flowed down his cheeks and onto his beard.

Fang Shao frowned, somewhat worried about the other person's mental state. It was also the first time he encountered a language that even the bar couldn't translate. Or maybe these were not languages, but just men's emotional release.

Fang Shao approached the man and saw that he did not resist, so he pulled over a chair and half-pulled and half-helped him to sit on it, then patted his thick shoulders, which still carried a coolness, in a comforting manner. "Don't be anxious, think slowly, talk slowly, I'll go get you a glass of water first."

Then, under the man's anxious and reluctant gaze, Fang Shao slowly left. The man's eyes followed Fang Shao's figure, as if he was looking at a fragile hope.

Soon Fang Shao came back with a cup of warm water. The man took two sips from the cup. It seemed that the warm water moistened his dry throat, and his long-dormant language ability was awakened. He could finally speak word by word in a stiff accent.

"I'm sorry, I've been alone for too long." The man's thinking ability also awakened along with the words, "Where is this? Who are you?"

Fang Shao also pulled a chair over and sat opposite him. Beside the two of them was a pile of various things that the man had left behind. "This is 'Yuan*Bar', a bar, and I, Fang Shao, am the owner of this bar."

"Fate... I guess. I haven't... heard of it, nor have I... seen it..." The man shook his head.

"I..." He raised a hand and pointed at himself, but he hadn't seen a human for so long that he couldn't even remember his own name. After all, a name only has meaning among people.

He thought about it and finally continued.

"I... Big Bear Lake..."

"The only... human being."