6: Chapter 6: A middle-aged social worker who loses money so much

When Kaiwen pushed open the glass door of Luming Pavilion, the hands of the cat-shaped wall clock happened to be stuck at seven-thirty-three.

Well, she was three minutes late.

Behind the bar, a middle-aged man had his face buried in a book titled *Ten Days to Understand Financial Statements*. He didn't even raise his head when he heard the door open, merely raising one hand limply and shaking it as a greeting.

This person was none other than Miyazaki, the owner and sole full-time employee of Luming Pavilion.

In his early forties, slightly bald, with a beer belly, he wore a deep blue apron that had been washed to a faded color.

Looking at him now, it was hard to imagine that this man, slumped behind the bar like a salted fish, had once been a moderately famous serial entrepreneur in Changkong City.

However, Kaiwen seriously suspected whether this guy had some sort of money-losing system.

According to him, when he was twenty-five, he did foreign trade and lost money.

At thirty, he opened a chain of milk tea shops and lost money.

At thirty-five, he got into internet community group buying, and still lost money.

When he reached forty, Miyazaki brought his last bit of savings and a crushed cervical spine to open this small coffee shop.

In his own words: "I've been thoroughly educated by this world; in this lifetime, not losing money is already making a profit."

Hanging on the wall to this day was a plaque from his milk tea days—"Miyazaki Empire Flagship Store No. 1." The gold paint had peeled off for the most part, but he had never been willing to take it down.

"Manager, I'm here."

"Mmm." Miyazaki turned a page of the book, still without raising his head, "You're late."

"It's only three minutes."

"Late is late; it has nothing to do with how many minutes," Miyazaki said righteously, turning another page, "However, I can't be bothered to dock your pay. Forget it."

That was Miyazaki for you: he would occasionally pop out a few sentences that sounded like a manager with great vision, but his execution was always approximately equal to zero.

Just last month, this guy had sworn up and down to establish an "employee performance appraisal system," only to find it missing the next day, later discovering he had used it as a shim under the coffee machine.

Kaiwen nimbly slipped into the changing room to put on her work uniform.

By the time she finished tying her apron and walked out, Kiana was walking in from outside carrying a tray of dirty plates. Seeing her, Kiana raised her chin slightly:

"Your complexion looks terrible. Didn't you sleep well?"

"Mmm... Something came up."

"What is it?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Tell me about it?"

Looking into Kiana's clear blue eyes, Kaiwen's mind flashed with the image of Raiden Mei drawing floor plans in her notebook, and she resolutely shook her head: "Better not."

Kiana shrugged without pressing further, carrying the tray toward the kitchen and casually taking the cookie in front of Miyazaki as she passed the bar.

"Hey—that's mine!"

"This is a work meal."

"Our work meal is employee bento!"

"This is a reasonable upgrade to the employee meal." Kiana didn't even look back.

The manager painfully closed the book and muttered to himself: "Ten Days to Understand Financial Statements... So what if I understand them? I can't even control my own employees."

After eight o'clock in the evening, the customer flow in the coffee shop picked up.

Kaiwen shuttled between the tables, clearing cups and dishes.

Passing Table Two, she noticed that the young female customer sitting alone had finished her coffee, but kept her head down looking at her phone, occasionally raising her head to glance at the door.

It felt like she was waiting for someone.

Hmm...

It felt like waiting for someone who wouldn't come.

Kaiwen didn't step forward to disturb her, quietly walking over to take away the empty cup, and then placing a cup of warm lemonade beside her hand.

"Refilling coffee isn't good for sleep. The lemonade is free, so if you're not in a hurry, you can take your time drinking it." Kaiwen's voice was very soft.

The female customer was slightly startled, then smiled, her eye sockets turning slightly red: "Thank you."

Kaiwen nodded, didn't say much more, and turned to leave.

Some emotions don't need to be punctured; they just need to be seen.

After eight o'clock, the customer flow picked up.

Kaiwen and Kiana were busy one after another. Kaiwen was responsible for taking orders and serving food, while Kiana was responsible for clearing tables and preparing food.

"Table Three wants a Tiramisu and a caramel pudding." Kaiwen walked into the kitchen holding the order sheet.

Kiana was wiping her hands and paused slightly at those words.

Kaiwen instantly noticed that unnatural pause, her gaze slowly moving toward the trash can beside them, on top of which sat an empty disposable food container.

"...You ate it?"

"It passed its prime tasting period." Kiana said with an expressionless face, "I helped the shop dispose of it."

"Things made just ten minutes ago, where did a prime tasting period come from?"

"I defined it."

Looking at Kiana's carefree appearance, Kaiwen once again pictured the morbid look in Raiden Mei's eyes while drawing, and for a moment even felt some sympathy for this foodie.

Eat up, eat more, otherwise once you enter the basement of the Raiden young miss in the future, you'll only be able to eat breadcrumbs.

"I give up on you."

Kaiwen resigned herself to turning around and walking out, showing an apologetic smile to the customer at Table Three, "I am very sorry, the Tiramisu just sold out. However, today we have freshly baked dark chocolate lava cake with an even better texture, and we'd like to treat you to this portion for free."

The customer accepted it happily.

Miyazaki, slumped behind the bar chair, happened to scroll across this review, and for once sat up straight slightly, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

But within two seconds, he suppressed it again, reverting to that dead-fish gaze of total detachment from everything.

"Mmm... That is to say, my material costs today lost another Tiramisu plus a lava cake."

He silently opened *Ten Days to Understand Financial Statements*, and wrote a line of text on a blank page:

"July X: Due to an employee sneaking food resulting in dessert losses, forced to give away new items for free as compensation. Net loss: two desserts + a manager's dignity."

After finishing writing, he stared at this line of text for a few seconds, gently sighed, and muttered: "Not losing is earning, not losing is earning..."

At nine-thirty, the customer flow ebbed.

Kaiwen leaned against the bar organizing bills, while Kiana sat in the employee seat in the corner, spinning her pen out of sheer boredom.

Miyazaki was dozing on the bar, his snoring soft and steady, with *Ten Days to Understand Financial Statements* covering his face, rising and falling with his breathing.

"Hey, Kaiwen." Kiana spoke up suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"That customer just now, the one who kept looking at her phone waiting for someone." Kiana's blue eyes stared at the ceiling, her tone casual, "How did you know she needed lemonade?"

Kaiwen was slightly stunned; she had noticed it.

"...Because she's been waiting for someone, after all." Kaiwen thought for a moment, "I feel like, for someone who is waiting for someone, the last thing they need is to be reminded by others that they are still waiting."

"After all, not being able to wait for someone is already upsetting enough, and then you remind them—" Kaiwen shook her head and continued, "Isn't that just stabbing her in the back?"

Kiana's pen-spinning motion stopped.

She was silent for a moment, her blue eyes drooping slightly, her eyelashes casting a small shadow in the warm yellow light.

"Is that so." She muttered very softly.

Looking at her like this, Kaiwen suddenly remembered that Kiana herself had also been constantly waiting for that missing stinky old man.

Her heart suddenly felt a bit bitter.

Although this white-haired idiot was usually dazed and loved to sneak food, in essence, she was just a little girl who would feel sad because she couldn't wait for someone.

Kaiwen sighed, walked over and patted her shoulder with annoyance: "Off work, stop daydreaming."

"Let's go, I'm heading home." Kaiwen shouldered her schoolbag and walked out, but inwardly sighed silently.

Forget it, starting tomorrow... I'd better help this guy out a bit and guard against that Raiden Mei.