7: Today's dog

Chen Xiangbei woke up before 9 AM, his body clock wouldn't let him sleep any longer.

He lifted his arm, it was still very sore, his body was still recovering, and the soreness was quite noticeable.

After getting up and washing, he opened a food delivery app and ordered breakfast.

He wouldn't go out to eat today; he would rest more at home and go out at noon.

Today's work was relatively simple; yesterday, he saw information posted in the part-time job group about a relatively easy job.

That was to be a shill.

What is being a shill? It's when a newly opened store, to attract business, uses people's herd mentality to draw in customers.

For example, a newly opened milk tea shop, to boost its popularity, would hire many people to queue.

These people would only queue and not consume; if a real customer came to purchase, they would voluntarily move to the back and re-queue.

This way, it could create the impression that the items here were delicious and wonderful.

People are conformist; seeing many people queuing here, they would follow suit and try it.

Chen Xiangbei took on three part-time jobs with consecutive time slots.

The first job was from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, queuing at a milk tea shop, with a salary of 25 yuan per hour.

The second job, from 5 PM to 7 PM, was queuing at a newly opened hot pot restaurant, with a salary of 35 yuan per hour.

The third job was more interesting: a disco bar, from 9 PM until 12 AM, with a salary of 50 yuan per hour.

During this time, if he could help the bar attract customers, there would be an additional bonus.

Disco bars like this need people all year round because more and more bars are opening, and the competition is getting stronger.

Many bars have to use certain methods to attract customers.

Chen Xiangbei reviewed his schedule for the day, then opened a video app to watch anime while waiting for breakfast to be delivered.

At 11 AM, after watching two episodes of anime and finishing breakfast, Chen Xiangbei began to pack up and leave.

He bagged the trash accumulated over two days, put on a rather handsome outfit, and then headed out.

Dressing appropriately and gracefully was a requirement from the merchants, to give people a pleasing sensory experience.

Chen Xiangbei, who was 1.8 meters tall, already had good looks, and with his current attire, he instantly attracted everyone's attention.

He walked step by step towards the milk tea shop, drawing the attention of several girls who were also there for part-time work.

Upon arriving at the check-in point, the team leader explained somePrecautions, and when the time came, everyone took their positions and began to queue.

As it was a newly opened milk tea shop, there were some flower baskets at the entrance, a banner was hung above the shop sign, and a roll-up banner displayed a discount notice.

Chen Xiangbei followed behind the crowd and began to queue in a long line.

Since it was a milk tea shop, not many people were needed, only about ten or so, making the queue look neither too long nor too sparse, just right.

The milk tea shop was located near an office building, and it was currently lunchtime, so more and more people were coming and going.

More and more people joined the queue; the shills at the front symbolically received a cup of milk tea and then quickly moved to the back.

This allowed the real customers to move forward, and this cup of milk tea was also a small perk of this job; everyone would get one.

The shills who received milk tea didn't leave; they sat at the tables placed inside and outside the store, drinking and chatting.

Those who knew each other talked about friends' topics, while those who didn't introduced themselves and then started chatting about anything and everything.

Soon it was Chen Xiangbei's turn to pick up his drink; he didn't get to choose what to drink, he just drank whatever the store gave him.

He was lucky and got a lemon tea, which happened to be one of his favorite drinks.

He took his milk tea and found a few male shills to share a table with them.

These boys didn't look very old; they were probably university students doing part-time work when they didn't have classes.

After some conversation, it was confirmed; they were all university students from the university town area.

Since they were vocational students, they had fewer professional courses, so they wanted to earn some pocket money for cigarettes and such.

It was easy to blend in with people of the same age. Their topics ranged from school to metaphysics.

From girls to trimming donkey hooves, the content was very erratic, covering various strange stories from all over the world.

In contrast, the girls' side was more private, whispering and occasionally glancing at the boys.

After chatting for a while, the first batch of real customers had received their orders; some chose to dine in, while others took their food to go.

Dining in increased the seating rate, and at this point, the shills needed to get up again and continue to queue, though not all of them.

Instead, they went in groups of a few; when there were no customers, the staff wouldn't prepare drinks, and they would stand in line playing on their phones to pass the time.

After 12 PM, quitting time arrived, and a large group of office workers poured out of the surrounding office buildings, starting to look for food.

The office workers' first choice was restaurants to fill their stomachs before considering taking a drink back.

Of course, some people didn't eat, claiming it was for weight loss, and then scurried to the milk tea shop to buy a sugar-free milk tea or coffee.

Because it was a new store, the discounts were very generous, and seeing the long queue, many people chose this place.

This also led to more and more people, and Chen Xiangbei and the other shills were no longer needed for guidance.

So everyone started looking for restrooms or going to eat; these were all permitted by the Shop Owner.

After all, it was mealtime, and the Shop Owner wouldn't keep them from leaving.

Two hours passed quickly; later, as it approached work time, not many people were buying drinks.

Besides some delivery orders, there were only a few scattered in-store customers.

The Shop Owner settled everyone's pay, and then the shills said their goodbyes.

After completing this order, Chen Xiangbei's first priority was to find a restaurant nearby.

Because he had breakfast relatively late, he didn't eat with the others earlier.

He found a self-service fast-food restaurant where you could take as much as you wanted, weighed by the jin (500g), at 2.5 yuan per liang (50g). The dishes were quite abundant.

Chen Xiangbei's appetite had been a bit large recently, and most of what he took were substantial dishes.

There was braised pork, crispy duck, marinated chicken, spicy sausage, stir-fried yellow beef, savory steamed egg custard, and a separate bowl of stewed soup, emphasizing rich nutrition.

After all the operations, the scale showed 58.6 yuan. The cashier might have been afraid Chen Xiangbei would find it expensive, so she asked him if he had a membership.

Most people certainly wouldn't have that.

Chen Xiangbei replied, "No."

"Seeing you ordered so much, I'll give you the member price," the cashier said.

"Beep beep."

"After the discount, it's 46.88 yuan. Give me your QR code, I'll scan you," the cashier said after a series of operations.

The price didn't matter to Chen Xiangbei now, so he gladly opened his phone's QR code for her to scan.

He found a seat and started eating, and he had to admit, the taste was quite good.

These open-style self-service fast-food places always served freshly stir-fried dishes, with open kitchens where chefs stir-fried vigorously in front of customers.

The ingredients were very fresh; the beef in the stir-fried yellow beef was tender, smooth, and not greasy. This was his first time eating proper beef.

The beef products he had eaten before were processed, and no one knew if they were real beef, like beef burgers and beef patties.