I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 419

Chapter 419: The Brand New Cat Café

The summer breeze blew over the coast of Shenzhen City, heralding a new day.

After the meeting with Su Yunjin and them, with the efforts of Xiao Mo, Lan Jiajia, and Fei Luo, the basic operational plan for the café was roughly settled. Currently, the café’s situation has stabilized.

During the day, the maids, or “servers,” are managed by me, Xiao Mo, Lan Jiajia, and Fei Luo. Xiao Mo, Lan Jiajia, and I mainly handle customer reception on the first and second floors.

I took over Ouyang Xue’s previous duties, assisting with meal delivery and customer reception during busy times. During quieter periods, I manage the café’s official online accounts, maintain the café’s systems, and handle various online procedures.

For example, I send the duty schedules daily to QQ groups, WeChat groups, and the Tongmeng official account, handle queries from group members and fans of the official account, and occasionally act as a customer service representative for takeaway orders. I also handle more formal matters, such as dealing with tourist groups or negotiating with business partners.

Although this job is tiring, it’s fulfilling and has taught me a lot. For instance, troubleshooting various bugs in online programs, dealing with issues like server crashes, sudden internet outages, or the café’s PA system malfunctioning—all fall within my responsibilities.

The title of manager sounds very impressive, but it’s also very tiring.

If it weren’t for my previous experience working as a server in many restaurants and helping with all sorts of chaotic situations, I might really have been overwhelmed by these strange tasks.

I vaguely remember when I was working as a server at a certain restaurant before, the cashier’s computer suddenly had no sound. The manager didn’t know what to do and came over to me, saying, “Yin Shiren, aren’t you a college student? You should know how to fix computers, right? Come take a look and see what’s wrong.” When I went over, I found out that the computer couldn’t detect the speakers. After checking for a while, I discovered that they hadn’t even turned on the speakers.

In most small companies where I’ve worked, I’ve really faced similar problems. You can’t expect every boss to be omnipotent. Some employees, even if they are college students, don’t even have basic computer knowledge.

There are desktops cluttered with antivirus software, XX managers, XX wallpaper cleaners, junk cleaners… After a few minutes of startup, they shout, “Why isn’t there any internet?” and when I look, they’ve unplugged their own network cable. They say their input method can’t switch, and when I check, they’ve deleted the input method without knowing it.

The most outrageous boss I’ve ever met said he wanted to create his own website. He didn’t know who to hire for design, so he got a webpage designed, paid for it, and received a PSD file. The webpage inside was beautifully designed.

The boss brought it to me and said, “Xiao Yin, I’ve got this done, now it’s up to you to put it online. Finish it tonight, it shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

I was completely puzzled at the time. I explained to the boss that creating a website isn’t just about getting a designer to produce images. You need a domain name, a front-end engineer, a back-end system, and also database setup, among other things. But the boss interrupted me in less than a minute, saying, “Just handle all of that yourself. I want to see our website by tomorrow.”

In the end, I chose to resign from that company.

The cat cafe is very fortunate that we don’t have such inexperienced staff. Ai Luodi herself is a gaming enthusiast and knows all sorts of computer troubleshooting. Lan Jiajia, though a bit naive, isn’t computer illiterate either.

During her time at the cafe, she won’t come over asking questions like “Why is there no sound on my computer?” just because she accidentally unplugged the speakers. As for Fei Luo and Gabriel, let’s not even mention them. Gabriel has evolved to the point where she can hack into any government website as long as it’s connected to the internet.

I even suspect that if you gave her the right equipment, you could pick up a bit of sand from the beach and Gabriel could handcraft a CPU.

Fei Luo at the Little Bird Leisure Bar serves as both a bartender and “security.” With her around, no one dares to misbehave. Thus, the two of them, Fei Luo and Gabriel, are perfectly capable of handling the basement work on their own.

Dolly and Yueyue are “exercising themselves” by delivering takeout at lightning speed every day. To keep things discreet, we even bought them electric scooters.

Ai Luodi works at the cafe every night. She has eight days off per month, during which Gabriel or Fei Luo covers her shifts. Night shifts don’t require much attention anyway.

Chef Wang prepares fast food every day, and the rest depends on what the customers want.

Li Chen is responsible for the logistics at the cat cafe, bringing fresh ingredients, cat food, and cat supplies every morning.

Then he heads over to the internet cafe, checks for any needs around noon, comes back again in the evening, and then finishes work. He works quite hard, without many rest days, but Li Chen seems satisfied with his work and hasn’t sought apprentices or anything.

In addition, the cafe also has two outsourced staff members, a “temporary security guard” and a “cleaning auntie”. Their wages aren’t high, the security guard only comes at specific times to guard the door, while the cleaning auntie comes in the morning and evening to clean and tidy up the cat litter.

It can be said that with Ouyang Xue’s efforts over the past few months, the cafe itself doesn’t need major adjustments anymore. As the new manager taking over, I just need to pay attention to various small details.

As Su Yunjin said, with so many “high-quality” employees, the cafe couldn’t be replicated nationwide even if one tried.

However, even so, we still have a lot of problems to solve.

For example, various rumors and gossip on the internet.

After the cafe became popular, even though the “Zhao family” no longer interfered with our work, we still debunked all the false news that we could debunk every day. There are still many people tirelessly smearing and spreading rumors about the cafe.

Today, Xiao Mo and I’s task is to handle these smears and rumors.

“Today’s special dish is honey chicken legs, not spicy, it tastes a bit like those… ribs.”

In the morning, after changing into the cat cafe’s uniform on the second floor, I adjusted the microphone under the gaze of various cameras and, as usual, started preparing glutinous rice near the kitchen door.

“The suggestion we adopted from everyone’s discussion a few days ago to include five-color glutinous rice and sour porridge in the weekly free snacks… why does it sound like the free champions rotation in League of Legends?”

As I spoke into the microphone, I mixed the prepared glutinous rice with various natural dyes.

“Hmm… black glutinous rice is dyed with maple leaves, yellow glutinous rice with mimosa flowers, red glutinous rice with rooibos…”

“Should this be enough? Everyone can’t possibly come to the cafe every day just to eat glutinous rice, right?”

Jokingly, I carried the colored glutinous rice into the kitchen. “It should be ready in about an hour.”

Upon the suggestions of netizens, not only rice but also drinks and soups are free at the cafe now. And now, even “five-color glutinous rice” doesn’t cost anything.

So these days, after checking the cats in the morning, tidying up, and handling routine tasks at the cafe, I have an additional duty, which is making five-color glutinous rice.

I specifically signed a contract with farmers and cooperated directly with them for all the raw materials, ensuring there’s “no middleman taking a cut”.

After preparing the glutinous rice, I placed it in the cat paw bowls next to the kitchen, five large bowls in total. Anyone who wanted to eat could directly take bowls and chopsticks, along with soy sauce, scallions, vinegar, and garlic paste nearby, all free of charge.

In theory… if a customer had thick enough skin, surviving by freeloading at the cafe would be completely feasible.

Because not only the glutinous rice was free, but also the porridge, fruit juice, daily oranges and dried fruits giveaways, and a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup for lunch and dinner, all free of charge.

In other words… actually making several pots of glutinous rice every day, the cafe was purely losing money, but not to a critical extent. Shenzhen’s climate conditions were suitable for rice cultivation, with low transportation costs and very low prices directly obtained from farmers and cooperatives.

However, the advertising effect brought by “free glutinous rice” cannot be measured by just a few bowls of glutinous rice. Moreover, doing such things can also enhance the cafe’s reputation and public favorability.

The most important thing is that five-color glutinous rice can also be considered a “specialty snack of Shenzhen”.

?Won’t they really lose money by doing this? Nuo’er makes so much glutinous rice every day, and her hands are all dark and reddish. I feel a bit sorry looking at it.?

While handling the glutinous rice, the sound of artificial intelligence reading the barrage from the live broadcast room came through the headphones.

?So Nuo’er is a good girl, willing to endure hardships.?

?Didn’t they say Nuo’er is now the manager of the cafe? Shouldn’t such things be left to her subordinates to handle??

?Actually, I prefer it to be Nuo’er doing it. Hehe… Every time I go to their cafe to eat, I feel that this glutinous rice is the best because Nuo’er made it.?

?Speaking of which, have you seen the recent posts online spreading rumors about the cafe colluding with black market sellers to sell expired food??

?You also know it’s a rumor? I haven’t even clicked on it.?

?But tens of thousands of shares have already happened. I’m worried it might have some impact on Nuo’er’s side. Shouldn’t we handle the PR for this??

“Okay, next up is the oranges…”

After placing the prepared glutinous rice in the kitchen, during the transportation process, I found a blind spot in the camera and used the “Purification Spell” on the ingredients in my hand, which I learned after the “Water Elemental Domain” from Xiao Mo.

Its main function is to comprehensively “neutralize” the target, sterilize and disinfect. If used on ingredients, it won’t affect their taste or flavor but can remove any harmful substances to the human body.

Not only these glutinous rice dishes, but also all the food that Li Chen delivered to the kitchen in the morning, I used the “Purification Spell” on them.

It can be said that for all customers dining at the café, everything they consume, I can guarantee it is safe, clean, and free from any harmful effects.

“These small oranges are called Sugar Oranges, and they are also free, but there’s a rule that each person can only take one, for cat deterrent purposes.”

I lifted a large basket of oranges and placed them into a dustpan at the café entrance, with a few lines written on it saying “For customers who don’t like cats.” Just like yesterday, I addressed the audience in the live stream, “Of course, if you’re craving more, no one will scold you for taking several, but be aware that if your hands smell too strongly of oranges, the cats won’t like it.”

After arranging the Sugar Oranges, I took some “orange slices” and set them in another area at the entrance, saying, “These oranges are larger and sweeter, they currently offer the best taste among oranges, very sweet. We directly sourced them from local orchards in collaboration with farmers. If anyone is interested, you can try them, but they are not free. Please do not take them all, though.”

Glancing at the list Wang Li provided this morning, I wrote the price in my own playful font above the basket: “Today’s Sugar Oranges price is 8.3 yuan/kg. ?Except for our friends who don’t like cats, we suggest buying oranges when leaving. Otherwise, the cats will dislike you.?”

This kind of orange is really delicious, and indeed, it’s quite expensive.

After writing these sentences, I roughly checked the oranges that were delivered to see if there were any bruises or spoilage. Confirming everything was in order, I completely opened the café’s door—

“Today is another brand new day!”

?Are you guys really not losing money like this? Things in the cafe are quite cheap, and there are so many free items.?

?Now there’s also the Little Bird Leisure Bar below, selling alcohol, maybe relying on that for revenue.?

?Speaking of which, the new drink released the day before yesterday was so delicious, what’s it called… Kirara? It tastes a bit like cantaloupe, but that texture, ah, I really don’t know how they made it.?

?I really love that too! Before, I used to drink lemon tea and mango pomelo sago. This thing really gets you hooked, especially on a hot day, having a cup… Ah, was it really made from cantaloupe??

?I don’t know, they say it’s a secret that Nuo’er did on her own…?

Hehe…

You guys certainly wouldn’t know, that drink is from another world.

Listening to the barrage of comments in my mind, I instinctively stuck out my tongue and made a face.

While I was busy partnering with Zheng Zisheng to sell dried fish and various dried fruits, Xiao Mo didn’t sit idle either. She went to another world and brought over a lot of those “coconuts” that Nida had given me to drink before.

A small part of them were directly planted on Moon Orchid Island, while the majority were stored in stalactite caves. Every day, we bring over a bit, add some tea leaves or lemon and other seasonings, put them in ice cubes, and named it “Kirara”. It received unanimous praise from customers.

It’s said that these days, even the hot search is “cafe’s new magical drink Kirara explodes the milk tea circle.”

Apart from the “coconuts” from another world, Xiao Mo and I also plan to bring over some fruits from there that are easier to cultivate and have good taste, making them into unique drinks for the cafe. We’ll say outside that it’s a “unique secret recipe.”

“I might not be in the cafe this morning because Xiao Mo and I are going to track down the person spreading rumors about us using substandard food.”

After finishing daily tasks, facing the cameras on the first floor of the cafe, I addressed tens of thousands of viewers in the live broadcast:

“A friend of ours has already found out where the rumor spreader lives. Today, we’ll confront the rumor spreader live.”

“……”

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