A leisurely life starting in a bar after being reborn

The two little girls had been traveling all night, and although they had managed to get some sleep, it wasn't a very comfortable one.

After lunch, the two soon fell asleep.

When I woke up from my afternoon nap, it was already past 3 p.m.

Fu Xiao came out of the east wing with messy hair and found that Chen Shiwen had already woken up and was sitting on the stone bench in the courtyard reading a book—she was still holding the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and had already turned to more than three hundred pages.

"Why are you reading this book again? Aren't you tired of it?"

"I never get tired of it; I discover something new every time I watch it."

"Okay, is this the third time?"

"The fourth time."

Fu Xiao decided to stop trying to understand this girl who could read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" four times and still enjoy it, and instead went to find her brother Fu Yan.

Fu Yan was watching TV in the main room, legs crossed—the sports channel was showing a Premier League highlight reel. Next to him was a plate of fried dough twists made by Zhou Shufen, which he had already eaten most of.

"Brother, we want to check out your bar!"

"today?"

"Today! Now!"

"You've only been here half a day and you can't even sit still?"

"I've been stuck at home for a month, I'm practically rusting! I need fresh air!"

Fu Yan glanced at her, then at the quiet Chen Shiwen behind him, and nodded: "Alright, you can go have some fun, but there are conditions."

"What are the conditions?"

"You two will work at the bar for a week, and I'll give you seven hundred dollars each."

Fu Xiao was stunned for a moment, then her money-grubbing eyes lit up: "Really?"

"real."

"Seven hundred a week?"

"right."

"Deal!" Fu Xiao almost jumped up, then thought for a moment and said, "Wait a minute, one hundred a day? That's too cheap! Even your bar servers make more than that a day."

"You're not an experienced full-time employee, so how much salary do you want? Don't you understand the concept of experiencing life? Besides, you're my sister, and if I give you too much, people might gossip."

"Who's gossiping? You're the boss, you call the shots at the bar!"

The child is grown up and is not so easy to fool anymore. She is no longer a child. She believes whatever I say and never argues with me.

"Seven hundred, take it or leave it."

Fu Xiao gritted his teeth and thought for three seconds: "Damn it!"

She turned to Chen Shiwen and said, "Shishi, let's do part-time work while we study!"

Chen Shiwen closed the book and asked earnestly, "What kind of work do you do?"

"Serve dishes, wipe tables, pour drinks, do whatever is available."

Chen Shiwen nodded: "Okay, I can do it."

Fu Yan looked at the two girls—one eager to try and ready to fight, the other quiet and compliant—and found it quite interesting.

It's good to let them spend a week in a bar, to let them experience the realities of society beforehand. Staying in the ivory tower for too long makes them unaware of how deep the waters are outside, and they won't know how to handle similar situations in the future.

It's better than being completely clueless at the time.

……

At 3:30 p.m., the three arrived at the bar.

The bar wasn't open yet, but Qiu Kai was already there—he arrived every day at 2 PM without fail, checking the beverage inventory, verifying the day's purchase list, and arranging the evening shifts.

Fu Yan brought Fu Xiao and Chen Shiwen to Qiu Kai: "Qiu Kai, this is my sister Fu Xiao, and her classmate Chen Shiwen. They will be working here for a week. Please make the arrangements."

Qiu Kai glanced at the two girls and smiled, "Brother Fu, this is a bit... nepotism."

"What?"

Nepotism.

"Seven hundred yuan a week, and you call that nepotism?"

Qiu Kaile said, "Alright, leave it to me."

He turned to look at Fu Xiao and Chen Shiwen: "Have you two worked in the catering industry before?"

Fu Xiao shook her head.

Chen Shiwen also shook her head.

"Let's start with the basics—identifying wine glasses, learning to serve, and memorizing the wine list." Qiu Kai pointed to the bar. "Today, let's learn to identify wine glasses with Xiao Zhou: white wine glass, red wine glass, whiskey glass, martini glass, brandy glass... what glass goes with each type of wine, so we can't get them mixed up."

"So many?" Fu Xiao looked at the rows of differently shaped glasses behind the bar and felt a little dizzy.

"This is nothing," Qiu Kai waved his hand. "We have over sixty kinds of wines on our menu, and each one has a different glass, amount of ice, and garnish. But you don't need to memorize them all; just get to know the dozen or so that you use most often."

Fu Xiao and Chen Shiwen followed Qiu Kai to the bar, while Fu Yan went straight to her usual spot—the small table against the wall in the corner.

……

He turned his head and saw Qin Manni packing up her instruments on the stage.

She's not on duty today, but she'll still come to practice her piano in the afternoon—when there are no customers at the bar, the chair and lamp on the stage become her private practice room.

She sat on a high stool, put the guitar back in its case, and then bent down to adjust the microphone cord. The sleeves of her off-white thin sweater were still rolled up to her forearms, revealing a section of her slender wrist.

Fu Yan looked at her for a while, then waved.

"Manny, come sit down and let's chat."

Qin Manni looked up and saw him, put down the thread in her hand, walked over and sat down opposite him.

"Brother Fu."

"Okay! Sit down."

She sat down, placed her hands on her knees, and straightened her back—a habit she developed while learning opera, always maintaining a proper posture whether sitting or standing.

"How many days have you been coming to the bar?"

"Four days."

"Are you adjusting well?"

"Yes, it's great. Manager Qiu takes good care of me, and Brother Zhou Lei has also taught me a lot about bartending."

"That's good, it's always good to have more skills."

Fu Yan picked up his "Houhai Morning Mist" and took a sip. Looking at her, he suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question—

"Hey, when you rejected that director and investor, weren't you afraid of being blacklisted?"

Qin Manni's fingers curled slightly.

"I'm scared," she said.

"Afraid to refuse? Wouldn't that be cutting off your own source of income?"

She was silent for a few seconds, then smiled faintly—a smile so faint it was almost imperceptible, like a self-deprecating smile, or perhaps a sense of relief.

"Brother Fu, are you bored and want to hear a story, huh?"

Fu Yan, having been seen through, didn't deny it: "I guess so, just chatting casually."

"Then I'll tell you something to cheer you up." Qin Manni wasn't shy at all. She tucked the bangs that were falling in front of her eyes behind her ears, softened her voice, and slowly began to tell her story. "Anyway, I'm not afraid you'll laugh at me."

……

"I am from Fengtian."

Fu Yan raised an eyebrow—Fengtian? From the Northeast, a fellow countryman.

"My parents divorced when I was five years old. My dad was an alcoholic, and my mom couldn't stand it and ran away. Later, they each remarried, and neither of them wanted me."

She spoke calmly, as if reciting a line she had memorized long ago—but Fu Yan could tell that it wasn't memorized, but rather that she had said it so many times that the sharp edges had been worn away.

"I grew up with my grandparents. My grandmother was a Peking Opera singer, not a famous one, just an old female role singer in a local troupe, and she sang all her life. I learned opera from her from a young age, practicing my voice, running in circles, stretching my legs and bending over—while other children were playing outside, I was doing somersaults at home."

"Then why didn't you continue performing?"

Qin Manni gave a wry smile: "He's too tall."

"Huh? How tall are you? Does height matter when you're performing in opera?"

"1.75 meters tall."

Fu Yan glanced at her height—indeed, even sitting there, you could tell she had long legs.

"Being 1.75 meters tall is a hurdle for girls learning Peking Opera. Formal troupes look at overall coordination when selecting members. If you're significantly taller than others, standing next to them like a flagpole, they won't accept you. Besides, my grandma wouldn't let me learn anymore..."

Her voice softened: "She said learning opera is too hard. She's sung all her life and knows what it's like. She doesn't want me to go through the same suffering she went through. Besides, traditional industries are declining. Troupes can't pay salaries, and retired actors have no job security. She doesn't want me to follow in her footsteps and go hungry."

"So you switched to acting?"

"Yes, I took the college entrance exam for Yenching Film Academy, majoring in acting. My academic and professional scores were barely enough to qualify."

"What do you mean by 'barely'? If you passed the exam, you passed."

Qin Manni smiled and didn't refute. Because outsiders will never understand the rules of the industry; explaining them is pointless, they won't comprehend it.

……