Liang Zhou, the first person to step into the shop, went full lavish spender the second he sat down.
"Order anything you want, I'm treating everyone today!"
"Eat and drink to your heart's content, pick the most expensive stuff! If I can't pay the bill, I'll just threaten the owner, so no one has to worry!"
Qin Zhe: "……"
You're not a lavish spender at all, you're straight up a bandit!
Xie Tangning morphed into Bandit Number Two, yelling at the top of her lungs right away: "Why is there only one waiter here? Are you looking down on us?"
"Go get your manager out here, make him wait on us personally!"
Xie Changyu played along perfectly, feeding her lines to push their unruly act to the absolute extreme.
Qin Zhe held back his frustration again and again, he knew full well those two troublemakers Xie Tangning and Liang Zhou would take the chance of being customers to mess with him as much as they could.
Friends really are a handful sometimes!
"Alright~ just a moment, you two distinguished guests~"
Where the surveillance camera couldn't catch him, Qin Zhe suddenly gave Monkey Bro a hard kick before turning around and leaving.
Liang Zhou almost lost his composure completely, that little rascal packs quite a punch, he's clearly taking revenge on them on purpose!
Watching Monkey Bro shifting his weight and rubbing his feet nonstop to ease the pain, Xie Tangning had to bite her own tongue to keep from bursting out laughing.
She was also secretly wondering which poor sucker would end up playing the manager.
None of them had coordinated ahead of time since they were filming the show.
They managed to meet up at this shop all thanks to their years-long tacit understanding.
Xie Tangning and Liang Zhou were betting that the rest of the group were up to no good, and definitely keeping a close eye on the live stream the whole time.
They were just waiting to pull a surprise encounter (crossed out, make that a surprise nuisance) on them!
And sure enough, no sooner had they arrived at the market than their "encounter" showed up.
About half a minute later, the "manager" appeared.
It was Zhuang Zhiyao, one of the members of their little mischief crew.
"Oh, several distinguished guests, I'm the manager here. Is there anything I can do for you~"
Zhuang Zhiyao deliberately lowered his voice, making it sound like he was speaking in a deep, rumbling bubble tone.
Wu Dacheng felt this person looked really familiar, he sized him up from head to toe, but his silly brain still couldn't place who he was.
He couldn't match the face to anyone he knew. That was all thanks to the incredible disguise skills Zhuang Zhiyao pulled off last time on the desert island.
With a disguise that good, even his own mother wouldn't recognize him!
Liang Zhou decided to strike first, opening his mouth to pick on him again: "What are you just standing there for? Don't you know you're supposed to bring us a menu to order?"
"How did you even get to be manager? You're so young, did you get the job through connections?"
"You have zero sense of service, watch out I give your restaurant a bad review!"
Monkey Bro delivered his lines in an over-the-top, exaggerated tone, half speaking in a high-pitched affected voice, getting more and more dramatic as he went.
It was obvious he was imitating the way that iconic character Xia Bingbao from their beloved childhood TV show talked.
The fun of watching their good friend ham it up made Zhuang Zhiyao dig his nails right into his palms, he was barely holding it together.
Who gets this?
The feeling of locking eyes with your best friend while you're both messing around, it's so impossible not to crack up!
Zhuang Zhiyao put on a wobbly, flustered little dog smile: "Well then sir, what would you like to order?"
"Here's the menu, why don't you take a look?"
Right as he was about to hand the menu to Liang Zhou, he quickly swerved it around and passed it to Xie Tangning instead: "Ladies first, let this polite guest do the ordering!"
"This manager is allergic to rude, ill-mannered customers!"
Liang Zhou: "…… Ugh, I can't believe this!"
Does he even know how to act? What kind of restaurant manager has that kind of service attitude!
Xie Tangning decided to blow the act wide open right away, instantly slipping into the role of the over-the-top customer Zhuang Zhiyao had mentioned earlier.
"Watch your mouth! We're customers, the ones who pay your bills! Who gave you the right to talk to us like that!"
"Careful, I'll get your boss to fire you!"
Zhuang Zhiyao ground his back teeth together. Sure enough, when it came to putting on a show, no one could beat Xie Tangning!
Just look at that feisty, unruly little act, he pulled off the unreasonable, making-a-scene customer perfectly.
"I'm very sorry to disappoint you, but there's no way the boss is firing me — because I'm the manager, and I'm also the boss!"
As he said that, he flipped over the small name tag on his chest that read "Manager", and the title instantly changed to "Boss".
Shen Hao gave him a thumbs-up. "Well, the boss sure is young and promising! To be able to hold down so many positions at such a tender age!"
"Truly admirable~"
The second Zhuang Zhiyao made his appearance, Shen Hao had already recognized him. He was the nephew of a good buddy of his, and Shen Hao had met him twice before.
Whoa, so this was just a whole skit put on by people who knew each other!
"Mind your own business! Can't a guy take a summer part-time job?"
Wu Weixiang glanced at him sidelong, deadpan. "Sure, that's impressive. You worked your way up from summer temp to the boss's position, huh!"
What harm could a seasoned old hand like him have?
He just wanted to poke a few holes in this kid's half-baked acting and mess with him a little bit.
But Zhuang Zhiyao didn't show the slightest bit of fluster, and even shot back a retort in Cantonese directly.
"Mind your own damn business! My family's loaded, what of it? I bought this boss gig just to mess around, can't I?"
"What're you looking at? Order your food already, old geezer!"
After he finished his retort, Zhuang Zhiyao couldn't help but cheer a little silently in his head.
He'd expected this old-timer to be another troublemaker, so he'd crammed a couple of snappy Cantonese comebacks right before, and never thought they'd come in so handy right away!
Wu Weixiang, who had been grinning playfully just a second ago, stopped smiling now.
No wonder he ran around with Xie Tangning and Liang Zhou, his attack power was off the charts!
Liang Jiaqing snickered. "Mr. Wu, you're so lucky! You get to hear your familiar hometown dialect even in a faraway place!"
She didn't even need to understand Cantonese to know that kid definitely wasn't saying anything nice.
Wu Weixiang turned to look at her. "Oh, you want this luck for yourself?"
Liang Jiaqing crossed her arms and shook her head. "You can keep that wonderful treat all to yourself, Mr. Wu!"
Xie Tangning tried his best not to make eye contact with Zhuang Zhiyao, and quickly rattled off over a dozen dishes.
He blurted out the names so fast it sounded like he was reciting a menu, and Zhuang Zhiyao's fingers tapping the ordering tablet were almost moving fast enough to blur.
"Got all that?"
Zhuang Zhiyao was just about to say he had every single item down, when the next second he heard Xie Tangning, that little rascal, add another line. "All the ones I just named? Don't serve any of those. Bring us every dish I didn't order."
Zhuang Zhiyao: "......"
He took a deep breath, and put on a bright, perfect customer service smile. "Sure thing, dear guests, just a moment please."
Ahhhh, you two are so dead later!
[Huh? Why do I feel like the vibe between all of them is so weird, but I can't put my finger on what's off?]
[I get the feeling they accidentally wandered into a dodgy restaurant on a whim, but that doesn't seem quite right! Where's Director Zhang? Aren't you going to rein your guests in?]
[I have this hunch they're building up to something huge for us, but I can't tell who's going to end up the final victim!]
Over at the final stop of the whole show, Director Zhang, who was glued to the live feed, stared at the screen completely confused.
"Cheng Dong, am I seeing things right?"
"How on earth did they have the nerve to walk into such a fancy restaurant with only 500 yuan in their pockets?"
"Have they lost their minds completely?"
The assistant director glanced at his director, who was now scratching his head in frustration, and silently complained in his head: The one who's lost his mind is you!
Can't you tell this is obviously a gathering between people who know each other very well? Are their acting skills really that good?
You, a seasoned director who's seen it all, can't even see through this little trick? How is that even possible?!
No wonder people say it's easy for those caught up in the situation to lose sight of the big picture!
Looks like those little rascals have given Director Zhang a proper stress response.
Sigh~ I've run my mouth raved about maintaining a good reputation so many times I'm sick of saying the word now!
