Chapter 214: Sinkhole
An old wooden door frame eerily appeared in the wall corner, the pitch black opening seemingly connecting to another world.
“It worked, and… I don’t seem to have suffered any bad influence.”
Looking at the entrance that had already appeared, Zhang Qian didn’t rush in to explore, instead standing in place to feel his own changes.
He clenched his fist; none of those situations that worried him had appeared—no feeling of restraint, and the powers in his body hadn’t become disordered due to the so-called shopkeeper identity.
It was as if the notebook in front of him was just an ordinary notebook, and the name written in it had no meaning at all.
“Honored guest, you can rest assured; how would I dare to deceive you.” Seeing that Zhang Qian showed no abnormalities, the waiter also let out a long sigh of relief.
Although the blank employee handbook probably wouldn’t affect the branch store’s members, there had never been a case of letting a customer become the shopkeeper before, so he hadn’t been completely certain earlier.
Zhang Qian casually slapped the waiter’s forehead, making him cry out in surprise and shrink his body into a ball.
However, Zhang Qian felt much more at ease in his heart; it seemed he truly wasn’t restrained—at least, striking the waiter still wouldn’t be hindered.
Facing his puzzled gaze, Zhang Qian patted his forehead a few more times. “What are you looking at? Just helping you heal a bit.”
A flash of true qi light came and went, and the wounds on the waiter’s body faded away accordingly.
“This… honored guest truly has impressive skills.” The waiter was first startled, then immediately flattered.
Now he understood that the earlier feeling was probably not an illusion, but him truly walking on the edge of life and death, only to be pulled back by Zhang Qian in the end.
The wounds on his body had already healed, yet he felt no relief in his heart.
If he could heal himself, didn’t that mean Zhang Qian could torment him without any scruples, without worrying about accidentally playing him to death?
However, the waiter felt that as long as he was obedient enough, Zhang Qian probably wouldn’t torment him for no reason, right?
Holding the pen in his hand and examining it, Zhang Qian didn’t guess at the waiter’s thoughts and instead asked, “Besides shuttling between the lounge and the dining area, does this shopkeeper identity have any other special aspects?”
To put it bluntly, besides this one permission, he wanted to see if he could get some other benefits.
Although obtaining the shopkeeper position at the time was just to leave here, it was definitely impossible for this identity to have no other special features; naturally, any unexpected gains would be better.
“Yes.” The waiter nodded. “Although the dishes are approved and distributed by the main store, the pricing rights are in the shopkeeper’s hands. As long as you hand over the share of ghost money set by the main store after the deadline, the remaining ghost money and dishes are equivalent to your extra income.”
“If it’s not enough for the share, you’ll have to cover it out of your own pocket. But such situations are rare; the ghost restaurant’s dishes are very popular in the ghost controllers’ circle. Even if the prices are outrageous, those guys will still come to eat in the restaurant, risking being made into a dish.”
Then the waiter used himself as an example: the main store gave him eighty-eight dishes but didn’t stipulate the price for each one, only setting a total price of one thousand ghost money.
And he had planned to sell them for one thousand three hundred earlier; although he called it a discount, if the deal went through, it would be a net profit of several hundred ghost money.
More profitable than Zhang Qian robbing—oh no, claiming compensation from the tattoo parlor once.
“Equivalent to being a distributor? If I set the prices myself, the kickbacks in the middle would be huge. The ghost restaurant is really generous.” Zhang Qian nodded.
From the looks of it, the branch store shopkeeper had already escaped the ranks of drudge work and should count as a minor higher-up in the ghost restaurant, right?
But looking at the waiter like this… one had to say, that boss’s judgment was really a bit off, to let a guy like this become the shopkeeper.
“It’s just that having to cover the losses yourself if they don’t sell is a bit of a rip-off…”
As he spoke, Zhang Qian suddenly realized something while looking at the waiter’s cowering appearance and probed, “That one thousand ghost money… it’s not up to me to pay it back, is it?”
The waiter had been waiting for this sentence; his butt slid off the stool, his knees bent at the perfect timing, and with a fluid set of movements, he knelt on the ground.
“This share is bound to each branch store, so whoever is the shopkeeper has to repay this debt.”
“I was momentarily confused; please forgive me, honored guest—no, Shopkeeper Sir.”
After saying this, the waiter didn’t dare lift his head, closing his eyes and waiting for Zhang Qian’s judgment.
He was very clear about how big a mistake he had made.
If he could have tricked Zhang Qian to death earlier, it wouldn’t matter, but now that he had survived and even become the shopkeeper, his previous actions were no different from wasting Zhang Qian’s private property.
And he had saddled Zhang Qian with a massive debt of up to one thousand ghost money; a normal ghost controller probably couldn’t pay it off even if he sold himself.
“Damn.” Zhang Qian looked at the waiter on the ground with some headache.
This guy had actually left him such a huge mess; he had just been thinking of getting some other benefits, but unexpectedly, one question led to this big pile.
Based on the ghost restaurant’s previous performance, the boss’s tentacles couldn’t reach the ghost ship, so the waiter didn’t need to worry about anything.
However, the problem was that Zhang Qian would have to get off the ship eventually, and then he probably couldn’t avoid the ghost restaurant.
Perhaps the ghost post office had similar supernatural aspects, but he couldn’t shrink inside the ghost post office forever.
“How did you dare to do it earlier? Never mind that I wasn’t planning to pay anyway; even if I were a normal customer, do you think I could afford one thousand?”
This was one thousand ghost money; not to mention Zhang Qian—probably even headquarters couldn’t scrape together that much.
And there were no ways to obtain ghost money at all; previously, the tattoo parlor’s front desk had given him some, but now the tattoo parlor seemed to have been made to disappear by Luo Wensong, so he couldn’t exactly ask Luo Wensong for it, right?
He had originally thought one or two hundred ghost money wasn’t bad, but now it seemed it was barely enough for a fraction.
The waiter pressed his head even lower and stammered an explanation, “If the customer can’t pay, they’ll be caught to offset the debt. That guy used this trick to scam people plenty of times before; it’s just that this time the amount was a tiny bit larger…”
“And he’s done it plenty of times before; the main store didn’t get angry and even seemed to find it a bit funny.”
That guy?
Zhang Qian was stunned for a moment, then realized the waiter was referring to his fierce ghost form.
This was an attempt to separate the two identities and not take the blame for this big pot.
He thought beautifully, but unfortunately, Zhang Qian definitely wouldn’t let him off because of this. However, now wasn’t the time to settle scores with the waiter; thinking of ways to solve the problem was more important.
