Yan Shuyu’s imagination ran wild, but the truth was she had over thought it all. The boss man didn’t even look up at her when she went over there with her most professional smile. He was very focused on his phone, as though he wasn’t the one who had asked for her at all.

The little male lead was the cutiepie who looked up and greeted her, making it less embarrassing for her.

“Hi, Aunty Yan.”

“Hi, kiddo,” Yan Shuyu gave a half smile. Seeing how polite he was, she decided to let the “aunty” part slide.

Original translation is from fuyuneko dot org. If you’re reading this elsewhere, this chapter has been stolen. Please stop supporting theft.

The boss man might be ignoring her, but that didn’t matter to her. She asked politely and enthusiastically, “Is there anything that I can help you with?” If not, she would just leave.

Either it was her subtext being too obvious, or that the big boss has just noticed her, Zhou Qinhe finally looked up at her. His look was friendly as usual, “Oh, nothing much. Xiao Yi was just wondering where you went.”

Kiddo “Xiao Yi” who was busy shoving cake into his own mouth, “……”

Yan Shuyu, “…….”

She didn’t know whether it was her or the big boss; did he really have no idea whether his son was a normal kid who had that much curiosity?

Well, that was his own son after all. If the male lead didn’t even give away his dad, what could Yan Shuyu possibly say? In her mind though, she had come to the conclusion that the boss might just be toying with her for lack of better things to do.

Customers were gods, what could she do? She would just have to play along. Keeping the perfect smile on her, she said, “If there’s nothing else, enjoy your meal. I’ll be back later.”

“Wait,” Zhou Qinhe put down his cellphone and leaned forward a little. Focusing quite intently on her, he smiled and said, “Xiao Yi wasn’t the only one who was curious, I was as well.”

Yan Shuyu: Who am I? Where am I? What the * was the boss man talking about? Mew mew mew?

She was dumbfounded for a few seconds before she finally realized that the boss man was still bothered by her slacking off in the back earlier.

Ugh, it was just bringing them their tea and water and gave them their utensils, did it matter who did it? Sherry was an experienced employee. Sherry’s service was far better than hers. The boss man’s takeaway was so different than an ordinary person.

Yan Shuyu thought long and hard and finally felt that she got it again. She was their server when they have arrived, then she disappeared after taking their orders without asking for their consent. The boss probably felt that he was neglected, or worse, he’d think she gets commissions from their order and abandoned them as soon as she got the orders – boy, oh boy, who’d have thought that the male lead’s father, who normally seemed so easy-going, was as particular as any other CEOs deep down under?

Granted, he was a billionaire CEO, one who was used to being the center of attention wherever he went, so, naturally, he’d also be more demanding than most. Yan Shuyu felt better once she had that figured out. In order to placate him, she thought of a very good reason to explain her disappearance guilt-free, “Pardon me, I wasn’t feeling very well today, so my colleagues volunteered to take over for me.

She didn’t mean to be disrespectful.

Upon hearing that, Zhou Qinhe looked at her radiant face and smiled, “Not feeling well?”

Yan Shuyu smiled and nodded, “That’s right.”

It’s her body, she decided how she felt.

One could tell from Zhou Qinhe’s look that he didn’t believe in one word that she said but, of course, there were also no need to call her out on something so tedious. He let out a regretful sigh, “Is that so. I was going to ask you to play the same song from last time for Xiao Yi, but since you are not feeling well… I guess not.”

Yan Shuyu, “…..”

Oh, piano? She was totally down for playing the piano. She wasn’t going to push away extra earnings. But, the big boss did not give her a chance to say anything before he continued to say to Zhou Yi, “Since today doesn’t work, we will take off now. Maybe next time?”

The male lead was the male lead after all; his self-control was impeccable from an early age. He was still eagerly working on the cake, but as soon as he heard his father’s words, he put down his little spoon immediately. It could also be that he was used to all sorts of delicacies so he didn’t care too much about Aunty Yan’s recommendation, which was why he was able to reply with no hesitation, “Okay.”

Were they leaving already? Yan Shuyu was dumbfounded.

The father and son, who had quickly reached an agreement, both turned and looked at the dumbfounded Yan Shuyu. A few seconds later, as though being friendly, Zhou Qinhe said, “You can bring the check now.”

“Oh, alright!” Yan Shuyu recovered right away. She just felt sad for losing out on her extra income. Quickly, she realized that it was a good thing that she didn’t need to perform for the male lead and his father. Otherwise, she just might become the whetstone that the boss had prepared for his son and the best tool that the boss has for his son. If that’s the case, she might as well just follow the original storyline, at least she’d be able to be a wealthy upper-class woman for twenty years and make it worth her while.

Yan Shuyu, as proud as she was, didn’t want to admit that her current situation was worse than it was before, so she just wanted the father and son to leave as soon as possible. For that, she directly ignored it when he said “We will come again next time.”

Suppressing her own excitement, she said in the most professional tone that she could muster, “Would you like me to box these up for you?”

At least the little male lead ate half of the cake that she had recommended. Zhou Qinhe ordered the most popular coffee from the shop and didn’t even touch it, let alone any of the other dishes.

Zhou Qinhe scanned over all the food on the table that were barely touched and casually said, “No, that’s okay. Just do what you would normally do with them.”

Yan Shuyu looked at him coldly. She had to admit that Zhou Qinhe exuded a sense of nobility. She must admit that these kind of unintentional showiness of high-born, aristocratic feel about him made him very, very appealing. If he wasn’t the male lead’s father, or she wasn’t destined to become the villainess stepmother, she might have already been conquered by this man.

She didn’t need any promises for the rest of their lives together, she would be happy just to bed him one more time.

But now, it’s best she reined in her daydreaming. Cruelly, Yan Shuyu squashed all the impractical dreams that were popping up in her head. With an emotionless smile, she said, “Alright. That would be $1,080. Credit card or cash?”

A barely-touched afternoon tea for over $1,000, the big boss didn’t even blink an eye. He just casually pulled out the legendary black card and handed it over to her. Yan Shuyu then pitter-pattered to swipe his card.

As much as the person in question didn’t think twice about it, Yan Shuyu was very proud of herself for causing the boss an expensive meal with her own wit. After the bill was settled and the Zhou’s father and son were gone, Yan Shuyu still had a very accomplished smile on her.

Once the boss was gone, all her little buddies who had been patiently waiting to eat the melons quickly gathered around for more gossiping.

That had immediately dampened Yan Shuyu’s mood some, she quickly clarified, “You guys are overthinking this, really. Boss Zhou even came with his kid!”

The others asked, “Why did he specifically ask for you then?”

“Boss Zhou said the kid song that I played last time was quite interesting, so he brought his son here to hear it. But as soon as he heard that today wasn’t a good day, he left immediately. He didn’t even eat any of the food.”

Her little buddies, “……”

They were all the same. As one of the many commoners, they lived very ordinary lives When someone like Boss Zhou with the status almost that of a deity suddenly entered into their lives and looking like he was somewhat interested in their Yan-jie, they were as excited as winning a $5 million lottery ticket. At the end, it wasn’t because the boss was interested in Yan-jie, but that he felt that she was an interesting person and good with kids… welp, that’s a little awkward.

Everybody started to feel bad for Yan Shuyu. Sherry, the one who experienced a setback in front of the boss seemed to have found some of her esteem back and she was the first to break the silence, “Man, all this time, here I thought he was a male god, turned out he didn’t even know what romance is.”

No, little jie jie, I think the boss had a pretty good idea of what romance was. His skills were… quite impeccable.

Yan Shuyu took a look at Sherry and decided to not share her own thought.

Yan Shuyu didn’t share Sherry’s thoughts and neither did her little buddies. They more or less had the same thought along the line of what she was thinking. Her colleagues expressed that Boss Zhou simply looked like a very successful businessman with high intelligence and emotional quotients. He probably had been through scenarios like that many times and that was his excuse to turn her down gently.

One of them said, “Didn’t he come here with a girl last time? That girl looked like a lady of the upper class. Billionaires probably like that type better.”

Sherry, failing to regain her ground successfully, wisely changed the subject, “But Yanyan, why didn’t you play the piano for Boss Zhou? If he had ordered so much food without even planning on eating them, if only you’d entertain his kid for him, who knows how much he’d tip?”

“Well, I didn’t know. He called me over and told me in a friendly way that his child asked why the server has swapped. I wasn’t going to betray our Sherry, so I had to look for an excuse and told him that I didn’t feel well today and my colleague was nice enough to help me out.” Yan Shuyu made it sound very reasonable, “Then Boss Zhou said it was too bad that his son wouldn’t get to appreciation my performance today and asked for the check before I could say anything else.”

Sherry bought the entire story and even felt a pang of guilt after hearing her explanation. She wrapped one arm around her neck and said, “I’m so sorry for making you miss out on your extra income. I’ll take you to get BBQ after work as a way to make it up to you.”

Yan Shuyu wasn’t someone who’d be shy when someone offered to take her out to dinner. She even brought her instant son with her to take advantage of Sherry’s offer.

They didn’t go for BBQ as Sherry has suggested; instead, they went to the “secret base” of Yan Shuyu and Zhang Yuanbao – the hot pot place nearby. And the three of them sweated it out as they dined.

After their meal, Yan Shuyu and her little buddy were friends again. Sherry has the nickname of a player at Sunshine House as she was always interested in the next man and her passion for them were always short lived. She switched from male god to male god every 3-5 days. Her little interaction with Zhou Qinhe was but a fleeting, little incident that Sherry would forget in no time.

Yan Shuyu forgotten about the incident even faster than Sherry had; she didn’t even need to switch her fondness elsewhere. She forgot that the boss had been to the restaurant again shortly thereafter. Day after day, she emerged herself in the joy of working and making money.

Before she knew it, the following weekend was there and the boss was in the mood to bring the male lead to the restaurant again.