Chapter 8: Making a Scene
“What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to burn me to death?!!”
A sudden roar erupted from inside the restaurant, instantly drawing the attention of both dining customers and staff.
Lan Yu was at the front desk, familiarizing himself with computer operations and practicing how to use the register. Upon hearing the noise coming from a private room, he saw the receptionist beside him head over to check. Lan Yu froze for a moment, unsure if he should follow or stay at his post.
The shouting grew louder. It was only a strange male customer yelling; judging by the content, one of their waiters was getting verbally abused. Lan Yu saw Duan Gaozhi walking quickly toward the scene to handle it.
“What happened?” Lan Yu asked when the receptionist returned.
“A kid was running around and bumped into Little Lin while he was serving dishes. Lin lost his grip, the plate flipped, and some hot food splashed onto a guest.”
Lan Yu was startled. “Was he burned badly?”
“No, the back of the chair blocked most of it, so only a little bit splashed on him. But the guy has been drinking, so I reckon he’s using the alcohol as an excuse to act out.”
Hearing the receptionistās words, Lan Yu felt that Duan Gaozhi should be able to resolve it. In the restaurant business, they dealt with all sorts of people every day, so the probability of running into trouble was high. Duan Gaozhi was very skilled at handling customers.
However, this incident didn’t end quickly. Lan Yu heard another roar from the private room.
“Do you think waiving the bill makes everything okay? How do you train your waiters? Can’t even hold a plate steady… just a piece of useless trash… What do you mean my kid bumped him? If my kid runs, is your waiter blind? Can’t he see? Useless and blind, yet still trying to serve customers? Is your broken-down restaurant trying to bully a customer because I look easy to talk to? Iām putting it out there right nowāI got burned, and if you don’t pay up, don’t think this is over!”
“It was clearly that child…”
Lan Yu faintly heard Lin Zixi trying to defend himself, but his voice quickly faded, obviously unable to win an argument against the customer.
Worried, Lan Yu couldn’t help but grab the wooden stick he used as a crutch and stand up, wanting to go see Lin Zixi and Duan Gaozhi.
Just as he reached the door of the private room, the thick stench of alcohol and the customer’s angry roars hit him first. Lan Yu took two steps forward before he saw the customer causing the scene.
It was a middle-aged man, thirty or forty years old, with a beer belly. He was very tall and built, creating a strong sense of oppression as he stood near the door. His face and neck were flushed redāhe looked less angry and more like the alcohol was going to his head.
The man was clutching an empty wine bottle in his hand, pointing it right at Lin Zixi as he screamed, “You get over here!”
Because the customer was wielding the bottle as a weapon, Duan Gaozhi and the others stood at a distance to avoid getting hit.
Lan Yu looked around. The other people at the same table as the customer watched indifferently as the man threw his tantrum, showing no intention of stopping him. They didn’t look like very close friends. The situation was at a stalemate, with only Duan Gaozhi trying to soothe the man’s temper.
“Yap, yap, yap, you’ve got a big mouth, get lost!”
Duan Gaozhiās attempts to calm him down had no effect; in fact, it seemed to add fuel to the fire, making the man even more violent.
Seeing the wine bottle waving around wildly, Lan Yu asked anxiously, “Manager Duan, should we call the police…”
The moment Lan Yu’s voice fell, the customer smashed the beer bottle violently against the side. The bottle hit the corner of the table and shattered all over the floor. The man then held the jagged, broken bottle neck, pointing it at Lan Yu, and roared, “None of your f*cking business!”
Lan Yu was three or four meters away from him. The sharp edges of the broken bottle posed no immediate threat to him, but Duan Gaozhi immediately stepped in to shield Lan Yu behind him. “You go back…”
Before Duan Gaozhi could finish his sentence, a piercing shriek suddenly cut through the air.
“Ahhhhhhhā!”
It was the man making the scene.
The sound made everyone present shudder instantly, Lan Yu included.
Everyone had instinctively backed away, thinking the man was about to go crazy and attack. Instead, they watched as the broken bottle dropped from his hand to the floor. The man clutched his wrist and sank into a half-squat. That sound wasn’t the cry of a madman; it was a miserable, blood-curdling howl of agony.
“Hand… my hand… Ahhhhh my hand!!!” The man screamed, clutching his arm in a death grip.
Lan Yu noticed it…
The man’s hand was broken. His arm was twisted at an extremely grotesque angle. Blood dripped down his arm. If he hadn’t been wearing long sleeves, Lan Yu felt he might have even seen the jagged cross-section of the bone.
“What happened? Call an ambulance, quick!” Duan Gaozhi was stunned too.
Nobody had touched him. He was fine one second, and the next, his arm just snapped. It was too abrupt, completely baffling. Everyone around was bewildered and panicked, and the scene descended into chaos.
After Duan Gaozhi hurriedly left with the group to go to the hospital, all that remained was a messy floor, a mix of uncleaned food scraps and the customer’s blood.
***
“We didn’t touch him, right? His hand broke on its own, right? He must have snapped his own hand when he smashed the bottle.”
Lin Zixi couldn’t sleep at all after returning to the dorm. Although the restaurant had continued to operate normally until closing, he remained fixated on the incident. “It was his son who bumped into me. No matter how you look at it, this can’t be my fault. His son hit me from behind; I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.”
“Mhm, mhm.” Lan Yu didn’t really know how such complicated situations should be resolved, but he could sense Lin Zixi’s anxiety. Lin Zixi was clearly panicked, repeating these few sentences to Lan Yu over and over again. Lan Yu wasn’t very good at comforting people, so he could only listen and agree.
Duan Gaozhi hadn’t returned from the hospital yet, and without knowing how the situation would be handled, it was no wonder Lin Zixi couldn’t rest.
“You say… how could his arm be so brittle? Does he have brittle bone disease or something? Is he trying to pull a scam?” Lin Zixi asked again.
“I don’t know, it really is strange,” Lan Yu agreed again. It was the truth.
“Do you think this could be my fault?” Lin Zixi scratched his hair in frustration.
“I don’t think it’s your mistake,” Lan Yu said again. No one has eyes in the back of their head. Carrying heavy plates, if someone slams into you with force, there’s no telling what might happen.
Lan Yu remembered that while the man was making a scene, the child had been curled up in a woman’s armsāpresumably his motherāwho remained indifferent to the raving man.
“Right? None of us touched him, right? His hand broke on its own, right?!” Lin Zixi tried to get a definitive answer from Lan Yu once more.
“Yes, it broke on its own.” Lan Yu nodded with certainty.
From his perspective, the man had been holding the broken bottle high in the air. He had lifted it so easily to point at Lan Yu. How could it break so suddenly? right under everyone’s noses, the man’s hand had deviated from its angle, the arm dropping uncontrollably, and just like that… it snapped…
If one insisted it broke when he smashed the bottle, would there be such a high… well, latency?
Lin Zixi sighed for the umpteenth time. “Sorry, I keep bothering you with this. You’re still injured.”
“It’s okay.” Lan Yu’s leg was resting on the bed. Sitting there talking didn’t hurt.
“You’ve been listening to me this whole time.” Lin Zixi checked the time. They had been back for an hour, and Lan Yu had just listened to him loop through this topic for over an hour. He felt a bit embarrassed. His gaze shifted and landed on the bag of snacks hanging by Lan Yu’s bed. “Don’t you like snacks?”
“I do like them,” Lan Yu said.
“Then why aren’t you eating the snacks I bought you? I’d finish that amount in two or three hours,” Lin Zixi asked.
“Because I like them, I want to ration them and eat slowly,” Lan Yu said truthfully.
Lin Zixi opened his mouth. He wanted to tell Lan Yu that he could buy more once those were finished, but thinking about the looming possibility of having to pay compensation, he closed his mouth, feeling somewhat sad.
The dorm door suddenly opened. Lan Yu and Lin Zixi looked over together to see Duan Gaozhi returning.
“Brother Duan.” Lin Zixi, who had been complaining earlier, instantly deflated in front of Duan Gaozhi. He asked nervously, “How… how did it go?”
“Sigh, it’s hard to say,” Duan Gaozhi said while taking off his coat. “I’m going to take a shower first.”
Duan Gaozhi actually had a bed in the dorm, but he rarely slept there, only staying over occasionally when it was too late to go home.
Today, the other roommates had gone home, leaving only Lan Yu and Lin Zixi. Watching Lin Zixi’s nervousness after Duan Gaozhi’s return, Lan Yu couldn’t help but feel tense as well.
Duan Gaozhi came out of the bathroom roughly drying his hair, bringing a damp chill with him. He sat on the bed. “There’s surveillance footage, it’s clear. But the situation is tricky. Even though the guy was being unreasonable, he did get injured inside our shop. Nine times out of ten, we’ll have to pay. We still need to discuss it.”
“Brother Duan, do I have to pay?” Lin Zixi was obviously worried.
“Can you afford to?” Although it sounded harsh, Duan Gaozhi was just stating a fact, not mocking him.
“I… I can’t afford it.” Lin Zixi scratched his head in distress. “My family doesn’t care about me. If I really have to pay, I can only owe it.”
Lan Yu had lived with Lin Zixi for a while. Lin Zixi was the only one who didn’t rent a place elsewhere and lived in the dorm full-time. He had no financial planning skills; he would spend freely for a few days after payday, then live in poverty for the rest of the month. Lan Yu had basically zero savings to speak of, and he had never seen Lin Zixi contact his family.
“Sigh, go to sleep. Don’t think about it so much,” Duan Gaozhi said, clearly annoyed. Without waiting for his hair to dry completely, he turned off the lights and went to sleep.
In the dark, Lan Yu and Lin Zixi exchanged a look. Lin Zixi asked, “Do you need help with anything?”
“No.” Lan Yu touched his cast. He didn’t need any help.
“Then I’m sleeping.”
Lin Zixi lay down, but Lan Yu could hear the despair in his voice.
Lan Yu lay down too, but he wasn’t sleepy. Because Duan Gaozhi was there, he felt constrained and embarrassed to turn on his phone to watch computer tutorials. Listening to Lin Zixi tossing and turning in frustration, he dared not make a sound.
Lan Yu blinked, staring into the pitch-black room. His mind wandered to what Lin Zixi had inadvertently mentioned about his family. Were there really so many people in this world who didn’t like to care for their children? It was true for Lin Zixi, and true for the original host.
Lan Yu thought about the phrase “Go Home” he kept hearing lately. He thought about it a lot. He wondered if the original host was hinting for him to go back, but it distinctly felt like a separate entity communicating with him.
Lan Yu didn’t want to go back.
From the original host’s perspective, Lan Yu didn’t think he would want to go home either.
Leaving aside the fact that the original host’s family was indifferent to himāwith no love to be foundāeven if it were a home full of love, Lan Yu wouldn’t want to go. That wasn’t his home. Even if there was love, he couldn’t accept it.
Since he was the one living now, he didn’t want to go home.
He thought of the little heart the black shadow had drawn for him, and refused to think about it too deeply.
As he lay there, he pulled his hands back under the covers. After a while, he pulled the duvet up over his head, burying himself completely.
Half asleep and half awake, Lan Yu felt the temperature in the room slowly dropping.
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