National Tide 1980.

The kitchen of Jinyu Mantang Restaurant.

The kitchen was bustling with activity, flames roared on the stoves, and the sounds of pots and pans clattering against various stainless steel utensils filled the air. The chefs crowded around, each busy with their own tasks, creating a lively yet orderly scene.

Outside the kitchen, waiters waited patiently for the chef to approve the dishes.

Once a dish is freshly prepared, the chef in charge of approving the dishes will call out the number loudly after checking the list in his hand.

"Braised shark fin, braised sea cucumber with scallions, Table 21 in Hall 1!"

So a waiter would place the dish on a silver tray, cover it with a silver-plated lid, and quickly take it away.

Soon, new dishes were placed on the batching rack in the kitchen. The chef in charge of batching verified them again and called out to them.

"Jade Hall private room: Garlic sea urchin! Baked lobster in traditional style! Six bowls of Rouge Rice! Agate Hall private room: Fried deer tail, Peach Blossom Rice, Steamed Chicken in a Clay Pot, and Sea Snails with Scallion Oil!"

Then, several more waiters came forward one by one, carrying plates, dividing the dishes, and then taking them away.

However, the chef who was approving the dishes suddenly became unhappy and shouted in a blaming tone.

"Whose almond-flavored bird's nest is this? Almond-flavored bird's nest! Who placed this order? The table number is completely unclear, is it 15 or 18?"

At that moment, a waiter squeezed forward sheepishly, "Mine, mine, table 15 in Hall 2. Almond juice bird's nest! Seven people!"

The culprit was finally found, and the chef became even more dissatisfied.

"It's you again! How can you always be so careless! Tell me, how many times has this happened today? Let me tell you, our business is getting better and better. This month's bonus might even be higher than our salary. If you keep being so scatterbrained and dragging everyone down, don't blame me for telling your supervisor to transfer you to the back office to mop the floors and wash the carpets."

Compared to serving food in the front of house, the back-of-house work is tough, tiring, and doesn't pay well. Plus, you can only work at night, and now it's mostly outsourced to international students in Japan.

The waiter who made the mistake, upon hearing this, was naturally terrified.
He quickly smiled apologetically and lowered his head to admit his mistake, "Brother Li, I'm sorry, it's my fault. I promise I'll remember this, this is definitely the last time. If I do it again, I'll do as you say, okay? I'll hold a banquet in my dorm to apologize to you later."

As the saying goes, killing someone is just a matter of beheading them, and seeing that the other party had lowered himself to beg for mercy, the chef didn't want to make a big fuss about it.

He glanced down at the form, shook his head, and finally let them through.

"You said it yourself. Hall 2, seat 15, seven servings of apricot juice and bird's nest soup. Take them away."

Unexpectedly, the waiter left happily carrying the bird's nest served in seven golden bowls. But as soon as he left, some of the other waiters started making a fuss and wanted to use the incident to their advantage.

“Brother Li, you really can’t blame him. You can only blame the Japanese women outside for being too beautiful. It’s easy to get dizzy just looking at them. You’re stuck in the kitchen all day, so you don’t know how dazzling it is outside. Otherwise, if you were in the front, you might have gotten just as confused as him.”

"Yes, yes, Brother Li, he's not like you, middle-aged with a wife and kids. He's a young, unmarried man who's never even been in a relationship. When he sees a Japanese woman, his self-control completely fails him; he's totally out of his element. That's called youthful restlessness, the inability to bear loneliness. You have to understand..."

These few words, spoken with a hint of wanting to stir up trouble, made almost all the waiters gathered there chuckle mischievously.

These two lads don't even think about what they're doing here.

It's one thing to make fun of their own colleagues, but to dare to openly criticize the chef who approves the dishes?

Just ask them if they're that bold? How could they possibly expect to get away with it?
"You guys are really foul-mouthed. Lonely? What a load of crap."

The chef glared at the two boys and started yelling.

"I see now. You two have time to banter, but aren't you afraid the customers will get impatient? Fine, you two wait here. Take care of the others first."

Then, tilting his head back, he waved to the chefs at the stove behind him, "Don't rush the order for the third hall, do the other things first."

This caused quite a stir. The other waiters who were serving dishes actually abandoned their brotherhood and immediately crowded in front of the food counter.

"Brother Li, go ahead with mine. I just want a stir-fried chestnut mushroom, mine will be quick!"

"Master Li, my Kung Pao Chicken and I are already plated. Please give it to me first, as this dish should be eaten right away."

"Brother Li, is my braised turtle with rock sugar ready yet? The customer is getting impatient, could you please serve it to me first..."

As for the two who were just bantering, they were truly dumbfounded now.

There's no other reason than that the speed at which the dishes are served directly affects their work efficiency and is related to their performance evaluation.

Let's not even talk about how much they'll be fined if customers get impatient and complain.

Even if no one complains, it affects the table turnover rate, and they can't afford to lose bonuses as a result.

Given how booming the restaurant business is right now, a difference of just one bonus level could mean a difference of tens of thousands of yen, equivalent to a year's salary in their country.

How could they not care?
So at this point, they felt regret and wished they could slap themselves a few times.

Alright, nobody hates money, so they quickly apologized and begged the chef not to hold it against them.

What is this called?
This is called being sharp-tongued and clumsy, fooling others, and reaping what you sow.

However, on the other hand, they were absolutely right about one thing: there were so many beautiful Japanese women in the Golden Hall that it was truly dazzling.

Putting everything else aside, just look at these waiters who come to the kitchen to buy ingredients. Every time they walk out of the kitchen, they always subconsciously glance at the bar a few times.

why?
Because of the basic human needs of food and sex, and because that place is always frequented by hostesses and madams from Ginza.

For these young men from China, the elegantly dressed and meticulously made-up Japanese women were indeed quite attractive.

Today, in particular, the restaurant is doing even better business than usual, and the bar is also more crowded with women than usual, with at least a dozen people gathered there at the moment.

Those who don't know might think this is a beauty pageant for Ginza hostesses and madams; who could resist watching?

Even at this very moment, Chiemi and Yoko Mochizuki from the Peony Nightclub have temporarily left their seats and are heading to the bar together, wanting to join in the fun.

However, their feelings were completely different.

"Madam, what's going on at the bar? If we go there, will we really be able to contact the restaurant manager?"

Yoko Mochizuki was quite surprised.

First of all, she never expected to see a scene inside the restaurant that was even more unbelievable than the queue outside.

Secondly, she didn't know what the people there were doing, let alone Chiemi's intentions.

You should know that Chiemi brought me here under the pretense of contacting a restaurant manager for the two company presidents.

She now has serious doubts about whether Chiemi can really keep her promises.

However, this kind of scene was clearly commonplace for Chiemi. She smiled nonchalantly and said, "Don't worry about anything. Just watch what I do. As I said before, this is a branch of the Crimson Cloud Club, so we have many privileges here. As for the bar, don't be surprised. The people gathered there are actually members of the Crimson Cloud faction just like us. I'm taking you there so you can learn about some of the special rules here, and also get to know these sisters. We'll be dealing with each other a lot in the future, helping each other out."

Chiemi's words were certainly well-intentioned, but she was still keeping everyone in suspense.

Therefore, Yoko Mochizuki could not truly understand it, and instead, it only increased her doubts.

Can people in this industry really help each other?
Although they all seem to be in the same system, even working together in the same club, the female public relations staff will still play mind games with each other.

To be honest, Yoko Mochizuki really thinks that Chiemi is somewhat naive.

However, since she was living under someone else's roof, she was very clear about her position and would not be foolish enough to question anything to their face.

In this situation, she could only do her duty and wait and see.

She even deliberately took a half step back and stood discreetly behind Chiemi.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they approached, they received a very warm welcome and friendly greetings.

"Chiemi, you're here today too. Is your kimono newly made? It's so beautiful."

"Hey Chiemi, it's been a long time! Don't just focus on the shop's business, come out sometime and let's have some tea together."

"Haha, Chiemi, you look great! You're getting more and more like a madam. You must be having a good time lately, right?"

Those who had been chatting and laughing at the bar all greeted Chie-mi one by one, their tone neither perfunctory nor sarcastic, but genuinely full of goodwill.

Some people also noticed Mochizuki Yoko, and looked her up and down with a grin, "Oh my, Chiemi, is this a new employee at your shop? She looks pretty good."

All of this made Yoko Mochizuki quite uncomfortable, because she had never seen colleagues get along so well before.

So much so that, despite being a senior figure among Ginza madams, she felt somewhat awkward and at a loss in front of these younger colleagues.

That's not all. In particular, Chie-mi took the initiative to publicly disclose her qualifications, which made her feel even more embarrassed and awkward.

"It's so nice to see everyone here today. Well then, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce Ms. Mochizuki Yoko. She has indeed just joined my Peony Club, but I should clarify that Ms. Mochizuki is actually a veteran in the industry. She's been famous for a long time. Not only is she a graduate of a prestigious university, but she also became the top hostess at a Ginza club very early on. Later, she even opened her own Flower Sea Nightclub, becoming a madam in Ginza even earlier than us. As you can see, she is a beautiful woman with both talent and looks. If it weren't for this economic downturn, someone as talented as her wouldn't have condescended to work at my club. Therefore, she will be my assistant from now on, helping me manage Peony. I hope you will all take good care of her."

To be honest, Yoko Mochizuki felt a little ashamed at first.

She subconsciously thought that Chiemei's detailed account of her past to these people was essentially a way of using her current downfall to highlight her own success.

However, as she listened, she changed her mind.

Because she didn't expect that Chiemi was actually expressing her high regard for her and not treating her as an ordinary subordinate.

Moreover, in this context, it's tantamount to publicly appointing her as the second madam of Peony.

What kindness! What trust!
Especially after she finished speaking, the other madams all congratulated and appreciated her, showing her goodwill, which made her feel a genuine warmth and a long-lost sense of belonging.

"Ah, so you used to be the madam of Flower Sea. Welcome, welcome! I really didn't expect that. I'm Ozawa Aki from Silver Moon Nightclub. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Kawanishi Izumi from the Spring Night Club. Hello, Ms. Mochizuki. To be honest, you looked familiar to me earlier. It seems Chiemi really has good taste, finding someone like you to help her. I'm so envious, what should I do?"

"Miss Mochizuki, I'm Sayaka from Maya Bar. Welcome to our Crimson Mist Clan. It's quite a coincidence, isn't it? If you have time, please come visit my bar and give me some pointers..."

Faced with such warm hospitality, Yoko Mochizuki blushed and stepped forward, bowing deeply to everyone in a graceful manner to express her gratitude.

"I am Yoko Mochizuki. I am very grateful to the madam for her kindness, and I am also very honored to meet you all today. Thank you. In any case, I am still a newcomer in front of you all, and I hope you will continue to guide me in the future."

To be honest, her blushing wasn't because she was shy, but because she felt ashamed of her malicious speculation about Chiemi earlier.

Therefore, this humble and somewhat shy attitude further gained the recognition of others.

These madams all felt that she was not the kind of person who thought highly of herself, and that she knew how to be grateful.

Therefore, some people made the following proposal.

"Everyone, since Chiemi brought Ms. Mochizuki today and values ​​her so much, we should at least show our appreciation with some actions. How about this, let them skip the queue and register first? What do you all think?"

Immediately, voices of approval arose one after another, and others expressed their support.

Chiemi was overjoyed and thanked Yoko Mochizuki along with her.

To be honest, Yoko Mochizuki was quite bewildered.

Because she knew that she still didn't know why everyone had gathered there, she couldn't understand the meaning of this human connection.

Fortunately, having reached this point, she was actually very close to figuring out everything.

The next second, Chiemi, exercising her privileges, pulled her to stand in front of the bar and personally demonstrated to her the purpose of the bar, explaining why everyone was gathered there.

"Could you please create a new account for us? We are from the Peony Club. Please write the new account name as 'Mochizuki Yoko.' She is dining with three people today, at table number 33 in Hall 2. Also, because her guests are interested in purchasing your restaurant's glass bonsai or obtaining the maker's contact information, I would like to request that the restaurant manager meet with our guests and present them with a bottle of champagne."

As soon as she finished speaking, the bartender in charge of recording readily agreed.

"Okay, please let me repeat it for you. Peony Club, Mochizuki Yoko, Hall 2, No. 33, the customer is interested in purchasing glass bonsai, right? They need the restaurant manager to provide a bottle of champagne as a gift. Alright, in that case, I'll immediately notify the manager via walkie-talkie. You can go back and wait. The manager will fulfill your request as soon as possible. As for the commission for this order, as usual, you can collect it as early as tomorrow when the restaurant opens..."

That's not all. As soon as Chiemi and the bartender finished their business, the other madams came over to congratulate her.

"Chiemi, it seems you really made a good choice in selecting this assistant. This will bring you extra business. It seems that with such a capable assistant, your club's operation will be no problem."

"Miss Mochizuki, you're amazing! Keep up the good work, and I'm sure it won't be long before you own your shop again."

It has to be said that these words contain a great deal of information.

Although Yoko Mochizuki was all smiles and exchanging pleasantries with everyone, she didn't really understand much.

Aside from knowing that the two clients' requests had been fulfilled, I felt increasingly lost and confused about everything else.

What... commission? Free champagne? Extra business? I can even own my own store?

What exactly are they talking about?
What the hell is going on?

It must be said that even though she is a very knowledgeable person, she couldn't process the situation on the spot.

It seems that unless Chiemi personally explains it to her, she will inevitably need to spend some time pondering it to truly grasp the full meaning of this conversation. (End of Chapter)