The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

Good morning, my little lucky cat!

With a tinkling sound of a wind chime, accompanied by a vibrant voice, the glass door of Corner Tea House was pushed open.

Chen Xing, carrying a large shoulder bag, brought in the wind from outside.

Inside the shop, Ye Shu was wiping the tabletop of the booth by the window with a rag.

No one has used it for more than half a month. Although the doors and windows are closed, the downtown area is covered with a layer of dust.

Hearing the noise, he looked up and smiled at Chen Xing:

"Good morning, Sister Chen Xing."

Chen Xing walked in, placed his handbag on the bar counter, walked up to Ye Shu, slightly raised his head, and carefully examined Ye Shu's face for a few seconds.

"Um……"

She touched her chin and nodded:

"The food was good for Chinese New Year, your face looks rounder. And why does it feel like it's been such a long time since I've seen you?"

Upon hearing that her face had become rounder, Ye Shu raised her hand and touched her face, feeling that it did indeed have some extra flesh.

"Really? It'll only take about half a month."

"I feel it's more than that."

Chen Xing turned and walked towards the bar, saying to Ye Shu as he went:

"I feel like it will take at least a month."

Ye Shu didn't refute, knowing that Chen Xing was joking, and continued to wipe the table with her head down.

Chen Xing walked behind the bar, casually stuffed his large shoulder bag under it, then clapped his hands and said with great enthusiasm:

"The first day of business in the new year should be a special occasion. Come on, Xiao Ye, let me show you my secret technique."

"What secret method is it?"

After wiping the table, Ye Shu asked, holding a rag in his hand.

"Let me treat you to a cup of coffee with a strong artistic element."

How tall is it?

"Third or fourth floor, that's so high."

Chen Xing looked down and fiddled with the coffee machine, then pressed the switch, and the coffee machine began to preheat.

However, just as Chen Xing turned to get the coffee, the coffee machine, which had been humming, suddenly made a sound like an old-fashioned tape recorder ripping a cassette, then squeaked and went out.

The shop immediately fell silent.

Chen Xing was still holding the jar of coffee beans in his hand when he turned to stare at the coffee machine and blinked.

"Huh?"

She put down the jar, bent down, looked at the coffee machine from left to right, and even put her ear to it to listen to its heartbeat.

Without a sound.

She pressed the switch a few more times, but the coffee machine still didn't respond.

"What happened?"

Chen Xing frowned slightly, then used the most primitive method humans use to repair electrical malfunctions: he raised his hand and patted the coffee machine twice.

"Hey! Wake up! Time to get to work! Get to work!"

Chen Xing tried to issue the boss's orders to the coffee machine, but to little avail.

Ye Shu, watching from the side, asked:

"Sister Chen Xing, could it be... broken?"

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Chen Xing immediately turned his head, made a shushing gesture at Ye Shu, and looked very serious:

"Opening the door on the first day of the New Year, may everything be prosperous and auspicious! How could the machine break down? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

She refused to accept this ominous outcome and, defiantly, began fiddling with the coffee machine's switches and knobs, even unplugging and replugging the power cord.

Chen Xing worked with lightning speed, but the coffee machine remained perfectly steady.

A few minutes later, Chen Xing finally gave up the futile struggle, put his hands on his hips, and sighed at the malfunctioning coffee machine.

"It's truly a case of a startup collapsing halfway through."

She accepted it, walked to the small blackboard that was usually placed by the door to write today's recommendations, picked up the chalk, thought for a moment, and began to write.

[Opening for the New Year, Italian coffee machine temporarily unavailable]

Temporarily not available for sale: Latte, Cappuccino, Americano, Flat White and all other Italian espresso-based beverages.

Normal supply: hand-drip coffee, cold brew coffee, various teas, milk, and juice.

Please understand, repairs in progress~ (´･ω･`)**

Looking at the words on the blackboard, Ye Shu already had a good idea of ​​what was going on.

Based on this alone, today's customer traffic is estimated to be half of what it used to be, or even worse.

After all, the customers who usually come to this shop in the morning and at noon are people who work nearby and are just looking for a cup of coffee to keep them going.

"well……"

Chen Xing put down the chalk, dusted off his hands, walked back to the bar, looked at the coffee machine that had been idle for a while, and sighed.

Ten minutes later, Ye Shu brought out all the ingredients needed for the other drinks and placed them on the worktable behind her.

Chen Xing had just hung up the phone.

"I asked at several repair shops, and the fastest repairman wouldn't be able to come until the afternoon."

She pursed her lips and placed her phone on the bar counter:

"How unlucky! Instead of a good start, we got a bad start."

Ye Shu put down what she was holding and comforted her:

"Sister Chen Xing, look on the bright side. Maybe God saw that you had just returned to work and was worried that you would be too tired on the first day, so He gave you a buffer period to let you get used to it first."

"I thank God, but I'd rather not have this buffer period. This buffer period not only means losing half a day's business, but also having to pay several hundred dollars for repairs."

Chen Xing's face fell, and he pointed to the hand-drip coffee equipment on the control panel behind him, saying:

"Besides, hand-drip coffee is more tiring!"

Despite saying that, Chen Xing still walked to the door, patted his face in front of the glass door, cheered himself up, flipped the "Ready" sign hanging on the doorknob, and started business.

Opening for business doesn't mean customers will come immediately.

Reality isn't a short video; there are no customers staking out the location beforehand.

On the morning of the first working day of the new year, the streets were mostly filled with pedestrians hurrying along, and few people had the leisure to push open the door of a shop with a broken coffee machine.

Chen Xing and Ye Shu sat facing each other across the bar, each holding a freshly brewed cup of hot tea.

"Xiao Ye".

Chen Xing blew on the tea leaves in his teacup, then suddenly remembered something and looked up at Ye Shu:

"I remember you set up a short video account for our store before the Lunar New Year, right? How's it going? Does it have the potential to become a popular online store?"

Hearing this, Ye Shu reluctantly took out her phone, opened the account page, and handed it to Chen Xing:

"See for yourself. The account has been created, and quite a few videos have been posted, but it's not very popular, you could say it's a bit of a flop. These days, if you don't do something outrageous or exaggerated, nobody wants to watch."

Chen Xing took the phone and saw that the account's profile picture was the corner logo in the store, the name was Corner Tea Diary, and the number of followers was only a little over a thousand.

Opening the follower list, you'll find many names like "So-and-so's Chinese Classical Wisdom" and "AAA Building Materials Brother Wang," which are obviously bot accounts.

He did post quite a few videos, but each video only got a few hundred views, very few likes, and the comment section was completely silent.

Occasionally, we'd follow and like each other's posts for a day or two.

Chen Xing randomly opened a video. It was shot on a mobile phone, showing the store's environment from a first-person perspective. Finally, the video showed a ready-made drink on the bar. The background music was the store's soothing style. Then, the logo slowly appeared at the corner, accompanied by the words "Turning the corner, you'll find beauty; tea warms your heart."

The video has a good overall quality and a relaxed pace. It's clear that the filming and editing were done with care, and it fits the atmosphere of the store very well.

Chen Xing raised an eyebrow after reading it:

"Great job, Xiao Ye! You took some really good photos, and you even came up with a slogan for our shop. Not bad at all."

Ye Shu took another sip of tea:

"But it's no use if we just think about it ourselves. Nowadays, people like excitement, they like to watch the plot and the contrast. What we're doing is too serious and not exciting enough."

Chen Xing made several more videos, all of which were basically the same.

Indeed, it's very refined, like a coffee shop, but it's also very bland.

Chen Xing put down his phone, propped his chin on his hand, and looked around the store. Finally, his eyes fell on Ye Shu. After looking him up and down, a flash of inspiration struck Chen Xing.

"Um……"

She stared at Ye Shu, stroking her chin, intently observing:

"Xiao Ye, you're saying everyone loves seeing contrasts these days, right? They love watching the drama unfold."

Ye Shu felt a sense of foreboding as she was stared at.

"It seems to be... especially the kind of unexpected contrast, or the funny jokes."

"Then how about..."

Chen Xing raised an eyebrow at Ye Shu:

"Why don't you try dancing?"