America's Greatest Villain: I Defeat Magic with Magic

"Please hurry up with the sweet and sour pork for table number 8, the customers are already asking about it!"

Mina Hoshino stood at the entrance to Rongdingge's kitchen, loudly urging Zhou Xingye, the sous chef, who was stir-frying over a high flame.

She has been working as a waitress at this restaurant for three days now.

Although I only spend two or three hours each day after class in the evening to help out at the store.

But the high-intensity work still left her physically and mentally exhausted.

After all, this restaurant is incredibly popular; every night, there are long queues at the food stalls outside.

Even dining in sometimes requires a wait.

Mina Hoshino comes from a well-off family, so supporting her to attend a private university like USC was not a problem at all.

Therefore, she had absolutely no prior experience with similar part-time jobs.

So after arriving here, faced with seemingly endless dishes to wash, she wanted to give up more than once.

But when she thought of Chen Yuan's promise, she gritted her teeth and persevered.

After all, she had gathered quite a bit of information from the school over the past few days.

With the implementation of the "Life Sciences Commercialization Assessment," also known as the "Spark Program," most students in the School of Life Sciences formed small teams, hoping to challenge the $5 cutoff through collective effort.

However, in the absence of a strong leader, most small teams fall into endless internal strife as soon as they are formed.

Many teams have fought tooth and nail to determine who should be in charge.

After all, those who can get into this university are all elites of America. How could they possibly be willing to be subordinate to others?

Unless you're a top student who ranks high and whose success is solely based on grades, no one will concede to anyone else.

This is why Mina Hoshino would rather become a restaurant waitress than leave to follow Chen Yuan.

After all, Chen Yuan's achievements speak for themselves.

Given how popular this restaurant is, it wouldn't be difficult at all to convert its revenue into a portion of the $5 target, provided the right approach is found!

More importantly, Chen Yuan actually paid her a salary.

$15 per hour, plus tips.

You can earn around $100 a night.

Although it wasn't a lot, it was the first time in her life that Mina Hoshino had earned real money through her own efforts.

Moreover, I heard that some of the store's long-term employees earn even higher hourly wages!

Su Nian, in particular, who is known as the "Fried Chicken Beauty," earns several hundred dollars a day just in tips!

The thought of Su Nian filled Hoshino Mina with a deep sense of frustration and discouragement.

She originally thought that with her cute and innocent appearance, she could easily make a science and engineering guy like Chen Yuan fall at her feet.

But after arriving at Rongding Pavilion, she realized that she had been too naive.

Standing at the snack window, Su Nian was no less attractive or less elegant than her.

Even Emily, the white girl who worked shifts with Su Nian, attracted more attention from the guests with her sunny and hot personality.

In comparison, Mina Hoshino is just average.

Having lost her biggest support, she could only stay in the store and work there, hoping to get through the so-called probationary period as soon as possible.

Just as Mina Hoshino was carrying the freshly cooked sweet and sour pork to table number 8, she suddenly heard another guest at a nearby table shout:

"This is what you call authentic Chinese cuisine? The cloying sweetness completely ruins the original flavor of the chicken! It's absolutely awful!"

The loud voice came from a white man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He was holding up his phone in one hand and saying:

"This is an insult to my taste buds! I demand a full refund, or I'll write you a terrible review on Yelp!"

Emily should have been the one to deal with these difficult white diners.

However, Su Nian had classes all day today, so Emily was extremely busy at the snack window outside.

However, the white customer's voice was so loud that it disturbed Emily, who was cooking the grilled squid.

"What happened?"

Emily turned and glanced into the lobby, quickly noticing the diner holding his phone.

Yang Qiu was trying to calm the other party down, but it was obvious that the other party was there to cause trouble.

"Damn bitch!"

The experienced Emily immediately understood what had happened, and she muttered a curse under her breath.

"To deal with trash like this who tries to dine and dash, you should kick him out!"

Hu Dan, who was helping Emily, frowned and quickly pulled back the restless Emily.

"I recognize him; he seems to be a fairly well-known local food review livestreamer! If you make a move, he'll definitely film you and post it online!"

Emily's expression stiffened. She knew very well that these so-called food vloggers who would take photos and videos with their phones at the drop of a hat were the most troublesome.

Just then, another waiter walked over carrying a bottle of sparkling beverage.

It's Mina Hoshino!

"That Japanese girl?" Emily asked, somewhat surprised. "Is she going to help Yang Qiu?"

Hu Dan, however, felt somewhat uncertain:

"She's only been here a few days, and she's not familiar with many of the procedures yet. I'll go check on her!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Mina Hoshino placed the sparkling beverage in her hand on the white diner's table.

Then she bent down and did a standard 90-degree bow!

When Mina Hoshino looked up again, her eyes instantly turned red, and her voice trembled with a heartbreaking intensity:

"Sir, I'm so sorry! This dish is my responsibility. I'm an international student who just arrived in Los Angeles and I'm working part-time here to pay for my tuition. I've only been here for three days, so I'm not familiar with many of the dishes."

"Due to my mistake, I ordered the original Kung Pao Chicken instead of the regular Kung Pao Chicken, so you weren't able to enjoy authentic Chinese cuisine. I'm truly sorry!"

"If my mistake caused you to give the restaurant a bad review, the boss will definitely fire me today... I haven't even saved up enough for the rent of my shared basement apartment this month..."

As she spoke, large tears began to slide down Hoshino Mina's cheeks.

The white anchor was clearly looking for trouble, but he had never seen anything like this before.

He quickly turned off his phone, looking somewhat flustered, and said:

"But if you deliver the wrong dish, then it's your problem..."

Mina Hoshino bowed again and then said:

"So consider this sparkling drink my apology. If that's not enough, I'm willing to use my entire day's wages from washing dishes to pay for this dish. Please, please don't leave a bad review, okay?"

Faced with a "pure foreign student" who looked at him with weak and helpless eyes, and even offered to pay for his meal with her meager hard-earned money.

This white food blogger, who was originally planning to cause trouble, suddenly became incredibly compassionate!

He waved his hand somewhat awkwardly, then coughed and said:

"...Actually, the dish didn't taste that bad. A sparkling drink would have been enough. I'll pay for the meal myself."

As he spoke, he took out his wallet and pulled out $40 in cash.

Then he thought about it again and took out another $10 as a tip for Mina Hoshino.

"Thank you so much!" Mina Hoshino smiled through her tears. "Please come back to our restaurant next time and try our authentic Chinese-style Kung Pao Chicken!"

However, just as she took the money and turned her back to the diners...

The delicate expression on her face, which had been tearful just a moment ago, quickly turned into utter indifference.

If it weren't for the tear stains on her face, probably no one would have been able to tell that she had just been crying.

Emily and Hu Dan, who were not far away, were completely stunned.

They were truly amazed by Hoshino Mina's ability to get customers to obediently hand over their money without using profanity!