I will never give in to Miss Death

【Bingling: Photo 2022051051934.jpg】

[Physics Duck: Damn, Kirito, Maple, and Kamen Rider are store clerks, this is too much]

[Tequila: Is this okay? You don’t have a work permit, be careful of being reported]

What surprised me was that I didn’t know who started this group of people, but some customers in the morning and at noon actually directly participated in the “construction work” of the coffee shop.

Some help the sweeping robot to clean, some help comb the cats' hair, and some help new customers introduce the store's services and recommend food.

From the photos sent back by Bing Ling, I can see that Kirito, wearing a Kirito costume and carrying a lightsaber, is busy combing a cat's hair with a comb. Two people in Kamen Rider suits are standing at the door of the store with the security guard. When someone comes, they put on an "Long brother invites you to dinner" look to signal the customer to come in. There are even many girls in sailor uniforms and lolita clothes cleaning up fallen leaves outside the store.

After more than an hour, the coconut trees outside the coffee shop were also planted. Because the machine cut down a lot of weeds and the installation of the bracket also produced a lot of garbage, many strangers helped to clean up.

They are...

I quickly flipped through the messages from the readers group -

【Kill all Kirito: It's okay, we are just helping with cleaning and doing some odd jobs. We are not directly involved in serving customers and do not come into contact with customers. It's okay even if someone comes to check】

[Maple: Cats are so cute! ]

[Bing Ling: I originally thought Nuo'er was the store's signature maid, but if you look closely, Miss Xia Mo is very pretty! ]

[Bing Ling: Nuo'er is short, so she is more noticeable as a little loli. Yin Xiamo is the kind of girl who is almost perfect. Her face and voice give me a feeling of being in a fantasy novel... like an elf. Very dreamy.]

[Physics Duck: Xia Mo has super strong leadership ability. I feel like it would be no problem for her to be the store manager.]

Eh?

Miss Death...Yin Xiamo is leading the coffee shop?

After reading the group message, I thought about it and called Yin Xiamo.

"Hello? Noel? Is our store manager okay?"

The phone was connected after just one ring. I knew that it was the mobile app edited by Ouyang Xue that worked - each of us maids in the store received a cat-ear headset with a microphone. This app can directly connect to the store's customer ordering system, and can also connect to each other to enable conversation. If a call comes in while I'm working, the signal will also be connected to the headset. I only need to click on the phone to answer the call to free my hands and speak through the microphone.

"Probably nothing."

Sitting beside Ouyang Xue's bed, I glanced at the instrument that kept beeping at the bedside and said, "The gastric bleeding has stopped, and the fever has subsided. She just needs to be hospitalized for a few days."

"That's good. I told you, she'll be fine."

Yin Xiamo seemed to be talking to me while walking. I could clearly hear the sound of her small shoes hitting the floor. "Leave this to me. If Ouyang Xue wakes up, tell her that Xiamo is in the coffee shop and tell her not to worry and to take good care of herself."

"Is it really okay?"

"Noer, you know me."

Perhaps she sensed my uncertainty, Yin Xiamo looked a little unconvinced: "Don't even mention commanding a small coffee shop employee. The God War back then was much more lively than this. There were dragons, orcs, the Scourge... hundreds of thousands and millions of people, and I was able to manage them in an orderly manner, not to mention..."

Then Elodie's voice came over: "Okay, okay, stop being so immature, Xia Mo's table 28 is already five minutes overdue, are you sure you don't want to go over and take a look?"

"go immediately!"

"That's it for now. Don't think too much and take good care of Ouyang Xue."

"Ah."

"Cough cough cough..."

I don’t know if the noise was too loud on my end, but just as I put down the phone, I saw Ouyang Xue on the hospital bed cough lightly several times and then woke up.

“Is it peak dining time?”

The first thing Ouyang Xue said after waking up was to turn to me beside the bed and said weakly and anxiously: "Nuo'er, you...why are you here? You are the signboard of the coffee shop, you..."

"It's okay, Sister Ouyang, Xia Mo can hold on."

I quickly came over and said, "Just focus on taking care of yourself."

"Well……"

Perhaps she also realized something, Ouyang Xue's mood suddenly became much lower. She lowered her head and sighed softly.

"I've been busy for so long, but the result is still... I still haven't accomplished anything..."

"Just like back then..."

"..."

……

No. 130 Missing someone takes time to slowly recover

One could clearly feel Ouyang Xue's loss as she lay on the hospital bed.

The warm, fiery red sunset shone in obliquely from the window not far away, bringing some light to the open space between the four beds in the ward.

"I should have arranged a few more people to deal with this emergency..."

Ouyang Xue, who was lying on the bed, spoke in a very low voice. She looked at the needle in her hand and some patches on her chest, then looked at the instrument that was constantly beeping at the bedside, and her eyes fell on me: "Nuo'er, what time is it now?"

I just looked at my phone and blurted out, "Five-thirty."

"Is this the Fifth Hospital?"

"Ah."

"Then you go back first, I'm fine."

Hearing this, Ouyang Xue showed an obviously anxious expression on her face: "You are our signboard in that promotional video. On the first day of the new store opening, you'd better..."

"It would be better to go back to the store so that you can attract more customers?"

I interrupted Ouyang Xue and said, "Sister Ouyang, after you woke up, you didn't even ask me what disease I had."

"Ok?"

Ouyang Xue seemed confused by my somewhat "tough" words: "What's wrong? Isn't it a cold and I forgot to drink water and got heatstroke when I stood in the sun?"

"You are mainly suffering from gastric bleeding."

I sighed softly: "Excessive gastric bleeding caused anemia, high fever, lack of water, a series of factors led to the fainting."

"Sister Ouyang, you don't take care of yourself."

Although I had worked a little hard in the past because of unemployment and lack of money, I only stayed up too late at that time. I would still sleep when I was sleepy and eat three meals a day. Even if I had nothing to eat, I would cook some rice porridge to drink. I was not as desperate as Ouyang Xue.

"Gastric bleeding?"

After hearing me say this, Ouyang Xue was stunned for a moment and then revealed an expression of "I see": "It seems that what is said on the Internet is true."

I was a little confused: "Online?"

"I had a stomach ulcer before. I searched online and found that doctors said that if you don't pay attention, it will develop into bleeding or even perforation."

Ouyang Xue glanced at the young man who was playing with his phone in the bed next to her: "So what does the doctor say about this disease now?"

I was silent for a while: "The doctor said you need to stay in the hospital for a few days and let you rest more."

"No."

Ouyang Xue blurted out: "The coffee shop's advertisement has been sent out, and the event has just started. If I'm hospitalized at this time, all my previous efforts will be in vain..."

"Then what about it?"

I deliberately used an impatient tone: "If you don't cure your illness and go back, your old illness will relapse, and you will faint again and need to be sent back by ambulance again?"

"At least hold on for a few days."

Ouyang Xue was obviously not fully conscious: "Today is Friday, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are weekends, there will be more people coming to the store, we will just work hard for those two days, as long as we can get through those two days..."

"Sister Ouyang!"

This was the first time I felt so helpless to someone: "Don't you trust us at all?"

"This is not a question of trust or not. The coffee shop can do better with me here. We can do better..."

Ouyang Xue didn't dare to look at my face. "The first few days of opening the store are the most critical. If we do it well, the customer flow of the coffee shop will increase. Since we can do our best, we should work hard to do it."

"..."

This time, I didn't follow her lead.

The heartbeat monitor on the cabinet next to the bed was still beeping regularly.

The IV connected to Ouyang Xue's left hand was swaying slightly in the setting sun, and the small round bottle above the metal pole seemed to reflect a little rainbow due to the dripping liquid.

"Sister Ouyang..."

After about ten seconds of silence, I slowly said, "Are you short of money?"

"what?"

As if she knew what I was going to say next, Ouyang Xue smiled bitterly and said, "No, I just... I just don't want to lose."

"Who did you lose to?"

"Lost to...myself."

"Sister Ouyang has been through a lot of things before, right?"

I pulled the small chair behind me forward, took Ouyang Xue's hand that was receiving an IV drip, and put my hand under her palm, gently holding the slightly cold adult hand.

"Can you tell me about it? For example, the virtual idol incident before - what happened in the company at that time? Why did they fire you after making you famous?"

Master Wang talked to me about Ouyang Xue before. He said that he heard from Ouyang Xue’s colleagues that this older sister’s dream since childhood was to become an idol. After entering society, she has been working hard for this dream. She once became a virtual idol for a period of time, but was eventually fired by the company.

"Where did you hear all this?"

My words made Ouyang Xue look somewhat helpless: "Did Li Chen tell you?"

I said coquettishly, "Don't worry about it, just tell me."

When I came in just now, the doctor also told me that if Ouyang Xue woke up, it would be best to talk to her more, just chatting or something, which could help the patient divert her attention and relieve her mood.

"Children are too curious, aren't they?"

Perhaps touched by my curious expression, Ouyang Xue said helplessly: "It can't be considered as a dismissal. It's just that I felt tired and didn't renew the contract. At that time, some...how should I put it, unpleasant things happened."

"My dream when I was a kid was to be a star. At that time, there was a TV in the grocery store in our village, and it often showed programs about stars or idols. I imitated the stars and idols in the programs and practiced dancing. Every day on the way home from school, I would do long-distance running, stretch my ligaments, and keep in shape."

"Later, when I entered the society... idols and stars were too far away for me. I worked as a worker for a while and saw advertisements recruiting anchors in several local KTVs. I consulted them and they said that if the anchors did well, they could be sent to the head office to become virtual idols. Their company does this, specializing in training virtual idols and then sending them to various large companies to be poster girls or something. They said this is popular in society now."

"At that time, I didn't understand. I thought virtual idols were also idols, and should be similar to celebrities. I signed a contract with them without thinking, and worked as an anchor for one or two years. At the beginning, my salary was very low because I didn't want to cooperate with them to deceive people. I was just a playmate."

Ouyang Xue looked at me and said, "You know what it means to play with someone, right?"

I nodded: "I know."

"That company that trains anchors does just that. They have a very large industry chain, and companionship is just a part of it. They recruit skilled anchors, as well as girls with nice voices and characteristics, and then use their photos to operate the companionship accounts. If someone places an order, the skilled male anchors will operate the computer, and the girls with nice voices and good looks will be responsible for chatting. So when someone orders a female companion, they are actually ordering two people. The skilled one doesn't talk, and the one who talks isn't playing the game."

Ouyang Xue said in a hoarse voice: "Then I didn't want to do this, I felt it was a lie, so the company arranged for me to practice dancing and singing in the brand virtual anchor division. This department is the coldest, the most tiring and the least profitable. It's similar to training and talent shows. Every day when we go to the company, we just do cleaning and logistics. We are arranged to practice dancing only when we have nothing else to do. Then the leaders send our dancing and singing practice videos to the outside world, so that companies that have a demand for virtual idol poster girls can buy us out all at once."

"what?"

I didn’t quite understand what he was saying: “Buyout? Can people still buy it?”

“So it’s a bit like electives and training.”

Ouyang Xue lowered her head, as if lost in some memories: "If some larger brands are interested in the ACG or virtual anchor field, they will talk to the company I signed with, buy girls like us who have been trained in the dance field to operate on their side, and occasionally post a marginal video to harvest traffic... For example, the company that bought me is mainly engaged in computer sales. They will arrange for me to do live broadcasts, bring goods and introduce products on large websites like Tongmeng.com, set up a virtual poster girl image, and I will broadcast live there when I go to work, and the company's online store address will be posted in the live broadcast room."

"I probably understand."

I thought about it and said, "So what you mean is that the company that Sister Ouyang signed with at the beginning mainly does virtual idol training, and then sells the trained virtual idols to companies that need ready-made virtual idols? Similar to outsourcing?"

"That's about it."

Ouyang Xue nodded: "I actually didn't learn much in that idol training company. I was just doing odd jobs in the company, and there were very few opportunities to practice dancing and singing. It was almost like... they were attracted by our appearance or voice, signed us first, paid us very low wages, and then found an opportunity to sell us to others."

Isn’t this just the middlemen among virtual idols making a profit from the price difference?

"If Sister Ouyang worked as a clerk at that computer company, would she get any commission?"

"Very little, I could earn a few dollars for each computer I sold. They required me to work 10 hours a day and I had almost no holidays. Every day after I went on air, I would wear the image of a virtual idol they had preset, wear motion capture clothing, dance, or chat with the audience and introduce products. At that time, I knew nothing about computers, so after get off work every day, I would teach myself relevant knowledge and learn about their brand and products..."

At this point, Ouyang Xue seemed to recall some past events and was silent for a few seconds: "Later, due to some interest issues, the company I signed the contract with and the company that bought me as a poster girl broke down, and my contract expired, so I didn't continue working there."

"Eh?"

I was a little surprised that the story ended so quickly: "Didn't they say that Sister Ouyang helped the company create millions of dollars in value every month? Why didn't they continue to sign?"

"What do you mean by millions a month? That's getting more and more exaggerated. Li Chen told you that, right?"