22
Big Order
The door was slightly ajar.
Jiang Qi and Liu Lan crouched in a blind spot, clearly seeing six girls inside lounging in their chairs like six well-fed, long-haired fat cats sunbathing with their bellies up. Four were still holding bowls, while two clutched chopsticks, all radiating a carefree, work-be-damned bliss.
Liu Lan propped her head up, her professional integrity and survival instinct preventing her from pulling out her phone to capture the scene. She merely clicked her tongue in amazement.
“Jiang Qi, do you think Uncle Huang’s noodles taste especially good when playing this script? I don’t remember eating like this last night—and I had three bowls!”
Jiang Qi found this reasonable: “There must be a buff effect when playing the script.”
Liu Lan let out a longing sigh: “I really want to play this script once. Eating noodles afterward would definitely be amazing.”
“You already know the plot in advance. Without the surprise and shock factor, the effect won’t be as good as theirs,” Jiang Qi poured cold water on her enthusiasm.
Liu Lan thought it over and agreed. Seeing that it was getting late, she quietly stood up and went downstairs to help clean up.
Jiang Qi remained crouched by the door for five more minutes until Jiang Wanwan suddenly called, startling him so much he nearly lost his balance and crashed the door open. He moved to the window to answer.
“Hey, bro, I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” Jiang Wanwan’s cheerful voice came through the phone.
Just from her tone, Jiang Qi could tell it would ultimately be good news. “Let’s hear the bad news first.”
“The bad news is that Gao Qin’s group can’t agree. Out of 39 people in their roller skating club, 11 aren’t joining the activity. Of the remaining 28, 7 don’t want to play the Murder Mystery Game and would rather go straight to karaoke at night. Among the 21 willing to play, 15 are beginners. And they all have different preferences—some want to play a Detective/Mystery Script, some an Emotional Script, and others want a faction script or Mechanism Book. Gao Qin is an experienced Murder Mystery Game player; she’s played almost every script in our shop except for a few super terrible ones even I found awful. So this almost fell through.”
“Almost?” Jiang Qi seized the key point.
“Exactly, all thanks to me!” Jiang Wanwan’s tone was full of pride. “Thanks to me brainwashing her every day in the dorm, hyping our shop as the best ever, Gao Qin changed her mind. But their team-building time has changed too—it’s now this Saturday afternoon at our shop!”
“This Saturday afternoon?” Jiang Qi was taken aback. Wasn’t that the same time as Wen Luo’s appointment?
“Yes, but choosing a script might be tricky. To be honest, our shop’s scripts are either too lame or too difficult. Those Detective/Mystery Scripts aren’t suitable for beginners. The Emotional Script we played last time was pretty good, but it’s hard to split 21 people. How about this: I’ll give you Gao Qin’s WeChat. Actually, I’ll just hand her my phone when I get back to the dorm. You can talk to her directly.”
Thirty seconds later, Gao Qin’s voice came through the phone.
“Hello, Wanwan’s brother. I’m Gao Qin.”
“Hi, just call me Jiang Qi.”
“That’s right. Wanwan probably already told you about my situation. I mainly wanted to discuss the script for the team-building event and the pricing with you. We have 21 people in total, and our club funds aren’t very ample, so we’d like a more discounted price.”
“I understand. Since you have a large group, I can offer you a 30% discount with complimentary snacks and drinks. I also have a recommendation for the script – our store just received an exclusive scenario that’s perfect for team-building. It accommodates 6 to 30 players and is from the same publisher as the emotional script you played last time. We just finished a session today and the feedback was excellent. Our current pricing is 138 per person.”
“Of course, if not everyone wants to play the same script, and some prefer detective/mystery scripts, I’ll send you the script list later. You can make your selections in advance and let me know.”
Gao Qin remained silent for a while. Jiang Qi guessed she was calculating the costs.
After a minute, Gao Qin said, “If it’s from the same publisher as last time, I think it should be fine. How about this – send me the script list first. I’ll discuss with the others now and give you a reply by tomorrow at the latest.”
“Okay.”
Gao Qin ended the call.
Soon, Jiang Wanwan shared Gao Qin’s WeChat contact with Jiang Qi. After adding and being accepted, Jiang Qi sent her the script list.
After finishing all this, Jiang Qi turned back to find that Zhou Yuan and her five friends had already gone downstairs, and the room had been tidied up.
When Jiang Qi went downstairs, Zhou Yuan’s group hadn’t left yet. They were sitting on the sofa enthusiastically praising the recent script to Huang Fugui and Liu Lan.
Seeing Jiang Qi come down, the outgoing Xu Qingrui asked with a smile, “Boss Jiang, it seems your business is doing quite well.”
Jiang Qi smiled, “It’s only decent during peak season. Summer vacation is coming up soon, after all.”
“But really, opening your shop in such an out-of-the-way location – if Zhou Yuan hadn’t been drunk and insisted on coming in the other day, I would have missed it completely. Zhou Yuan, you’re something else – having such a great shop right by your place and keeping it to yourself without telling me.”
Zhou Yuan protested loudly, “I hadn’t been here before either! I also came for the first time when I was drunk the other day.”
After chatting for a few more minutes, the ride-hailing car called by the round-faced girl arrived soon after, and they waved goodbye to everyone.
Within five minutes, the other group’s ride-hailing cars arrived one after another. After seeing all her friends off, Zhou Yuan also went home. With all the customers gone, Jiang Qi and the others prepared to close up and finish work.
Old John had been ready to leave early – he had already put back the detective script he was reading onto the shelf.
Just as Jiang Qi was about to turn off the lights, lock up, and leave the shop, Gao Qin sent a message.
Gao Qin: We’ve decided – 15 people will play “God of Cookery Competition,” and the other 6 will play “Nine.” Let me know how much deposit you need to reserve the rooms.
Jiang Qi told Gao Qin to just pay a 200-yuan deposit, then turned to look at Liu Lan, who was already walking home with light, cheerful steps, and called out to stop her.
“Lanlan, we have bookings for ‘God of Cookery Competition’ and ‘Nine’ on Saturday afternoon. My cousin’s session is at the same time. What kind of script is ‘Nine’? Figure out whether you’ll host it or if we should have Teacher John review it tomorrow and host it on Saturday.”
Whether it was Jiang Qi’s imagination or not, he felt Liu Lan’s movements pause, her step freezing mid-air for half a second.
Liu Lan turned back with an incredulous look, exclaiming in surprise, “‘Nine’?!”
Jiang Qi was baffled: “What’s wrong with this script?”
Liu Lan suddenly lost all desire to go home. With a sorrowful expression, she explained to her amateur boss: “This is a notorious perverted prison script. During the initial testing phase, it took over 10 hours just to complete the test run. My roommate had to leave, and everyone else gave up and dispersed. This terrible script contains 9 cases, 6 escape rooms, and 3 narrative twists. Although the logic is decent without obvious flaws, it’s extremely difficult. Just the debriefing alone takes one to two hours. It guarantees that ordinary new players will never want to play Murder Mystery Games again after experiencing it. Only hardcore players enjoy it—I’ve seen online reviews where playing for over ten hours is the norm.”
“This awful script has no performance elements or mechanisms, and very few clue cards. It’s just brute-forcing through the script. The Host Handbook is over 200 pages—it took me a full week to read it, and we only charge 98 per person. If it weren’t for the fact that we’d lose money by selling it without running at least one session, Sister Bing would have sold it long ago.”
“It looks like I’ll be serving a prison sentence at the shop on Saturday, and I can’t even afford to order takeout. Why is my life so miserable?” Liu Lan’s sorrow was practically overflowing.
“But if you’re hosting ‘Nine,’ what about my cousin’s group? The rest of us haven’t really read the other scripts. I’ve only gone through one beginner Detective Script and one Comedy Script,” Jiang Qi said, feeling somewhat troubled.
The most critical issue was that he had never hosted a game before—not only had he never hosted, he hadn’t even properly played one.
Liu Lan thought for a moment: “How about you let your cousin choose a script first, and then you or John can quickly read through it? Beginner scripts or Comedy Scripts are relatively easy to host. Some scripts are simple enough that even Wanwan can host them. If necessary, we can ask her to help—she’s filled in as a host before.”
Jiang Qi nodded, thinking this approach could work.
Just as he was about to turn off the lights and lock up for the second time, Old John, who was usually eager to leave work, suddenly spoke up: “I’ll do it.”
“Ah?” Both Jiang Qi and Liu Lan were taken aback.
Old John walked over to the script shelf, found ‘Nine’ tucked away in the bottom corner where it was hidden from view, picked it up, and said: “I’ll read it. You said it takes over ten hours, right?”
Liu Lan was still somewhat dazed, unsure about the situation: “John, are you sure you want to read it? One day probably isn’t enough to finish it.”
“No problem,” said Old John, who had only read a small portion of the script, implying that mere script reading was nothing to him.
Liu Lan was moved: “John…”
Old John didn’t respond, taking the script and leaving.
Huang Fugui watched everything from the doorway with a cheerful smile, patting Old John on the shoulder and saying with a laugh: “Brother John, I never would have guessed! Even though you don’t talk much, you’re quite warmhearted!”
Old John: …
Somehow, Jiang Qi could actually read Old John’s inner thoughts from his expression full of ellipses.
To live in the wealthy neighborhood, I’m really sacrificing too much.
(End of Chapter)