Chapter 372: New Employee
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian went back to the shop, wondering what should be done today.
Since Tim's cat food,shipped from the United States, was expected to arrive today, he would not be able to travel far from the shop, and could only stroll around the neighborhood, like buying groceries from the supermarket.
Fina was staring at him, reminding him that it was time for him to fetch breakfast.
Zhang Zian reluctantly put on the jacket. He needed to trouble Uncle Li to prepare breakfast again.
The business was still rough in Uncle Li’s restaurant, for only a few people were having breakfast there, which was even worse than the times Uncle Li was selling dim sum on a cart. He asked Uncle Li for help, and Uncle Li, though in dismay, agreed to help him in no time.
When Zhang Zian returned to his shop holding a foam insulation box, he found a girl wandering around in front of the entrance.
She wore a knee-length down jacket, a pair of wool gloves, and a red scarf, looking around nervously like an underground worker. The fringe on her forehead was so long that it covered her eyes, and her scarf was pulled up so high that it had blocked her chin. With a pair of big, thick glasses too, almost her entire face had been concealed completely, a look perfect for robbing a bank.
"Uh, who are you looking for?" asked Zhang Zian.
She hurriedly pulled down the scarf, revealing a small part of her face and exhaling white breath, "Mr. Store Manager, I... I want... to work here."
The girl seemed very nervous. Stuttering and hands crossed, her face blushed.
Zhang Zian frowned and looked at her face, "You are...What’s your name again? Sorry that I can’t remember."
"Lu Yiyun," she said.
The girl who came was Lu Yiyun.
Recently, Lu Yiyun’s illustration work was getting better and better, and her life became well-off, compared to living short of money when she had just entered the illustration industry. Even her cat, Jasmine, had gained some weight—when she took it for a bath at this pet shop, Zhang Zian said that Jasmine may be a descendant of Chinchilla, but now she increasingly suspected that it was an Orange Tabby. It was said that almost every Orange Tabby was fat…
However, despite having more money and purchasing better digital equipment and supplies, she horrifically found another problem—Since she practically did not communicate with others in real life, after six months of living alone, she was so nervous around others that she stuttered when she talked to people.
Lu Yiyun was not content with drawing illustrations for others all the time. She knew that it was not a promising career. Her ultimate goal was to become a cartoonist. Although this job had not been accepted by the Chinese public for now, and she still had a long way to go before becoming a cartoonist, she was striving towards her goal step by step. However, another problem arose when she submitted her works to comic websites or magazines. The editors often replied: the painting is excellent, but the topics and characters are mundane, and the dialogues are stiff and banal. Hope you can improve on these aspects.
She was only good at drawing and couldn’t write very well, plus with the fact that she seldom communicated with people in the real world, she was always at a loss when writing a conversation. She knew this was her drawback, but she didn’t know how to change the situation.
When she learned from Snowy’s live broadcast that the Amazing Fate Pet Shop was recruiting an art designer, she thought she might give it a try. The apartment she rented was located in a nearby neighborhood of Amazing Fate Pet Shop, so it was convenient for her to work there. Most importantly, she had met Zhang Zian twice, so talking with him would be easier than with complete strangers.
As a super indoor otaku girl, she was frightened of the outside world and of talking with people. So, going out to work was a huge ordeal for her. In fact, she had intended to visit the shop a few days ago, but lost her courage when she was about to leave her house.
She hated her cowardice and knew that if she went on like this, she would slowly decay in this narrow rental house until she was completely separated from the society and was forgotten by all… She could not help but think of the news that she had read online. Some loners had died from sudden illnesses and were not noticed by their neighbors until the corpses gave off rotten odors… She didn’t want to end up like this! She was fed up with being judged by her neighbors, and the last thing she wanted was to be talked about by them when she died.
Today, she finally decided to go out of her home.
She had never worked in a company before, but she knew she must nail the interview before she was offered a job.
Along the way here, her mind was filled with all kinds of questions, such as how to act if she was rejected in the interview, or if the store manager had already recruited someone else… she had been thinking of going back home, like a startled cub retreating to its lair. Luckily, her rental house was close to the pet shop, and she arrived there soon.
When talking to Zhang Zian, she was sweating nervously. She had told herself she must not stutter, but it clearly didn’t work out as she expected.
Fortunately, Zhang Zian did not seem very concerned about it. He said casually, "You want to work here? Come on in, it’s cold outside."
He pulled open the shutter door, "Please."
Lu Yiyun followed him into the shop, and found that the interior was completely different than it had been before. It was recently refurbished, and there were more kittens and puppies, plus a seemingly fierce large German Shepherd.
Zhang Zian turned around and saw that she was scared while staring at Famous. He comforted her, "Don’t be afraid, it doesn’t bite, it's an angel."
"Ah?" Lu Yiyun was shocked, "An angel?"
In an instant, her anxiety had been replaced by surprise!
Upon hearing the words of Zhang Zian, Famous straightened its chest, squatted on the ground proudly and barked twice.
It was saying, "Yes, I want to be an angel!"
Lu Yiyun glanced at it a few more times and found that unlike the German Shepherd in her hometown that liked barking and biting indiscriminately, this one was well-behaved, and she could rest assured, knowing that Zhang Zian was indeed such a good pet shop owner that he had trained this dog so well!
Zhang Zian pointed at the brand-new cash register and said, "You will be working here, collecting money when customers buy something, and updating the WeChat public account of the shop from time to time. That’s it. Oh, I remember your calligraphy is excellent. You can also draw, right?"
Lu Yiyun pulled a USB from her pocket. "I bring my previous works."
At the checkout counter was a desktop computer bought online by Zhang Zian, who indicated that she could operate the computer on her own.
She launched the computer, and when it entered desktop mode, she inserted the USB disk to the interface, and accessed the slide show mode of the image viewer.
"Are these all painted by you?" Zhang Zian was surprised, because the pictures on the screen that made him dizzy were so fascinating and seemed to be drawn by a professional artist.
Lu Yiyun did not speak. She just pointed to her signature at the lower right corner of each image.
"Uh... honestly, you are overqualified for the job here..." Zhang Zian told her the truth, "You won’t settle if I pay you less… but if I pay you according to your level, I will be losing money, for I don’t need such an excellent art designer…"
"It does not matter." Lu Yiyun shook her head. She didn’t expect to come here to earn much money, she just needed to have more contact with real people in real life, "Just pay me a normal wage as other employees. But I have only one condition..."
"What condition?" asked Zhang Zian.
"When there are no customers here, I would like to... draw some pictures here, can I?" she asked in a low voice.
"Of course! When you are free, you can do anything you like." Zhang Zian felt that the condition was so simple, and he agreed without hesitation.
"Then... I have passed the interview?" she asked nervously.
Zhang Zian felt that he was lucky to find such a talent and quickly said, "Yes."
Lu Yiyun got what she wanted and was also relieved, "When do I need to come to work?"
"Uh..." Zhang Zian thought for a moment, "I want to re-open the shop within a few days. Why don’t you come over tomorrow morning? I will tell you the prices and usages of some products, and then teach you how to handle membership cards for clients."
"Okay," she bowed gently, as if Zhang Zian was already her boss.
"Go home. Come back tomorrow." Zhang Zian remembered something and raised his hand, pointing at her hair, "Yes, why don’t you go to the barber shop to have a haircut, your hair is covering your eyes... Of course, this is not compulsory. Forget it if you don’t want to."
She froze there. Using her finger to roll up the fringe on her forehead, she found it was indeed too long.
"Ok, I'll go back and cut it myself," she said. "Oh, I need to bring over some drawing tools, like a tablet. Can I?"
"Of course, you don’t have to ask my permission for these details. I should have prepared tools for my staff in advance, but I don’t know how to paint and I'm afraid I might buy the wrong tools."
Zhang Zian felt that she was a little strange, but it didn’t matter, for he was also a weirdo in the eyes of others. Wang Qian and Li Kun were also weirdos, and even Snowy was a weirdo. That’s why people said birds of a feather flocked together.
Anyways, he finally had a full-time employee, who was quite perfect—she looked mature and wasn’t a blabbermouth, and had excellent drawing skills. Besides, when he had to run errands outside, he didn’t have to close the shop anymore.
When renovating the shop, to prevent the pets from running outside, Guo Dongyue specifically installed an automatic door between the cashier area and the shop interior. Lu Yiyun would be working and painting in the cashier area, and wouldn’t disturb him when he communicated with the elves.
Zhang Zian sent a message to Snowy, "I’m back at the shop. I’m available any minute."
Snowy: "Ok, I will immediately contact Sister Deng Jie."