chun jie di xiao long

Chapter 174 A Bookstore Full of Slackers

Chapter 268 The "Politically Correct"

The next morning, Zhou Ze sat on the sofa next to the bookstore's glass window, as usual, reading the *Yangzi Evening News*.

A cup of coffee and a small cake were placed in front of him.

Boss Zhou's life was just this leisurely, just this useless, just this lacking ambition, just muddling along, just taking things as they came.

Back then, Xu Qinglang had criticized Zhou Ze for having no future if he continued to waste his life like this, being too much of a salted fish, and simply wasting his rebirth.

Most importantly, wasting his "golden fingernails."

And then...

Then Xu Qinglang failed to change Boss Zhou's continued decadence; on the contrary, he was assimilated by Boss Zhou.

Originally, even though he had twenty-odd apartments,

he was still doing business and running a noodle restaurant, not losing his life's goals,

but he was slowly bent by Boss Zhou

and became a salted fish who began to care for his skin and appearance.

In fact, Zhou Ze felt that his current life was pretty good. There were many novels in the bookstore, and also many rebirth stories. After rebirthing, each one had a bitter and hateful appearance, or sought to become a king and dominate, or laughed proudly at the world.

When the old Taoist had nothing to do, he would also flip through these books and then always say that the boss was different from the people in the books.

However, the old Taoist could also reassure himself. Books, of course, were fake, and if the protagonist in the book was really like his own boss, just basking in the sun and muddling along every day,

who would even read it?

Would readers come just to watch you bask in the sun, bask in the sun, and then bask in the sun, and continue basking in the sun?

The priest in the Spider-Man suit was cleaning. He cleaned very carefully, not letting go of every detail. He always executed Zhou Ze's instructions without the slightest discount.

Bai Yingying was somewhat grateful, grateful that this "colleague" was a man; otherwise, she would have to face competition again.

After getting over his initial confusion, the old Taoist also got used to the priest's presence. Although he could always smell the aroma of barbecue when they slept in the same room at night at first, he gradually got used to it.

Now, the old Taoist could finally take some time to find a sofa to lie on, like his own boss, drinking small sips of tea, reading little yellow books, and leisurely enjoying life.

Business was always very slow during the day.

There weren't many customers.

Therefore,

the bookstore owner was basking in the sun and reading the newspaper,

the old Taoist was drinking tea and reading little yellow books,

Xu Qinglang was mixing his new cocktails,

Bai Yingying was playing *Honor of Kings* on her phone,

the little monkey was secretly eating the old Taoist's peanuts, and then lying there to sleep when it was full,

the whole group, up and down,

everywhere was emitting the aura of salted fish,

completely out of tune with the atmosphere of the bustling South Street commercial district outside.

It wasn't until noon that a customer came in.

Xu Qinglang raised his head and saw that the person who came in was a young man. The man was quite tall and looked gentle and frail, but he had a lot of stubble on his face, which showed that he had been too busy to take care of himself recently.

Xu Qinglang was very dissatisfied with being disturbed. He glanced back at the sign that read, "Minimum spending per person: 100," wondering if his prices weren't high enough.

Next time, why not just change it to "1,000"?

Otherwise, there would always be people who thought they had a little money and wanted to experience a little petty-bourgeois atmosphere coming in to disturb him.

He was clearly doing ghost business; why were living people always joining in the fun?

A hundred yuan to sit here, read a book, and drink some instant coffee or milk tea,

was he stupid?

The man pointed to the glass in front of Xu Qinglang and said,

"Cocktail."

Then, the man sat down in front of Xu Qinglang.

Xu Qinglang nodded. Although he felt uncomfortable being disturbed, he was, after all, from the catering industry and wouldn't treat a customer like that.

Soon, a cocktail was quickly mixed and brought to the man.

The man took a sip, quite satisfied, and then lay down on the bar, using his head as a pillow, just looking at Xu Qinglang like that.

At first, Xu Qinglang didn't think anything of it, but the other party just kept lying there, taking a sip of wine, and then continuing to look at him, taking another sip of wine, and continuing to look at him.

Xu Qinglang had the feeling of being used as a snack by the other party.

Using "beautiful enough to be eaten" on a woman was mostly a compliment, but Lao Xu always felt that he was a man,

oh no,

he was a man, not "felt like."

This made Lao Xu a little uncomfortable, and he said with some dissatisfaction, "Want more wine?"

"You're really good-looking."

The man suddenly laughed.

Looking like a lecherous man.

Xu Qinglang took a deep breath and licked his lips. He was planning to hit someone.

"Hey, you're so beautiful, there must be a lot of men who like you, right?"

The other party asked again.

Xu Qinglang rolled up his sleeves, ready to hit someone.

"There must be, hehe, you want to hit me? Think I'm insulting you?"

The man raised his head, looked at Xu Qinglang, and then pointed his finger at his own face,

"Hit me, hit me here."

He was so cheap,

Xu Qinglang was a little embarrassed to hit him, but he still said in a deep voice,

"I'm perfectly normal in that aspect."

"Oh."

The man responded, looking a little disappointed, and then picked up his glass and took another sip.

"What's wrong, someone hit on you?"

Boss Zhou, who had finished basking in the sun, walked over at this time.

The man seemed to be drunk at this time, or maybe he was already angry, and he immediately smashed the glass in his hand on the ground.

With a crisp "smash,"

the glass shattered all over the floor.

The "Spider-Man" who was cleaning stopped what he was doing. He walked over here, looked at the customer, and then looked at Zhou Ze.

Meaning,

should he kill this person?

Spider-Man was already exuding murderous intent.

Zhou Ze waved his hand.

Spider-Man immediately retreated and continued to clean on the other side.

"I'm sorry, I'll pay for it."

The man took out his wallet.

"Lost your love?" Zhou Ze asked.

The man shook his head. "Lost my job."

"I understand." Zhou Ze shrugged.

The man looked at Xu Qinglang, paid the money first, and then said, "Can I have another drink?"

Xu Qinglang nodded and made him another drink, then pointed to the glass and said, "This glass is a work of art, bought for two thousand yuan."

In other words, if you break the glass again, pay two thousand.

The man was stunned for a moment, laughed awkwardly, and then took a sip.

Zhou Ze sat down next to him and said to the man,

"If you don't mind, you can tell us your unhappy things and let us be happy."

"............" The man.

The man gave a wry smile and said,

"I used to be the deputy director of the logistics department at Tongcheng University."

"So young and already a director." The old Taoist also came over at this time. "Your family must have strong connections, right?"

"............" The man.

"Ignore them, keep talking." Xu Qinglang urged, "We haven't gotten to the tragic part yet."

"............" The man.

The man nodded and said, "Because of stray dogs biting people on campus, I was held responsible and dismissed. My previous job was to be responsible for campus safety."

"Then you deserve it. It's your own negligence." The old Taoist analyzed from the side.

"The problem is that last year I planned to take the security guards to catch all the stray dogs on campus, and we did. But later we were stopped."

The man took a deep breath and exhaled heavily.

"Stopped by the leaders?"

"Stopped by the students." The man replied.

"Uh... why did they stop you?"

"They said that what we were doing was too cruel and lacked compassion. Because we had contacted the local stray animal rescue station, they were also under a lot of pressure and couldn't take in so many stray animals. We planned to send away as many as we could, and those that couldn't be sent away or settled would be killed directly."

"Killed directly? Tsk tsk, really cruel." The old Taoist smacked his lips. "But that's right, we can't create danger for the students on campus; otherwise, this matter would be big."

"Later, I remember that some students wrote articles online exposing our matter, and it was also reprinted by the media. The title was:

'Can a university that can't even tolerate a stray dog tolerate a person?'"

"Tsk tsk, that's a good hat to wear." The old Taoist commented.

"At that time, it was because the students hung banners and protested, hindering our actions. In the end, that matter ended without a conclusion and couldn't continue."

The man wiped his mouth and moved the glass to the side before daring to slam the table hard to vent his dissatisfaction:

"The most hateful thing is that last week, two female students were attacked by a group of stray dogs at night on campus. Both of them were bitten and sent to the hospital!

Then the school held someone responsible, and it became my responsibility, and I was directly fired!"

The man slapped the table hard again,

"I'm not convinced, really not convinced. When I was preparing to take the security guards to solve this problem, not only did the students on campus scold me, but a large group of people online scolded me. Because of this, I was criticized and disciplined.

Now the stray dogs are biting people, but I'm still the one who takes the responsibility, and it's become my dereliction of duty again."

Hearing this, the old Taoist reached out and patted the man on the shoulder.

This guy was really unlucky.

"This can't be helped. After all, protecting small animals is the current 'political correctness'."

Xu Qinglang pushed a plate of fruit in front of the man, considering it a consolation.

The man complained loudly for a while before walking out of the bookstore dejectedly. Whether he would continue to go to a small restaurant to drown his sorrows or go home to sleep was unknown.

The old Taoist turned his head and said to Xu Qinglang, "Lao Xu, what kind of correctness did you just say?"

"Political correctness."

"Oh, right, that's the thing. I think I hate this word now. My live broadcast room has been blocked several times because of this reason, saying that I'm satirizing some group or something, inexplicable. I can't even speak smoothly now. If I'm not careful, I'll hurt someone. Why are those people so sensitive?"

The old Taoist does live broadcasts, although he is old, he is also very trendy.

"Political correctness is needed." Zhou Ze said, "It's just that it's becoming more and more distorted now and is being abused.

When a society's emotional protection of certain groups exceeds the pursuit of truth, it means there's a problem."

"That's right, that's the feeling. Boss, what you said is really insightful and great. No, I have to find some paper and a pen to record it and carefully study and understand it."

The old Taoist knew his job responsibilities. Cleaning was secondary; giving the boss a "66666" when needed was his primary job.

"Okay, let's not talk about this. What are we eating for lunch?" Zhou Ze asked Xu Qinglang.

"Scrambled eggs with chives, stir-fried chives with wood ear, stir-fried chives with sliced pork, stir-fried chives with ox tail, chives and egg drop soup..."

"Huh?" Zhou Ze.

"To nourish you, you must have been exhausted last night." Xu Qinglang gave a concerned look.

"............" Zhou Ze.

Ah,

After hesitating for a long time,

Zhou Ze glanced and found that Bai Yingying was still focused on playing *Honor of Kings*,

so he subtly,

nodded.