Owner Huo just patiently waited for the mysterious singer to finish her mumble of lyrics. His eyes sparkled with vitality as Yi Fei tried her best to finish the song. Seeing this, Owner Huo thought he might've misjudged this Japanese lady when she sang ear-screechingly with such abrasive levels of sound. It was quite refreshing to see someone do death metal and pop at the same time.
Yi Fei panted, almost sweating. She wore the winter uniform despite it being almost spring, but she usually had no reaction to changes in temperature. When it was hot, Yi Fei was warm. When it was cold, Yi Fei was cool. In fact, Yi Fei only seemed to sweat when she was extremely stressed or felt desperately guilty of living.
However, Yi Fei realized something. That she... felt relieved.
"It feels good to let it out once in a while,' Yi Fei said to herself, smiling sweetly just a tiny little bit.
Suddenly, Yi Fei felt something touch her shoulder.
"Excuse me, I'm the owner of this karaoke bar. You can call me Owner Huo," Owner Huo greeted her with a wide smile. "Do you speak Chinese?"
Yi Fei's eyes fervently dilated to a million places before she let her soul slip from her body. All she mouth before that was an "Ah."
"Ah?" Owner Huo repeated with a nervous glance, wondering if she's trying to communicate with unintelligent sounds.
Though Owner Huo could be named as a successful businessman, he didn't interact with foreigners much. He naturally defaulted to a calm and gentle persona. He didn't expect a foreigner to completely understand a complicated language like Chinese either. There were many dialects and the most common one, standard mandarin, was still difficult to learn. If the girl in front of him needed a couple seconds to comprehend what he said, he wouldn't be angered.
"Ye, I mean, y-yes, I'm sor-sorry," Yi Fei stammered, not knowing why she should be sorry yet feeling extremely guilty and embarrassed.
Owner Hugo's eyebrow lifted curiously.
"Oh, for being loud? No, don't worry," Owner Huo observed Yi Fei up and down. "You're a high school student?"
She looked like a Chinese local from her manners and behavior, but Owner Huo definitely knew that Yi Fei was a foreigner. She had trouble speaking yet looked like a local. Owner Huo guessed it was a family moving situation where they immigrated from Japan.
"Ah." Yi Fei froze like a statue and her soul silently slipped away again.
'Again with the incomprehensible sounds,' Owner Huo thought. 'It probably means something in Japanese.'
"You're lost, right? In China, you go to police stations for help, not karaoke bars." Owner Huo lectured. "Anyways, since you're here, here's my card."
Owner Huo gave Yi Fei a creamy off-white business card. Yi Fei received it with awkwardness, not wondering why she was given a card at all.
The card was matte and paper-like, a big logo covering most of the surface. The logo was of a huge lemon-yellow star outlined with a thick line of gold. Yi Fei carefully read the tiny prints on the left bottom portion of the card, "Top Agency Management, CEO Huo".
'Is this a real estate company? Anyways, why is the karaoke bar owner talking to me? Is he going to report me?' Yi Fei bit her bottom lip in nervousness.
Owner Huo read her confused expression, intensely prepared for this situation.
"Yes, I want to invite you into our trainee program," Owner Huo smiles graciously. "The company takes care of their employees well; we provide for food and dormitory expenses. We promise trainees at least 2000 yuan a year. There are also 100 yuan bonuses."
'2000 yuan?! To sell houses?? Is this one of those pyramid schemes???'
"We will try not to hinder your school studies as much as possible. We support education and believe it is number one," Owner Huo went on. "I know this might seem suspicious, so how about a tour of the company?"
'I don't think this is real estate... this is definitely illegal black market stuff.'