Last Day (2)

Outside of the office.

'Where should I go for my late dinner today?' he asked himself where to go. Taking the time to check his surrounding, Yang soon noticed the indecisiveness in his personality.

A hint of anger towards himself soon clouded his mind, making him randomly selected one of the restaurants around him. He wasn't broke to the point unable to pay for his own food anyway.

'Let's go for this then." once again, he dragged his mentally exhausted body to the restaurant. It was a place specialized in barbeque. This was his first time visiting the premises even after working in this company for over five years.

'Why didn't I come to this restaurant before? It was here longer than my employment with this company, correct?' Yang asked himself while dragging his tired body towards the eatery. The thought of why he never visited before made him keep searching for an answer.

'Ah... I know why...' he looked enlightened when he finally found the answer he was searching for.

The reason this was his first time here to try the barbeque was that his ex-girlfriend hates the smell of cumin and spices got on her body. It wasn't because he couldn't afford to pay for his meal.

"Welcome! Just you, sir?" the young waitress asked before she shows him to his seat.

"Yes..." Yang replied.

Stepping into the restaurant and sat on a wooden chair without a backrest, he randomly selected a few barbeque options and a couple of beers.

The drink came less than a minute after the waitress left to tap what he ordered into the till's system. As for the twenty barbeque meat on bamboo sticks, they came around 7 minutes after the order.

A drop of tear rolled on the corner of his eye when he thought about his life so far. It was great when he had a girlfriend, but not good as well. It was akin to having the option to die from thirst or die from drinking poison.

The crying guy caught the waitress's attention and made her quickly call for the boss, who's also the head chef working with the barbeque grill.

"Brat, what makes you cry why eating my barbeque sticks? Is there a problem with my food? Too spicy?" the boss came out with a bottle of beer in hand. He was quite a tall and fit guy, almost like a bodybuilder. His place should be the kind that nobody dares to run after eating.

"I'm fine, boss. Don't worry about me. I'm just thinking about something awful while eating." Yang replied.

"Hmm... I'll accompany you to drink. Girl, get two more beers over here. Let me treat him to a drink to put his regrets aside." the business owner ordered the waitress to bring some beer over.

Since there's no reason for Yang to say no to free beer, he proposes a toast with the owner and continues to enjoy the food he ordered. Although the food tastes good, it was somewhat unable to fill the emptiness in his heart.

Yang was ready to pay for what he ordered after he finished with the skewers and beer. His heart is somewhat warmed by the business owner's effort, but he eventually has to pay for what he had eaten.

"The total would be two hundred and thirty dollars." the waitress said.

Two hundred and thirty dollars...

It was not too expensive, since his meal comes with few cans of beer. He took his debit card out to pay for what he ordered but noticed that something is wrong.

"Your card doesn't work. Do you have another card to use?" the waitress pouted and returned the card to him.

"Impossible..." Yang changed it to another card and tried to make the payment again. Once more, it was rejected. This time, he went ahead and tried three times using the same card, and it was locked since it was the middle of the night.

All three debit cards in his wallet had no funds at all. It was emptied.

He quickly took his smartphone out and entered the pin number after tapping into the mobile application. To his surprise, the sum of all three banks together was less than five dollars.

It seems that even after breaking up, the ex-girlfriend was hellbent on spending everything he had like she was entitled to it.

"Boss, should we call the police? It looks like he will not be paying for what he had eaten." the waitress whispered to her boss. Based on his facial expression, he was somewhat disappointed to know that Yang was such a person.

"Hahaha... Hahaha..."

"Boss... I'm sorry... Just call the police on me, please..." Yang lost strength in his leg as he fell to the ground. To think that he would end with the fate of unable to pay for his meal.

"That nametag... You're a worker of this company?" the boss noticed a familiar nametag on Yang's neck. Although the lanyard could be the same, the card was unique to each worker because it was quite a good reputation company.

"Yes." Yang nodded.

"Fine. I'll let you keep this in your tab, but you better not run away from settling the bill. Else, I'll talk bad about you when I see your boss coming to the office." the boss said. He pulled him up from the floor and gave Yang a soft punch on his chest.

"You're a man. Stand strong. Now go home, take a rest, and work hard tomorrow. What is there for you to look so sour?" the boss slapped his back and hurried him to go back.

...

...

"Boss... You're doing a losing business." the waitress said after they closed the restaurant.

"Maybe... But it's just two hundred dollars. I hope that youth won't lose his hope in life." the business owner said.

"Hopefully. But that guy looked like a loser. No wonder his girlfriend or whatever left him. If I am her, I'll leave him too." the waitress added as she grabbed her bag and get ready to leave.

"Oh, really? Then you're no different from his ex-girlfriend then... A meal coupon hoarder." the boss smiled. It was not his position to comment too much about it, but males and females both had a different view on who's correct and who was wrong.

After leaving the restaurant, Yang walked like a drunkard while headed home. He's still conscious but getting drowsier the further he went. Finally, he was unable to hold it anymore and collapsed on the ground.

By the time he opened his eyes, it was no longer in the city center where he works but a rural village. He seems to change into an outfit he was not used to.

"Where... Where is this place?" Yanglin looked around. The first thing he noticed around him was all the verdant shrubs and grasses. It doesn't seem like he's still in the city center where he worked.