Employee Lounge

After signing the employment contract and having it notarized, Jiang Han was officially registered at the Witch House.

She was led by Qin Shunying behind the bar and into the staff lounge, where she saw a room carpeted in brownish-red. In one corner, wine-red curtains and a luxurious bookshelf-style screen were set up, evidently serving as a changing area.

In the center of the room stood a waist-high bookshelf and a round table, the latter piled high with scrolls and books with dark covers.

Inside the lounge, a witch wearing a black cheongsam was busy transcribing something. She looked to be about twenty-six or twenty-seven, sporting impressive princess-style curls and air bangs. Her dark green eyes were clear and clean, giving her a slightly elegant and pure appearance.

"Hello, Boss," the witch said, burying her head back into her transcription.

Qin Shunying asked, "Du Ningzhuang, is the material complete? Do you need me to find more for you?"

The witch looked up, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly. "No, this is enough. I didn't expect the Witch House to still hold a handwritten manuscript of the Mineral Records; it is truly a pleasant surprise."

She turned to Jiang Han, greeted her, and they exchanged introductions. Then, the witch named Du Ningzhuang closed her notebook, placed it in a storage area, and walked out of the lounge to get to work.

"Miss Du is a diligent witch; the reason she joined us is also to pursue deeper knowledge." Qin Shunying walked over to the screen behind the curtains to rummage for something.

"She has a very unique temperament," Jiang Han said, following her lead.

"Temperament, hmm?" Qin Shunying's voice carried a sweet yet frantic, unstable edge. "You are quite right. That pure, literary air always helps sell quite a lot of high-priced liquor."

"High-priced liquor?" Jiang Han saw the other woman pulling out several cluttered little boxes from behind the screen.

Having found what she wanted, Qin Shunying emerged from behind the screen and pointed to the bottles displayed on the room's shelves:

"The essence of liquor often requires the use of potion ingredients, giving off a sweet scent. Through reasonable preparation and miraculous blending, these essences possess wonderful, soothing effects. The Green Ridge Absinthe Essence produced by Virdoco Manor can rapidly repair damaged parts of the human body, even regrowing severed limbs... However, the essence is a very precious item; the high-priced liquor we sell is usually prepared according to a specific ratio."

Jiang Han looked at the bottles with an expression of awe. If this high-priced liquor could be used as an effective healing agent, it could indeed fetch a sky-high price.

"Is the essence the most expensive type of liquor sold?" Jiang Han asked for clarification.

Qin Shunying shook her head and said:

"Of course not. The essence is just the liquid generated in the first step after we blend and prepare the materials. Although it has the full effect, as everyone knows, potions are also poisonous, especially this thick essence. Only a few types of liquor essences can be used directly by ordinary people to heal themselves; most require reasonable blending and filtration."

"I'll give you a basic list in a moment. This is free knowledge from the Witch House; after all, we can't have a girl who knows nothing about the effects of liquor selling it." She winked and brought out what she had been searching for with both hands.

What she held was a cheongsam with ice-blue as the primary color and black as an accent:

"Ta-da! Ever since we met the day before yesterday, I've had a vision in my head, and I've had this uniform custom-made for you!"

...Although she had already decided to work here, Jiang Han still found it hard to accept such a slightly translucent cheongsam outfit.

"Come and try it on." Qin Shunying handed the cheongsam to her. "Don't be shy. Just pretend this piece of clothing doesn't exist; it's basically the same nature as working in a bikini at a summer beach tavern."

A bikini actually has less fabric than underwear... Jiang Han thought of this cold joke, her mouth twitching stiffly to show she understood.

I have to say, the cold joke made her resistance to wearing the cheongsam weaken a little.

Blend in, blend in!

Just pretend I'm working at a high-end club; love the job you're in...

In the silence, Jiang Han made up her mind. With a sense of fearlessness and a spirit of inquiry, she carried the clothes behind the screen. She carefully poked her head out to look at Qin Shunying, who was sitting in a chair with her back to her, lighting a cigarette, before pulling the curtains shut.

The corner serving as the changing room contained a mirror, a wardrobe, a laundry basket labeled 'Free Dry Cleaning', many plastic-wrapped disposable pantyhose, and Chinese-style round-toed shoes in various sizes.

On the outside of the box containing the disposable pantyhose, many sticky notes were left:

[Ladies, please don't use these stockings as disposable gloves --by-QSY]

[Someone left their notebook in the lounge yesterday! --by-TW]

[Thanks, sisters --by-CY]

[Du, what's the name of the song on your record? It's pretty good --by-TW]

[OwO, 'As Time Goes By'. --by-DNZ]

[Ladies, please don't use sticky notes to communicate on the stocking box... --by-QSY]

[Thanks, Du. Manager, let's be reasonable here. It's easy to jot down a few words when changing stockings. You can't stifle a witch's interest in writing, her love for communication, or her obsession with leaving calligraphy behind --by-TW]

[Good sisters, this is my sixty-sixth breakup. Is there anyone to comfort me tonight? --by-LJS]

[Get lost, you scumbag. Are you practicing rap? Stop blowing hot air --by-LLW]

[If it were you, I really would blow --by-LJS]

[...]

The topics on the sticky notes became increasingly vulgar, making Jiang Han cover her face in defeat. With a sigh, she quickly took off her clothes, put on the uniform, took off her shoes to place them in the shoe cabinet, and changed into a pair of Chinese-style round-toed shoes. Finally, she took off her witch hat, folded her clothes neatly into the compartment, and placed the hat on top.

Jiang Han faced the dressing mirror and tied the black-ice long ribbon around her neck.

It looked more elegant than the other cheongsams at the Witch House. The black-ice colored backless and off-shoulder cheongsam, along with the matching long ribbon, gave her the appearance of a woman with a cool-toned aesthetic.

Clothes make the person. Jiang Han felt that wearing it this way made her look more mature than when she wore her witch robes; she didn't look like an underage girl anymore.

She self-consciously hooked her finger around the ribbon at her neck; the ribbon looked as if it were tempting someone to grab it.

Jiang Han walked out of the changing room and saw the gorgeously dressed Qin Shunying holding a long smoking pipe, leisurely puffing away.

"Not bad, really not bad." Qin Shunying said 'not bad' twice in a row, her eyes glowing. There was no lust in her gaze, but rather the emotion of a collector. She hopped up, brought the pipe closer without doing anything inappropriate, and simply observed her closely.

"I just knew you would look great in black-ice. Your hair." She pointed the pipe at Jiang Han's hair tips. "Look, the ends of your hair are dyed with an icy color, like a highlight effect... Your ancestors must have consumed the blood of some powerful Demonic Beast, leading to a certain degree of atavism. Fair skin, unusual hair color, ice-colored eyes—very beautiful."

"...Thank you?" Jiang Han replied stiffly.

"Don't be too polite; the people here are all very easy to get along with. Let me arrange your shifts then." Qin Shunying entered her work mode.

She opened a notebook, flipped to a certain page, and showed it to Jiang Han. On it was a table:

"Jiang Han, that's the name, right? I hope I didn't write it wrong."

Not only had she not written it wrong, but the handwriting was also very beautiful... Jiang Han nodded.

"So, which days of the week would you like to work?" Qin Shunying asked.

"Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday," Jiang Han replied. She definitely had to work during the weekends. This way, Thursday and Friday would be a bit tougher, but she could take it easier on the weekends, and after relaxing, working one more day on Monday would be just fine.

As the saying goes, the most annoying things should be done on a Monday; that was the logic behind it.

After jotting down two notes, Qin Shunying said:

"These five days, then... hmm, I also need to explain the use of the staff lounge. This job includes a 30-minute break, which means you actually only need to work for five hours and thirty minutes. If you spend more than 30 minutes in the lounge, you'll have to make up for it in your working hours. No problem with that, right?"

Jiang Han nodded without hesitation:

"No problem."