Overtime

At 5:40, inside the Witch House.

Holding a tray, Jiang Han looked down at the pineapple fried rice on it and felt her stomach rumble. She set the dish down in front of the customer watching TV, feeling a little resentful, then put on a sincere, sweet smile.

"Miss, your pineapple and cheese mixed fried rice, and a large Heiboer Gold and Silver Wheat Beer."

The witch, who had been watching the Saturday Masters Tournament without taking her eyes off the screen, turned her head instinctively. She saw Jiang Han's sweet smile, then kept staring at her for a little while before finally nodding in understanding. After a light cough, she took a ten-yuan bill from her pocket and placed it on the tray.

Jiang Han returned an even sweeter smile and carried the tray back to the counter. She could still feel the customer's eyes on her back.

"Looks like the customers adore you. Hiring you was definitely the right choice." Business was especially busy today, so Qin Shunying wasn't lounging around playing cards with the customers like she usually did. Instead, she was behind the counter, efficiently assigning tasks.

"One order of French Baked Oysters, one Cream Corn, and two large Mushroom Bubbles. Take them to table seven."

Jiang Han set her tray on the counter, and Du Ningzhuang quickly arranged the customer's order on it.

Incidentally, Jiang Han's position had evolved from an idle bar-counter mascot to a busy waitress. She was busier now, but her chances of getting tips had gone up too. Thanks to her professional qualities—her pretty appearance—Qin Shunying had said she was considering having Jiang Han play cards with the customers soon. The tips should be even better then.

Saturday night's show was the Witch Masters Tournament.

The show was immensely popular both at home and abroad. It could be said that every tournament was held for the sake of qualifying for the Masters Tournament.

Having memorized the TV schedule, Jiang Han knew it was an international tournament featuring top-tier witches. Since witches' abilities made international exchanges more frequent than in her previous life, international competition had become a strict measure of whether a tournament counted as a major event. The Masters Tournament was the quintessential major event.

It was divided into individual and team competitions. Points from the individual competition determined who qualified for the International Exchange Invitational.

The team competition had five-person teams and used the Kof Format. The team with the most points was considered the strongest witch team in the world. Since the teams competing in the Masters Tournament were usually made up of the strongest witches selected by each country, there were truly no weak teams. Even a match between the top-ranked team and the last-ranked team could be full of suspense.

Since not many televisions were being made yet, and witches preferred to watch competitions while chatting loudly,

they either went to the venue or gathered at a tavern with friends to watch.

So when witches asked each other, "Want to go do something exciting tonight?" they might simply mean they wanted to watch the tournament together at a tavern.

According to Jiang Han's research, the golden hours of the day were from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Those eight hours were usually reserved for the Masters Tournament or other high-level competitions. The rest of the schedule was filled with TV dramas, talk shows, cooking programs, and the like.

Of course... the most precious slot of all, the platinum hours from 9 to 11 p.m.—even more valuable than the golden hours—belonged to the national news.

That was non-negotiable. Anyone who wanted to change it could go argue with seventy million witches.

Jiang Han and the other employees worked until six, but the tavern was still packed. New witches kept coming in through the door.

She dragged her tired body back to the staff room. Before she could rest, Qin Shunying burst through the door in a flurry.

"Miss Jiang Han, you don't have class today, do you?"

Everyone had found out over the past week that Jiang Han was still attending cram school, so that was the first thing Qin Shunying asked when she came in.

When your boss asked if you had anything else to do that day, it usually meant she or he was about to steal your time off... Jiang Han put on her standard sweet smile. "No, I don't have class."

"Then can you work overtime today? I'll give you an extra fifty points." Qin Shunying offered overtime pay.

That was a week's worth of points in one go. Jiang Han nodded, agreeing on the spot.

She couldn't help thinking to herself:

The ancients weren't wrong when they said knowledge is wealth...

Du Ningzhuang came in next and was immediately pulled aside by Qin Shunying. She, too, succumbed to the overtime pay and agreed to stay.

Then came Chu Yujun, Chen Ligu, Tang Wen...

If it had only been money, the witches wouldn't have traded their time off for work. But Qin Shunying had promised points—the kind that could be exchanged for spells and books from the Witch House collection. That was enough to win them over.

Still, overtime was a bit of a blow to morale. The staff room fell silent at once.

"Overtime's fine, Manager, but if a storm comes next time and I have to run off to look for a hot spring, don't dock my pay, okay?" Jiang Han noticed how quiet the witches had become and figured they weren't too happy about working overtime. So she quickly broke the awkward silence with a couple of remarks to lighten the mood.

Chen Ligu immediately grinned and chimed in.

"Me too. If a storm comes, I'll go find a hot spring with Miss Jiang. Um... I'll protect her while she meditates."

"Then I want to soak in a hot spring too."

The conversation started up again in the staff room, and the mood brightened.

Qin Shunying replied with a smile, "Sure. We'll check the weather forecast. If a storm's coming, we'll go find a hot spring and have some fun."

"Huh? Manager, are you serious?" The witches all began to tease her.

Qin Shunying explained matter-of-factly:

"Of course I am. I don't lie. If the forecast says there's going to be a storm, the tavern can't sell alcohol anyway. If we're only selling food, we might as well go find a hot spring and take the day off."

This had to do with a law: drunk broom-riding was forbidden on stormy days! So when a storm came, taverns open to the public couldn't sell alcohol. Of course, no one cared if you drank at home, as long as you didn't get drunk and fly around on your broom.

The Witch House made most of its money selling alcohol. If it couldn't sell any on a stormy day, it really was better to close up...

Watching Qin Shunying speak so confidently, Jiang Han couldn't help reflecting that people who managed to become bosses in this era were all slick talkers. Thinking about it carefully, the tavern's business would be freezing cold during a storm anyway. Going to a hot spring together really wouldn't cost them anything.

Besides, Qin Shunying was always finding promising talents. Her eye for people was the sharpest Jiang Han had encountered since being reborn.

People like her really knew how to talk, and they could lift everyone's spirits. In no time, she had the witches fired up.

—Right, to get a day off and go to a hot spring together, a storm really had to come... And if a storm did come, it had to start after 11 p.m...

And so, their happy first day of overtime began.