The Best Male God

This chapter was translated by Daed to be hosted on Foxaholic.com.

Zhou Zekai naturally did not bring Tang Bingyu to this western restaurant to simply show off his piano skills. He came here to resolve the most important problem they were facing: how they were going to eat for the next few days.

If they wanted to eat, Zhou Zekai actually had hundreds of methods to earn money. But since the television crew was filming them, this kind of method where they used music to earn money was clearly the best one. Especially since this kind of western restaurant was typically high-class. The people who came here were all those with high salaries, which was more beneficial to them (ZZK and TBY).

Tang Bingyu still hadn’t noticed Zhou Zekai’s plans. When they finished their piano duet, applause resounded in the restaurant. She glanced at Zhou Zekai shyly. Although she had learned piano at home for a long time, it was the first time that she had played a piece in this kind of setting. It made her inexplicably timid.

Zhou Zekai pulled Tang Bingyu up, the two of them politely bowing towards the applauding audience. At this time, the limelight seemed to belong to them. The restaurant manager approached them when they returned to their dining table.

“This handsome boy, you and this little girl have great piano skills. Your piano skill level is very high!”

The restaurant manager had also learned the piano. In the first place, this skill was applicable outside of being elegant. It could create opportunities and economic benefits. His younger sister was a piano teacher, so he had some understanding of the piano.

“You [formal] are?” Zhou Zekai purposefully pretended that he was unaware of the other’s identity. In truth, he could figure out the other party’s identity from his nameplate.

“I am the restaurant manager. Handsome boy, how about this? I will give you an hourly salary. I’m inviting you to perform for a certain period of time at our restaurant. We can prepare a meal for you beforehand, then when it’s noon, you can perform for one or two hours.”

The restaurant manager planned to rope off this piano after 《Swapped Lives》aired and have it as an exhibition. At that time, the restaurant’s popularity would definitely be very high. This Zhou Zekai in front of him was already very well-known online. The restaurant manager believed that after the program aired, his actions here would absolutely raise a huge commotion.

Zhou Zekai was very satisfied with his words. Meanwhile, Tang Bingyu was completely stupefied. She did not understand what the situation was. She watched as Zhou Zekai determined their hourly pay after bargaining with the restaurant manager. The customers of a high-class restaurant like this were different from the rest. Take the steaks on the menu for example, one serving was more than one thousand yuan. So Zhou Zekai and Tang Bingyu’s hour salaries of two thousand yuan per hour could be considered as the manager "drawing a large amount of blood"1. If it was an ordinary person, the restaurant manager would not have given such a price….

Of course, on top of that, the restaurant proactively included a large meal for Zhou Zekai and Tang Bingyu. With the cameramen filming at the side, the restaurant manager knew that they would definitely film his restaurant’s dishes in the most appealing and beautiful way. He had no fear that their restaurant wouldn’t be advertised.

Once he thought of how spending two thousand yuan and a meal’s worth of dishes would give him a free advertisement, the restaurant manager felt that he was quite astute.

On the other hand, Zhou Zekai saw through the manager’s ideas with all smiles. However, he didn’t refuse nor did he call him out. After all, everyone wants to live well. He came to this restaurant to work, and other people wanted to rely on their popularity to attract customers. There didn’t seem to be any difference.

After the restaurant manager went to get the food ready for Zhou Zekai and Tang Bingyu, she finally realized why Zhou Zekai had wanted to find cafes and western restaurants specifically. The cafe that they had gone to earlier didn’t have a piano, so they left……

“Ah Kai, were you already planning to come to the western restaurant to earn money by playing the piano?”

As she looked at Zhou Zekai curiously, Tang Bingyu felt that Zhou Zekai was becoming more of an enigma. Even though she had learned the piano, she wouldn’t know to come to this sort of western restaurant to become a pianist. She sincerely felt that Zhou Zekai’s earlier appearance as he engaged in talks with the manager was intriguing.

“Well, half and half. Find a job and eat something while we’re here. It’ll be noon soon, it’s not like we can starve. What’s more, as long as we can play the piano, there’s lots of places that we can go. Don’t worry. I’m still able to raise you in these couple days~”

Zhou Zekai winked at her. His purposefully mysterious act fell in Tang Bingyu’s eyes as quite cute. Compared to Tang Bingyu who was in actuality only in her teens and without much social experience, Zhou Zekai was clearly an "old taxi driver"2 in this society. He was able to beat the majority of the people in this society with ease, rapidly finding his own way to live in this society.

When Tang Bingyu heard him confidently state that he could raise her, she blushed again. She wanted to admonish him, but she couldn’t say the words when she saw the look on his face. Her ears secretly reddened. For some reason, she felt that Zhou Zekai was distinctive and unique within her eyes……

He was different from the other boys whom she had encountered.

The restaurant manager swiftly arranged for their food to come to the table. The dishes that were laid out before them were all the restaurant’s signature dishes of steak and spaghetti served with various small delights, desserts and tea. If they didn’t seem to be underage, the restaurant manager would also serve them red wine……

The cameramen at the side were also speechless at these kiddos who were supposed to be “experiencing life” being able to find a job with an above-average salary in no time flat. Nevertheless, they filmed what they were supposed to film. The dishes appeared magnificently through the camera lens. Zhou Zekai and Tang Bingyu who sat to eat this meal were filmed in their most graceful condition. It was like they were filming an idol drama. It didn’t seem like something that would occur in real life.

After they finished their meal, Zhou Zekai went up to the piano first and played 《Castle in the Sky》. It was 11 AM and there was an influx of customers coming in. When they saw a young handsome boy sitting in front of the piano and playing a piece, they all looked over. It was livelier in the restaurant than it typically was. There were people who held up their phones to take pictures, since Zhou Zekai’s visuals were online3.

Tang Bingyu also had a chance to go up onstage to perform. After they each played individual pieces, they began the “four hands piano”/piano duet that the audience found most fascinating. You’ve got to know, most times, it was very easy to mess up in the four hands piano. If neither of them played properly, then the probability of making a mistake was very high. These two didn’t have a music sheet to refer to, but they were still able to play this kind of piece nonetheless. This pleased everyone in the restaurant. However, no one else could be more pleased than the restaurant manager.

From 11 AM to 1 PM, they worked for two hours. In the end they earned eight thousand yuan! When she held the money in her hands, Tang Bingyu was simply dumbstruck. She had never thought that money was so easy to earn. On the other hand, Zhou Zekai pulled Tang Bingyu out of the restaurant and speedily made his way to that clothing store that they had passed by on the way. The red dress that the mannequin wore was still there.

After they entered the store, they were met with the store staff member who came to greet them. As he held Tang Bingyu’s hand, Zhou Zekai asked with a bright grin, “That red dress that the mannequin’s wearing, is there any that she can wear?”

1. “drawing a large amount of blood” in this context means that the manager put in a lot of money/cut a large chunk of his own benefit (money, resources) in this transaction
2. Old taxi driver (老司机 lao si ji) is slang for an experienced and knowledgeable individual in a certain field.
3. Saying that his looks were “online” means that he possessed the looks. Basically it means that his attractiveness was not hindered or detracted by anything.