Tie Longkun was in complete panic when Lei Zhen remained unresponsive, almost as if he was detached from the world.
"Lei Zhen, the rain is pouring heavily. Let's head back." Tie Longkun came over with an umbrella, covering both of them.
He was filled with worries since Lei Zhen was just chatting happily with him previously.
Seeing how Lei Zhen had no intention of moving, Tie Longkun sighed softly and decided to become a post, holding onto the umbrella silently to cover them from the rain.
Time slowly passed by, and the rains were pouring harder than ever.
It was only when the rain started pouring heavily by the concrete then did Lei Zhen came back to his senses after pondering for so long.
Raising his hand and patting Tie Longkun's shoulder, he smiled briefly.
"Thanks for holding up the umbrella for me. Otherwise, I might have gotten a cold from the rain alone." Lei Zhen said, showing his gratitude.
"Hehe, no worries brother. We're fellow coworkers here. And we should return to the store now. I locked it up to find you, so customers might be cursing at us now for closing." Tie Longkun laughed.
Lei Zhen nodded his head and made his way back to the store.
ραпdα nᴏνa| сom As expected, at least four to five people were waiting outside, all with angry expressions on their faces.
"Isn't this convenience store open 24/7? How come it's locked when the sky is raining?"
"I know right, I'm going to lodge a complaint to the manager."
"Indeed, if we weren't lucky enough to have an umbrella, we would have been soaked."
The people outside were complaining and demanding to talk to the manager, scaring the crap out of Tie Longkun.
"What should we do now, Lei Zhen? If Manager Xu Gen heard about this, then we are probably going to get fired." Tie Longkun turned toward him and asked nervously.
"Just go unlock the store. I'll deal with them since it's my fault anyway." Lei Zhen said calmly, remaining unfazed by the commotion.
"A-Are you sure about it?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Now go pay for a nice drink for me once I'm done dealing with these angry customers."
"Alright then, I'll make sure to grab you two drinks as a bonus."
Afterward, Tie Longkun grabbed his keys and unlocked the store amidst the angry customers.
However, before the angry customers could go into barrage mode on Tie Longkun, Lei Zhen stepped in between them.
His gaze was cold as he glared at every single one of them, prompting the angry customers to swallow their own words unconsciously.
"Now I'm sure the store being closed temporarily will anger some of you, but keep in mind, employees are human as well. If we closed the store for a while, then it means we had something serious to do." Lei Zhen said, his eyes glancing at each and every customer.
Normally, he would have just apologized and allowed them to throw curses or insults.
After all, suppressing one's emotions usually allows things to end peacefully and move things along. Not to mention, it was his fault to have the store closed and causing inconvenience to these customers.
However, his mood was sour today and he had no interest in receiving insults or curses from them.
"Hmph, you're an employee, right? Then can't you see that large sign board that says open 24/7?"
"I know right, and it's raining hard currently. Yet you still use such a tone to your customers? I wish to speak to your manager."
When one of the customers started speaking up once he found the courage to do so, the other customers interjected as well.
Meanwhile, Lei Zhen was completely calm as he pointed at another street block.
"We're not the only convenience store around here, so feel free to leave for another store. Also, you can find the manager's contact on the side of the glass window, so knock yourself out to call my manager." Lei Zhen said, pointing at the contact list that was posted near the window.
And he continued, "Besides, I'm not currently in a good mood, so please mind your tone of speech a little bit. Who knows what will happen when you push a person far too much?"
His eyes became ice-cold and just his gaze alone sent a shiver down each and every customer, causing them to tremble unconsciously. It was as if they were facing a ferocious tiger that was starving and ready to pounce at his prey.
"H-Hmph, we'll let you go this once since it's raining pretty hard now."
"Y-Yeah, I don't want others to think I'm a heartless person either."
The customers said trembling, quickly entering the store and finding the items they wanted to purchase, and leaving as soon as possible.
They were thoroughly frightened by Lei Zhen and didn't wish to stay around any longer.
By the time those angry customers left, Lei Zhen casually glanced at the drink that Tie Longkun had prepared for him.
"I don't want to drink those." Lei Zhen flat-out said.
"Eh? Then what do you want to drink? Soda? Juice?"
"Give me a beer instead."
"A-A beer??!" Tie Longkun was dumbfounded.
Never did he expect Lei Zhen to be the type to drink beer given his personality and behavior.
"I have some sorrow and wish to drink some beer to cool it off." Lei Zhen explained, unwilling to divulge much information further.
Seeing his expression, no matter how dense or naive Tie Longkun could be, he still understood Lei Zhen was going through some difficult times.
"I'll get you a can of beer then. Also, I'll take over your shift alone so go home and rest." Tie Longkun offered.
"I'm barred from logging into Magnolia anyway, so take another day off. I'll just sign on your behalf and I doubt Manager Xu Gen would mind either."
"Thanks. I owe you one for this." Lei Zhen didn't put up a front and readily accepted his kind offer. His mind really wasn't in the correct place at the moment and needed some beer to drink away some sorrow.
