Early Sunday morning, I changed into a maid outfit as Lin Ruilong had requested and started my day’s work.

Compared to usual, the café was absolutely packed with customers that weekend.

Rabbit House Café stood in a prime location. Its storefront was large and eye-catching, and it had practically become a symbol of the pedestrian street in Vanilla City’s Central District.

More than half of the walls were made of glass. Anyone passing by could see the scene inside through the spotless windows—cute maids, handsome bartenders and butlers, adorable cats, and a neat, cozy layout.

Even the kitchen was clearly visible. Rabbit House itself had become a natural billboard for the neighborhood.

Based on my observations and Lin Ruilong’s recent market research, most of Rabbit House’s customers were women.

They were either innocent, carefree schoolgirls or female office workers from nearby. Even when men came, they were usually just accompanying their girlfriends to pet the cats.

As Lin Ruilong put it, “In today’s society, if you capture women’s desire to spend, you’ve captured men’s wallets.”

What was even more brilliant was that the café advertised, “Open twenty-four hours a day. No forced purchases.”

That meant customers could come in to pet cats, take pictures, use the Wi-Fi, or play games even when they weren’t hungry.

It was practically the same as the golden arches of KFC nearby.

Lin Ruilong understood the local customer base very well. The Central District was one of the more prosperous areas in Vanilla City.

Anyone who could live nearby, especially in the residential communities around the pedestrian street, was either rich or powerful.

At the very least, people who were too poor to afford a place to live wouldn’t come here. So he had no problem letting nearby customers enter freely.

He said that people like this generally cared a lot about their pride. Even if they came in without ordering anything, they usually wouldn’t refuse when we maids offered them cat treats and cat food after they petted the cats or took pictures beside the climbing frames.

That was also why we rarely fed the cats regular cat food.

They were practically stuffed by the end of every shift. We used the customers’ money to feed the cats, then used the cats to serve the customers.

“Xiaoxue, hurry! A few more freeloaders came in to pet the cats. I’ll handle those ladies over there. You take care of them.”

Maybe because her relationship with Lin Ruilong was a little ambiguous, Lan Yueke took her work extremely seriously.

She never let any opportunity to bring income to the café slip by. Whenever she saw people entering because of the “no forced purchases” sign just to pet the cats, she would call me over to serve those “freeloaders.”

There was nothing I could do but put on a smile, fetch some freeze-dried treats, meat strips, goat-milk jelly, and other snacks from the cat-food storage room, then walk toward them.

“Meow! Masters, aren’t the kittens adorable? Why not give them something to eat?”

“This one is ‘Accelerator.’ His temper is terrible, but he loves goat milk.”

“This one’s name is ‘Li Bai.’ He’s a little dumb, so you can pet him however you like. But if you give him some freeze-dried treats, his master can even hold him!”

After they finished feeding the cats, I would sometimes bring over a few bottles of lactose-free milk or goat milk.

“Would you like to give them some milk? The masters can drink it too!”

Once they had gotten their fill of cat-petting, I would bring over one of those rolling brushes made specially for removing fur.

“You’ve got quite a lot of cat hair on your clothes. Would you like some help?”

After that whole routine, unless someone’s shamelessness knew no bounds, even the stingiest cat-petting customer would pay for their visit.

Then they would leave the café feeling fresh and clean.

I hadn’t encountered any truly shameless freeloaders, but I had met plenty of customers who tried to bargain over their cat-petting.

For example, after buying cat treats, they would ask, “Miss Maid, you’re so cute. Can we take a picture with you?”

Or, “Miss Maid, can I add you on WeChat if I buy some treats?”

I generally agreed to requests like those.

I was already used to taking pictures with people. As for WeChat, it was nothing more than a wallet to me.

No matter how many people I added, the only difference was whether the number in the bottom-left corner of my wallet login showed “99+” or “...”

It was worth mentioning that I encountered someone from my own line of work at noon.

“Hey, little sister Xiaoxue.”

She was a woman with chestnut-colored hair, dressed in a fashionable and mature style.

She carried a shoulder bag and had her arm linked with a young man who looked like a university student.

“So Xiaoxue is your friend?” Lan Yueke said. “You two chat. I’ll leave you to it.”

Hearing how warmly the woman called my name, the overworked maid Lan Yueke looked overjoyed.

“You’re in charge!”

“Huh?”

I glanced at Lan Yueke, who had snatched the plates from my hands and gone to deliver the food.

Thinking the pair were returning customers, I turned around and gestured toward some empty seats nearby.

“Masters, right this way.”

“No need to sound so unfamiliar.”

The woman smiled brightly.

“Don’t you remember me? We’re in the same group.”

“Group?”

She had completely confused me.

“And you are?”

“Su Youhui, from Hualimao.”

The woman introduced herself openly.

“I even greeted you before. Have you forgotten?”

“Oh!”

I instantly realized who she was.

“Hello, Senior!”

Su Youhui was, like me, a platinum contracted user of Hualimao.

Her mature appearance and older-sister voice were two of Hualimao’s three signature features. Countless people placed orders with her every day.

Even her ID in the Hualimao contract group was her real name.

But I was far too busy to pay much attention to things like that. I rarely checked her profile, and I only skimmed through the contract group’s messages each day.

So I really had no idea what this “top courtesan” actually looked like.

The only thing I remembered was her name: Su Youhui.

When I was little, Bi Xinxue had read an online novel called *Angel Street No. 23*.

It was a somewhat Mary Sue, female-oriented romance novel. The heroine was also named Su Youhui, which was why I remembered the name.

Otherwise, if any other girl from the contract group had shown up, I honestly wouldn’t have known who she was.

“This gentleman heard that your café has a partnership with Hualimao,” Su Youhui said. “Customers can get a discount here, so I brought him over.”

She turned her back to the shy-looking university student and winked at me repeatedly, making an exaggerated hint with her eyes.

She was over 170 centimeters tall, half a head taller than me.

“How about it? Can you recommend a few affordable set meals?”

“Sure.”

I immediately understood what she meant. I pulled the menu from the bow tie fastened behind my back and led them to two chairs nearby.

“I’m not sure what kind of food you usually like, but our Herbal Fragrant Beggar’s Chicken, Braised Pork with Fish Head and Pickled Vegetables, and Pickled Vegetable Pacific Saury are all good choices.”

“If you like spicy food, you can try the Spicy Chicken or Lemon Duck. We also have Pickled Vegetable Fish. After the meal, you can order a cup of coffee. The design on top can even be customized!”

As I spoke, I pretended to sneak a glance at the kitchen in the distance.

“Once you’ve decided what to order, tell me. I can give you another fifteen percent off the original price.”

“Thank you so much.”

Su Youhui happily linked arms with the university student.

“If you have time later, Big Sis will take you out to have fun. My place is really big, you know.”

Uh... I think I’ll pass on going to your place.

After the two finished ordering, I took out a pen and calculated the price.

Then I multiplied it by 0.85, hurried to the kitchen in my little maid shoes, click-clacking all the way, and handed the menu to the chef.

Requests for discounts from close friends happened at the café almost every day.

So Lin Ruilong had prepared a solution long ago. I only needed to write down the discount and hand it to the chef.

The chef would calculate the price himself. Depending on the situation—and his mood—he would reduce the ingredients accordingly.

Of course, I’d heard that the chefs usually didn’t care about this kind of discount.

Unless the discount was so large that the café was practically losing money.

But that wasn’t something I needed to worry about.

I was only a maid.

“There are still way too many delivery orders today,” Lin Ruilong said. “The new delivery guy doesn’t know the roads well, so he’s not very good at the job.”

When I returned to the main hall, I saw Lin Ruilong waiting there with several delivery boxes in his arms.

“Xiaoxue, perfect timing. We’re about to film a delivery scene. Come join us.”