Before Luan Yi’s words even finished, a harsh wind seemingly blew past her, and with a crisp sound, her left cheek received a solid slap.
"Shut your dog mouth." Gu Qili’s slap was swift and fierce, the palm still carrying the sting of a burn. She stared at Luan Yi’s quickly swelling cheek, warning her word by word, "If you can’t keep your mouth in check, don’t bla for hitting you every ti I see you."
"Gu Qili, you barbarian." Luan Yi never expected her to actually hit her. Her eyes reddened like heated branding irons. How dare she, how dare she?
Gu Qili just smiled coldly in response to her shocked gaze, "You know well that I can slap you without bearing any responsibility. If I want to, I can do it as I please. The reason, you understand."
After saying this, Gu Qili turned around, placed the changed clothes into her own locker, locked it, and then left the changing room.
After she left, the others also followed out one after the other, so of them gloating and snickering at Luan Yi under their breaths. Zhu Ping walked out last, glancing at Luan Yi, who was glaring viciously back at her.
"You are all Gu Qili’s lapdogs."
Zhu Ping frowned slightly, but did not respond to her.
After everyone had left, Luan Yi, covering her swollen face, kicked the nearby locker. The tal locker emitted a loud clang.
Others may not know, but she was very aware that the incident at Palm Island where Mu Shuoqian threw her into the sea still haunted her as a nightmare. She couldn’t believe that man, with his stunning and aloof face, could be so cruel and ruthless, yet when in front of Gu Qili, he was as tender as water, even the lines around his mouth showed full doting and spoiling.
Gu Qili, Mu Shuoqian, what gives you the right to be so arrogant.
With eyes filled with intense hatred, Luan Yi’s gaze once again fell upon Gu Qili’s locker. Her fingernails almost dug into her flesh. As a lady of the Qi Family, she had never suffered such humiliation.
Just as Gu Qili finished cleaning the cups, Guo Jun called her over to take an order.
Guo Jun always ordered her around to do this and that, but she never refused, which left Guo Jun, who was looking for trouble, only able to nitpick on trifling matters that he wasn’t even confident about.
Gu Qili holding the nu walked towards a window seat, where a man looking to be in his forties was staring outside.
"Good afternoon, Sir. Here is the nu and the wine list," Gu Qili presented the docunts with both hands in front of him, "Would you like to order now, or start with a glass of water first?"
After a glance at her, the man with the black hat took the nu, briefly skimd it, and ordered a steak and red wine.
Gu Qili paused for a mont, then reminded him, "Sir, the red wine you have chosen could greatly affect the taste when paired with the steak. If you don’t mind, I can recomnd a more suitable wine for you."
"I just want to drink this kind," the man in the black hat glanced at her impatiently, adjusted his hat brim, and then continued to look out the window, disregarding Gu Qili.
The custor is always right, even though Gu Qili knew his choice was wrong, she still went ahead and placed his order as he instructed.
After taking the order, she went back to helping turn over the tables for the next custors.
Gu Qili was too busy to notice that in a corner of the restaurant, a pair of eyes had been watching her for a long ti.
It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that a sudden roar ca from the window seat: "This wine is fake!"
Gu Qili looked towards the source of the sound; it was the sa sowhat strange man with the black hat. He stood at the window, overly dramatic, holding half a glass of red wine, loudly exclaiming, "This wine is fake, such a big hotel actually selling fake wine!"
After his outburst, the man with the black hat instinctively glanced towards the entrance, as if waiting for soone to appear.
"Who took the order, who served the food, who opened the wine, all co here." Guo Jun imdiately summoned several waiters over, including Gu Qili, who could not escape.
It was the peak ti for lunch, and the restaurant was filled with guests who had co to Aus City, almost all drawn by its reputation.
Although they didn’t understand what the man with the black hat was saying, his actions and behavior made it clear that he was complaining about a problem with his wine.
Consequently, patrons at the tables started lifting their wine glasses to inspect them more closely.
"Sir, may I ask what the issue is?" Guo Jun asked politely.
"You’re actually selling fake wine, the taste of this wine is off," the man with the black hat put down his glass with a thud on the table, "You don’t believe ? Taste it for yourselves."
The man finished speaking and glanced toward the door again.
Guo Jun had soone fetch another glass and poured a small half-glass from the bottle. After tasting it, he couldn’t help but frown, examined the wine bottle carefully, and finally turned his head to look at Gu Qili with obvious anger on his face, "What’s going on?"
Gu Qili was startled and hadn’t expected him to ask her. She was just responsible for taking orders; she neither fetched the wine from the cellar nor opened the bottle. Why should he be asking her what happened?
Everyone’s gaze was fixed on her as if she had sohow played tricks.
Gu Qili confidently looked at the man in the black hat and recounted the process of placing the order. Finally, she asserted emphatically, "Sir, our restaurant would never sell fake wine. Are you sure this wine is ours?"
"Of course, if you don’t believe then print out the receipt and see if it’s not the sa bottle I ordered."
By this ti, soone had already brought over the receipt, and after comparing, they realized that the bottle on the table matched the one on the receipt.
"Ah, how embarrassing, I think it might be the fault of our restaurant..." Guo Jun imdiately started making apologetic gestures to the man in the black hat. So people around had already started taking photos with their cellphones. If news spread that such a big hotel was selling fake wine, it would definitely be explosive news.
For Guo Jun, a supervisor, to make such a self-damaging statent before the matter was fully investigated was truly unbecoming of his position. At this ti, as a mber of the hotel, shouldn’t he be defending the honor of the hotel? If he admits it’s the hotel’s fault now, then the reputation of the hotel would be ruined by his own words.
So, without waiting for him to finish speaking, Gu Qili interrupted him harshly, "Sir, do you like drinking wine?"
Guo Jun seed very displeased at being interrupted, giving Gu Qili a warning glare, but she ignored his gaze completely and turned to look at the black-hatted man who was clearly sowhat nervous.
After a mont of silence, the man in the black hat spoke up with confidence, "Of course, if I didn’t like wine, why would I have co all the way to your restaurant? Don’t you claim to have the best wine in all of Aus City? If I didn’t like wine, how could I have identified this as fake? Your hotel is just focused on making money, completely disregarding the interests of us patrons, boasting the banner of a high-class restaurant yet selling roadside stall booze."
The man in the black hat got more and more agitated, and even called out loudly to the entire restaurant: "You all better check if the wine you’re drinking is fake. If this restaurant can sell one bottle of fake wine, they can sell ten, even a hundred bottles. Maybe all their wine is fake."
"Sir, if you keep saying that, we will sue you for defamation," Gu Qili’s voice was crisp and determined, with a serious expression that made the man in the black hat look at her twice.
"You sell fake wine and won’t allow to expose you?"
"Sir, since you are so knowledgeable about wine, could you please help taste whether my glass of wine is fake?" Suddenly, a refreshing male voice spoke up fluently, "I don’t know much about wine; I’m a layman."
As everyone looked in his direction, a tall man with beautiful blue eyes walked over, holding a half-glass of red wine in his hand.
Upon seeing him, Gu Qili was slightly surprised, but she imdiately understood and discreetly winked at him.
The man speaking was Reynolds, who had been sitting in a corner there all along, watching Gu Qili intently—she just hadn’t noticed him.
He had a translator by his side, who had translated everything the man in the black hat had said to him.
Nobody here recognized him except for Gu Qili; they all thought he was just a regular custor.
Reynolds placed his glass of wine in front of the black-hatted man, and his translator explained on his behalf: "My sir would like you to taste this wine to see if it’s real. It’s a 2006 Chardonnay from... "
The man in the black hat seed caught off guard by the sudden request to taste the wine, but seeing their seemingly clueless expressions, he quickly grabbed the glass to draw more people to his side, imdiately tasting it and spitting it out before even swallowing: "Fake wine, definitely fake wine, what Chardonnay? It’s just rotten sour grapes."
"Are you sure, sir?" the translator asked with a look of astonishnt.
"I’m sure, it’s certainly fake. This restaurant just sells fake wine; you all shouldn’t co here to dine anymore."
"Haha," Reynolds suddenly laughed, turned to Gu Qili, and said sothing. After Gu Qili’s initial shock, she also smiled, picked up the glass to show everyone, with a light but confidently persuasive voice: "Everyone, why not taste for yourselves? This so-called 2006 Chardonnay is actually just Coca-Cola mixed with white liquor. This gentleman confidently professed his knowledge of wine, yet he couldn’t even distinguish between a glass of Coke and wine. How could he possibly assert with certainty that our restaurant’s wine is fake?"
Upon hearing this, everyone felt it made a lot of sense, and the looks they gave the black-hatted man were filled with skepticism and disdain.
Gu Qili continued, "Our French Restaurant has always adhered to the concept that the custor is God, and we strictly check every ingredient, every bottle of wine, so you can dine here with confidence. As for the inconvenience caused today, our restaurant is willing to offer each table a complintary dessert special."
"Wow." Hearing that there was free food, everyone clapped happily.
Guo Jun’s face sank instantly, "Gu Qili, who is the supervisor here? Who allowed you to decide to give away desserts on your own?"
"I allowed it. Any objections?" An attractive voice faintly sounded, not loud but enough to make Guo Jun shiver thrice.
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