Chapter 33: The Boss Is Simply a Living King of Hell!

"Clean up the corpse and throw it far away," Chen Mu said to one of the employees.

The employee did not hesitate, faithfully executing Chen Mu's order by dragging Tu Li's body aside. Following Tu Li's death, his upscale hotel was naturally seized by Chen Mu and repurposed as a branch location. With this, the Midnight Canteen gained another outpost, and the daily revenue it could generate at least doubled.

After dealing with the troublemaker Tu Li, Chen Mu returned to the canteen to assess the staff's situation and the establishment's operations. Among these, the thing that surprised Chen Mu the most was a new dish developed by the canteen's kitchen: Exploding Boiled Blood Liver!

This dish had become the canteen's breakout hit. In Chen Mu's memory, once the Midnight Canteen evolved into the Midnight Hotel, this dish became an enduring classic. Conservatively estimated, it would generate hundreds of millions in profit for Chen Mu in the future.

How could such a classic dish have been developed so quickly? One had to realize that only a day had passed since Chen Mu left the Midnight Canteen to attend the Mist Museum and then returned. Creating a signature dish in just one day? The speed was simply heaven-defying.

Chen Mu soon summoned the chef to ask how she had managed it. Her answer was within his expectations. It turned out that the chef had developed this signature dish long ago, but the previous owner had been so unscrupulous that he had withheld their wages for over half a year. Consequently, the chef had never released the recipe. It wasn't until Chen Mu arrived—not only refusing to fire them but also paying their back wages—that the chef was deeply moved and finally brought the dish out.

Chen Mu nodded after hearing this. It seemed like a short time to create a dish and have it spread among customers to become a hit, but for ghouls, a day was somewhat different from a human day.

Because they had no rest time. Simply put, ghouls worked all twenty-four hours of the day. This was why, no matter when people entered those ghoul-infested zones, they would always encounter ghouls. The concept of rest did not exist for them; they were always working. What eight-hour workday? What weekends? What benefits? None of that existed. Some owners didn't even pay their ghouls! The logic of many ghoul bosses was: "I've given you the opportunity to work, why should I pay you? You get the job and the wages—do you want all the benefits for yourself?"

In the ghoul world, where might makes right, if ghoul employees lacked strength, they could only submit to exploitation. The competition and oppression in the ghoul world were far more brutal than in the human world. Therefore, a ghoul's twenty-four hours were equivalent to four days of human labor. Promoting a dish in four days was quite reasonable.

Looking at the hardworking employees, Chen Mu felt that necessary rest was still required. Twenty-four hours of work a day was simply too cruel. As his employees, as long as they remained loyal and worked hard for him, Chen Mu would not treat them poorly. It was time to distribute those shopping cards he had acquired.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu said to Li Xiaoxiao, "Call all the employees over; I have an announcement to make."

Soon, the dozens of employees from the Midnight Canteen gathered. Chen Mu pulled out a stack of shopping cards and told them, "Our Midnight Canteen is now launching brand-new benefits. Every employee of the Midnight Canteen will receive a shopping card. The card comes with five thousand Ghost Coins, and every month, the canteen will top it up with another one thousand. As long as you continue to work at the Midnight Canteen, you will enjoy these benefits!"

The moment he said this, the scene went silent. The ghoul employees looked at each other, completely bewildered.

"Benefits?"
"What is a 'benefit'?"
"The boss already gives us wages; why give us benefits too?"
"Does this mean we get both wages and benefits? Are we taking all the advantages?"
"What profit does the boss make then?"

Listening to the employees' whispering, Chen Mu was left speechless. They were truly a group of perfect, self-sacrificing "leeks." Having been oppressed by ghoul bosses for so long, they had internalized the exploitation and started hypnotizing themselves.

"If other places don't have benefits, that's their business. In my Midnight Canteen, every employee will enjoy benefits. And as long as you work hard, these benefits will only get better!" Chen Mu declared loudly.

Afterward, he had Li Xiaoxiao distribute the cards. It was only when they held the cards in their hands that the employees realized what was happening, their faces filled with shock. The boss was really giving them benefits! And these cards were for the renowned Fallen Mall! If not for the boss's cards, the vast majority of them would never have been qualified to shop at the Fallen Mall in their entire lives.

*The boss is actually this good to us!*

In an instant, the ghoul employees were moved to tears. They truly felt that Chen Mu was completely different from other ghoul bosses. He was a good boss who genuinely cared for them!

Before the employees could recover from their shock, Chen Mu announced another bombshell: "Starting today, working hours at the Midnight Canteen are being modified! Every one of my ghoul employees deserves the right to rest. From today on, the twenty-four-hour workday is reduced to twenty hours. The remaining four hours are yours to do as you please—rest, sleep, shop... each ghoul only needs to work twenty hours a day!"

This news hit the employees like a thunderclap.

"Rest?"
"What is 'rest'?"
"I've worked for ten years and never rested. Isn't working twenty-four hours a day expected?"
"Oh my god, our boss is so kind!"
"This is the first time I've ever heard of a boss giving ghouls time off."
"Four hours of vacation every day! That's so much time, I couldn't possibly spend it all!"

The ghoul employees found it hard to believe. They were given work, wages, benefits, and four hours of rest every day! They were getting all the advantages! A sense of guilt washed over them—if they took all these perks, what would happen to the boss? The boss was so considerate of them; it was unprecedented!

Looking at their excited expressions, Chen Mu also felt a surge of excitement. What he was excited about was that he had discovered a field of prime "leeks." The ghouls in this post-apocalyptic world were the highest-quality labor he could ask for. The oppression in the ghoul world was so severe that these employees had been conditioned into perfectly compliant workers.

A twenty-hour workday might seem inhumane in the human world, but to these ghouls, it was an immense blessing. They had never heard of having time off before! Chen Mu could only imagine the shock he would cause in the ghoul world once his business grew and he began implementing an eight-hour workday, weekends off, and insurance and medical coverage.

These ordinary benefits would be his weapons to sweep across the ghoul world. Imagine a powerful ghoul working 007 with no benefits; if Chen Mu offered an eight-hour day, weekends off, and triple the pay, any ghoul with a functioning brain would pledge their loyalty to him. He would possess the most loyal and hardworking force in the ghoul apocalypse. It was a dimensionality-reduction strike!

Sometimes, incentive was more effective than coercion. If other ghouls wanted to eliminate Chen Mu, his own staff would be the first to refuse, fighting to the death to protect him. He was winning big!

Chen Mu hadn't implemented the eight-hour day immediately because he wanted to roll out benefits slowly. If he gave them everything at once, what would they have to look forward to? Giving them twenty hours now had already made them this ecstatic. When he eventually moved to twelve hours, then eight, and added weekends, these ghouls would likely kneel and call him "Father."

Of course, there was another reason: these ghoul leeks were so easy to harvest that he couldn't help himself. With such high-quality leeks before him, it would be insane not to harvest them. Chen Mu’s venture was just starting, and he was short-handed. He had to make his staff suffer a little longer, working twenty hours to fill the gaps. After all, the growth of his enterprise was the top priority. He was here to dominate, not to run a charity.

Amidst the cheers, Chen Mu felt like a benevolent soul. Suddenly, one employee, overcome with emotion, shouted, "Boss Chen, you are truly our Living Yama!"

This exclamation voiced the sentiments of all the others, and it was immediately met with a chorus of agreement. "Yes! Boss Chen, you are truly a Living Yama!"

In the ghoul tongue, "Living Yama" was a term of endearment, a high compliment. If a ghoul called you a Living Yama, they weren't cursing you; they viewed you as their savior. Conversely, if a ghoul called you their "little angel," do not be happy—they were cursing you with a malicious spell. Such was the cultural divide of the ghoul apocalypse.

Chen Mu thought that the title of "Living Yama" sounded a bit hellish, but he accepted it nonetheless.