One hot and raining night I decided to take a walk.... and ended up passing Tanbo. Some of the staff were outside under the sign (where its dry)... so I stopped and talked to them for a bit. The restaurant was pretty much empty so I hung out for awhlie (no one comes out in the rain). I hung out for a little while and walked Xu Hui home... and then went back to Tanbo... because at this point there were no customers there and I was having fun hanging out. I actually didn't even order anything. When I got back the manager looked slightly unhappy and she was writing out a list. She didn't really mind me watching her write it because she knew I couldn't read it. She looked like she was preparing to do something she didn't really want to do... so I figured this was a list of stuff that the employees had done wrong or something.
A little later the manager had taken Liu Huan into one of the private rooms and all you could hear out of that room was the manager yelling. I couldn't understand any of it. Lin Lin sat down on the steps next to the door to that room and listened... she looked very sad listening. She has that look of a child sitting on the steps listening to her parents scold a sister... or listening to her parents fight. It was very interesting to watch... at one point we could hear that Liu Huan was crying. Then we heard the chairs move and LinLin jumped up and went across the restaurant so that it didn't look like she was listening. I went to the bar and started talking to Hai Lun. Soon Lin Lin came running and said something to Hai Lun and then ran into the waitress area. Hai Lun put down the mop and hurried over to the private room as Lin Lin went running back by with a cup of water.
I stayed outside the room, but when I got over there I could see the manager laying on the floor.... my first thought was that Liu Huan had hit or something, but no... she had over heated or hyperventilated or something from yelling so much. They turned on the A/C in that room and started fanning her and trying to get her to drink some water. Soon Lin Lin picked her up (the male water was in there... but Lin Lin really took charge) and carried her over to the owners office and put her down on the bed in there. They found some sort of medicine in the office and gave it to her... I have no clue what it was. I continued to just stand a little ways away (out of the way) and watch. Everyone pretty much went and started finishing up what they had been doing... except for Lin Lin who stayed there to take care of the manager. She soon was back on her feet and went back out and finished closing out the register and was like.. ok its time to go home... they closed 10 minutes early.
As soon as they started shutting things down... I went outside to wait... it was still raining a bit.. but not hard. I was expecting them to grab umbrellas from Tanbo (they have a bunch for them to use) but they didn't. The manager walked out first and two of the other staff locked up the door. I put up my umbrella and headed towards the manager.. and as soon as I started walking Lin Lin grabbed my arm with the umbrella and pushed me faster towards the manager. So I walked them home keeping the manager dry.... usually when I walk one of them home I try to have some conversation..... but this was a very silent walk back. They live only 2 buildings down from me... so its a convenient walk.
There are a few things that just felt so strange about the night when you think about it. Pretty much all of the female employees live together in one 2 bedroom apt... and pretty much all the of the male employees live together in another 2 bedroom apt. So when the manager has to scold one of the employees.... she then has to go home and sleep in the same room with them. So they work together all day and then go home and live together.... I mean talk about really having to put up with who you work with.... and take a very interesting way of managing I am sure. You wonder does the manager still try to hold authority at the dorm.......
The other interesting thing. With being an outsider here... and though they pretty much accept me as a friend... the best thing I could do when she passed out... was to just stay out of the way. It would take to long for them to communicate anything to me...and for them to understand any suggestion I give them. It was definitely a weird feeling to just know I couldn't do anything but watch... for one... I still don't fully know what happened.... I can just kinda guess from what I saw.....
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