"What's taking so long?" Cade, the spoiled son of one of Hong Kong's top 10 millionaire Louis Chung Man-ho shouted. He had placed an order for a set lunch, but it had yet to arrive. Furious, he called out to Emma, a waitress on duty, and lashed out.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but as you can see, there are a lot of customers for today and we're short-staffed," Emma replied apologetically, but her answer did not appease Cade.
"Either you tell them to hurry up or I'll file a complaint against you. Really, this service is unacceptable," he ordered. Emma had no choice but to ask the other waiters to expedite the order.
Later, Cade tried to pay for his food with his credit card, but it was declined. Despite having tried a few times, the payment did not go through. He telephoned his mother Gwyneth and explained the situation.
"We've gone bankrupt," Gwyneth said in between sobs. "Your father made a mistake at work, and they are threatening to sue us unless we pay up." Cade could not believe his ears.
"What am I supposed to do now?" he muttered. Just then, an elderly dishwasher had to leave work early because she was suddenly not feeling well. Suresh, the duty manager turned to him.
"Congratulations, you're our new dishwasher," he said. Cade's eyes widened. He had expected anything but that. He begrudgingly went into the kitchen to start washing the dishes. When he saw the leftover food, he felt sick to his stomach, but he had no choice, as he had to pay for his meal. At first, he lamented about how unfair the situation was to him, but over the next few days, he saw how the staff were working hard, and felt that he had to contribute. Once, he saw a fellow colleague, Paul struggling with a pile of dirty dishes, and was being yelled at by the head chef for being too slow. Cade stepped in.
"I apologize, Ma'am," he said. He then turned to Paul and continued, "It's OK, I'll take over. You need a break." He quickly helped to wash and dry the dishes, appeasing the head chef. Everyone marvelled at Cade's transformation.
Soon, payday arrived. When Cade received his first paycheck, he could not believe his eyes. It was the money he had earned through his hard work. Remembering how Gwyneth had told him that the Chung family had gone bankrupt, he decided to use that money to help pay off part of the debts. Just then, he saw Louis and Gwyneth enter the restaurant. However, they were dressed in their best, a stark contrast to their claims that they had gone bankrupt.
"Dad, Mom, what are you doing here?" Cade wondered. "I thought you've gone bankrupt?"
"Son," Louis began. "Your mom and I saw how you treated the waitress back then, and we decided to teach you a lesson by pretending to be bankrupt. But we've seen how you've changed, and so things will go back to normal." Cade, however, declined, citing that he was grateful for how things turned out, and that he had learnt the value of hard work and respect, and also made friends, so he wanted to start from the ground up, as a dishwasher. Louis and Gwyneth beamed with pride. Their son, who used to be a spoiled young man, had finally grown up.
