Chapter 112: Plain
The following days flowed by as plainly as a river, with no passion and no quarrels. But the water that lingered on the same pebble would never be the same. Time moved on in a plain and simple way, and it was always spreading to the distance. He couldn’t see the end of the waiting, whether it was flowing into the sea or drying up halfway…
It was not yet light when Su Yu got up early. He had found a part-time job to pass the time in a commercial street not far from the neighborhood. It was a private milk tea shop. The business was slow on weekdays, and on Sundays, he was not very busy. But fortunately, it was not far from home. After he got off work, he could just go to the nearby wet market to buy groceries and then go home.
The salary was not very high, but this little bit of money was just enough for the two of them to have three meals a day. He no longer had to go to Xia Qiange for money when the refrigerator was empty. Every time this happened, he would feel inexplicably embarrassed. This was the inability to speak, which was caused by a weak and almost invisible self-esteem.
He had tried to use his work ability from his previous life to find some online part-time jobs that did not require him to show his face. But he could not prove his ability and could not be hired. Even if he sent the written things to others in exchange for a relatively high remuneration, there was no reasonable channel to receive it.
The remuneration, which was equivalent to several months of his part-time salary, was still in Xia Qiange’s bank card. The excuse was that the boss had given her a quarter’s salary in advance and had asked her to work during the New Year. It was a bit clumsy and ridiculous. Fortunately, Xia Qiange did not seem to care about these material things. She just nodded and did not ask any more questions.
After a long time, even the strongest thoughts would fade. One weekend morning, he woke up very early. He opened his eyes and saw the girl’s serene and gentle sleeping face. A wave of warm and comfortable feeling inexplicably dispelled his thoughts. In the past, the thing that had accompanied him to squander his life was alcohol. But now he had found his life back. Even if it was filled with a simple and boring, uninteresting work, it was better than the emptiness and loneliness of the past, where he was about to step on nothing in the next second.
Su Yu had finished his breakfast downstairs and had brought a portion up and had put it in the pot to keep it warm. Xia Qiange was not yet awake, and her sleeping posture was not very honest. Her nightgown was half-lifted and was on the base of her thighs. Her hands and feet were spread out, and she was occupying the half of the bed that he had left empty.
He knew that her sleep was very light, and a small turn could wake her up. So he didn’t go to cover her with a blanket. He turned up the heating of the air conditioner a little before he turned and left.
The milk tea shop opened at eight or nine in the morning. He would prepare the raw materials for making milk tea in the gap when the children were going to school or the office workers were rushing to work, and then he would start his business. Su Yu had learned some skills of making milk tea from Old Mo before, and besides, it was simple. He would add things to the cup bit by bit according to the steps, not missing a single bit. Then he would seal the cup with a sealing machine, and the things he made looked quite decent.
When he arrived at the shop, he found that the door was already open before he could even take out his key. The shop was his own. The owner had opened this milk tea shop purely out of interest, and he rarely came to the shop on weekends.
The retractable door, which was a few years old, was pulled up to a height that was just enough for a person to pass through. The “closed” sign outside had not yet been turned over. Su Yu bent down and stuck his body in. The lights in the house were on. He didn’t have time to go to the back to find someone. The lid of the pot by his hand suddenly popped open a small crack. He lifted the lid and found that there were still pearls cooking inside. He looked around the shop and found that the tedious preparations in the early morning had almost been done.
Su Yu turned off the fire and took out the cooked pearls. A rustling sound came from the back. After a while, the gauze curtain was lifted from the inside. It was a clean and neat-looking girl. She was wearing a pink apron, and she had a pair of black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose. She had a ponytail, and in this cold weather, she was still dressed in a school-style dress. She looked like she was still a student who was not familiar with the world.
“You are?”
The girl frowned and looked at him with some confusion. Then her eyebrows relaxed, and she pointed at Su Yu and said, “Oh, you’re the brother that auntie mentioned. So you really look like this? I thought auntie was lying to me. Didn’t you see the message my auntie sent you?”
“I’m a part-timer here. Did Auntie Lin send me a message?”
Su Yu suddenly remembered his negligence. He had put his phone in his bag yesterday and had not touched it much. He had rarely paid attention to the messages in his phone anymore.
There were not many people in his phone book. The people he had met at the construction site had gradually lost contact with him after he had gone to the capital. Xia Qiange rarely chatted with him on the phone for too long. The chats were usually short messages about not having to leave food for her when she was working overtime at night. The two of them were really cold and indifferent on the internet, not like a couple at all.
But besides the weekends when the two of them were together, she would always ask Su Yu’s phone to be on at all times. Sometimes, when the shop was busy, just the time it took to take off his gloves and not reply to her message could result in a direct call. But he also understood the girl’s concern. Who was to blame for him being a free man who had just escaped for the time being? He himself always felt that there was still a lingering shadow on him.
After the two of them had confirmed their relationship, they had completely torn apart that barrier. Many of their direct actions no longer needed to be hidden. Love and like could be expressed to each other at any time. Although he thought that she could actually not be so worried, he also readily accepted it and even got used to this way of getting along. “She really sent a message. I don’t really look at my phone on weekends. I didn’t notice.”
“Ah… it’s okay. It’s also my fault for coming here directly after the holiday. I used to come here often during the holidays. Auntie said I could come and help you. I know all about the shop. It should be very busy today, right?”
“It’s quite busy on weekends. But it will definitely be much easier with two people.”
The girl came closer and showed Su Yu a photo on her phone. “Look, this is a photo of me and my aunt. I’m not a liar. My name is Lin Keke. I’m a university student in the capital. You can just call me Keke.”
Su Yu glanced at the photo. The girl in the photo had two small dimples when she smiled, and she looked sweet and lovely. The vibrant and youthful energy and he looked like they were from two different worlds.
“Auntie said that the shop has a lot of new products. Can you teach me when you have time?”
“Okay… okay. I’m not very good at it either. Please forgive me if I don’t teach well.”
He took two steps back under Lin Keke’s particularly enthusiastic offensive. Through her dark and round eyes, he saw his slightly awkward expression. Since when had he become so bad at dealing with people?
“Oh, right, right. I just made a cup. I’ll let you try it.”
Lin Keke rushed to the back, leaving him in a daze for a while. Then she came back like a gust of wind. This time, she was holding a cup of milk tea that had not yet been covered. Her cat-like eyes were blinking at him, full of anticipation.
Su Yu coughed and took the full cup of pink liquid with some discomfort. Before he could even taste it, he could smell the sweet and greasy smell of the essence. He had a bad feeling. He took a small sip with some suspicion, and under Lin Keke’s expectant gaze, his eyebrows instantly locked.
Sweet… so sweet that it was cloying. If this kind of thing were sold, the shop’s sign would definitely be smashed.
“What? Is it not good?”
“It’s too sweet.”
“Too sweet? That’s impossible.”
Lin Keke took a small sip with a straw, not believing it. Her eyebrows were furrowed even more than Su Yu’s. She stuck out her tongue. “Why is it so sweet? Forget it, forget it. It seems I’m really not cut out for this.”
She took the defective product back to the back with some disappointment. Her dark ponytail was swaying up and down like a black-winged butterfly, and she disappeared behind the light pink gauze curtain without any warning.
Su Yu shook his head and looked away with a smile. He turned around and completely pulled open the retractable door. The somewhat dazzling sunlight rushed into the shop. He squinted his eyes to adjust for a while, and the sign at the entrance was turned to the “open” side.
