“Why do you feel like you seem to know me?…”
After entering summer, the sun in Qingzhou appeared even more gentle and warm.
Order a cup of coffee.
[The boss is coming today! The afternoon shift, don’t be late!]
Taking advantage of the absence of customers, An Qi hid behind the coffee machine and, engaging in self-deception, sent a reminder in the group chat.
The moment the message was sent out, her phone started buzzing incessantly—still the same group.
[Really! I’ll take that, I’ve been here for over half a month and I’ve never seen the boss yet!]
[I hope it’s a gentle female boss, sigh-sigh-sigh~]
[Ah, is it only me who doesn’t want to see the boss at all! If the boss is here to supervise, we’re definitely screwed, alright……]
An Qi replied with a few sticker emojis, noticing someone pushing the door open, put away her phone unconcernedly, but left her thoughts behind.
She was considered one of the earliest employees to come to this coffee shop. Twenty-odd days, just like the others in the group, she had never seen their own boss even once.
Well, she hadn’t even heard her voice.
“Hello, what would you like?” An Qi operated beside the checkout all-in-one machine, her peripheral vision unable to ignore a figure, making her look a few more times.
The woman turned her head to scan the menu board carefully, looking hesitant, and asked with a soft voice: “Is there anything you recommend?”
Like a gentle breeze quietly blowing after exercising till drenched in sweat, a cloud softly shielding the blazing sun, leaving only peace of mind.
Twenty-odd days of customer-greeting experience didn’t let the customer wait too long, and she immediately put out one of the store’s signature items: “If you don’t mind iced drinks, you can try the sweet apricot Americano; the taste is bitter with a hint of sweetness, and it’s quite smooth.”
Jiang Feiwan nodded with pleasure, paid with her phone, and found a seat by the window to wait for her order.
It took a lot of effort for An Qi to move her vision away from the woman, blinking—
Ah! She was just listening to the pretty older sister’s voice and missed the chance to appreciate her beauty!
Regret. Later, she would have to deliver this cup of coffee personally.
She scooped a small bowl of coffee beans from behind, glanced out the door, thought for a moment, and still prepared to grind them by machine.
The coffee shop had decent business today, though not quite the posture of a long queue, people kept pushing the door open to order continuously. If speed was needed, machine-grinding was of course faster.
Thinking that the boss was coming in the afternoon, An Qi didn’t hesitate much as she poured the weighed coffee beans into the machine, her fingertip touching the switch before it even had time to press down when a dark shadow suddenly flashed before her eyes.
“Preparing to make what kind of drink?”
Thinking it was a customer who had just come in and was about to order, An Qi didn’t think much, not even raising her head: “Sweet apricot Americano, if you’re ordering, please wait a moment~”
Yet the other party didn’t seem to have any intention of ordering, the topic still turning to the coffee grinder in front of her that had already started ‘buzzing’: “This machine hasn’t been used little, has it?”
The question took a rather strange turn, prompting An Qi to look up, and her eyes lit up once more.
Wow, what a refreshing mixed-race older sister, it’s rare to see someone able to pull off a half-tied wolf-tail hairstyle this well.
How did all these pretty older sisters gather together today, it’s quite pleasing to the eyes.
An Qi explained with a beaming smile: “That’s right, machine grinding has better efficiency.”
Chen Zui nodded, saying nothing, watching the machine grind the beans, and then watching her go use that coffee machine. Until that cup of ‘sweet apricot Americano’ was completely made, she finally leisurely entered from the staff passage, unhurriedly changing clothes and tying her apron, and right before An Qi’s eyes, poured that cup of freshly made ‘sweet apricot Americano’ into the sink.
An Qi was stunned.
The service staff who came to fetch the coffee was also stunned.
“Who are you……..” The matter was a bit sudden, and An Qi didn’t react for a moment, wanting to ask if she was a newly recruited barista, but this aura…….
“Li Li had you interviewed?” Chen Zui glanced at her, picked up the empty cup by the sink to wash it. The water flow was a bit too large, splashing and wetting the gray sun-protection ice sleeves she wore on her right arm.
An Qi felt that she was the coffee beans thrown into the machine, shattered all over, and answered tremblingly: “Yes…. Yes, Sister Li.”
Chen Zui found An Qi’s nervous-looking self rather funny, so she simply straightened her face, dried her hands, and weighed 20 grams of coffee beans from the back again. “Where is the hand grinder?”
Her voice was also made to sound icy by her, quite terrifying.
An Qi hurriedly turned around and fetched a cylindrical container from the shelf, handing it to her: “Right here!”
“When I wrote the method for the sweet apricot Americano in the manual, did I write to use the machine grinder?” Chen Zui was unconcerned, adjusted the grinding coarseness, and waited for her answer.
When they joined, they were all given a manual on coffee-making methods, which basically covered the preparation methods for all drinks available in the store, very detailed and easy to understand.
An Qi had heard Sister Li mention in passing that the manual was made and printed by the boss herself……..
Well, then she was completely screwed.
Being lazy and taking coffee that should have been hand-ground to be machine-ground, only to be caught red-handed by the boss……
Carefully stepping into disaster, An Qi stood to the side, pinching her fingers and not daring to look at the person in front of her, awaiting punishment.
Yet Chen Zui seemed to have forgotten about this matter, holding the hand grinder while grinding and touring the interior of the shop.
The shop was handed over to her good friend Li Li to set up. From opening until now, it had been less than four weeks, and this was her very first time truly touring her own little storefront.
Not bad, even more exquisite than what she saw on the video call. The light minimalist style basically completely matched what she imagined when drawing up the design plans.
After graduating from university, Chen Zui loved running all over the place, going up mountains and down to the sea, dealing plenty with nature, and having no fixed abode. Tossing about like this, she was pushing thirty and didn’t even have a place to settle down. At the beginning of the year, Li Li ranted and raved over the phone, telling her to settle down in Qingzhou.
First she chattered that she was getting old and nearing thirty, and with her old bones she shouldn’t go breaking into mountains of blades or seas of fire anymore, and then she advised her to settle down, even if she didn’t marry she ought to have a house of her own.
The former, Chen Zui didn’t like to hear.
The latter, Chen Zui listened to half of it, and thus told Li Li to acquire this storefront.
What, a storefront didn’t count as a house?
Everything was something you couldn’t bring into life and couldn’t take with you in death. Wanting a house and wanting a car seemed as if life could become better just like that.
Chen Zui was like a balloon floating in the sky, not needing anyone to grab that string. If it ran out of air, wherever it fell would be its grave.
On this point, Li Li was different from her. Li Li urgently needed to establish a solid connection with this vast city; what she wanted was traces, traces of being alive.
Or rather, traces proving that she was still alive.
Chen Zui knew the unhealsome scars in her heart, and also knew Li Li genuinely meant well for her, which was why she opened this coffee shop to establish this meager ’employer’ relationship with herself.
Hand-brewed coffee was slower than machine grinding. In the time it took for a single cup, a machine grinder could produce a whole row of coffees. Yet Chen Zui preferred the leisure of hand grinding—from a small bowl of coffee beans to a single cup of extraction, the important part was the process of completing it.
“Sweet apricot Americano, which table’s customer?” The first cup of coffee upon returning—even though she wasn’t the one drinking it—Chen Zui wanted to complete the final step of this cup of coffee.
An Qi immediately went to the previously printed order: “Oh! Table 207, it’s that older sister sitting diagonally across by the window!”
Chen Zui looked in the direction of her finger, blocked by a pillar, unable to catch a general look: “Maybe she’s younger than you.”
An Qi shrank her neck and muttered: “Can’t exactly call her little sister, sounds like flirting.”
Chen Zui laughed helplessly: “I’ll go deliver this cup, bring out a piece of pastry.”
The delay was a bit long, she couldn’t let her wait in vain.
The closer she got, the clearer the silhouette of the woman sitting by the window became.
The slightly lifted bangs brushed before her eyes, the sleek low ponytail resting quietly behind her, and the polite, shallow smile that curled up immediately upon seeing herself approach with the tray holding the coffee.
Chen Zui seemed to know for the first time that a spring breeze could be so tangible.
Literally.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, your coffee.”
Chen Zui placed the coffee before her, followed immediately by the pastry given due to the long wait: “This is a small token from the shop, thank you for tasting.”
Jiang Feiwan lifted her eyes, and after a brief few seconds, her tone was even gentler than the wind blowing over the lake: “Thank you, hard work.”
Perhaps there was something a bit different in that gaze, or perhaps it was that expression of thanks that made Chen Zui dazed for a moment. She stood in place for a bit and asked with suspicion: “Why does it feel like you seem to know me?”
Having said that, she realized something was a bit off, and explained again: “Sorry, I don’t mean to hit on you, please don’t misunderstand.”
“No worries,” Jiang Feiwan smiled politely, picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip, filling the gap of this silence: “Should….. not have seen each other before, right.”
Shouldn’t have seen each other, Chen Zui had no impression.
With a wishing-you-a-pleasant-meal, Chen Zui returned the quietness to the other party.
From afar, she saw An Qi craning her neck and looking around toward this side. Chen Zui pretendedly blocked with the tray, borrowing a bit of momentum from the ‘boss’: “What are you looking at? Do you want to go over and chat with her for a bit?”
Scolded, An Qi guiltily pulled back her head, “Boss, why don’t you introduce yourself at all.”
She couldn’t help but look again at Chen Zui’s arm wearing the sun-protection ice sleeve.
As expected of the boss, trendy, even wearing ice sleeves only on one arm.
So pretentious, hahaha…..
An Qi only dared to think this in her heart.
“Leave half an hour early this afternoon, I’ll treat you all to dinner tonight.” Chen Zui noticed that gaze and didn’t pierce through it.
Hearing that she could leave work early and also go out for a group dinner, An Qi jumped three feet high: “Really?!”
Chen Zui smiled helplessly. Just before, she had been like someone who made a mistake and feared she would slaughter her, yet this boss title couldn’t intimidate people at all.
“Boiled over. This afternoon you can only make hand-ground drinks.”
An Qi: “……..”
Fine then, consider it a workout.
Seeing her thwarted, Chen Zui swallowed a smile.
The water pressure rushed past the calibration cup wall, getting her cuff wet again. The air conditioner’s wind blew, feeling a bit cool. Chen Zui flicked her hand, and looking from this angle, it seemed the pillar blocking right in the middle had shifted positions.
Impartially, she happened to see that woman from just now.
She actually hadn’t had time to fully meet that gaze, only lifting her eyes politely to look after placing the coffee and pastry steadily and gathering the tray to her side.
Thus, she precisely met the woman’s gaze that was too late to retract.
Chen Zui always lived a day-to-day lifestyle, unable to recall where that gaze had been seen, yet inexplicably finding it familiar.
“Boss, you’re all wet, aren’t you going to wipe it?”
Before her train of thought could extend further, she was suddenly interrupted by An Qi’s reminder.
Chen Zui snapped back to reality, only then remembering to turn off the faucet. The gray ice sleeve was already wet for a stretch, asking: “Where are the tissues?”
An Qi lowered her head, pulling out an unopened pack of tissues from the drawer and handing it over.
Chen Zui nodded, pinched the edge of the wet cuff and rolled it upwards—
An Qi widened her eyes.
!
She had taken the bait, the boss was actually a heavily tattooed person?!