Cloudside Café

That might have been something on Jiang Ying’s mind. At five o’clock the next morning, she woke up and saw that Yun Xian was still sleeping. She turned off the alarm on her cell phone and gently got out of bed to wash up.

There was already someone in the living room. Jiang Ying went out and saw that Xia Zhi was busy in the kitchen.

“Auntie.”

Xia Zhi saw her and smiled. “You’re up so early? Come and have breakfast first.”

Jiang Ying nodded. There was plain congee on the table. She didn’t know when Xia Zhi got up to prepare it.

The birds in the trees outside chirped a few times and fluttered away.

Jiang Ying held the bowl that was half filled with plain congee and took small sips. She felt warm and comfortable in her stomach.

When the clock in the dining room reached 5:40, Yun Qian came out of the room and rubbed his eyes sluggishly.

He went to the table and handed the quiz to Xia Zhi. “I finished it, take a look.”

Xia Zhi didn’t take it. She scooped a bowl of congee and gave it to Yun Qian. “Check your own quiz. The two classes you missed yesterday didn’t mention anything important. You should be able to study the exercises. If you don’t understand, go to the office and ask the teacher.”

Yun Qian rubbed his eyes again. He looked like he saw a ghost. In the past, Xia Zhi wanted to look over every assignment and quiz.

Seeing this, Jiang Ying handed the congee to Yun Qian. “Put it away and have breakfast.”

Yun Qian’s mind came back. “Oh.”

Xia Zhi looked up and glanced at the clock. “Yun Xian still isn’t up?”

Jiang Ying quickly explained, “He slept late last night. It’s fine, let him sleep some more.”

Xia Zhi sighed and shook her head. “Oh, Xiao Jiang, you don’t have to be good to him. He looks like he is so magnificent, but he has many shortcomings. You’ll have to suffer from it when you get married. By all means, don’t spoil him.”

Jiang Ying choked on her congee.

Yun Qian interrupted his mother, “Did you really say that about your own son?”

Xia Zhi straightened up and stated, “I can say that about my own son.”

“Brother tried so hard to find a girlfriend. Don’t scare her away.”

“If I wanted to scare her away, then you already have by being the bad younger brother who cut class.”

…

On the way to the airport, Jiang Ying remembered what had happened at the dining table earlier in the morning and said to Yun Xian, “Auntie seems a little different today.”

“What’s different?”

Jiang Ying thought while tapping her cheeks, “It’s like she has become cute?”

——

After the last spring rain, the weather gradually became hot. The sun outside was dazzling, the sky was cloudless, and the grape vines in the yard had fruit.

In the summer, Cloudside Café had another worker—Yun Qian, who was hired to be a new employee just after the college entrance exam.

On the last weekend of June, Jiang Ying was on a business trip in Shanghai. During the two-day anime expo, “Little World” had a café themed booth on the floor.

Jiang Ying had put away her work ID and was secretly hiding to slack off.

The customers entering the café were all young girls wearing beautiful dresses and delicate makeup.

Jiang Ying looked at the group of young girls and sighed to Yun Xian, “It’s nice to be young. Youth is eternal.”
Yun Xian chuckled at the other end of the phone. “Why are you shedding tears over the changing seasons1 at the anime expo?”

Jiang Ying asked him, “Are you busy at the café?”

“It’s fine. Xiao Qian is very quick in doing things, but I, as the boss, have it quite easy. How about you? Aren’t you busy? You have time to call me.”

“I’m not busy. There are handsome waiters outside, so what else do they need me for?” Jiang Ying said this and got excited. “Let me tell you, the cosplayer we found this time is awesome. He’s so handsome. Oh, you should know what cosplay is, right? It’s role-playing.”

Yun Xian was silent for a few seconds. “Really?”

“Oh yes, I’ll show you the photos.”

Jiang Ying hung up the phone and sent Yun Xian the photos she had secretly taken on her cell phone.

The handsome guy cosplaying as Jian Ying had well defined features. He was wearing a button down and trousers with gold wire glasses. A refined degenerate was on the verge of being exposed to the open.

When Jiang Ying took the photo, he was standing at the register and taking orders for two customers.

Half a minute later, a message popped up on her cell phone.

See the Mountain: Imitation.

Jiang Ying let out a chuckle.

Orange Sunset: I don’t think he’s inferior to the genuine one.

After that, Yun Xian didn’t reply. Something came up for Jiang Ying to do, so she put away her cell phone and got up to work.

Jiang Ying did not expect that on the next day she would receive a phone call from Yun Xian. He said that he was at the gate of the exhibition hall.

“Do you have a ticket? How did you get in?”

Yun Xian didn’t answer. He only asked, “Where are you? I’ll go to find you.”

Jiang Ying told him the place, and within a few minutes she saw Yun Xian coming closer.

She jogged the entire way over and asked while she gasped for air, “Why are you here?”

Yun Xian put a hand in his pocket and looked around the café? He said lightly, “I’m cracking down on fake goods.”

Jiang Ying nodded helplessly. The man was so jealous that he was acting incredibly childish.

“Then how did you get in?”

Footnotes

伤春悲秋(shāngchūnbēiqiū) – it means being sentimental