Cloudside Café

Translator: tarararawr

The Third Cup of Coffee Part 1

Jiang Ying clutched the post-it note in her hand until she reached the doors of the company. The paper became wrinkled and wet from her sweat. Fortunately, the numbers on it had not faded.

She handed the cardboard box to Zhou Qingqing and asked her to hand out the afternoon tea to everyone.

As soon as everyone heard there was something to eat, they stopped no matter what they were doing and gathered around like the pigeons in the square.

Jiang Ying retreated from the group and returned to her seat.

She clicked on Wechat’s search function and typed in one number at a time, slowly and seriously.

Soon, a man’s profile appeared.

The nickname on Wechat was three words: “See the Mountain”, and the profile picture was the cloud and the moon at night.

His area code was in Beijing. No wonder his accent didn’t sound local.

There were few posts in Moments, and some of them were simple everyday posts.

With just a few pieces of information, Jiang Ying looked at it over and over again for a long time. She did this until Zhou Qingqing came over with the cake and asked her, “Did you buy it at Cloudside?

“Cloudside?” Jiang Ying took off the lid of the coffee cup. She lifted it up and took a sip.

It was a warm latte, slightly bitter and the aftertaste had a touch of milk in it.

“The new cafe next door. I told you about it.”

“Oh…” Jiang Ying nodded. So the name is Cloudside. She had been there twice, but she didn’t notice the name of the shop.

Zhou Qingqing leaned against the edge of the table and started to eat the cake. She openly slacked off and chatted with Jiang Ying, “How was it? Have you seen the boss?”

“Boss? What about him?” Jiang Ying pressed on the friend request. She put the phone faced down on the table and opened the box with the cake.

Zhou Qingqing made a tsk. “He’s a good-looking, high quality man and that’s hard to find. Haven’t you noticed?”

Before waiting for Jiang Ying to respond, Zhou Qingqing said to her, “Recently, the main thing the women in this area talk about is him. Whether or not he is in the store and what clothes he wears. Just open up the group chat and you’ll know.”

Jiang Ying paused when she ate the cake. “Does everyone know about him?”

“Well, hey, think about it.”  Zhou Qingqing approached Jiang Ying and whispered, “Young coffee shop owner, financially independent with free time, and good-looking. Heavens, who can not like him? This guy is perfect.”

Jiang Ying poked the mango on the cake with a spoon, somewhat absent-minded.

Zhou Qingqing was still chattering, “Do you know about the beautiful female photographer in the studio downstairs? The very classy and artistic one. I heard that she had been going to Cloudside every day hoping he would notice her. Hey, I’m a common person who’s not even worthy enough to think about it. It’s enough for me to feast my eyes on him and admire his looks.”

When the piece of mango flesh was poked beyond recognition by Jiang Ying, she slammed the spoon down. “Speaking of character design, think carefully about the concept and plot outline of the male lead in the new chapter these next two days, and give it to me by next Monday.”

Zhou Qingqing withered instantly with the spoon in her mouth. “Huh? But today is Friday.”

Jiang Ying patted Zhou Qingqing on the shoulder. “Then work overtime on the weekend. I’ll stay with you.”

Zhou Qingqing squeezed out a fake smile. “Okay, I know.”

With quiet around her now, Jiang Ying breathed a sigh of relief and picked up her cell phone to click on Wechat.

The top of the message list showed: “You have added ‘See the Mountain’. You can start chatting now.”

Jiang Ying straightened her back and rubbed her hands. She became nervous for a moment.

She clenched her fist and loosened it, and she typed out “Hello I’m Jiang Ying.” and sent it.

Jiang Ying saw “The other party is typing…” and she heaved a sigh of relief. She kept her eyes fixed on the screen.

See the Mountain: Hello.

Hello.

What’s next?

What should she respond with?

Jiang Ying became worried. She suddenly glanced at the cake next to her hand, and immediately regained her spirit.

Orange Sunset: What’s the flavor of today’s cake? It’s delicious.

See the Mountain: Mango with a thousand layers.

Orange Sunset: But I prefer the one I ate last time.

See the Mountain: Cheese ice cream, right? Unfortunately, the little master didn’t do it today.

Orange Sunset: Then next time.

See the Mountain: Yeah.

The chat came to an end again. Jiang Ying was stuck to the back of her chair. She really should learn Zhou Qingqing’s skill of finding something to say.

There was still two hours to go before the end of the work week. She was going to plan out her work for the next week before the weekend and delegate tasks to the rest of the team.

Although Jiang Ying’s grades from a young age were not top of the class, she had one good quality: once she started something, she would devote herself to it.

Her colleagues clocked out one after another, and then she was the only one left in the cubicles.

Jiang Ying finally hit the enter key to save the document and packed up her things.

She picked up her phone only to find that it was past five o’clock when Yun Xian sent her a new message.

See the Mountain: Next week, the little master is going to make a new product: red velvet with sea salt taro paste. You can come and try it.

In the evening, the sunset was a deep orange and it was getting lower between the buildings and the trees. There was a breeze blowing across the horizon.

Jiang Ying’s mood was lighter because of the sunset and the coming weekend.

And for this invitation.

Orange Sunset: Okay.