Cloudside Café

tarararawr4-5 minutes 08.07.2021

Translator: tarararawr

The Fifth Cup of Coffee Part 3

Mother Jiang hung up angrily and vented her discontent with her daughter. “It’s your dad. He’s an old man! The last time he went to the hospital, they said that he had high blood pressure and a fatty liver. But he still drank!”

“All right, don’t be angry. I have a cake for you.” Jiang Ying opened the box and scooped a spoonful to feed Mother Jiang.

“Why is it so sweet? It’ll make me so fat!”

“Eat something sweet and you’ll feel better.” Remembering Yun Xian’s words, Jiang Ying only took a small bite. “Where did dad go to eat? I’ll pick him up.”

Mother Jiang told her the place and said she was not going to care. Yet, she still got up and went to the kitchen to cook sobering soup.

Jiang Ying had sat down for less than five minutes before she picked up the car keys to pick her dad up.

The restaurant was not far from their home. She called Father Jiang, but she didn’t expect someone else to answer it.

“Jiang Ying?”

The other side of the phone was a young man with a familiar sounding voice.

Jiang Ying was still thinking of who it was, so he gave her his name. “It’s Fu Chen. Do you remember?”

Boom.

The two words were like boulders, dragging her heart down.

Jiang Ying froze. She held her cell phone with a blank mind until the traffic light changed and the car behind pressed their piercing horn. Jiang Ying said quickly, “Tell my dad I’m coming to pick him up.”

After a few minutes, Jiang Ying parked the car, but didn’t get out immediately.

She lowered half the window and licked her lips. She wanted to smoke.

After rummaging through the glove box for a long time, she found a box that was left there. There were only two cigarettes left.

With a flame lit on the cigarette butt, Jiang Ying blew out the smoke from the cigarette in the dark car with her slender fingers.

Once the cigarette burned out, she opened the car door and stamped out the cigarette butt. She wrapped it in a napkin and threw it into the garbage can.

As soon as she turned around, she saw Father Jiang being supported out of the door with a red face. His footsteps were uneven and he was drunk, and he didn’t know what he was saying.

Jiang Ying quickly went ahead, frowning and complaining, “Why did you drink until you are like this? When we go home, you will be scolded again.”

The drunkard could not hear, staggering and shouting that he could still drink.

“Let’s help uncle get in the car first.”

Jiang Ying looked up and glanced at the man. She didn’t say much, and only nodded.

Fu Chen was more mature than before. He wore a shirt and trousers, and his hair was combed back with gel.

He had monolids, the end of his eyes tapered up. He had a fierce look.

In the past, girls secretly discussed it when they were at school. Some people said that Fu Chen was very manly and made them feel safe; while others said that he had an aggressive “domestic violence face”.

Despite the polarizing comments, for Jiang Ying alone, he was a nightmare she could not avoid when she was a student.

Jiang Ying suppressed her repulsion of him and tried to be as calm as possible to say, “Thank you. We will go first.”

“Hey, wait a minute.” No sooner had she turned around than Fu Chen grabbed her arm.

Jiang Ying stepped back warily, almost instinctively dodging.

Seeing her reaction, he raised an eyebrow and quietly put his hands in his pockets. “I heard uncle say that you are working in the tech field?”

Jiang Ying lowered her head to avoid his gaze. “Yeah.”

“Do you have some time to meet up?”

“We’ll see.”

Father Jiang snorted a few times in the car, and Jiang Ying took it as an opportunity to say, “I’ll go first.”

She rushed to get into the car and turned it on. She turned the steering wheel and saw Fu Chen through the mirror. He was still standing in place looking at her.

The man raised his hand and waved and called out to her, “See you next time.”

Jiang Ying frowned and said in her mind, See you? Like hell. She stepped on the accelerator and left.