Ch26 - End of the Year (1/2)
“What are you doing?!” A familiar voice rang out. Coffee had been splashed all over Yu Hao’s head and he looked absolutely miserable. When he looked over, he realised that it was Chen Yekai.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
He didn’t know when Chen Yekai had arrived at the cafe. He suddenly shouted, “Are you looking for a fight?!”
With this one roar from Chen Yekai, the middle-aged man was instantly frightened. Whenever his teacher, Chen Yekai, turned fierce, he would be extremely imposing. He had shouted at Yu Hao before, but he appeared even more frightening today. Yu Hao was afraid of Zhou Sheng, but he was even more afraid of Chen Yekai, because Zhou Sheng would throw a fist to your face the moment he got angry, with no time for you to react before the punch connected. But when Chen Yekai gets mad, he would destroy the other party’s psychological defences.
“Pay up.” Chen Yekai pointed at the floor covered in coffee, “You trash.”
That customer struggled for breath as he stared at Chen Yekai. Chen Yekai was wearing a casual suit jacket and looked just like an unreasonable rich second generation. The customer instantly turned meekand only looked at Chen Yekai.
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“You dare avoid payment?! You think Laozi wouldn’t beat you to death right here?!” Chen Yekai’s voice sounded out like thunder as he exerted 80% of his lecture theatre shouting abilities. Yu Hao felt as if the french windows in the flower cafe were about to get destroyed by a hurricane.
That customer didn’t say another word as he opened up his WeChat app on his phone to pay. The clerk in charge of collecting payment scanned his code and said, “Four cups of Vanilla coffee.”
The customer didn’t even want the coffees anymore, and he left quickly.
Their surroundings fell silent. Yu Hao went to look for a paper towel to wipe his face. The clerk said, “Next, please.”
Chen Yekai left the coffee counter as if nothing had happened. Yu Hao whispered to the clerk, “I’ll clean up the mess.”
“It’s been hard on you.” The clerk was a big man who had just entered the workforce. He patted Yu Hao’s hair that was soaked in coffee.
As Yu Hao wiped the coffee counter, he looked towards where Chen Yekai was sitting. When did he come? He had been receiving orders the whole day today, so he hadn’t noticed him. Yu Hao had suffered from many such setbacks before that made him feel like he was braving through stormy seas. When he delivered takeout in the past, some people would even slam the door in his face, but it would always be okay once he had settled down. Not all customers are like that, and there were more good people in this world than bad.
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Chen Yekai was currently drinking coffee and chatting with another woman that Yu Hao recognised. She was Professor Lin Xun’s wife, “Liang Laoshi” Liang Jinmin, who was introduced during the college performance. Liang Jinmin wore a pair of sunglasses today, and was speaking to Chen Yekai in the corner in a low voice. Chen Yekai was listening to her silently with a stern expression on his face.
To meet Chen Yekai at the cafe after 8pm and wear sunglasses — was she previously a movie star? Was she afraid of being recognised? Yu Hao glanced at them a few more times. Liang Jinmin only stayed in the cafe for a short while longer before she got up and left.
When it was close to 9pm, Yu Hao was wiping the floor as he knelt down on one knee. Chen Yekai walked over and said to him over the coffee counter, “Don’t work anymore, let’s go.”
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Yu Hao looked up and smiled, “I have to work.”
“I’ll find a job for you.” Chen Yekai said, “You can’t go on like this either, where will you find the time to study?”
There were hardly any customers left in the cafe. Yu Hao stood up. He felt a bit dizzy after kneeling for so long, so he supported himself with the coffee counter for awhile. Chen Yekai said, “Have you eaten? Go and change, I’ll bring you out for a meal.”
Yu Hao stubbornly said, “I need to finish my work for today.”
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
He didn’t reject Chen Yekai because he was afraid that he would get angry, but he didn’t promise him either. He felt like Chen Yekai seemed to be in a very bad mood. Although he had a serene expression on his face, the air around him seemed to have frozen over. After being rejected, Chen Yekai went over to one side and sat down again.
Yu Hao made a cup of coffee and got the clerk to pass it to him. At 9:40pm, the two of them began to check the inventory to prepare for closing. The clerk asked him, “Will you come back tomorrow?”
“Of course.” Yu Hao answered.
“Your family?” The clerk motioned towards Chen Yekai as he asked.
Yu Hao waved his hand and didn’t want to talk any further. He untied his apron, changed his clothes, and by the time the lights were turned off, Chen Yekai was still sitting by himself in a corner. Rather than looking at his phone, he was instead quietly lost in thought.
“Hi!” Yu Hao smiled, “Let’s go.”
Yu Hao packed two boxes of salads and passed one to Chen Yekai, “I made this myself, have a taste.”
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Chen Yekai didn’t say a single word as he brought Yu Hao downstairs. Yu Hao said, “The exit is over here.”
Chen Yekai fished out his car keys and pressed it. The lights in a BMW lit up.
Yu Hao, “……”
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Chen Yekai remained silent the whole time. Yu Hao continued, “When I worked in the past, I’ve had to deal with a lot more troubles than today. It’s nothing much.”
There was a light red perfume bottle in front of the driver’s seat. A beeping sound rang out incessantly in the car. Yu Hao thought that he had broken something, so he was a bit flustered.
“Fasten your seatbelt.”
Yu Hao fastened the seatbelt and the beeping noise stopped.
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Chen Yekai’s expression looked frighteningly cold. He maneuvered the steering wheel and drove towards a 24 hour hot pot shop. Yu Hao buckled his seatbelt and said, “I’m not eating. I’ve already eaten dinner, Laoshi.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Un.” Chen Yekai watched the road ahead.
Yu Hao thought, we could listen to some music? He stretched his hand out to press a button on the car’s external stereo as he wanted to play some music, but Chen Yekai reached out and turned it off.
Te Ljb, “……”
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“I’ve been very irritable for the past few days, it’s not because of you. However, Professor Lin has helped me obtain approval for my topic.” Chen Yekai finally spoke, “I’ll need to write up at least three papers this year, so I need an assistant. Come help me after the Spring Festival ba, don’t work at the cafe anymore.”
Yu Hao smiled, “I’m just an undergraduate, what can I help you with?”
“Questionnaires, surveys, sampling, literature reviews.” Chen Yekai said, “There’s a lot of things you can do. Yu Hao, you’re doing well in your major’s courses. You’ll have to learn how to be more confident in yourself eventually. Why don’t you believe in yourself?”
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Yu Hao, “It’s not that I don’t believe in myself, but……”
Chen Yekai turned the steering wheel and said, “You don’t want to accept my help, right? You consider it as owing me a favour, and if this were the case, I won’t be able to ask you for help again. Do you know, Yu Hao, with my former temperament, I was never someone who would consider other people’s feelings.”
“I know.” Yu Hao smiled as he spoke.
Chen Yekai had a very unyielding tone today, and his usual courteous attitude was absent, “The affable me you see is just a facade. I’m only that fake towards people I’m not very familiar with. But I’ll always speak frankly to my friends.”
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Yu Hao said, “I understand.”
Chen Yekai said, “So, come help me ba.”
Yu Hao answered, “I can help you, but I won’t take your money.”
Chen Yekai was startled, then began to laugh and shook his head helplessly. Yu Hao’s meaning was clear — this isn’t charity, so don’t pay me.
Chen Yekai said, “Alright then, but you don’t need to give me a reply so soon. You should reconsider it.”
Yu Hao responded with an “un”. They arrived at the college and the car stopped outside the dormitory buildings. Yu Hao got out of the car with both salads in his hands. Chen Yekai said, “That’s my dinner, aren’t you giving it to me?”
Yu Hao thought that Chen Yekai didn’t want to eat it, so he was immediately dumbfounded, “You haven’t eaten dinner?”
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“Treat it as if I’m on a diet.” Chen Yekai pointed at the passenger seat to motion to him to leave one behind. Only then did Yu Hao know that Chen Yekai might have wanted to chat with him when he had brought him to Haidilao. Now, he could only helplessly return to his dormitory to eat his cold salad.
At 10pm, Zhou Sheng called the dormitory and asked what he ate and how his day went. He was worried that he might have starved to death in the dormitory since no one was around to take care of him. Yu Hao told him that nothing much had happened while he ate his salad.
“Nothing happened?” Zhou Sheng said, “Why does your voice sound off?”
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“Are you inspecting the dorm?” Yu Hao laughed.
Zhou Sheng said, “Yeah, this is an inspection.”
Yu Hao said, “Let’s play a game ba.”
So Zhou Sheng hung up the phone. No one else was playing tonight, so only Zhou Sheng was around to help Yu Hao improve his rank. They played for the whole night, during which both of them didn’t talk to each other at all. Zhou Sheng selected an assassin, Yu Hao rode a fish and followed behind Zhou Sheng. They played for more than two hours before Zhou Sheng went offline. Yu Hao was incredibly sleepy, so he sent a WeChat message to Zhou Sheng telling him that he wasn’t going to play anymore.
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Zhou Sheng didn’t reply to him. Yu Hao scrolled through his phone for awhile, and for some reason, he thought of Liang Jinmin wearing sunglasses. Then he remembered that his form teacher in elementary school would wear sunglasses in broad daylight to teach them once in awhile. Both of them had similar temperaments, yet for now, he couldn’t explain why he thought so.
The empty dormitory was quiet. Most of the students had returned home, so only a few, sporadic dorms had their lights turned on. Yu Hao finally began to feel lonely.
He continued working at the flower cafe. Yu Hao ruminated over it; if Chen Yekai hasn’t changed his mind after the New Year, he really would like to become his assistant. Chen Yekai is a good teacher, and he would be able to impart a lot of knowledge to him which might help him broaden his horizons. But……does he treat him as his ex? This was actually the point that Yu Hao was most concerned about.
He was also afraid that the customer from yesterday would come again today for revenge, so he was on edge for the entire afternoon. Nothing happened, but he could still come over at night……
“Two hot Lattes.” Zhou Sheng’s whole body had leaned in so much he almost crossed over the cashier’s counter.
With a loud exclamation, Yu Hao burst into laughter and said, “Why are you……didn’t you go home?”
Zhou Sheng said, “Two hot Lattes!”
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Yu Hao quickly took Zhou Sheng’s order. He took out his phone to scan the code from his own WeChat, but Zhou Sheng took his phone away roughly and said, “Scan mine.”