Cloudside Café

Chapter 9: The ninth cup of coffee

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On weekends, the sky is clear, and the warm wind blows through the vines by the window.

Jiang Ying held the computer and pushed open the glass door beside the cloud. As soon as she entered the door, she saw Yun Xian standing in front of a white wall with her arms in her arms, motionless, as if she was thinking while facing the wall.

She walked to the front desk and asked Zhao Xinrou, "What's wrong with him?"

Zhao Xinrou explained: "Yesterday, a few children in the store were naughty and stepped on the wall a few times. The boss was staring at the footprints."

Jiang Ying was puzzled: "What's so good about footprints?"

Zhao Xinrou shrugged: "Who knows."

People seem to always like to get along with themselves, and the more things they don't like, the more they can't control their eyes and want to look there.

Yun Xian passed by the wall four or five times today, knowing that the footprints on the white wall made him feel uncomfortable, like a crumpled white paper, but his eyes still followed involuntarily.

Every time he looked at it, he frowned and sighed.

Jiang Ying couldn't stand it any longer and suggested to him, "Would you like to cover it with paint?"

Yun Xian shook his head: "It will still be dirty."

Jiang Ying looked at the white wall. From a distance, the small footprints were actually inconspicuous, so she realized something: "Yun Xian, are you a Virgo?"

Yunxian: "..."

Silence instead of answering, Jiang Ying wrote "I know" all over her face.

She glanced at the wall, at the landing, with a row of decorative picture frames hanging on it. There are often children running up and down the stairs, so that wall is particularly easy to get dirty.

Jiang Ying suggested: "Would you like to try wall painting? That wall is quite suitable."

Yun Xian's gaze moved from the wall to her, and nodded: "Good idea."

"Draw a night scene." Jiang Ying sat on the high stool and stretched out his hand to measure, "Here is the night sky, the moon is on the right, here is the outline of a cafe with a big tree next to it. What do you think?"

Yun Xian touched his chin and imagined the picture Jiang Ying said: "Well, not bad, but where do I have to find someone to paint this?"

Jiang Ying raised the corner of her mouth and patted her chest: "I am, I am a professional."

She got up from the chair and walked to the wall: "I painted wall paintings when I was in college. It's not difficult. It can be done in a few hours."

Yun Xian raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, "Then when can you draw me?"

"Just today, it happens that I won't go to work on the weekend tomorrow." Jiang Ying tilted her head to look at Yun Xian with a smile in her words, "I'm afraid that if we don't hurry up, our Virgo boss Yun will go crazy."

After Yunbian Cafe closed that night, Yun Xian and Jiang Ying stayed and started a night job.

Jiang Ying first made a draft, and the large-scale coloring Yunxian came, and Jiang Ying was responsible for outlining the details.

Even wearing a gray apron, paint was still on his body and clothes in no time.

Jiang Ying did not forget to tease Yun Xian while holding the palette and drawing: "You are also dirty, can you bear it?"

Yun Xian glanced at her helplessly, and defended himself in a serious tone: "I have no cleanliness or obsessive-compulsive disorder. I just don't like to see stains on white things."

Jiang Ying quickly coaxed him: "Okay, I understand, I understand, I understand."

The two of them focused on painting, and when the progress was almost halfway through, Yun Xian stood up, shook his sore arm, and asked Jiang Ying, "Are you thirsty?"

I didn't realize it just now, but when Jiang Ying asked this time, she realized that her throat was dry: "Bring me a glass of water."

Yun Xian returned to the front desk, poured a glass of water, inserted a straw, and walked to Jiang Ying and handed it to her.

Jiang Ying held something in both hands, lowered her head and leaned in, biting the straw and drinking half a glass of water in one breath.

Seeing how she was drinking, Yun Xian smiled: "If you're tired, just paint here today."

Jiang Ying waved his hand: "It's over soon, I'm not tired."

Jiang Ying was sweating all the time and felt a little stuffy. Her long hair was wet and sticky around her neck, which made her very uncomfortable.

After drawing the outline of the cafe, she got down from the telescopic ladder, put down the palette and paintbrush in her hand, took off the hair tie on her wrist and tied herself into a ponytail at will.

Jiang Ying was wearing a short white French shirt with a square collar today, her jet-black hair was tied into a tuft, revealing her neck and shoulders, with smooth lines and fair skin.

Yun Hyun's eyes fell on the tattoo on her left shoulder—it looked like a planet and red roses.

Jiang Ying drank the water, stood far away and looked at her work, and asked Yun Xian, "This is the general appearance, and there are almost details, what do you think?"

The original monotonous white walls became colorful, a bright moon hung in the dark night sky, the stars were scattered around, the cafe was lit with warm yellow lights, and a man stood under the tree.

Yun Xian pointed to the man's back: "Let's draw another person next to him, he looks so lonely."

Jiang Ying nodded: "Okay."

It was late at night, and when Jiang Ying finished painting the last stroke, the moon was shining brightly outside the window, and everything was silent.

She stretched and let out a long sigh of relief: "It's finished!"

Yun Xian looked at Jiang Ying with a gentle smile: "It's hard work."

Jiang Ying rubbed her sore shoulders, and her exhaustion subsided in Yun Xian's smile.

They stood side by side, overlapping a pair of figures on the wall.

"I'm not alone anymore."

"Well, not alone anymore."

When Yun Xian sent Jiang Ying home, it was almost two o'clock in the night. After taking a brief shower, he took two bottles of beer from the refrigerator and pushed Li Zhicheng's door open.

The keyboard and mouse made a crackling sound. Li Zhicheng was sitting cross-legged on the chair with his headphones on, and was engrossed in the game.

Yunxian sat down on the edge of the bed, put a bottle of beer by his hand, and asked, "When will it be finished?"

Li Zhicheng's hands were busy, he glanced at him, and quickly returned to the screen: "Wait, wait, fuck, I didn't ask you to wait, you put it on me!"

Yun Xian sometimes envy these two idiots. If he doesn't sleep in the middle of the night, he may only be playing games or watching a football match.

Li Zhicheng emotionally communicated with his teammates in the game: "Fuck, this No. 3 is a German, Yun Xian, teach me a few swear words in German, hurry up!"

Yun Xian showed an indescribable expression: "Why are you so angry today? What happened to you Zhou Yi?"

It's okay if he didn't mention it, but when he mentioned Li Zhicheng, he was upset again. No matter his German, French, and English, he scolded him for whatever he thought of.

Li Zhicheng's pure venting battle ended soon. He took off his earphones, sighed wearily, picked up the beer on the table and pulled the ring to take a sip: "What's the matter? Most of the night."

Yun Xian sipped his wine: "My mother called me again and told me to go back."

Li Zhicheng found two packets of beef jerky from the snack box next to the computer and threw one to Yun Xian: "Then what do you think?"

Yun Xian said: "Of course I'm not happy, but as long as I can endure one more day, I won't resign as soon as I get promoted."

Li Zhicheng chewed the beef jerky and nodded: "Well, yes, don't leave such a good job. I'm your mother and I will scold you."

Yun Xian gave him a look and continued: "I used to think that I came to Xicheng to escape, and I will leave when I get bored here. But these two days... I suddenly wanted to stay. It's good here too."

"Have you met someone you like?"

Yun Xian looked up at Li Zhicheng with a complicated expression.

"I got it right?"

Yunxian was silent.

Li Zhicheng's sharp hit stunned Yun Xian. Probably because they have known each other for too long, Li Zhicheng was always called "two fools" by him. He forgot that the person in front of him was smart and keen, and knew him best.

Whether it is a close friend or a former teacher, Yun Xian is much more stable than Li Zhicheng. But in fact, Yun Xian knew in his heart that Li Zhicheng was more mature and more sophisticated than him.

In the past two days, he was in a mess, and all kinds of things were stuck together and he couldn't find a way to vent, so he came to chat with his friends at night.

"Almost. But you know, to put it mildly, I came to Xicheng to change my way of life, but in fact, I came to 'heal'. I haven't understood my own life yet, so I'll talk about it at this time. These are inappropriate."

"Which time is the right time?" Li Zhicheng looked at Yun Xian, sighed and shook his head, "You are thinking about this too complicatedly. Are only those people who are successful and live a happy life? Can't I ask you to understand, it's not easy to pick out a person who is pleasing to the eye in the vast sea of people, you always have so many worries, be careful to miss your beloved."

After Li Zhicheng was serious, he approached Yun Xian again with a malicious smile and gossip: "Is that girl pretty? Which one is it? What do you like about others?"

Yun Xian shrank back, looked away, raised the bottle and took a sip.

Li Zhicheng got excited and chattered: "I'm telling the truth, if you really want to live a clear life, you have to fall in love. You know what? There's no end to what you can learn from a woman... ... "

Yun Xian rubbed his brow bone, got up and said, "Go, go to bed earlier."

"Hey, wait." Li Zhicheng stopped him, "I haven't finished speaking yet."

Yun Xian ignored him, waved his hand, and walked back to his room.

Back in his room, Yun Xian lay down on the bed, rubbing his sore eyes but not feeling sleepy.

The heavy black curtains blocked all the light, and the room was pitch black.

The silence of the night was somehow soothing to him.

He hated insomnia, but paradoxically loved the early morning hours.

Yun Xian closed his eyes and opened the playlist, from the sound of the rain to the fear of the waves hitting the rocks.

Recalling what Li Zhicheng said just now in his head, he became irritable again.

He opened his eyes, touched the unlock screen of his mobile phone, flipped through his circle of friends, and saw that Jiang Ying shared the roses planted on his balcony, he stopped his sliding finger and gave a like.

Scrolling down there was nothing interesting, Yun Xian wanted to quit WeChat, but found that Jiang Ying had sent a message a minute ago.

[Sunset Orange: Haven't slept yet?]

[Jianshan: Well, I have a little insomnia and can't sleep.]

A voice call popped up on the page just after sending this line of words.

Yunxian clicked to accept and put the phone to his ear.

"Let me read English to you." Jiang Ying said, "I was very hypnotized when I read English. When I was in school, every time I read English in the morning reading class, it would make me sleepy at the same table, which is considered a superpower."

Her voice sounded close to her ear, and Yun Xian smiled: "Okay, you read."

Jiang Ying made a rustling sound, as if she was looking for something when she got up. She asked, "What do you want to hear?"

Yunxian remembered the tattoo on her left shoulder and said, "The Little Prince, right?"

"Yes." Jiang Ying opened the blue-covered paper book, and there was a slight noise when the pages were rubbed, "You lie down now, change to a comfortable position, close your eyes, and put the phone to your ear."

Yun Xian obeyed obediently, and hummed lazily.

Jiang Yingfang lowered her voice, spoke at a gentle pace, and said: "Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal... ... .”

Standard American voice, Yun Hyun relaxed in her gentle voice.

Maybe it's really tired, maybe it's rare to not think about other troubles, maybe it's Jiang Ying's super power that takes effect, Yun Xian is sleepy, and his consciousness gradually goes blank.

"Yun Xian?"

He seemed to hear someone calling him, and hummed in a daze.

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Ying gently said "good night".

Yunxian didn't remember whether he said goodnight or not.

It was a rare good night's sleep that he didn't wake up halfway. When he opened his eyes again, Yun Xian picked up the mobile phone that had fallen by the pillow and got out of bed, and opened the curtains first.

The sun shone in, and he narrowed his eyes to adjust to the light.

On the April day in the world, the begonias downstairs bloomed, the warm sun cast mottled light and shadows through the gaps in the branches and leaves, and the birds chirped twice.

He rarely gets up early, stretches, and feels relaxed.

Li Zhicheng is right, precious things are always hard to come by, just like when he passed the abandoned factory and decided to open a cafe here; just like that rainy night in early spring, Jiang Ying pushed open the glass door and walked to him in front of.

Mom told him since he was a child that you have to learn to weigh the pros and cons, learn to choose and discard.

He once weighed it carefully and made a sacrifice, but Mom said again—you are fooling around, are you crazy

He didn't mess around, and he doesn't regret it.

It is not to quit a high-paying job, not to leave Beijing where you have lived for 30 years.

He's doing better now than he used to be.

You don't have to stare at the ceiling with your eyes open every night, and hate everything about yourself and this boring life.

At this moment, Yun Xian looked at the ordinary scenery outside the window, and suddenly felt his heart swell, like a spring sprout breaking out of the ground—he had never been so looking forward to a new day.

The author has something to say: Sorry for being late!