The winter vacation is very short, but this winter vacation is the most dreamy one Dong Ci has ever had.
Years later, Ci Ma's restaurant reopened. Because of the unique decoration style and numerous dining options, there is an endless stream of customers coming every day.
There have been a lot more young girls in the store recently. Dong Ci was wandering between the tables holding a plate, and he could always hear the shy laughter of the girls.
"He is so good-looking, and his smile is so gentle. At first glance, he looks like a very gentle little brother."
"Yes, yes, and he seems to come to this store every day, even sitting in the same position. Do you think he knows the owner of this store?"
Dong Ci brought the drinks and placed them in front of the tables of several girls. When he was about to leave, he was pulled back by one of the girls. "Sister, do you know the brother sitting by the window?"
Dong Ci followed her gaze and saw Jing Rong sitting by the window with her chin propped up and lazily looking at the computer in front of her. As if feeling Dong Ci's gaze, he raised his eyes slightly and smiled at Dong Ci. His dark eyes seemed to be caught in the starlight, dark and bright.
"Wow -" Dong Ci heard the gasps of several girls around him. When he lowered his head, he saw their eyes staring at him with stars in their eyes. Dong Ci's back went numb and his smile was a little stiff. "He, he is my... friend."
"Does sister know that he has a girlfriend? Sister, I see that he smiles so gently. Isn't he also super soft?"
soft
This was the first time Dong Ci heard someone use the word 'soft' on Jing Rong.
She frowned and thought for a while, not knowing how to answer these young girls. "I don't know what you mean by soft, but from what I understand, there is nothing soft about him."
As a good boy who studies peacefully and doesn't surf the Internet much, Dong Ci doesn't know what these little girls mean by 'soft'.
"Although he is good-looking, he has some mental problems, so I think you can just watch him from a distance and don't get close to him."
Dong Ci's words were very sincere. As someone who knew Jing Rong's temperament well, she said this out of consideration for these girls. Seeing them all looking at her with wide-eyed expressions, Dong Ci smiled stiffly and quickly found an excuse to leave.
Since Ci Ma opened, Jing Rong has been coming here almost every day with her computer in hand. He didn't know what to do on the computer and would often sit there for a long time. He never took the initiative to talk to Dong Ci, and Dong Ci would always order the food for him while he watched.
That day he said he could be gentle to her, and it seemed that he had become much gentler. Sometimes when there are few people around, Dong Ci will take out the study materials and take a look, and Jing Rong will come to her side and point out some important points to her from time to time.
"This is for you."
Jing Rong didn't bring his computer when he came today, and he didn't enter the store either. He called Dong Ci to the intersection on the street, put a pair of furry earmuffs on her head, and reached out to touch her head.
"Why did you give me this?"
Dong Ci took off the earmuffs and reached out to touch the silky fur on them. With sharp eyes, he saw a label on the underside of the fur ball, with the letters J:R clearly embroidered on it.
"I made this specially for you." Jing Rong put the earmuffs on her again, and he stared at her with lowered eyes, his eyebrows soft and peaceful. "Is it warm?"
"Warm." Dong Ci answered honestly.
The fur ball felt good to the touch, and it felt warm and comfortable on Dong Ci's ears. The big fur balls were stuck to both sides of the ears, and even the cheeks were a lot warmer.
"As long as it's warm, Xiaoci is so delicate. You must take good care of yourself when I'm not around."
Dong Ci looked at him with big confused eyes and asked subconsciously. "Where are you going?"
"When you go abroad, Xiaoci, please remember to miss me." Jingrong raised her thin lips slightly, loving her confused look, and nibbled on her lips without thinking.
The car was parked not far away. It seemed that he was rushing to the airport immediately after seeing her. Dong Ci stared blankly at Jing Rong's leaving figure. Just as he was about to walk back, Jing Rong suddenly turned around at this moment.
'Ka—'
Before Dong Ci could react, Jing Rong took her and took a photo with her phone.
The picture freezes, and the handsome boy on the screen hugs the dazed girl dotingly. Their cheeks are very close, and they look very intimate.
"Keep it as a souvenir." Jing Rong looked directly at Dong Ci, but she brought the phone screen close to her thin lips and kissed her gently, as if she was kissing a real person.
Thump thump—
Dong Ci felt the suddenly accelerated heartbeat in her heart, and secretly reminded herself:
Don't be fooled by him. No matter how gentle he becomes at this time, there is still half a year. Half a year later, they went their separate ways!
“…”
The restaurant opened by loving mother is getting more and more popular, and at this time, she is too busy by herself. So she discussed it with Xiao Wang, who had been helping her manage the restaurant, and planned to hire some more helpers.
The poor loving mother didn't want it, so she hired several chefs and waiters at a high price, and planned a series of new dishes and discounts with Xiao Wang.
Maybe it was too eye-catching. I don’t know whether the loving mother aroused the jealousy of her peers or offended someone. Someone made trouble in her restaurant, saying that the ingredients she used for cooking were of the lowest quality and that eating them would make her sick and have diarrhea.
A few days later, someone else said that they had eaten hair and bugs from her dishes, and the meat in the meat dishes they ordered was all smelly.
The street was so long, and some people deliberately publicized it, so the reputation of Ci Ma's restaurant plummeted. At this moment, the owners of the milk tea shop and bakery opposite also came to visit.
"You said it's not good for you to cook your home-cooked meals in peace? You still have to sell pastries and milk tea. You have taken over all the business. Do you want us to drink the cool breeze?"
"That's right. I heard from the owner of another store that you brag in the store that the pastries you make are more delicious than those sold at my house. I'm not saying that. You are just a widow. How can you have such confidence to compete with so many people? Business?"
Knowing that Shi Ze was about to start school soon, Ci Ma specially asked Dong Ci to call Shi Ze to come to her shop for a meal. Unexpectedly, when Shi Ze and Dong Ci entered the door, they saw several people making trouble in the store. Those people were all tall and strong men. They bullied Ci Ma and there was no one to help her. They also smashed several pictures in Ci Ma's shop. table.
Dong Ci panicked and wanted to run over to stop him, but was stopped by Shi Ze.
"Let me handle it."
Shi Ze pushed Dong Ci away and walked into the crowd, protecting Ci Ma behind him, and negotiated with them calmly. "What do you want?"
"We are all businessmen and not bandits. What can we want? We just can't stand this bitch going around robbing people's business, running a restaurant and selling milk tea and cakes. We didn't say anything, right? She went around talking about what we sold. The food is so expensive and so unpalatable, who can bear this anger?"
"I didn't say it!" Ci's mother did open a restaurant and sell drinks and cakes. These were one of the stores she and Ci's father planned.
She never said anything bad about other stores, and she never cooked with cheap ingredients. The loving mother has been running her own shop peacefully, and she does not feel that she has done anything wrong.
If there is something wrong, it is probably because she was not smooth enough in dealing with things, and she unknowingly offended the surrounding shops.
"We want her not to sell milk tea and cakes in the future, and we have to pay compensation for the reputational damage of our store. Just because she spreads bad information everywhere, our profits will not be so miserable this month!"
"That's right, you have to compensate us!"
"It's all because of you that we can't even pay the rent when we open a store!"
These people have been jealous of Ci Ma's shop for a long time. They also heard that she was a widow and had no other relatives except a daughter, so they wanted to join forces to blackmail her.
They were deliberately messing around, and they were so bold because no one was helping her. These people's calculations are ringing, even if they really can't get any money, but just making trouble with them, the passers-by who are watching outside will also see it, and it will be passed around casually after dinner, and it only takes a few days for her shop to His reputation is almost stinking.
The loving mother looked at the ugly faces of the men in the store, and then looked at the pointing passers-by outside. A huge sense of emptiness surged over her, and the loving mother was almost unable to support this feeling.
"mom-"
Outside the crowd, the loving mother heard Dong Ci's worried cry. Her trembling fingertips finally calmed down a lot, and she tried her best to give her a comforting smile.
Yes, she still has hope, and for Xiao Ci, she can't fall down!
Originally, I wanted to have a good meal with Shize, but in the end, the store was completely destroyed. Several people were cleaning up the mess, and no one was in the mood to eat.
Being maliciously slandered and framed, and her peers collaborating to bully and extort money from the store, Dong Ci felt like she had suffered a lifetime of suffering these days.
This store is all the hard work of Ci Ma. It is not only Ci Ma and all her support, but also contains the two people’s memories of Ci Dad.
Dong Ci held back her tears and did not dare to cry. She wanted to comfort her loving mother, but found that her eyes were empty and dull, and her indifferent face seemed to have seen through the world, as if she would abandon Dong Ci and leave at any time.
Huge uneasiness swept through Dong Ci's whole body, and she felt an indescribable strangeness when she looked at such a loving mother. She didn't know when she started, but she always felt that her loving mother was a bit strange.
When I saw Shi Ze off, it was already dark.
Shi Ze walked in front, and Dong Ci followed behind. She suppressed the sadness in her heart, but walked slower and slower, and finally squatted on the ground weakly, tears falling drop by drop.
"Xiaoci."
When Shi Ze heard the whimpering from behind, he froze and squatted in front of Dong Ci. He could only caress her hair helplessly and comfort her. "do not Cry."
Dong Ci didn't want to cry, but she really couldn't help it.
Sadness, helplessness, anger, unwillingness, all kinds of complicated emotions pulled at her heart. She really didn't understand why every step she and her loving mother took was so difficult. Especially when she just heard those people scolding Ci's mother, Dong Ci felt so painful that she couldn't breathe.
God knows how much she wants to suffer for her loving mother!
"I don't understand what my mother and I did wrong, why we always have to deprive us of hope again and again..."
This was the first time Shi Ze saw her showing such a fragile expression. Under the moonlight, her tear-stained eyes were like the broken starry sky. Shi Ze felt a pain in his heart and hugged her directly into his arms.
"Don't be afraid, Xiaoci. Give me a few more years and I will definitely be able to protect you."
Feeling the trembling of the girl in his arms, Shize hugged her tighter. His ears flushed red, and he kissed the tears on Dong Ci's face very gently. His grip on her hand became stronger and stronger, as if he was enduring something.
Dong Ci was shocked by Shi Ze's actions. Tears filled her eyes but she never dared to fall again. She just stared at him in disbelief.
"Xiao Ci, believe me, I will definitely be able to protect you and Aunt Song from now on."
"do not Cry."
This is not a confession, nor is it an oath to be responsible for her. The aura on Shize's body was fresh and clean, just like his person, as indifferent as water.
He looks very simple, but Dong Ci can always guess him. She could see the pity in Shize's eyes when he kissed away her tears, and the fleeting depth. However, when he said he wanted to protect her and his loving mother, it was more like a business-like promise.
…
Shi Ze had already walked away, and Dong Ci squatted on the ground and took a few deep breaths. She had to return to normal before returning to the store, and she could not let her loving mother see any trace of her crying.
When she stood up, her vision went dark due to hypoglycemia. Fortunately, she held on to the lamppost beside her to avoid falling over. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them and looked forward, her eyes trembled suddenly.
Jing Rong stood not far from her sight, dressed in black and blending into the moonlight and night. He didn't know how long he stood there. His whole body was stained with the frost of the night, and his handsome face was cold and thin.
"Xiao Ci is not happy to see me?"
Seeing that Dong Ci saw him, Jing Rong's thin lips pulled out a cold arc, and he waved to her and called out. "Come here and let me hug you."
Seeing that Dong Ci not only refused to come over but also subconsciously stepped back, a dark light flashed in Jing Rong's eyes.
He put down his arms and stared at her lightly, his dark eyes stained by the night showing no emotion or anger. He turned his head slightly and looked into the unknown darkness, and the corners of his slightly hooked mouth seemed to be stained with frost.
He didn't speak, but Dong Ci felt inexplicably afraid. She bit her lip and walked towards him little by little, the fingers clenched in her sleeves digging into her palms, as if this could offset some of the panic in her heart.
As soon as he got closer, Jing Rong grabbed her arm and held her tightly in his arms. His arms wrapped around her waist with great force, as if he wanted to crush her in his arms.
"do you miss me?"
Jing Rong leaned forward and kissed her hair, but stopped when his lips came close to her cheek. There was a flash of sarcasm in his eyes. Seeing that Dong Ci was silent, he pinched her chin to make her look level with him. "Xiao Ci, if I ask you again, answer me."
"Think." Dong Ci was afraid of such an expressionless scene, and when he said this word, there was a tremor in his voice.
"oh?"
Jing Rong rubbed the corner of her lips with the pad of his thumb, his eyes dark and cold. He smiled, pinched Dong Ci's chin harder, and asked lightly. "My Xiaoci, do you think that I think of other men as me?"