Sheng Lin stood there, his brows slightly furrowed, sizing up the young man sitting blankly at the table.
The young man before him had a slender frame, still looking like a teenager. Sheng Lin noticed that his own shadow could completely envelop the other.
The ice jelly in front of the boy was only half-eaten, with brown sugar syrup and fruit chunks mixed together, piled high atop the towering ice jelly mountain. One careless move and it would trigger an “avalanche.”
How old was he? Seventeen? Eighteen?
His eyes were large and round, incapable of holding even a shred of pretense—he was completely a young master unacquainted with the ways of the world, every thought written plainly on his face.
“So you’re the one looking for a job?” Sheng Lin casually set his motorcycle helmet on the table. The dull thud, not too loud but firm enough, made the young master flinch.
The icy mountain in the bowl collapsed instantly. The boy scrambled to wipe up the spilled brown sugar syrup, only to accidentally get it on his hands. He instinctively licked his fingertip, his tongue curling over it, then suddenly realized such behavior wasn’t quite appropriate.
“Ah… I, I was just asking casually.” The boy dropped his gaze forty-five degrees downward, staring at the ice jelly in front of him, refusing to look at Sheng Lin.
Sheng Lin let out a scoff. “Just asking casually? Nobody looks for a job by ‘just asking casually.’”
The boy fell silent.
What a stubborn one! And with that attitude, he still wants a job?
Since the boy wasn’t talking, Sheng Lin took over.
“What’s your name?”
“…Xia Yiyang. Yi as in ‘strategy,’ Yang as in ‘sun.’”
Sheng Lin thought to himself—nice name, good meaning too.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen—no, eighteen!”
“Which is it, seventeen or eighteen? We don’t hire minors here.”
Xia Yiyang muttered, “I’m eighteen by the solar calendar, but I still have half a month to go by the lunar calendar.”
Sheng Lin pressed further: “Only eighteen, and already out looking for a job? At your age, you should’ve just finished your college entrance exams. Looking for summer work?”
When Xia Yiyang first started job hunting, many bosses turned him down the moment they heard he only wanted to work for two or three months over the summer, saying short-term hires were too unstable—they only wanted long-term employees and wouldn’t even give him a trial.
So he made up a persona for himself: “My grades were too bad, I didn’t get into college, and my family’s struggling, so I came out to work.”
Sheng Lin raised an eyebrow.
He really wanted to grab a mirror and show this young master how ridiculous he looked when his eyes darted around while lying.
The boy had delicate skin, spoke with a distinct Beijing accent, and though his clothes weren’t luxury brands, the tailoring suggested they weren’t cheap. His eyes carried a naivety that spoke of someone who’d never faced real hardship—clearly raised pampered by his family. How could he possibly be out here working?
More like a young master slumming it for the experience.
Thinking this, Sheng Lin deliberately asked, “If you bombed the exams, you could always retake them. You’re young—are you really giving up on school?”
“You’re absolutely right!” To Sheng Lin’s surprise, Xia Yiyang latched onto the out, springing up from his seat. Sure enough, boys his age changed their minds by the second. A moment ago he was set on being independent, and now he was ready to bail. “I’ll go back to studying right now! Boss, this bowl of ice jelly was a treat from the auntie—she said it’s on the house. I’ll leave the bowl here. Sorry for the bother, wishing you prosperous business, I’ll be on my way—”
“—Sit down.” Sheng Lin gave the table leg a light kick with his boot-clad foot, not hard, but enough to be imposing. “Did I say you could leave?”
Xia Yiyang dropped back onto the stool instantly.
Xia Yiyang: “!!”
What just happened? Why did he react like one of Pavlov’s dogs, sitting down on command like a conditioned reflex?!
Seeing him obey so readily, Sheng Lin’s lips twitched into a faint smile—so slight it was almost imperceptible, vanishing before the young man could catch it.
The young man’s tone was cool as he laid out the terms: “Our shop opens at ten in the morning and closes at ten at night. Six days on, one day off, meals included. Two shifts, sixty yuan per shift. If you can work the full day, we’ll give you a hundred and thirty. Full attendance bonus is two hundred.”
Xia Yiyang’s mental abacus started clicking away immediately: 130 yuan a day, twenty-six full days plus the bonus would be 3,580 yuan. That wage wouldn’t be high in Beijing, but in Rongcheng—a city where McDonald’s and KFC paid only 13 yuan an hour—it was already pretty decent.
No, wait, hold on—he never said he was going to work here, so why was he already calculating his pay?
This boss was tall and sturdy, with a rather striking face, but he hadn’t cracked a single smile since walking through the door! His brows were knitted, the corners of his mouth turned down, and he looked down on people with that condescending, sidelong glare. His hair was cropped so short, and his whole presence radiated intensity. Working under someone like that—getting wages docked would be the least of his worries. What if he got on the wrong side of him and ended up as a human punching bag?
At that thought, Xia Yiyang snapped back to reality, jumped to his feet again, and stammered his excuses: “I, actually, I’m pretty clumsy and I’ve never worked before—I’d just be a burden to everyone… How about, how about I go back and think it over…”
As he spoke, he walked toward the door with a stiff, awkward gait—left hand and right foot moving together. But the moment he took a step, Sheng Lin’s towering figure loomed over him, blocking his way.
Xia Yiyang moved left; Sheng Lin moved left. Xia Yiyang sidestepped right; Sheng Lin mirrored him.
The boy’s hair stood on end, and his voice shot up more than an octave: “What are you doing?! I’m telling you, this is a society governed by law! You can’t hold people here for forced labor! I-I-I-I can call the police!”
To his surprise, the moment he finished speaking, a chorus of laughter erupted from the back of the shop. Xia Yiyang looked over to see the two aunties who worked there doubled over with laughter, barely able to hold onto their dishcloths.
One auntie said to Sheng Lin: “Boss, I’ve been telling you to work on that temper of yours! Such a nice young lad—you should smile more! Look, you’ve gone and scared him half to death!”
The other auntie reassured Xia Yiyang: “It’s alright, don’t be scared! Our boss talks tough, but he’s a good person at heart!”
Sheng Lin furrowed his brow and turned to the auntie: “I didn’t mean to scare him. He’s just jumpy and timid on his own.”
That remark hit a nerve with Xia Yiyang. He immediately puffed out his chest and lifted his chin: “Who are you calling jumpy and timid?!”
“Whoever answers is who I’m talking about,” Sheng Lin said, seeing right through his bravado. “I won’t force you to stay if you don’t want to. But go ask around at other snack shops—see if anyone’s offering better pay than me.”
“…Xia Yiyang deflated.
That was true enough. He’d spent the whole day running around looking for work, hitting every dead end imaginable. The chain stores paid well, but they weren’t hiring. The small shops that needed people were sketchy and paid peanuts. There was even one creep who, after just a few words, started groping his thigh… After comparing all his options, this tiny ice jelly shop was actually his only choice.
“Are you really a good person?” Xia Yiyang asked in a small voice.
“How does a good person prove that?” Sheng Lin shot back.
Xia Yiyang was stumped. He drew a blank.
It was the auntie nearby who reminded Sheng Lin: “Boss, don’t we have that thing in the shop—that banner! Remember that customer who was eating ice jelly here when he got a scam call saying his kid had been hit by a car somewhere and he needed to wire money right away? His hands were shaking from panic!”
“And you grabbed the phone, chewed out the scammer, and helped him call the police! Later, the guy sent a banner to thank you, but you shoved it up in the attic to gather dust! You should hang it up—it’d look great!”
Sheng Lin had nearly forgotten that little episode himself: “It was nothing. Anyone would’ve helped.”
He had no idea that this conversation had struck a chord with Xia Yiyang.
Just a few days ago, Xia Yiyang had fallen victim to a telecom scam that cleaned out eighteen years’ worth of his allowance. He’d thought more than once—if only he’d been more alert, if only someone had been there to warn him, he wouldn’t have taken such a hard fall.
In an instant, Sheng Lin’s image in his eyes swelled—taller, grander—limitlessly grand.
The dying embers of Xia Yiyang’s desire to work blazed back to life.
He was one step away from being completely broke—only two nights left at the hotel, just four hundred yuan in cash. The boss of this shop, though cold in demeanor, was (probably) a good person. The aunties were warm and would show him the ropes…
And most importantly, Sheng Lin was clearly a rock-solid straight guy—no way he’d make Xia Yiyang put on fishnets and shorts and dance K-pop on the ice jelly counter!
Young Master Xia clenched his fists, silently cheering himself on. His gaze swept across this tiny ice jelly shop—and so began the legend of a newborn sun, an incognito Beijing noble, a future Employee of the Year, a hidden top student of Rong University—Xia Yiyang’s saga was about to rise from this very shop!
But before this sun could rise, there was one urgent matter to settle.
“Boss,” Xia Yiyang asked tentatively, “does the shop only cover meals, not accommodation?”
“There’s no staff dormitory here.” Sheng Lin had no idea that this young master from Beijing was now so strapped for cash he couldn’t even afford his hotel bill. He pointed upward. “I live in the attic on the second floor. The two aunties go home to their own places.”
Oh…
Xia Yiyang couldn’t hide his disappointment.
He’d been hoping for a job that covered both food and lodging, but fate wasn’t on his side. With no staff dormitory, he couldn’t exactly share a place with this fierce boss, could he! He might as well put on those fishnets and dance K-pop.
Ah, forget it.
Xia Yiyang quickly (and blindly) returned to his optimistic self—
After all, summer in Rongcheng was warm enough. He could always buy a tent and sleep under a bridge!
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