After finishing the spicy tofu pudding, there were still about ten minutes until the shop opened. Xia Yiyang took out his bruise-relief ointment and applied it to his face in front of the mirror.
Yesterday, in the heat of the moment, he’d gotten into a scuffle with Wen Sen and ended up with a few marks on his face. The small cut on his chin—scratched by Wen Sen’s ring—wasn’t deep and had already healed. The more serious bruise was at the corner of his mouth. His skin was already fair, so the injury stood out even more—purple and blue, looking rather pitiful.
At least it didn’t affect his ability to eat.
Besides his face, Xia Yiyang had also sprained his left wrist. After applying the bruise-relief medicine, he still needed to wrap it in gauze for support. He couldn’t manage it with one hand, and in the time it took Sheng Lin to wash a few dishes, he turned around to find the young master had nearly wrapped himself up entirely in gauze.
“Let me do it.” Sheng Lin walked over, took the gauze from his hand, and gently touched his swollen left wrist. “It’s here, right?”
“…Mm.” Xia Yiyang felt that the spot Sheng Lin touched was a little warm—was the medicine starting to take effect?
Sheng Lin neatly wrapped Xia Yiyang’s wrist with gauze and instructed him not to carry anything up and down today—just stick to lighter work at the cash register. After giving his instructions, he looked up and noticed an unnatural flush on Xia Yiyang’s face.
The man raised an eyebrow. “Why is your face so red?”
The young master pulled his hand back. “Because you’re such a stingy boss who won’t even install air conditioning—I’m about to get heatstroke from the heat.”
“Then you can go sleep under a bridge,” Sheng Lin said in a heartless tone. “Guaranteed to be cool.”
Hmph!
Xia Yiyang thought he’d never met anyone more annoying than Sheng Lin.
Sure, his chest was broad—but his heart certainly wasn’t.
Before heading downstairs, Xia Yiyang put on a face mask to cover the bruise at the corner of his mouth. After all, he’d be at the front counter today, and he didn’t want to scare the customers.
The aunties were already in the back kitchen preparing things for the shop opening. Xia Yiyang and Sheng Lin came downstairs one after the other. They hadn’t planned on hiding the fact that they were now living together from the aunties—and there was no way they could hide it anyway.
While the boss and Xiao Xia were away, the two aunties had already gossiped about it several times over.
—They had eyes, after all!
Yesterday, Xiao Xia had the day off and didn’t come in. The boss answered a phone call, his expression changed instantly, and he rushed out the door. When he came back in the evening, Xiao Xia was trailing behind him. The boy was clearly injured—bruises all over his face—and the boss was carrying his luggage with a dark, gloomy expression. It was terrifying!
No need to say more—Xiao Xia must have been wronged out there!
Now that Xiao Xia was living with the boss, they could finally rest easy. Xiao Xia was clearly a good, innocent kid with no cunning or scheming in his head. With the boss watching over him, no one could bully him.
They’d said it all along—two young people only four or five years apart could definitely be friends!
……
A few hours passed in the blink of an eye. Once the lunchtime rush died down, it was time for their own meal.
The temperature in Rongcheng had been climbing higher and higher lately, and nobody had much of an appetite at noon. Sheng Lin specially made a pot of appetizing pickled cabbage and shredded pork noodles.
The dish was simple to make: high heat, oil sizzling, chili peppers popping in the wok. Tenderloin pork cut into shreds, stir-fried quickly over high heat, then tossed with chopped pickled mustard greens. A few casual flips in the wok until the pickled cabbage was cooked through, and it was ready to come out—sizzling and fragrant. The brown-green pickled cabbage intertwined with the fresh pork shreds, dotted with a few bright red chilies. Just the look of it was enough to make anyone’s mouth water.
On the other burner, the noodles were perfectly cooked. Rinsed a few times in cold water, scooped into bowls, then topped with a generous ladle of the sour, spicy pickled cabbage and pork topping—one bowl of this and it was so good you wouldn’t even notice if your neighbor dropped dead!
The aunties were happy to show their appreciation—each had a bowl. Sheng Lin, who’d been busy all morning—never shirking any of the physical labor despite being the boss—was naturally starving and had two bowls. Only Xia Yiyang, the shop’s biggest eater, was off his game today—he stopped after just one bowl.
Auntie Zhao was the most concerned: “What’s wrong, Xiao Xia? Can’t get used to our Sichuan pickled cabbage?”
Auntie Li also chimed in: “Oh dear, is it because you’re sore and don’t have an appetite?”
Sheng Lin, sitting across from him, put down his chopsticks and looked over without a word.
The young master felt awkward being stared at by three people and quickly said, “No, no, it’s nothing like that. The noodles are delicious, and I’m not sore anywhere. The truth is, I had way too much breakfast and barely moved around this morning—I haven’t even digested it yet.”
Auntie Li relaxed and asked, “So what fancy breakfast did you have?”
The young master smacked his lips. “Spicy tofu pudding! The boss bought it!”
Auntie Zhao teased him: “Oh my, one bowl of tofu pudding and you’re already won over.”
Sheng Lin said nothing—just raised an eyebrow.
Auntie Li was always quick with her tongue: “Xiao Xia’s fair and tender, just like the tofu pudding in that bowl—no wonder he loves it!” Then she turned to Sheng Lin and urged him, “Boss, why don’t we make meat-topped tofu pudding tonight? Since the kid likes it so much!”
Meat-topped tofu pudding is also a Sichuan specialty, somewhere between spicy hotpot and a simmering pot. After stir-frying the base ingredients until fragrant, water is added and brought to a boil, then slices of old tofu, meat, and various vegetables are added, served with a dipping sauce—spicy, savory, and perfect with rice.
After hearing Auntie Li’s suggestion, Sheng Lin neither agreed nor disagreed. He simply replied, “I thought this was my shop—since when are you guys assigning work to the boss?”
Although his tone was serious and his expression unchanged, anyone could tell he was joking. Only people who didn’t know Sheng Lin well would think he was cold and unapproachable. But the two aunties had worked for him long enough to know his temperament—they knew he was easygoing, nothing like the hot-tempered bosses at other shops.
The aunties laughed; Xia Yiyang bit his chopsticks and laughed along with them, looking silly.
Sheng Lin thought to himself: Tender tofu pudding? He’s more like a little melon rind.
……
After lunch, they welcomed another wave of customers.
The busiest time for delivery orders was around three or four in the afternoon. Their shop was right at Rongda’s north gate, and that time window was peak afternoon tea hour for students. Delivery orders kept spitting out of the machine nonstop, and the young master stationed beside it was scrambling, wishing he had eight hands.
The two aunties were in charge of packing the boxes; he was responsible for sealing, putting in spoons, bagging, and stapling the delivery tickets… too busy—way too busy.
Xia Yiyang wailed: “Isn’t it summer break? Why are there still people on campus ordering takeout?”
Sheng Lin answered while working: “College is different from high school. High schools empty out during breaks, but universities have plenty of students staying on campus—some are interning at local companies, others are grad students and PhD candidates who don’t have breaks and need to stay for lab work.”
Xia Yiyang remembered that his relatives who were in grad school or doctoral programs were also too busy for winter or summer breaks—they only got time off for Chinese New Year. Even when resting, they had to keep an eye on WeChat and reply “Received” the moment anything happened in their advisor’s group chat.
Auntie Zhao had worked at another dessert shop before and said, “Once the semester starts, the delivery orders will only get crazier. Boss, right now we’ve only got three staff in the shop—we won’t be able to keep up. You’ll need to hire more help by then!”
Sheng Lin responded steadily: “Got it.”
Once the semester starts… once the semester starts…
Behind the cash register, Xia Yiyang guiltily shrank his neck—because once the semester started, he’d be heading off to Rongda as a student!
Back when he’d first gotten this job, the young master had lied, saying he didn’t get into college and was just working. At first, he’d only planned to be an emotionless money-making machine. But after spending so much time at the shop, he’d gradually grown attached to the place: the talkative yet warm aunties, the hearty and varied staff meals, the unlimited ice jelly after closing, and… and Sheng Lin, who seemed cold on the surface but had opened his home to him without hesitation when he was at his most helpless.
What a dilemma. How was he going to tell Sheng Lin he needed to quit?
Xia Yiyang’s mind wandered, but his hands kept working—click-clack, click-clack—stapling delivery tickets securely onto the bags.
Whatever, he comforted himself. Things will work themselves out. He still had two months—he’d find the right moment to bring it up.
The shop was bustling, delivery riders coming and going in waves.
“Oh no!” Xia Yiyang noticed a problem. “Boss, we’re out of liangxia again! Should I call Uncle Liu to send another bucket?”
“No need to call.” Sheng Lin replied. “I already arranged it with him yesterday—from now on, he’ll deliver two buckets a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. He should be arriving about now.”
Sheng Lin was right. Five minutes later, a powerful motorized tricycle pulled up in front of the ice jelly shop.
The rider was a middle-aged man with thinning hair—this was the most famous “Liu Liangxia” in the area. His family had been making liangxia for nearly thirty years, with fair prices and honest ingredients.
Liangxia, like ice jelly, is a common ingredient in Sichuan dessert shops, but its preparation is even more complicated than hand-kneaded ice jelly.
Liangxia requires a special type of coarse rice. After soaking in water for several hours, it’s ground into a paste and boiled with gardenia fruit. The resulting rice paste is thick and slightly yellow. Then comes the most critical step—the paste is poured through a specialized round-hole sieve, with a bucket of cold water underneath. The paste drips through the holes by gravity, falling like raindrops into the cold water, where it quickly solidifies into shape.
On a sweltering summer day, a serving of chewy, smooth liangxia topped with brown sugar, osmanthus, dried hawthorn… this bowl of liangxia makes up a shared childhood memory for the people of Rongcheng.
Since making liangxia is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and beginners struggle to get the rice paste consistency right, Sheng Lin didn’t want the hassle and simply sourced it from Liu Liangxia’s shop.
“Boss Sheng, your liangxia is here!” The middle-aged man carried the metal bucket off his tricycle—inside was a full bucket of chilled liangxia. “Before, you only wanted one bucket in the morning. Now it’s one in the morning and one in the afternoon—looks like business is getting better and better!”
Sheng Lin smiled. “It’s getting hotter out there, so they’re selling faster.”
He paid promptly and was carrying the metal bucket toward the shop when something occurred to him, and he stopped.
“Boss Liu, you’ve been in this business for a long time and know a lot of people.” Sheng Lin asked. “Do you know anyone selling a commercial soy milk maker?”
“Commercial soy milk maker?” Liu Liangxia clicked his tongue. “Your ice jelly shop is doing great—are you planning to open a breakfast stall too? You might not have enough hands for that.”
Sheng Lin shook his head. “No, I’m planning to add a few more dessert options to the shop. Besides ice jelly and liangxia, I want to sell sweet tofu pudding as well.”
Since the young master liked it so much—he might as well let him have his fill.
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