In just three days of work, Xia Yiyang had heard more criticism than he’d received in his entire previous eighteen years of life.
He declared that the term “Employee of the Year” was invented to fool people. There was no such thing as a little emperor of employment—there were only little eunuchs, little guards, little maids! Where was this so-called emperor?!
When he cut fruit, Sheng Lin complained he was too slow, asking if he was carving floral patterns into the watermelon. When he mopped the floor, he didn’t know to wring out the mop, leaving the place sopping wet—Sheng Lin suspected he was doing it on purpose just to make mud. When he packed delivery orders, he forgot to include the disposable spoons, and after Sheng Lin received a complaint, he turned around and lectured him.
Each thing was small on its own, but piled together, they became a big deal.
Back in school, Xia Yiyang had been universally recognized as smart—he learned everything from the textbooks at a glance and always ranked near the top in exams. During school anniversaries or talent shows, he was the star host, commanding the spotlight, memorizing those long scripts after just a few reads, never showing any stage fright…
But in this tiny ice jelly shop, he felt like the clumsiest person on earth.
Xia Yiyang consoled himself with the thought that everyone had their own expertise—his skill tree was invested in academics, not in working odd jobs. Sure, Sheng Lin was always scolding him, but he could scold Sheng Lin right back in his head!
“Xia Yiyang,” came the stern boss’s voice from the kitchen, “go take out the trash. Come back and eat when you’re done.”
“Okay…” Xia Yiyang said, listless.
Taking out the trash in this heat was really tough work.
The snack street had designated trash disposal times—once in the afternoon and once in the evening. The garbage truck parked at the alley entrance, blasting music through its loudspeaker. Xia Yiyang pushed the heavy mobile trash bin out from the kitchen. It was packed with fruit peels, and in the middle of summer with the humid air, just a few hours had been enough for the accumulated scraps to start stinking.
Xia Yiyang hadn’t eaten anything in the morning and was already a bit hypoglycemic. The smell made him dizzy, and he couldn’t help gagging repeatedly—one step forward, three steps pause, taking forever just to get out the door.
“Keep dragging your feet and the garbage truck will be gone,” Sheng Lin urged him.
Xia Yiyang defended himself: “It’s really—(gag)—too smelly!”
Auntie Li, who helped out in the shop, felt for him. Her grandson was about his age, so she looked at him like he was her own.
Auntie Li said, “Let me take the trash out—you go eat first, Xiao Xia!”
“—No.”
“—No need!”
Sheng Lin and Xia Yiyang spoke at the same time, both expressing the same sentiment. They exchanged a glance and then looked away simultaneously.
Xia Yiyang said, “Auntie, I’m here to work—(gag)—and so are you. How could I let you do my job for me? …(gag gag)”
Auntie Li couldn’t bear it: “You’re only eighteen—you’re still a kid!”
“Eighteen is already an adult.” Sheng Lin’s voice was cold. “Since he’s here to work, he’s not a child anymore.”
“Exactly!” Xia Yiyang puffed out his chest. “It’s just taking out the trash—(gag)—I can do it myself!”
He took a deep breath, held it, and with both hands pushing the heavy bin with all his might, sprinted after the garbage truck outside.
Sheng Lin watched his bustling figure for a long moment before finally looking away.
By the time Xia Yiyang pushed the empty bin back, the hot lunch had already been served and set out in the kitchen.
Their shop included two proper meals a day—though they came much later than normal meal times, only after the peak rush had passed. Xia Yiyang hadn’t eaten breakfast for several days now, and by the time this “lunch” rolled around, he was starving—just waiting to eat the boss out of house and home.
Speaking of this meal, Xia Yiyang had plenty to say—who would’ve thought that the “staff meal” stipulated in the contract was actually cooked by Sheng Lin himself!
Sichuan home cooking was all about fragrant, spicy, and numbing flavors. Today, Sheng Lin had made mapo tofu, shredded pork with lettuce, and a pea shoot soup. Hidden in the shredded lettuce were some barely noticeable strips of pickled chili. The truth was, Xia Yiyang couldn’t really handle spicy food. Eating was like minesweeping—between bites, he’d be chugging water, his ears burning red, his little face flushed.
Sheng Lin: “…”
He stared at his reddened face and asked, “You can’t eat spicy food?”
Xia Yiyang asked hopefully, “If I say I can’t, will you use less chili in the future?”
“No.” Sheng Lin was uncompromising. “Majority rules. Three people in this shop can eat spicy food, and only you can’t. You need to practice.”
Xia Yiyang muttered under his breath: “I can practice, but I’m afraid that by the time I do, I’ll have eaten your shop out of business.”
He wasn’t exactly exaggerating. One reason he’d come to Sichuan was because he loved the food here. He was the type who couldn’t handle the spice but couldn’t stop eating it—crying “it’s so spicy!” while shoveling rice into his mouth.
Sheng Lin snorted. “You don’t need to bother eating my shop out of business. Just having you work here, causing trouble, is enough to run it into the ground.”
Xia Yiyang let it go in one ear and out the other, focusing on wolfing down his rice. Before Sheng Lin had even finished his first bowl, Xia Yiyang had already polished off two.
Auntie Zhao, being older, naturally had a smaller appetite. She put down her chopsticks after one small bowl. She looked at Xia Yiyang, who was buried in his food, then at Sheng Lin with his stern face, and suddenly spoke up.
“Boss, you and Xiao Xia aren’t that far apart in age—you two could totally be friends!”
“With him?” Sheng Lin shook his head. “I have no interest in being friends with my employees.”
Xia Yiyang didn’t say a word, just chewed on the pickled chili strips in his mouth over and over—listen to what Sheng Lin was saying?
As if he even cared about being friends with Sheng Lin.
…
Another day of work ended. Xia Yiyang’s whole body ached as he dragged his tired feet back to the hostel where he was staying.
So this was what working meant—just running back and forth between the back kitchen and the front, yet he’d somehow clocked twenty thousand steps in a single day.
The past few days, he’d been leaving early and returning late, so tired that his eyelids were practically fighting each other. He hadn’t even noticed the other guests coming and going in the room.
He thought today would be like the previous ones—come back, shower in the dark, and crash. But to his surprise, when he returned to the hostel, the room was brightly lit. Several people were jumping around in the dorm, takeout containers spread across the shared table, beer bottles littering the floor…
What shocked him most was that—this was supposed to be a male dorm—but there were two scantily clad women in the room. Men and women were tangled up, kissing each other, and as they kissed, they tumbled onto a bed—wait, that was Xia Yiyang’s bed!
Xia Yiyang, a pure-hearted young lad, had never seen such a steamy scene in his life. For a second, he thought he’d walked into someone’s bedroom!
“Hey, that’s my bed—wait, why are there girls in here—that’s MY bed, what are you doing on my bed?!”
His face was burning red. He didn’t know whether to cover his eyes or leave them uncovered.
His cousin had only warned him that people might steal stuff in hostels—she never said anything about people hooking up in them!
The group was clearly drunk and completely ignored Xia Yiyang’s presence, singing, hugging, and kissing with abandon.
Xia Yiyang wanted to shout, but the words got stuck in his throat, trapped in his chest. Everything happening before him was way beyond what he could handle. His brain short-circuited on the spot, reverting him back to that sheltered little good boy from the greenhouse.
Just as he stood there helpless, a loud BANG came from outside the dorm door, instantly scattering the wild lovebirds inside.
“—You bunch of bastards! Can’t afford a hotel room, so you come to my turf to mess around? Looking for a beating?!”
Xia Yiyang flinched too. He turned to look and saw a very tall, very thin young man standing outside the door, a guitar slung across his back. His bleached light-gold hair had black roots growing in, and a row of piercings lined his ears, nose, and eyebrows… He was the spitting image of the kind of guy who’d loiter around the streets—pure stereotype.
Xia Yiyang’s pupils dilated in shock. He looked at the blond young man, then at the lovebirds in the room… then back at the blond young man, then at the lovebirds again…
He hugged himself, trembling. Neither side looked like good people!
The male lovebird scrambled up, clutching his pants: “Hey, Wen, what the hell are you barking about?!”
“If I’m barking, then you’re oinking. A pig demon reincarnated, humping away at any cabbage you find, without even taking a piss to look at your own piggy reflection—reeking of uncastrated boar!” The young man surnamed Wen unstrapped the guitar from his back and set it against the wall, sneering. “Don’t think just because you’re related to the front desk guy, I can’t touch you. Want me to call 110? You and your whole flock of pig and chicken friends will be hauled in for public indecency!”
“You—!”
The male lovebird had no comeback and slunk away with the heavily made-up woman in his arms.
Once they were gone, the dorm finally fell quiet, but it left behind a disaster zone of takeout containers and beer cans.
Xia Yiyang stood blankly in the middle of the room, spinning in place, not knowing what to do next.
The blond young man, however, looked completely unfazed. He strolled over to the bunk above Xia Yiyang’s and tossed his jacket up onto it—so he was Bed 3.
“What’s your name?” The blond young man, with his back to Xia Yiyang, suddenly spoke.
“Huh?” Xia Yiyang replied dumbly.
“I’m talking to you—there’s only the two of us in this room.” The blond young man turned around and raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re the new guy in Bed 4, right? The front desk told me you’re a long-term guest too?”
“Too…?” Xia Yiyang asked. “Are there a lot of long-term guests here?”
“A few, and they’re all concentrated in this room,” the blond young man replied. “That pig you just saw has been here the longest—he was already here before I moved in. I’ve been here three months. How long are you staying?”
Xia Yiyang, always answering whatever he was asked, said: “Maybe two or three months…”
The blond young man asked: “How much are you paying for your bed?”
“Four hundred—four hundred a week.”
The blond young man frowned: “You didn’t negotiate?”
“Huh? You can negotiate?” Xia Yiyang was dumbfounded. “I saw the price on my phone and just booked it…”
“You’re an idiot,” the blond young man said. “If you’re staying long-term, you don’t book through the app. Go talk to the front desk directly and haggle. For someone staying as long as you are, you can knock off at least a third.”
Xia Yiyang answered honestly: “But I don’t have enough cash to pay it all up front.”
“No problem,” the blond young man said. “If you don’t know how to bargain, I’ll do it for you.”
Xia Yiyang was pleasantly surprised. He hadn’t even received his first paycheck yet, and he’d been planning to ask Sheng Lin if he could get paid weekly in advance. If the blond young man could help him negotiate a lower price, he could stretch his funds even further!
“Thank you, you’re so nice!” Xia Yiyang’s way of expressing gratitude was still that of a child. He felt ashamed for having judged someone by their appearance—taking one look at the guy’s bleached hair and face full of piercings and assuming he was a thug—when in fact he was this warm-hearted.
The blond young man paused mid-motion, his probing gaze lingering on Xia Yiyang’s face through his fine bangs for a long moment before he spoke: “You still haven’t told me your name.”
Xia Yiyang quickly replied: “My name is Xia Yiyang.”
“Is that your real name?”
“Yeah, of course.” Xia Yiyang found the question odd—who would give a fake name? “And what’s your name?”
“Wen Sen.” The young man lifted his chin, looking quite chivalrous. “From now on, we’re friends. I’ve got your back.”
Friends… friends!
Xia Yiyang couldn’t help thinking—see? He was universally likable! Even if Sheng Lin refused to be his friend, there were still people who wanted to befriend him!
————————
Hmph, who cares about being friends with the boss anyway!! [oh oh oh] [oh oh oh]
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