Cloudside Cafe — Chapter 5: Familiar

Sponsored Content

shenxiaxing14-17 minutes 23.07.2022

 

Yun Xian soon returned to the apartment.
After he changed his shoes, he turned on the light, put the shopping bag in his hand on the shoe cabinet, and quickly called out, “Ta Ta.”

The little master slowly came out of the living room and rubbed its fat face against the legs of his trousers.

Yun Xian squatted down and hugged the cat in his lap, stroking its fur, “Are you hungry yet?”

After changing the bowl of water and adding food for Ta Ta, Yun Xian then sorted the items in the shopping bag into neat order.
Then, he sighed and sat down on the sofa.

Ta Ta was satisfied with its dinner, meanwhile, Yun Xian was still hungry.

His stomach was empty, but he was too lazy to cook for himself.
He just took a pack of Li Zhi Cheng’s bear biscuits from the coffee table in the living room, picked up one piece and put it in his mouth.

The taste of chocolate was too sweet, Yun Xian did not like it at all, but high-calorie food like this made him feel full easily.

After eating two more pieces, he brushed the crumbs off his hand and took a sip of cold water.

The sky was completely dark and the night was heavy, while the city lit up with thousands of lights.

It was a bit boring.
Normally, if the two of them were at home, Li Zhi Cheng would drag him to watch football or play games.
Now that idiot was lying in the hospital, the house suddenly became quieter.

Remembering that he still had something to do, Yun Xian opened his phone and posted a status on his circle of friends.

[Commemorating Li Zhi Cheng’s youth revival]

Below was a photo he took of Li Zhi Cheng staring blankly at the camera in his plaid patient shirt with a pale face.

Considering Li Zhi Zheng’s 30-year-old image, Yun Xian set the number of viewers that only Li Zhi Cheng and Zhou Yi could see, but to increase the effect, he intentionally left a few comments below.

[Drinking too much alcohol, stomach perforation.]

[Juniors, no need to worry about your senior Li.]

[Thank you for everyone’s concern, the patient’s mood is not stable at the moment.]

Yun Xian amused himself as he typed, looking at how much effort he put in for his brother’s love.

Soon he received messages full of question marks from Li Zhi Cheng.

Zhi Cheng: [ ? ]

Zhi Cheng: [ ?? ]

Zhi Cheng: [ ??? ]

Zhi Cheng: [Delete it right now!!!]

Zhi Cheng: [Which juniors worry about me? Why can’t I see the comments?]

Seeing The Mountain: [There are no juniors, I just shared for the chosen ones, only Zhou Yi can see.]

Sponsored Content

Zhi Cheng: [What the— Not blocking her, but letting her see it??]

Five minutes later, Yun Xian saw Zhou Yi’s comment and could not help but burst out laughing.

[Tell the doctor to treat his rebellious disease.]

Li Zhi Cheng also saw it and immediately opened the chat box to ask Yun Xian.

Zhi Cheng: [What does she mean?]

Seeing The Mountain: [Saying you’re childish.]

Zhi Cheng: [I’m childish? How about she cure her princess disease first!]

Yun Xian rubbed his neck, unintentionally seeing the two of them mocking and insinuating each other through the screen.

Seeing The Mountain: [Rest early.]

Exiting the chat box and then returning to the circle of friends, he casually scrolled down.

He did not have many friends, most of them were classmates and former colleagues.

Yun Xian stopped swiping when he saw a familiar profile picture.

Jiang Ying’s profile picture and WeChat name seemed to match, the orange sun on the horizon during sunset.

Her timeline was mostly texts as if she would post any time she wanted to express something.

Got pissed off at the boss, complained about the weather, looked forward to the weekend, or shared some paintings that she drew.

Including now, showing a simple bowl of duck blood noodles.

[Boss invited me for a late night snack! He’s the most handsome and best man in the world!]

Yun Xian saw that Li Zhi Cheng clicked ‘Like’ on the post and felt a little pity for this idiot.
He probably was secretly happy because of this flattery, but little did he know Jiang Ying was mocking him just now.

Jiang Ying was actually quite different from the first impression she left on others.

From her appearance, she seemed to be a gentle and simple girl, with nothing special, as light as a cloud and impossible to catch.
However, as you got to know her, you would realize that she was quite an interesting girl.

In his spare time, Yun Xian liked to scroll through her timeline, especially when she mentioned Li Zhi Cheng.

Perhaps it was because her flattery and sarcasm were both so casually and unexpectedly that showed her fresh and bright personality.

The food in the photo became even more attractive after being edited, Yun Xian touched his empty stomach, feeling hungry again.

Starving was really painful, Yun Xian struggled for a while, and finally decided to follow his heart, following what Marquez said, “The real way of life.”

He opened Jiang Ying’s chat box, typed down a message and sent it over.

Seeing The Mountain: [Where did you buy the duck blood noodles?]

The other party responded almost in a split second.

Orange Sunset: [Wait a minute, I’ll share that store with you.]

Sponsored Content

Orange Sunset: [If you like to eat, you should go to Nan Jing to eat authentic ones when you have time.]

Seeing The Mountain: [Okay.]

Orange Sunset: [I didn’t expect you to eat this kind of food too.]

Seeing The Mountain: [ ? ]

Orange Sunset: [Cause you look so fairylike as if you only drink morning dew.]

Yun Xian read the words on the screen and was amused by the other party’s words.

This was the first time he had seen such a description, he did not even know if this was even praise or criticism.

Seeing The Mountain: [I don’t really eat it often.]

Orange Sunset: [This store in Xi Cheng has very delicious dishes, rest assured! It’s on the street next to the coffee shop, very clean and hygienic.]

Seeing The Mountain: [Alright, thank you.]

Jiang Ying sent an emoji, a pink rabbit slurping noodles, Yun Xian guessed its meaning was “Have a good meal”.

At ten o’clock that night, Li Zhi Cheng, who only ate a bowl of porridge a day, received a photo from Yun Xian.

In the photo was a bowl of duck blood noodles sprinkled with red chilli oil, rich juice, soft spicy duck blood, and garnished with coriander, the colour and flavour of it were perfect.

Seeing The Mountain: [Let’s go to Nan Jing someday.]

Zhi Cheng: [Hehe, I’ve cast a spell, tomorrow you’ll gain 10 kg more, and all your muscles will turn into fat!]

Seeing The Mountain: [Rebound.]

On Friday, Jiang Ying planned to go to Cloudside Cafe to buy a piece of cake to bring home for the weekend after work.

As soon as she entered the store, she saw Yun Xian who was about to go out.
Today, the other party wore a sports suit, looking refreshing and healthy.

Jiang Ying asked him, “Are you going to work out?”

Yun Xian tightened the cap of the bottle and gave a “Hm”.

Jiang Ying’s eyes rolled halfway, then she asked, “In the gym?”

Yun Xian replied, “Yeah, it’s the one on that corner of the street.”

“Oh, that one?” Jiang Ying smiled, “I have a card there.”

Yun Xian looked at her, the corner of his mouth slightly curved up, “Do you often go there?”

Jiang Ying nodded, stretched out her arm, and lied without blinking, “I like to exercise a lot.”

The card was indeed there, it was the prize that she won at the annual party last year.
She highly doubted that after Li Zhi Cheng made the card, he was too lazy to go to the gym, so he turned it into such a boring prize.

Other people got iPads, switches, or a foot bath, yet a person who did not like exercising like her ended up picking up a gym card.

Yun Xian lowered his eyes and looked at her silently.

Sponsored Content

The weather was warm in April, Jiang Ying wore a T-shirt with a denim skirt today.
She was not fat and could be considered as thin, her exposed legs were fair and well-proportioned.
Just by looking at the lines, he could tell that she rarely exercised.

He suddenly wanted to tease her, “Let’s go together then?”

“Huh?” Jiang Ying obviously did not expect this suggestion, so she forced a stiff smile, “…I have something to do today, so next time…”

Yun Xian suppressed the corner of his lip that wanted to curl up, “Then I’ll go first, goodbye.”

Jiang Ying waved, “Bye.”

Seeing the other party go out, Jiang Ying lowered her face and weakly walked to the bar as she ordered, “Pack me a piece of creamy cheesecake.”

“Ting!”, her phone suddenly rang, and Jiang Ying slid the screen to unlock it.

It was a seven-second voice message.

[Although I’m the owner of a coffee shop, I still want to remind you a bit, have you eaten too many sweets lately?]

His voice rang in her ears, Jiang Ying instantly blushed, and muttered in her heart, “Isn’t it your fault that I eat too much!”

Leaving Cloudside coffee shop, Jiang Ying then drove to her parents’ house.

After going to work, she rented a house outside.
The reason she told her family was that it was very close to the company and more convenient to go to work.

But in fact, considering that she often stayed up late at night to work overtime to write plans, she was afraid that her parents would complain about it.

As soon as she took out the key to open the door, her one sentence ‘I’m back’ stuck in her throat and could not be said.

Mother Jiang was sitting on the sofa making a phone call.
With a serious tone, she aggressively scolded someone.

“Isn’t a meal eaten until eight o’clock enough? Do you still want to come back home?”

“Before you left, I already told you not to drink too much! I won’t care about you when you come back drunk tonight!”

Jiang Ying stopped breathing and carefully changed her shoes to enter the house.

Mother Jiang angrily hung up the phone and vented her dissatisfaction with her daughter, “You see your father, he’s already old, the last time he went to the hospital, the doctor said he had high blood pressure and fatty liver, and yet he’s still drinking!”

“Okay, don’t be angry, I’ve packed a cake for you.” Jiang Ying opened the box and scooped a spoonful to feed it to Mother Jiang.

“Why is it so sweet, I’m so fat already!”

“Eating sweets will make you feel better,” Remembering Yun Xian’s words, Jiang Ying only ate a small piece, “Where did dad go to eat? I’ll go pick him up.”

Mother Jiang then said the address.
Although she said she would not care about him, she still got up and went to the kitchen to make hangover food for him.

Jiang Ying, who had just sat down for less than five minutes, now had to pick up the car keys again to go pick him up.

The restaurant was not far from home.
She called Father Jiang, but did not expect someone else to receive it.

“Jiang Ying?”

The other party was a young man with a familiar voice.

Sponsored Content

When Jiang Ying was still trying to figure out who this was, he told her his name, “I’m Fu Chen, do you remember?”

Fu Chen.

That name was like a stone, dragging her down, making her feel uneasy.

Jiang Ying was frozen, her hand holding the phone as her brain was blank for a while.
Until the red light turned green and the car behind her honked its horn, she finally recovered and quickly said, “Tell my dad that I’m coming to pick him up.”

It took her a few minutes to get there.
Jiang Ying parked the car but did not get off.

She lowered the car window halfway, licked her lips, and wanted to smoke.
After rummaging in the small box of miscellaneous items for a while, she only found a pack left over from before, and there were only two cigarettes left.

The flame burned the tip of the cigarette, and Jiang Ying’s slender fingers grabbed the cigarette and spewed smoke into the dark open car compartment.

It was not until the cigarette was burned out that she opened the car door and stepped on the cigarette butt to extinguish it.
Then, she wrapped it in a tissue and threw it into the trash can.

As soon as she turned around, she saw Father Jiang being helped to walk out of the gate.
Her dad’s face was red, and his steps were staggered.
It was very clear that he was drunk, he did not even know what he was mumbling in his mouth.

Jiang Ying hurriedly ran up, frowned and complained, “Why did you drink this much? You’ll be scolded again when you get home.”

The drunkard could not hear her, he just staggered and said he could still drink.

“Let’s help him get into the car first.”

Jiang Ying raised her head and glanced at the man.
She did not say much but just nodded.

Fu Chen was much more mature than before, wearing a shirt and trousers, his hair combed back with hairspray.

He had monolid and the corners of his eyes were curved up, he had a fierce appearance.

When Jiang Ying was still in school, the girls secretly discussed him.
Some people said that Fu Chen was manly and made people feel safe, and some people said that he had an aggressive face that might lead to domestic violence in the future.

Regardless of the two poles of comments, for Jiang Ying, he was an unavoidable nightmare when she was a student.

Haven’t seen each other for many years, she did not expect to meet him again on such an occasion today.

Jiang Ying suppressed her hatred towards him, trying to calmly say, “Thank you, we’ll go first.”

“Hey, wait.” She had just turned around when Fu Chen grabbed her arm.

Jiang Ying cautiously took a step back, almost subconsciously dodging.

Seeing her reaction, the other party shrugged, calmly retracted his hand and put it in his pocket, “I heard from your dad that you’re working in the science and technology field now?”

Jiang Ying lowered her head to avoid his gaze, “Hm.”

“Have a chance to go out and gather?”

“Talk about it later.”

Father Jiang sitting in the car started mumbling, Jiang Ying seized the opportunity and said, “I’ll go first.”

Hastily starting the car, she turned the steering wheel to change direction.
When she looked in the rearview mirror, she saw that Fu Chen was still standing there looking at her.

The man raised his hand and waved while shouting, “See you next time.”

Jiang Ying frowned and secretly said in her heart, “See you never”.
Next, she stepped on the accelerator and drove away.