Cloudside Café - Chapter 9

On weekends, the sky was clear, and the warm wind blew through the vine by the window.

Jiang Ying held the computer and pushed open the glass door beside the cloud. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Yunxian standing in front of a white wall with his arm in his arms, motionless, as if thinking about it.

She walked to the front desk and asked Zhao Xinrou, “What’s wrong with him?”

Zhao Xinrou explained: “Yesterday some children in the store were naughty and stepped on the wall a few times. The boss was staring at the footprints.”

Jiang Ying was puzzled: “What’s so beautiful about the footprints?”

Zhao Xinrou shrugged: “Who knows.”

People always seem to love to have trouble with themselves, the more unpleasant things are, the more they can’t control their eyes and want to look there.

Yunxian passed by the wall four or five times today, knowing that the footprints on the white wall made him feel uncomfortable, like crumpled white paper, but his eyes still followed involuntarily.

Every time he looked at it, he frowned and sighed.

Jiang Ying couldn’t stand it, and suggested to him: “Would you like to cover it with paint?”

Yun Xian shook his head: “It will still get dirty.”

Jiang Ying looked at the white wall. From a distance, the small footprints were actually inconspicuous, so she realized something: “Yun Xian, you are a Virgo.”

Yunxian: “……”

Silence instead of answering, Jiang Ying wrote “I knew it” all over his face.

She glanced at the wall, located at the top of the stairs, with a row of decorative picture frames hanging on it. Children often run up and down the stairs, so that wall is especially easy to get dirty.

Jiang Ying suggested: “Why don’t you try wall painting? That wall is quite suitable.”

Yun Xian moved his gaze from the wall to her and nodded: “Good idea.”

“Draw a night scene.” Jiang Ying sat on a high stool and stretched out his hand to compare. “Here is the night sky, the moon is on the right, and here is the outline of a cafe with a big tree next to it. What do you think?”

Yunxian touched his chin and imagined the scene Jiang Ying said: “Well, it’s not bad, but where do I have to find someone to paint this?”

Jiang Ying curled up the corner of his mouth and patted his chest: “I, I’m a professional.”

She got up from the chair and walked to the wall: “I painted wall paintings when I was in college. It’s not difficult. It can be done in a few hours.”

Yun Xian raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, “Then when can you paint for me?”

“Just today, it happens that I won’t go to work tomorrow weekend.” Jiang Ying tilted his head to look at Yun Xian, and said with a smile, “I am afraid that if we don’t hurry, our Virgo Yun boss will be crazy.”

After the Yunbian Cafe closed that night, Yunxian and Jiang Ying stayed and started a night job.

Jiang Ying first worked out a draft, and a large piece of color came out, and Jiang Ying was responsible for sketching out the details.

Even though he was wearing a gray apron, the paint was still stained on his body and clothes for a while.

Jiang Ying held the color palette to paint while not forgetting to tease Yun Xian: “You are also dirty, can you bear it?”

Yun Xian glanced at her helplessly, and solemnly defended herself: “I have no cleanliness or obsessive-compulsive disorder. I just don’t like seeing stains on white things.”

Jiang Ying hurriedly coaxed him: “Well, well, I know, I understand and I understand.”

The two of them focused on painting. When the progress was almost halfway through, Yun Xian got up, shook his somewhat sour arm, and asked Jiang Ying, “Is it thirsty?”

I didn’t think it just now. When I asked, Jiang Ying realized that his throat was dry: “Get me a glass of water.”

Yun Xian returned to the front desk, poured a glass of water, took a straw into it, and walked to Jiang Ying and handed it to her.

Holding something in both hands, Jiang Ying bowed his head and drank half a glass of water while biting his straw.

Seeing her booze drinking, Yun Xian smiled: “If you are tired, I will draw it here today.”

Jiang Ying waved his hand: “It’s over soon, I’m not tired.”

After working all the time, Jiang Ying was sweating and felt a little stuffy. His long hair was wet and sticky on his neck, which was very uncomfortable.

After drawing the outline of the cafe, she got down from the telescopic ladder, put down the palette and paintbrush in her hand, took off the hair tie on her wrist and tied a ponytail to herself.

Jiang Ying is wearing a white short French shirt with a square collar today. Her black hair is held in clusters and bundled, exposing her neck and shoulders, with smooth lines and fair skin.

Yun Xian’s gaze fell on the tattoo on her left shoulder—it looked like a planet and a red rose.

Jiang Ying drank the water, stood far away and looked at his work, and asked Yun Xian: “This is the outline, it’s almost the details, what do you think?”

The monotonous white wall became colorful, the black night sky was hung with a bright moon, the stars were scattered all around, the cafe was lit with warm yellow lights, and a man stood under the tree.

Yun Xian pointed to the man’s back: “Let’s draw another person next to him, he looks so lonely.”

Jiang Ying nodded: “Okay.”

It was late at night, and when Jiang Ying finished the last stroke, the moonlight outside the window was bright, and everything was silent.

She stretched her waist and let out a long sigh of relief: “It’s finished!”

Yun Xian looked at Jiang Ying with a gentle smile: “Thank you.”

Jiang Ying rubbed his sore shoulder, and his exhaustion disappeared in Yun Xian’s smile.

They stood side by side, overlapping with a pair of pictures on the wall.

“I’m not alone now.”

“Well, I’m not alone anymore.”

—

When Yunxian sent Jiang Ying back home, it was almost two o’clock at night. After washing briefly, he took two bottles of beer from the refrigerator and pushed open the door of Li Zhicheng’s room.

The keyboard and mouse made a crackling sound, and Li Zhicheng was sitting on a chair with his earphones cross-legged, concentrating on the game.

Yun Xian sat down on the edge of the bed, put a bottle of beer beside him, and asked, “When will the fight be finished?”

Li Zhicheng was busy with both hands, glanced at him, and quickly returned to the screen: “Wait, wait—fuck, I didn’t ask you to wait, just let me go!”

Yun Xian sometimes admires these two stunners. He doesn’t go to bed in the middle of the night because he is only playing games or watching a ball game.

Li Zhicheng emotionally communicated with his teammates in the game: “Fuck, this number three is a German, Yun Xian, you teach me two curses in German, hurry up!”

Yunxian showed an expression that is difficult to say: “What are you doing so angry today? What happened to Zhou Yi?”

It’s okay that he didn’t mention it. When he mentioned Li Zhicheng, he was upset again. No matter what he thought of German, French and English, he scolded him.

Li Zhicheng’s purely venting battle soon ended. He took off his headphones, sighed wearily, took the beer on the table and opened the tab, and took a sip: “What’s the matter? It’s midnight.”

Yun Xian sipped his wine: “My mother called me again, let me go back.”

Li Zhicheng found two packs of beef jerky from the snack box next to the computer, and threw a pack of beef jerky to Yunxian: “Then what do you think?”

Yunxian said: “Of course I am not happy, but if I can bear it for one day, I won’t resign as soon as I get promoted.”

Li Zhicheng chewed the beef jerky and nodded: “Well, yes, don’t do such a good job. I am your mother and I will scold you.”

Yun Xianbai glanced at him and continued: “I used to think I came to Xicheng to escape, and I will leave when I get bored here one day. But these two days… I suddenly wanted to stay. It’s good here too.”

“Meet someone you like?”

Yun Xian raised his eyes to look at Li Zhicheng, with a complicated expression.

“I got it right?”

Yun Xian was silent.

Li Zhicheng’s hitting the nail on the head stunned Yun Xian. It was probably because he had known each other for too long. Li Zhicheng was always slandered by him as a “two stupid son”. He had forgotten that the man in front of him was smart and sensitive, and knew himself best.

Whether it is a close friend or a former teacher, Yunxian is said to be much more stable than Li Zhicheng. But in fact, Yun Xian knew in his heart that Li Zhicheng was more mature than him and more sophisticated than him.

He was in a mess for the past two days, and all kinds of things were stuck together and couldn’t find a gap to vent. This is when he came to talk to his friends at night.

“Almost. But you know, to put it nicely, I came to Xicheng to change my way of life, but in fact I came to’treat’. I haven’t understood my own life yet. I’ll talk about it at this time. These are inappropriate.”

“So when is the right time?” Li Zhicheng looked at Yun Xian, sighed and shook his head, “You think this is too complicated. Is it true that only those who have achieved fame and live a happy life can talk about love? I can’t ask you to understand, it’s not easy to pick a pleasing one out of the vast crowds. You always have so many worries. Be careful to miss your beloved.”

When Li Zhicheng finished his seriousness, he approached Yun Xian with a mean smile and wentssiping: “Is that girl beautiful? Which one? What do you like?”

Yun Xian shrank back, looked away, and took a sip from the wine bottle.

Li Zhicheng became interested and said endlessly: “I’m honest, if you really want to live your life, you have to fall in love. Do you know? There are endless things you can learn from a woman… …”

Yun Xian rubbed his brow bones and stood up and said, “Go, you go to bed earlier.”

“Hey, wait.” Li Zhicheng stopped him, “I haven’t finished speaking yet.”

Yunxian ignored him, waved, and walked back to the room.

After returning to his room, Yun Xian lay on the bed, rubbing his sore eyes but not feeling sleepy.

The heavy black curtains blocked all the light, and the room was completely dark.

The silence of the night can comfort him to some extent.

He hates insomnia, but ambivalently likes the wee hours.

Yun Xian closed his eyes and opened the playlist, from the patter of rain to the waves, afraid of hitting the rocks.

Recalling what Li Zhicheng had just said in his head, his heart became irritable again.

He opened his eyes, touched the phone to unlock the screen, flipped through the Moments boredly, and saw Jiang Ying sharing the rose flowers grown on his balcony. He stopped sliding his finger and gave a thumbs-up.

Scrolling down there is nothing interesting. Yunxian wanted to quit WeChat, but found that Jiang Ying had sent a message a minute ago.

[Sunset Orange: Still not asleep? 】

[See the mountain: Well, I’m a little insomnia, can’t sleep. 】

A voice call popped up on the page just after sending this line of words.

Yunxian clicked to accept and put the phone in her ear.

“I’ll read English for you.” Jiang Ying said, “I’m very hypnotic when I read English. When I was in school, every time I read English in the morning class, I could be sleepy at the same table. It’s also a super ability.”

Her voice sounded close to her ear, and Yun Xian smiled: “Okay, you read it.”

Jiang Ying made a rustling noise, as if she was getting up and looking for something. She asked, “What do you want to hear?”

Yunxian remembered the tattoo on her left shoulder and said, “The Little Prince, right?”

“Yes.” Jiang Ying opened the blue-covered paper book, and the pages rubbed with a slight noise. “Now you lie down, change your comfortable position, close your eyes, and put your phone next to your ear.”

Yun Xian obediently followed suit, and let out a lazy hum.

Jiang Yingfang softened his voice, speaking slowly, and whispered: “OncewhenIwassixyearsoldIsawamagnificentpictureinabook, calledTrueStoriesfromNature, abouttheprimevalforest.Itwasapictureofaboaconstrictorintheactofswallowingananimal……”

With the standard American voice, Yun Xian relaxed his emotions in her gentle voice.

Maybe it’s really tired, maybe it’s rare not to worry about other annoying things, maybe Jiang Ying’s super powers have taken effect, Yun Xian became sleepy, and his consciousness gradually went blank.

“Yunxian?”

He seemed to hear someone calling him, and hummed in a daze.

On the other side of the phone, Jiang Ying said softly “good night”.

Yunxian couldn’t remember whether he had said his goodnight.

—

It was a rare night to sleep well without waking up in the middle. When he opened his eyes again, Yun Xian picked up the phone that fell on the pillow and got out of bed, and first opened the curtains.

The sun came in and he squinted his eyes to adjust to the light.

On April in the world, the crabapples downstairs opened, and the warm sun dropped mottled light and shadow through the gaps in the branches and leaves, and the birds tweeted twice.

He rarely gets up early, stretches his waist, and feels relaxed.

Li Zhicheng is right, precious things are always available and unquestionable, just like he passed by that abandoned factory building and decided to open a cafe here; just like that rainy night in early spring, Jiang Ying opened the glass door and walked to him. In front of him.

Mom told him from an early age that you have to learn to weigh the pros and cons, and learn to choose and abandon.

He once seriously weighed and gave up, but his mother said again-you are a nonsense, are you crazy?

He didn’t mess around, and he won’t regret it.

It’s not about quitting a high-paying job. It’s not about leaving Beijing where I lived for 30 years.

Compared to the awkward life he used to, he is now living well.

There is no need to stare at the ceiling with your eyes open every night, disgusting with everything about yourself and this dull life.

At this moment, Yun Xian looked at the ordinary scenery outside the window, and suddenly felt that his heart was sore, like a new sprout of spring breaking out of the ground—he had never looked forward to a new day so much.

The author has something to say: I am late, sorry!