Chapter 6 Doomsday Wreath

Xu Yuewei knew that telling Assistant Pan was the same as telling Jiang Shiyan.

The sword of Damocles fell once more, but now it hangs high over her head again.

But she wouldn't go back on her decision just to avoid him.

Because she was really happy at the coffee shop, Jin Shu doted on her, and she could eat and drink whatever she wanted. Moreover, after a while, the hype surrounding the coffee shop video died down, and the shop wasn't very busy anymore.

That day, the three of them sat together eating takeout. Song Jinshu, having just suffered from gastroenteritis, was eating a light diet under her boyfriend's supervision. Xu Yuewei deliberately ordered spicy hot pot to tempt her, and they ate and laughed at the same time.

The wind chimes rang, signaling the arrival of guests. Xu Yuewei put down the takeout order, lifted the curtain of the kitchen, and saw a group of men and women walk in, crowding around the counter and hesitating about what to drink.

She was already quite adept at handling this small matter, answering their questions about product flavors one by one and quickly placing their orders.

Xiao Han went out to make coffee while she baked pancakes. When she brought them to the table, a boy poked her arm.

She wasn't used to being touched like that, so she stood up straight, covering the area.

The boy grinned, looking completely harmless: "Excuse me, do you have Wi-Fi?"

"Sorry, it hasn't been installed yet."

"It's alright. Do you have any dessert recommendations?"

He was referring to those in the freezer.

Xu Yuewei recommended a few popular options, but the guy still seemed hesitant. Just as she was about to say, "Take your time choosing," he looked up, smiled, and asked her, "Which one do you prefer?"

His companions let out a mocking laugh.

Xu Yuewei remained unmoved, glanced down at the menu, and pointed to the most expensive dish.

The guy actually ordered this one.

"Okay, please wait a moment."

She turned and went to the kitchen, just in time to catch Jin Shu sneaking a bite of her spicy hot pot. She patted her and said, "Go and do your work for a while, I'll eat it."

After the customers left the restaurant, Xu Yuewei came out from the kitchen, only to be met with a surprise return.

Seeing the boy run back into the store alone, she immediately put on an elegant smile: "Did you forget something?"

"No, I wanted to ask if you're still hiring?" He pointed to the poster with his eyes. "I'm a student at the School of Physical Education of Wuxi University of Technology. It's very close to here, and I don't have many classes this semester."

Then he actually pulled out his student ID.

To keep things strictly business, Xu Yuewei carefully observed the other person's face.

With thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a healthy wheat-colored complexion, he is generally considered handsome.

Having known each other for many years, she and Song Jinshu had developed similar aesthetic tastes. After her breakup, Song Jinshu criticized all of Jiang Shiyan's faults on her behalf, but never slapped his face.

So if she thinks something is good, Song Jinshu should like it too.

Xu Yuewei scrutinized him from head to toe, but remained silent.

Zhou Xu let her look at him openly, and even bent down slightly, bringing his face closer to hers:

Are you satisfied with what you saw, sister?

She replied expressionlessly, "I can't decide."

Then I went to the second floor and called Song Jinshu down, who was designing the interior decoration.

*

In the following days, the coffee shop became increasingly quiet.

Zhou Xu passed the interview and hired two temporary workers. Song Jinshu happily took down the job posting.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Xu Yuewei smiled at her: "Boss Song, you promised to provide me with meals, didn't you?"

Song Jinshu chuckled twice at her, opened the food delivery app and handed it to her: "Whatever you want to eat, it's on me, no matter how expensive."

"Hey, what on earth made that miser break his promise?"

"Tsk, haven't you noticed that Zhou Xu has been acting like he's on steroids ever since you arrived? He's even been learning latte art from Xiao Han these past few days. He's doing the work of three people all by himself. I've saved so much money. Thank you so much."

Xu Yuewei laughed and cursed her as a despicable capitalist, then asked, "What does this have to do with me?"

"Stop playing dumb. To be honest, you didn't feel anything at all?"

"How does it feel?"

"Youth, oh, men growing up... you know what I mean."

Xu Yuewei deliberately pushed her away with a stern face: "I don't understand."

After joking around for a while, Song Jinshu turned on the tap to wash her hands, and suddenly asked out of the blue, "By the way, is your mother alright at home by herself?"

Xu Yuewei's lips curled down: "She was alone before I went back to Wuqiao, so what could have happened to her? Besides, my cousin would come to keep her company occasionally."

Song Jinshu wrinkled her nose. She didn't like this cousin. If she hadn't told Xu Yuewei's mother about her relationship back then, none of this would have happened.

But since she was an outsider, she couldn't say anything directly, so she just gave a cryptic "oh."

Xu Yuewei understood and smiled indifferently.

Actually, she was quite grateful to Qi Shuyan. At least with Qi Shuyan taking care of her mother, she was able to go to Guangyang so freely, and Ye Wanzhi also regained a daughter she could look at with a pleasing eye.

There's no need to disrupt the delicate balance that's been achieved among the three of them.

Speaking of Qi Shuyan, Song Jinshu's thoughts drifted from her tattling to another protagonist. After a moment's thought, she spoke up:

"By the way, I checked Weibo, Jiang Shiyan's IP address is currently in Wuqiao. Be prepared, in case you get incredibly lucky and run into him."

Xu Yuewei then remembered that she should tell her about meeting Jiang Shiyan at the bar: "...Speaking of which, it was fortunate that your boyfriend was there that night."

Song Jinshu's expression shifted dramatically, and she finally managed to stammer, "Damn, I wish I could go too!"

After Xu Yuewei finished giving her instructions, she looked calm and collected, but Song Jinshu seemed hesitant to speak. She smiled gently at her and said, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

One hand unconsciously gripped the apron, creating wrinkles that resembled a leaf.

"It's been so long since he and I got together. I've already moved on," she continued, unaware that the more she explained, the more obvious it sounded like she was trying to cover something up.

Xu Yuewei picked up her coffee and tried latte art again. This time, she didn't think about the details of the movements, and the latte art turned out quite well.

She happily showed it to Jinshu, but a wisp of hair draped behind her ear fell down, like a bridge connecting the past and the present, causing wrinkles to appear in her calm thoughts.

Looking at the latte art, she remembered a small thing.

During her freshman year of college, she lived on campus and didn't go home on weekends, even though she was studying at a local university.

Her roommate was curious and asked her why. Not wanting to reveal her family situation, she gave a perfunctory yet honest answer: "I don't have time."

She really didn't have time; someone had taken over her weekends, forcefully and domineeringly swallowing up all her time.

Jiang Shiyan would take a bus back to Wuqiao on Friday night, so she started looking forward to it on Friday morning.

The two of them and that Audi drove all over Wuqiao and also visited many surrounding cities.

On the night after a short holiday, or more accurately, in the early hours of the morning on the day school resumed, Xu Yuewei sat in the passenger seat. The evening breeze ruffled her long, straight black hair, but she didn't care. She just tilted her head and stared at the person in the driver's seat.

Jiang Shiyan was so captivated by her gaze that he forgot to turn around and took a detour, but he wasn't annoyed. A faint smile appeared on his lips as he asked her what she was looking at.

She said softly, "It feels so unreal, like escaping from the apocalypse."

He shook his head and said it didn't seem like it: "If it were the end of the world, I wouldn't waste my time doing something like this with you."

She asked, "So what do you want to do?"

Jiang Shiyan would come back to see her almost every weekend, but there was a full five-day gap between each weekend.

Five days is a short separation that can act as a catalyst for romance between couples, making it easy for them to do *that*.

She was led astray by him, and thinking he was about to veer off course, she gave him a quick, predictive glare.

But their eyes met a pair of gentle, bright eyes.

He said, "How about we find a hillside and I'll make you a flower wreath?"

Xu Yuewei paused for a moment, and his imagination came to mind: "It can be done even if it's not the end of the world."

"Okay, let's do it next weekend then." He turned the steering wheel, his smiling eyes looking at her again. "It's a date. When you're looking forward to it, will you miss me even more?"

They couldn't find a suitable place, and until they parted ways, no one mentioned the promise again.

...

The phone in the apron pocket vibrated twice, and the memories vanished in an instant.

Xu Yuewei picked up her phone; it was a message from that assistant.

Pan Debi: [Sorry to bother you again (chuckles). Our studio would like to order some afternoon tea, but we can't find your store on the food delivery platform. Would it be alright if we ordered directly from you and picked it up later?]

Is this because I couldn't compensate her last time, so I wanted to patronize her business?

Regardless, "a fool wouldn't take the money," Xu Yuewei replied: "Sure, just send me your address and we'll deliver it."

Pan Debi: [Then send me the menu first~]

Xu Yuewei did as instructed, and then asked Song Jinshu, "When is Zhou Xu coming today? There's an order that needs to be delivered later, so if he comes, let him go."

Song Jinshu glanced at the time: "He's late."

After waiting a while, Pan Mingxuan still hadn't sent a message asking what he wanted. There weren't many customers in the shop, so it wasn't fun to slack off anymore.

Song Jinshu pulled out a stack of flyers from somewhere: "How about this, you go outside and hand out some flyers."

"Why me and not you?" Xu Yuewei glanced at Jin Shu's exquisite makeup.

After chatting and laughing for a while, Zhou Xu arrived at the store. Xu Yuewei took the flyers and left the store, while Song Jinshu entrusted the store to them with peace of mind, as she had to leave for a while.

Xu Yuewei's long curly hair was styled into a high ponytail. She wore a mask, an apron, a white long-haired sweater, and jeans. At first glance, she really looked like a college student who came to work and study.

She wasn't particularly lively; she simply handed out the flyers in a very conventional way. But perhaps her appearance was too deceptive, because the flyers were distributed surprisingly smoothly.

Before long, she had only a few bills left in her hand. Xu Yuewei lowered her head and counted them one by one with her fingers.

Suddenly, a hand appeared out of thin air in front of me, palm facing upwards, in a demanding gesture.

She looked up, her hand about to take a card and hand it over, but she couldn't move.

Jiang Shiyan wore a dark gray baseball cap and a white mask covering his face, with only his eyebrows and eyes showing. His long eyebrows were slightly curved, conveying a faint smile.

Suddenly, it reminded her of that night of escape during the apocalypse.

But it was almost nothing like the laughter he had that night.

Time seemed to stand still, and after a long while, Xu Yuewei finally spoke.

"Is Ms. Jiang here to order food? But I don't remember agreeing with your assistant on this."

He said casually, "There are too many things I want to order, I'm afraid you won't be able to deliver them all."

"How could it not be delivered? At the very least, you can take a taxi. You can't possibly order a truckload of food, can you?"

Just as Jiang Shiyan was about to say something, a third person emerged from the shop.

Zhou Xu walked over, handing her the things while glancing up at the man before turning back to look at her, his voice filled with concern:

"Sister, why aren't you wearing a coat?"

A beige short leather jacket was draped over his arm.

Women's clothes.

Jiang Shiyan looked away again, lowering his gaze to look at her, at the fair skin around her eyes above her mask, her thick and straight eyelashes, and the slightly messy hair on her forehead and temples.

So close, so clear.

Then, looking at this man whose name she did not know, he naturally and affectionately draped his coat over her shoulders.

A note from the author:

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[doge emoji]