06 The grumpy old man who has a weird temper but treats people to fruit

The big black iron door slowly opened.

In front of the most majestic red castle in the center of the buildings stood a man wearing a white butler's uniform and white gloves. He waved to the three people from a distance.

They followed the butler into a living room so magnificent that it could blind a dog.

An old man was sitting in a wheelchair waiting quietly.

He is nearly seventy years old and looks energetic. He wears gold-rimmed glasses and his hair is probably dyed black and sprayed with hairspray, with each strand clearly covering his scalp. He wears brown striped silk pajamas and a robe, and matching slippers on his feet.

He had a serious look on his face, and even the deep wrinkles on his face revealed his unquestionable majesty.

His eyes first scanned several people's faces, then passed over their heads and landed on the opposite wall. The corners of his mouth twitched violently. "Why are you late? How can you work in the service industry if you have such a poor sense of time?"

This was probably the first time in Zhang Chenling's career that she was questioned by a client for being late.

She looked at her watch and said calmly, "Uncle Wang, your son and I had an appointment at 10 a.m., and it's now 9:50. Not only are we not late, we're even 10 minutes early!"

"Well?"

The old man hesitated for a few seconds and looked behind them again, his eyes narrowed into slits behind the thick lenses of his glasses.

Zhang Chenling looked puzzled and turned around to see the dark golden hands of a giant antique wall clock on the wall a few dozen meters away pointing to ten ten.

Before she could open her mouth, she heard a thunderclap in her ears, "No! No! No! Why did my clock stop?"

Turning to look at the butler, he found that he was pale with fear and stammered, "Well, we already reported the emergency repair to the brand last night, and they will send someone over this afternoon!"

He shivered and wiped the sweat off his face, then added, "I just reported to you this morning..."

The sound became smaller and smaller, like the buzzing of a mosquito.

The atmosphere was tense and solemn. Zhang Chenling swallowed her saliva and tried to calm things down. "Um, Uncle Wang..."

"No! No! No!" Her words were interrupted by an even harsher howl, "Don't call me uncle, am I that old? It's uncultured! You should call me Mr. Wang!"

The trembling echo lingered in the empty living room for a long time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Wang!" Zhang Chenling hurriedly nodded and bowed to apologize.

Ni Yue and Xiao Ma Ge didn't even dare to breathe, they exchanged glances secretly, and felt that something was wrong.

However, the villa owner's time was as valuable as the building itself, and he didn't waste too long on losing his temper.

"Come up with me!" He slowly exhaled, turned the wheelchair, and led the way for the three people.

At the same time, he instructed the housekeeper, "Uncle Zhong, have them remove all the bones from the knife fish we're having for lunch. Don't leave one bone behind like last time, which almost pricked me."

"Okay, Mr. Wang!" The butler bowed ninety degrees, staring at the tip of his shoes and taking a deep breath.

The assisted bathing location is in the guest bathroom on the second floor of the villa.

Like the living room, the bathroom is extremely luxurious and even larger than the two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment where Ni Yue and Zhang Chenling live.

The air was filled with the faint scent of orange blossom, the smell of high-end fragrance, very natural and not pungent. Ni Yue vaguely remembered that he had smelled a similar scent in a high-end shopping mall in Beijing before.

In order to protect privacy, male customers are usually scrubbed by Xiao Ma Ge.

Ni Yue felt that Mr. Wang's gaze was too sharp and was afraid that she would feel uncomfortable being stared at by him, so she offered to wash her hair.

The task of watering was given to Zhang Chenling.

As expected, as soon as Mr. Wang dipped into the water, he stared at Zhang Chenling and asked, "What did you say your name was?"

"Zhang Chenling."

"Which words?"

"Zhang for bow length, Chen for erdong, Ling for exquisiteness."

"What kind of name is that? My parents' surnames, plus the incredibly vulgar, unpleasant-sounding character 'Ling'. How could they name me like that? Your parents are so stupid! They're out of their minds!"

He lectured Zhang Chenling's parents harshly, as if it was something closely related to him.

Zhang Chenling wasn't angry. She smiled and replied, "You're right, they're just crazy! But my brother's name is even uglier."

"What's his name?"

"Zhang Chenguang, the light of the pauper!"

"Pfft!" Ni Yue couldn't help laughing out loud when he heard his cousin teasing his older cousin.

Unexpectedly, the breath blew onto Mr. Wang's face, and saliva also flowed down.

"What are you doing?" He immediately glared at her and yelled at her.

"I'm sorry, I was careless~" Ni Yue quickly suppressed his smile.

Mr. Wang gave her a reproachful look, let her go, and turned his eyes back to Zhang Chenling.

"Where is Gemonong from?"

“I’m from Northeast China.”

"From the Northeast? I can't tell. You speak quite politely and don't look that rough. You don't look like you're from the Northeast! Besides, I see you're quite old, so you should have a family. Why would you do such a hard job as bathing people?"

Zhang Chenling smiled knowingly. Does Mr. Wang think he should be an office lady, or a full-time housewife?

The 39-degree warm water flowed slowly down his neck and shoulders as he scooped the water in his hand. "Hey, how can making a living be easy? Besides, bathing people isn't a particularly strenuous job. I used to run a housekeeping company, cleaning houses every day. Now I've started a new business as a bathing assistant. Washing a house or washing a person—it's the same thing, what's the difference?"

"Oh, that makes sense!" Mr. Wang seemed convinced.

"Besides, if we don't help you bathe, where will you find someone suitable to help you bathe?"

"It's really not easy to find one. The nanny we had before was so stupid and lazy that she couldn't even clean a rag. What a fool!"

He started swearing again.

Brother Ma took the opportunity to chime in, "Our Sister Ling is a real strong woman. Our company's high-end housekeeping services used to have the largest market share in Puxi!"

"Oh?" Mr. Wang raised his eyebrows. "So, I'm sorry to ask you to help me bathe!"

There seemed to be some sarcasm in the words.

"I'm not wronged, I'm not wronged," Zhang Chenling quickly denied. "It's the same thing, it doesn't matter what you wash!"

No matter how difficult the client is, she can handle it with ease, which is due to her many years of experience in dealing with people.

Everyone fell into a brief silence.

"Hey, please be gentle!" Mr. Wang suddenly screamed, "I almost rubbed my skin. I'm going to die!"

Brother Xiao Ma didn't know how he hurt him, and he was so scared that he quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll be gentler."

Mr. Wang, however, reached out to grab the towel angrily, "Idiot, give me the towel, I'll scrub it myself!"

He is paralyzed from the waist down and can only feel from the waist up.

But there is no reason to let the customer rub half of it himself!

Xiao Ma Ge started arguing with him over the bath towel with his face flushed and his neck thick.

Seeing this, Zhang Chenling suggested, "Why don't I do it instead? I'm gentle!"

"Hey, don't interfere!" Mr. Wang pushed her away with a big hand. "There are differences between men and women. Let him come!"

I didn't expect him to be so conservative.

...While the three of them were pulling and tugging at each other, Ni Yue was carefully washing off the hairspray that was stuck on Mr. Wang's head.

This wasn't the first time she washed someone's hair.

That year, Wu Xia was in confinement after giving birth to her second child. After a few days, her head became extremely itchy. Her parents-in-law kept a close eye on her and would not let her get wet. So she had to ask Ni Yue to bring a small basin of water to the kang and secretly help her wash it while the old couple was cooking in the kitchen.

Ni Yue washed Wu Xia's hair with the same meticulous care as if she were doing a test paper, even massaging her scalp, making her hum with pleasure. But before she was done, the two elderly people discovered her. They didn't dare scold Wu Xia, so they took their anger out on Ni Yue. Seeing her daughter's tears welling up from being scolded, Wu Xia broke down, settling all her old grudges and clashing with her in-laws. Ni Yue stood in between, fearing someone might get killed, and was practically terrified.

"Ce Na! You pulled my hair out!"

Mr. Wang suddenly howled in shock again.

Ni Yue was so frightened that he almost stood up on the spot. When he looked carefully, he saw that something was wrong!

Mr. Wang was not behaving well just now. He moved his head suddenly. Ni Yue didn't react in time and accidentally pulled out a strand of hair!

"No more washing, no more washing, no more washing!"

Mr. Wang struggled to sit up, looking as if he wanted to chop someone with a knife right away.

The three of them were dumbfounded. Zhang Chenling held him down, bowed and apologized, "Mr. Wang, I'm so sorry. My sister just joined us not long ago and she's not very experienced at the job yet. Please be magnanimous and don't make a fuss about it!"

As he spoke, he winked at Ni Yue, who quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault, I deserve to die!"

The two sisters coaxed and persuaded Mr. Wang and finally calmed him down.

But he was still angry and asked Ni Yue with his eyelids pulled up: "How many did you pull out?"

"Huh?" Ni Yue was stunned. He looked down at the unreal black strand of hair in his hand. "It's all stuck together with hairspray. It's hard to tell. There are probably five or six, oh no, three or four strands..."

The already poor family was hit even harder!

Mr. Wang's nostrils trembled violently, and he cursed fiercely: "Stupid!"

Ni Yue curled his lips in grievance, thinking that although he was wrong, this Old Deng was really difficult to please!

After a while, Mr. Wang looked up at her again, his eyes threatening. "You're so clumsy, maybe you weren't in this line of work before?"

Ni Yue answered honestly: "My last job was designing and planning curriculum at an early childhood education institution, and I also occasionally taught children."

"Early childhood education institution? Quite interesting. It must be difficult to manage the children there, right?" He closed his eyes and softened his tone as he spoke.

It seemed that his anger had subsided, and the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Ni Yue raised the corner of his mouth, "They are all princes and princesses from wealthy families, so of course they are not easy to manage! However, I find that some adults are almost as bad as children when they get into trouble!"

Mr. Wang's mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

The two teammates cast puzzled looks at Ni Yue.

Ni Yue stuck out her tongue and made a face at them. She had been completely dominated just now, and now she was determined to win back a game.

He continued methodically, "Whether they're adults or children, those who act like fools are spoiled and have become arrogant. The best way to deal with these people is to leave them alone, ignore them, don't talk to them, and pretend they don't exist!"

She slowly leaned over, lay down beside Mr. Wang's ear, and continued to whisper: "Let them dominate in their own world, their music too highbrow for the masses, until they slowly wither, rot, and disappear..."

The last few words were almost spoken through gritted teeth.

Mr. Wang's body suddenly shook as if he had been electrocuted.

His eyeballs rolled violently under his eyelids, and it took a long time for him to calm down.

This trick of killing people and destroying their hearts really worked, and he inevitably thought of himself.

Psychologically defeated, she muttered, "I never expected a little girl like you to be so thoughtful!"

…

Although Mr. Wang had a bad temper and was a bit arrogant, the whole bathing process went smoothly without any major problems.

Back in the bedroom, Xiao Ma Ge helped him complete a series of post-bath tasks, checking and recording his physical indicators.

When I looked up at him again, I found a mysterious smile on his face, and his tone of voice had become much gentler. "Xiao Ma, there are cherries, strawberries, blueberries in the living room... They are all imported and were just delivered this morning. The three of you can enjoy the fruits before you leave!"

After returning home, Ni Yue sat at the dining table, legs crossed, and added a note for his new client, Mr. Wang, in the Excel spreadsheet Zhang Chenling had sent him:

[The grumpy old man who has a weird temper but treats people to fruit]

Click Save, then open a box of duck necks that I had just bought at the entrance of the alley, take one out, and look around while chewing it.

The weather was very bad in the past few days, either raining or cloudy, but today the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared up.

Sunlight streamed into the house through the old latticed steel windows. The light was so abundant that even the tiny dust particles floating in the air were clearly visible.

The old house also shows its true appearance under the sunlight: the furniture is mottled and faded, the floor is bumpy, and the ceiling fan is trembling, as if it will fall and kill someone at any time - all of this looks dim on rainy days, and reveals its old and dilapidated appearance when exposed to the light.

Ni Yue didn't say anything, but she was worried in her heart. Her cousin was really down and out. Not only did she have to do the dirty work of helping people take a bath, but her living conditions also took a sharp turn for the worse. Compared with the house she used to live in Shanghai, this place was really too simple!

Zhang Chenling was sitting on the other side of the dining table typing on the keyboard. She caught a glimpse of Ni Yue's disgusted expression out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help but laugh.

Who doesn’t like a clean building? Who likes to live in this old antique covered with glaze?

But who can blame a phoenix without feathers for being worse than a chicken?

The house was an idle ancestral home of a friend. When the friend learned that she had failed in her business venture in Hainan and had lost all her wealth and had no place to stay when she returned to Shanghai, she offered to lend it to her.

A typical old Shanghai Shikumen building, with a worn-out exterior and even more worn-out interior, with rats and cockroaches crawling everywhere.

She didn't refuse.

Although the old house is dilapidated, its advantages are obvious: it is located in the core area of ​​Wutong District, making life and transportation extremely convenient. Within walking distance, you can find the most authentic alleyway cuisine, rock-bottom-price hand-brewed coffee, and craft beer.

Although she is not well off, she would rather change her lotion to Dabao and her perfume to Liushen than give up these little joys.

The 9.9 yuan sea salt lychee craft beer that she whispered about was the powerful medicine that healed her miserable life.

Uh, when I thought of “whispering”, my thoughts immediately went back to that crazy rainy night a few days ago.

Her cheeks suddenly felt hot...

"That's right, cousin!"

His wandering thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Ni Yue, who finished chewing on the duck neck and wiped his mouth while saying, "I wanted to ask you before, aren't my Aunt Chen and my eldest cousin's family also in Shanghai? Where do they live now?"

When Chen Hongmei and Zhang Chenguang were mentioned, a trace of contempt flashed in Zhang Chenling's eyes. "Don't mention it. When I went to Hainan to start a business, they stayed in Shanghai. Later, they couldn't maintain their previous high living expenses. When they called me for money, I scolded them bitterly. Later, my sister-in-law cheated on me and asked for a divorce. The whole family was in chaos... Before I moved back to Shanghai, they had already packed up and returned to Northeast China."

"Oh? I haven't heard my mother mention that they moved back." Ni Yue was surprised.

Wu Xia loves to share other people's gossip, privacy and family affairs. If there is any movement in someone's family, she will tell Ni Yue the first time.

"They moved to Tieling and didn't return to their hometown. Maybe they felt it would be embarrassing to go back! After all, when they came to Shanghai with me, they were so glorious. The farewell banquet alone lasted three days, even more grand than the one when Concubine Xi returned to the palace!"

No wonder! Ni Yue suddenly understood.

So no one in my hometown knows the current situation of my cousin's family.

Then she had to keep her mouth shut.

"Hey, forget about them, let them do whatever they want!" Zhang Chenling waved her hand. "The two of us living a good life is better than anything else!"