The cafe was at its busiest between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m., and there were no more seats available except at the bar. Jiang Li apologetically explained the situation to Chi Fang and Feng Yu, then asked if they would like to sit at the bar.
Feng Yu didn't mind where they sat as long as there was something to eat: "It doesn't matter where we sit, we can also chat with you if we sit here."
Chi Fang: "…" Us? Did I agree?
Although Feng Yu said so, Jiang Li also did not forget to ask Chi Fang.
Chi Fang met his eyes and easily caught the expectation there. He saw him looking at him fixedly as if Jiang Li really wanted him to sit over there. Chi Fang then thought about what Feng Yu had said about Jiang Li being often ostracized in the class, and how he probably had no friends. So he thought that sitting at the bar might also be able to help him support a scene. So when other colleagues saw, he wouldn't be looked down on.
Chi Fang turned around in his mind after many thoughts. He felt like he was really a fucking good person, not only did he righteously saved his life, but also considered a lot for him.
"En."
Chi Fang slowly nodded under Jiang Li's gaze. When he saw the satisfied smile on Jiang Li's face after nodding his head, he smirked in his heart and thought that this weak chicken really had no ambition. He only agreed to sit in front of him, and he was so pleased, what a dumb guy.
As there were many customers during the night shift, there were a lot of staff members on duty. Other than Jiang Li, there was another colleague at the bar, and there were others in the lobby to serve. So Jiang Li was only responsible for the table where Chi Fang and Feng Dong were sitting.
After the two of them ordered, Jiang Li handed the order through the small window to the chef in the kitchen, so that they could make pizza and pasta while he ground the beans.
Jiang Li cooked coffee with a siphon pot, slender white fingers holding a brown wooden handle. Once the pot of water boiled, he skillfully stirred in the coffee powder. As he stirred, the fragrance of coffee wafted out along with the steam, of a light chocolate fragrance.
Chi Fang himself was already tall enough: the barstool was also high, and once he sat on it, he was almost a head taller than the standing Jiang Li. From his line of sight, he could see the top of Jiang Li's head and the tip of his nose. Under the spotlight of the bar, his hair was black and shiny, and his skin was as white as snow.
In the coffee aspect, Chi Fang didn't know much, he couldn't say that Jiang Li's coffee-making skills were professional or not, but at least his movements were very pleasing to the eye.
Chi Fang ordered a single mocha, Feng Yu ordered an iced cappuccino. Jiang Li poured the coffee into a cup, first gave Chi Fang a cup by putting it in front of him, then gave him a creamer and sugar packets. "Give it a taste."
The first thing Chi Fang noticed was that Jiang Li's hand was propped up on the edge of the table, and he was unconsciously rubbing his index finger and thumb. He sensed that he seemed a little nervous. He then looked at his fingertips twice, unwrapped the creamer and sugar packet, and put in a little of each.
Jiang Li watched him stir the coffee with a spoon, reminded him to be careful of the heat, and then began to makeFeng Yu his cappuccino.
The store had a coffee art machine, but Jiang Li liked to draw his own. He frothed the milk while asking Feng Yu what pattern he wanted.
"Can I request anything?" Feng Yu rubbed his hands excitedly and was about to say what he wanted, when Chi Fang next to him saw this. With their years of friendship, Chi Fang knew that Feng Yu would definitely choose his favorite comic character, which was fucking hard to draw. He reached out and slapped him on the back of the head, saying in a cold tone, "Don't make it hard for people."
"I haven't said it yet! How do you know I'm going to make it hard for Jiang Li! Chi ge, you haven't tasted this coffee and yet you're already taking his side!" Feng Yu protested discontentedly.
Chi Fang: "…" Side your ass, who did I side with?
The two quarreled with each other for a while, and finally, Feng Yu succumbed to Chi Fang's lasciviousness and said condescendingly that Jiang Li could just draw anything.
Jiang Li saw that Chi Fang was helping him, so he smiled at him gratefully. He then said to Feng Yu, "What pattern do you like, I can try."
Chi Fang: "…" I'm so fucking talkative, oh.
"Really?" When Feng Yu heard this, he immediately revived and pulled his phone out to show him a comic character on top of his phone screensaver, "Can you draw him? Super handsome!"
Jiang Li looked at the screensaver. Although it was a comic character, the drawing was very detailed. The coffee cup was too small. If he only relied on the chocolate sauce, it would be hard to draw on the milk foam, so he compromised with Feng Yu and said, "How about drawing a chibi version of it?"
"Sure!" Feng Yu directly gave the phone to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li put the phone next to his hand and drew according to the pattern that Feng Yu gave. He used to learn to make coffee and was very interested in blend coffee. He had even studied it specifically for a while, so drawing a chibi version of the character was not hard for him.
With his movements, a round-faced little man appeared on the milk foam. Although it was a chibi version, it was still very delicate and cute.
Chi Fang looked at his half-drunk coffee and suddenly wanted to have a blend coffee with a drawn character of his choice.
After the pattern was drawn, Jiang Li brought the coffee to Feng Yu. "The drawing is not very good, please don't mind."
"Oh my god!" Feng Yu raised his voice, looking at the vivid little man on the milk foam, and marveled, "Is this still not good? It's too damn cute, right? I just can't bear to drink it! Chi ge, look at this!"
He said this as he pushed the coffee to Chi Fang to see. "It's very cute, right? Simply adorable! I can't even drink it… Dammit, what are you doing?"
He then saw Chi Fang pick up his coffee as fast as lightning, directly drinking half a cup in one gulp. The milk foam that was spread on top of the coffee was half-drunk, even half of the head of the little man's chibi version was drunk by him.
Jiang Li: "…" Good skill.
Feng Yu: "…" I'm so angry.
Chi Fang placed the remaining half cup of coffee back on his coaster. "Since you can't bear to drinking it, I'll drink it for you."
Feng Yu looked at his half of the remaining coffee and felt like crying. "Chi ge, you are simply not human, ah."
Chi Fang: "You're the same. I'm just helping, don't need to be polite, I can also help you out for the remaining half cup."
The two people were quarreling again. Jiang Li watched and couldn't help but laugh out loud. It was the first time he had been in such a good mood since he came to this world. As expected, youthful boys were indeed barrels of laughs.
His laughter stopped the two men from exposing each other, and they both stopped to look at him and found that his eyes were bent with laughter. Under the spotlight on the bar top, his eyes seemed to be filled with stars, bright and shiny.
Chi Fang saw the arc of his eyes and the upward corner of his lips, and felt that after he smiled, his whole person became clear and bright: much better than his previous yes-man character. His tone unconsciously lightened up, "What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing." Jiang Li shook his head, "I just think you guys are very close."
"That's for sure." Feng Yu hooked Chi Fang's shoulders and said in a proud tone, "Chi ge and I are like family! You wouldn't understand."
"Yeah." Jiang Li laughed and whispered, "I don't understand."
His voice was a bit despondent as if he remembered something, and the corners of his eyes, which were originally curved up because of his smile, slowly converged. He then said to the two of them, "You guys take your time and drink, I'll go to the kitchen to rush the other orders."
With that, he turned around, went to the other side of the bar, and entered the kitchen through the small door.
Feng Yu's original intention was to say that Jiang Li didn't understand his relationship with Chi Fang, so he wouldn't understand how good their relationship was, but Jiang Li had been ostracized before and had no other friends around so that inevitably sounded like it had another meaning.
After Jiang Li left, Feng Yu asked Chi Fang, "Chi ge, did I say something wrong?"
Chi Fang retracted his gaze, picked up his coffee, and took a sip. "I told you not to blindly say nonsense all day, are you dumb?"
"I just said that casually, and I forgot to pay attention to what … Wait, you're taking my coffee!!!"
"Oh." Chi Fang looked like he had just realized it and gave the cup back to him, "Returning it to you."
Feng Yu looked down and found that there was only a shallow layer of milk foam left at the bottom of the cup, and Chi Fang didn't even stir it, so he drank his whole cup of coffee.
Feng Yu gritted his teeth and looked at him. "… I should have been more careful when making friends."
Chi Fang smiled. "We are good brothers like family."
Feng Yu: "I'm dead!"
Jiang Li soon came out of the kitchen, he brought out the pizza and pasta ordered by the two of them and brought up other things from the small window in the kitchen. He then finally cut a small fruit plate for the two of them and said, "You guys eat first, I'll go over and help, call me if you need anything."
"Okay!"
Feng Yu had been hungry for a long time, without saying a word, he started to eat.
Chi Fang saw Jiang Li dismantle the coffee pot to wash, remembering that he had worked all day today, and asked him, "Have you eaten?"
"Yes, this cafe provides us with meals." Jiang Li replied, washed the pot, and went to help another colleague.
Jiang Li was busy the rest of the day: when one table of customers left, another came. Chi Fang saw him constantly making coffee, washing pots, and cutting fruit plates – during which he also came over to add new coffee for them, until after eleven o'clock when he slowly stopped and returned to their side after greeting his colleagues.
Jiang Li saw that they had finished their food. He reached out and carried the plates, put them on the small windowsill in the kitchen, and then dispensed new orange juice for the two of them before saying, "Sorry, it's a little busy today."
"It's okay, continue with your work, no need to entertain us." Feng Yu said as he didn't mind, picked up the orange juice and after taking a sip, very contentedly took a deep breath, and then said, "Speaking of which Jiang Li, you give me a very different feeling today than you usually do at school, you look a lot more cheerful ah!"
Chi Fang also had this feeling. Today's Jiang Li had changed a lot from the first few times he came into contact with him. The previous Jiang Li gave off a feeling of having low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
"Is it? I need it for work, I guess." Jiang Li touched his ears in embarrassment and said with a smile, "Since I have to live on, I always have to change something and learn to adapt to this society."
Feng Yu was a gossiper, he liked to listen to gossip and also liked to gossip. He had heard about the situation of Jiang Li's family for a long time and knew that he was not rich. His father didn't care much about him. Now, in order to support the family and support himself, he could understand that he had no choice but to change his personality.
"In fact, you are quite good like this, much better than those who look down on you!" Feng Yu comforted, "You can also draw Captain, fucking awesome!"
Chi Fang: "…" Drawing Captain is fucking awesome? His comforting skills are really poor as fuck.
The cafe closed at 1 a.m., and before they knew it, it was almost midnight. Jiang Li gave a 20% discount to the two of them, which was the cafe manager's benefit to the employees, so the friends he brought over could enjoy a 20% discount.
"No need for a discount." Chi Fang took out his wallet and gave money to Jiang Li at the original price.
"Hmm?" Jiang Li looked at the money he handed over and wondered, "Why?"
"Yeah, why?" Feng Yu also did not understand why he didn't take advantage of a bargain.
Chi Fang avoided the gaze of the two and said in a careless tone, "I heard that your place counts the commission according to the turnover of the day."
Jiang Li realized what he meant and couldn't help but be stunned. So the reason was that he wanted to let him earn more commission.
At this moment, he broke through and found that the teenager in front of him was so soft inside.
Feng Yu also froze, he just said so casually and didn't expect his Chi ge to remember it.
Chi Fang was a little uncomfortable by Jiang Li's stare. Without saying a word, he placed the money on the bar. "I'm leaving."
After saying that, he turned towards the door, walked a few steps, and was suddenly called by Jiang Li. He turned around and heard him say in a sincere tone, "Chi Fang tongxue, you really are a good person."
Chi Fang: "…"
Jiang Li, are you crazy? How many good person cards do you want to give me?