To Oak

The entire coffee shop is like a small world, independent of the lingering rain in early spring, operating independently and in balance.

Zhu Miao finished a small cup of lemon tea slowly, but the cup was still ice-cold, and there were small drops of water on the side of the cup.The sky is getting dark gradually, and the sun is sinking slowly like a duck egg yolk.Listening to the soothing music, Zhu Miao was a little sleepy again. The cat in the store walked by his feet, and its tail brushed his bare ankle, waking him up again.

The light was turned on in the store, and Xiang Shu was sitting on a high chair by the bar, with one leg propped on the ground, making his legs look long.With one hand in his pocket, he was still flipping through the book with the other.

Seeing that Zhu Miao had woken up, Xiang Shu knocked on the bar and said, "It's almost closing time."

Zhu Miao looked at the time and said, "It's so early..."

Xiang Shu, the owner of the Buddhist shop, stood up, put the book upside down on the bar, and said, "Lemon tea, 35."

Zhu Miao was shy, a little embarrassed, and really embarrassed to run the order again, Xiang Shu saw through his embarrassment at a glance, and said, "I'm just kidding, I'll give you a drink for free, go home early."

He didn't expect that Zhu Miao was more embarrassed by "going home" than "paying the bill".

Zhu Miao stood up and walked out. He looked at the recruitment announcement again, turned around, stood by the bar, and whispered: "Aren't you recruiting? Hire me. I work very quickly. I leave school every day. Just come, come on weekends, and the wages are lower..."

The store is not big, and Xiang Shu doesn't rely on the store's income to support himself. He and Yi Ning work in shifts for a day. The store opens at ten in the morning and closes at any time in the afternoon.But he has other plans recently, and he can't always come to visit the store, so he plans to recruit another barista and Yiling as a partner. Part-time workers like Zhu Miao are not in his plan.

Zhu Miao is pitiful, he always shows this kind of pitiful expression unconsciously, the corners of his eyes are drooping, and even the corners of his naturally upturned lips are drooping, the messy natural curls make him look even more pitiful, his eyes twinkle In a flash, it was the same as the stray cat Xiang Shu picked up before.

Xiang Shu didn't speak, just looked at Zhu Miao, his eyes lingering on his face.

Zhu Miao blushed from his stare, and asked, "...is that okay?"

Xiang Shu rested his hands on the bar, resting his chin, still not speaking, just watching, the broken hair was scattered on his forehead, and the hair was tied up at the back of his head casually, appreciating with satisfaction that Zhu Miao's face was getting more and more stared at by him. Hong, in the end, Zhu Miao couldn't hold back anymore and wanted to run away, so Xiang Shu said briskly, "Okay."

Zhu Miao was so overjoyed that she almost yelled, and said neatly, "Thank you boss!"

Xiang Shu said, "Come over after school tomorrow."

Zhu Miao hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Can I... can I sleep on the second floor, I will lock the door for you, I can clean at night, I can also feed the cat and shovel shit, I don't touch anything else ..."

This time, Xiang Shu agreed very neatly: "Okay then, just mop the floor, and I'm leaving."

Zhu Miao Huan sent him away and sent him all the way to the door. When Xiang Shu left, he was still holding the book, held it in his hand and waved to Zhu Miao, and left.Zhu Miao was the only one left in the shop, he locked the door, looked at this small, dimly lit cafe, sat down, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

There was no one in the store, and several cats came down from the second floor. They looked at Zhu Miao vigilantly and curiously. Zhu Miao followed Xiang Shu's instructions, put out the cat food bowl, and poured cat food for them.He went up to the second floor by himself, and in the bathroom, dipped an old T-shirt in water and scrubbed his body carefully, thinking that he would go to the convenience store later and use the remaining money to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Zhu Miao swept and mopped the entire store floor cleanly, not a single corner of the store's windowpanes, bookshelves, and bar was wiped clean, like a hardworking snail girl.Five cats circled around his feet and almost tripped him several times.In Zhu Miao’s schoolbag, there was another little porn book that he bought together at the time. He took it out and wanted to throw it away, but felt that the goal was too big. Finally, he lifted up the sofa cushion, stuffed it under the cushion, and took a picture with satisfaction. clap.

Zhu Miao still sleeps on the couch at night. He sleeps very well, but from time to time a cat jumps on him and wakes him up from his dream. Only then does he remember that he forgot to put the cat in the cage.With a place to stay and maybe a salary, Zhu Miao was full of energy after waking up the next day. When he returned to school, he was no longer bothered by the people who blocked him yesterday.Luckily, he ran fast yesterday. Later, it was estimated that a teacher really came. Those people looked like they had been trained. Today, they are much more honest.

As soon as school was over, without waiting for others to block him, Zhu Miao slipped away quickly.

He ran all the way to the coffee shop, Xiang Shu was smoking and reading in the yard, and Yiling was making iced hand pours on the bar counter, pouring hot coffee liquid on the large pieces of ice, and the ice cubes melted and made a "creaking" sound.Yiling never changes, just like the water column poured out from under her hand, the flow rate is stable.

She looked up at Zhu Miao and took it as a greeting. Zhu Miao pushed open the glass door of the yard and called flatteringly, "Boss."

Xiang Shu shook his cigarette, and laughed when he saw him: "What did you hang in the toilet?"

Zhu Miao reacted for two seconds, blushing—his blushing frequency is really a bit high recently.After he made do with washing up last night, he rubbed the underwear he had changed. There was no place to dry it, and he couldn't hang it in the yard, so he put it on the toilet tank, and he was wearing loose little yellow duck underwear.

Last night he thought about hanging it until the morning and putting it away, but he was too anxious to go out and forgot about it.

"I, I forgot..." Zhu Miao stammered, "I'll put it away..."

Xiang Shu said, "I put it away for you, and stuffed it in the cabinet in the toilet, on the bottom floor."

Zhu Miao hurried up to the second floor, rushed into the toilet and opened the cabinet, saw his underwear folded into small cubes and placed in the middle of the bottom layer of the cabinet, he couldn't restrain his thoughts. During the activity, I began to imagine that Xiang Shu picked up his underwear and helped him fold them neatly while smoking a cigarette, and his whole body was about to smoke.

"Come down to work—" Xiang Shu stood on the stairs and poked his head out to call him.

Zhu Miao responded quickly, and hurried downstairs, Yi Ning handed him an apron to wrap around his body, and asked him to deliver the ice water and paper towels to the guests who just came in.Zhu Miao's work is really neat, and he has a smile on his face, which is very cute. Xiang Shu watched him busy in the store, and said to Yining: "Not bad, isn't it?"

Yiling was unmoved, just nodded, and began to grind the beans in silence.

The bell at the door rang, and several people rushed in. Before Zhu Miao could say "Welcome", the smile froze on his face.The people who came in were his classmates, the ones who didn't match him, the bruises on his face were still hurting.

You are a guest at the door, and Zhu Miao doesn't want to screw things up on the first day of work.The smile couldn't be squeezed out, Zhu Miao tried not to make his expression look too stinky, and led them to sit.He didn't want to cause trouble, but the few people who entered the door obviously came with the purpose of making trouble.

"Zhu Miao—" the one in the lead shouted.

Zhu Miao glanced at Yi Ning, who was making coffee seriously behind the bar without looking up at all, and Xiang Shu, who was leaning against the bar and playing with his mobile phone, looked up.Zhu Miao responded patiently and asked, "What's wrong?"

"You work part-time here." The tone was provocative, and before Zhu Miao could answer, he said pointedly: "Does your boss know about you, so he dares to hire you?"

Only a few customers in the store began to look here, and the cats that were lying on the sunny floor basking in the sun disappeared and hid.Zhu Miao felt angry, irritable and ashamed. He really didn't want to cause trouble for Xiang Shu and Yi Ning.

Xiang Shu put down his phone and asked in a good-tempered manner, "What's the matter?"

Seeing the boss speak up, the provocative leader was even more proud, as if he had a big bomb in his chest and was about to blow up this small shop to make an earth-shattering noise.

Zhu Miao was in a hurry, and her hands were hanging by her legs, tightly clutching the apron until it was wrinkled.

"Zhu Miao," he said maliciously, "he's gay, he likes men, perverted ones, you understand—"

Zhu Miao froze, he didn't dare to turn his head to look at the expressions of Xiang Shu and Yi Ning next to the bar, and he didn't dare to look at the customers sitting in the seats, the whole shop became quiet.In the blank few seconds, Zhu Miao thought a lot. He began to think, if Xiang Shu kicked him out, where would he go?

An old clock on the wall chimed the hour, breaking the silence.

Xiang Shu shrugged his shoulders indifferently, and said lightly: "Ah, I am also... gay."

Yi Ning raised her hand expressionlessly, like a pupil answering a teacher's question in class, she said, "Me too."