Qiao Jing was driving, sending Qiao Ling back to her single apartment, all the way talking about how difficult the supplier boss was to deal with, making her drowsy listening.
After a whole night of tossing and turning, she was already utterly exhausted, thinking that Chen Kuang still had to go to the police station and then return to the bar to continue working.
Was he made of iron… could he really endure it?
Before, she felt that bars and discos, these kinds of places pushing cups and exchanging drinks, venting hormones in a world of wine and color, were somewhat not too proper, whether it was the customers or the operators, all carrying a kind of decadent energy of “let’s just go crazy tonight, don’t care about tomorrow.”
But once she actually came into contact with it, she realized that the people working in this industry shouldn’t be any more relaxed than any other profession.
Running into drunk troublemaking customers, it must be even more of a headache, right?
“Ge, I’m asking you something.” She interrupted the person driving with his rambling.
Qiao Jing answered: “Mn?”
“Before you opened the bar, you also worked in this kind of industry elsewhere, didn’t you often encounter difficult customers?” Qiao Ling asked.
Qiao Jing thought she was scared by those two thugs who caused trouble today, sighed once, “It’s not all those kinds of grudge-holding gangsters, but in this kind of mixed male and female customer bar, friction is inevitable, especially when everyone is half drunk or more.”
He pulled the topic away, afraid she would get scared at night, so he found a joke to amuse: “The most troublesome I’ve encountered, once a couple came to our place to drink, and the girl ended up chatting with the big brother next to her.”
“That big brother was rich and extravagant, ordered quite a lot of good wine, directly got the young lady drunk.”
“Then that young lady ran to the restroom to throw up.”
Qiao Ling quietly listened, extremely curious, blinking her eyes.
“That person didn’t come out for a long time, the female staff could only go to the restroom to look, and as a result.”
Qiao Jing recalled that scene and couldn’t stop laughing, even cursed half a sentence: “That girl had her whole head stuck inside the toilet full of vomit and fell asleep like that.”
“I told her boyfriend to carry her away, but that man was a grandson [孙子, derogatory term, literally ‘grandson,’ meaning coward or useless person], just swung his hand and wanted to leave.”
Qiao Ling’s eyes widened into eggs, couldn’t help but complain: “What kind of boyfriend is that, really too lousy.”
“Right?” Qiao Jing turned on the indicator light, thought of the follow-up, paused, reluctantly continued: “It was still Chen Kuang who noticed that guy was about to run first, threw down the shaker cup and went up to press him down.”
“That agility, if you didn’t know, you’d think he was an undercover police officer.”
She imagined the scene, puffed her cheeks holding back laughter, “And then?”
“What else could happen, forced by Chen Kuang to go to the restroom and carry his own girlfriend away.” Qiao Jing sighed and shook his head, telling her: “That’s why, what kind of person a guy really is, you can’t tell from the surface at all.”
“In the future, if you date someone, you must bring him to my place for a drink, I’m telling you, what kind of character a man has, one drinking session and you can see it clearly.”
Before, she always looked down on her cousin, because she felt her cousin had never been honest since they were kids, in the adults’ eyes he was also unreliable.
From mixing in school to mixing in society, only caring about his own free and easy life without caring about family.
But at this moment, as she walked into her cousin’s professional field, she now felt Qiao Jing also had a few merits, besides his very childish wanting to kick Chen Kuang out of the bar.
At least, he had never treated her, this cousin sister, badly.
Qiao Ling lowered her eyes, thought of Chen Kuang, suddenly said: “Ge, you also can’t always do this, flipping day and night as a habit is not good for your health.”
Qiao Jing seemed like he didn’t expect she would suddenly care about him, holding the steering wheel he laughed once: “I’ll keep doing it for now, besides, even Sister Rouyin dares to carry such a big bar, I as a big man, what is there that I can’t handle? I want to stay with her until she wants to switch careers.”
She glanced at her cousin’s side profile, seeing him talking about the woman he liked, even this punchable face became gentle.
“When are you going to confess to her then?”
Qiao Jing didn’t speak for a while, shook his head: “When it comes to love, your ge doesn’t do things without certainty.”
Although Sister Rouyin was both beautiful and outstanding, it was understandable to like her, but Qiao Ling was still very curious why her cousin would like this person to the extent of being willing to follow her across lakes and seas, investing money to open a shop.
She herself had never liked anyone so intensely and for so long.
Only brief heartbeats, and feelings that gradually faded over time.
But if she asked this, Qiao Jing would definitely drag her to talk from the very beginning.
Forget it, so sleepy…
Qiao Jing parked the car downstairs at her apartment building, called her to wake up: “We’re home.”
Qiao Ling woke up groggily, reminded him: “Open the trunk, unload his bike, I’ll push it home.”
“Why don’t you just leave it.” Qiao Jing frowned, taking the initiative: “You don’t even know how to handle a mountain bike, and why are you so obedient to him, he tells you to fix it and you just agree?”
“After all, that bike was smashed by someone else, what does it have to do with you.”
“How about this, you give me the bike, I’ll find someone to fix it and return it to him.”
Qiao Ling pressed down the little thoughts in her heart, her gaze drifting, pulling out her own reasoning: “You are you, I am me, just because I don’t want to owe him a favor doesn’t mean I’m willing to owe you a favor.”
“Don’t mind my business.”
Qiao Jing pointed at her: “Heiyo, I just sent you home and now you turn your face and don’t recognize?”
“If I have a favor pinched in your hand, I don’t even know how you’ll badmouth me in front of the family later.”
Qiao Ling made a funny face at him, “I don’t want that, give me the bike.”
When it came to stubbornness, Qiao Jing really couldn’t win against her, nodded, got out of the car to open the trunk.
Qiao Ling followed him out of the car, instructed her cousin: “Don’t you have friends who know bikes? Pass them to me, I’ll just go fix it myself.”
“And Chen Kuang’s WeChat, last time you said you’d give it to me, this time you must give it.”
“Why are you so active about Chen Kuang? Logically speaking, it shouldn’t be like this.”
Qiao Jing held up the trunk lid, hesitated and said: “He’s embarrassed you so many times like that, you don’t hate him?”
Qiao Ling was helpless: “What do you mean active, I’m just being responsible.”
“He just saved me from those little hooligans, don’t be so male competition brain, okay, at least have a little conscience.”
Qiao Jing was stunned, anxious: “Wha—what do you mean… you’re the one with male competition brain.”
“Aren’t you?” She took the chance to roast her cousin, said a fair sentence: “That shop manager jiejie brought him all the way to Binyang to be a bartender, it must be for his skills, and you’re just trying every way to get rid of him for the sake of chasing the shop manager jiejie.”
“Don’t you think, if it really turned out like that, what good would it be for the shop manager jiejie in the end?”
She spoke logically and clearly, Qiao Jing couldn’t refute, could only scratch his hair hard and say: “Aiya!! You little brat, what do you understand about love!”
“Let’s see if you can still stay so objective when you fall in love with someone next time!”
“You’re the little brat! Only two years older than me!” Qiao Ling grabbed the bike handlebar and glared at him, “Hurry up and send me his WeChat, then go home and sleep!”
“Don’t worry about me, I still have to go back to the bar, even Rouyin hasn’t rested, how can I slack off.” Qiao Jing took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, bit one, spoke to her vaguely while smiling: “When your ge earns big money, I’ll take you to eat fragrant and drink spicy [idiom: enjoy the good life], no need to open any small shabby silver shop.”
Qiao Ling couldn’t be bothered to respond to his grand promises, “Rather than you earning big money, better gather your courage and confess to Sister Rouyin first.”
She actually wanted to tell her cousin that Chen Kuang didn’t like the shop manager jiejie, but thinking again, this person was so punchable, yet still dawdling and not daring to take action, so she kept it in on purpose to provoke him: “I think Chen Kuang is really quite outstanding, be careful that the thing you’re worried about really happens one day.”
“You’re betraying the organization, huh!”
Qiao Jing almost got burned by the cigarette in his mouth, coughed while protesting: “I’m telling you, don’t get deceived by that face of his! That kind of pretty boy playing with girls is as easy as teasing a cat!”
Qiao Ling shrugged her shoulders, deliberately acting indifferent: “You better worry about your Rouyin not being flirted away by him, it’s not only you who’s close to the water and gets the moon first.”
After saying that, she waved her hand and pushed the mountain bike up the vehicle.
Qiao Jing watched her back, muttered with dislike: “Her waist’s not even as high as the bike seat, and she’s talking about responsibility, hmph.”
……
Chen Kuang’s bicycle became a guest of honor at her house.
Even though some parts were already broken, Qiao Ling still carefully wiped the bike’s surface all over with a wet wipe.
When she passed over the handlebar, she couldn’t help but cover her hand over it, imagining how he usually rode it commuting to and from work, imagining the temperature of his palm fiddling with the gear shifter there — it must also be warm and hot.
The scene of Chen Kuang standing outside the wound-cleaning room, turning back to smile at her and say that sentence, “Remember to repair the bike,” floated up again.
She flicked her hand away, her heart pounding non-stop, both uncomfortable and itchy.
Qiao Ling threw away the wet wipe and walked into the bathroom to take a shower, glimpsing at her own surging gaze in the mirror, avoiding the mirror: “……”
What to do…
【Don’t get deceived by that face of his! That kind of pretty boy playing with girls is as easy as teasing a cat!】
Qiao Ling pulled off her T-shirt, covering her face with it, “Ai……”
Feels like…
I…
Might have already been deceived by that face of his.
After a tiring day, Qiao Ling fell straight asleep. The first half of the night she slept well, but the second half of the night, her dreams kept circling around Chen Kuang without dispersing.
In the dream, she pushed the repaired bike in front of him, but instead got pulled into his arms by him.
Qiao Ling couldn’t steady herself, fell sitting into his embrace.
The afternoon sunlight in the dream was very warm, softening his features a lot. His eyelashes were very thick, when lowering his eyes to look at someone, it felt like there was naturally a layer of patient aura.
His palm controlled her waist, that kind of temperature and presence made her whole body feel wrong.