16.1 - The Sixteenth Flavor Part 1

Translator: tarararawr

At night, Xian Bei tossed and turned restlessly. She couldn’t feel a drop of sleepiness.

There was always a vague face in her head, smiling and talking. Yet, she knew exactly who it was.

At almost 3 o’clock, Xian Bei still couldn’t sleep. There were many thoughts on her mind that was growing and becoming more defined.

Xian Bei became panicked by her own thoughts and quickly found her phone under the pillow. She pressed to unlock it and searched on the internet……

“What does it feel like to like someone?”

The question returned a lot of results. It had case by case analysis as well as examples of emotional literature.

Xian Bei checked each one. The more she read, the more she was unable to make any sense of it. Then, one of the answers said——

“The heart was thinking of someone when you came to ask this question.”

One answer said it all. Xian Bei immediately bit her finger.

No way……

There’s no way she really liked her landlord, right?

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She’s only lived here for a few days, so how could she have this shameful thought about someone else come into her mind?

Xian Bei hid her face in despair.

Slowly, the small palms pressing hard into the cheeks gradually loosened……

That night……

The night she returned……

The man looked straight ahead and walked into the milk tea shop with her in his arms.

Every cell in her body could feel the burning eyes coming from every direction. It was hotter than the surrounding lights, and Xian Bei could only bury her face to his shoulder.

Xian Bei heard different voices calling Chen Zhuo “Boss” and they all had a surprised tone.

However, Chen Zhuo was particularly calm and didn’t seem to feel like anything was inappropriate. He calmly took her upstairs.

When they reached the entryway, Xian Bei already turned into a boiled shrimp. She was curled up and motionless in his arms.

The man asked her, “Are you awake?”

Xian Bei quickly raised her head. Her set of eyelashes were like a frightened butterfly flapping its wings. Her eyelashes fluttered for a while. “……A-awake……”

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The voice was still very small and couldn’t lift a trace of air.

“With such a weak voice, are you really awake?” The man’s breath was so close.

Xian Bei nodded.

He deliberately teased her, “If you’re not awake yet, do you want to be carried for two more rounds?”

Xian Bei’s face exploded with heat and she vigorously shook her head. This kind of high-altitude walking was really too stimulating……she was shy and scared.

The man put her down. He took her snow-white cat ear slippers from the shoe rack and handed them to her. This kind of action was smooth and natural as if they had lived together for a long time.

——

The next morning, Chen Zhuo was at the back of the house with his hands on his legs and his eyes focused.

On the table in front of him were two paintings. They were both on A4 paper, but had different characters painted on it.

Assistant store manager Zhou was washing a container behind him. When he saw the boss sitting there for a long time, he curiously asked, “What are you looking at?”

Chen Zhuo didn’t look up and put his hands behind his back.

Lackey Zhou immediately frolicked over diligently and asked what he could do.

Chen Zhuo moved aside and let both paintings come into Zhou Qingshu’s field of vision. He asked, “What do you think about the paintings?”

Zhou Qingshu: “They are very beautiful.”

Chen Zhuo: “If you look carefully, what do you see?”

Zhou Qingshu lowered his head and looked very carefully. Half a minute later, he suddenly realized it and punched his fist into his other hand. “Ah——Is this——”

“Hm?”

“——our shop’s Strawberry Milk Cap Tea and Mango Milk Cap Tea?

Chen Zhuo nodded with satisfaction and patted him on the shoulder. “Yes, you can see it.”

“It’s very vivid. Did you paint it?”

“No.”

“Did the little canary paint it?”

“What?”

“The one upstairs……” Zhou Qingshu raised his eye and hinted by shrugging his shoulder, “The one you can’t bear to part with from your embrace, and you still hide her deeply.”

“Oh,” Chen Zhuo smiled softly. “She painted it. She is a painter.”

“Aiyo 1 , so she’s an artist,” said Zhou Qingshu. “So what do you plan to do?”

Chen Zhuo put his hand on his forehead and lifted one of the paintings halfway. “I want to make a series of artwork and print it on the package.”

“On the cups?”

“Yes.”

Chen Zhuo tapped his finger on the paper. “For example, a little girl with a Strawberry Milk Cap Tea printed in pink. We can consider another idea where she does not need to be that specific color, but directly borrow the color of the drink. When the color of the customer’s drink changes, the color of her clothes will also change. It would be more interesting and fresh, and it can also save packaging costs.”

“Interesting,” Zhou Qingshu muttered.

“I also thought about the follow up campaign. Red watermelon, orange orange, yellow mango, green apple cucumber, pink strawberry, blue blueberry, and purple grape. This series will be called ‘Rainbow’. Buy one drink from the series and you can choose a free mug from the same theme.”

“Not bad……girls basically like to drink sweet things. The packaging is cute, so they should like it a lot.”

Chen Zhuo put the painting down. “Feasible?”

Zhou Qingshu agreed to it. “I think it is feasible.”

Chen Zhuo got up. Then he had to ask for permission.

——

Xian Bei was immersed in the panic of her first love awakening and stayed up almost all night.

When it was close to 6 o’clock, she listened to the birds chirping outside the window and fell asleep in a daze.

The ringing from her cell phone woke her up from her dreams.

Xian Bei frantically fumbled for her cell phone and picked it up. “W-who?”

It was a chronic problem for her to stutter as soon as she answered the phone.

“It’s me.” It was a familiar voice.

Xian Bei sat up at once with her messy hair.

Ah……

It was the main culprit to her difficult and restless night.

Footnotes

哎唷 (āiyō) – used to express surprise