6 - The Sixth Flavor

Translator: tarararawr

St-st-st-st-still, still want to see her?

Thump, thump. Xian Bei’s heartbeat suddenly intensified and her eardrums quivered.

Feeling confused, Xian Bei blinked quickly. She read the three short messages several times.

After graduation, she withdrew into the apartment for a long time. No one had ever offered to come or want to see her.

Communicating with her took a lot of effort because it would take her a long time to type out a word and her voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.

In Yuan Yuan’s words, visiting her to sign a business contract because of work requirements was not much different from overcoming catastrophe 1 .

So……

It’s so hard……

How was she going to reply to him?

He said he was sorry. Did she want to say it’s okay?

He said he wanted to see her. Was she going to say ‘me too’?

Did agreeing with him meant that he would come here every day from now on?

If he didn’t reject the way she communicated by writing, she could still……

Have a good talk with him……

But at the end of the month she would be moving……

She still didn’t know where she would be moving to, or if she could still drink [Zhong Yi]’s milk tea……

And one day, she would suddenly stop ordering drinks and disappear without a trace.

She’s really moving……

The first time he came to see her was because for half a month she didn’t order anything…….

When he comes here again, would he be disappointed to not find her or would he feel that……he’s been……cheated?

And if she stopped drinking their milk tea……

She wouldn’t be an important customer, right……

For him, was it necessary for her to exist?

It might be no.

……

Xian Bei was considering ten thousand thoughts. She was flustered and in a mess.

She had no idea how she was going to respond to the text message.

How can there be so many unexpected situations?

It’s so heartbreaking……

Or……she could completely cut off their relationship.

Thinking of this, Xian Bei clenched her cell phone and switched screens to find Yuan Yuan’s contact information.

Typing: Tomorrow don’t…….

Delete.

“I won’t drink milk tea tomorrow, so you don’t have to order it for me.”

Xian Bei slumped and she couldn’t send it out.

It was like she was avoiding the problem and using others as a shield.

She’s so tired.

Xian Bei turned off the chat box with her editor and went back to the text message bar.

She felt it was necessary to tell him the truth.

“I might,”

Her fingers, which were almost white, paused.

“not be able to order milk tea for a long time because of some reasons.”

Closing her eyes tightly and covering her face with one hand, she was too afraid to look as she pressed send.

It was sent!

It was sent out! Oh my god!!

Xian Bei very quickly pushed against the table corner, letting the office chair carry her as she spun to the desk that was eight feet away.

This way, she would be far away from the cell phone on the table……

But in the blink of an eye, Xian Bei saw the screen flash.

She was slightly surprised that he responded so quickly.

She hesitated for a moment. Then, she used her heels to push against the ground.

Little by little, Xian Bei carried herself on the chair to move back and returned to her original position.

She picked up her phone again. She thought he would ask for the specific reason——

He only sent one sentence.

“Are you still going to place an order tomorrow?”

Xian Bei was stunned and replied, “I’ve already ordered.”

Yuan Yuan said she would help her order for a week.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Go to bed early.”

Xian Bei rested her head on her hands and felt shocked by his unexpected response. She slowly typed an “Okay……” back.

While she typed, her heart carefully and softly answered at the same time.

——

Chen Zhuo asked for a reason.

Instead of simply asking “Why can’t you order?” directly and aggressively, this kind of roundabout way could be more effective in getting the answers he wanted.

After it was made clear that he still wanted to meet tomorrow, the little girl allowed him to go over to deliver milk tea.

In that case, it could be assumed that the unspeakable reason for her not being able to order for a long time must not be about him.

With this, Chen Zhuo was relieved.

The man, whose hair was dried now, propped a pillow up and leaned back on the headboard.

He picked up the book and absent-mindedly flipped through a few pages.

Chen Zhuo picked up his phone again. He found “Miss Xian” in the address book and clicked on the details.

After thinking about it, he deleted the original name.

The cursor flashed for a few seconds, and three new words occupied the place:

Xiao Shanbei 2 .

I like the closed door, Xiao Shanbei.

——

The next day.

The crazy demon Bei usually stayed up all night. However, she didn’t know why she obediently went to sleep at 11 o’clock and got up early today.

Waking up in the morning meant that she had more time to do more things.

She simply cleaned up the apartment and ended up with three bags of useless things……

What a pile……

How do hamsters hibernate in the winter……

While silently complaining in her heart, Xian Bei moved the bags to the door one by one.

Slowly walking over to the window curtains, Xian Bei opened it a crack and looked out.

The sky didn’t look good, like it was covered with a gray window screen layer.

Ah, it’s cloudy.

Praise the cloudy day, celebrate the rainy season, and write poems for the night.

Xian Bei happily walked to the doorway. While changing her shoes, she felt her cell phone start vibrating.

She clicked to see a message from Yuan Yuan: The company organized a spring outing. Call me for any urgent matters.

Could this be considered……taking care of the artist by sending a mass message?

She replied with an okay and put the cell phone back into her pocket. Xian Bei put the hood of her loose and worn out loungewear over her head.

First, she checked the peephole. Then, she opened the door a crack to listen carefully for anyone walking through the passageway.

Once she confirmed that there was no one outside, Xian Bei opened the door a bit wider and she walked out.

Then, she turned around and bent over to move today’s target task——the trash bags. One by one, she took them out.

In her popular work,《Sangshi Zhi Cheng 3 》, the early part of the plot had several scenes that were similar to her at this moment.

The male protagonist, who was besieged by zombies, would occasionally go on trips to stock up on daily necessities. Just like this, he was on high alert throughout the process.

It could only be said that art had come to life.

After dragging the third bag of garbage out, Xian Bei let out a long sigh. She patted her hands, got up, and took out her key.

The little bell charm on her key chain jingled.

Just as she was about to lock the door, Xian Bei suddenly heard someone calling her.

Two clear words.

“Xian Bei.”

Who?!

As if an icy hand touched her nape, Xian Bei instantly became stiff.

She could smell the man approaching.

He smelled a bit sweet and familiar. Was it milk tea?

Immersing in a certain environment for a long time would certainly leave behind this kind of scent……

Sure enough, in the next moment, the man spoke again, “Are you going out?”

Xian Bei naturally remembered his voice. Oh, why is it him?

W-why is he here so early today?

Xian Bei was nailed in place and mentally patted her head.

Is it because Yuan Yuan is going on the spring outing, so she placed an order early…….?

Xian Bei quickly put her head down and straightened her upper body to assume a defensive stance.

After a lot of effort, Xian Bei stiffly forced herself to turn around. However, she still did not dare make any eye contact with him.

Burying her face, Xian Bei nodded several times.

Perhaps noticing the things on the ground, the man asked, “Are you going downstairs to take out the garbage?”

Xian Bei continued to nod. She did not know where to put her hands, and so she hid them in her pockets.

The man gave a bright smile and teased, “Today I ordered so early because I thought you wanted to meet earlier and came out just to pick me up.”

With her ears burning and her face blushing fiercely, Xian Bei lowered her head as if she was digging an even darker and lower hole.

Chen Zhuo narrowed his eyes and observed the girl wishing her small head would dig into her chest.

Her shoulders shrunk together and an invisible shield was casted over her entire body.

Chen Zhuo looked at her for a while. He didn’t know why, but his smile couldn’t fade away.

He couldn’t help but ask, “If you don’t want to see me, you can look at the back of my head instead?”

He was standing close. His low and deep voice was wrapped up in the highest quality of a delighted tone.

Listening, Xian Bei’s head felt numb and her toes curled up. As a result, she was at wit’s end and her body tightly gathered closer together.

Her heart was slamming against her chest. The two small black eyes hiding under the hood were looking all over the place and did not know where to go.

The next moment, Xian Bei’s eyes froze.

Because the man suddenly crouched down!

Then, he lifted his eyes towards her to seriously look at her and locked his eyebrows in a raise.

Their eyes met for a few seconds. The corners of his mouth rose, making the smile lines around his eyes appear.

AAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh！

The stunned Xian Bei reacted!

She was seen!!!

Her face exploded to a blush like boiling oil.

But he already got up, and easily returned to his original position.

He looked down at the little girl whose head only reached his chest……

He didn’t know how to move the back of his head and still wanted to laugh.

Immediately after, Xian Bei heard him give a formal self-introduction with a confident attitude. “My name is Chen Zhuo. Er Dong Chen 4 and Zhuo 5 from Zhuoshao 6 .”

The author has something to say:

Gee, Boss Chen, so bad.

Footnotes

渡劫(dù jié) – A Taoist term meaning that people can acquire god-like special abilities after surviving the apocalypse. 小扇贝(xiǎoshànbèi) – Little scallop 丧失之城 (sàngshīzhīchéng) – The Lost City. One of Xian Bei’s manga. 耳东陈 (ěr dōng chén) – combination of the radical 阝fù which looks like an ear and the character 东 which means east. 灼 (zhuó) – burn 灼烧 (zhuóshāo) – burning