Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Waiting for a Coffee Shop

However, from another perspective, who sits with whom has long been a problem It was doomed before it was formed, wasn't it?everything is like this, all The answers to the questions are clearly engraved in everyone's mind before the questions are formed. <1> Fortunately, the beginning of the story is interesting. Because the starting point is an interesting one, Albus. Albus is the nickname of the first Lazi I know in my life. It is taken from the name of the headmaster of the Harry Potter School of Witchcraft and Wizardry <Albus Dumbledore>.As for why she gave up on herself and took an old man with a white beard as her nickname, she never said, and it never occurred to me to ask.

Albus has short hair that is too handsome. She is my work partner in the coffee shop and a senior who entered the shop half a year earlier than me. Before that, she stayed in the most famous Osher in Taichung for a long time. Albus she often calls me little sister, but won't let me call her big sister, she said being called big sister is disgusting, just call her Albus. The coffee shop where we work is located at the bottom of the night market alley opposite Tsinghua University. It has a romantic name called "Wait for someone".Because it was so romantic, I shyly entered "Waiting for Someone" during the summer vacation when I was just in my third year of high school, and handed me an almost blank resume with only my name and home phone number.

As a senior, Albus has a special function, as long as it is coffee, whether it is on the price list or not, even if it is a joke made by the guests, Albus can make the coffee with a calm expression. Many old customers, students from nearby Tsinghua University, Jiaotong University, and Guangfu Middle School knew this all too well, so Albus often had to face surprise exams from boring people. Remember last month, seven o'clock in the evening. "Miss...I...I want a cup of Huashan Lunjian's...depressed ecstasy special coffee." A high school boy muttered in front of the counter, his face was full of embarrassment Slashes and sweat.

The five or six high school students who were clearly part of the same party on the couch seat roared with laughter, leaning back and forth, and I laughed too hard beside Albus. Albus looked at this high school student who was probably guessing and losing without changing his expression, and said slowly, "How familiar?" The high school boy who was pushed out to make trouble had a shocked expression and didn't know how to answer for a while. "Huashan Lunjian's Depressed Ecstasy Special Coffee, how familiar do you want it? How many cups do you want?" Albus hardly showed any expression, as expected of a sneer.

"I... I want medium rare? Six cups of thanks." The high school boy was sweating profusely and didn't know what to do. The bored party behind laughed even louder. Five minutes later, however, Albus brought six cups of charcoal black coffee topped with a heap of roasted onions to the table of the bored high school students, who stared blankly at Albus. "It's onions, I added onions." Albus said coldly, and went back to the counter without looking back, leaving the six high school students with stunned expressions, and burst into laughter again. And then last Sunday, at two o'clock in the afternoon.

"Miss, I want a cup of Sumatran civet coffee." A fat middle-aged man in a dark suit and smoking a cigar said intentionally. He is a well-known boring customer in the store, and he comes to mess around once a month. We all call him "King of Chaos" in private.However, the Sumatran civet coffee ordered by Luandian Wang this time is really something, and the charge is not cheap. The proprietress once mentioned to me that the coffee beans were baked from the feces of a "live" cat called "civet" in Sumatra after eating a special coffee bean, because this The glandular secretions of breeding cats have a special aroma, so the feces baked have a rich chocolate aroma, but civet cats are becoming rarer and rarer, so their feces are a treasure with a global output of less than 100 pounds throughout the year. Under the hype of Japanese dung eaters, a glass of it sold for more than 900 yuan.

It's so rare, of course a small store like ours doesn't have the channel to order it, and we don't want to order it at all. "Tsk, that kind of coffee is so expensive. If you want to drink coffee with a strong chocolate aroma, sir, you can just order hot cocoa coffee or chocolate chip latte. It is also a great enjoyment in this cold weather. Oh." Embarrassed, I quickly recommended a cup of hot cocoa coffee for 50 yuan, or a chocolate chip latte for 70 yuan with a smile on my face. The young lady proprietress sat on her seat in front of the counter, flipping through her weekly magazine as if nothing had happened, not trying to help me out.

"Ask your Albus to come out, I want to drink Sumatran civet coffee!" Chaos King laughed strangely, shaking the banknotes in his hand, and said, "I have plenty of money." I looked at the random king who thought he was humorous and sighed. Alas, anyone can see that the Luandian Wang with a fat belly wants to date Albus, but unfortunately he doesn't know that Albus is a jerk who only likes girls, he has no chance at all. So Albus appeared with a mop, and after coldly inquiring about the luxuries that Luandianwang wanted, he turned and walked into the kitchen, brought out the town shop cat "Aku" who was eating bread, and put it on the counter.

"If Sumatra needs to poop, it will take about thirty minutes, plus thirty minutes for baking, plus ten minutes for brewing, a total of one hour and ten minutes, sir, do you want to wait?" Albus pointed Shop cat Ah Ku. Ah Ku still had French bread in his mouth, shaking his butt with a dazed expression. "Albus, don't come here, I also know this cat, it's called Ah Ku!" Chaos King was stunned for a moment. Albus held Ah Ku's belly and looked at the proprietress who was sitting at the counter reading a magazine. "Oh, Ah Ku is dead. This cat is our new one, named Sumatra." The proprietress continued to read her gossip magazine without looking up.Chaotic King's eyes widened.

"Sumatra is just his name, his full name is Sumatra Musk." I held back a smile and said with a serious face. The random king glared at Ah Ku, who was innocent and had his name changed. Ah Ku yawned badly. "An hour and ten, wait?" Albus looked at the Chaos King indifferently. In the end, Chaos Point Wang ordered a chocolate chip latte to take away, and ran away resentfully. I couldn't help laughing out loud in the store, but Albus and the proprietress continued what they were doing coolly, as if nothing had happened, which is the best partner in the funny world.

However, Aku was more unlucky, and his name was changed from then on to Sumatra Musk, or Sumatra for short, so as to cope with similar nonsense demands in the future. This story begins with this interesting "waiting for someone" coffee shop. In September, 2000, I had already tried out a job in the store for a summer vacation, and entered the second semester of the third year of high school. Jay Chou has just released his first album. <2> "Albus, you are amazing, if I can't cope with the boring demands of those boring men." I practice frothing milk by hand, the milk froth is milder and smoother. "Little girl, as long as you stay long enough, you can also brew all the coffee that exists and does not exist in the world." Albus continued unconcernedly, cleaning the lovely porcelain cup with Snoopy on it : "As for whether you can drink or not, it's not your responsibility, it's the business of those boring people." "That's right." I laughed again, and silently recited the words of the first lesson in the English textbook on the desk.The milk frother in his hand continued to stir. It's been a week since school started, and I'm still adjusting to the life of a high school girl who "makes my classmates sound handsome" while working part-time at night while preparing for the university entrance exam. So far, I think this kind of life is very planned and vigorous, unlike ordinary high school students who have to go to cram school after school to continue their studies, doze off unfinished, pass unfinished whispers, or go to the smoky Internet cafes and monsters in the virtual world snatch the Thunderbolt Invincible Sword or unusable gold coins and so on. Working in a fragrant coffee shop, you can learn all kinds of knowledge and tastes in brewing coffee, work with Albus, the sneer maker, and learn the philosophy of life invented by herself from the unfathomable and humorous young proprietress. The after-school life of a healthy high school girl. Occasionally, some classmates come to the store to cheer, I can also wear a white apron, like a little princess, bring out my own coffee and hot muffins topped with heart-shaped caramel, and put them in front of them, with a kind of "Look, I am You're more independent than you guys!" vanity. "By the way, you don't go to tutoring but come here to work, won't your family scold you?" Albus finished cleaning all the glasses, it was almost half past ten, and the shop was about to close. "No, although my father objected, but I have already told my mother that if my monthly exam ranking in the whole school does not regress, I can earn pocket money here and don't have to go to the boring cram school. Good cram school Boring, going to cram school is not just passing notes to girls there, or some stinky boys who think they are handsome want to "befriend" girls, it is really because they read too many novels. "I said, deliberately emphasizing "be friends". Girls in high school hate boys, for good reason.He is the only exception. "Then when you go back, take a shower, read a little more before going to bed." Albus said. "How can super cool Albus worry about schoolwork more than I do?" I stuck out my tongue. "I don't want to have to retrain new partners after two months." Albus smiled coolly. Albus put away the last china cup and looked at the clock on the wall, it was twenty-five past ten. There's still five minutes to close. But today, throughout the day, the proprietress did not sell a cup of her "Daily Shared" special coffee. So, the proprietress is still waiting for someone. There are no customers in the store, the proprietress is sitting alone at the small teak wood table, sitting barefoot on the white velvet sofa chair and reading a book. On the small round table, there were only two clean, empty coffee cups. "Five minutes." Albus took off his white apron, folded it, and lit a cigarette. The only time Albus would smoke a cigarette was at the end of the day when there were no customers in the shop. She always waited thoughtfully for the iron gate to be pulled down, and then went to have supper with her girlfriend who was still in college. "He's bound to come," I said, sipping my freshly frothed milk on my stomach on the counter. The proprietress looked up, looked at me and smiled.She also knows. No matter how busy that person is at work during the day or how stormy it is at night, even if there is a sudden tornado, snow, or hail in Hsinchu, he will do everything possible to rush there and drink the taste that she personally prepared and shared with only one person a day. Never sure single origin coffee.Then chat with her. Although that person never showed up. Because, the story of the proprietress has not yet begun. <3> "Those slices of cheesecake, whoever you are, take it home and eat it, otherwise it would be a pity." The proprietress pointed to the leftover small cakes in the transparent counter, a common occurrence. "I'm losing weight." Albus raised his hand, put out the cigarette, and turned around to pull down the iron door. So I happily packed the fresh cheesecake in a cardboard box, and planned to take it home for my parents who were tired all day as a supper. They will be very happy. work here. When I went home, I rode my bicycle and stopped in front of the traffic lights opposite Tsinghua University. The traffic lights in front of Tsingda Night Market are very famous, because these college students, graduate students, and even professors and lecturers all regard the overpass hanging high on Guangfu Road as air, and the traffic police's command and whistle beeping as a reference for running a red light. All of them ran across the busy street. I wonder if I will forget all the traffic safety rules when I go to college. Then again, every day when I go to and from get off work, I see those brave college students running across the road in spite of themselves. Going to college must be an almost magical life process that transforms a lifeless high school student. Sunshine girls like me have the right to decide whether to wear skirts to school, and boys can no longer just play basketball and video games. A street away, there are still three hundred and thirty-one days, and then there is university life ahead. I am looking forward to it, even a little impatient. Therefore, although I report to the coffee shop almost every day and learn to be independent and experience life early, I always review books every day and do exercises in reference books until after two o'clock before going to bed. More than four hours later, I got up at 6:50, wandered sleepily to Zhunu to take the countless morning quizzes, and finished writing the exam papers like a ghost.However, my grades are obviously still a long way from the university that is one street away and 331 days away. Green light. I was practicing my English composition in my mind. Tonight's topic was "If I were a president", so I was thinking about how I would transform Taiwan, and I was cycling towards home. The bike wobbled on the potholed road, and I was careful to keep my balance so that the few slices of cheesecake in the plastic bag hanging from the handlebar would not fall to the ground. Hsinchu, also known as the "Wind City", has a unique style at night. Some sections of Guangfu Road are slightly downhill, and the night wind is blowing on my face. My feet are actually a little hard, and I almost have to ride backwards. My brain, which is full of English idioms, is gradually unable to think. Let's go blow the wind" fits the occasion. I stepped on the pedals hard, and the old bicycle climbed through one intersection after another. It was already eleven o'clock when I returned to my home next to the circle in the city center, and I was also sweating. I thought I would develop a pair of stoic radish legs before long. The iron door was opened halfway, and the air in the house was always filled with a touch of sandalwood. The TV in the small living room was playing a mess of applause programs, the favorite political soap operas my parents liked to watch at that age. "Dad, the lady boss is treating you again today!" I put the cake on the table. "Wow, that's expensive?" Dad said, opening the carton. "Yes, I earned it." I bounced upstairs with my schoolbag on my back. "Brother is taking a bath! You go to study first, and he will call you when he finishes washing!" Dad said loudly at the stairs. Dad has been driving all his life. When I was young, I drove a strange hand, a crane, and a bulldozer. After I got married and saved some money, I bought a Yulong brand Xiaosuli and drove a taxi; a few years after I was born, that Xiaosuli was caught by a speeding truck A big dent was hit, and the father who escaped his life simply sold the almost scrapped taxi and ran to drive the No. 1 and No. 2 buses. "I don't seem to have heard that you will be hit and killed when you drive a bus." He explained that he had been driving for several years. "Brother is annoying, I have to wash so late!" I yelled deliberately when I passed outside the bathroom. I hate being stinky all over my body when I'm studying, it makes me unable to concentrate. The bathroom door opened slightly, revealing a big wet head "It stinks? What's blocking the door so stinky??" Then he shrank in again. I really want to kick this big head down. I only have one older brother, no older sisters or younger brothers. I heard that elder brothers are good at taking care of and protecting younger sisters, but this is just an unrealistic rumor. This 20-year-old stupid boy in my family only bullies me, grabs the bathroom with me, fights over the toilet, pretends to be a ghost to scare me by making squeaky and silky noises outside the door while I am taking a shower, and even divides half of me with me room for seventeen years. This 20-year-old boy whose mental age is not qualified is called Li Fengming. He is currently studying in the third year of the Department of Architecture at Zhonghua University, and he aspires to be an architect in the future.But his cute little sister, I guess based on his hard work, deducting the length of the manga on his bookcase, and then multiplying his poor IQ, this ambitious young man named Li Fengming can only be a coolie foreman some type of. <4> Hang the schoolbag on the hanger, take out the math reference book and solve the problem of permutation and combination step by step. My mathematics can be said to be one of the best in the class, but it is difficult for me to concentrate before taking a shower. In addition, many permutations and combinations of questions are full of nasty traps and unclear meanings. Within ten minutes, I made mistakes one after another. five questions. "It's weird, seven girls and eight boys are sitting at a round table for a New Year's Eve dinner, but Mary and John are angry at each other so they can't be together, and Peter and Tom have a good relationship and must sit together One piece, may I ask how many ways these fifteen people can sit?" I pouted my chin, somewhat unwillingly. This kind of problem is really strange. I don't know which mathematician with no social knowledge invented it as a prank. Since Mary and John hated to sit together, and Peter and Tom had to sit together, wouldn't it make no difference for the other eleven to sit with whom? Even if A doesn't hate B, it may not be that A is willing to sit next to B, or maybe A secretly likes C in his heart, so he tries his best to sit next to C! It is more likely that fifteen people sit around a round table and eat together. Maybe everyone is a glutton, and they all prioritize sitting in the seat closest to their favorite dish, so the title should include The content of the dishes and personal preferences should be provided for the reference of the problem solvers, otherwise it is not a solution to make blind guesses. No matter how many people gather around a round table, whether it’s eating or simply chatting, there are certain rules and hidden interpersonal relationships buried underneath, so the answers to questions are actually restrictive, and purely solving problems is really boring. However, from another perspective, who sits with whom is actually doomed long before the problem is formed, isn't it?Everything is like this, all the answers are clearly engraved in everyone's mind before the question is formed. "So, this kind of question is really boring, and it has no ability to add points to life." But I know that if I continue to hold this kind of "pragmatic" thinking, I will not be able to solve a single problem, so I will turn to the next page and try to solve the next problem without social common sense. Then my brother opened the door and came in with a towel on his head. "It stinks, go take a shower." My brother sat down on the bed, picked up the hair dryer and buzzed his hair. "Wait a minute, I'll go after I finish solving this problem." I bit the pen holder, and the eraser at the end of the pencil was crooked by me. As a math prodigy in the class, I can't fall under the sniping of permutations and combinations. My family is very small, so my brother and I have been squeezed into the same room since we were young. I thought that after my brother went to college, I would have a small world that was completely my own. Unexpectedly, my brother was admitted to Chung Hwa University, which is also located in Hsinchu. In order to save money and bully me, my brother did not move out to rent a house, but stayed at home as usual, and continued to infect me with his incurable naivety. Now my stupid brother is yawning shirtless and hitting the back of my head with a hair dryer and a hot air buzzer. "You're really boring, no wonder you can't get a girlfriend." I felt my hair was blown to a mess. "Hehe, if you don't get a girlfriend, it won't be my turn." My brother laughed idiotically. "Really? How come someone studied in college for two years, but couldn't get half a girlfriend?" I complained. Although I know that my brother is busy with part-time jobs and crazy clubs, so he has no chance to meet girls who are blind and have no taste. "Dear little girl, if I really want to chase girls, hey, what kind of school flower is it that I can't catch? It's just that the girl who is worthy of me hasn't appeared yet, and now the stupid girls around me are not bright enough like you Eye, how can I catch up with my brother?" My brother said narcissistically. "I'll wait and see." I said, straightened my hair, and continued to solve the ecological crisis of "chicken and rabbit in the same cage". My brother put a little hairspray on his head, then twisted his hair into an ugly coop where even the chickens wanted to run away, and stood in front of the half-length mirror with a self-righteous and weird smile. It seems that colleges don't just produce smiling faces, they produce invulnerable idiots. "Speaking of not being able to get a girlfriend, hey, I heard a super funny real story during a club activity today, and I'll tell you." My brother said to the mirror.Every night, my brother would say one or two new things about school. "There is a thing called mathematics, and mathematics requires concentration." I said seriously. In fact, I am very interested in anything about the university that my brother said, as if I was in the scene and went to the university I longed for early. "That Tsingtao, you know?" My brother wrapped up the wire of the hair dryer and lay on the bed. "You know, I work part-time at the Tsingda Night Market, are you an idiot?" I said, absent-mindedly looking at the abstract and non-false chickens and rabbits in the title. "Heh, today we went to Tsinghua University together to discuss with their skating club the allocation of schools for mid-term teaching." Brother said, kicking and looking at the inline skates hanging from the bed. "What is midterm teaching?" I turned my head. "I just went to junior high school, high school, etc. to promote inline skating. Hey, why don't we take photos as a record of club activities? They can be used as data during the annual club evaluation, so it's easy to apply for funding." Brother's nose Jet. "Go on." I turned my pen. "We went to their skating practice area and chatted while eating luwei. It was very serious, but he unexpectedly let me meet a wizard in the unlucky world. I have forgotten his name. It seems to be Ah Tu? It seems like Is it Adu?" The elder brother fell into talking to himself. "No matter what his name is, what did he do?" I reminded my brother to finish the sentence carefully. "Hey, you don't concentrate on math!" My brother seemed to have revealed my big secret, and I don't know what he is proud of. "You are really a naive college student, please tell me about the great achievements of that unlucky eccentric, and don't deliberately tease me, thank you." I peeked at the answers in the reference book and memorized the solution to the problem down. "Let's call him Atu. Atu belongs to the Tsinghua University Skating Club. He is a junior, but he has never seen him before. Today, when the president of their junior introduced their club members to us, the scene was hilarious. I just sprayed a marinated egg out of my mouth." My brother kicked the inline roller lightly with his big foot, imitating the tone of the president of the Tsinghua University Skating Club, patted the air beside him, and said, "This is Our new member is called Atu. His biggest feature is...his girlfriend who has been dating for a year and a half was chased away by a lesbian at this time last year! He is still single, and he is looking for a girlfriend for thousands of years! Then he kept clapping his hands and laughing exaggeratedly, his face turned red from lack of oxygen. I also found it quite funny. A handsome man was introduced in this way, and this poor fellow named Ah Tu probably lost his face. "Then let's talk to each other and ask him if he can't get up there, or if he was crooked by a bowling K when he was a child, and someone offered to hit Channel 4 commercials to fix the problem, but it's not firm and it's not long. Jianhua Chinese Medicine Clinic called him and asked him to lift it up. It was really hilarious!" My brother finally stopped laughing and said, "But Mr. Ah Tu just scratched his head and didn't know what to do. He wasn't angry at all. It seems to be immune to this kind of scene, hahaha, you are really a fool with a lot of guts!" "Maybe the president of Tsinghua University is just joking? Even if it is true, the girl who was chased away by Lazi may also be a lesbian, but she didn't know it at first?" I couldn't help but say, brother fiercely Shake your head. "Oh NO~ I don't think so. Later, an ugly girl from Tsinghua University told me in private that Ah Tu was her classmate in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. She knew all about Ah Tu's embarrassing things. Ah Tu's girlfriend started from his third year in high school. After dating, Ah Tu studied the Department of Engineering and Systems Science of Tsinghua University, which is notorious, and the woman studied Management Department of Jiaotong University. The two schools are basically stuck together, so the relationship should be smooth as a matter of course, ha! It’s wonderful. At this point, that girl was actually chased away by a lesbian after she went to college, causing that Ah Tu to be cursed by this big joke. Once, it was mentioned that Ah Tu's facial nerves were paralyzed! Hahahahahahaha!" Brother started laughing again. I also laughed, although Mr. Atu, whose girlfriend was robbed of his love by pulling a knife, is really a frustrating guy. He should hold tears of sympathy instead of laughing with his belly. But there's an ad that says don't talk when you can kiss.I think, don't cry when you can laugh. "Mr. Ah Tu is only in his third year of college. How pitiful, I think he will be laughed at for another two years?" I giggled. "Not only not only, no matter how hard Ah Tu tries to change his image, he must take three credits in college: homework, clubs, and love. Ah Tu is destined to get zero points in love." My brother started laughing again. "Why?" I don't understand. "Ah Tu not only lost his face, but the ugly woman also said that Ah Tu's masculinity has been stripped away by this big joke. Think about it, his girlfriend was snatched away by a lesbian, that means Ah Tu's lifeline performance It's really unmanly! So Atu's self-confidence has also been declining all the way, and it has fallen to the limit for a long time, and it has fallen to the bottom!" My brother turned on the bedside lamp, picked out a comic book, and turned it on. That's right, a boy who doesn't have self-confidence can't act on a girl he likes. Besides, no girl would like a guy who has no confidence, it's like taking in a helpless little brother who is homeless and loves a runny nose. "I can only say that there are all kinds of people and stories in the university." I said, closing the reference book. Mr. Atu, a minute of silence for you.