give me joy

Chapter 1 Chocolate Mousse

(1) Mysterious guest
Yu Mi looked at the guest lying on the sofa by the window, feeling a little worried.

It was a young male.

He is tall and tall, with his face facing inward, and only a head of cold flaxen soft hair can be seen.He wore a black sweater on his upper body, revealing a slender and fair neck.Two long legs with no place to rest were hanging on the ground, and a lot of mud was splashed on the jeans and white sneakers.

In his arms is the plush husky doll from the store.

The clock on the wall pointed to 15:[-] in the evening, because the guest, who didn't know whether he was drunk or asleep, had delayed the closing time by [-] minutes.

Or... go and wake him up!

Yu Mi regained her composure and mustered up the courage to walk over.

But after taking two steps, she stopped again.

Or... or wait?What if he wakes up by himself after a while?
In order not to appear as if the wake-up action was beyond doubt, she raised her phone, turned it to silent, and pressed the shutter.

The photos were quickly posted to a WeChat group called "Honey Talk Sweetheart".

[Little Corn]: There are still customers [crying loudly].

In less than ten seconds, the silent WeChat group suddenly became lively.

[Zhou Xiaomei yami]: Wow, what a handsome guy! [color]
[Little Corn]: [Question] I can't even see the face.

【Zhou Xiaomei yami】: Just look at your figure!Come on for a frontal photo!I want to see the front!

[Yuan Fatty]: Second!

[Zhou Xiaomei yami]: Hey, Pangpang, aren't you dating?Be so inattentive, the goddess of caution will sentence you to death!

[Yuan Pangpang]: She has been swiping her mobile phone for 10 minutes and ignored me. Now I am no different from being sentenced to death [crying loudly].

[Little Corn]: [Grievance], I think you should worry about me...

[Zhou Xiaomei yami]: Honey, don't worry, you are so cute, normal people wouldn't have the heart to bully you.

[Yuan Pangpang]: Abnormal people can't bear it!
No one!
Yu Mi made an emoji vomiting blood and fell to the ground, then turned and went back to the counter.

10 minutes!Give him another 10 minutes, and if he hasn't woken up after 10 minutes, she must, must, must wake him up!
After making up his mind, Yu Mi let out a long breath, turned on the radio on the counter, and walked into the back kitchen.

Soon, Eason Chan's singing sounded along with the radio waves:
Merry Merry Christmas,

Lonely Lonely Christmas…

This song really suits her now...

While feeling sorry for her, Yu Mi took out a big paper bag from the freezer.

This Christmas, "Honey Talk" launched new products, including a set of four Christmas-shaped cupcakes, a six-inch white chocolate mousse, a Swiss roll with matcha cheese, and a set of gingerbread Christmas trees.

From the shape to the taste of the new festival products, and even the paper bags used for the outer packaging, she designed them herself. Every strawberry on the cake is condensed with her hard work.

Therefore, she must cut and reconcile a set as a souvenir.

Before the packing was over, the sad Christmas song was replaced by a sweet female voice: "This is FM108.8——City Music Radio, you are listening to 'Walk with Time', hello everyone, I am the substitute host Xiao AI."

Substitute host?The movement of Yu Mi's hands stopped.

In addition to being a seasoned housekeeper, Yu Mi is also a seasoned radio listener.

Despite the dizzying array of new media, the old way of listening remains her favorite.Eliminating the interference of color and image, the emotion expressed by sound is more direct and pure.

This year, her favorite program is the music channel's ace column "Walk with Time".

The host of the program is called Time, male, age unknown.The voice is cold and dignified, with a low smile but still charming, he can be provocative or venomous, with extensive knowledge and excellent music quality, so despite his aloofness, his popularity is very high, with dozens of fans on Weibo Ten thousand, just post "I'm hungry" dynamics, and there are thousands of replies.

Yu Mi is also one of his fans, the wake-up bell on the phone is the wake-up voice of Time.

Today's host is not him, nor was it yesterday... Yu Mi was a little disappointed.

The substitute female anchor continued to say the opening remarks affectionately and sweetly——

"Are you listening to our show alone on this romantic day, thinking of someone who will never come back?"

囧... Today is Christmas Eve, why should I think of people who can't come back, it's not Ching Ming Festival...

She randomly changed the channel.

The anchor spoke quickly and broadcast entertainment news.

"...At about 21 o'clock the night before yesterday, the famous actress Bai Wei fell to her death in a private apartment. According to the preliminary judgment of the police, the case was a suicide. There are different opinions on the reasons for Bai Wei's suicide. However, according to insiders, before At the engagement banquet of Chen Jiaqi, the young owner of Baicheng Films, Bai Wei once had a physical conflict with Chen Shao, broke down and cried, and guessed from this..."

Well, the host's enthusiastic tone made people want to beat him up.

She was about to continue changing the channel when a strange voice came from her ear——

"Shut off!"

Her hoarse voice was so cold that she couldn't help shivering.

(2) Predators

Yu Mi looked towards the window.

Thankfully, the unconscious guest finally woke up.

At this moment, he was holding a plush toy in one hand, and leaning on the armrest with the other, looking at her with displeasure.Because of this, she could see his face clearly, and she had to say that Jiang was indeed old and hot, and Zhou Xiaomei was sincere.

He looks really good, with a straight nose, deep eyebrows and eyes, although his expression is cold, but the messy hair looks a little cute.

On the radio, the anchor continued to broadcast——

"Two months ago, Bai Wei just won the title of best actress with the movie "Bones". This is the third film co-produced by Magic Star Entertainment and Baicheng Films. The insider said that she took this opportunity to force Chen Jiaqi to marry her. Instead, she was abandoned, and there was no hope of marrying into a wealthy family, so she went to extremes. In the afternoon, the reporter met Bai Wei's mother, the famous movie star Bai Wanyi, and asked her about her daughter..."

"Tell you to turn it off!"

The guest repeated, the voice was a little louder than before, hoarse and threatening.

Yu Mi suddenly woke up, reached out and quickly turned off the radio, and the room suddenly became quiet.

The customer stood up, took two or three steps and walked to the counter.

He was a full head taller than her, even though the counter was across, Yu Mi subconsciously took a step back.

And then……

She watched as he reached for an elk cupcake, brought it to his mouth, and took half of the elk's head off in one bite.

Yu Mi: "..."

Looking closely, his facial features are more refined, the brow bone and the bridge of the nose form a beautiful angle, the lips are clearly lined, and the corners of the mouth are slightly upturned.Zhou Xiaomei has popularized science, and this lip shape is called "Cupid's Bow".

With such good looks, it made his slightly longer flaxen hair look less murderous.

However, his complexion is not very good, the dark circles under his eyes are so heavy that even the long eyelashes can't stop him, he looks like he hasn't slept well for many days.

In this distraction, he had already devoured the elk cake, grabbed another Christmas tree cake, and opened his mouth to bite.

Yu Mi's heart ached for a while, and she couldn't help shouting, "Wait a minute!"

The guest raised his eyebrows and looked down at her, with icing sugar and cocoa powder on the corners of his mouth, which greatly weakened the sense of threat brought by the sharp eyes.

Yu Mi coughed, and said weakly: "That... this gentleman, we are already closed."

The guest glanced at the glass door and said indifferently: "Not really."

The small wooden sign hanging on the glass doorknob clearly says "open".

Yu Mi wants to cry but has no tears, that's not the point!It's so late and I haven't placed a sign yet, isn't it all because of waiting for his old man!
She hastily gathered the cakes on the counter back together: "Yes... sorry, these are not for sale."

The guest stopped talking this time, and just ate up the Christmas tree cake in his hand in a few bites. He even licked the matcha sauce on his fingertips, and looked up at her.

Yu Mi seemed to see a not-so-kind smile flashing across the corner of his mouth.

Hiss... naked provocation!
When his hand reached for the third cupcake again, Yu Mi did something that even she couldn't think of——

With lightning speed, she pulled a plastic spoon from the counter, scooped a cupcake Santa's face, and, with lightning speed, popped the spoon into her mouth.

The good-looking claw pauses for a second in front of the faceless Santa before turning to the cupcake snowman.

Yu Mi picked off the snowman's nose with a spoon.

Next spoonful, matcha cheese roll... next spoonful, chocolate mousse...another spoonful, gingerbread Christmas tree...

In this battle of hand speed, Yu Mi, holding a digging spoon, won the victory.

She stuffed the cake in her mouth and was speechless. For some reason, she made a "V" to her opponent.

The guest narrowed his eyes, frowned, and stared at her for a full ten seconds.

Most afraid of the air suddenly quiet.

It was only then that Yu Mi came to her senses - she was alone, why did she want to get into a fight with a strange man with a tall figure and a bad complexion?

She was crying stupidly by herself.

She hastily withdrew her hand, hid the spoon behind her back, and wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere, but her bulging cheeks made her unable to grin no matter what, and her face turned red.

The guest frowned and suddenly smiled.

Silent but beautiful, the slender eyes are bent into two crescents, visually it should be very happy.

Yu Mi was a little dazed, and could only chew hard on the food in his mouth.

When he finished laughing, she also finished swallowing, and quickly said with an apologetic smile: "Sir, these are really not for takeaway...and it's already like this..."

The guest glanced at the "already like this" defective product——

A swiss roll has been dug up to reveal layers of chocolate and thick raspberry jam under the thick matcha cream; a disfigured strawberry Santa and a white chocolate snowman without a nose are looking at him comically; On the polygonal gingerbread tree, the colorful candies are like little lanterns...

Especially the chocolate mousse cake, the blueberries are round, the strawberries are plump, and the golden sugar balls are dotted with rich and moist chocolate sauce. Feel the silky sweetness of the mousse melting on the tip of the tongue.

He couldn't help swallowing.

Feeling hungry?

God knows, how long has he not had a desire for food?
Not only food, but everyone seems to have lost interest in everything.In the past two days, he was like a snail, hiding in a thick shell, unable to perceive himself or the world.

The feeling of being hungry is really pleasant.

He gave a "hmm" and said lightly, "I don't mind."

"?"

What's with the arrogant look in his eyes that "it's your blessing that I'm willing to eat your food"?Just say "thank you"...

Under her stunned gaze, he calmly picked up a strawberry wrapped in chocolate, put it in his mouth gracefully, and then devoured it.

You don't mind but I do!There are ten thousand beasts galloping past in my heart.Even though you are angry, you still have to keep smiling.Yu Mi felt that her face was going to be stiff: "Sir, you... you make me very embarrassed..."

"Embarrassed?" The customer showed a dazed expression, suddenly turned around and walked back, picked up a black sports backpack from the ground, and returned to the counter.

Yu Mi watched helplessly as he reached out and touched in the bag, and finally took out... a half-old toy teddy bear?
What does it mean?
But even with such a strange thing in his hand, his expression is still so high.

"I don't have any cash with me, this is for you as a mortgage."

Yu Mi didn't answer, and pointed to the QR code at the corner of the counter: "It doesn't matter if you don't have cash, our store also supports Alipay and WeChat, you can scan it..."

Oh, no!She didn't want to take his money, she didn't want to sell it to him at all!

However, she just said that, and he had already... ate all four cupcakes!
I have never seen such a rascal!
Yu Mi was defeated, she was not good at speech, now even her eyes were red.

The guest glanced at her, pursed his lips thoughtfully, suddenly put the teddy bear in his hand on the counter, turned and walked towards the door.

Just when Yu Mi thought he would leave without saying goodbye, he raised his hand and tore off a pink notice stuck on the glass window, and walked back quickly.

He pinched the notice with three fingers and held it half a foot away from Yu Mi's eyes.

"So what?"

On the pink drawing paper, four words were written clearly and squarely——

Recruitment notice.

(3) Merry Christmas

Yu Mi glanced at the man who had nestled back into the sofa again. At this moment, he was silently eating the chocolate mousse in front of him, with a strange piety in his satisfied expression.

Ten minutes ago, he held up the "Honey Words" recruitment notice and handed it to Yu Mi along with his ID card.

He said, you can hire me, and the salary will cover the cost of the cake.

This man really didn't play his cards according to common sense.

What's even more unbelievable is that she stared at the ID card in her hand and thought about it for a minute, and then she agreed by accident.

It just so happened that the part-time college student who worked with Yuan Pangpang had just resigned, and she had always wanted to recruit another person as soon as possible, and the end of the new year was coming soon, and tea breaks were one order after another, and she was short of manpower.

Of course, that ID card also contributed a lot.

The boy in the photo on his ID card has short, cool hair. Although his facial features are more immature than now, he is very energetic.The unruly eyebrows and eyes match the natural smiling lips, and there is a contradictory temperament of rebellious but shy.

That should be a photo of him when he was 16 years old. His youthful appearance instantly amazed Yu Mi's girlish heart that had been silent for a long time.

The ID photos are so beautiful, that is really beautiful.

His name is Shi Jin.

When Yu Mi walked into the store with the cup, Shi Jin had already consciously closed the curtains, covering the thick and cold night outside the window.

The TV was on, probably to commemorate Bai Wei, and the movie channel was playing an old movie of hers "The World Like Water".

She put the hot mug in front of him, and said softly, "Mangosteen pomelo tea, soothes the throat."

Once she accepted the setting of "everyone will be colleagues from now on", when she communicated with him, it seemed to become much more natural.

"Red Dust Like Water" was a movie seven years ago, when Bai Wei's image and acting skills were very young.Shi Jin watched very intently, and didn't turn his head until Yu Mi spoke. His cold eyes made her think that he would say something disgusting in the next second, but he just said "thank you".

He held up the cup and pressed his lips against the rim lightly, the hot air blurred the sadness in his eyes that hadn't had time to dissipate.

Can't tell that he, a person who looks like the whole world owes him 1000 yuan, actually has a heart of pure love, and would fall in love with a bloody romance drama seven years ago?

Sure enough people can't be seen...

"My sister used to make chocolate mousse." He suddenly said something without thinking, his voice was low and vague, so that Yumi took a while to digest what he said.

She glanced at the chocolate mousse in front of him that had been eaten until there was no dregs left, thought it over, and said, "It must be delicious."

Who knows, Shi Jin shook his head: "It's hard to eat."

This... Yu Mi couldn't take it anymore, but he said again: "This one is delicious."

She froze for a moment, and secretly looked at his side face. It was still the expression of "I'm in a bad mood", but it seemed that it suddenly became much more pleasing to the eye.

Affirmation from strangers is more valuable than compliments from acquaintances.

Mastering chat skills can certainly bring people closer together, but she believes that delicious food can also do the same.

"Can I come to work tomorrow?"

"Ah."

"We've been very busy recently, I hope you can stay longer."

"Ah."

"Have you had similar work experience before?"

"Simple."

His voice was hoarse, and his speech was unusually terse.Since it was inconvenient for him to speak, she just didn't have to rack her brains to think of topics.

Strangely enough, silence is not embarrassing, despite being a stranger.

When the phone rang, Yu Mi glanced at the caller ID, and his eyes passed Shi Jin who was opposite the sofa without even lifting his eyelids.

She walked around the store with her mobile phone and pushed open the glass door.

The icy wind, wrapped in tiny snowflakes, rushed head-on.I don't know when, it started to snow outside.

She picked up the phone, and a clear male voice came from the other end: "Mimi, Merry Christmas!"

It was Jian Xingyu, a partner far away in Japan.

"Merry Christmas, Brother Yu." She raised her hand to catch a few small snowflakes, watching them slowly melt in her palm, her mood became gentle.

A snowy Christmas Eve, perfect.

"It's snowing here."

"It's snowing in Uji too." The voice on the other end of the phone was also like fine snow, cool and gentle, "Here is a very delicious matcha hot chocolate, you will definitely like it."

"Well, Uji is the hometown of matcha."

"Can you come and see for yourself next time?"

"Okay, you are a tour guide, and I will go wherever you go."

"It's a good idea. Selling you to a tea house as a pastry chef will definitely be worth a fortune."

"People won't want me!"

Jian Xingyu laughed lightly, then said after a pause, "I saw the photo you posted. What happened to that guest?"

"You definitely didn't expect it—a magical turn!" Yu Mijiang said briefly, "There is a shortage of manpower, and I think he can do it."

"It's up to you to decide." The listener over there was very patient, and the answer was very ironic.

Yu Mi's heart warmed, and she said softly, "Brother Yu, when are you coming back?"

"In about a week, you..." Jian Xingyu hesitated for a moment, but in the end he didn't say anything, but said softly, "It's late, you have to be careful when you go home by yourself."

After hanging up the phone, she opened the WeChat group and saw a bunch of "Aite".

【周小美yami】: @小玉米 set 110 as the first emergency call, the fire spray is on the left hand when entering the door, and the knife is in the kitchen.

[Yuan Pangpang]: @小米糖 just squeak if I want to come back, anyway, the goddess ignores me.

A little touched.

She happily replied——

"It has been resolved, stay in the store for observation."

When Yu Mi returned to the store, the movie was still going on, but Shi Jin had already fallen asleep on the sofa.

His bangs covered his forehead, his eyelashes were long and straight, and his closed eyes made his sleeping face look very childish and clean, just like the photo on the ID card.

Yu Mi stared at him unconsciously for a long time.

He still hugged the husky doll tightly, with his upper body curled up. It is said that people in this sleeping position have a serious lack of security in their hearts.

Has he not slept well for a long time?You can sleep so soundly in a short time, people can't bear to disturb it.

She quietly dimmed the lights, turned off the TV, took a blanket from the preparation room, and gently covered him.

After thinking about it, she took out a Christmas gift bag from the cabinet in the back kitchen and placed it gently beside him.

The small red velvet bag is embroidered with non-woven images of reindeer and Santa Claus. There are chocolate biscuits and butter cookies in the bag, which are Christmas gifts to be distributed tomorrow.

Every lonely child deserves a present on Christmas Eve.

She squatted beside him, knowing that he couldn't hear, she still whispered: "Merry Christmas, Shi Jin."

——Welcome to "Honey Talk".

(End of this chapter)