The Baker Next Door [Wenzhou]

part 10 - why is he sparkling?!

Zhou zishu's eyes roamed around the area while he was sweeping the floor outside his bakery. He tried to stop his gaze from shifting towards the bakery next to him, but failed miserably as his head kept thinking about that one particular man.

Wen kexing didn't come to the bakery as usual and it's been three days after the festival. Even so, new dessert from wen kexing kept coming to him for two days without failed.

It was irritating, really. But he couldn't bring himself to throw out the dessert since he knew the process of making the dessert could be quite difficult sometimes. He wasn't that heartless to look down on someone's effort to the point he would throw it out even though wen kexing really annoyed the shit out of him everyday.

And who would throw out good food, right?

Cao weining approached him with a box in his hand. "Zhou ge.."

"What?" He sighed as seeing the same box again. Wen kexing really is persistent, and he didn't even know the reason why would wen kexing tried so hard to be good to him.

"Ah-xiang told me to give it to you." He handed the box to zhou zishu.

Zhou zishu took the box, exchanged it with the broom in his hand. Weining looked confused, but he took it anyway.

"Weining."

"Yes?"

"Do you know why wen kexing didn't come to work as usual..?" He gulped down, hoping that cao weining won't misunderstood the intention of his question.

Cao weining raised his head, nodding while remembering things ah-xiang told him. "Ah-xiang told me that her brother was hurts by hot oil on the day of the the festival. So she forced him to stay home while she managed the bakery for a few days."

Oil?

Hot oil?

HOT OIL?!

The information really hit him right on the head when he suddenly remembered about the hot oil situation before. So wen kexing really get hurts when he tried to protect him the other day?!

He greeted his teeth, didn't know whether he should be grateful or actually felt irritated right now. How dare he tried to act tough when I asked him before?! But instead of feeling either happy or mad, he felt slightly guilty since he was the one supposed to get hurt by the hot oil, not wen kexing.

"Fuck." He muttered slowly under his breath.

"Zhou ge, the customers are coming." His thoughts stopped by weining's voice.

He nodded his head while sighing. "Ah yes let's go." Both of them walked into the bakery.

"Oh zhou ge, when will you moved in to your new house?" Cao weining started a conversation on a new topic.

"Next week."

"Next week..as in..3 days?"

"Yeah."

"Wow that's fast. I thought it would be next month or later than that?"

"Yeah I thought so too. But the previous tenant moved out a little earlier."

Zhou zishu went to the counter, taking orders from a few customers while cao weining went to the fridge to take out some stuff.

"Why did you move out from your previous house?"

Zhou zishu nodded and smiled to the customers while watching them left to find a table before answering weining's question. "I can't stand the construction noise. And the neighbors there were quite... annoying." The memories of his neighbors fighting with each others, their kids making noises in his area and their pets peed on his lawn suddenly came into his mind.