One Less Star in the Night Sky

Chapter 16: Neither Sorrow Nor Joy in Your Remaining Years

Chapter 16: Neither Sorrow Nor Joy in Your Remaining Years

February 2013 | kaiyang

The bustling city returned to normal after the Spring Festival, but red lanterns and spring couplets continued to adorn the streets and alleys and the doors of shops and houses.

The Music-Box Dream Cafe was no exception.

Despite the cafe having a minimalistic Scandinavian design, Yu Sifan insisted on putting up strings of mini red lanterns and other red and gold ornaments. He had even stuck a couplet with beautiful and elegant strokes written by an alleged calligraphy expert from Panjiayuan Antique Market on the glass entrance.

The festive atmosphere brightened up the café and daily, there seemed to be more customers than the day before. Having completed the climax of my book, I was left with wrapping up the last arc of the story. With even Yu Sifan having to wait on tables, I decided to offer my assistance and was placed in charge of the cash register. The best part about my task was being able to control the music playlist. As Carrie Underwood's See You Again played softly on the sound system, a young lady came up to me looking slightly abashed.

"Excuse me. Can I ask if Deng Zixuan will be performing today?"

I looked at my watch which showed that the time was 8.15pm, before replying her apologetically. "I'm afraid you may have missed it today. On even days of the week, Zixuan performs at 3pm and on odd days of the week at 8pm. Today happens to be Thursday."

"Oh," she said, her eyes dropping to the ground in disappointment. "No wonder. We were wondering why we haven't seen him around today. Does that mean that he'll be performing tomorrow?"

"Oh, there will be a special guest performance tomorrow by Mobius Band; so Zixuan's performance has been re-scheduled to 5pm." I gestured to the sign beside the cash register which was meant to inform and publicise to our customers of Mobius Band gracing us with a repertoire of their best songs. We had even pasted a poster on our glass doors and uploaded a short post of their performance details on the cafe's public account on social media. "Do you know Mobius Band?"

The young woman shook her head.

I smiled eagerly and began promoting the band. "They are a group of college friends that formed a band and have some popular songs that have been circulating online. They are not mainstream yet, but have been making a name for themselves in the music circle. If you're free tomorrow, do come to check them out."

"Sure, thank you," she laughed nervously and gave me a quick nod while tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, before scurrying back to her table where her friend was waiting for her with an anticipatory look.

I picked up the sign in front of me and studied it for a moment, wondering if our announcement wasn't prominent enough. In the future, perhaps I should simply verbally informed each and every customer who making an order of our special events.

After sending the last customer off, I turned the wooden signboard hanging on the entrance around to display that we were closed for the day. As I turned off half the lights in the cafe, Yu Sifan, Feng Maojing and two other part-time workers, Xiaoluan and Xiaoshan sprung into action to clean up the café and rearrange the layout of table and chairs in preparation for Mobius Band's performance tomorrow. As we were expecting a huge turn-out, Yu Sifan had called for all hands on deck and even prepared a queue numbering and monitoring system, albeit a rudimentary one.

"Yan'er, can you test out the sound system?" Yu Sifan called out from somewhere in the kitchen. "Mobius Band came to test it out last night, but can you do another sound check?"