Chapter 43: Still Taking Matters In Her Own Hands

It was early in the morning when Chan Lee woke up to the vibrating of her phone. After the events last night, she felt a bit groggy. "Maybe binging out at night wasn't the best choice." She murmured and reflexively checked her stomach. Patting her belly, she stepped out of bed, carefully avoiding the slumbering Xue. A grimace appeared on her face, he was asleep on the floor again. That certainly didn't do well for his back did it...

She studied his sleeping figure for a moment.

He always had a gentle expression on his face, always the epitome of grace… but somehow he ended up looking more at peace when he was asleep. His lashes fluttering lightly, his lips were relaxed, mumbling softly under his breath.

Chan Lee shook her head to snap out of it.

She needed to get prepared already, and so she did. All it took was a quick shower and sprucing up a quick breakfast for the two of them. She silently promised to have better food when she got her money from the shift or when she got hired.

Thus at 6:30am, she headed out.

While she went down the stairs, she idly wondered how Han Jing was doing. She hadn't seen him since the Body Tempering Elixir the other night. But so long as he was Xue's company in the morning and provided the man with meals, she didn't mind him not staying at her house.

It was just a little new occurence that she hadn't heard his loud voice in a while.

When she arrived a little earlier than 7am for the supposed training prior to her shift, she was surprised to see a woman already waiting for her outside the establishment. The woman was not inside the Heavenly Jade Pavilion, instead she was outside with a rather bored expression.

Bo Lifen herself waited for her.

Chan Lee started. "Um, good—"

"Ah good morning, Chan Lee right? Follow me." The woman quickly moved inside without much further ado.

All she could do was follow after her.

Once inside, she was surprised to see that many people were already present inside the pavilion. They were sweeping and mopping the floors, wiping windows and an assortment of other cleaning duties. Chan Lee half wondered if she'd have to do cleaning like that.

"Usually we have a month training prior to one becoming a tea sommelier to ensure that they are fully prepared for what it takes… but we have to make do with the time on our hands." The woman explained as they walked past the others.

Chan Lee blinked, a month's training?

She was led to another corridor past the rooms that they had initially stayed in. There were men and women who were in preparations of the start of their shift, even within the safety of this hidden portion of the establishment—there was an air of poised professionalism.

It surely didn't occur just because Bo Lifen walked in.

"Now you might have noticed in your earlier visit, but we have our attires when serving the guest. Suyin left her clothes… but she might have forgotten the disparity of your figures." Bo Lifen eyed her for a moment and cleared her throat. "Nevertheless, we do have the spare from our employee who left recently and it'll be more fitted for you."

"Thank you."

"Thank me later when I have transformed you into the proper tea sommelier. For now, pay close attention. We only have a couple of hours before we start accepting guests."

"Alright Madam." Chan Lee nodded her head.

The older woman paused, for once showing a hint of humanity as she turned to the girl. "Ah, you don't have to refer to me that way. Call me Elder Sister, that's how all people refer to me."

"O-oh, I will, Elder Sister Bo Lifen." It felt strange, the name rolling off her tongue. But seeing the slightly pleased expression of what was possibly her boss was enough to keep her convinced that this was the only appropriate honorific she could use now.

She was soon led to another room that was even more private than the first one. It was entirely filled with multiple cabinets. In each cabinet, numerous amounts of varying teas were displayed.

"Here we have all our available tea… I say that, but we also have a more protected compartment for the more expensive kind. The type that your fellow university student Liu Guiren enjoys." The woman shook her head, as if wanting to dispel that name from memory.

Or perhaps the absurdity of the price.

Chan Lee wasn't so sure if she wanted to know how much the man spent last time.

Bo Lifen continued, tapping on the shelves to point out to the ones inside them. "I'm sure that you're quite familiar with the different types of tea, oolong, red, black, white and many others. They are also further divided into more specific types. For flower tea, a few examples would be carnation, chrysanthemum, globe amaranth, hibiscus, jasmine and other more types."

Chan Lee tried to absorb all the information possible. She was no sponge, but she took them all in. She had to take them all in.

From prescribed teapots to tea types to recommend, to proper and polite greetings.

Her head bobbed with all the available information she could ingest. How did Bo Lifen expect her to memorize them in one go? No wonder it took at least a month to train. It was like cramming everything in on the night before the exams.

They had returned to the previous room where the other attendants were now completely dressed up in their garbs. If she hadn't known what time period it was, she would have thought that they travelled back in time.

The older woman sighed, "Forgive me for rushing you. It doesn't help that a competent one left while your friend decided to do something else. Weekends are when clients flock in too."

"It's um alright, I'll do my best, Elder Sister!"

"Well, I'll be leaving my brother to help with you."

"Your brother?"

"Indeed, my youngest little brother is a tea connoisseur, he helps out with the tea business." Bo Lifen nodded proudly. "I know it's hard to absorb it all in one go, so for today, I'll let my brother stay by your side and nudge you silently into the correct direction. Other than that, I hope you manage to do well on your first day."

"Ah, thank you so much!" Chan Lee bowed her head.

They wanted a child to look after her? It was a bit embarrassing.

"Well then, let's get you prepared." A smile graced Bo Lifen's face. "First impressions are important after all."

It would have been a Cinderella-esque moment or a transformation scene, except she was changing for work and not to attend any balls or to fight evil in some heroine outfit. They made her take a bath once more—it was rose petals strewn waters, relaxing candlelight for a good portion of her time.

Afterwards, she was lathered with a soft-scented moisturizer to keep her body dewy soft and then promptly fitted to one of the employee's old uniforms. Unlike some of the women who were donning a tight fitting cheongsam, the one given to her was the flowing hanfu—It was quite similar in terms to the layered robes Xue had donned when he first arrived.

Then there was makeup and styling her hair. There wasn't much that could have been done to her shoulder length hair, so the others had simply pinned it back with a beautiful ornamental pin, a bejewelled flower or butterfly—she didn't manage to see it. "You could grow your hair, it'd be a lot more prettier." One of them had told her.

"I'm good." She said, in between the fixing of her brows and adding mascara to her lashes. Chan Lee tried not to squirm or fidget, but it was hard to not get twitchy. When they had finally finished she was presented to Bo Lifen who gave her approval.

"It's lovely to see you all cleaned up." Bo Lifen nodded. As much of an approval those words were.

Cleaned up? It wasn't like she was dirty when she came here—that was Chan Lee's inner dialogue. But she knew that when she looked in the mirror, her reflection did show someone made beautiful. She brushed back some hair behind an ear, "Thank you."

"Oh, your bracelet?" Bo Lifen's attention shifted to her. "We have a policy for uniformity, I think you should remove that."

Chan Lee could feel her heart beat erratically. "It's not noticeable with the long sleeves, I really need to wear it, Elder Sister. It's my good luck charm." She couldn't take it off.

Bo Lifen stared at her before she turned away. "Do as you wish. As long as it does not meddle with your work." She sighed in relief, until she noticed that someone was still inside the room. "I'll leave her in your care."

"Bo Lei." A young boy bowed his head respectfully. "Are you ready Miss?"

She hadn't noticed him at all, had they sneaked in right now? Chan Lee sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Yes, I am."

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
RachelRuth

And we're back! This is the first of the three chapters that will be published today.

Hope you guys didn't miss me too much? (´∀`) Well, not me, but the updates! This story is slow paced but we're... the story is kind of relaxing I suppose?

Why are you reading this?

Is it for the bunny boy, the neighbor guy, or that guy who's totally not a stalker? Are you after the slice of life or wish that something exciting happens? Reading for character growth and changes?

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