She had been away from the tea house for a while, and I had successfully enrolled in the evening program of a junior college. My working hours were from noon to five in the afternoon, and in the morning, I still reported to the tea house as per the established routine. Since I was also a college student, to fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher, I took on two tutoring jobs, both located at the tea house, with students who were my juniors, so the so-called salary wasn’t that important.
Recently, the turnover rate at the tea house had been quite high, referring to the waitstaff working there. They even posted recruitment notices on the columns outside. Perhaps it was indeed due to the poor economic situation; not only was it hard to find people, but even the relatively stable business had declined significantly. Of course, under such circumstances, the people, events, and things that I cared about… had not occurred.
Fortunately, this situation did not last long (basically, I am someone who fears loneliness).
On this day, I was teaching my two juniors when three girls who seemed to be applying for jobs arrived at the tea house. To be precise, a group of people came, but only those three were there for the job application. I thought to myself, if you’re coming to apply, just come; why make such a big deal out of it? People who didn’t know might think it was a gang negotiation (perhaps those who were about to leave thought so).
Later, all three of the girls who came to apply were hired (there was no choice; they couldn’t find anyone, the notices were posted, and they brought so many people with them). Anyway, the next day when I went to the tea house, the waitstaff had changed to these three girls.
Since it was a weekend, there seemed to be quite a few customers in the shop, and besides my juniors, Kasty and the others were with us too. Just as we were about to order drinks from the waitstaff, the girl who approached us surprised us to the point of speechlessness; she… she looked just like… like Mary.
“Excuse me, are you surnamed Jada?” Kasty asked this question quite directly, but it was something everyone wanted to know. However, she smiled without answering, simply wrote down our orders, placed the bill on our table, and returned to the bar.
Everyone continued discussing, and after five minutes, she brought over the items she had prepared. This time, John asked, “Do you have an older sister or younger sister?” (Come on! We don’t even know her yet, and you’re asking about her surname? How many siblings does she have? Especially with John’s demeanor, it looked like he was being a creep).
Although I really wanted to know if she was Mary or if she had any relation to Mary, I didn’t ask any questions and pretended to be serious, sipping my bubble tea.
At that moment, Kasty asked me, “Don’t you want to know who she is?” (Great! Finally, someone asked the key question). In fact, while John was asking her questions, I had already noticed the name on her name tag: Masky. That’s right! This was the name of the girl who looked so much like Mary. In the following minutes, through John’s probing questions, we also learned the names of the other two girls behind the bar. One was named Lilly, and the other Rita, and Masky had no relation to Mary.
Perhaps because of this connection (though I didn’t know what kind of connection it was), Masky and I quickly became good friends, the kind with no secrets. They were all students who had dropped out midway through their studies because their family’s financial situation did not allow them to continue, so they had to work temporarily at the tea house, and unfortunately, they had no particular skills.
Masky had five sisters, and she was the fourth. Her father was a gambler and had a poor relationship with her mother. Fortunately, her mother did hairdressing, and two of her sisters were already married, so her mother didn’t have to worry too much. Not wanting to make her mother suffer too much, she helped at home before graduating high school, and through her mother’s guidance and her own efforts, she learned quite a few hairdressing skills.
In middle school, she fell in with bad friends and developed a drug habit, which led her to a rehabilitation center. Although she later quit, her friends and relatives avoided her. She said, “I once swore in front of my mother that I would never touch those things again.” Because of this incident, the relationship between her sisters and her mother was very good, but she harbored deep resentment towards her father and other relatives. Frankly, seeing her determined gaze, I really didn’t dare to ask further.
