At 2 in the afternoon, it was one of the more idle times at Maple Café, with only one or two tables of customers left as they leisurely sipped their delicious coffee.
A table for eight near the bar counter was seated by three girls and a middle-aged man. The top of the table had been placed with coffee brewing equipment —— two sets of siphon coffee makers, bamboo spoons for stirring, dedicated small gas, a small clock, water cups, coffee cups, etc.
The middle-aged man was the owner of Maple Café. He had a great fondness for coffee. Since he wanted more people to know the delicious taste of coffee, he decided to start a class and give lectures on it. He would hold it two times a day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The classes would run once a week, with four courses that needed to be attended. Only a maximum of four people were allowed to participate in each class.
And right now, it was the afternoon class session.
"Classmate Chen probably forgot about today's class again. I'll call her. Why don't you three have a little chat first?" It was already 2 o'clock, yet he didn't see Chen Lianxin, who was supposed to be in class.
"Ah! Sorry, I forgot that we have class again today." A girl wearing thick glasses with her hair combed into two braids rushed through the cafe door just after the Boss spoke.
She was Chen Lianxin, born into a family of police officers. Starting from her father, a police chief, her three older brothers became police officers, except for her. She was a cherished treasure in the hands of her family. Except for the fact that she remembered her favourite TV show, she was usually so forgetful, making people have to take extra care of her.
As she rushed into the cafe and felt flustered from being late for the coffee class, she apologised first and then said, "Boss, can you finish the class on time at four? Because there is a cartoon, I'm thinking of watching it at four o'clock. Can you let me leave five or ten minutes early if possible?"
The four people present were dumbfounded when they heard her words.
In their first lesson before, they learned how to filter coffee. The Boss promised then that she could leave early as long as she could make coffee that met the standard within the time limit. It was unknown if she wanted to catch up with her TV programs, but she did leave early at 55 minutes, which left a deep impression on everyone.
"Xiao Lian, it's okay. You are only three minutes late. By 3:50, you should be able to go home and watch TV." He Ruolan, bending over the table to rest, lazily greeted her.
He Ruolan was not interested in learning how to make coffee; if she had a choice, she would rather stay home and laze around. But her mother couldn't sit around when she looked at her lazy personality and thus took the initiative to enrol her. So, He Ruolan had to report to the cafe every week.
"Xiao Lian, it isn't good to be late, and you have to try to change your forgetful personality, and you too, Xiao Lan. Sit in a sitting posture properly. Don't slouch on the desk." Qiu Xiaoya slightly raised her voice as she disapproved that Chen Lianxin had been late for class three times in a row, and she also gave He Ruolan a tongue-lashing in passing. However, her soft, childish voice didn't sound harmful.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
Qiu Xiaoya was a senior employee of an employment company that her elder female cousin owned, and she had worked in that company since junior high school. She was a competent person, and now she had many necessary licenses, such as Chinese Cuisine Class C Cook, Western Cuisine Class C, baking, mixing drinks, nutritionist, and even a housekeeper license! This time, she learned how to make coffee, which was also necessary for her future work.
Her personality leaned towards the pursuit of perfection, almost towards a nitpicking state. For her, there were no two random ways of doing things. One was one; there should be no more and no less. The moment Qiu Xiaoya encountered something she felt unsatisfied with, she would state it outright, even though she and the three girls in front of her had only known each other for three weeks.
"I know, I'm sorry!" Chen Lianxin clasped her hands with a sincere apology. At the same time, He Ruolan responded to Qiu Xiaoya's words like they didn't pain nor itch her emotions, as she was just like herself before, still bending over the table.
"All right. Since Xiao Lian has come, Boss, we should also start making coffee!" Yan Yuwen, who had always been very silent, clapped her hands, directing their attention to coffee brewing.
"Classmate Yan is right. The content of our class today is the same as last week. We will be going to use a siphon coffee maker to brew coffee. Xiao Lian, help me grind mocha coffee beans to three and a half thickness. Let Classmate Yan and Classmate Chen cook them first!" said the Boss, which made the two of them start moving on their own.
"Xiao Lian, before you turn on the gas, did you forget to dry the bottom of the kettle with a paper towel?"
Compared with Yan Yuwen's sharp movements, Chen Lianxin seemed to be in a hurry. All of a sudden, she would start to forget to wipe off the possible water in the pot, forget to stir, and even forget to calculate the timing, which caused Qiu Xiaoya to keep reminding her from her side.
"Isn't it time to turn off the gas?" Yan Yuwen suddenly asked after stirring for the second time, and a minute had passed when she noticed.
"Xiao Wen, you should remember to turn it off yourself!" He Ruolan said lazily. Seeing that Yan Yuwen only opened her mouth to ask something without even a bit of follow-up movement from her, the Boss, who was watching from one side, hurriedly helped her turn off the gas.
"Ah, that's right!" Yan Yuwen seemed to have just thought of that, but the Boss had already turned it off, so she just smiled after she said that.
Perhaps because Yan Yuwen was the confidential secretary for the president of the Cangtian Group, where she only needed to listen to the president's command, she had this habit of grasping the overall situation wherever she was and would immediately become aware of any unusual condition. However, as long as she was busy doing something at hand, she would use her mouth to command people, even if the work was supposed to be done by her. This was something that couldn't be changed.
After tasting the coffees they made and listening to the Boss' explanation of their pros and cons, it was Qiu Xiaoya and He Ruolan's turn next.
"Xiao Lan, the boss said to put 30 grams of coffee powder in it. Why did you start boiling it without measuring it first?" Qiu Xiaoya earnestly measured out 30 grams of ground coffee on a scale when she caught sight of He Ruolan's casual movements, which she genuinely felt truly discontented with.
"Even the Boss said it was about three tablespoons, and I'm lazy! So just by spooning out roughly around three spoonfuls should do." He Ruolan didn't even care about it in the slightest.
"You're so..." It was pretty overwhelming to lecture someone whose life attitude was the exact opposite of hers.
"All right! Xiaoya, you just concentrate on brewing your coffee. Xiao Lan has always been that kind of person anyway." Seeing them only concerned about arguing, Yan Yuwen had to jump in to smooth things over.
Qiu Xiaoya couldn't help muttering, but He Ruolan was unaffected as she continued lazily until the two of them finished making their coffees. After the Boss tasted and had finished explaining, the four rebrewed their coffees again based on their poorly done parts. Similar complaints of dissatisfaction sounded again, and the air inside the room once more filled with the aroma of coffee wafting around......
Although the four of them had different personalities, causing a lot of friction and complaints in their interaction, they strangely became friends during this month-long coffee course. But it was unknown what these four girls' reactions would be when each of them finally met their Mr. Right? Let's just wait and see!
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