After Saving My Possessive Best Friend, I Couldn't Escape (GL) - Chapter 23

Although Fang Zhile didn’t know what extra, non-verbal information the two had exchanged during their limited dialogue, the little rich girl’s sudden urgency to drive Ye Yu away completely confused her.

“What is this?” Fang Zhile hesitated. “Is the shop so poor we’re about to close, or do you think I brought her here to eat for free?”

“Your friend?” When the little rich girl heard this, she immediately stopped glaring, stopped covering her phone, and her tone became amiable. She clapped Fang Zhile on the shoulder with a relieved smile. “Why didn’t you say so sooner, ha ha ha! So she’s just your friend.”

Fang Zhile was still confused. “Who did you think she was?”

The little rich girl chuckled loudly. “No one! Just your friend!”

“Then can I make her a cup of coffee?” Fang Zhile asked. “Double shot.”

“Make whatever you want!”

Ye Yu found the interaction between the two highly amusing. Hearing Fang Zhile’s question, she walked over, curiously watching Fang Zhile busy herself.

“Isn’t a double shot too strong?” Ye Yu asked. “Even though it’s noon.”

Fang Zhile put the selected coffee beans into the grinder and smiled. “No. The quality of the beans here is just average. I had a cup last time, and it had no effect.”

The moment she said this, the little rich girl’s phone started rattling again. She glanced at the screen and said weakly, “Xiaole, just do your work quietly and stop offering opinions, okay?”

On the phone, her wife was citing various sources to list how rare, precious, and delicious the coffee beans she put in the shop were.

“Okay,” Fang Zhile nodded, then whispered to Ye Yu, “That’s my boss. She can be a bit crazy sometimes. Just ignore her.”

The little rich girl frowned and pulled the decorative carrot ornament in front of her.

She had originally bought a cute communication device, hoping to talk to her wife anytime.

But she later found out the shop was too crowded for private conversations, and the carrot turned into a listening microphone.

Her wife would occasionally tune in to listen for a while.

Combined with the shop’s standard surveillance cameras, checking up on her was always a guaranteed hit.

Fang Zhile and Ye Yu exchanged a look and smiled, pursing their lips.

A few moments later, a couple of customers came in to order milk tea, and Ye Yu retreated back to her seat.

A cup of coffee took a long time to make, especially when using the fully manual machine that Fang Zhile had to operate entirely by hand.

The extraction time, the weight of the coffee grounds, and the temperature setting all affected the taste of the extracted espresso.

“Do you prefer it a bit sour or a bit bitter?” Fang Zhile asked.

Ye Yu rested her chin on her hand, looking at her. “I want it sweet.”

Fang Zhile smiled. “Then let’s go with sour.”

“Whatever works,” Ye Yu thought for a moment. “I want a kitten latte art.”

Kitten?

Fang Zhile hadn’t learned much latte art, and she hadn’t practiced in years. She made the little rabbit purely because Ye Yu was born in the Year of the Rabbit.

Fang Zhile shook the milk foam. When the consistency was just right, she poured it into the espresso, slowly forming a cartoon cat shape.

“Enjoy,” Fang Zhile pressed the counter bell. “Table 5, one Cat Latte for you.”

“Wait, does the shop sell coffee?” a customer questioned.

Fang Zhile opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the little rich girl cut her off. “I’m sorry, our supply channels are limited, and we can’t keep up with coffee bean supply. We don’t sell it.”

“Then how could she order coffee?” the customer continued to question.

The little rich girl clasped her hands over her stomach, offering a professional and standard smile. “She’s here leeching off us. She’s using the last of the coffee beans.”

Leeching off us… Ye Yu took a sip of the coffee. A rich, mellow aroma spread from the tip of her tongue, followed by a slightly sweet and sour aftertaste.

Then let me leech off them.

The coffee was truly delicious.

After she took a sip, the little kitten’s face in the foam had become plumper.

Ye Yu took several photos with her phone, then looked up, holding the device.

On the screen, Fang Zhile was hunched over, crushing lemon slices. For the customer’s ‘Violently Smashed Lemon Tea,’ her movements looked nothing but elegant, completely disconnected from the word ‘violently smashed.’ But each downward tap was forceful, and the lines of her forearm were taut, forming a beautiful, firm curve.

Before long, a cup of lemon tea was ready. Fang Zhile wiped the sweat from her forehead and instinctively looked for Ye Yu.

It was at that moment that she looked up toward the camera.

Click.

Her eyes were lively, and her expression was bright and clear. Her gaze was pure as a spring, looking over without any flaw.

“Hey,” the little rich girl called out to Fang Zhile when there were no customers in the shop. “Come here.”

“This person,” she pointed at Ye Yu, again with a motherly, kind smile. “What is your relationship with her?”

Fang Zhile walked over, wiping her hands. Seeing the owner’s expression, she knew she was gossiping. “She’s my friend. I told you that in the beginning.”

The little rich girl wore a look that said, “I know everything.” “What kind of friend?”

Fang Zhile thought for a moment. “We walk to and from school together, do homework together, and ideally live close by and grew up together… Wait, we just met. We’re classmates from the opposite class.”

“Any potential for further development?” the little rich girl took a slow sip of her tea. “I see her and think she’s got really good prospects.”

Fang Zhile gave her a look that was hard to describe. “Boss Wei Youqing, not everyone is…”

Fang Zhile pointed at Wei Youqing, then brought her index fingers together and pulled them apart. “Ah, right?”

“What do you mean, ‘ah’?” Wei Youqing looked like she was disappointed in Fang Zhile. “My lesbian radar goes off when I see her. I guarantee by my platonic first year of marriage that she is absolutely not straight.”

Whether Ye Yu was straight or not, Fang Zhile didn’t know. But the book was a GL novel, and even Wei Youqing, a character with barely any description in the text and whose personality Fang Zhile had to fill in herself, was implicitly attracted to women.

Fang Zhile put a hand to her forehead, speechless. She should have added “reticent” to Wei Youqing’s character profile.

“I am straight, thank you,” Fang Zhile pushed the tea-drinking boss aside and brewed a cup of jasmine tea. “Besides, she’s going to be a calligrapher. She has her ambitions and ideals. Love and romance will only hold her back.”

Wei Youqing pouted, thinking, How do you know what she’s thinking in her heart?

Fang Zhile brought the jasmine tea to Ye Yu and naturally sat across from her, apologizing, “I’m so sorry I made you sit here alone all afternoon.”

Ye Yu was understanding. “Not at all. I should thank you. The coffee was super delicious.”

She flipped her phone around and pushed it across the table. “The decor of this shop looks nice at first glance, but if you look closely, there are many thoughtful details. Look at the photos I took; they’re all very beautiful.”

Fang Zhile took the phone and swiped left. The well-composed, color-correct close-up shots made it hard for her to recognize the shop she worked in.

“It’s pretty high-end,” Fang Zhile smiled, then her finger stopped on one photo—a close-up of herself. “This one…”

The cool, white lighting cast a soft, blurred filter over her, making her look like a freshly painted ink wash painting.